NANOWRIMO Day 29..

So here we are at the end of November and NANOWRIMO is almost done.  How'd I do?  Pretty good if I do say so myself.  While I didn't have my 50k words set to go when they opened up finalization on Monday, I did manage to get there today.  I'm pretty proud of myself to be honest.  Now I just need to keep up the writing habit.  Now you may be asking where my story is at...and the funny thing is it's just getting started.

When I started this project my impulse when I first started writing was to go with a series of short stories all in a collective world to try and establish this environment that I wanted to write in.  Then I actually started writing the Characters, and the environment, and some of the events going on and I discovered that it wasn't going to be a series of short stories...unless I decided to make them all 100 pages.

So I now have a story I'm really enjoying writing, and want to re-visit.  But I'm feeling like writing something else for a bit.  And I feel like I can justify working on something else now that I don't have the finish of NANO looming.

Honestly I'm just looking forward to writing some more stuff.  I don't know if I'll ever manage enough material to publish or anything, but the fact that I finally feel like I got past my internal editor?  That's feeling like a step in the right direction.

I'm thinking I could use a bit more structure on my next big writing project though instead of letting the story grow on it's own like this one did.  I'll need to revisit some old writing lessons about plotlines, character development and stuff like that.  A fantastic writer named Frea O'Scanlin (at least that's what she's told me to call her), pointed out some web based lessons on Creative Writing by Brandon Sanderson.  I'm likely going to be spending the next week watching those and seeing what I can build with his advice.  Between him and Michael Stackpoles 'The Secrets' a wonderful podcast and newsletter all about writing, I think I'll be able to do some more to develop this habit into something more.

I hope anyhow.  Hope your days are as full as you want them to be.  With all the joy and good fortune you can find.
Til later

NANOWRIMO Day 8

So...I've been hard at work...well hardly AT WORK but I've been trying to put some serious time in on writing my novel each day.  And coming from a REALLY rough start it's starting to shape itself into a story that I'm pretty excited about.  I keep finding myself focusing on a mantra for myself "Just keep writing into the next scene.  Just keep writing into the next scene."  And it feels like it's working pretty well.  As long as I manage to find some time each day to go somewhere I'm NOT comfortable and just sit down and WRITE for a while I manage to get some really solid material out.

I mean, I'm at 16000 words today.  Of my story.  And each day I look at it and find some more material to keep going on.  Granted most of the time I have to force myself away from my computer to not go back and EDIT bits and pieces.  (NO, bad Jonny.  Editing is for December.)  But if I can keep at this pace for EACH DAY.  Just manage 2000 words a day, maybe a few more, I'll have my 50,000 well before the end of the month.  I love that idea.  Having a good chunk of a novel finished before the end of a month.

Now, I just need to cement this as a habit for EVERY day and then I'll be making some serious progress.

Happy Halloween! And NANOWRIMO is here! AHHHHH!

It's been a while since I've put ANYTHING up here.  I know, I'm disappointed in me too... There really aren't any good reasons for it other than me losing my drive to put my random thoughts up.  Anyhow, I've got something new and a little terrifying going on in my life for the next 30 days or so.  Let's see if I can manage to get something up here every day?
So, for those of you wondering what the heck I'm blathering on about THIS time... NANOWRIMO is NAtional NOvel WRIting MOnth.  I've only heard about it this last year or so, and when I did...Well, the idea both Thrilled and Terrified me.  So here's the thing.  You sign up for it online at http://www.nanowrimo.org/; get your profile set and then over the course of November you write a 50,000 word novel.  Now, I've managed some lengthy treatises on stuff before...but I've never actually got that many words conveying a single theme out.  Now what makes this interesting is that anywhere folks are doing this, they get together an hang out at Write ins.  This is basically taking peer pressure and making it work FOR you.  Sitting in a room with a bunch of folks typing away while you're NOT writing your novel?  A little intimidating.  Then there's the forums which have folks tossing ideas around and there's word wars between different people trying to get the most material out...it's all kinda crazy.  And I'm making myself a part of it.
It's a weird notion just making it about the word count and not about the quality...but I know one of my biggest issues for Myself?  Is turning off the inner editor.  It's always clicking away back there and making me worry about what I'm doing wrong.  For this, I've locked him in a box, stuck him in a vault and hid him behind some dusty old memories of yesteryear with a big sign saying "DO NOT OPEN TIL DECEMBER".
I don't know what will show up here over the course of the next month...I'm fairly sure at some point it's just going to be me writing MUST KEEP TYPING over and over again.  Or not.  Who can say?
That's where I'm starting with this.  I'm typing up my thoughts and putting them out into the ether.  Hopefully I'll have something fun that I've thought of later on but I'm really not sure.  Hope anybody who sees this actually DID have a Happy Halloween, and that the start of your November is bright.  Mine is looking Wordy.