Category: NaNoWriMo

An annual November tradition on the internet. (National Novel Writing Month) The goal? 1 month, 50,000 words closer to a finished novel. I’ve won twice so far. Here are my goals, my plans, my progress, and my victory celebrations. I usually know when it’s not going to happen — due to work/life/etc and set my own personal goals accordingly. :-)

5 Tips For Fighting Burn-Out: Learning Limits And Finding Gratitude

For those of you in America or from America, I’d like to wish you a very merry Thanksgiving. For the rest of you, I hope you have a great day.

I knew, going into November, that NaNoWriMo might not happen. The first couple days I was going to be a writing convention, I have a massive work deadline coming up in early December, plus, there’s that whole family and holiday thing you might have noticed is happening. But still, I had hope and plans.

However, I’ve had to take a step back and reassess. Here are my:

5 Steps For Avoiding Burn Out

What 1 Writer’s NaNoWriMo Looked Like

What My NaNoWriMo Looked Like This Year

On this, the last day of November, the last day of NaNoWriMo, I start with about 1,500 words left to write.

I look at my notes and see that last November? I wrote a sequel to my original novel. And…I not only wrote it, but I wrote a Nano-and-a-half worth of words. 75,000 words.

This year? My story did not flow that easily.
Was it the characters? Was it the world building? The tense, the adherence to the basic Robin Hood timeline that stymied me? I don’t know.
I’ve tried to fit my words in short daily time frames, with NaNoWriMo sprints really helping with that. I’ve done 21 shared word sprints this month, averaging about 500 words per 15 minutes sprint. So long as I have a good 15 minute break between sprints…
Maybe I’m just calling it quits too soon?
They say that every story is different and I’ve come to truly appreciate the truth in that.
So, let’s look back at my NaNo writing this month.

How To Write: You Do You!

How To Write: You Do You!

 The Many Writing Proverbs

There’s a caveat that goes with pretty much all writing advice about what you SHOULD do, and it goes like this: “unless that doesn’t work for you.”

It seems to go hand-in-hand with the advice about what you SHOULDN’T do’s caveat, which is “if you do it well enough, you can break all the rules.”

‘Cause, remember, all the people giving this advice swear by the adage, “if you know how to write a book, you know how to write that one book.”

I can spout off writing proverbs and rules all day. How about I tell you how I’m actually doing?