NaNoWriMo learnings 2020 – Part 3 – Writing

Time to read: 6 minutes The tagline of NaNoWriMo is “50’000 words in 30 days”. It’s a quantity over quality challenge, but even if you don’t care how bad what you write is, you still need to have a theme or story you can keep writing about. I’ve tried all sorts of topics In 2010, I “won” NaNo. I finished […] continue reading »

NaNoWriMo learnings 2020 – Part 2 – Efficiency

Desk with big monitor, lit from the left. A mug sits in front of the keyboard.

Time to read: 5 minutes “I’m doing NaNoWriMo this year!” Na-No-Wri-Mo stands for National Novel Writing Month, and is a 30-day challenge to write 50’000 words. The premise requires that it be on a new story, not an editing job. The tagline of NaNoWriMo is “50’000 words in 30 days”. And every NaNo-er knows that means writing a daily quota […] continue reading »

13 lessons from 15 years of NaNoWriMo

Time to read: 3 minutes 2017 marks the 15th year (probably) that I attempted National November (or Novel) Writing Month. Under the premise of “50’000 words in 30 days”, people write like mad within a month, spurring writing sessions in pubs, lively conversations online, and millions of lines written globally. I’ve tried to do it at least a dozen times. […] continue reading »

Scripted copy paste in LaTeX – A (dirty?) content reuse trick

Time to read: 3 minutes I had a report to write, and in that report I had sections on topics, each of which had action points. And it would have been useful to have one big fat list of all the action points in one place, rather than all over the sections. My boss specifically requested this, as it would […] continue reading »

my prep for “cheating” in NaNoWriMo 2014

Time to read: 4 minutes I have participated in NaNoWriMo since first discovering it the early 2ks. I have managed to “win” (write 50’000 words in 30 days) ONCE. It is a daunting challenge of quantity over quality. And this year I am planning to cheat. I will write essays instead of a Novel, and below I share the topics […] continue reading »

Forget the jetpack. Where is my idea-to-blog app?

Time to read: 4 minutes Forget the jetpack. Where is my idea-to-blog app? Seriously. What does it take to note, write, edit, and publish in one place? And why is it so hard to write away from a computer? I don’t have the time to write anymore. And I think that tech is partially responsible for this, as I am […] continue reading »

I promise not to read…

Time to read: 2 minutes I read a lot. I am always reading. Street signs, menus, books on the tube, magazines with my coffee, newspaper headlines as i pass a newsstand. I am a reader.  My favourite escape and one of my favourite pastimes in life is to expose my brain to new experiences, information, emotions and ideas, using books. […] continue reading »

The ethics of web design: do we have any?

Time to read: 3 minutes What makes someone an expert? A wise woman once told me that you are an expert “when others come to you for answers”. Well. It does take a little bit more: such as the ability to answer questions, repeatedly, correctly, memorably. There is a requirement to educate, surprise and spread knowledge and skills. Do that […] continue reading »

going off-topic in a blog post doesn’t have to be a problem. A (short) evernote story.

Time to read: 2 minutes Contracting is a busy life choice. Since I started, I have had significantly less time to write on my blog, and it makes me very sad. So whenever I have some quiet time when I am not drained, or when I’ve had an idea, I try to immediately write something that I could turn into […] continue reading »