Goal Outline - Writing a Novel in 30 Days

So what is my next challenge? I will try to write a novel in 30 days. 50000 words is the goal of the National Novel Writing Month (or NaNoWriMo) and I will try to participate.

If you know what the NaNoWriMo is you will probably notice that something must be wrong here because NaNoWriMo always takes place in November and now it’s almost December and this years event is nearly over. Well maybe you are new to my blog and haven’t read the ‚About this Blog‘ section, so I will state it again here, that I always post my blog-entries with a one month delay. This has several positive aspects. First of all it is easier to reach your goals if you don’t tell too many people. At least that is an idea that was stated in this TED video and I think this makes sense to me. The second and more practical reason is that with a one month delay I don’t put too much pressure on myself to write, edit and post my entries on a daily basis. I can scribble down some notes and write my blogposts comfortably on the weekend and have some space if something hinders me from blogging. This is really very helpful and I still get the result of a neat blog with regular updates.

So back to topic. If you don’t know what NaNoWriMo is, please check out the Website or Google it. There is a lot of info about it so I will not explain much. Basically the idea is to write a fictious piece of text with a length of 50000 words within the month of november. It is also a community experience but I must say that I’m not so much the kind of guy who is interested in the big community thing or the forums and stuff of the official NaNoWriMo but rather in the actual writing itself. I just registered because my challenge coincided with the official challenge so I thought I check it out and participate officially.

The idea for my novel is something I carry around with me for almost 10 years now. My viewpoint and the message that I would like to communicate has changed several times during all those years, but some basic concepts stayed with me. I have written a kind of storyboard for the main plot points long ago and also a detailed history of the events that take place before the actual story but as with so many so called writers I didn’t have the diligence to actually write the novel itself. I am also quite a perfectionist so I have always had my problems with finding character names or other small details and this slowed down any attempts to start at all.

Well, the concept of the NaNoWriMo is quantity and a rather punk rock approach. Just write and don’t think to much about details. Work with what you’ve got. You can edit later on. I like that idea because maybe this is the way to finally really write something. So wish me luck and I will give you daily updates how I master this new challenge.

by the way the pictures of this month will contain various book art I found on the internet and that appealed to me. Hope you like it.

Can't Stop

I should already be preparing my next challenge but just don't find the time or the right motivation to get it on its way. I have already chosen a subject and I can tell you that it will involve a lot of writing and also a lot of planning ahead. So far I couldn't get around doing much because of all the crochet work done in my last challenge. At the moment I'm really motivated to do more of that stuff. I can't even watch a movie without my fingers starting to tingle. I have completed the pieces of the challenge that I haven't got finished and also learned some basic knitting techniques. I would like to start knitting too, but so far I didn't decide on a piece I want to make. I have found an interesting instruction for a knitted tie but the instruction is in english and I have to translate the technical terms for the knitting stitches first. I already know them for crochet so I can read english instructions but knitting is new territory for me.

But nevertheless another thing the last challenge did for me is giving me so much practice on crocheting that now I really like to do it because it no longer is a pure learning experience which can be exhausting but rather it is fun to use the already learned skills on anything I want to create. This is so much more fulfilling than sitting passively in front of the TV. As you can see in the picture above I have started on a new piece, a pair of gloves for myself. Winter is coming up fast and I'm excited to make something that I can really use and wear. They also will have a special feature because there are little slits on every finger so you can push out your fingertips when needed and use them as fingerless gloves if you have to handle something like money or the bus-ticket. I think I will finish them within the next week and I'm very excited to wear my custom fitted gloves. It is just like making fire or hunting or growing your own food. To really do stuff that supply your often most primary needs is such a really satisfying feeling. I can only recommend this for anyone who wants to improve his/her life.

30 Days: Crochet - Aftermath

So the first challenge is completed and now I have to summarize what I gained from it. First of all the facts: I made 16 finished project pieces and 2 almost finished ones. The Plan was to make 19 different projects but the asparagus was just not possible to make with the instructions and my skill level at the time. Of course some individual projects like the olives consisted only of two very little pieces, while the almost finished burger had several quite different and larger pieces.

Of course if someone reads this blog who is really good at crochet he/she will probably think that I am pretty pathetic because of the overall achievement of this challenge. I don’t know any people around who are good at crochet so I have no measure if I do ok or suck completely.

But the crochet itself was only the means to an end, namely to find a way to get anything done of the millions of things I want to do in my life. My overall problem is that I’m interested in so many things but never find the time to do any of them. Multitasking is a bitch because actually the more things you do in parallel the less things you get finished at all. If you are like me and want to learn three languages, while directing a movie, writing a book, knitting a scarf and learn to play piano during a week where you also have to train for a triathlon and in between go to the office to actually earn some money, then you probably know the feeling that you try to multitask to manage everything but end up in a total stasis and at the end of the week all you have done is hung out in front of the computer and checked your numerous news-feeds.

If you read the „about this blog“ part you probably know already that finishing things or sometimes even starting on any projects is really tough for me. So one thing I learned during this month is that breaking a goal down into manageable pieces and setting a finish line of 30 days is a good way to focus on only one thing at a time. And as you can see it actually worked for me. I was able to get most of the things done that I wanted to make and so finally can enjoy the success instead of the stale feeling of continued failure. I think especially the finish line is an important feature for me. Breaking down a goal into manageable steps is one thing but without a finish line I would again get the feeling that I won’t have time to make all the other things that interest me and therefore drop into stasis again. But so I know I only have to focus for 30 days and then I’m free for the next project.

An important lecture for me was to stop multitasking! This helped me at work, too. If you work on one thing then work on that thing and nothing else. There will be enough time for other things once you have finished. Another thing for me was to stop being a perfectionist. It is ok to plan ahead the course for a challenge but if you are unable to stick to it or unable to finish every single step you still need to keep going and don’t give up. Better get some things done than none at all. I know this is not any knew knowledge and I start to sound like a fortune cookie but really experiencing that these things work is exciting and uplifting.

At least I won’t start on such things as „live in the moment“ because I don’t believe that this is working for anyone. Maybe it works if you have no fear of ever failing at anything but who actually is so enlightened that he can say this from him/herself. Planning is essential for any project but you have to find the right balance of planning and margin for error.

During the challenge I also experienced that sometimes I’m actually scared of completion. Everything is going well during the planning phase, the beginning and during most of the work but as soon as the end of a piece is in sight I get the urge to stop and pause, almost fearing to cross the finish line. To overcome this feeling several times during this month also helped me because it seems to overwhelm me less frequent. Maybe I’m starting to like the active productive life I always wanted to have but so far were unable to realize in many aspects.

Before someone gets a wrong idea I usually am quite able to manage a lot of things in everyday life and by the average standards of society I think I’m rather at the successful end of the scale but when it comes to  my personal projects and interests I tend to be very critical and these projects are the part about which I'm talking in this blog. So as a summarizing sentence I have to say that I’m very happy with the outcome of my first challenge. I managed to create stuff, to learn something about myself, found a way to tackle projects and also improved some aspects of my work-life. So now I will start to plan my next challenge.

30 Days: Crochet - Day 30

The last day of the first challenge. Again we spent a lot of time on the city wall. I was able to finish the wiener sausage and also make the bread bun for the hot dog. So I can relax for the last few days of the vacation. I’m actually quite happy that it went so well and that apart from some unfinished parts I really got a lot of pieces finished.

I will give a detailed summary of the challenge in a few days as soon as I’m home again and I will also start to plan my next challenge. There will also be a group picture with all my finished pieces. For more details on the individual pieces I refer you to the blog Beatritsche's KreAKTIVität where I will quest blog my work during the coming weeks. My posts will appear every saturday so if you need information on any piece you can look it up there or you can write me an email or leave a question in the comments below.

30 Days: Crochet - Day 29

A day at the beach again. Finally I finished all of the sushi pieces and also started on my piece for today which is the wiener sausage for a hot dog. It isn’t quite finished yet, since I have to stitch on the ketchup and mustard, but I think that I can bring the challenge to a good end.

30 Days: Crochet - Day 28

Today I relocated the naps to the city wall of Lucca. The city wall is a broad dam around the inner city lined with trees and parks and you can walk around the city center on it. It is about 4 km long and there are benches and lawns everywhere to sit down and enjoy the view of the city and the green parks. I caught up on my plan and finished two of the pieces of sushi so now I’m only one day behind.

Slowly the challenge is coming to an end. Although I have more time now during my vacation it seems quite hard to make up for the lost time. Only two days to go and still one day behind.

30 Days: Crochet - Day 27

Finally time to catch up. We spent the whole day at the beach of Viareggio. Basically I did nothing all day but go into the sea, crochet a little and take a nap. After repeating this cycle several times I was able to finish at least 8 of the french fries and complete the box. I will stop on the french fries now and make the last few later.

The next thing I started on was the sushi. Today and tomorrow the plan says to make two more pieces of sushi, so together there will be three of them. One with salmon, one with tuna and one with egg. 

30 Days: Crochet - Day 26

Going to Lucca, Italy. We were in the car all day long for the ride of over 900 km to Lucca. Half the time I was the driver so I used the other half of the time to start over on the fry box. After checking a lot of youtube videos on how to crochet in rounds, especially on the subject of where to make the first stitch after closing a round with a slip stitch I was finally able to get it right and make some progress on the piece.

I still have to finish it and since today the plan said that I should make a piece of sushi I’m now two and a half days behind on my plan. Again I give you another picture from our trip to Lucca.

30 Days: Crochet - Day 25

Today I should have made 18 french fries but since we go on vacation tomorrow I had to make everything ready for our trip to Lucca, Italy. There was absolutely no time for anything else, not even to take a picture. Since I had to undo the started box for the fries from yesterday I’m now two days behind on my schedule and because there is no picture I will give you a picture from our trip to Lucca.

30 Days: Crochet - Day 24

On Monday I will go on vacation, so today was the last day to finish all work and shop anything still needed for the trip. I have my wool ready but I wasn’t able to get a lot of work done. Todays project was a box for french fries. I seem to have made a mistake while crocheting in rounds and now the basically oval box is twisting and rather helical. I checked on youtube where my mistake is and I think I have to undo the piece and start over. So I call it a day and hope that I will catch up some time next week.

30 Days: Crochet - Day 23

Another day, another cookie. Today a chocolate-chip one, which is basically made using the same instructions as the Oreo cookie. You only need two sides though instead of three and you have to stitch the chocolate pieces onto the sides.

During the work on this piece I pondered on the idea to make a whole play-shop for all the grocery I already made. To have more stuff to play I will buy original packages of cookies, sushi, olives, etc. and then after emptying them, I will fill them with corresponding crochet pieces. Within this challenge I just try different pieces and different instructions so that afterwards I will be able to perfect them and make more, because one cookie is fine, but a whole box full of them will be awesome.

30 Days: Crochet - Day 22

A cookie a day. Todays piece was an Oreo cookie. 3 small round discs which got stitched together. Nothing special and easy and fast to make. Only problem was, that the black wool I used was thinner than the white one for the middle disc so I had to compensate by making the white disc one round shorter then the outer ones. This made the stitching together more difficult because the number of stitches was not corresponding. But overall the piece fits the original cookie quite well, as you can see in the picture.

30 Days: Crochet - Day 21

My project for today was to make two maki rolls. One with salmon and one with cucumber. I have a book with instructions for them but I didn’t really like the instructions so I made them up myself. After several pieces the concept seems to be getting clearer, so I tried two different approaches and the piece made according to the second one looks quite good I think.

30 Days: Crochet - Day 20

Great News! I just took a look at my plan and realized that I have estimated one day more for the popcorn. So today I just had to make a few more popcorn pieces to fill the bag. That was easy. Two thirds of the challenge is over and there are only a few pieces left to make.

So far the whole challenge thing is really going well. I managed to finish stuff, to blog about it and this is already more than I did ever before on any of my projects. I admit that the quality of my blog posts can improve a bit because looking back at them I seem to ramble on about how bad I feel quite often. I will try to improve and be more positive and uplifting. But all in all I'm very satisfied with my progress so far.

30 Days: Crochet - Day 19

I was awfully sick today. I wasn't at work, my head was aching horribly and I was not able to really do anything. My piece for today was a pretzel and since it is rather small and easy I could finish it the next morning so I think this still counts as finished.

30 Days: Crochet - Day 18

Second day of the popcorn-bag and popcorn. The bag was rather easy but small. But then again this means that I do not have to make that many pop corn pieces. I have the bag half filled and made some more pieces but I guess it will need another 6 pieces of pop corn to have it filled.

30 Days: Crochet - Day 17

It seems that productivity is really going up. Todays plan was to start on the hot dog but I still couldn’t get the right colors of wool even though I drove around a lot to find some. On my list there is one bigger piece left for weekends, which is the popcorn-bag filled with popcorn. So I started to make pop corn. The pieces are small and look really realistic but you have to make a lot of them to fill the bag.

I finished the top bun of the burger, too and I got some rounds done on the beanbag for my phone. My finger still hurts but it is getting better the more work you do.

30 Days: Crochet - Day 16

I still experience some wool shortage. Therefore I had to jump ahead on my list of things to make and made a radish. The instructions came from this website . I liked to make it. It was rather easy and there was not much to be stitched except the loose ends of the thread.

So far this was my favorite piece to make. It had the right size the right difficulty for my skill-level and the result is really lifelike.

30 Days: Crochet - Day 15

Halftime! The first half of the challenge went past very quickly. Overall I have finished quite a lot of pieces so far. I still have to finish the burger and I gave up on the asparagus but all the other pieces got finished.

Until today at least. Today the plan was to start on the hot-dog for which I have planned to use two days, but I noticed that I didn’t have wool in the right colors at home, so I postpone the hot dog and instead started on the next piece on my list. A beanbag for my mobile phone. This piece is also bigger then the ones I usually finish during weekdays. Because of the intensive work on my pieces yesterday my finger got sore rather quickly. I worked for about 1,5 hours but had to stop.

Well the next weekend is in sight so I will hopefully finish it then.

30 Days: Crochet - Day 14

Today I finally had one day in the week where I got home early. Early means shortly after 6.00 PM in my case. Todays plan was a corn-cob. It was rather easy even though I had to learn some new stitches. The instructions also showed some leafs to be stitched to the cob, but I think it is better to leave them out, so you can „serve“ the corn directly on a plate with other pieces.

Since I had time left I finished the toast from yesterday as well. I didn’t follow the instructions through to the end but the result was quite good nevertheless.

30 Days: Crochet - Day 13

Unfinished business. The toast seemed to be a rather easy piece and I thought that I got along well, but you need at least two pieces to finish it and I only made one and a half. I was to tired to finish it. Weekdays are only good for very very small pieces like olives, cherries and the like. But overall not much is missing from that piece so maybe I can finish it tomorrow.

30 Days: Crochet - Day 12

Today a small piece which is good for a weekday, a stuffed olive. Overall it were easy stitches but the piece is so small that it gets actually very hard to hold the thing while making the stitches.

Tomorrow there will be toast.

30 Days: Crochet - Day 11

Weekends are much better for hobbies. It is usually rather easy to fit in an hour or two to get a piece done. Today’s piece was a lemon, which turned out to be rather small. I had my crochet stuff with me today and made most of the piece in the morning and during brunch with friends. At home I just had to finish it up so I still had a lot of time to get some other work done.

30 Days: Crochet - Day 10

Wow, these 30 Days are passing really fast. Already a third of the challenge is over. Today the plan was to make a green pepper, but the instructions were from the same source as the asparagus and after reading them I wasn’t convinced that this would work out. So I decided to make another piece from one of our instruction books.

Two slices of bacon. This comes in handy because they fit the cheeseburger so you can make a bacon-cheeseburger. Some weeks ago I made a fried egg and the bacon can also be added to make a healthy breakfast.

30 Days: Crochet - Day 09

Cherries! They were rather easy and fast to make which was a relief after a hard week of mostly unfinished or failed pieces. They were also quite similar to the strawberries but even easier to make since you didn’t need to stitch any pattern onto them.

If you wonder why I never show pictures of the finished pieces I will post them separately as a guest blogger on Beatritsches KreAKTIVität, where you will find them. My posts are published there every saturday so it will take a while until every piece is shown. After the challenge I will share a group picture of all my finished work here also, so keep on looking for my further progress.

30 Days: Crochet - Day 08

Tried the asparagus again. This time I used single crochet stitches but it seems that I have the wrong wool, the wrong needle and the whole instructions don’t work out. So I will call the asparagus piece as a failure and go on with the next piece.

Tomorrow I will make cherries. They are small like the strawberries, so I should be able to complete them. Thank god it’s the weekend again so maybe I can make up some time on the burger.

30 Days: Crochet - Day 07

I was soooooo tired. I failed completely. No work done. Maybe I cancel the asparagus completely and start with the next project. Hopefully the challenge will get better. I would hate to fail after half a week.

30 Days: Crochet - Day 06

I hate it, I hate it, I hate it!

Today I tried to make an asparagus according to an instruction that my wife got from a craft shop. It was also the first time that I had to do double crochet stitches and this working in rounds in only a few f***ing chain stitches to start with. I hate those stitches. The double crochet stitches are a lot softer and more fuzzy than the single crochet stitches and therefore it is much harder to find the right spot to make the next stitch in the first few rounds.

And then the whole piece is looking irregular and far too big for an asparagus. It was also very late and I had a bad day so I had very little patience. I stopped halfway through the piece. I have to decide if I try it with a different approach or if I use the time to finish the burger. Well we will see tomorrow.

30 Days: Crochet - Day 05

On a normal workday there seems to be little chance to get more than a small piece done. Today was the last day I planned for the burger but I didn’t even manage to get the top bun finished.

Halfway through my finger started aching. As you can see in the picture the thread made a red line on it already. Because I was dead tired as well I had to stop after about an hour.

So for the Burger I have finished the meat patty, the lettuce, the cheese and two thirds of the top bun. What is missing are two slices of tomato and the bottom bun. Tomorrow I will start on the next piece so I can only finish the burger if I find the time later in the challenge. The plan for the next 3 days will be 6 pieces of asparagus so you can make a nice bundle out of them.

30 Days: Crochet - Day 04

the half finished bun

I felt horrible today. My head ached and I was tired. I have only got half a piece done, the top bun of the burger. I start to fall behind on my schedule and now I have to decide if I keep on with the daily plan or if I finish the started pieces first.

At the moment I’m more in favor of sticking to the plan because maybe with some pieces there is some time left and I can squeeze in the finishing of the started ones. If there are some unfinished pieces left at the end of the challenge I think it is very likely that I will finish them but if I miss a piece completely I will probably never start it at all.

30 Days: Crochet - Day 03

I started early on a piece of lettuce for the burger. Finished it before lunch. In the evening I made a slice of cheese. All that is left now are two pieces of bun and two tomatoes.

After the third day I can say that so far one piece per day, as long as it is a small one is manageable but making more or bigger pieces is rather exhausting. Even though it is weekend I’m already slightly behind on my schedule. I made 3 out of 7 pieces for the burger and I have already reached half-time.

30 Days: Crochet - Day 02

For the next 4 days the planned project is a Cheeseburger which comprises 7 separate pieces. I found the instructions on the internet. There were several different styles of burgers to be found, most of them either making the whole burger in one piece or making several pieces but with rather simple not very realistic looking fillings. The one I chose has also separate pieces because I think this makes more fun to play with it later, if you can put the parts together as you like and i also think the instructions I finally decided on make rather realistic looking pieces.

I planned to make 2 of them today but I also had to attend a funeral and therefore had very little time and energy left. Still I managed to finish the meat patty for the burger.

30 Days: Crochet - Day 01

I have started early on my first pieces. According to plan I should finish three strawberries today. They are rather small and easy to do but the sewing together of the berry and the leaf takes up some time. I cheated a little and made one already yesterday evening.

Right in the morning before leaving for work I quickly made two leafs. This was really rather easy and took only about a minute each.

After a long day I finally got to make the last two strawberries. I finished them much faster than the first one and so day 1 was a success. And it isn’t even midnight yet.

Boot Camp

Today I had some time and I wanted to train for my upcoming challenge. So I grabbed some wool and started to make a small crochet piece.

tool and wool

I also tried a new technique for me - namely embroidery (well it was two points stitched onto the piece but still) - and I have to say this will require more practice than I thought. Especially when placing it on a crochet work of mine, with its rather uneven underground made of holes and supertight knots.

But all in all it took me not more than maybe an hour. Ok, given that it was a rather small piece today (an apple-slice - see the finished work on Beatritsche's kreAKTIVität) I will need considerable more time each day during my challenge since most of the pieces I will make are larger than this one. So it will be a month full of sleep deprivation I guess, but without sacrifice there is no victory.

My Reviews: Aninite 2011

For my september review I wanted to review the Kindle 3 from amazon but I postpone that for next month and rather share my experience at the Aninite 2011 convention in Vienna.

This year I visited the Aninite 2011, which is basically a convention for anime fans. First of all I have to say that I am no anime fan nor do I even recognize 99% of the characters or know anything related to this genre.

Well, why did I go there then? Basically because Doug Walker from ThatGuyWithTheGlasses.com was there and I am a huge fan of his work. As a bonus Noah Antwiler aka Spoony was at the convention too, so I decided that it might be worth going there. Since I live in Austria and it isn’t very likely that I will see these guys any time soon, it was an opportunity not to be missed.

So what were my impressions? Well, at the beginning of my visit I was rather bored, because I came to the convention on saturday afternoon right when Doug and Spoony left for lunch. So I wandered about the different rooms with merchant booths, artists selling their pictures and stuff, looking at an enormous amount of merchandise I’m not really interested in and seeing dozens of cosplay people. The cosplay seemed to be the major part of the whole convention because everywhere people were posing and taking pictures of each other.

I’m not so much into that stuff but I had to admit that the whole atmosphere was rather relaxed and friendly. People were having fun, the whole convention crew was extremely friendly and helpful and so it was a rather enjoyable afternoon. The prices for food and drink were also more than reasonable for such an event so all in all I must say that I didn’t feel in the least bit cheated, even though I didn’t care for the main theme of the convention.

Another observation I made was that this whole anime and cosplay thing is a rather clever thing for nerds to get to see some half naked girls. In my youth I was more of the Star Trek nerd and if you look at Trek-related conventions they are packed with overweight guys and if you get to see an occasional girl there you are rather lucky. But this whole anime thing with its art, costumes, glittery stuff and so on seems to attract quite a lot of girls, many of them even very pretty. And best of all many of the costumes leave very little to the imagination or rather they are directly derived from somebody’s wet dreams. Many classic anime costumes are centered around school-girl outfits, french maids, nurses and wearing stuff that you would usually only find in an adult store. So looking back I must say maybe I should have gotten more into anime than into Star Trek. 

In the late afternoon a Q&A was appointed for the ThatGuyWithTheGlasses crew and I had to stand in line for over an hour to get a good seat (or rather a good place on the floor in front of the stage). I have to tell you that I really hate to stand in line and usually avoid it whenever possible, so halfway through the waiting process I seriously considered if all this was worth the effort. But in retrospect the hour long Q&A was very enjoyable and after another standing in line for about half an hour I also got my autograph, dvds and picture from Doug and Spoony. This was definitely a highlight for me.

From left to right: Myself, Doug Walker, Noah Antwiler

So summarizing the event I would say that even if you are not a big anime fan it might be an experience to go to such an event once and let the whole atmosphere sink in, but probably if you don’t have any additional reasons to go there, then you probably won’t make the effort because physically it is rather exhausting pushing and shoving through hundreds of people all day long. But if Doug will be attending next year as well, then I will probably go there again.

By the way, if you are interested in the Q&A, it is already online on youtube: