My October Favourites

Wow, how are we already halfway through November? For anyone, me included, doing National Novel Writing Month, that 30^th November deadline is speeding toward us at an alarming rate.

Due to NaNoWriMo, I am a little behind on other things. I know it’s a little late, but I wanted to share some favourites from October. Just a disclaimer, I bought all these with my own money and all that.

Speaking of this crazy challenge we call NaNoWriMo, my first favourite is this creativity notebook. My ritual every year is to buy a new notebook in an aim to be more organised and prepared. Um… this year, not so much.

However, it was still an excuse to buy a cute notebook, and, in my defence, I have written some notes. Just not as much as I’d like.

Grant Snider’s illustrations are so cute and as they feature a cat, I had to buy it.

The only problem with having a notebook addiction, is that they are all so pretty, I don’t want to write in any of them and so the cycle of buying notebooks continues. Haha.

It was hard to pick a favourite book for October as, in all honesty, there wasn’t one I didn’t like. Even picking two was hard.

The Room in the Attic by Louise Douglas and The Girl in the Maze by Cathy Haywood are the two that have particularly stuck with me.

The subject matters were intriguing for both novels. The Room in the Attic focuses on an old Asylum and to realise how people were treated at the turn of the 1900s – it’s shocking.

I also loved how The Girl in the Maze focused on the complex relationship between a mother and a daughter and how you don’t always fully know a person.

With it being October, my film favourites for last month had to be Hocus Pocus and The Nightmare Before Christmas.

It’s become a little bit of a tradition for me to watch these on Halloween. I am new to The Nightmare Before Christmas, having only just watched it last year.

Hocus Pocus has always been a favourite. I remember going to see that at the cinema and I am stupidly excited about the sequel that is due to be released on Disney+ next year. They’ve just released a still from the new film. It will hopefully be a full trailer next.

I am so intrigued as to where they are going to take the story, especially when you consider the end of the first film.

My TV favourite is an old favourite and has also become a bit of a tradition for this time of year – watching The Big Bang Theory.

I adore all these characters and there is something very comforting about this show. They all go through such a transformation by the end and, as there are twelve seasons, it’s something I can box set over a few weeks. Plus, there’s a few Christmas episodes in there to help get me into the festive spirit.

The app I loved was one I discovered last month. It’s called Daily Prompt Writing App. I found it when I was browsing the Apple app store. I don’t know if it’s available on Google Play.

It’s a wonderful app. It does what it says in the title. It generates a daily prompt for both stories and poems. It also has a place for you to type and save drafts of your work. It also allows you to make your stories public to other people using the app if it’s feedback you’re after.

In giving me a prompt, it means that I can get a piece of writing written without worrying about that scary blank page with no idea what to write.

My final favourite is this Christmas Planner from Busy B. It’s part of my effort to be more organised this year.

One of the things that ends up happening every year, is that I ask people for updated addresses and then it all ends up being everywhere – in e-mails, messages. Ugh, everywhere. That was one of the things that drew me to this. As well as space to set budgets and write gift lists, it has a place for addresses. There are also enough inserts to cover three years, so you really get value.

There’s also a place for menu notes, to-do lists and monthly overviews for November and December.

Whether this helps with the organisation, I will let you know but it’s SO pretty.

Oh…and did I mention it has stickers?

by

Laura

I’m Laura. I started Novel Kicks in 2009. I wanted a place to post my writing as well as give other writers like me the opportunity to do the same. There is also a monthly book club, a writing room which features writing prompts, book reviews, competitions, author interviews and guest posts.

I grew up by the sea (my favourite place in the world) and I currently live in Hampshire. I am married to Chris, have a cat named Buddy and I would love to be a writer. I’m trying to write the novel I’ve talked so much about writing if only I could stop pressing delete. I’ve loved writing since creative writing classes in primary school. I have always wanted to see my teacher Miss Sayers again and thank her for the encouragement. When not trying to write the novel or writing snippets of stories on anything I can get my hands on, I love reading, dancing like a loon and singing to myself very badly. My current obsession is Once Upon a Time and I would be happy to live with magic in the enchanted forest surrounded by all those wonderful stories provided that world also included Harry Potter. I love reading chick lit. contemporary fiction and novels with mystery.