Started strong…
Why do I feel like this already?!?!
NaNoWriMo: Day 1
Commentary on beginning NaNoWriMo and completing the first day’s quota of 1667 words.
Counting Down to NaNoWriMo
Tomorrow the crazy month that is NaNoWriMo will officially begin. I’ll be writing from my RV while camped in Las Vegas, NV for the month. I’ve read the first part of Chris Baty’s No Plot? No Problem! stopping at the section that is supposed to be read during week 1. I’ve got my writing area ready to go (although having a laptop, I can write anywhere that works for me :-)). I’ve got the cafe mochas, my writing talisman, my notes and I’m just counting down. See you here tomorrow with my first video diary entry.
Comic courtesy of Inkygirl.com.
Video Blogging NaNoWriMo
NaNoWriMo is about to begin and I’ve decided to keep a Video Diary of my 30 days of writing for the contest. Care to come along for the ride? I’ll be making daily video blog entries about how things are going (or not). 😉 It should be an interesting journey. Hopefully my posts will be of interest to other NaNo Writers out there, and if not I’ll at least have a video record of my insanity. I’m sure I’ll start off very bland and dry, full of embarassing newbie exuberance. Certainly it won’t take long before things will become more gritty and real. I’m hoping as I draw near to the end of the experience the writing will be going well, but you never know. You may see a very harried and babbling writer desperately searching for the light at the end of the tunnel and hoping it’s rays of sunshine and not a train!
See you in a couple of days!
November is National Novel Writing Month
August 18, 2008
by  Chris Baty
NaNoWriMo’s Chris Baty shares five tips for writing your book in a month.
1. Don’t edit. You’re shooting for something more ambitious than pretty sentences: an entire first draft of a book, in all its imperfect glory. You have to embrace November as an experiment in pure output. Delete nothing and use daily word-count goals as your sole measure of success or failure. You can edit in December.
2. Invite friends and family. Writing with a group—even a long-distance group—raises everyone’s accountability, makes writing a shared adventure and gives you a shoulder to cry on.
3. Write a beginning, middle and end. The cut-off point for winning NaNoWriMo is 50,000 words. This is a very short novel. If you’re not careful, you’ll hit 50,000 and only be halfway through your story. Force yourself to knock out a beginning, middle and end in November, even if it means omitting scenes.
4. Give November to your novel. For one month, agree to orient life around your book. Try takeout food. Let the dishes pile up. Pony up for a babysitter so you can spend a few extra evenings a week writing. Think of November as a month-long writer’s retreat in the midst of your daily life.
5. Expect ups and downs. In week one, you’ll feel ecstatic and invulnerable. In week two, you’ll feel like beating yourself with your laptop. But stick to your word-count goals and I guarantee week four will be one of the creative highlights of your life.
Chris Baty is the founder and director of National Novel Writing Month and the author of No Plot? No Problem! A Low-Stress, High-Velocity Guide to Writing a Novel in 30 Days.
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Article Excerpted from Writer’s Digest 2009 Writing Basics
What is NaNoWriMo and why am I participating?
NaNoWriMo is an acronymn for National Novel Writing Month: “a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30.” You can find out more by visiting the NaNoWriMo website.
I’ve decided to participate this year because I want the challenge of finishing a novel-length story in 30 days. I’ve written a few stories but haven’t finished any of serious length, always dropping them and moving on when the going got rough. I currently have enough unfinished manuscripts  on my computer, thank you. Now I want a complete work under my belt to give me confidence and momentum for a serious writing career.
So, in a couple of days I’ll be starting a novel. Right now I’m excited and nervous at the same time, but determined to see this through.
You, Too, Can Be A Good Writer
I found this quite informative and funny, courtesy of plainlanguage.gov:
- Avoid clichés like the plague – they’re old hat.
- Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are unnecessary.
- Do not use a foreign word when there is an adequate English quid pro quo.
- Exaggeration is a billion times worse than understatement.
- Don’t repeat yourself, or say again what you have said before.
- Be more or less specific.
- Proofread carefully to see if you any words out.
A Few of my Favorite Books
I am an avid reader, writer, and film-buff with ecclectic tastes. I almost always have notebook and a novel with me, be it a physical book or an ebook on my iTouch. I’m a sucker for book sales and exchanges.
I grew up on the Little House on the Prairie books (and TV show), westerns, and outdoor books, movies, and TV shows (remember the old Walt Disney nature movies and Wild Kingdom?) that instilled in me a love of adventure and the outdoors. I also enjoy crime dramas, a well-written romance, and any novel that can make me want to read it straight through without putting it down.
Some of my favorite books of all time include:
The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay
The Collector by John Fowler
The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough
Some recently read books I recommend highly:
The Real All-Americans by Sally Jenkins
The Highlander Series of Romance Novels by Karen Marie Moning
The Dexter Series of Crime Novels by Jeff Lindsay
On Writing by Stephen King
The Long Walk by Richard Bachman (aka Stephen King)
Welcome!
It seems like everybody has a blog these days, so for good or bad, I’m joining the mix. For more about me, just visit my ABOUT page. Thanks for stopping by! I hope you enjoy what gets written and posted here.
BOOK REVIEW: Travels with Charley
Travels with Charley: In Search of America by John Steinbeck
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Steinbeck, best known for his novels ‘The Grapes of Wrath’, ‘Of Mice and Men’, and ‘East of Eden’ among others, is a great American novelist. Though this book is more of a travel journal than a novel, the great storyteller within still shines through with his wonderful and unique prose that makes places and people come alive with each sentence read. In particular, I found his choice of words in his description of driving in city traffic to be absolutely brilliant and simply perfect. “First traffic struck me like a tidal wave and carried me along, a bit of shiny flotsam bounded in front by a gasoline truck half a block long. Behind me was an enormous cement mixer on wheels, its big howitzer revolving as it proceeded. On my right was what I judged to be an atomic cannon. As usual I panicked and got lost. Like a weakening swimmer I edged to the right into a pleasant street only to be stopped by a policeman, who informed me that trucks and such vermin were not permitted there. He thrust me back into the ravening stream.” Now that’s a master writer at work.
I chose this book to read because I thought it would be enlightening, considering the fact that I, too, am traveling across the country in an RV – and with my dog. Though I found it interesting, it wasn’t quite what I expected. The writing seemed to ramble a bit and definitely gave me more insight into John Steinbeck than the America he was in search of. There were times when he was spot on regarding a particular place/people that I too had been to and come in contact with, but more often than not I felt that he didn’t go into enough detail – just skimmed the surface before moving on too quickly to the next place or stray thought.
What I did find interesting was, though we’ve come a long way since his journey in 1960, a lot of things never change. And some of his insights and musings were almost prophetic. For example, he describes the potato fields in Maine and observes the people picking the crops: “I’ve seen many migrant crop-picking people about the country: Hindus, Filipinos, Mexicans, Okies away from their states. Here in Maine a great many were French Canadians who came over the border for the harvest season. It occurs to me that, just as the Carthaginians hired mercenaries to do their fighting for them, we Americans bring in mercenaries to do our hard and humble work. I hope we may not be overwhelmed one day by peoples not too proud or too lazy or too soft to bend to the earth and pick up the things we eat.” Wow. Almost fifty years later and his words couldn’t be more true to our current circumstances.
I found this to be an interesting and likable book and would recommend it to those who appreciate the craft and skill of good writing as well as to those who are interested in travel – just don’t expect it to be a travel guide.