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NaNoWriMo – mid-month progress report

After the near-effortless progress of the first week, I expected the second week to go just as easily. But my progress is slowing and I’m finding it more difficult to hit my daily goal. The mathematics of NaNoWriMo are pretty simple: you have to average a shade over 1,

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The late 2017 site refresh

Yes, I’ve been tinkering with the CSS again. Here’s a summary of the changes. Since I started this website I have experimented with several different looks, from white text on a black background to animation-heavy Blogger themes. Since switching over to self-hosted WordPress in 2015 I have had

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NaNoWriMo – week one progress report

It’s been seven days of crazed literary abandon so far – except that it hasn’t. My memories of National Novel Writing Month involve late-night typing marathons, commiserating over lack of inspiration or poor word counts online, and vast amounts of coffee. The same has usually been true of fiction

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I’m taking a break from social media in November

It’s almost November, which means National Novel Writing Month is upon me. I’m going dark on my personal social channels until December the 1st. I won’t overcomplicate this, because it’s pretty simple: in order to give myself a fighting chance of writing 50,000 words of

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Why adventure and outdoor writing is more important than ever before

It’s an era of long-established magazines going online-only, and online publishers ‘pivoting to video’, citing economic stresses. The printed word is under pressure from other forms of entertainment, but I believe our genre – outdoor and adventure – desperately needs to make headway in this fight. Here’s why. The close

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Why I’ll be attempting NaNoWriMo this year

For the fourth time in fifteen years, I’ll be attempting to write 50,000 words of fiction this November. Here’s why, and what I hope to achieve. Cast your mind back to the 1st of November 2002. Chances are, your life was very different then; I know mine

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Switching my Facebook page to Auto mode

My dissatisfaction with Facebook has been growing for a few years now. It’s time to make another step in my gradual retreat from the service. In case you don’t know, I have a Facebook page called Alex Roddie: Words – Mountains – Imagination. It has 588 ‘likes’. I originally set

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Why I prefer shooting with primes

A recent blog post by Chris Townsend on his camera setup prompted a Twitter debate last week on zooms vs primes for photographers who go hillwalking and backpacking. Since I’ve been planning to write about this for a while, I thought now would be a good opportunity to try

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This month’s online writing for The Great Outdoors

It’s been my first full month as Online Editor for The Great Outdoors, although I spent the first ten days or so in the Alps! Here’s a selection of some of my recent writing for TGO (including one from August to bring it up to a full month)

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A first taste of autumn on my journey towards 1,500 miles #TakeSomeoneOutdoors

We all have friends and family members who can’t always share our outdoor passions. Perhaps they don’t have the time, or they worry about trying something new. So why not take someone outdoors? Wherever you walk, mountain or lowland, #ItsGreatOutThere… Paid content disclaimer: This article is part of