Thea's Edition: October 2017

my nanowrimo survival kit + free printable

Four more days now...

As I have mentioned, I haven't been able to decide if I'm going to participate in this years National Novel Writing Month. However, as of yesterday, I have decided that I'm going to give it a shot this year. It's not like I have anything better to do... And no, I'm not being sarcastic by the way!

I realized it's stupid of me to let this years NaNoWriMo pass without putting some effort into it seeing that I have no obligations for anything else other than life. I might not reach 50 000 words by the end of the month, but I'll feel worse if I don't even try to reach 50k! My best NaNoWriMo was my first year (in 2015, I gave up on day two in 2016). I wrote 15 050 words and even though my GOAL is 50 000, my "realistic" goal is 20 000. If I write 20 000 words I'll have written 20 000 words of my novel + beaten my best word count!

Anyway, let's move on to my survival kit for NaNoWriMo:

[ 1 ] C O M P U T E R

Like, I can't go without it. It's a big part of my writing process. I keep track of word count and of course, I keep the entire story on there. All though, to be fair, I don't actually write that much on my computer. I actually prefer handwriting! I type whatever I handwrite into my document whenever I feel like doing it (during the day).

[ 2 ] N O T E B O O K + P E N S

About a month ago I decided I wanted to see if I could focus more on the story when writing by removing all electronic devices whilst writing. I cleaned my desk, removed my computer and phone, lit a candle and wrote. I call it my digital writing detox. It worked, though. I write more and better when I don't have anything but the paper and pen and a lit candle in front of me. I don't put any music on either, though, I might for certain scenes to get into a certain mood!

[ 3 ] B I N D E R S

I like to keep things organized with my writing. Therefore, I keep research, notes, ideas and whatever else organized in a folder. Actually two. I had one but then I have too much so I ended up buying a new one. One of them contains research for my story (world war 2 historical fiction) and the other contains things for the actual story: ideas, plot, timeline, character and so on. I find this to help me whenever I need to know something. It's easy to use and when I'm trying to write a lot in a small time frame I find organazation is key.

[ 4 ] H E A L T H Y S N A C K S
This has more to do with focus and motivation and all that fun stuff. By keeping my body and brain "intact" and healthy, I find it easier to focus on writing. It keeps me sane.

[ 5 ] W A L K S
Just like the one above, going for walks helps me with focus and motivation. Being one with nature, moving my body - it's great. Getting fresh air is something that helps me A LOT when it comes to almost everything.

What's something you need when it comes to writing?

P R I N T A B L E
As I have mentioned, I like keeping things organized. I love printables and therefore I made a simple printable you can download for free to keep track of your word count for the month. You can download it by clicking here! (It's a google doc)

Oh, and you are more than welcome to pin this photo:

Thank you for reading! Lots of love, Thea!

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, by Unknown

healthy

healthy cookies

I have a huge sweet tooth... it's a problem...

I was looking through Pinterest (as I always do) for some healthy recipes - dinner, breakfast, snacks and whatever I could find - and ended up finding a few healthy recipes for cookies. The problem I always seem to encounter is that all the healthy recipes have a few ingredients that either costs a lot of money (at least where I live) or are just hard to find. It has gotten to a point where I just get annoyed every time I'm reading through a recipe. It's stupid, I know, but I can't help it.

Eventually, though, I did find one recipe with ingredients I already had (except honey - I had to go and buy it) and it didn't seem too hard so I gave it a go... I also just really wanted to eat some cookies without feeling too guilty!

The recipe I used is from Amy's Healthy Baking.

I have a tendency to not follow every single direction when I'm following a recipe, but it said that it was very important, so I grabbed my scale, bowls and everything I needed. I measured everything correctly to the exact measurements. Actually, except the flour: I used 90 grams instead of 100 grams because I used gluten free flour as my sister can't eat gluten and I find gluten-free flour to make whatever I'm making a little too dry! I also added chocolate pieces instead of raisins because raisins aren't something my family likes.

If I end up making these another time there is one thing I'll change... There was too much cinnamon for me. It overpowered too much, and even though I like cinnamon, this was too much for me.
(Update: I made these a second time and they were - in my opinion - a lot better with less cinnamon!)

Other than that, I enjoyed this recipe and what came out of it!

With love, Thea

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, by Unknown

nanowrimo

nanowrimo 2017

Am I doing NaNoWriMo this year??

For those who don't know: NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month which happens every November. The goal is to write the first draft (or whatever draft you happen to be on) during the month and in the end reach 50 000 words...

I did my first ever nanowrimo in 2015. I hadn't planned to do it, therefore I hadn't planned out the story I was going to write. Then, as I always do, I ended up on youtube watching writing videos and spesifically nanowrimo related videos. So I felt like doing it anyway. The problem was that I decided to do it a few days before it started. I scrambled to plan my novel and surprisingly; it went ok - the planning process!

One and a half week in I decided to stop. It was too stressful: I had exams I was stressing about and decided to stop so I wouldn't end up hating the process of writing. However, I did manage to reach a word count I was, and am, proud of. I wrote exactly 15 050 words. I wrote over 30 pages and that isn't something that happens a lot for me (I tend to get bored by the story, which I suppose just shows that that story might not be the right story...).

Even though that was far from the actual goal, I am very happy with that.

Then, 2016 came a long and once again I wasn't planning on participating because of school. Then, on November 1st, I decided to give it a go anyway... It didn't go well. Actually, it went terribly... I only wrote 2083 words... *hitting forehead* You see, after day 1 it gave me too much stress, so I stopped.

But when I decided to stop last year I told myself that next year (2017) I was going to give it a real shot (like in 2015, just even more) because I wouldn't be in school. So I have more than enough time on my hand.

I don't really know what I'm doing here (in this picture), but hey... who cares?!

I have gone a little back and forward, not sure if I'm going to bother doing it this year, (1) because I was planning on writing (almost) every single day since September but then that changed because of some health problems (I'm 98% fine now - I think) and (2) because I just didn't know if I was going to care enough to do it.

But I'm going to do it - that I have decided!

I'm going to write on the world war 2 historical fiction novel I have started. I have written almost 10 000 words on it so far, but I think I'm going to restart the draft. (OR is it draft 1.1?) I have some more ideas but I'm not sure if the ideas are a spur of the moment ideas, and if I actually like it, so I'll have to figure it out...

I'll update when I start!

Are YOU doing NaNoWriMo?? Let me know!

#nanowrimo #writing #writer

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, by Unknown

nature

out for a walk

Good morning/day/evening wherever you are!

A couple of days ago me and a friend decided to pack our backpacks with some food, some firewood and some hot chocolate and head into the woods near where we live and have a nice time outside.

We - my family and neighbours and friends - used to do this often on the weekends or during autumn break and so on. I have missed it too - I love being outside.

My friend and I walked to where we were going to be, only to realize I had forgotten the matches (I was 100% sure I had brought them when we walked from home) so I called my mom, who asked my sister and her friend to meet me halfway with a box of matches. At least I didn't have to walk all the way home... which, too be honest, isn't very far from where we were. I could have walked home in five minutes if I had bothered - but hey, my sister said she could, so who was I to say no thanks!

I think in the end we were out for about 4 hours - and that including a walk we went on before we decided to eat our dinner outside. Which is another thing I'm proud of myself for: I have gone for more 1-hour long walks the last 1,5 week than the last 6 months!

At one point the fire was dying so we scrambled to it and tried with all our talent to get it back alive and after about 5-10 minutes it was back alive. And then it died again.. but we did manage to get it back again, though! We might or might not have celebrated a little loud with a small scream of joy... There was no one around (except a guy and a dog a little later who scared the shit out of us..) so no got the opportunity to hear us.

It was nice to spend time outside. It was relaxing, fun and made me want to do it a few times before the snow comes. All though, I wouldn't mind doing it when the snow comes either! I'll just have to force my friends out!