Kate Rivet

I would apologize to those of you who are checking in on my little corner of the internet here, but I think I’ve already done that a few times. Hi, my name is Kate Rivet, and I’m a TERRIBLE blogger!

I can’t believe it’s been almost an entire year since my last post, but at the same time I’m truly not shocked. I’ve been on the internet since I was probably 8 or 9 years old, and I’ve had many websites over those years. Believe it or not, I used to actually be a somewhat popular webdesigner before the profession blew up, but I never really wanted to get too far into the technical end of it. I stopped writing HTML, and now I rely on precoded pages like this one to carry me along. It’s okay though, because since I’m such a sporadic blogger, I never bother to update the theme of the page!

So, what is there really even to talk about? I’m glancing over my last post, and I’m sorry to say that most of it is what I’m still dealing with. I’ve spent about 6 of the past 11 months working 6 days a week, which is great for your wallet, but terrible for your mental and physical wellbeing. Add to that thrilling schedule the fact that my stomach has never fully been right since I got home, plus I got to have my gallbladder taken out at the very end of April, I’ve been a busy bee. I did start writing a book a few months ago (my 5th, by the way), but it’s sitting on my laptop at about a 97% completion.

I’m leaving on the 22nd (a week from yesterday) to go back to Barcelona for a week with my best friend in the entire world who I rarely get to see. It still doesn’t actually feel real that it’s so close, but we’ve been planning since, oh, Januaryish?, so I’m glad it’s finally here. This is actually my very last day off of work before going, and my schedule today is jam-packed. At some point, I really should get packing!!

As you can tell, it’s November now and we all know that November means NaNoWriMo. I wasn’t going to participate this year again, but I happened to get to work with the fabulous local ML, Fox, and she encouraged me to go for it even though I’m missing out on 9 entire days. Well, guess what? As of this morning at 9:19 AM, I was at 51,174 words and am done! I’m still not sure of the title — it’s changed probably two or three times since I started writing — but I’m at least positive of the content. I really liked writing this book, because it’s nothing like what I usually write. There were really no sports involved, go figure 😉

I thought I might spend a few words here telling you all the secret to my NaNo 2013 success, and I’m hoping that it’s advice you’ll take to heart and use to help yourself on future NaNoWriMo adventures, or even to help you on this one.

I knew that I was losing the last 9 days, so that shortened my NaNo experience to 21 days. To finish in 30, you’re supposed to write 1,667 words per day. I made my personal goal 2,500 words a day. Did I always hit it? Definitely not. Did I do my best? Absolutely.

My free days this month were the weekends, so I got up in the morning and started writing, and didn’t quit til nighttime. Of course, I took breaks to eat and go see the sun once in awhile if it was peeking through, and I allowed my mind to wander during the day so that I didn’t get burnt out too quickly. The first Saturday, I wrote a little over 2,500 words by the first Sunday, I was over 10,000. Pretty good for somebody who ended the first day at 676 words, huh? Last Saturday and Sunday, I did probably around another 10,000 or so.

Another thing that truly helped me out was attending write-ins this year. Not only have I made some really great new friends, but I was able to get out of my house and write and help the others with bouncing their ideas around and finding people inspiration from the strangest but funniest conversations. I got a lot more done at both write-ins I’ve attended than I thought I would get done outside of my typical routine of listening to music/letting movies play in the background. Thursdays changed from my typical errand night to my writing night, and it was a great change. I’m going to be sad to leave my fellow WriMos behind, but luckily our local group meets up a couple times a year to edit, chat, and enjoy each others’ company. It will definitely bridge the gap to next November, and help inspire success again in 2014!

Well, I think that’s all I’ve got for you right now. Once I get back from the hair salon and possibly the nail salon to get myself looking great for my trip abroad (and a few pounds lighter than when I returned home 10 pounds less last year, so here’s hoping for leaving a few more pounds in my favorite place ever), I’m planning to finally update the books page to reflect upon the increase in my material, and maybe I’ll even finally post the first chapters of my books!

Until next time,
Kate