5 Steps to Complete NANOWRIMO

 

The challenge; Complete 50,000 words in the month of November.  Don't worry it can be done without panic. 

First: Check out all the good stuff on the official NANOWRIMO website; https://nanowrimo.org/ They've got lots of inspiration and things to get you writing. 

Second: Plot your NANO attack. I don't mean plot your novel but you can if you're a plotter (not a pantser?) I mean plot your work time. Think of your life and where you can get uninterrupted time to write.  I once got up a half hour early to win NANO. That book is now up on Amazon: Soul Mates A Different Kind of Love Story At that time in my life I was in work by 8:30 am so I got up at 6:30 am and wrote for a half hour to an hour depending on how the story was moving. But it was getting up at that hour that gave me time to dedicate to my goals. 

So plot out your writing time. Make it a time when you can have some uninterrupted writing time. I chose morning before the family woke up but if you're more of a night owl go for it. What's your perfect time?

Third: Assemble your space. There's nothing worse than having to get up and clear dishes or toys off your table before getting to work. Truthfully, that has tanked my writing sessions more often than not. Got a desk? A table you can squeeze into a corner or any place you get on your laptop, tablet or however you write and be set to go when you sit down. Make it yours, make it comfortable and make it a place you want to go. 

Fourth: Get down the bones. Write your story. Get up & go to your special place and write. Decide if you're a plotter or a pantser. This is probably something you already know if you're been writing a while but the one thing to know is you don't have to be exactly one or the other. You can combine it. 

I get an idea and first write the blurb of the idea. You know that first inkling of a story that comes to you? Not the whole story but maybe a bit of the direction you're going. The blurb is kind of like that thing on the back of the book or in the book description that gives you a bit of the bones of the story. It doesn't have to be a lot just enough for you. If you like to plot then write down that outline. You don't have to follow it but if it gets you going, then great. If not, then change it as you go. The writing rules at this point are your rules. 

Fifth: Tell people. Join a NANOWRIMO group in your area. Find other writers either in person or online for encouragement and to help keep the NANO alive in your vision. Life gets busy and sometimes our goals fall to the sidelines when that happens. Connecting with others with the same goal can keep you on track. 

GO NANO! You've got this! 

Here....Comes....NANOWRIMO! Ready?

 
No, not ready and have no idea what story I'm going to tell. Could be anything at this point. 

Does NANO have to be fiction?  

    Why? The writer is in control so write what you want. Do you know how to calibrate antennas? Write a how to book. Love to cook and have a closet full of recipes? Write that cook book. (Don't forget the yummy photos) Got a life to tell us about? Write your memoir. Like making up stories and adventures? Write fiction. 

    I write fiction. So I'll think up some kind of murder, adventure or paranormal something. 

    I think it was the movie, The World According to Garp, where the man (Robin Williams 💔) sees a pair of gloves on the side walk and it prompts him to write a story.  The moral here; Ideas are everywhere. 

    When my kids were young and we'd go to a restaurant, or anywhere we had to wait, we'd play a What if game. I'd challenge them to find something in the room and I'd tell them the story about it. Pick up a spoon? Well, I'd say. This was the spoon that George Washington ate his oatmeal with on the morning he crossed the Delaware to fight the British in Trenton, NJ. In fact, since Martha gave it to him, after breakfast he put it in his pocket for good luck. He lost this spoon during the battle and it lay in the dirt for decades. Then when they were building this restaurant a workman found it and put it in the sink of the restaurant. And here it sits, on our table. George Washington's spoon. 

    The kids loved this game as sometimes the stories got pretty silly. (Don't ask how we time traveled and peeked in an outhouse to see Mrs Lincoln on the potty. Yes, some stories stay with you.) Soon the kids were making up stories and asking me to pick the item. Creativity explodes!

    The point is that there are ideas everywhere if you're looking. Remember to keep the "What if" in the front of your brain. Look around, take a walk, eyeball that stranger in the supermarket and think what secrets could be hiding in his closet. 

Okay! Don't scare people by staring at them! 

Be discrete. 

    Think of all the myths and stories there are out there. Can you bend them & take the winged Pegasus and make him human? What if? Or read the news and put something sinister behind the scenes. What if an angel lost his wings and was forced to earth to pay for his sin? (Wait, I already did something like that!) Someone gifts our heroine a plant and as she takes care of it she begins to see messages printed on the leaves. Magic or gaslight? 

    So look around, open your mind to the possibility that anything is possible and get ready for NANOWRIMO! 

  

Oh NANOWRIMO! Will I make it?

 Our beloved NANAOWRIMO is almost over. Eleven days and counting. Will you make it? 

Will I make it? eh, not sure. But I do have some good bones of a story to continue on with. 

I always thought NANO should be in January. I mean, half the country is snowed in and there is much more down time than in November, the month where the big holidays begin. 

But what do I know? It's kind of like dry December. If you are even a social drinker, that's when you drink the most. parties, get togethers, heck! I've worked in offices where they break out the wine and beer at lunch in December. People can't wait to start the party. Crazy month. 

Yet, here we are in November struggling to write that breakout novel. I did start on November 1st. I went to one of those plot generator aps and it gave me Mermaids and a person hunting. Hmmm, In my mind I made that a man who hunts mermaids. But the "why" question had me thinking he has to believe in mermaids before he can hunt them, right? So my opening scene had Paul discovering a fish-like woman caught in the sand on a beach in New Jersey in March. If you know New Jersey you know it's chilly at the beach in March, not swimming weather and beaches are pretty deserted.  So Paul sees this vision of beauty and scales on the beach just minutes before it sees him and flips back into the water. Now he might be a believer. Or headed to the nearest psychiatrist's couch? 

Okay, that went for about 500 words before I lost interest. Bah!

On my computer I have dozen's of story premises. When an idea come into my head I jot down the blurb. Those 2 or 3 paragraphs that give the idea some light then I just hit save into the abyss that is the "Ideas" folder.  It was to this folder I went next to find Soul of the Painting. I must have written the blurb over a year ago. 

I hit 3756 words this morning. Nowhere near where I need to be to complete NANO but it's moving along. I actually like this story so it might get completed. I can see the future scenes in my head which is something the Mermaid Hunter didn't give me.  

Let's do the math; To hit 50,000 words in the next 11 days I'd have to write 

4204 words a day. 

I laugh so hard I cry. Challenge or an unreachable goal? 

So how is your NANO coming? Share your word count and your challenges and on November 30th we'll pour the wine whether we make it or not. Because we tried and we have a great story still inside us that will someday make it out. 

NANO ~~~ Why have I deserted you?

 Yes, the beginning of NANOWriMo was rockin'. I wrote and wrote and then started a new story and wrote some more. Problem? I took the premise as a challenge from my daughter and never really fell in love with the character or thrust of the story. 

No lie, I have about 100 story starts in my computer. Whenever something pops into my head I get it down before I forget it. I sometimes do a whole Hero's Journey outline then stuff it in a file. Sometimes I just write the book blurb. I dream of the day when I can just stay home and write. 

Oh wait! I had two months of that last year. Did I finish a book? No, I was too wound up worrying about my business. (We started a business 7 months before we were shut down for covid) 

So now I have other excuses. 3 very needy foster dogs. Business work stuff; meetings, marketing and paperwork.  Oh yeah! Tomorrow I get my booster vax so I can use that excuse, too? Eh I didn't react to the last two shots so probably won't this time either. 

Excuses aside, there are 3 solid days left for NANO. I'm at 4573 words in Aliens Hiding in Plain Sight (not really a title)  story and 1056 words in Xiberon Survivors, another 813 words in Day 864. I think I wrote a little in Saving Saverine, too but that was on my other computer so I don't have the word count. 

I feel this NANO is doomed. 

So cheer me up! How's your NANO going? 

NaNoWriMo is Here! Are you Rockin' It?

 I'm a bit over 2000 words. Not really a great count for day 6 of NaNo, but its something. 

Here's the problem. 

This was a challenge to do from a randomly picked prompt. not my idea or something I'd usually write about.  So I spend a lot of time forcing myself into the shoes of my MC (main character) to come up with the next move. 

This time I also printed out a worksheet of the Hero's Journey to fit my story into. I've got some of it down but mostly I have no freakin' clue where I'm going with this story. 

And so I flounder... questions! Questions! Questions! 

What next? 

What should MC do now? 

How does she know this isn't just her imagination? 

Is the guy she just met one of them or will he help her?

Is she about to get sucked into a nightmare? how do I save her and let this get crazy? Should I? 

Oy! My head! 

Ok, NaNo, See in tomorrow at 7 am with coffee. 

Good luck out there you NaNo wizards. Write on, Write good, Write often. 

How's your word count? 

NANOWRIMO Approaches... Are You Ready?

 Love this time of year when we prep for NANO.  What? you don't prep for NANO? 

I guess it comes down to a plotter or a pantser or even a just give me an idea! 

Seriously, Ideas pop into my head all the time. I'm constantly writing scenes in my head that might never make it onto the keyboard. 

I think it was the World According to Garp where he sees the red gloves in the gutter and a story pops into his head? Correct me if I'm wrong, it's been awhile. 

That's where I think the stories hide. In those everyday things all around us. Stephen King says in his book, On Writing that he just puts too ideas together. Like for Carrie; Telekinesis and a girl who gets picked on in school. Easy, right? Rapid dog and mom trapped in a car with her son. Writer has accident and meets crazed fan. 

So for this year's NANO I'm going to take King's idea and merge two things together. I'm starting a list; 

Housewife and the devil meet

Old car and ....wait! That was King's. :)

Vacation on an island and contact is lost from the mainland

Man gets job in restaurant Owner is a ghost

Woman is murdered and haunts her murderer

Girl discovers secret passage in her new home discovers aliens

Woman buys a bracelet at a garage sale and can suddenly hear voices. 

The list is growing.... which to pick. 

Who doesn't love a good NANO challenge?  

So where are you going with NANO this year? 

Hello NaNo ~ Day 6

Well, it's day six of NaNoWriMo and I'm only at 8,851. Not too bad but not up to NaNo par. If we divided the 50,000 words by 30 days it's something like; 1,666?
So if we divide 6 by my count of 8,851 we get 1,475...

I've been slacking for reasons beyond my control. Okay, okay, maybe I could have controlled it but I didn't want to.

I like my story (3rd of the trilogy) and the premise came to me in a flash. (notes right beside my laptop, but getting from where I am in the story to where I want to be at the end, isn't exactly crystal clear. And I keep looking backward at part one of the trilogy sitting in editing hell on my desk. I was going so good on that one before the NaNo hit me, I didn't want to stop.

My daughter, some friends, and I do NaNo every year so I kind of felt like a wimp turning it down.

So, in the spirit of NaNoWriMo I'll be showing up here around early every morning for the rest of November. Should be easy because I have two 12 year old dogs who love to run around the house barking at 3 a.m.. I don't think they can tell time.

Right now I think I'll go take a little nap.

It's NANO time!

This NaNo season my daughter and I are exchanging character sketches. The sketch we get has to be the main character of the story. A simple challenge.
I gave her a woman about the same age as she is, who is a celebrity photog. Meaning she chases celebrities for the best shot. Have fun with that! :)
I think I'm so smart.
So what does she give me?
A 12 year old girl genius. The kids a college student. A 12 year old college student!
Oy!
Its going to be a long NaNo...

So tell me? Do you NaNo and what's your biggest writing challenge?

Nano November Challenge

Everyone loves a good challenge! Especially at that time of year when the holidays are approaching and life is getting busier. I mean what's a little more stress in a stressful season?

So what do I do???

Accept the challenge, of course!  I'm taking a fiction writing course in hopes of improving my skills and the professor issued the challenge. Instead of turning in whatever the assignment of the week is, we can turn in a few pages of our Nano. Sounded like a good deal to me.

To make it even more fun I'm going to take the Hero's Journey the prof gave us and outline the story right there on the papers.

I've heard that Faulkner sometimes outlined his work on the walls of his home. I so want to do that! To see all your notes all over the walls would be inspiring. Of course, my dh doesn't understand these needs. He's patient enough with the mural of Diamond Head and parrots I painted on the wall in the spare room and that tiger I painted on the wall in one of the bedrooms. I'm thinking maybe I shouldn't push my luck.

So? Are you Nano-ing? Have you ever? If so, how did it go? Great American novel or another 500 page paperweight for the edge of your desk?







Unfinished...do not judge. Perhaps I needs a Nano for painting...