NaNo Comes to an End, and Life Resumes as Normal

 

NaNo has come to an end.  I wasn’t able to meet my goal of 50,000 words, but there is always next year!  It was, however, a wonderful experience and really reminded me of how much writing I can get done if I prioritize it a little better.  How did you do?

It has been nearly a month without critiquing my fellow writer’s work, and without having my own work critiqued, so I have been very excited to get back to business as usual.  Our first night of critiques went really well.  I had thought, based upon my own writing, that our NaNo work wouldn’t be written at quite the same level it usually is, but everyone had wonderful submissions.

This got me thinking… if my fellow writers, some of whom have taken long breaks from writing, can write this quality of work in a month, what really holds us back as writers?  I think many of us struggle, feeling that our work isn’t good enough or isn’t going the way we want it to, but maybe just pressing forward and actually writing is half the battle.  Maybe when we get out of our heads and just write continuously, our work won’t be perfect, but it will get done, and often will be better than we even imagined.

So, I learned a valuable lesson during my first NaNo: most of the excuses we use to keep ourselves from writing are just that, excuses, and if we truly want to be writers, we need to push them aside and just focus on making writing a constant part of our lives.

You Survived NaNo…now what?

So we’ve survived the madness that was NaNo and we actually did it! Consider it a major miracle.  I know the whole point of having this in November is to test your ability to meet your goal under severe duress, but seriously, folks? I think you’ve gone beyond severe, into freakin’ terrifyingly horrendous…but now that we’re done, what happens next?

Well there’s this minor celebration involving an overly decorated tree, hastily wrapped packages (some reappearing from last year), and a never ending stream of family and friends just “popping by” to get through.  If you could find the time to write during the wild halycon days of November, I promise, you can find the time in December.  Now, whether or not your brain is able to focus and make sense, well that’s another story.

I have to credit NaNo with getting me through SHADOW’S MOON’s mid point and well on the speed track of the last handful of chapters.  The goal is to have this first draft done by (what month is it or yeah…) December, get it out the other Evil Ones for dismemberment, then it’s onward to the polishing stage.  By end of January it should be winging it’s way out into the query world.  I will keep you updated.

Apologies ahead of time but my posts this month will be embarassingly short as something has to give and my family has already started to wonder who I am. 

So to keep the conversation going, what all do you guys have planned for this holiday season?   For me and mine, much celebrating with loved ones has the starring role!

Cooking , however, is no where on my list unless it’s a move to invite the local fire department over. 

Until next week…

Wicked

#NANO FINAL WEEK/COUNTDOWN!

YOU’RE ALMOST DONE! DON’T GIVE UP!

The battle is almost won! With only a couple of days left, write! WRITE HARD! I know you can do it!

Get your final numbers in and no matter if you hit the glorious 50K or not, know YOU ARE A WINNER! You’ve survived another year of NaNo, and I, for one, am so very proud of you all!

As a matter of fact I’m so proud that I have a special treat for next week!  Oh yes, I have a great guest post coming from none other than C.E. MURPHY! Yep, you saw it right! C.E. Murphy, the wildly wonderful authoress of such awe-inspiring stories as seen in the Walker Papers, the Negotiator Trilogy and the Inheritor’s Cycle!  So come join next week and let your cramping hands relax as we visit with Catie Murphy!

And for those curious minds, my word count as of 11/29/12 is now….50,870!

See you all next week and rejoice, you are now a NANO VETERAN!

–Wicked

Week 3 #NANO check in…

Tally ho, my fellow writing warriors! We have hit the climax of our NaNo Battle! That’s right, we are now in our third week of conquering the blank page.  I’m sure there have been some grevious injuries, maybe a few fatalities, but fear not, there is light at the end of the tunnel. If nothing else there should be a stuffed turkey with your name on it today! Happy Thanksgiving!

So how am I faring?  It’s been a struggle–you would not believe how much crap Fate can throw in the path of your good intentions, but my word count as of 11/22/12 is:

 35,464

Take a deep breath, slip out and run around with the small humans for an hour, leave your cave, get away for a brief breather.  Promise it will help you refocus before you dive in for the second half of the storm.

Stay strong, writer peeps…until next week!

Wicked

#NANO week 2 check in…

Are you all still out there? Anyone poking their heads up out of their writer caves?  I noticed the world still seems to be marching on…

So now it’s two weeks in and I’m sure you’re wondering, just how dedicated have you been, Jami?  You have that job that pays the bill, the Prankster Duo, the Knight, the Hellhound the Garden Gnome in-laws…have you been able to keep it up.

Well, let’s find out:

Word count as of 11/15/12 is at….

25,449 

Keep going, I promise you’re doing great.  If you’ve stumbled, pick yourself up, grab that implement of creativity and dive back in, there’s time!

–Wicked

#NANO Check In…

Okay so we’re now just over a week in to NaNo? Are we all hanging there?

Let’s see where my word count is today shall we?

November 8th and we are at:  

13,233 words

Keep writing my dedicated creative warriors!

Until next week….  

Wicked

NANO, Just Writing

The plan for NANO (National Novel Writing Month) is to just write, not edit, not outline, just write.  But how do you just write?  What does that even mean?

When I begin writing, I naturally crave some kind of structure, some kind of guidelines to follow.  Often my characters take me off my decided path, but then, a new path is created based upon what my characters want.  Does that make any sense at all?

BUT, this month I am just writing.  I am creating words on a page, without my usual obsessive compulsive behavior.  I am not going to re-read my work (at least I’ll try not to).  This plan, however, really worries me.  I think I might end up creating more work for myself in the end by doing things in such an unorganized way.  But at the same time, I am really looking forward to trying a different writing process.  Hey, I may even realize I like this way of writing better!

What do you think?  Does writing without a plan simply cause more problems in the long run?

IT’S TIME FOR #NANO!

5….4….3…2….1…. WRITE!

Were you ready? I’ve been gorging on my “to-be-read” book pile on my nightstand all last week because I knew with November 1st looming on the horizon my free time was about to drop to below non existent.  The Evil 7 (technically 8) have all taken up the crusade and will head out today to begin our NaNo battle. Come join the mayhem!

 Even my Knight in Slightly Muddy Armor understands the battle before us…he’s agreed to become a Writer Widow for the next month and survive on the good graces of our local food delivery places.  Even the Prankster Duo has been warned!

My muse is armed and ready.  We have laid out our battle strategey, sharpened our pens, strengthened our fingers and cleared our calendar as much as possible. Don your weapons of choice, my friends, it’s time to march into the wild wicked world of writing!

Fair warning: my posts this month will just keep you updated on my kill counts…I mean word counts…for each week.  If your trust stead falters, shout out and we’ll be there to get you back in the saddle and on the warpath. 

FORWARD HO!

…and don’t forget to see how many butchered phrases and bloodied punctuations we have conquered next week!

–Wicked

NANO- National Novel Writing Month

November is National Novel Writing Month!  We Evil Dwarves are proud to say we are participating this year (and November is ALMOST here).  I have prepared my blogs ahead of time with a plan, so I can spend November working on the second novel in my new series.  But, I do have some reservations.

First of all, you have to understand my writing process to understand why something like NANO could get me a little stressed, so here it is:

1. Wake from an intriguing dream.  Write it down.  Mull it over.  Write it down again, with some of the weird that doesn’t make sense when you wake up stuff, gone.
2. Start writing.  Understand my character and my world.  Adjust how the character changes what I originally thought.
3. Stop writing.  Create a general outline for the remainder of the book.
4. Start writing again.  Make it to about the halfway point in the book.
5. Stop writing again.  Go back and edit/revise the first portion of the book.
6. Rewrite the outline with more details, adjusting for the changes that have occurred during the writing process.
7. Start writing again.  Write until the end of the book.
8. Finally, the hardcore revising begins.

Okay, so I never claimed my writing process was neat and organized.  What is your process like?  Also, this is why I fear NANO so much.  I am expected to go against my obsessive writing behaviors and just write for an entire month.

I don’t know how successful I will be in this process.  Our expectation is to write 50,000 words in one month, BUT it has taken me three months to write the first 50,000 words of my current novel.

So, wish me luck!  I hope I can proudly say, come the end of November, that I accomplished my goal, but if I end up mumbling something less than 50,000 words as my accomplishment, don’t judge me too harshly.

Also, does anyone else plan to participate this year?

To NaNo or Not To NaNo?

Did you see that blur? Were you able to make out the bits of green of Spring 2012? Or the shimmery waves of heat of Summer 2012?  Did you miss the burnished coppers of the impending Fall 2012?  I sure did.  As a matter of fact, when I bothered to poke my head up lately, do you know what was staring back at me?

NaNo.

Oh yes, it is time to start wondering the age-old question-To NaNo or not to NaNo.

Last year, I wimped out.  I used the fact I was tying up Shadow’s Soul not to participate, but let’s be honest…NaNo is intimidating.

For those of you not familiar with NANO, never fear, it will soon become the relative/friend who dropped by for a night and didn’t leave for years.  NaNo is National Writing Novel Month and is also identified by the name NaNoWriMo.  It happens every November–no matter if the Mayans are correct or not, it will still be here in 2013.  It will haunt your computer, stalk you in the wee hours of the morning, and taunt you late at night while you’re enjoying your primetime shows.  It whispers to you–”Come on, you know you could be putting these voices to paper here!”  One month, where every day you write-1 line or 1,000, doesn’t matter. What matters is you write–no Inner Editors allowed. They’ve been banned to the kiddie table in the corner and they are not allowed to speak.

So although I’m still working on Shadow’s Moon, trying desperately to drag it to completion by the end of the year, I’m actually starting to listen to the sibilant whispers of NaNo. Perhaps I’ll start doing some research, sit down for coffee with some characters and poke around, play God and create some new worlds…tempting.

Anyone else out there starting to get the itch to prepare?  Are you looking at a HazMat suit to get through it or are you more the flip-flop and Hawaiian shirt type? C’mon, share…we want to know who else is going to go insane in November.

PS–Come on over to Cynthia Woolf’s place on the 25th of August as I pop over for an interview.  If you comment you get a chance to win something cool!

 

–Wicked