No Wri Mo'
Today kicks off NaNoWriMo, as the entire Internet knows, and I've celebrated by writing ... nothing. Yet. I'm not formally doing it this year, because I have a lot on my plate for November -- well, okay, two Secret Santa stories and a whole buttload of freelance work, but I don't anticipate finding it easy to sit down and do a lot of writing. Starting a new project and promising to write 50,000 words on it is, I suspect, doomed to failure.
However, in lieu of that, I'll try to average NaNo writing levels over the month as a whole -- well, technically I try to do that *every* month, more or less, but my writing output has been slumping lately, so I'll see if I can get some of my unfinished projects done. And the Secret Santas, of course.
There's also
nanomango for sequential art (that's "mang" as in manga, not mango the fruit) -- rather than writing [x] number of words a day, you do a page of sequential art a day. Which almost sounds right up my alley, except for the whole "too busy to trust myself to keep the commitment" thing.
... speaking of which, I need to figure out whether I ought to stop being a coward and hiding from my semi-weekly sketch group. The organizer (who's a friend of mine) tried to talk me into doing 24 Hour Comics Day with them -- which I have absolutely no desire to do; I did it one year (not with this particular group of people) and, while I was fairly happy with the end product, I kind of hated the whole experience and have no desire to repeat it. Since he didn't seem to want to take "no" for an answer, though, I've just kind of stopped going to the sketch meetings ... which I never enjoyed all that much anyway -- it's mildly fun, but I think I get more enjoyment from reading fanfic and chatting on LJ, which I can do without ever having to leave the house. The whole reason why I originally started going to the sketch meetings was that they *did* get me out of the house and talking to actual live human beings, but so does work. And at this time of year, driving into town is cold and unpleasant and slightly dangerous, what with the icy roads and all. Why bother doing all of that in order to spend a few hours on a dubiously pleasurable activity with people that, with one exception, I barely even know?
However, in lieu of that, I'll try to average NaNo writing levels over the month as a whole -- well, technically I try to do that *every* month, more or less, but my writing output has been slumping lately, so I'll see if I can get some of my unfinished projects done. And the Secret Santas, of course.
There's also
... speaking of which, I need to figure out whether I ought to stop being a coward and hiding from my semi-weekly sketch group. The organizer (who's a friend of mine) tried to talk me into doing 24 Hour Comics Day with them -- which I have absolutely no desire to do; I did it one year (not with this particular group of people) and, while I was fairly happy with the end product, I kind of hated the whole experience and have no desire to repeat it. Since he didn't seem to want to take "no" for an answer, though, I've just kind of stopped going to the sketch meetings ... which I never enjoyed all that much anyway -- it's mildly fun, but I think I get more enjoyment from reading fanfic and chatting on LJ, which I can do without ever having to leave the house. The whole reason why I originally started going to the sketch meetings was that they *did* get me out of the house and talking to actual live human beings, but so does work. And at this time of year, driving into town is cold and unpleasant and slightly dangerous, what with the icy roads and all. Why bother doing all of that in order to spend a few hours on a dubiously pleasurable activity with people that, with one exception, I barely even know?

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As for the Comic thing...I think you should draw more-balance, as my mother would say. Balace and show equal opportunities for whatever comes your way. However, I agree with the whole 'it's a dangerous time of year thing, and cold out as well'...so maybe why not do one online? Isn't there some LJ communities where that kind of thing is going on?
But anyways...good luck on all you're stories, and whatever you choose to decide!
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There's another net-wide art project, sketch crawl (http://www.sketchcrawl.com/), that sounds a lot more fun. I'd like to take a stab at that when I have a little more time; thought about perhaps starting a LJ sub-group.
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I actually haven't done much drawing recently. Much less than I've usually done :( And need to consider the yearly christmas card I collab on for the holt I run. Hmm. My latest artistic outlet has been doing SGA icons in PS. And trying to learn how to do them. I really need to sketch more.
I don't know, maybe do a poll on your LJ and see how many of your LJ friends are at all artistic, and see about doing a weekly, we all post something artistic?
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Doing it online (which other people have suggested as well), while not a bad idea, sort of defeats the purpose of the whole "get out of the house and talk to live human beings" thing. XD But if I'm going to do that, I think I'd rather spend my time hooking up with RL friends rather than hanging out with people I don't really know just for the sake of socializing.
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I guess the thing for me is that if I'm going to spend 24 solid hours at an activity, I want more to show for it than a crappily-drawn comic that I'll never be able to do much of anything with. I'm glad I did it ONCE, but I don't ever feel the need to do it again.
And, yeah, I hear you on the sleep zombie thing.
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However, you've got a point that some kind of organized LJ drawing thing might be fun for everyone. Hmmm ...!
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LOL
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(Anonymous) 2008-11-02 06:04 pm (UTC)(link)They were gathered there typing and chatting away. It looked like fun. I love the whole social aspect of it but I would totally suck on the writing part. ; )
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That's pretty cool, about the coffee shop. I actually have a couple of wannabe writer co-workers who have done NaNo in the past, and my co-workers are not, in general, a hugely Internet-savvy bunch.
I can't remember when I first found out about it -- it just gradually seeped into my consciousness. I'm not even sure how it began. I think it's totally cool that it's taken off like it has, though.