All righty. Here goes. The long-awaited NaNoWriMo 2014 recap post! Nearly a month later, I think I'm recovered enough to tackle this, and I think I've had enough reflection time to determine what I need to improve upon next year. So, my dear fellow writerly people ... if you have accomplished NaNoWriMo yourselves, please do chime in with your comments on your own experiences. And if you have not NaNo-ed before, but are considering doing so next year, please take my experiences here ... View Post
Music Monday: An Exploration of What Powers my Stories – "Silver Lining" by HURTS
When it comes to music, writers seem to be in one of two camps. Either they LOVE having music as a background to their story creation, or ... they HATE it, and must instead have absolute silence in which to concentrate. Personally, I'm in Camp A. I LOVE having music while I write, and always have. The louder and more epic, the better. I reach The Zone far more quickly and stay in it longer if I've got my headphones on and the music blaring. And since I started my current WIP about a year ... View Post
Camp NaNoWriMo Diaries: Days Nine to Fifteen – Editing Makes The Heart Grow Fonder
Dear Diary, I apologize for spilling that gin and tonic ... errr ... glass of Kool-Aid on you the other day. I'm glad you are now dry enough to write in so that I can chronicle the most recent events of this year's July Camp! It has truly been a great Camp so far! I'm happy to report that I, as well as the rest of my bunk mates, have largely stayed on track for the entirety of these past two weeks! There have been bad days, of course, but there have also been great days! In the past seven ... View Post
Camp NaNoWriMo Diaries: Day Six – Whereupon I Face My Greatest Fear … Editing
Dear Diary, Yesterday was Day Six of Camp. Due to my decision to enter the Weta Nichols Writing Contest, I thought my Camp goal would switch (hopefully only shortly) to editing the first 2500 words of the first chapter (the contest's maximum limit - my first chapter is closer to 4k words, I think) in preparation for submission. The contest due date is July 15th. Not much time there. So, yesterday, I began those edits, at the standard Camp NaNo conversion rate of 1 hour of editing = 1000 ... View Post
Camp NaNoWriMo Diaries: Day Two – Wherein the Story Knows More Than I Do
Dear Diary, Yesterday was Day Two of Camp NaNoWriMo. It only took two days this time for the story to remind me it's really the one in charge. (I suppose this means I'm improving as a writer? Takes much less time these days to re-connect with the story, to get in The Zone? Well, I'll just pretend that's what it means, yes ...) Months of internal debate, wall-sized plotting and notebook scribbling devoted to trying to figure out what comes next, and all it took was the equivalent of roughly ... View Post
Camp NaNoWriMo Diaries: Day One – People, Plot Plathways, and Panic
Dear Diary, Yesterday was the first day of camp. I like all my bunkmates this time, and I'm pretty sure they're all going to actually participate and speak to me. That should be a plus. All of them are my friends, you see, so this camp is going to rock! All but two of us were able to meet up last night, and we made some good progress. Almost all of us reached our daily word quota. I've tried something different this camp. I tried to not be quite so ambitious. Sure, I've met the 50k ... View Post
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