Okay, this post has nothing to do with Mork and Mindy. But his greeting always comes to my mind with I think of NaNoWriMo.
I remember making my first writing friends at the ACFW Conference two years ago. One of the things they often asked me was if I was doing Nano that year. Being a newb, I had no clue what it was. After doing some research, I thought it was the coolest thing ever. I had just completed Soul Yearning and was knee-deep in the Port Yonder Press short story mentoring groups. During that time, I wrote a flash fiction piece about Mander, the main character of another book I wanted to write. I figured Nano would be a great time to take a break from editing Soul Yearning to start Mander’s book. It worked great.
For three days.
I was a good thousand words ahead of schedule. But then disaster struck. I placed in the top 3 for Novel Rocket’s Speculative contest. I didn’t know whether I was 2nd or 3rd. I just knew I didn’t win. While most people would have been excited, I was in a weird spot at that time of my life. The rejections from ACFW appointments had left a bit of scar tissue (my skin wasn’t very rhino-like at that point). And while I should have been blown away that I placed so high in the contest, it ripped open that scar tissue more than I thought it could. My writing came to a screeching halt.
During Thankgiving break, the Lord dealt with me and I was able to tap away at my keyboard again. I didn’t hit 50,000 words, but I got my story started. I promised myself that I wouldn’t get derailed again next year.
Nanu Nanu!
So, here I am. Three days into Nano 2012. I’m about 500 words behind right now due to an unforeseen hospital visit with my daughter (She’s fine – she just had a weird reaction to getting strep that frightened us enough to take her in). But, I’ve written every day. I tend to be a binge writer. I write or edit massive chunks for a week, then barely eek out two sentences the next. I’m hoping Nano will help me to find a bit more moderation.
Plus, I’m excited to start Book 2 of the Godslayer series. After editing Soul Yearning into the dust, it was so refreshing to come back to Albione’s story and begin his next journey. Lots of people have great ideas. Nano seems to be a good way to start getting them written. So, what about you? Even if you’re not doing Nano, have you started writing about the new, exciting idea you have? Let me know!
The New Authors Fellowship 
NaNo has always struck me as kind of odd. When I was still at the paper, my boss once asked if I were participating in it, and I said something like, no, I write novels every month. 😉 Although this month, I’m actually focused more on editing the one that’s nearly finished than writing the one that’s just begun.
Now that I’m freelancing, it could be tempting to “binge” on NaNo (over 1600 words a day would require about 3 hours for me), but I’m much more concerned with serving my clients — and finding new ones — and just developing consistency in my own writing. An hour or two a day is good.
And I learned from our ACFW buddy Terri Main that even 10 words a day is better than none. So that’s my new goal. A minimum of 10 words a day, every day, every month. Mind you, I usually wind up with more than 10, because once I get going, the words just keep coming.
I’m doing Nanowrimo just for the fun of it. I’m a full-time teacher, so my goal is 25,000 words, and anything more is just extra gold stars. I’m using this as an excuse to jumpstart my second novel–and I’m not always following the rules. I have written snippets beforehand, and I do delete, just a little, if something is really garbage or off-kilter. And I’ve come into the story with a year and a half of planning and prewriting, so I have a very good idea of where this novel’s going. And I’m a pretty faithful writer with other projects.
Plus, I’ve roped a few writer friends in on this so we’re having fun encouraging each other and having write ins. Nanowrimo is just an excuse to have an extra burst of enthusiasm for something I do every day anyway. It’s like a writing party month.
Thanks for sharing Janeen! I’m kind of new to Nano, so I’ve been learning about all the little activities that go on throughout the month to help everyone achieve their goal. It really is a neat tool to have in our writer’s toolbox 🙂
I like NaNo. I’m not very good with scheduling time for writing. It usually gets squeezed in between diapers and kid’s homework and church commitments and MOPS and the occasional burst of housework and so on. But NaNo is the one time of year I KNOW I’m going to pound out some words and get some progress made and some forward momentum going.
I am a little behind, since I didn’t really know what I was doing until Day Two, but I’m slowly getting caught up and I’m really excited about my story. I’m doing a kids’ story this time–something totally new for me. I’m enjoying it so far and I’m excited to see where it goes.
[…] Nano Nano (newauthors.wordpress.com) […]
I’ve heard of Nano, but never did it because I always had other writing projects and didn’t feel like starting new ones. But this year I did both summer camps, and used them to write book 2, rewrite the second half of book 1, and write a fanfic so my followers don’t think I left the fandom. 🙂
I’m writing a completely new story this month, about a zombie apocalypse. I don’t care for zombies or apocalypse stories, but it makes a great backdrop for a story about redemption and resurrection. And it’s brand new mental territory for me. I’m having a blast.
Wow – Sounds like an adventure Kessie 🙂 I like Nano because I get to finally start something that’s been bouncing around in my head for a while. It’s invigorating to get the creative juices flowing.