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NaNoWriMo: Introducing the Stories Part 2
In case you missed what I’m talking about, take a look back at this post for the details about NaNoWriMo and meeting my first two narrators. And now I’m going to introduce to you probably one of the narrators that I’ve had the most trouble with. I started his story (I’m an avid fan of first drafts. I have so many of them and I’m working on progressing them further) in 2012, it was my first NaNoWriMo away from home and the first one that really allowed me to bond with my now best friend, but he’s so bloody frustrating. I’m not even sure if the strongest of curse words…
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NaNoWriMo: Introducing the Stories Part 1
It’s NaNoWriMo pre-season and for those of you who don’t know what that is it stands for National Novel Writing Month, where the aim is to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. A huge feat in many ways. I’m about to embark on my 9th NaNoWriMo and I’m excited because I’m going to dive back into my stories I’ve already started because I’m so not ready to start new project (and just for the side fact, I totally can, I never not have any ideas, I just need to temper them) so I’m revisiting them. I’m going to introduce them to you though. Because sometimes part of the…
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Writing through the struggles: Camp NaNoWrimo Wrap Up
Camp NaNoWriMo ran for all of April and for those that follow me they know that I’m an avid NaNoWriMo fan. I have done it for the last 6 years and have 6 drafts of novels that I’ve got raided around the place (maybe I have more, I should count) and when I found out about Camp NaNoWriMo and actually remembered when it happened, I decided that I’d tackle it. Two years ago at the start of April I was excited, I was rewriting my novel. The one that I’m looking at that’s a completed draft (world building none withstanding) and I was getting a jump on it after I…
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NaNoWriMo Wrap and what I learned so far
I was swallowed up by the hole that is NaNoWriMo. This year my goal was to see just how fast I can get to 50,000. I managed it in three days with reaching a personal best on the first day of just over 20,000. My highest in previous years had been 17,000 or so, which had me elated and I didn’t even have sore wrists until I finished and went to bed with my wrists in supports. I learned that I’m an immersive creature. I took the week off my retail job to literally run away to Bendigo, where my gorgeous second family lives, and hole myself up in their…
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Planner vs Pantser. NaNoWriMo Prep!
Last night, after I spent two hours driving home from my second home in Bendigo, I held a webinar focusing on What a Planner vs a Panster is and some of my great tips on how to get you over the line during NaNoWriMo, which starts in FIVE days. I can’t believe that it’s that time again and that this year is going to stretch me further than every before because I have to work around my work. Normally it’s a lot easier but with travel time and depending on my shifts I’ll be out of my house and away from a computer for close to 10 hours. That’s just…
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Counting Down: NaNoWriMo 2015
I can’t believe that it’s already October. We’re less than a month away from the biggest month of the year for many writer’s around the world. Are you suddenly perplexed and reaching to your calendar for the answer? You aren’t? Good, because your calendar won’t tell you the answer unless you’ve got yourself some writer friends. NaNoWriMo starts in less than a month and I’m gearing up to start writing the first draft of my next novel. A lot of people can’t seem to get their heads around writing so many words in a month but I think I’m getting ahead of myself. A lot of you are probably thinking:…
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NaNoWriMo is done, now what?
So now we’re out of November, the happiest writing month around as far as I’m concern, and now left to twiddle our thumbs, blink rapidly and try and find what life was like before the insaness that is NaNo, right? Or I might be alone in that, anyway! Now that you’ve got 50,000 words or even less, or maybe more, you’ve got a starting point. Don’t slack off now. Writing is like learning to ride a bike, you have to keep practicing to make it a part of your life and make it really resonate with what’s going on around you. Most people can’t just jump onto the computer and…
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My Playlist: NaNoWriMo Novels
Music is essential to my writing, I’ve said it before and I will happily say it again. I can write in crowded rooms without much of an issue, even really loud thumpy music, I’ve learned to tune out the whole world. I think part of that is because I’ve worked in retail for seven years with music playing for eight hours straight and I learned to block out a lot of what’s played out of necessity of being able to survive through the entire shift, or it could have been that as I was getting into reading, I was blasting the music in the background, something about silences terrifies me,…
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The Finishing Point: NaNoWriMo 2014
So I finished my NaNoWriMo first draft on the 17th of November. It’s why I’ve been a little quiet. I’ve been trying to process exactly what that means to me. I wrote 95,000 words in 17 days. That’s a record for me. I completed an entire novel. It seems that when I’m given then time and the drive, I’m a pretty immersive creature and when I’m into a project, I’m all in, baby. All the way in. Narrowing my focus and taking a weekend away from all of my distractions was probably the biggest push I needed. Through aching wrist and crying knees I reached 50k in 3 and a…
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Crush That Internal Editor: NaNoWriMo Tips
I’ve had multiple questions about how I write as fast as I do and what I do and I think I’m just so used to it that I don’t bat an eyelash at it anymore. I think it’s normal, but I have to remember that not everyone has the same thought process as I do. Note to self: everyone is different, even if you don’t want to believe it. I love NaNoWriMo for so many reasons. One: it actually helped me edit less when writing initial drafts and let me enjoy the process of writing a story. Two: You meet some rad people and get to strengthen already rad bonds.…