Surviving NaNoWriMo 2014

NaNoWriMo 2014 is officially over and I am thrilled to announce that I won! Yipee!! I ended the month with 56K+ words:

NaNoWriMo 2014 is officially over and I am thrilled to announce that I won! Yipee!! I ended the month with 56,000+words:

This year was more difficult for me because I had so many book-related things happening during the month of November. I was preparing my NaNoWriMo 2012 novel for a December 13, 2014 release date, I had to contact a new editor when my other one didn’t get back to me, I had to piece together my manuscript when the wrong file was sent to the new editor, I had to correct cover issues and the list goes on… All of this on top of writing 50,000 words.

In a way, my writing goal wasn’t as successful as I had hoped. I wanted to have a different manuscript finished during that time and unfortunately, that didn’t work out. So, I’m a bit behind in my writing now but I hope to catch up at the end of December and into January.

Did you participate in NaNo this year? Did you make it to the end? Did you complete your monthly writing goal(s)? And the big question: Did you hit 50K words and win NaNo?  :)

Until next time ~     

NaNoWriMo 2014!

 

So, NaNoWriMo 2014 is about to begin soon (in exactly 12 hours)!

I am definitely participating again this year… I can’t believe that this will be my third time participating in National Novel Writing Month. Who knew that I would actually have a completed novel and preparing to publish it two years later?  :) The Gods are actually smiling on us writers this year because November 1^st and 30^th fall on the weekends which gives more time to write.

This year, I’m going to do something different. As in the past, I had Pantsed my NaNo novels but this year, I am jumping ship and swimming over toward the Planners. I will be working on my sequel novel (starting tomorrow) and I have many ideas and plans for it. As of right now, all of those ideas are still swimming around in my head but I will be making an informal outline this evening so that I can climb onto the Planning Ship and start banging out my 50K+ words.

Here are my writing goals for November:

1. To write everyday

2. Not to stress out if I don’t hit my word count goal each day

3. To make an attempt not to be distracted by the internet and social media

4. Try to not use the delete button (although I do save what I “delete” and do count those deletions as part of my word count)!

5. To type more than 50,000 words of my story

6. To attempt to make a writing plan for each day (we’ll see about that one)

7. Not to worry if I make detours from my “Plan” – I do have Pantsing in my blood.  :)

8. To write like crazy from November 1-30!

How many of you are planning on participating in NaNoWriMo this year? If you are deciding to join in on the frenetic writing for the month of November, will you be a Pantser or a Planner? What are your November writing goals?

Until next time ~

Oh, P.S. Happy Halloween!!

 

Writing Doesn't Have To Be Solitary

Hello! Today has been a fun day for me.

As a writer, I tend to get stuck in my story world and forget that there are other people out there that are just like me: writers and novelists who spend lots of their free time dreaming up fictional worlds.

Today I broke out of that mold and decided that it was time to pull my head out of my pages and actually interact with other writers.

And let me tell you, it was GREAT! I hadn’t had the opportunity to attend any writing conferences in a while and I forgot how much I had missed this – missed talking about books, the characters, reading, writing and sharing.

I met some very interesting authors today and I can’t wait to follow their stories and their worlds (fictional and realistic).

So, even though it’s the middle of May, I am making a new goal for myself: I will interact with at least five authors a week and make connections with other people in the world of reading and writing. 

How about you? How often do you peek out into the Land of Interaction and talk to the living humans? Do you find it difficult to make those connections (time-wise or other reasons)? Do you only venture out when it’s absolutely necessary or do you schedule time in your day?

On that note, I am going to climb into bed and read a new book I just bought from a new author I just met.

Have an enjoyable evening!

Until next time ~ 

April Camp NaNo Winner!

Today is the last day of April Camp NaNo and I am all edited out right now. In my last blog post, I mentioned that my initial goal was 30,000 words/30 hours and I surpassed that very quickly. So, I decided to change my goal to 40,000 words/40 hours. It didn’t take me long to hit that so I increased it again to 50,000 words/50 hours. I managed to pass that before the halfway point (April 15) so I had to change my goal to 60,000 words/60 hours and then finally 70,000 words/70 hours. I left it there and ended up with 77,000 words/77 hours!

I was an editing machine!

My intention was to continue the prequel during Camp but somehow that never happened. All my time was spent editing and I just got to look at my other manuscript a few days ago. I guess writing that will be part of May’s project.

Anyway, how did the rest of you do with your Camp NaNo experience this month? Did you reach your goal and win? If so, CONGRATULATIONS!! Did life get in the way and prevent you from reaching your goal? If so, don’t worry! There will probably be another Camp NaNo in July and the good news is… you get 31 days of writing instead of 30! And believe me, that extra day really matters!  :)

Until next time ~

Halfway Through Camp

Spring is officially here but the weather does not agree… so far we have had cold days, icy days, warm days, snowy days and rainy days. I thought March was in like a lion and out like a lamb but the lion is still roaring...

Anyway, it’s halfway through April and halfway through Camp NaNo. I am quite pleased to announce that I have surpassed my “editing” goal of 30K and have already hit approximately 55 hours of editing time or 55K words.

I even participated in the Camp NaNo Writing Marathon on April 12. I managed to buckle down and edit for 8.5 hours. I edited 100 pages (and rewrote some stuff, too). Instead of taking a snooze day on Sunday, I got my butt in gear and finished editing the last 170 pages of my novel! WOW!!

My second round of edits is now officially done! 

Hip hip hooray! Hip hip hooray! 

I just formatted the mess of pages and I am now ready to send the whole shebang off to the Beta readers. Aren’t they so lucky?  Wait until they see how many pages this behemoth has. Hahaha…

So, I’m taking a small break today and tomorrow I will continue working on the prequel. I don’t think I have much more to write – maybe 100 pages or so but I figured that I should probably read it over so that I can plan the ending. I know, I know… I’m a Pantser but I’ve Pantsed most of the novel so far so a little planning wouldn’t be too bad. Right?

How are you monthly goals coming along? Are you still on track?

Until next time ~

It’s time for…. CAMP NANOWRIMO 2014!

I will be participating in Camp this year and I have a real goal: this April, I will finish my second round of edits for my NaNoWriMo 2012 Novel and hope to get it out to my Beta readers very soon.

I can’t believe how close I am to finishing my novel!

And I cannot believe how long it is! Right now, it sits at approximately 500 pages. Phew! I didn’t know I had so much to say!  :)

Here is my plan:

1. Finish second round of edits

2. Send it out to Beta readers

3. Finish writing the prequel

4. Edit the prequel

5. Start writing the sequel

I think that I will accomplish 1, 2 and 3 during this month. Well, definitely 1 and 2 will be done and I will definitely continue working on the prequel.

But I am really glad that this is happening during Camp NaNo. I love watching my word count (or “edit count”) go up each day and it is a big motivator to keep going. My word count goal will start at 30,000. I think that's a good number. The great thing about Camp is that I can always adjust my writing/editing goal anytime I want throughout the month.

Are any of you participating in Camp this month? Good luck if you are!

Until next time ~

Resolutions Kept?

Happy January 31^th! It’s the last day of January and I was checking in on your resolutions. Have you kept them all? Some of them? None of them??

Some of the ones I have been following on the MORE side are: writing, listening, smiling, believing, encouraging, goals and giving/sharing. I would put water on the list but since I drink a ton of that clear stuff anyway, it probably doesn’t count.

My writing is coming along nicely; I’m very close to finishing my manuscript! I wish you could see how close my fingers are but believe me, they are really close together!

My goal is to get this behemoth finished, edited, beta read, critiqued, professionally edited, beta read again and then published. I have more stories to write and I want to start getting them out there for all of you to read.

Alright, I’m off to write some more. Have a great winter day!

Until next time ~  

Welcome to the New Year!

It’s the tenth day of January and the tenth day of the new year.

How are you holding up? Did you make any resolutions? Are you sticking to them? Have you given any of them up yet? Have you ditched some and made new ones?

I saw this really great picture posted online that I also tweeted at the beginning of the year. I think it may have been around for a while now but I think it is really fitting for people who are more connected to the internet than they are to the physical world. I added more to the list because I thought that some things were missing.

Here is my list for things I want MORE of, and not less, for 2014:

What would you like to do more of in 2014? What would you like to do less of this year?

Until next time ~

Happy New Year!

I finally updated my Facebook Cover picture for my personal page and I wanted to share it with all of you first!

Here it is:

My hope for 2014 is that it is filled with all of the above and so much more!

I wish all of you a very Happy New Year and a
healthy, safe and fantastic 2014.

Until next time ~

Is it Possible?

Some people struggle with NaNoWriMo because they just can’t write every day or they don’t write enough words to make the daily word count goal of 1667 words per day. If they fall behind, they think it’s practically impossible to write like a fiend and get back on track.

Is it possible to win NaNo when you are that far behind?

Well, let me tell you about my NaNo experience last month. In previous posts, I mentioned how this year, NaNo was harder for me and I was behind in my daily word goal. At one point, I was so far behind that if I did not have marathon writing days, there would be no way that I would cross the 50K finish line by November 30. At the rate I was going, I wouldn’t hit 50K until mid-to-late December. Yikes!

My goal was to write 51,000 words, which comes out to 1700 words a day.

This is what my daily word count for the month of November looked like (brace yourself, it isn’t very pretty):

As you can see, there were 7 days out of the month that I had written no words! That’s right! That adds up to a full week of no writing. In a month of only 30 days, only writing for 23 days puts me at a great disadvantage.

Also, you can see that there were 5 days where I wrote less than 100 words. You like that day where I only wrote 13 words on November 8? Yeah, I had a holy crap moment myself. I was very productive that day.

I was only ahead of my word count 6 days out of the entire month. The highest number of words ahead of my writing goal was only 2011 words (November 11).

There was never a time where I was actually “on” target. That means that there were 24 days where I was below my writing goal.

Check out November 22. I was 9,212 words behind that day. Nine THOUSAND words behind. That’s enough to make anyone cry buckets and buckets and then quit on the spot. I just sighed, muttered about what a stupid idiot I was to let myself get that far behind and then had two marathon writing days back to back (November 23 and 24) where I wrote 12,726 words! HOLY SMOKES! I had never written that much in my life! That definitely beat out my previous record (on November 9 and 10 of this year) when I wrote 10,061 in two days.

You would have thought that I would have learned my lesson by then after that frenzied writing, but no, I wrote ZERO words the next two days (November 25 and 26). By November 28, I was 5707 words behind my goal. I was only up to 41,893 words by that day. Now that was really cutting it close. I couldn’t afford any more unproductive writing time. I only had two days to reach 51,000 words (or 50,000 if I decided I just could not write the extra 1,000).

I had to buckle down and I managed to squeeze out 5012 words on November 29 and 4931 words on November 30 (9,943 words in two days). I was thinking about adding another 164 words to make it an even 52,000 but by 11:20 that night, I was done. I had finally validated my novel and I just wanted to go to sleep. Thank goodness it ended on the weekend because I was not moving the next day.

So, look over my graph again. Do you see how many unproductive days I really had? Do you see how many days where I didn’t even make my daily word goal of 1700 words, let alone the NaNo daily word goal of 1667 words?

But I trudged along and pushed myself to finish. I had a strong motivator inside of me to hit that 51,000 word goal by November 30. And I did it!

So yes, it IS possible to fall almost 10,000 words behind and STILL win NaNo. Don’t let a few thousand words drag you down. Just sit at that computer (or with that notebook and pen/pencil) and write as if you really want it. Because if you really want it, there is nothing that should stop you from reaching that 50,000 word goal!

Until next time ~

What Type of NaNo Writer Are You?

Now that I have been able to catch up on some well deserved sleep, I wanted to write about the different writers that I have seen during NaNo this month.

There are the Naysayers: Many people think that it is practically impossible to write 50,000 words of a novel in 30 days. These people stare at the NaNo writers with widened eyes, saying, “I don’t think I could ever do that. You have got to be crazy!”

There are the Cheaters: These people start writing days before November 1^st so that they are thousands of words ahead and then they brag about how much they have written at the end of the month (I am not going to talk about those people. Cheaters take the fun out of the competition and only make themselves look weak).

There are the Quitters: Some people start off writing 1667 words a day, miss a few days and then get so far behind that they just give up. Or they write for a few days, maybe a week or two and then just quit without ever looking back.

There are the Strugglers: Others start off writing above the 1667 daily word goal, get ahead, miss a few days and then fight to catch up. Sometimes they may just struggle with the writing, struggle with time management, struggle with the organization of writing, struggle with the plot, characters, dialogue, etc., or just struggle with the whole thing. They might make it to the end (see Motivators). Often, these people will struggle until the second week or maybe go as far as the middle of week three before they throw in the towel (see Quitters).

There are the Motivators: These people may start writing on November 1^st and then miss a few days or these people may not even start their writing on time and they fall behind very quickly. Then these people have to claw their way through the rest of the month, fighting to try and get close enough to the growing word count that they are using every free second to catch up. These people may become bumbling, mumbling idiots by the end of the month, the may be suffering from a lack of sleep or they may go temporarily blind from staring at the computer screen for so long. But, these people do make it to the 50K finish line by 11:59 pm on November 30.

There are the Capables: Other people who are able to write their daily 1667 words every day, without fail and win on time. Nothing stops them from writing. They are focused on the contest and they get their words done.

There are the Overachievers: Those who write way more than the 1667 daily words every day and exceed the 50,000 word goal. These people seem to have magic fingers that fly with lightening speed across the keyboard and time seems to freeze for them while they type madly away.

The Plotters: These people often reach their goal easier because they have spent countless of hours plotting their novel. They may have their characters already chosen, chapters and scenes mapped out and have sentences of dialogue already to go. They probably have the entire thing outlined before November 1^st. For them, NaNo is probably a piece of cake because they have their novel notes right in front of them while they are writing and can tackle their planned words without too much hesitation.

The Pantsers: These people may have a general idea as to what they want to write about but they don’t do any planning (or hardly any planning) for their novel. Or sometimes, these people have absolutely no idea as to what is going to appear on that blank page until they begin to write. Usually, there is no outlining involved (or just the bare minimum), no chapters laid out, no preplanned scenes and no dialogue worked out. But these people start on November 1^st and discover the beauty of watching their novel unfold right before their eyes. For them, NaNo might be a bit of a struggle because they don’t know where their novel is headed and they have to come up with the plot right on the spot.

There are the Conformers: These people follow the basic rule of NaNoWriMo. They begin a brand new novel on November 1^st and write only that novel during the entire month. At the end of November, they will have written 50,000 words towards a brand, spanking new novel that they can continue to work on in December and the next year.

There are the Rebels: These people do not follow the basic rule of NaNoWriMo. They do not start a brand new novel. They may continue working on an existing novel or maybe even two novels. They may even edit a novel. This does count, as long as they write 50,000 words of a novel during the thirty days of November.

This month, I was a Motivated Rebel Pantser. I fell behind and struggled the entire month to catch back up. I rebelled because I continued my NaNo 2012 novel and I was a pantser because, although I had a general idea as to what had to be added, I had no plan except to write and attempt to finish my novel.

How would you describe your NaNo self this month?
 
Until next time ~



 

NaNo 2013 Has Been Validated!

WOW! I finally finished NaNoWriMo 2013 with barely an hour to go!

I am beat, bushed, befuddled, burned out and bone tired. But, I am done!

Woohoo!!!  J

I finished typing my last word at 10:56 pm and then I had to upload my novel into the validation system online. That took a little extra work because my internet was playing connection games and I couldn’t validate my novel until 11:20 pm. Yikes! That was a bit on the scary side. Nothing like trying to validate your novel and watching the seconds furiously tick by as the internet decides to have a little bit of fun with you.

I am wiping the beads of sweat from my forehead right now.

My goal for the month was 51,000 words. I ended up with (drum roll please…) 51,836 words! I am so very excited right now that I am singing and dancing while I am typing this. NaNo 2013 was a tough one for me but I persevered and I accomplished my goal.

Hooray!!!

Now I have my official purple winner’s bar firmly planted on my profile and all is good. Very, very good.

And now it’s time to hit the sack. I’ve got a lot of sleeping to do.  J

 

Until next time ~

 

Surviving the Wild(er)ness

CAMP NaNoWriMo
SURVIVAL KIT

Here it is… the eve of Camp NaNoWriMo. Tomorrow starts the frantic thirty day writing frenzy and I can honestly say that I am not ready for camp.

So, to get me in the mood, I put together a little survival kit for myself to help me get through the next thirty days with my sanity intact. I am willing to share my treats so come along and join the party with me!

What would writing be like without a brand new journal to write down all of my plot ideas? The first item in my Survival Kit is this gorgeous lined journal with fun pictures of Venice on a lime green cover. There is also a matching lime green pen that (fortunately) writes in black ink - lime green ink might be too hard on my eyes after a while. I do love the stretchy band that goes around the journal to keep it closed but it could also pose as a bookmark in a pinch.

Since I don’t drink coffee, the next item in my Survival Kit is a mug with plenty of hot chocolate to give me that caffeine kick. Who doesn’t love a good cup of chocolate? Of course, if I’m on the go and need a chocolate boost, I’ve got my trusty ceramic cup with lid. Earth Day is celebrated in April and it’s a perfect way to stop into those cafès and say “Fill ‘er up,” without contributing to the overflowing dumps. I can do my part to help the environment by reusing my mug and reducing my waste while writing my NaNo book.

And speaking of chocolate, I have to have lots of it during Camp! Reese’s Peanut Butter cups are my absolute favorite and I just love chocolate with nuts (I’m a bit nutty myself so this is quite appropriate!). 

Also, those late writing nights might require some popcorn and I’m a sucker for Smartfood’s cheese covered version. I definitely do not think that one bag will be enough!

We all need some pizza at Camp but looking at all those calories above, I think I’ll go for the Goldfish version. The great part is that I can pack my pizza up in little bags for that spicy pick-me-up when I’m not writing at home. No need to worry about reheating pizza slices and getting tomato sauce all over my clothes.

Trail mix is such a wonderful staple that it has to be added to my Survival Kit. The medley of peanuts, chocolate, pretzels, dried cranberries, raisins and anything else salty and sweet is a great snack idea when fuel is running low and ideas are hard to come by.

Camp would definitely not be complete without S’mores! It’s a staple for those late night writing sessions around the crackling fire while staring up at the stars and working out dialogue, actions, emotions or just plotting the next scene. I can already taste the gooey marshmallows as they melt between the chocolate and graham crackers.

But all that outdoor air might make me a little bit cold, so my Survival Kit will certainly need a warm blanket to stave off the chill. I can wrap it around me while I write, write, write. I can’t let tiny goose bumps stop me from reaching 50K words!

I also have to have my much-needed computer to continue working on my NaNo novel. It contains all of my NaNo book versions, access to the internet and the Camp NaNoWriMo website. While notebooks, journals and pens are important for note taking, I find that typing my stories work much better for me. My hands don’t cramp up as much and my fingers can keep up a little faster with my brain. Typing my story is also the easiest way to upload my words onto the NaNo website to document my daily word count and my final word count on April 30.

But, as electronics are so important to people nowadays, we have to find a way to keep our words in the unfortunate or unlikely event that our electronics might fail us. My Survival Kit must include a flash drive so I have another way to save my precious words. I’ve read way too many blogs where writers share that they had lost chapters or even entire novels when their computers conked out. I love the motto: Always be prepared. Always back up your novel! You need to prepare for the worst.

My last item in my Survival Kit is more of a symbol – an important symbol that reminds me of what I am doing and why. If life gets hectic or crazy during the month of April, I don’t want to fall too far behind or give up on my 50K word goal. This 2012 NaNoWriMo Winner shirt is a reminder of what I can do. I was able to accomplish my writing goal during the month of November on my first try. If I have any doubts in the next thirty days, I just have to take out my Winner shirt and remember that I CAN DO THIS! I have the power within me and I won’t let anything stop me from or derail me from accomplishing my goal.

So I ask you: What is in your Camp NaNoWriMo or Writing Survival Kit? What helps you to push forward? What do you need to accomplish your writing goals?

Until next time ~

Welcome 2013!

Goodbye 2012 and Hello 2013!

Since today is the last day of 2012, I decided that 2013 was going to be different. I decided that 2013 was going to be my year (well, I actually decided this part earlier but anyway…). This was the year that I accomplish some of my writing goals. Then, I had another great idea. To help my writing and my writing career, I would create a Goal Board (other names for this fun project are Vision Boards, Dream Boards and Look Boards). Since I want to make goals this year, instead of resolutions, mine will be called a Goal Board.

To help me get started, I decided to embrace the technological age and join Pinterest (JLCatz – if you want to come and find me). Unfortunately, it didn’t work out the way I had wanted when I first tried it out yesterday, so now I have all these different boards with lots of pictures missing. Oh, well. That’s a project for a different day.

I am going to find all different pictures that embrace my goal as a writer, pin them on Pinterest and then, I will print them out and make a physical Goal Board so that I can see it everyday. What good is a goal if you forget about it? What good is a goal if you’re not reminded of it on a daily basis?

My Goal Board will hang somewhere, where I can see it every day, and remind me of my goal: To be a published author.

I also have some smaller goals and I might create a separate space or another Goal Board for them.

I think that 2013 is going to be a very good year. No, scratch that. I KNOW that 2013 is going to be a GREAT year!

What are your goals for 2013? How do you plan on meeting your goals? What do you use for motivation?

I wish all of you a fantastic 2013 and a safe and healthy New Year that is filled with friendship, love, peace, joy, laughter, tons of books and anything else that helps to make your dreams come true!

Happy New Year and Happy 2013 !! 

Until next year ~