NaNoWriMo is Nigh

Three days.

Three short, dread-filled, frantic days.

Three more days of last-ditch attempts at some sort of semblance of planning.

Three more days to come up with an idea for a novel.

Luckily, I've already decided on the novel I will write this year, and as a "pantster," I don't tend to plan my novels very extensively. Writers tend to fall into two camps: "planners" and "pantsters." Like I said, I fall into the latter group, but I think mentally I always want to be a planner. I just never actually create my character demographic profiles until I've already started writing the novel, and even then, sometimes I never do any sort of extensive planning like that. I have a general theme, I have a main character, I've got a couple of supporting characters in mind, and I have a setting. Boom. Planning done.

But in reality, I'm pretty excited and nervous for this next month. It'll be fun, and it'll be intense.

I'll do my best to give you all weekly updates on how the novel is progressing, and any interesting stories I've come across in my writing ventures, but of course I can't make any promises. Once I spiral downwards into the dark abyss that is NaNoWriMo (I mean that in the best way possible, of course), it's hard to climb your way back out.

Good luck to all my fellow Rhinos! May the month of November be filled with endless inspiration and lots of caffeine!

Love Always,

Kristin

Prepping for National Novel Writing Month

Welp, it looks like I'm all prepped for NaNo! I've got my novel registered on the site (not required to participate), and I even drew a cover for it! (I'm not a very good artist, so it's not that great but I mean, I do what I can.)

I'm really stoked for this, I really want to finish this novel. You know how good that would be for my condifence as a writer? But in order to be able to do that, I've got to do a lot of schoolwork in the next couple of weeks. Just this week, I'll have an exam on Tuesday, a paper due Wednesday, a paper due Thursday, and a paper due Friday. (Here's hoping I still feel like writing a novel after all that.) I'm confident right now, and I'm praying that'll last through the month and keep me motivated.

Motivation--or rather, the lack thereof--is my worst enemy sometimes. That's why I haven't finished any of my other novels yet, that's why I'm not relentlessly contacting publishers and that's probably why my books aren't in stores and libraries yet.

This year, that will change.

I'm deciding that if I'm serious about this writing thing, which I am, I need to make it more of a priority, and not just a hobby. That means I'll be writing and publishing more articles in the future, and I'll be working on my novels like nobody's business.

Woo!

Well, now that I'm properly pumped up, I'm going to go listen to peppy music and try to knock out one of those papers.

Love Always,

Kristin

National Novel Writing Month

As NaNoWriMo 2014 is fast approaching, I figured it was time for me to check in and update all of you on how things have been going.

School is crazy busy, and I'm still trying to do damage control for the first few weeks of class when I let assignments fall by the wayside. I'm hoping that the rest of this week and this weekend will be super productive so I can start planning for NaNo.

On the note of NaNo, for those of you who don't know, National Novel Writing Month is held every year in the month of November, worldwide. The goal is to write a 50,000-word novel in thirty days. Scary, right?

Yes, it is.

I participated last year, but I didn't "win." (All you have to do to win is complete your novel.) I'm hoping that this year I can prioritize a bit better and beat my record for last year, which was 16,546 words. Not a lot, I know. But hey, always time for second chances, right? This year I will do better.

Now the trick is deciding what story to write...You're technically supposed to write a story you have never worked on before, so you don't start the competition (against yourself) with a running word count. I have so many ideas for novels that are either partially started or just have a title page, so it's difficult for me to comply with this. I may start a brand new story, but I think I would feel guilty for abandoning my existing novels in their time of need.

I'll keep you all updated on my planning process (since I only have two weeks left to do it...eek!) and once November starts, I'll try to post weekly updates on my progress.

If you want to participate in NaNoWriMo, or if you just want to find out a little more what it's about, visit their website at nanowrimo.org.

Love Always,

Kristin