NaNoWriMo: Day One

Last week I was supposed to be working on my outline so that I could just jump in with the writing today. Instead, I spent the week revising another manuscript. That's probably a good thing. I won't be thinking about the other project while I'm trying to work on this new one. But here I am Day One of Nano, preparing to...wing it. Which I guess kind of makes the "preparing" part a joke.

Of course, NaNo was kind of founded on the concept of winging it, so that might work in my favor. Plus, last time I wrote an outline for a book, I never finished writing the book. I decided on page 50 that the story sucked. Ironic, isn't it?

My goal for each day is 1667 words, but the kids are home from school today. I'm not sure how much writing will get done since Crazy 8s and popcorn seem to take priority on days like this. But I'm excited to work on this new project. I'll keep you updated on my progress. Hopefully, that will keep me motivated to actually plow through to the end this time.

If you'd like a chance to win Something Old or Something New, don't delay. Contest ends Tuesday at midnight PST. Go to this post to enter.

Gearing up for NaNoWriMo

It's almost time for that epic month of nonstop plotting, writing, lack of sleep and maybe a little monkey business: National Novel Writing Month. Woo-hoo!!

Even when I don't officially sign up for NaNo, I try to write as much as possible in November. It's a good kick in the butt and an excuse to ignore the cooking, cleaning and laundry (because I'm so on top of it the rest of the year!).

The thing is, I write middle grade novels and none of them has ever been 50,000 words. This year though, I have a story idea that could very well end up that long. I've done a little plotting, written a couple chapters that may or may not end up in the final novel. We shall see.

Is anybody out there doing NaNoWriMo this year?

Great Expectations

Sometimes things don't turn out the way you expect.

This picture was taken five years ago when my daughter had just turned two. She was SO not interested in sitting on this fat guy's lap and I'm sure he'd had his fill of cranky babies, too. All the same, this is one of my favorite Christmas photos ever, precisely because it didn't turn out the way it was supposed to!

It's like that when I write sometimes. I was literally typing away last week when I realized, "Omigosh, this happened to her! I had no idea!" It was almost like I'd discovered this secret the character had been trying to hide. I know I'm a geek, but I got so excited. I figured out something new about this character that I thought I already knew so well!

Has a character ever surprised you that way? And then forced you to go back and change the story to accommodate this new discovery? It's cool. It's fun. But it's also a LOT of work!

Well today is the Second Day of Christmas. If you don't know what I'm talking about, go back and read this post then come back and join in the fun. And now, for the randomly generated winner from the First Day of Christmas, please give it up for:




Congratulations, Mim!! Email me at solvangsherrie at gmail dot com and let me know which prize you'd like receive.

For the Second Day of Christmas you have three choices again. Choice #1 is another ARC, this time of AVALON HIGH by Meg Cabot. Ever heard of her? Yeah, I thought so. I actually bought this at the library when they were having a sale of used books. Of course I snatched it up. It was the first Meg Cabot I ever read! And it was just as good as I expected it would be :)

Choice #2 is Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow by Jessica Day George. This is a great MG retelling of my favorite fairy tale, East of the Sun and West of the Moon. If you haven't heard of it, read this post.

Choice #3 is this über cool bracelet by Ubuntu. Sales of these bracelets help women and orphaned children devastated by HIV/AIDS in Africa. Perfect for men or women, these bracelets pretty much go with anything in your closet :)

Remember, you must be a follower to be entered to win. I'll draw for this one Sunday night at 10pm PST. Let the comments begin!

I'm a Loser, Baby!

National Novel Writer’s Month is officially over and I am officially a loser. But only in one sense.

Even though I didn’t write a 50,000 word novel, I do have almost 10,000 words written in my book. For a middle grade novel, that’s almost halfway! And when you consider all the words written in my outlining and notes, heck, if I could count all my blogging and commenting, I might be closer to 12K!

The point is, even though I didn’t “win” according to the NaNo rules, I feel like I accomplished a lot of writing this month. I made headway on three different stories and I really worked at it. I’m proud of what I’ve done this month. And that’s kind of the point.

Now if someone could just come up with a National Sign an Author Month, or a National Strike a Deal Month…