Tag: NaNoWriMo

  • Writer Wednesday – write-minded Podcast Appearance

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    Happy Wednesday, writers! I am hard at work on an application for a super sekrit program, which I\’ll share about as soon as I can. But in the process of working on the application, I came across this awesome podcast where fellow author Alexis Daria and I were interviewed on the write-minded podcast. I thought you might enjoy. Take a listen, here.

  • Wait, Wha…? It\’s December? or, I Won NaNo!

    Wait, Wha…? It\’s December? or, I Won NaNo!

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    Wow.  Big picture.  As I\’m sitting here, still not done with my morning coffee, I decide to leave it because…  I WON NANO!  I\’m still not quite sure what happened.

    For those of you reading this, wondering what the heck I\’m talking about, National Novel Writing Month is every year in the month of November.  Here\’s five things I\’ve learned:

    1. Laundry is sneaky.  It will pile up and multiply in the basket when you\’re not looking at it.
    2. Dishes are easier to do if you get them done daily.
    3. Cats and dogs like to be fed on a regular schedule.  …  Regular DAILY schedule.
    4. Food is not optional.  It\’s a requirement for humans to keep writing.
    5. Coffee should be like air.

    There.  And to say folks don\’t learn anything during NaNo.  ~grin~

  • Join Me At ChiWriMo!

    Join Me At ChiWriMo!

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    It\’s November, the time of the keyboards singing and the turkey tryptophaning and the avoidance of the holiday madness until after Black Friday, thankyouverymuch. It\’s National Novel Writing Month, Dear Reader, and yours truly is one of the volunteer Municipal Liaisons, or MLs, for the Chicago Region.  My main duty is to help host write-ins, which are big parties where magic happens.  No really, that\’s what they are!  People gather somewhere, like a cafe or restaurant or library or park or… and they write.  And have word wars.  And it\’s a lot of fun.  One of my other duties is to exhort participants to ever greater heights of literary abandon.  (Hey, man: I\’m in mid-NaNo myself and my vocabulary is running full steam ahead!)  So join me at our ChiWriMo blog for some thoughts on Week Two – it\’s not too late!  Keep going!

  • Do You NaNo?

    Do You NaNo?

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    Do you NaNo?

    No idea if you NaNo?  No NaNo?  (C\’mon, you had to see that comin\’.)  ANYway, join me today at the Torquere LiveJournal for some explanation of what is this thing called NaNo, and some thoughts on why the world needs your novel.

    You know you wanna.

  • Two for Tuesday

    Two for Tuesday

    I was looking for a lolcat to adorn my post today, so I asked Google, \”lolcats all of thems.\”  This is one of the ones that came up and since I guffawed out loud – sorry, \”lol\’d,\” I figured I\’d better use it.

    Why?

    Because lolcats.

    ANYway.  I have not one but TWO posts for you today!

    The first is at the Chicago Region of National Novel Writing Month.  Just because you didn\’t \”win\” NaNo doesn\’t mean you lost.

    The second is at Torquere Press\’s blog, Romance for the Rest of Us.  I got to musing about my daily round and shared pictures.

    Hope you\’ll stop by and show me some love in the comments! Happy reading!

  • Sunday Box Talk: NaNo and Marathons

    Sunday Box Talk: NaNo and Marathons

    It\’s the 17th and the month is half over.  I know some of us, myself among them, have not written as much as we\’d hope at the bright start of NaNoWriMo.  But it ain\’t over til it\’s over and there\’s still time to write.  It doesn\’t matter what happened the past 16 days.  We can\’t change them.  We can\’t go back and do them over.  We can\’t do them differently.  They\’re done, and what\’s done is done.

    So where does that leave us?

    Some of us will give up.  We will say, it\’s just too much water under the bridge, too much time passed me by and there\’s no use.

    Don\’t do that.

    Keep writing.  There are more days left in this month and more words left in your brain.  You owe it to yourself to let them out, to give yourself the chance and the gift of hope.

    In running a marathon, experienced runners know what beginning runners haven\’t learned yet:  the marathon isn\’t won in the first five or even ten miles.  It\’s won when you hit the wall at mile twenty or twenty-one and you just can\’t run anymore.  You continue, you put one foot in front of the other, and you slog your way through to the finish line.

    Life is like that sometimes.  Don\’t give up, don\’t surrender.  Stay strong; borrow the courage of giants.  You may not be part of Seal Team Nine but you can do what they do:  keep going.  Keep writing.

    Keep going.

    Keep writing.

    Hoo-rah, baby.  Hoo-rah.

  • How Many Hackers Does It Take To Write a Novel?

    How Many Hackers Does It Take To Write a Novel?

    The first NaNoWriMo Write-In at Pumping Station: One was a success and, in good PS1 style, \”It ain\’t over til you\’ve blogged about it!\”  Check it out, here!

  • The First Write-In

    The First Write-In

    While it\’s not the first write-in of the ChiWriMo (the Chicago Region of NaNoWriMo), it was my first write-in this month.  I held it at a local eatery and shared the experience on Torquere Press\’s blog.  Join me!

  • NaNoWriMo and Coffee

    NaNoWriMo and Coffee

    NaNo and Coffee.  Common themes.  Join me at the Writer\’s Retreat for more.

  • NaNo and Samhain Publishing

    NaNo and Samhain Publishing

    I\’m over at the Samhain blog today, talking about NaNo and the madness of November.  Join me!

  • Join the Tauruses for Tiger Tiger and NaNoWriMo

    Join me today at the Noon and Wilder blog, Taurus and Taurus.  We have an update on TIGER TIGER and the editing process, as well as some NaNoWriMo conversation.  Stop by!

  • A Crazy Little Thing Called NaNo…

    It\’s that time of year again.  November is National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo for short.  All over the world, writers of all ages and genres participate in a mad dash to the finish line.  The objective?  Write 50,000 words, or more, on a novel draft.  It\’s that simple.  It\’s like a marathon, really.  After all, what\’s a marathon but running a bloody long way without stopping?  Same idea.  (Same bloody, too.)

    I write my NaNo words on my laptop or my AlphaSmart 2000.  I have two of the latter, having worn one out.  I prefer my first one, actually, since the space bar on my second one is a little jellied.  We\’ll see if we can fix that.  I haven\’t downloaded my words from Thursday and Friday yet, but I wrote a bunch yesterday so I counted that.  It\’s funny, though, NaNo will only let you count the days you enter words, so my count looks like this:

    That\’s okay, though.  The point is to accumulate words, not please widgets.

    We also have word wars.  I\’m part of ChiWriMo, or the Chicagoland Region.  (Don\’t bother looking on a map for the \”Chicagoland,\” it\’s what locals call the metro area that includes the city of Chicago but also the collar communities.  Some include four counties, some seven.  We\’re an inclusive people, we Chicagoans.)  Our official word war is with Glasgow, Scotland.  The Glaswegians think they\’ll win this year, but I have my doubts.  ~throws down imaginary gauntlet in Scotland\’s general direction, ignoring the fact that there\’s about 1,500 miles of land and an ocean between us – writers are, as all readers know, imaginative beasts~

    What do you have to lose?  Only your skepticism and blank paper.  Why not consider joining the fun?  Already part of the fun?  Tell me your username in the comments and we can link up as NaNo buddies and maybe even have a word war.

    Write early, write often!