I'd rather be thrifting

Cardigan - Brand is Smudge, from a clothing swap
Dress - vintage, thrifted
Shoes - vintage, thrifted

I went thrifting today as a treat for finishing the book. I have been trying to avoid non-essential spending for the last couple of months in preparation for our UK trip early next year, but a vintage dress and a book from Goodwill didn't put me back too far! I love thrifting. There's nothing better than sifting through a pile of junk looking for treasures. I think I have said this before, but I see thrifting as a creative activity (I'm going to avoid being too wanky and saying it is an art); you have to be open and willing to see the potential in unlikely things, or to try something that would never have occurred to you. You never know what you are going to find - it might send you in an unexpected direction or open up a surprising possibility. And that's why I (and you, I know) love it. Although it is rather dangerous - it's very easy to over-fill a house, bookshelf or closet with thrifted finds.

Speaking of which, here's my crowded closet. I can't tell you how nice it is to have a huge closet after the coffin-sized mould and spider trap that we had in New Zealand. Please excuse the flash photography - it's very dark in our closet and my skills with a camera are woefully inadequate!

Some of the hats are lined up along this shelf - the rest are in a metal steamer trunk on top of the dresser (a trunk that my grandparents on my stepdad's side brought over to Zimbabwe from England in the middle of last century).

I'm afraid I do take up more space than LOML. He does have two rails on the left, though, which you can't see here.


The aforesaid trunk o' hats and dresser.

Mink will sometimes wander into the closet, give a disgusted sniff and walk out. I think it's a bit too girly for him.

Sundresses, Zoolander and Jenga

This is why I love Austin. It's winter, three weeks from Christmas, and I'm wearing a sundress and sandals. It is just so lovely. Although I desperately need a haircut before I turn into one of these guys:

LOML and I went to a Zoolander quote-along at the Alamo Drafthouse last night, and it was the most fun I've had in at least two days (we have a lot of fun). I particularly enjoyed shouting "What is this - a centre for ants?" in unison with a hundred like-minded people. And then we played outdoor Jenga at the Kung Fu Saloon, building what was possibly the world's largest Jenga tower before I became over-ambitious and brought the whole thing crashing down in spectacular fashion. All this means that I am a little worse for wear this morning, slept in, and am scrambling to catch up with all my work. Thank goodness for beautiful Austin days that make everything better!

Nanowrimo bites the dust!

The book is printed and ready for editing - all 400 pages of it!

I'm so sorry that I'm a little late on this - November beat me into the ground, somewhat, and I was nowhere near as involved and active in Nanowrimo as I wanted to be. But after two days of fuzzy-brain after finishing the revisions, I can form whole sentences again!

Congratulations to everyone, no matter whether you finished your Nanowrimo project or not. Whatever you produced during the month is more than you would have in the normal course of things, and that is something to be proud of. There are many great side-effects of Nanowrimo - a sense of pride and achievement, an opening-up of the imaginative part of your brain, an ability to put your inner perfectionist on hold for a while - and I hope you are feeling some of these. I also find that, for many people, Nanowrimo gives them a heightened appreciation of the books they love. Once you have tried writing a novel you gain a greater understanding of the process, which can make you enjoy and admire your favourite books and authors all the more.

A small round-up follows! Sara and Hayley both wrote a fantastic response to the whole experience, and I think their emotions and doubts will be familiar to everyone who took part. For the full list of participants, go here.

Sara

"Some of you have asked about my novel. I mentioned how it’s more or less my second first draft, but I’ve actually been working on this story in one way or another – writing about it, researching it, thinking about it – for nearly four years. And since it’s inspired by a family story, I suppose I could say it’s been on my mind my whole life.

For the first time in all those years of work and thought, though, I feel really good about this rough draft. I believe, very much, that there is a time for everything, and I believe that’s certainly true for story telling. I see this story very differently than I did last year, and I can’t even begin to compare this rough draft with the original nearly-four-year-old essay that began this whole project. In my opinion, time spent working on a piece of writing, even if it’s put aside for a few months, even if it sits dormant for years, is rarely wasted."

Hayley

"It has not been smooth sailing.

Not even a little bit. (Okay, maybe those first couple of days of excitement, actually.)

There have been self-inflicted bribes. There have been internal boxing matches. There have been tears. There was a regular interest in giving up because what I’m writing is so crappity crap it would make Shakespeare cry, and then the entire world would drown miserably in a flood of his tears.

It seems — and I think I’m not alone in this — that when you write fiction, and the It’s Not Good Enough bug bites your leg yet again, there is no such thing as a mediocre fail. Instead, it is DOOM. It is the WORST piece of writing in the entire universe. It is the epitome of poop, and our name and picture are destined to appear in the dictionary beside ‘ABOMINATION’.

But at the same time, that’s part of the beauty of sticking with it. It’s saying “I don’t care what you, world, and you, pessimistic part of my brain, I don’t care what you both think, I’m going to do it anyway because I said that I would, and underneath all that self-doubt I really, really want to.”"

Some of you have already checked in with your final word count and progress - if you haven't, please feel free to do so in the comments. I would love to hear from you.