Tag / NaNoWriMo

by thatcoffeedrinkingmama

Random Thoughts: The End of NaNoWriMo

So yeah, I definitely stopped participating in National Novel Writing Month…about four days ago. And I was super excited about it, but it just didn’t feel right. I quickly realized that my focus was being pulled away from other writing projects that I would like to pursue. And I battled with the idea of stopping or continuing, but after weighing my options, NaNoWriMo just wasn’t in the cards this year.

Also, it was pulling my focus away from Savannah. I want to spend as much time as possible with her before her baby brother arrives and life changes as we know it, for the better, but with a hectic start.

The reality is, I can work on a novel any time of the year.

 

by thatcoffeedrinkingmama

Random Thoughts: The Start of NaNoWriMo

Well, tomorrow marks the start of National Novel Writing Month and I’m pretty excited! Not like super excited, but excited enough that I’ll meet my daily goal of 1,667 words. The upside is that Savannah will be with her grandparents, so that leaves uninterrupted time to write. The downside is I made plans with a friend for an afternoon lunch and then I have plans with my husband for some get together at this job. But whatever the case, I’m pretty sure I’ll get the word count knocked out.

My biggest advantage is that I plan to jump around with my writing. I won’t do like I did last year and drive myself crazy trying to force words that just weren’t there. If I feel like working on Chapter Ten before Chapter Seven, then that’s what I’ll do. The most planning I’ve done is come up with titles for each chapter. That’s about all the guidelines I’ve given myself. Everything else, I’m pulling from my head like Dumbledore’s thoughts going into his Pensieve.

It’s gonna be a fun month. I mean right after I finish using the month of November to write my first draft of a book, all that effort will be completely forgotten as I prepare to give birth to my son, Austin, at the beginning of December!

 

by thatcoffeedrinkingmama

Random Thought: Just Wing It

                       

patrick-fore-381200-unsplashWell it’s official, I’m not going to succeed at NaNoWriMo doing the whole planning and outlining thing. I had it all set up. I had a game plan. And then my brain was like “Nope, not gonna work!” So I’m going to do what I did last year, take my idea and work it out one written word at a time.

If I’m going to be successful with NaNoWriMo two years in a row, then I have to stay true to who I am as a first draft writer. No planning out the idea. Just taking the idea and running with it. I know what my end goal is. Obviously, it’s 50,000 words in a month. But it’s also to complete the first draft, so that I’ll have a foundation for the second draft.

Write the crap. Then clean the crap up. That appears to be my modus operandi when writing!

 

by thatcoffeedrinkingmama

Gearing Up

So, I have some work cut out for me, especially since NaNoWriMo is next month and I fully intend on participating while still preparing for the arrival of my second born! December probably won’t be a big writing month for me, unless I write enough material ahead of time and schedule posts throughout the month. But for October and November there will be a lot of writing because I have planned a lot for myself.

For starters, I plan on doing blog posts based on the book that I will be attempting to write during NaNoWriMo and those blog posts will be for November. It just seems fitting. And then I started another blog specifically dedicated to my poetry because I love writing poetry. Poetry was my first love and I want to get back to that. So I will be sharing poems from my past as well as newly written poems.

I’ve set up a lot of work for myself. But I’m okay with that. I want to write more and I want to have fun in the process, so I will. I take myself too seriously when it comes to my writing and it’s not that deep. If I want more out of my writing, I need to expect more of myself when it comes to my writing.