Behind.

             

Gosh, I'm a rubbish writer when I'm happy. I always say that. I can't write when I'm caught up in my own lovely life with a grin on my face and a spring in my step. But instead, it's when I'm at my lowest that I manage to do some of my most heartfelt writing. Weird, and kind of awkward too. 

Hence my dilemma. I've just noticed my blog count for 2014. At the minute it's 105 posts short of 2013's. Fair enough, last year was my first year of blogging, but still. This year's is a poor effort, and for funny, happy reasons. 

I've found myself too preoccupied with the good things in my life to stop for breath and time to type something up. Okay. It's 23:56 on Wednesday 29th October. As part of my CWP for uni, I intend to smash last year's blog count. 105 to go to level it. Ish. Some more to out-do it. In under two months.

Let's do this. I'll write everything. This is my blog. And it's what I'm supposed to do. Especially if I'm going to be a writer someday.

NaNoWriMo: Challenge accepted.

I've done it. I've signed myself up to NaNoWriMo (or in normal, English-speaking sense National Novel Writing Month.) The task, for those of you who are unfamiliar with it, challenges participants to write 50,000 words over the course of 30-days, in particular, the month of November. Users can write anything they desire; there are no thematic constraints or subjects that appear taboo. You are 'a winner' if you succeed in reaching their 50,000 word goal in the thirty day time frame. It is a challenge aimed at creative individuals, aspiring writers, or people who just want to be able to say "yeah well, I wrote a novel last month." I can't decide which one of these categories I fall into. I must note straight away, I'm a novice. An amateur. I've never even been on the NaNoWriMo website until about 8 minutes ago, so I'm pretty psyched, but also pretty effing scared. It was a bit of an impulsive decision to say the least. I want to be able to have something to show for my degree course skills I'm currently pursuing, as well as test myself to see if I in fact do have the discipline to write a novel in just a month. I've never attempted anything so ambitious as this, and I'm kinda worried I'll a) descent into misery and procrastination and failure b) end up writing drunk into the early hours and make no sense or c) get so stressed I'll end up quitting. I really hope none of these things happen. I'm kind of determined. I don't give up when I put my mind to something, so that's sort of promising I suppose.

I have James Blunt's new album playing via Spotify right now. Maybe I'll get inspired. PS. I don't even have a plot outline, oh my god. I've got 34 hours and 16 minutes to dream up an idea, characters, and prep everything before the clock strikes (00:00 GMT) on November 1st. Ready or not, my novel is coming.

100 books in the making.

Okay, for months now, I've moaned about how boring it is, only being restricted to reading Course Books for my Literature and Creative Writing degree. So, now that I'm finally free for four whole months, as well as getting wasted, I have a very carefully adapted list of books I want to read. Some are randomly added, some are recommended by others- friends, people from the twittersphere, my cousin Sophie (canny little mention there, hey Sophs!) who has a very keen eye for a great book, so we're always swapping our latest finds and fawning over them together over the dinner table on a Sunday afternoon.

So, what does my list consist of? I'll probably add to this, (okay, who am I kidding, of course I will) and some will probably be found, flicked through, then discarded, but for this moment in time, this is my list, as follows:

1. Paper Towns- John Green
2. An Abundance of Katherines- John Green
3. Will Grayson, Will Grayson- John Green
4. Reckless- Allison Brennan
5. Safe Haven- Nicholas Sparks
6. Pygmalion- George Bernard Shaw
7. Lily's Mistake- Pamela Ann
8. Silver Linings Playbook- Matthew Quick
9. Never Too Far- Abbi Glines
10. Fallen Too Far- Abbi Glines
11. Gone Girl- Gillian Flynn
12. The Story-Teller- Maud Lindsay
13. Wait For You- J. Lynn
14. The Book Thief- Markus Zusak
15. Vanity Fair- William Makepeace Thackeray
16. The Picture Of Dorian Grey- Oscar Wilde
17. Inferno- Dan Brown
18. The Dice Man- Luke Rhinehart
19. Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend- Jenny Colgan
20. The Beautiful And The Damned- F. Scott Fitzgerald
21. This Side Of Paradise- F. Scott Fitzgerald
22. Why We Broke Up- Daniel Handler
23. Sense And Sensibility- Jane Austen
24. Little Women- Louisa May Alcott
25. A Streetcar Named Desire- Tennessee Williams
26. 1984- George Orwell
27. Mrs Dalloway- Virginia Woolf
28. Lolita- Vladimir Nabokov
29. The Sky Is Everywhere- Jandy Nelson
30. Dash And Lily's Book Of Dares- David Levithan and Rachel Cohn
31. Identical- Ellen Hopkins
32. Someday, Someday, Maybe- Lauren Graham
33. Kissing The Rain- Kevin Brooks
34. Nine Uses For An Ex Boyfriend- Sarra Manning 
35. A Day At The Office- Matt Dunn
36. You Had Me At Hello- Mhairi McFarlane
37. Mistakes In The Background- Laura Dockrill
38. On The Road- Jack Kerouac
39. Starter For Ten- David Nicholls
40. The Rosie Project- Graeme Simsion
41. One Night That Changes Everything- Lauren Barnholdt
42. Revenge Wears Prada- Lauren Weisberger 
43. The Post-Birthday World- Lionel Shriver
44. Room- Emma Donoghue
45. Waking Up Married- Lyn Mira Kelly
46. Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore- Robin Sloan
47. About A Boy- Nick Hornby
48. The End Of Alice- A.M Homes
49. Me Before You- Jojo Moyes
50. Engelby- Sebastian Faulkes
51. Whale Talk- Chris Crutcher 
52. How To Save A Life- Sara Zarr
53. The Knife Of Never Letting Go- Patrick Ness
54. Hold Still- Nina LaCour
55. Wintergirls- Laurie Halse Anderson
56. Please Ignore Vera Dietz- A.S King
57. Ask The Passengers- A.S King
58. Afterwards- Rosamund Lupton
59. Breathe My Name- R.A Nelson
60. A Thousand Cuts- Simon Lelic
61. Attachments- Rainbow Rowell
62. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
63. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
64. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
65. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
66. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
67. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
68. Harry Potter The Deathly Hallows
69. Whiskey Beach- Nora Roberts
70. Beautiful Ruins- Jess Walter
71. Defending Jacob- William Landay
72. Hunting And Gathering- Anna Gavalda
73. Stay- Deb Caletti
74. Such A Pretty Girl- Laura Weiss
75. Kez- Barry Hines
76. Gone With The Wind- Margaret Mitchell
77. The Lucky One- Nicholas Sparks
78. A Bend In The Road- Nicholas Sparks
79. So Much For That- Lionel Shriver
80. Big Brother- Lionel Shriver
81. Lace- Shirley Conran
82. Rachel's Holiday- Marian Keyes
83. Catch 22- Joseph Heller
84. Hate List- Jennifer Brown
85. Monster Love- Carol Topolski
86. The Rules of Disappearing- Ashley Elston
87. The Hunger Games- Suzanne Collins
88. Catching Fire- Suzanne Collins
89. Mockingjay- Suzanne Collins
90. Speak-  Laurie Halse Anderson
91. Umbrella- Will Self
92. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon
93. Fahrenheit 451- Ray Bradbury
94. The Bell Jar- Sylvia Plath
95. The Unknowns- Gabriel Roth
96. Follow Me Down- Tanya Byrne
97. Close My Eyes- Sophie Mckenzie
98. Tigers In Red Weather- Liza Klaussman
99. Cloud Atlas- David Mitchell
100. Visitation Street- Ivy Pochoda

I'm not setting a deadline for these books to be read by, because life is unpredictable and I just know I'd end up resenting a task that should be nothing other than relaxing. For every book I read on this list, I will write a blog post, on what I think, what others think that have read it, and over all, my verdict on each piece of literature. Some are just for fun, some are deep and meaningful (well, the blurbs say so) and some are just sarcastic and witty words all thrown together. I'm looking forward to this. I love reading more than I can say, so this is not an effort for me in the slightest. So, I'm ready..Are you?