Olivia Orndorff
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A Brief Reflection: National Novel Writing Month 2015

11/29/2015

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I hit the fifty thousand word mark plus on November 20th, quickly uploaded and verified my novel to be proclaimed a winner. Now as the end of the month draws near, I looked back over my month of furious writing a brand new project. What shifted the most this time around was my actual writing process. Before this month I would have assured anyone that cared to ask that most productivity for me happened at a cafe, with my own music, snacks to munch on and coffee, in long six hour shifts, on the weekends. 

With NaNoWriMo 2015, I found myself drawn to the quiet and comfort of my own home. I did most of my writing in the late afternoons, usually after getting in from work. I'd make dinner, put it in the oven and write for thirty minutes in the quiet. After dinner, if I watched TV, I'd mute the TV on the commercials and write some more. Surprisingly these small adjustments kept me on track. It was reassuring to find, I didn't need to go anywhere, where particular clothing to just sit down and write. Too often writing changes from a creative endeavor to yet one more way to fail at a personal goal.  For the month of November, National Novel Writing Month organization encourages the writer in us all to sit down and take a good long look at their life. What's essential? What can be switched? Changed to write 1,667 words a day? How much time does that take you personally? 

At the beginning of the month, a voice asks, as it always does, is this worth it?  Emerging once more on the other side of the writing frenzy and looking at the editing before me, I have to take a breath--before answering yes. Yes, what I am doing is worth it. Worth my time, my solitude, my energy, my efforts. Yes, I will continue slogging away in the trenches to try and craft the best story possible through meticulous work and time. 

It was a needed reminder this year to put the time in each day and at the end of thirty days have the first draft of the story written. Pretty incredible each time I sit down at a computer and actually finish a novel.

Happy Holidays Writers! 
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Live from Chicago

11/8/2015

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I'm taking a break from writing my November Novel to go ahead and crank out an update to you blog world. Mainly because I don't feel like thinking anymore. I'm starting to hit story overload, and just need a minute. 

It's finally fall weather which makes staying in, under layers of sweatshirts a little bit easier, to stomach then in the summer. The weather people are telling me El Nino is going to make for an easy winter this year. A part of me cringes for next year, but hey, I'll take what I can get. Since moving to Chicago, I've lived through both the Snowpocalypse  and Chiberia. I find it hard to love winter and snow when it's negative 40 below with the windchill. 

Why you ask am I currently talking about the weather? Because the writing is going fine, and I don't want to jinx it! An update for you anyway. Just hit a little over 22,000 words which means I'm getting closer and closer to the halfway point. This usually leads to a panic about what all I have left to write about. Plot points! Character development! World building!

My characters may or may not be in West Virginia after being drugged in Chicago. Currently they're being held without windows, so it may go either way at this point. 

Good luck, my fellow writers!

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Day 2 of NaNoWriMo

11/2/2015

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A report from the front lines. Just hit a little over 6,000 words so I'm running high on fumes of imagination. What is really working from me this time around is word sprints. Word sprints are about what you imagine. Set the timer and pound it out. No stopping for spelling, grammatical or changing your mind (yeah, you). That's the idea anyway.

I did my first set on Sunday at a Write-In I attended (oh, yeah I'm official this year) and was able to crank out 800 plus words in 15 minutes.If your a competitive soul, by all means try and beat me (you probably will).

The reason I like the word sprints is it's another way to break the novel writing marathon into manageable blocks. You have to write 1,667 words. Sound impossible? Sit down and write for 5 minutes. Shake it out. Go again. You'll hit the word count  sooner than you think. 

Keep an eye out. In a few weeks, I'll start bemoaning how much I hate my life and words. 

Until then, happy writing! 
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Watch

11/1/2015

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Clock parts
​fall from the sky
another broken ingenuity that 
doesn't even make time

​pause. 

​
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