My Unnofficial NaNoWriMo

November is well known in the writer community to be the NaNoWriMo month (the National Novel Writing Month). It is a time for writers, novice and experienced, to push themselves forward and try to write a first draft of a novel in a month. Or, as the creators of NaNoWriMo say, it's "30 days and nights of literary abandon."

This is a great way for writers to unite in the common goal of producing words and to feel they have a mission to accomplish. I love the idea of it!

I have never done NaNoWriMo officially myself, for various reason. November is often a hard month to dedicate completely to this pursuit. Last year, I did a blog a day when I signed up for NaBloPoMo. I was excited when I was able to accomplish that goal and it had me writing a least something every day.

However, this is not enough anymore to keep me going, to keep me writing. This year has been a bit tough, as a lot has been going on and I was not always able to dedicate the time to writing as much as I wanted to. This stuff also often sapped my energy, which in turn sapped my inspiration, creativity and motivation. And I hated the feeling.

Lately, I seem to have gotten that inspiration and motivation back, and have been actively pursuing creative efforts. So when November rolled around, I decided I need to use it to push forward, to get the momentum and keep it going.

So while I did not sign up for the official NaNoWriMo, I decided to do an unofficial one. I told my husband, so he could keep me accountable and put pressure on me if I slacked off. My goals are not necessarily to finish a first draft of a novel in a month, but to write as much as I can during the month and see how far I get. Instead of word count goals, I'm making daily time goals that I have to keep or raise up. I'm also occasionally doing Word Wars with writers on Twitter (#wordwar), and other times plant myself at my desk and make myself just write without over-analyzing or editing of any kind for a period of time.

And I finally feel happier about where my writing is. With a short story that is going to be published in an anthology, coming soon, and two novel projects (one with my writing partner and one individual), things are looking up.

Those of you who are no participating in NaNoWriMo, keep in mind that you can still benefit and be inspired by the resources at NaNoWriMo. Check out their articles, follow them on Twitter (@NaNoWriMo) and connect with people who are participating to see what they're doing and how.

Half Way Through NaBloPoMo - update

NaBloPoMo Post #20

Well, it's half way through the NaBloPoMo challengee, and I'm happy to say that I have been able to hang in there so far and post every single day, no matter how busy I get, or how sick I feel. I feel great satisfaction knowing that I have been making an effort to write more every day, not just for the blog but for the WIPs. I meant November to be a challenging writing month for me, even though I decided not officially commit to NaNoWriMo this year. This month is giving me the opportunity to see how I can adjust my schedule and what I have to do every day in order to accomplish this goal.

Next month, the holidays will be a great chance to write more during the break at my day job. I'm organizing my thoughts and ideas presently on my WIP (the individual one, vs. the 2nd book we're working on with my co-writer Tina Moss).

The whole argument of the pantster writer vs. plotter has always been very interesting to me. I consider myself very much a mix of the two, but probably a bit more on the pantster side. That is a topic that I will approach in another post.

Running to write now.

NaBloPoMo

Well, I have an extremely busy and ambitious writing month ahead of me, it seems. On top of doing the "unofficial" version of the "NaNoWriMo" (in other words, just pushing myself extra hard on writing this month - working on book #2 with Tina Moss and on my individual WIP), I have also comitted and signed up to participate in NaBloPoMo - a committment to write a blog a day for a month.

I love the idea of prompts and so a number of the NaBloPoMo blog posts this month will be writing on these prompts. This is in addition to any other posts I have planned for the month. Hope I can manage to do all of the above, so any encouragement is strongly appreciated.

And so, here's the 1st NaBloPoMo post.

Prompt #1: What is your favourite part about writing?

I have loved writing ever since I could remember, ever since I picked up a pen and learned to write my first words. Between 10 and 13 yeas old, I had a notebook where I continuously wrote a story about  a girl that was based on my own life. The girl in this “novel” had the same hobbies, interests and activities that I had. I even had occasional family readings wich my super supportive parents and brother had to patiently suffer through. In high school, writing essays was my favorite school activity and encouragement from a couple of wonderful teachers  helped. Now I write urban fantasy and paranormal romance and I’m having the time of my life (yes, Dirty Dancing is one of my favorite movies).

My firmly believe that my love of writing came out of my love of readings. My thirst for books is absolutely insatiable and has been since I was about five. I love loosing myself in the different worlds with all of the feelings and emotions, adventures and action that go with them. Some would say it’s escapism at its best. I think it’s much more than that.

When I write, I experience similar feelings. There are stories inside my head waiting to be told and it’s an amazing feeling to have them down on paper. I also would love to have my novels do for others what other people’s novels do for me. The greatest satisfaction for me to get from writing woud be for someone to lose themselves in my stories, whether it’s just for fun or to help someone through a rough patch, to  fall in love with my characters and go through the ups and downs with them.

Writing is also thereputic for me. It makes me feel pumped, optimistic, ready do anything (at least when my writing actually comes out the I want it to). It makes me want to create more and more. And that is probably my favourite part.