NaNoWriMo - It's My Thing!
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| Zach says,"You should be writing!" |
He's right. NaNoWriMo is my thing.
My NaNoWriMo story began in 2008 when I was first introduced to it by a friend. I love the challenge of nano. The first few years I remained isolated and didn't attend any functions. Oh, how that has changed. Now I plan the write-ins and parties. This will be my ninth year participating and my second year as a municipal liaison. I've also participated in several camps.
Through NaNo, I've defined my genre. Alone, I couldn't decide if my stories were chic-lit or paranormal w/ a romantic arc but other writers helped me discover I'm a romance writer. I love HEA (happily ever after).
Through NaNo, I have developed a sense of community and made lifelong friends. Several of these friends meet monthly if not weekly. We hold each other accountable. Remind each other of our goals and work out plot or timeline problems together.
These writers- published and unpublished- have encouraged me to get out of my writing box, to meet the world, venture to conferences, enter contests, learn to edit, take online classes to perfect craft and find my voice.
Wrimos take advantage of word sprints, writing dares and writing crawls. The Harry Potter word crawl seems to a favorite and the pub crawl got me through a mid November writing slump two years ago. You can find these things and many more in the Nanowrimo forums. Dayton Wrimos can be assured that they can find nightly word wars on our Facebook page. Since becoming an ML, making daily word count has been a struggle. I become very social at writing events and my word count suffers. Online word wars have been my saving grace. Most nights someone suggests a starting time and we write as fast as we can for fifteen, twenty or thirty minutes. All those words add up and I can usually hit my daily goal when I'm behind.
For years, I've heard the motto: Write in November, Edit in December. I hate that red squiggly line telling me something is wrong. I don't know how much time I've wasted hitting the backspace key. Last year, I succeeded in turning off my inner editor. Okay, maybe I didn't turn it off completely, only muted it (stuffed it in the closet and locked the door). Resist the urge to edit as you go. If necessary, rewrite the same sentence three different ways but keep going forward. National Novel Writing Month might turn into Rational Navel Whining Mouth but just keep writing.
Nano has expanded my boundaries as writer. I usually thrive during November but due to computer issues at the start of the month (curses!) I fell behind, way behind. I struggled to stay motivated. It took me awhile to hear my MCs voice, but when I tuned in she spoke up loud and clear. Now I'm on track (thanks to our nightly word wars!).
My advise to you as you get near the finish line...whether you've written 10K, 25K, 50K or even 100K... Keep writing! Only you can give birth to that story in your head. Only you can nurture it and make it grown to a full length novel- So don't give up! Keep writing!
Keep in touch with me:
RochelleBradley.com
Facebook Author Page
Twitter: @AuthorRochelleB
Google Author Page
Happy writing! ~Rochelle
Awesome! This is a great post (photo included!) and I appreciate all your efforts as ML. I like how your husband's observation bolstered you. Thank you for plot suggestions, too. Be well!
ReplyDeleteIt's great to get to know other writers and do what we do best in social settings. For me that's writing in a group setting. I thought this year I would be more social. It didn't happen. Along with NaNoWriMo this month, I took an RWA course about blogging and the workings of the story by Joss Weldon known as Firefly. I was a bit over extended, yet I made the word quota. Thanks for you hard work!
ReplyDeleteI saw that class but decided against it with all the ML duties and all. How was it?
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