Ready for the big surprise! I am including the first section of my work The Fifth Brother in the “My Writings” page. This is the story I am working on for NaNoWriMo that I mentioned last week.
Here is the deal. I am editing my The Fifth Brother so I can get back into the story before we kick off NaNoWriMo in November. Since I am putting in some work to make the parts I’ve written readable, I figured I should let someone read it. So I chose you! Continue reading Read My Stuff
It was a busy, BUSY year for me. I finished up some intense “schooling,” and I spent a good portion of time on the East coast to get it all complete. Because of it, I let my writing slide for the duration. I only had so much to give and was at a point where everything would suffer (home, work, school, AND writing) if I pushed that hard. So I took a break. Now I am back, and what timing!
As I was unpacking at home, I began to get the emails: Start preparing for NaNoWriMo! Woohoo! What better way to jump back into it again than to participate in the National Novel Writing Month competition (NaNoWriMo)?
Continue reading So glad to be BACK and just in time for NaNoWriMo!
Did you participate in NaNoWriMo? I did. I used every spare moment to escape to the keyboard and pound out some words. My family was very understanding, thankfully.
Writing can feel so selfish at times. It is a solitary journey and when you have a family that you only see for a few hours a day it can seem almost hostile to insist that you have to disappear for an hour or so. With NaNoWriMo, at least there was the excuse that it was just for the month. That there was an end on sight, that this was temporary, made all the difference.
With a goal of writing as much as possible during the month, I knew I needed a plan. Writers are generally categorized as either plotter or pantsers. Plotters develop characters, story arches, plot and themes before ever typing their opening line. Pantsers are writers who do not have a plan, but just want to see what happens as they go. Story telling “by the seat of their pants” A.K.A. pantsers.
Everything I had read or listened to lately had said that the secret to writing well and fast was to have a well outlined plan before starting. To be a plotter.
It made sense to me, so I bought the book Take Off Your Pants by Libbie Hawker. I found it really helpful. This was my second year participating in NaNoWriMo and I DOUBLED my Continue reading A Plan to go Faster!
Have you heard of National Novel Writing Month? Or NaNoWriMo for short? Every November millions of people sign up to commit to writing as much as they can in a month. The stated goal is 50,000 words at the end of 30 days. Many people achieve that goal every year. Not me, but there are people who have.
For me it is extra incentive to write with an accelerated pace for a month. Of course you can set that goal yourself and never join the official event, but it wouldn’t be as much fun. Plus, lets be honest, if all it took to for me to write 50,000 words was just saying I was going to do it, I would have already done it.
Here is a short idea of how it works. You make a profile and describe your book. You log Continue reading National Novel Writing Month