Nano: Testing, testing... (320 words)

[mbarker]

 Original Posting Nov. 10, 2018

Drat. Got busy on other things, and forgot to kick things here on the list. But if you have been busy on your writing for NaNoWriMo, keep going! We’re about on day 10, which means if you are aiming at that 50k words in 30 days, you should be about a third of the way there? So... somewhere between 16 and 17 thousand words? (Yeah, I know, 16,666.66666 and keep going words, but... I don’t think we need to worry about the two-thirds of a word.)

Anyway. Keep writing. Keep those words flowing. Which really means keep those scenes coming, the characters dancing, the action floating. Heck, as one of the old pulp writers advised, bring in a guy with a gun, it always makes things jump.

Now, some of you may not be playing along, or maybe you don’t think you are going to make 50,000 words, so you are quitting? Well, actually, if you tried, you are already a winner! See, the real point here is to affirm that you want to write, that you are a writer, not necessarily to hit the target this year. Admittedly, it’s better to keep going, to push for it, and see what happens, but...

Nanowrimo is kind of about testing yourself, about checking your own willingness to get on the keyboard (or paper, mic, whatever) and let the writing go! Along with all the pieces that go into that, pulling outlines, mindmaps, or whatever out to help you. And while there is an official target and all that, the real goal is for you, to see whether this approach to writing works for you. So...

Stop and take a deep breath. Think about what Nanowrimo 2018 means for you, and what you have done so far, and what you want to do with the next two-thirds.

Then write a few more words, for the fun of it!

Nano: Day 15? Wow, half-way there? (225 words)

[mbarker]

 Original Posting Nov. 15, 2018

Whoops, the days are slipping past. Fall foliage outside, Thanksgiving sneaking closer, and... we're grinding out words, because it is NaNoWriMo time on the writer's calendar! YAY!

Let's see. Half-way? So roughly 25,000 words in the bag? Huh...

You might be ahead of the game, with more words already put away. Don't stop! Keep going! I know, it's tempting to go back and do some revision, a little cleanup, but... finish first. Then you'll be able to turn to revision with a clear vision of the whole thing.

Not quite there? Hey, there's still 15 more days to go, and some of them are what some folks laughingly call vacation days. So, put your pencil to the paper, fingers on the keyboard, throat open for dictation, or whatever you use to create your masterpieces (Wait a minute, you have the new neural feed direct to video system? Where do I get that? You just dream and the story gets played out on your own personal video, and then all you have to do is write it down... oh, wait, I can do that. But my internal stage is just meatware, not electronic...)

So, where were we? Right, keep writing! Stop every now and then and ponder what you have learned, about your own writing, about yourself, about whatever. And then write a few more words!

Write?

EXERCISE: A one-line starter? Sure...

[mbarker]

 Original Posting Nov. 26, 2018

Not sure what prompted this, but I was thinking this morning about...

I knew I was in trouble when I walked into my hotel room, and the little three-eyed alien stuck its head out of the closet and whimpered.

Who is this wandering stranger? Why are they in a hotel? And who is the little three-eyed alien whimpering in the closet? What happens next?

Go for it. Write that scene! You can use this to start a piece, and continue from there. Or you can simply write it into your story at an appropriate point. Or even trash it, but include the spirit of it in your story?

The key, of course, is to...
WRITE!