//TODO NaNoWriMo 2012

I’ve been thinking about NaNoWriMo and listening to the chatter.  My friend Maki recently posted his thoughts on it (NaNoWri…No?) and it sounds as though he is likely to participate but doesn’t know which story line to approach.  Unlike, him I am more hesitant to start on the same old, but know I should. I left off last year at only getting about 15k words written in my Enderlace novel, which means I still have a lot more I can write there.  I probably will continue with that and will let you know my progress.  I’ve created another stats page NaNoWriMo Stats 2012 for tracking. In other writing news:  I plan to join up with a local writing group in Charles Town, WV called AHA! Scribes.  They meet once a month and my first meeting with them is the second week in November.  I’ve told them how utterly green I am when it comes to writing.  I am excited and looking forward to a way to work on my skills. NaNoWriMo Stats 2012

Take Away From NaNoWriMo 2011

I am (not) a winner of this year’s NaNoWriMo 30 day 50k words challenge. I don’t get the awesome badge on my site that says Winner, but I do get the Participant badge. The final count for the month is 15,753 words. [More]

Last Sane Day

I wanted to post a goodbye to my family, friends, and readers as I venture into NaNoWriMo starting tomorrow.  Feel free to express your support and encouragement, but don’t be sad if my response is delayed.  And lets have a party in 31 days. Tracking You can keep an eye on my progress at my NaNoWriMo Stats 2011 page. My NaNoWriMo participant page is at http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/participants/tevyn. I hope to have time to tweet about it too from @Tevyn and I’ll include the tag #enderlace, as that is my book title. Going Expectations While researching and preparing myself for NaNo I’ve found motivational websites, helpful techniques, and a basic understanding of what it means to commit to the National Novel Writing Month.  From this research I’ve decided that it would be impractical of me to consider achieving the gold.  I am not psyching myself out, I’m just being realistic.  (1) This is my first year. (2) I am just beginning the craft of writing. (3) I have 2 little kids, fulltime job, 1.8 hour daily commute, a house to clean, guests to entertain at Thanksgiving, and a husband to keep.  I also have little faith that what I write will actually be any good, after all I’m pretty much just puking out my novel in 30 days.  I don’t have a PhD in English Literature, heck I don’t even have a Bachelors degree.  What I write is going to be 85% crap.   I’m not going to be a writer in 30 days, but I may turn out to be a better writer when it’s over. What I want to get out of NaNoWriMo is a giant lesson on getting my stories from my head on to paper.  Crafting writing skills takes time, in fact, it could take several years before I actually write a somewhat successful novel in a month.  NaNo is just my “GET YOUR BUTT MOVING!” push. Departing with a Tiny Gem --- Before I drop everything I wanted to share with you an excerpt from the fan fiction I’ve been working on lately.  It is now on hold until after November.      Looking up to clear her thoughts she admired the cooling fan in the parasol over her table.  The device was connected by a steel pipe that ran down the central poll to the base.  At the base there is an extended circular pipe around it that propelled the fan through foot pressure.  If you press the pedal to the floor the speed of the fan would increase, as you lighted the pressure the speed would decrease.  She had the same type of mechanics in her hand held parasol, however it used a gripping mechanism to modulate the speed.       Silvia glanced towards her parasol a the nearby entrance that lead out from the cafe, but her eyes didn't make it there.  Her eyes caught sight on a gentleman pacing several feet away along the walkway just outside of the Lynda’s Cafe gate.  He looked confused and determined as he glanced at his pocket watch.

Getting Serious About Writing

This year’s goal to write has been progressing as expected--slowly. I’m not following a well-developed and documented set of steps to reach my goal. It is my own creations. Step Number 1: I started committing to my writing quest publically by creating a blog full of stories. [More]

Entering 2011 November NaNoWriMo

This year I’ve decided to place a challenge on myself for writing. The National Novel Writing Month contest will help me accomplish this goal. I don’t expect that I will complete the required goal of 50,000 words to win recognition, but I badly want to try. I’ve encouraged my nephew to join with me and participate in the NaNoWriMo Young Writers Program. He will be able to set his own word count goal. He is a lot like me—a dream writer. He has a dream and then it is followed by an outpour of ideas. He uses notebooks right now to document his stories. This spring on a trip to Utah I showed him a couple good writing programs (Scrivener and yWriter) to help him organize his thoughts for writing. My favorite feature about the NaNoWriMo is the fact that what your writing doesn’t have to be perfect, it doesn’t require editing or reviewing, it’s just writing. My friend, Jon Maki (you remember him from Herioc Protraits), is a writer and participates in this contest.  He is a 2009 NaNoWriMo winner. NaNoWriMo has yet to update their site information for this year’s contest so please disregard the note on the image for 2010. My user profile: http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/user/824585 I’ll write more on this as the time comes closer and include my word count in the left column of my blog, but for now I’m still trying to decide on what to write about. I have three stories in my head: Phoenix (which you’ve already read about here on my blog), a fantasy story (combines a lot of my favorites together), and a science fiction book that I’ve been thinking about for several years. The requirements for the NaNoWriMo are that you can’t use pre-existing material. With that in mind, please read the descriptions below detailing my current choices. My first idea is to write more about Phoenix. What I’ve written about her I could not include in this contest, but she is a strong enough character and I have other ideas that I haven’t shared about her. The ideas are that she has a military background and is living as a high school student (no more risky business). The second idea is a fantasy story that has a main female lead and supporting friends. This story has a draft blog post that I’m still developing, but I may just have to stop in order to use this idea in the NaNoWriMo. This story doesn’t have any major scenes plotted out yet. I just have the intro, which may actually be pushed after a painting of the world as it was. It combines a lot of fantasy novels I’ve read, but with new spins. Finally is my epic series book that I’ve obsessed on for the last few years. I haven’t written any story for it, but have done a lot of research for it. I’m afraid that if I use this as my story I would become too attached to the specifics and it will cause my writing output to slow down. I don’t want to share it with you at this time, because I hold it close to my heart. Only my mentor, my husband, two of my closest friends, and my sister actually knows the whole story. They’ve all been very supportive of it and me. Who wants to join me on my NaNoWriMo contest in November? You can participate or you can support me through questions, ideas, babysitting (so I can have time to write), and encouragement.