• Home
  • About
  • Blog
  • Books
  • Contact

Fleur Blüm

~ writer, performer, musician

Fleur Blüm

Tag Archives: perspiration

Post-wrimo comedown

01 Saturday Dec 2018

Posted by toearlyretirement in My Journey, Writing

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Inspiration, NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month, perspiration, Reinvigorate, Rest, Travel, Writing

Yesterday I successfully completed my seventh NaNoWriMo challenge! Woohoo!! I did my first in 2012, and have completed at least 50k words each November since then. It’s a little mind boggling; my NaNoWriMo site stats are in the image below.

stats

A ‘lifetime’ word count of over 350k words. It seems absurd. That’s not counting anything that I’ve written outside of November. It’s nice to know that I can keep up my output for a whole month, even with everything else that goes on: working, other projects, travel. I can find time to write under almost any circumstances, with the right motivation.

At the end of November, after finagling and rearranging everything to hit the 1700 word daily target, I’m tired. I need a few days off before starting on the next thing. The story is not finished, I estimate I’m about 75% through. I’ve volunteered to help judge an RWA contest, and I have a manuscript returned from my editor. And I’m taking the weekend off.

NaNo-2018-Winner-Badge

NaNoWriMo is a sprint, it’s not a sustainable pace for me. I can keep up a pretty high output for a little while, then I need to have a break. I know some authors who write every day without fail; that’s not my strength. I prefer a variety in my projects, and I need to allow time for things like music, poetry, and theatre as well as working on my prose. November is the month for prose drafting.

December and January are likely to be reasonably quiet, a lot of people go on holiday and my day job should be less hectic (although it seems unlikely). I hope that these months will allow some rest and re-invigoration. Travel while invigorating, is not particularly restful.

For now, I’m going to bask in the glow of having achieved my goal. Or try to, my brain isn’t very good at celebrating achievements, it likes to move straight onto the next project. Have you got summer projects you’re looking forward to?

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Like this:

Like Loading...

Just Keep Writing

18 Sunday Nov 2018

Posted by toearlyretirement in My Journey, Travel, Writing

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Inspiration, Japan, kimono, NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month, persistence, perspiration, Travel, Writing, Writing goals

I arrived back in Melbourne yesterday at 8:00am. It was a red-eye flight and I had very little sleep: I had one screaming toddler, one loud snorer, and a man sitting next to me who seemed unhappy with the amount of space I wanted to take up. I can’t say I blame him, economy seats are not large.

I had a fantastic time in Japan, my Facebook friends have all been spammed with my food photos, and my various landscapes, but here is a sample of the good ones:

Close up of a collection of small rocks arranged on top of a stone post.
A white woman wearing traditional Japanese kimono stands in front of a lake, tree with striking red foliage, and a mountain in the background. Kyoto, Japan.
large three tiered Japanese pagoda style building. upper two floors are covered in cold. Forest and mountain in background.
Close up of cup containing frothy yellow soft drink. Text on cup reads 'The Wizarding World of Harry Potter Universal Studios Osaka'
Autumn. Large stone with Japanese writing carved into it on right. Tree with yellow and red foliage on the left. Japan.

I managed to keep up with NaNoWriMo while I was travelling. I had plenty of time on trains where I was able to sit down and just write for an hour or so. I’m lucky enough to be able to get my 1700-odd words out in about an hour, usually, and being unable to scroll through my social media while ‘thinking’ about writing certainly helps.

My NaNoWriMo manuscript’s working title is ‘Well Suited’. The two main characters are both professional, and very well dressed. My hero is a three-piece suit wearing graphic designer and my heroine is a sharply dressed legal adviser. I mocked up a cover but I don’t like it enough to show anyone.

Now that I’m back, I think it will be harder to get my words done. I’ve filled up my days a lot now that I’m home. I’ve even had to pull out of a project until after December 1 because I was trying to do too many things at once. Even now I’m blogging instead of NaNo-ing!

Better get back to it. Much love!

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Like this:

Like Loading...

Holy Crap it’s Coming!

14 Friday Sep 2018

Posted by toearlyretirement in Art, My Journey

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

humour, Inspiration, Melbourne Fringe Festival, perspiration, Theatre

I haven’t been writing much, nor blogging, because I’ve been frantically preparing for my second Melbourne Fringe Festival Show, Fleur and Alexandra are Out of This World.

We open on Monday night, we’ve done one dress rehearsal in the venue which was both exciting and terrifying. It’s all coming together but there are a few little niggles to iron out as is always the case with opening a new show.

ONLY 3 sleeps

We’d love to see you there, it’s going to be a great, silly, peculiar, over the top show. Happy Fringe!

 

 

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook

Like this:

Like Loading...

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter

Recent Posts

  • Houndstooth: a book launch
  • Poetry and travel
  • I sing a song
  • Endings and Beginnings
  • Smells Like Teen Angst
  • Why would you do that?
  • Barrett Women Series: Pre-order your ebook Now
  • Barrett Women Series: Cover Reveal
  • Welcome to 2022!
  • Another year over…

Categories

Archives

Contact me

Melbourne, Australia
fleurblum@hotmail.com

  • Follow Following
    • Fleur Blüm
    • Join 459 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Fleur Blüm
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...
 

    %d bloggers like this: