Tag: NaNoWriMo

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Writers Wednesdays – Camp NaNoWriMo

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Hey friends! Happy Writers Wednesday! Despite being part of the NaNoWriMo festivities multiple times over the years, I didn’t realize there was a completely separate writing challenge that happens every April and July. This challenge is Camp NaNoWriMo, where authors can work on any writing project during these months, and authors set their own goals for the month (no 50k word requirements, as is the case with November’s NaNoWriMo challenge).

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Since I didn’t learn about this challenge until last week, I won’t be participating this month. But, I may consider it for July: after all, I have a few projects that I would love to bring to a close before the end of the summer. I like that this challenge allows you to set your own goals, so you can figure out, for yourself, what success will look like.

Are you participating in this year’s first Camp NaNoWriMo session? Have any of you participated in Camp NaNoWriMo before? I’d love to hear about your experiences!

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Writers Wednesday – The Latest About My Writing Practice

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Hey everyone! There is only one more Writers Wednesday for 2021: can you believe that 2022 is almost here?

I’m still working on a few writing projects, so I don’t have any major publishing goals that I’ll be accomplishing this month. However, I did finish the last chapter on a BIG writing project that I’ve had for a while, and I’ve even done a mock cover to the book (I may end up changing it, but for now, I like it). In a way, the book is “done”, but because I’m a bit of a perfectionist, I will be editing some more and maybe tweaking the cover a bit before I publish it. However, I’m excited that the writing is finished, and I can focus on polishing it up and preparing it for publication. I’m thrilled that the book will definitely be published in 2022.

My business coach advised me to write daily, and, while I understood the importance of practicing my craft, I had been slacking and she pointed out that this needs to be a priority. So I’ve been writing almost daily and I’m enjoying how I’m making this part of my regular routine. I suspect that I’ll be done with my NaNoWriMo 2021 book before the middle of January 2022, and my edits for a previous NaNoWriMo story should be completed before the end of March.

I haven’t taken on any “new” writing projects over the past few weeks, because I really want to focus on completing the projects I’ve already started. However, every now and then I’ve gotten a book idea, and I job it down and put it aside until I have more time to work on it. It feels good to put my energy toward a project in motion and to see my current works-in-progress move steadily toward completion.

That’s all for my update, and I’m looking forward to sharing some of my 2022 writing goals next week. What are some of your writing updates? I’d love to hear all about them!

Writers Wednesdays – NaNoWriMo Week 3
writing

Writers Wednesdays – NaNoWriMo Week 3

MstldelanoLeave a comment

Hey everyone! I skipped the Monday and Tuesday post this week so I could concentrate more on my writing and filming (since I’m still adding content to my YouTube channel, as well). Whew, it’s been busy over here. But I’m loving it, and I’m excited to see how things go by the end of this month.

My word count isn’t where I want it to be . . . Yet. I know that I don’t have a lot of time left, but I have no issue writing huge chunks at a time, so I’ll leverage that skill and see what kind of progress I can make this week.

I did, however, want to post a quick update on what’s happening on my NaNoWriMo journey, so I filmed this video. As a bonus, I included a writing tip that may help you if you’re feeling stuck. Enjoy!

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Writers Wednesdays – NaNoWriMo Week 2 and Clarifications

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Hello friends! It’s another Writers Wednesday and I’m excited to share my NaNoWriMo progress with you all! But first, I need to clarify something.

My blog is 100% my opinions, 100% of the time. I was recently harassed by a random visitor and attacked for my stance on Harry and Meghan. The insults in the response were vile and uncivilized, which is why you won’t find the comment anywhere on the blog: it was deleted and no response was offered. I wanted to state my stance on cyberbullying and digital violence for you all, but my good friend (thanks chica!) reminded me of the goal of this space and how to address this.

I will never entertain bullies that feel entitled to my attention. I will never allow hateful comments on my platform, nor will I engage anyone that leads with hate or violence. I will always protect my readers from comments that are mean-spirited and not constructive.

Further, I have chosen to ignore the bully and celebrate YOU ALL, my regular readers that have offered kind words and good energy for years. I am choosing to turn my focus to the good that surrounds me at all times. You all have made blogging worthwhile. The comments, private messages and overall goodness that you’ve brought to my blog is much appreciated.

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Now, back to the topic at hand. NaNoWriMo kicked off last week, but it took me a week to pick out a book idea. That’s why I opted out of last week’s Writers Wednesday post: there was nothing to share with you all! I prefer not to do too much pre-planning for NaNoWriMo: I like to allow inspiration to guide me from the very beginning. But, since it took so long to find an idea, I’m behind on my writing schedule. I only have 1,500 of the 50,000 words I need to win NaNoWriMo (eek!) Fortunately for me, I have some time over the next few days that I can use for my writing. I’m thinking of setting up another writer’s retreat to give myself a block of time to work on my writing. And honestly, for someone that has been writing for just three days, I’m pleased that I still have so much momentum that I can leverage for the rest of the week and, hopefully, the entire month.

How is NaNoWriMo going for you all? I’d love to hear all about it!

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Writers Wednesdays – The November Writing Plan

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Happy Writers Wednesday! As I wrap up the month of October, I’m so pleased with the writing progress I’ve made. My October writing plan went like this:

  • Finish writing a book
  • Finish editing a book
  • Publish a book

The question, of course, is, Did I do all of that?

Yes, I did! I published Let’s Go to Kenya, my first children’s book that explores one of my favorite African countries. I also finished my first round of edits to my mystery novel, the first full-length book that I’ve ever written. This is only one round of edits (there will be more!) but it feels really good to complete those edits for the first time. Finally, I finished writing one of the books that’s been on my laptop for years, needing just a couple of chapters to be officially “completed”.

Now that I’m done with my October writing plan, it’s time to move on to November. And for November, I’ll be participating in National Novel Writers Month (NaNoWriMo). I haven’t even begun to think about what I may write next month, which is kind of the point. I want to just let my fingers fly across the keyboard and let the ideas come to me as I type. I love allowing the story to unfold as I write instead of overthinking about what to include.

During the month of November, I’m taking a break from publishing some of my books, and focusing instead on writing. I’ll also be posting weekly updates of my NaNoWriMo experience on this blog, because we all know how important accountability is.

Are any of you planning to participate in NaNoWriMo? Let me know in the comments below!

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NaNoWriMo Updates: Tomorrow is the Last Day

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Happy Thursday, y’all! This has been quite a November to remember. . . I’ve been working on a lot of projects, and as a result, my writing suffered this month.

Of all months for my writing to suffer, it happens during NaNoWriMo.

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I didn’t meet the 50k goal for NaNoWriMo 2018. I got to 20k, which is still impressive, but nowhere near what I intended for the month. So I’m frustrated with myself right now. I wish I could have rearranged my affairs so that I could pour more time into my writing, but the truth is, this just wasn’t a good month for it.

One of the things I’ve been actively working on is being gentle with myself. No one is more disappointed in my failings than I am, so if I am going to own my shortcomings, I also have to give myself room for grace. I’m at a point where I’m doing the best that I can with everything that I do but it doesn’t always turn out how I want it to.

And that’s okay.

On the upside, I haven’t given up on this story. I’m still going to reach my 50k words and when I do, I’m going to rejoice! Until then, I’ll keep plugging along.

Enjoy your day, loves! I’ll talk to you all tomorrow.

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NaNoWriMo Week 3 Updates: When Your Writing Mojo Has Stopped

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Happy Thursday, loves!

I’ve spent the past 7 days doing everything but writing. Yes, you heard me right: I’ve typed ZERO words this week. I feel a little nervous about hitting my goal of 50k words, but I’m respecting my creative cycles and remaining optimistic about reaching my goal before the end of the month.

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So what does that mean? I need to average at least 4500 words a day until November 30th. That’s a LOT of writing, but I’m up to the challenge. I’m determined to get to 50K!

Pray for me, y’all lol! Seriously though, if you can send some creative vibes my way, that would be great. I’ll do my part and type, type, type: even if I don’t have an idea where exactly I want the story to go. I’ll have made some major progress by my next update: I can feel it!

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2019 Planning – For The Sake of Writing

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Today, I’m babysitting a few of my favorite munchkins, so today’s post will have to be a brief one. They’re keeping me busy today LOL!

I’m making my 2019 plans and I realized that I really want to do a writer’s workshop/retreat. I haven’t ever done anything like that before, so I’m eager to give it a whirl. I think my writing would benefit from a vacation/trip dedicated to it. I know that my writing is better when I am in a different environment, so a retreat seems like a natural choice.

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I did a quick search on Google and found this list of 37 (yes, 37!) writers retreats that occurred in 2018. I figure that these will be the same in 2019 as well; at very minimum, most of these retreats are probably recurring. I also found this list with 8 more retreats (I only saw one retreat that was a duplicate from the list of 37). The 40+ retreats on these lists have a lot of options at different price points, and all of them are centered around creating better writers.

If any of you’ve done one of the retreats listed, please tell me all about it in the comments below! Also, if you know of a different retreat that isn’t on either of the lists, PLEASE tell me all about it! I’m still deciding which one would be best for me, and I could use some input for anyone that knows more about them.

Enjoy your Sunday (I know that I am!) and I’ll talk to you all tomorrow!

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NaNoWriMo Week 2 – Updates

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Happy Thursday, friends! I’ve completed my first two weeks of NaNoWriMo and I’m excited that I’ve been writing (basically) every day since the challenge started.

I’m at 15,000 words now, which means I have only 15 days to write another 35,000 words (whew, I’m tired just thinking about it!) But I’m committed to seeing this challenge through. I’ve got a few more days off during the next two weeks and I’ll focus on doing large chunks of writing during those days. My story is moving along nicely, though I’m not taking much time to reread – and not time to revise – as I write.

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I’ve found it helpful to write without doing any editing. You end up losing a lot of time because your brain “shifts gears” and you lose your momentum if you try to write and edit simultaneously. Unfortunately, the finished product ends up being quite “rough”, but it is a rough draft, after all. If it doesn’t come out as clean as you’d like, you can always edit, edit, edit it until it’s perfect. That’s what I always end up doing, and that’s what will happen with this book, as well.

So I’ll be putting my head down and focusing on getting all of my writing done over the next several days. Can I reach 50,000 words by November 30th? I think so. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

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NaNoWriMo 2018 Week 1 – Updates, What’s Working for Me

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I’ve got NaNoWriMo updates, everybody! I have 7,000 words written so far. Only 43,000 more to go! Considering that averages out to 1k words per day, I’m feeling pretty good about my numbers so far. I’ll be writing a lot more over the next few days since I anticipate having some more downtime (not to mention I’ll have to make up for a few days where I won’t be able to do much writing at all).

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I just want to share a bit of what I’ve used this first week to help me make progress on my writing goal. What I’ve found it helpful is to set aside 15 minute chunks of time to write. Of course, I always end up writing for longer than 15 minutes, but at least if I set aside the time, it’s more likely that I will not only write for that time but I will also write even longer than I originally planned.

I also find that I’m challenging myself to see how many words I can write in 15 minutes. I’m seeing that it’s normal to get at least 300-400 words written in 15 minutes (if I haven’t thought out what I want to write before I sit down). However, if I have a good idea of where I want my story to go and what dialogue I want to capture, I can easily squeeze out 500 words in 15 minutes (full disclosure: I type at about 75 or 80-ish words per minute, so that helps). I’m trying to get my words up to 700 in 15 minutes: imagine how many pages I could cover if I committed to 1 hour a day at 2800 words in an hour! I know, that’s pretty ambitious (even for me) but I like thinking about the possibility.

Finally, I’ve been writing my story slightly out of sequence. I started writing the beginning, but then I jumped and started writing the last couple of chapters. That made it easier for me to stay interested in this book idea, which goes a long way in making sure that I actually finish it!

Those are all of my NaNoWriMo 2018 updates for this first week. So far, things have been going well and I’m looking forward to telling you all about my progress next week, as I think I’ll be doing this each week until the end of the month.

Alright friends: it’s time for me to get back to writing. I’ll talk to you all tomorrow!