Tag: NaNoWriMo

NaNoWriMo Triple Double-Dog-Dare Challenge

Mr. Pish Typing
I’d better find someone to help me type. I’m going to have very tired fingers.

Well, my observance of National NO Writing Month ended one day into November. I was planning a steadfast boycott of writing this month, per my post here. My plan, however, was foiled by the one thing I can’t say no to: a double-dog-dare.

Yes, that’s right. I was double-dog-dared to write not one, not two, but three books during the month of November. Because, really, everyone else is writing ONE book. Who cares? Let’s make this a real challenge and up that ante. Three books – written, edited, formatted, and published. You think I can do it? Continue reading “NaNoWriMo Triple Double-Dog-Dare Challenge”

Making Hay Out of a Hurricane

tobo at http://flickr.com/photos/71239428@N00/2853887676By the time you read this, it may be irrelevant. I’m writing to you on Monday, home from work due to the expected wallop of Hurricane Sandy on our forewarned-but-still-most-likely-unprotected heads, and hoping that I can finish this and send it off before the power inevitably goes out.

But maybe it won’t be irrelevant. The weather forecasters are saying that people in the path of the storm should be ready to be without power for up to a week. With NaNoWriMo starting on November 1, a week without power could be a very bad thing right now.

And bad weather happens all the time. Well, maybe not if you live someplace nice. But even paradise gets rain, wind, and the occasional freak hailstorm. Our job as writers is to capitalize on that inevitability. Continue reading “Making Hay Out of a Hurricane”

No Writing Allowed

KSBrooks at Mesa Verde
Or you could just go somewhere with no internet and no electricity.

Let’s face it, writing a book is hard work. You might even break a sweat, or pop a cog in your brain. Who wants to do that? So, enter November – NaNoWriMo – National No Writing Month. This is one month where we authors, writers and scribes can legitimately rest our brains from the toils of our literary efforts. I know, I know, it won’t be easy – so here are some tips to keep yourself from writing that book without losing your edge.

#1 – Committees and meetings are an excellent way to prevent progress on any level. So, form a committee for your book! Find a bunch of people who also write and invite them to your own Yahoo!, Facebook, or Goodreads group. If you can actually get them to pay attention to anything you have to say in between announcements of their free eBooks and basic spamming, you might get some input. That input will probably spark a discussion. That discussion will most likely get sidetracked onto the subject of kittens or television shows. See? It works. Continue reading “No Writing Allowed”

NaNoWriMo Survival Tips

Okay, folks. You’ve heard your friends talking about this NaNoWriMo business. That it’s supposed to be SO much fun. That this wicked awesome month-long writing exercise put on every November will rev up your creativity and caffeinate your muse or whatever else you call that clump of ganglia that drops words into your brain and out your typing fingers. Yeah. It’s fun. I’ve done it five times. You watch the little thermometer fill up as your word count rises. You get scared and want to pump more stimulants into your body to keep up with your friends. They all seem to have cooler titles than yours, fleshed-out plot descriptions….heck, some of them even have PLOTS. And you, you pantser, all you have is an idea that came to you while you were out shopping for Halloween kiddie kibble. Urged on by all your writer friends on FaceTwit, you sign up. And then the panic starts. Fifty thousand words. Thirty days. You do the math. (Seriously, you do it. I hate math.) How the heck…? With a spouse? Kids? A job? And if you’re American, with all the little frilly white things you need to make to go over the Thanksgiving turkey’s feet? What’s up with that, anyway? Decorating a dead carcass with lace garters? No wonder the rest of the world hates us. Continue reading “NaNoWriMo Survival Tips”