Welcome fall!
Pumpkins, the smell of dead leaves crunched under boots, on and off 90-to-40-degree weather...gotta love NC. This time of year always makes me want to spend all my time outside, curled up under a blanket, with a cup of steaming coffee or cider nearby, thoughtfully adding to a composition notebook full of story ideas and poems. As a freelancer and work-from-home professional, I am so thankful and lucky to be able to spend my free time writing, wherever I choose. Right now I am near a playground and can hear all kinds of fun, imaginative games unfolding during recess. I wonder how many of those kids are making up their own stories and playing out new characters they might one day get to write about in stories of their own.
A more sobering thought I'm having today: Yesterday I learned that some of my friends and family didn't even know I had written books! It must be time to up the ante on my writing and advertising this season.
I will be participating in the 2017 National Novel Writing Month on a brand new young adult novel (sorry, no Elven magic here this year!) and I found myself wanting to renew my authorship status in the world. Since I am not a full-time author, it's easy to lose sight of this part of myself; however, it has been there my whole life and I hope to keep it active and limber. To that end, here is the 2017 resolution to keep writing and keep "putting myself", as they say, "out there." I know my last web update was a year ago around this time, but I hope to reignite my writing energy and keep it going even after NaNoWriMo has ended for this year. I will be updating my progress periodically this November and hope to share any insights on writing that I may be pondering. Thanks for reading!
A more sobering thought I'm having today: Yesterday I learned that some of my friends and family didn't even know I had written books! It must be time to up the ante on my writing and advertising this season.
I will be participating in the 2017 National Novel Writing Month on a brand new young adult novel (sorry, no Elven magic here this year!) and I found myself wanting to renew my authorship status in the world. Since I am not a full-time author, it's easy to lose sight of this part of myself; however, it has been there my whole life and I hope to keep it active and limber. To that end, here is the 2017 resolution to keep writing and keep "putting myself", as they say, "out there." I know my last web update was a year ago around this time, but I hope to reignite my writing energy and keep it going even after NaNoWriMo has ended for this year. I will be updating my progress periodically this November and hope to share any insights on writing that I may be pondering. Thanks for reading!
National Novel Writing Month
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Hello there from the trenches of fast drafting! I am again participating in National Novel Writing Month, and this time I have pledged $1 every day of November towards keeping this wonderful nonprofit writing program running. The organization offers some awesome writing help for teens and young writers, and helps keep the rest of us authors going, too! It seriously feels like a video game about drafting your novel. I went to a kickoff event last night with some of my local writers (where of course we did more coffee-drinking and chatting and cat-picture-sharing than writing). It was so cool to make this isolating, necessarily antisocial hobby into a fun night out with new and old friends!
This year I am writing a YA Fiction novel about two high school musicians trying to navigate special challenges in their lives: Samantha is mute and Kurt is blind. What's more, they have to compose a song together and they don't even know how to communicate! What will happen? I have an outline but even I'm not sure yet. It's Day 2, I'm over my projected word count average, and I'm feeling PUMPED. By the way, the #NaNoWriMo suggested goal for November is to break 50,000 words in 30 days, which breaks down to 1,667 words EVERY DAY. So, wish me luck, follow my progress, and help keep me accountable for this GIANT goal I am setting for myself!
Now, I'm going to stop wasting word sprint energy here online and get back to it! Love you all. -andreawriter
This year I am writing a YA Fiction novel about two high school musicians trying to navigate special challenges in their lives: Samantha is mute and Kurt is blind. What's more, they have to compose a song together and they don't even know how to communicate! What will happen? I have an outline but even I'm not sure yet. It's Day 2, I'm over my projected word count average, and I'm feeling PUMPED. By the way, the #NaNoWriMo suggested goal for November is to break 50,000 words in 30 days, which breaks down to 1,667 words EVERY DAY. So, wish me luck, follow my progress, and help keep me accountable for this GIANT goal I am setting for myself!
Now, I'm going to stop wasting word sprint energy here online and get back to it! Love you all. -andreawriter
Day 8 Check-In
Hello friends! I have written 8909 words so far in my new novel, which is about 1,000 for each day of this month. Isn't that cool? I love that this event encourages us to keep score on our writing, making it competitive, rewarding, and social. Otherwise it tends to be this thing that we do in secret, penning words that no one will see for years to come (if ever).
My draft is very rough so far, with placeholders for names of specific things and a severe lack of detail, but I am so proud of what I am doing. A month ago, these ideas didn't exist; now, they are taking shape one day at a time, and who knows where they will lead?
I am almost done with the first expositional pieces of my novel, and can finally start throwing conflicts at my two main characters. What will I learn about them? What will they learn about each other? Will their fathers' friendship become a lasting bromance or end after a single, glorious Call of Duty game? Only time will tell.
Wish me luck! Thanks for all of you who have shown support in this project, and understand when I have to keep my Twitter open so I can check in on the latest #NaNoCoach tips!
Wish me luck! Thanks for all of you who have shown support in this project, and understand when I have to keep my Twitter open so I can check in on the latest #NaNoCoach tips!
Day 29 Update
Wow, writing during Thanksgiving Week is hard! There's been a lot going on this month, and it reminds me how November is a ridiculously difficult month in which to attempt to finish a complete first draft of a novel.
HOWEVER;
I'm doing it! I might not reach 50,000 words in the next two days (as you can clearly see above in my word count tracker!), but I am applauding myself for getting this far. Whenever I talk to people about NaNoWriMo, I usually get a couple of different reactions.
As for those people in the third camp, good for you. Write your novel, and do it however you want. I work best under some self-inflicted deadlines and pressure, and having daily goals and virtual badges gives me the support I need to follow through. And the more often I force myself to sit and write, the more often I will be struck with ideas because my novel is fresh in my brain, which leads to wanting to sit down to write.
I may or may not finish my first draft by tomorrow at midnight. It may or may not clock in at 50,000 words. My point is, I set a goal to write this November, and I have already met and surpassed that with fifty pages (and counting!) of ideas that did not exist thirty days ago. But let's make one thing very clear: I am going to finish this novel (at some point) and it is a world that I have created, on my own, all because of NaNo.
HOWEVER;
I'm doing it! I might not reach 50,000 words in the next two days (as you can clearly see above in my word count tracker!), but I am applauding myself for getting this far. Whenever I talk to people about NaNoWriMo, I usually get a couple of different reactions.
- "Wow, how cool! How in the world do you do that? It sounds so ambitious! Good luck."
- "Huh, is a novel written in thirty days ever going to be very good?"
- "Oh, cool. I've been working on a novel for X years but haven't finished yet."
As for those people in the third camp, good for you. Write your novel, and do it however you want. I work best under some self-inflicted deadlines and pressure, and having daily goals and virtual badges gives me the support I need to follow through. And the more often I force myself to sit and write, the more often I will be struck with ideas because my novel is fresh in my brain, which leads to wanting to sit down to write.
I may or may not finish my first draft by tomorrow at midnight. It may or may not clock in at 50,000 words. My point is, I set a goal to write this November, and I have already met and surpassed that with fifty pages (and counting!) of ideas that did not exist thirty days ago. But let's make one thing very clear: I am going to finish this novel (at some point) and it is a world that I have created, on my own, all because of NaNo.