Happy New Swear.

This post is going to contain a fair amount of profanity. If that isn't your thing, or you're offended by such words, then you might want to skip this one.

I recently started reading the book Fuck It by John C. Parkin. It's quite good. The humour is a bit hit and miss and the language deviates from the point occasionally, but the message buried within the Fuck-laden prose is positive and serves to reinforce the message; Things aren't quite as important as we make them out to be.

I've not had a great month. I won't go into too many details here because this is supposed to be a blog focusing on writing, but let's just say things haven't really gone my way in December. I've spent a lot of time dwelling on things which seem huge and impossible to get through. I read a quote once which said 'The broader the imagination, the greater the fear'. I'm not saying I'm somehow blessed with a fantastic imagination, but I think people who explore their creative sides do tend to think about things a little more honestly. For better or worse.

So this book essentially says Fuck It. Fuck the problems, fuck the worry and fuck whatever might happen. I can relate to that. I tend to say Fuck It to quite a lot of things in my life. Always have. Worrying about things you can't change doesn't help. If a problem is out of your hands - or even a potential boon - then you might as well just wait for things to unfold by themselves. Saying Fuck It out loud does give a nice little boost.

I thought I'd borrow a very small part of the concept and apply it to writing, since it isn't directly addressed in the book (as far as I know). Writers can be incredibly good at procrastination. We look at the work we need to do and say 'Fuck it, I'll just make a coffee first.' Then we check our emails while we're drinking it. Then we quickly look at an article we've been linked. Then check our local writing forum. Soon we're browsing YouTube or talking to a friend on Facebook. Hours pass. We look at that writing and think 'Fuck it, I'll do the work tomorrow.' Check any writing site for forum posts or articles - it won't be hard to find one asking for advice on how to just get on with the work instead of avoiding it.

So try saying Fuck It. Fuck It, I'll just start. Fuck It, I don't need a coffee. Fuck It, I can look at videos of kittens later. I've done this a few times even before I started reading this book and it does help. I feel that mindset of avoidance sneaking up on me and then I have to force myself to just sit down, open the laptop, load Word and just get typing. As I'm sure many of you will agree, writing is much easier once you've started. Besides, what's the worst that could happen? Even if you manage to write one sentence, it's still one sentence more than you had when you started.

I'm not usually one for self help books or life counselling or all that jazz - I'm a guy from Essex after all, where we often deal with our problems with alcohol and loud music. But the concept Parkin utilises is pretty straightforward. Things aren't really as bad as we think they are as long as we're willing to accept that.

Fuck It.

Happy New Year everyone. I hope you all have a very positive year, full of success and enjoyment and stress-free living. I also hope you're all as excited about this summer's release of Queen of the World as I am. -sniggers-

National Novel Staring Month.

National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo for short, is a love / hate relationship. Sometimes it inspires me to work harder than I usually would. Other times it hangs over me like a blanket of evil, whispering into my ear that I’m not going to make it.

Every year, thousands of people sign up for NaNoWriMo in an attempt to write a novel of fifty thousand words during November. This is my first year of taking part. I’ve been reading up on the forums of the website, trying to make a sense of it all. For some people it’s a breeze; fifty thousand words is obtained in a few weeks, and they assure everyone else that it is possible. All cheerleading and sabre rattling. Others find it a complete slog, shifting shit through a quicksand of ideas.

I’m currently in the second camp. I’m behind on my target and I’m finding it hard to catch up.

I think NaNoWriMo in itself is a great idea. The chance to bring people together through a mutual love of writing and to give them a goal is something I’m totally in favour of. I’m generally in favour of anything which brings people together through writing. So for that I commend it, and would advise anyone with more than a passing interest in the craft to take part next year (if you haven’t already had a pop).

On the other hand, my goodness is it a burden. Falling behind a couple of days is fine. You think to yourself ‘Sure, I’ll pick it up again next time. Easy.’ Nope. I’m so far behind I feel like I’m in a great big tunnel of fail. The light at the end is becoming dimmer by the day, and I’m not sure I’ll be able to find the end in time.

That’s a touch dramatic, but I hate missing deadlines. True, I’ve had enough distractions in the past couple of weeks to give a vaguely admissible excuse, but that doesn’t mean I’m losing. I want to win, God-damnit, and get my forum picture to prove it for next year.

I basically took part so that I could take some time off from Queen of the World. I’d been writing about that universe and the characters within it for nearly a year, and I needed the time to focus on something else. I’m going to finish the NaNoWriMo project before I move on regardless of if I finish it in November, so it’s simply a matter of how long it takes me.

Right now it feels like aaaaages.

In other news; well, nothing much happened this week. I’ve been writing, procrastinating, eating and sleeping. I actually have a bed in my room now. That might not sound like big news, but it’s been about four months since I was sleeping in a double bed with the missus. Norwegian sleeping arrangements are weird.

Oh, the second part of the Morocco trip is coming. It’s a bit of a writing-inspiration thing. You’ll see.

If any of you are taking part in NaNoWriMo this year then please add your comments on how it's going. Also, go and like my fan page if you haven't already. Ta!