It's November already!!! We've been having some absolutely gorgeous Indian summer type days here in Venice this week. Sunny, warm, just fabulous. It's a perfect way to kick off what I hope will be a very interesting month for me.
I have LOTS on the table, hopefully not too much for me to manage to accomplish. I want to warn you that my November posts here on the blog might seem a little odd to you, in that they probably will not have much to do with Venice this month. I've taken on a challenge to write a 50,000 word novel during the month. It's NaNoWriMO (National Novel Writing Month), if you have heard of it before. I've signed up to do it, and will be posting my status along the way here. It helps to keep me accountable.
I did the challenge for the first time in July, during the summer "Camp" version. I did actually finished my book at 54,000 words, and surprised even myself. My project in July was a memoir ( I turned my blog into a book! It's still in pretty rough draft form, I've been letting it sit for a while before I tackle the task of revising. More on that project to come!) This month's project is something much lighter, a chic-lit romance. That's all I'm going to say about it, other than to add that no, it does not take place in Venice.
Today being day 1 of the challenge was a good day, I wrote 1861 words. Good for a first day for me, even a few hundred words more than I had expected to get done. Hopefully I can keep up the daily word count.
In addition to doing NaNoWriMo, I am also studying Italian with a vengence. Every day for the last two months I've been spending two hours reading, writing and speaking, with lots of vocabulary building and a fair amount of work on several verb tenses, in particular the imperfetto, which still drives me batty. I swear, I will be fluent in Italian one of these years!
Last but not least, I've kept my word on another of my 2013 resolutions- I not only took a rowing lesson, but I have joined the rowing club on Giudecca and will be taking more lessons there. I think it's going to take some determination and perserverance, but a year from now, I expect to see me rowing around a few canals in Venice.
So, friends, keep me in your thoughts and stick with me during this month of NaNoWriMo. I'm excited about what lies ahead.
