And They're Off...

National Novel Writing Month officially kicked off at midnight. I'm 777 words in...where I'm going I don't know but I'm working on a story I've had in my head for at least five years. A holiday story...I was hoping that since NaNoWriMo is in November I will be inspired.

Colleen, Kir, Ron.....how's it going? I know Colleen is full swing ahead. She was a big help to me in getting signed up on the site. But we were trying to figure out how to get each other up on our sites as writing buddies. Anyone figure it out?

Anne

Marketing Help

Has anyone heard of Wordhustler.com? I ran across their website the other day as I was looking for information on an agent, and I thought it looks like a great tool for organizing queries.

Just curious if any of you have heard of it or used it.

Counting down my hours of freedom to lie around and read whatever I want.

Kir

Less Than One Week to Go

National Novel Writing Month begins next Saturday, November 1st. Sharpen your pencils, gather your pens, exercise your typing fingers.

To keep ourselves motivated (or honest, pushed, punished, whatever word you want to use) I'm thinking we might want to post our progress here. I'm trying to decide what makes sense - once a week, twice a week - does it sound like a good idea or no?

I just know if we start and fall silent for 30 days it won't be as much fun and I'll have a hard time staying motivated.

Any ideas?
Anne

Time for a Critique Session?

Sadly, as I began to write this note I couldn't remember what we called our occassional critique sessions we used to do - was did we refer to them as readings? Hmmmmm. But perhaps this confusion means it has been too long.

Is anyone still interested in getting together for an occassional critique group? A chance to share some new work with others and get their feedback?

I miss that part of the M.F.A. I feel like I'm writing in a dark hole right now. Paola and I did an email/telephone critique session for our children's stories earlier this year and it was really helpful. I'd love to get into some sort of rhythm, either in a group or with someone on a more one-on-one basis.

Let me know what you think.
Anne

It's Official!

It's official! I began as TravelingMom.com's resident sanity expert this week.

Check out my first Sanity section at here.

We're changing it out weekly so check in often - and feel free to share any topics related to balance on the go that you would like to read about!

Anne

Preparing for "The Challenge"

Okay, now that Kir has made a public statement she's up for the National Novel Writing Month challenge (writing a rough draft of a novel of 50,000 words in 30 days) I begin "boot camp" and preparations for the battle!

I've done the math - 50,000 words in 30 months is the equivalent of:
1,667 words/day (2,500 words/day if I take weekends off, but that's too scary!)
178 pages of manuscript, double-spaced, 12 pt type
Two 30-minute sessions of "rapid writing" per day
10 extra pounds at the end of it all
30 minutes extra on the elliptical or at the gym to erase the added 10

I'm collecting my arsenal - a new folder in my documents to hold the draft, fruit gushers to ease the anxiety, the text number for a highly recommended shrink, and speed dial to all my closest family and friends who already think I'm nuts for doing this.

I've got the idea -- check! I've got to visit Kir's recommended link and start thinking through the story more.

The question remains...can she do this? Can she find 50,000 words in a month to tell her story?

Time will tell.

Are YOU up to the challenge? Can YOU write 50,000 words in 30 days?

Anne

Thanks to Kir's post below, I decided to put something else up about National Novel Writing Month since my original post is about to go into blog archive heaven.

Just a little more than a month to go! Kir makes a good point -- it may be difficult to do something like this in a genre you already write in. We all have our processes we use to tackle our work, so this is a good opportunity to try something you never have before to see what happens! Who knows?

For example, I am writing a middle school novel/chapter book as my one-month, 50,000 word challenge. The idea for the book came to me a couple of months ago. I haven't had much time to do anything about it, so the idea is fresh. I'm going to use Kir's guide to think it through just before the November 1st kickoff. And then, I am just going to write and see what happens.

Let me know if anyone else is interested. This is something fun and challenging, and who knows -- you may produce a really great draft that can become one of your best publishable works!

Anne