Happy Holidays

Thanks NaNoWriMo 2010

NaNoWriMo 2010 has come and gone, and we are a household of winners. My two oldest kids won, and so did I. Yes, I wrote my 50,000 words during November. And I'm still writing.

Part of why I haven't blogged about my progress yet is I'd hoped to be done with my story by now. I foresee lots of rearranging and deleting coming to this story, but I'll keep writing to the end before even thinking too much about any of that stuff.

Instead, I thought I'd share a few things I learned this time around in NaNoWriMo.

• Setting a word count, then striving for it, helped keep me at the keyboard getting those words onto the screen. So, now I have a daily word count for first drafts. I'll figure something out for revisions and how to move through those later.
• Life intrudes. Or in my case, writing intrudes on life, when time allows. So, even if I don't meet my word count, thinking of my story counts, even it's just writing a quick something on sticky note to follow up on later. Something is better than nothing. That said ...
• I can schedule mini-vacations from writing. Taking a break from writing to read that juicy/thrilling/suspenseful/favorite-author novel, or doing some other creative endeavor, is ok, even needed. I write this here to remind myself to not feel guilty if I don't write everyday.
• It's time to reach out to other writers. Not just the little notes via Twitter, Facebook, and blogs, but getting in the trenches with folks about manuscripts, revision, setbacks, milestones and the business of writing. It's time to learn, commiserate, and celebrate with other writers.

I'm sure if I thought about it, I'd find other things that I learned or enjoyed, but that's enough for me to be working on at the moment. If you participated in NaNoWriMo, I hope you got something out of it, no matter what it was.

So, thanks for the memories, NaNoWriMo 2010, and for the lessons learned. Here's to meeting you, NaNoWriMo 2011, next November.

Photo Collage: Happy Thanksgiving

2010 NaNoWriMo Week 3 - Still Plugging Along

Just a quick update ...

I've been busy writing, and am just now getting to the  juicy parts of the story. Makes me wonder if I should toss the the past 30k words. Of course, since this is NaNoWriMo and the first draft of my manuscript, I'll keep them ... for now.

I've discovered some cool things about my main character Alexandrea. Like she and her biological mother shared a liking for U2 even though Alexandrea doesn't remember her mother, and she loves green chili pork stew. The main character's grandmother, Maura, who I sometimes wonder if I should write from her POV all the time - she's so fun to write, is a stubborn clot heid. (Maura's words, not mine; not that she'd admit it.) The teenage character in the story did NOT like the name I gave her, Aribella aka Bella, and now goes by Emma. And Craig, I'm still getting to know him. He still hasn't told me his wife's name; she past away a while ago.

So onwards I write ... still about 15k words to go.

2010 NaNoWriMo Week 1 - So far, so good.

Five days in, and so far, so good. I've been toploading, if you will, this week, writing more than the minimum 1667 words per day to build myself a little padding for the days when I don't meet the minimum word count.

Which might happen this weekend as I play hookie by going with the family to the local Highland Games and Celtic Festival. And there's a birthday party on Sunday. And next week the husband is going out of town, so I'm on my own with the kids for a few days. While I'll try to fit in as much writing as possible during that time, I'm not holding my breath about it. Probably just a little of gritting my teeth. ☺

As this is my third year participating, I've set a writing schedule and process in place that is working so far. As far as how I feel about the story ... again, so far, so good. Later during the revision process, I'm sure I'll find lots of not-so-great bits and pieces. Such is the nature of writing to my chagrin.

On the left sidebar, I have a gadget that displays my total word count. If your interested and not participating in NaNoWriMo, that's a good place to see my progress. If you are NaNoWriMo-ing, find me as AnneV on the site.


This year the two older children are playing along with me again via the Young Writers Program at NaNoWriMo. Before November started my 9 year old son set up his story file in Scrivener (yes, he is his mother's son when it comes to technology), but as of today, has yet to type a single word of his story. My 7 year old daughter, who didn't sign up until Halloween, has over 150 words towards her 301 word goal, typing them in before breakfast and after school.

So ... I'd say so far, so good all the way around.



Aside #1:  Why the Celtic Festival this weekend? No, to my knowledge neither myself nor my husband have any Scottish, Irish, Welsh or other Celtic blood running through our veins or hiding in our DNA. I'm just a Scottish enthusiast who drags her family to the event. ☺ Fortunately, they are good sports about it.

Aside #2: If you were curious as to what my story is about, here is my one sentence summary.

A surprising bequest forces an engineer to find and love

the artist within herself with the help of her deceased grandmother.