Broadening My Horizons: Understanding That I'm an Idiot and Camp NaNoWriMo

Alright, in my recent attempts to better myself, I have very quickly come to terms with the fact that I am an idiot in many respects. Thank god for the Internet. I'm sure my search history is insane this week. Luckily, I tend to commit fun little tips and tricks to memory easily and can usually pull them out when I need them (or I pin them to Pinterest!) Unfortunately, I don't know many bloggers, or if I do, I don't talk to them enough to get some insights on their success. I have found a few helpful sites though and was even brave enough to put in for a transcribing job! Hopefully, I will work up enough nerve to put in for an actual writing job, but I've got to start somewhere.

I've also been practicing writing everyday. It has been easy because it was the weekend and I took today and tomorrow off of work. The real struggle will be later in the week once I go back to work. I'm especially excited about Camp NaNoWriMo that starts in July. For the last 9 years (wow, I didn't realize it had been that long) I have been participating in National Novel Writing Month, which takes place each November and challenges the participants to write a 50,000 word novella in just one month. For some reason or another, November is always a terrible month for me to focus on that sort of thing, so I have never made the 50,000 word goal. I don't really expect that I really will, but this year they have introduced a summer version of the competition. Luckily, July is a particularly slow month for me this year, so there is a chance I might actually make my goal. On top of that, I came to the conclusion that I want to be a writer just a few weeks before the challenge starts. I feel like this confluence of events is just what I need to get myself started and force myself to get those ideas fleshed out into actual stories. In order to keep myself accountable, I will try to update my word count here, as well as the Camp NaNoWriMo website.

I'm not sure how pertinent this is, but I'm including a list of the websites that helped my find some directions in regards to freelancing and blogging. Honestly, this list is here for my own good more than anyone else's. I hope to find more as I continue researching.

• Odesk a website to find freelance writers and to put in for freelance jobs
• Elance similar to Odesk, but it seems to have more searching capabilities when seeking jobs
• The Write Life a site for writers, packed with helpful articles, tips, links, and anything else I might need to know
• WikiHow Gotta love WikiHow, found this article about getting blog subscribers.

Really, what I'm learning is that I need to start commenting on the blogs that I read. I can link my site to my comment, therefore generating more traffic. Lord knows I read enough blogs and have plenty of comments on them, so that can be part of my practice with daily writing. On a side note, I have to tell everyone about Feedly, this is the best RSS feed I have ever used! It took me forever to find one that I liked and it makes keeping up with the 20+ blogs I follow easy as pie. It even helps me to follow YouTube channels and my friends personal blogs.  I highly recommend it.

Just one more day of easily finding time to write. I want to wish myself luck writing for the rest of the week, but I know better than anyone that it is just going to take dedication and forcing myself to stick with it.