FILL: reflecting on Nanowrimo

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Original Posting 6 Dec 2012

As has been mentioned, I "won" Nanowrimo. What that means is that I wrote over 50,000 words during the month of November. In fact, I wrote over 50,000 words by November 21, but only ended up with about 66,000 words by November 30, not the 75,000 that you might expect.
( tighten up! )

So. It's not just all about the wordcount. Make sure you prepare before you start! And beware of getting lost in the trappings.

More or less.

TECH: Get That Novel Started (10)

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Original Posting 9 Dec 2012

I'll bet you thought I forgot about this! No, no, just a little delayed. So where were we?
( The long and winding road... )

So, keep writing.

EXERCISE: 100 words?

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Original Posting 19 Dec 2012

The holidays, approaching soon, are often a difficult time to get a lot of writing done. Oh sure, you may have a vacation from work, but so often people seem to think you should be doing social stuff, talking to relatives, going out to look at the decorations, or whatever. Anyway, one way to get around this is to try out those hundred word wonders that we do every now and then.

It's really a pretty simple idea. Kind of like a haiku for fiction writers. Just write a complete story in exactly 100 words. Not 99, not 101, 100. And since we've seen people getting carried away with titles, try to keep the title at five words or less. See how much you can do with just 100 words. Setting, characters, problem, try fail cycles, and the climax? Well, see what you can do with it.

Go ahead and try it. You may find that these little hundred word tales are bit like potato chips. It's hard to eat just one. That's all right, there's no limit on how many of them you write.

So get ready, get set, and write. 100 words. Incidentally, this is about 200 words.