#Gettoknowyourself50k2019 Begins!

So, it’s November 1st, the first day of Nanowrimo.  As I’ve mentioned, I will not be participating in it this year, in favor of writing 50K words about my life.  I plan to journal every day for 1667 words instead of working on fictional novel, which will stress me out in an already stressful time of my life.  I’ve coined it #Gettoknowyourself50K2019.  Writing 50 thousand words in any vein is a challenge.  But I thought that I would get more out of writing about my day and experiences instead of writing a mediocre book.   My last Nano experiences weren’t particularly enjoyable.  I love the preptober aspect - finding all the stuff that will make sustaining yourself through the challenge possible.  Last year I spent weeks trying to find the right paper and pencils and inks and fountain pens to write a novel.  Then halfway thru the novel I got bored, ran out of plot, and gave up out of frustration.  I found a YouTuber that does a great job showing how she outlines her novels, and if I was going to do it again, I would follow her example.  Her name is Sarra Cannon and she’s an Indie author I follow on youtube.  She does a great job of outlining her novels from everyone’s perspective, but she also uses fun stationery that sucks me in more than anything.  I wish I would have come across her preptober video sooner, so that I could have spent time dreaming up a novel.  Maybe next year, or maybe if I ever find the time to write a book.  It’s long been a dream of mine to publish a book, but since I haven’t ever successfully written one, I don’t know how reasonable it is to have that expectation on my bucket list. 

Today I’m still struggling between which format I want to use to write my 50k words.  Do I want to write them on some good quality paper with a fountain pen?  gel pen? Blackwing pencil?  Cursive or printing?  A4, A5, Letter sized paper?  European or asian format?  There are so many variables for someone with a stationery addiction like I have.  The problem with writing on paper is that I would have to go back eventually and count the words, whereas if I type, I have a word count on the screen at all times.   Maybe it depends on whether I’m at home or out somewhere and want to write.  I was using my Traveler’s notebook with Fieldnotes inserts to journal during the month of October.  That size was nice because the pages are small, however it was also cumbersome.  My 2nd favorite option is an A4 Campus Refill Pad from England.  The problem with that is that you can’t write on the back of the page unless you tear it out or prop the page on something thick enough to hold the back side up.  And A4 paper is oversized.  I have a mickey mouse A4 notebook around here somewhere but the paper quality isn’t as nice, and that’s really the selling point of the campus refill pads.  I fell in love with those after seeing Zoe Kezia use them on her youtube channel when she shows how she makes revision notes and practices her handwriting.