There is much to love about this time of year. Leaves to crunch underfoot. Pumpkin flavored everything (Oreos! Cheerios!).  Tea and shortbread cookies. Halloween candy on sale. 

This is also when I start getting the emails and the posts of everyone gearing up for NaNoWriMo where you write a novel in a month. There is a lot to love about NaNoWriMo. It's a wonderful organization, and I love the group based here in Chicago. I participated last year, and back in 2010 it was how I got through the first draft of my first ever novel (No, that book will most likely never see the light of day). I would love to join this year and commit to writing etc. 

But last year, I hit a couple snags with my work. While I hit fifty thousand words, I stopped writing it even though it wasn't complete. I knew the plot wasn't going in the correct direction, but word count took precedence. This year, I think I need to take the goal of writing every day, as I have gotten out the habit and keep working on the story over the word count.

I feel good about this solution, though sad I'm not officially in NaNoWriMo this year. Maybe I'll do an all nighter, just for old times sake.  Can't wait to hear everyone else's writing adventures though!

I hit the fifty thousand word mark plus on November 20th, quickly uploaded and verified my novel to be proclaimed a winner. Now as the end of the month draws near, I looked back over my month of furious writing a brand new project. What shifted the most this time around was my actual writing process. Before this month I would have assured anyone that cared to ask that most productivity for me happened at a cafe, with my own music, snacks to munch on and coffee, in long six hour shifts, on the weekends. 

With NaNoWriMo 2015, I found myself drawn to the quiet and comfort of my own home. I did most of my writing in the late afternoons, usually after getting in from work. I'd make dinner, put it in the oven and write for thirty minutes in the quiet. After dinner, if I watched TV, I'd mute the TV on the commercials and write some more. Surprisingly these small adjustments kept me on track. It was reassuring to find, I didn't need to go anywhere, where particular clothing to just sit down and write. Too often writing changes from a creative endeavor to yet one more way to fail at a personal goal.  For the month of November, National Novel Writing Month organization encourages the writer in us all to sit down and take a good long look at their life. What's essential? What can be switched? Changed to write 1,667 words a day? How much time does that take you personally? 

At the beginning of the month, a voice asks, as it always does, is this worth it?  Emerging once more on the other side of the writing frenzy and looking at the editing before me, I have to take a breath--before answering yes. Yes, what I am doing is worth it. Worth my time, my solitude, my energy, my efforts. Yes, I will continue slogging away in the trenches to try and craft the best story possible through meticulous work and time. 

It was a needed reminder this year to put the time in each day and at the end of thirty days have the first draft of the story written. Pretty incredible each time I sit down at a computer and actually finish a novel.

Happy Holidays Writers! 

I'm taking a break from writing my November Novel to go ahead and crank out an update to you blog world. Mainly because I don't feel like thinking anymore. I'm starting to hit story overload, and just need a minute. 

It's finally fall weather which makes staying in, under layers of sweatshirts a little bit easier, to stomach then in the summer. The weather people are telling me El Nino is going to make for an easy winter this year. A part of me cringes for next year, but hey, I'll take what I can get. Since moving to Chicago, I've lived through both the Snowpocalypse  and Chiberia. I find it hard to love winter and snow when it's negative 40 below with the windchill. 

Why you ask am I currently talking about the weather? Because the writing is going fine, and I don't want to jinx it! An update for you anyway. Just hit a little over 22,000 words which means I'm getting closer and closer to the halfway point. This usually leads to a panic about what all I have left to write about. Plot points! Character development! World building!

My characters may or may not be in West Virginia after being drugged in Chicago. Currently they're being held without windows, so it may go either way at this point. 

Good luck, my fellow writers!

A report from the front lines. Just hit a little over 6,000 words so I'm running high on fumes of imagination. What is really working from me this time around is word sprints. Word sprints are about what you imagine. Set the timer and pound it out. No stopping for spelling, grammatical or changing your mind (yeah, you). That's the idea anyway.

I did my first set on Sunday at a Write-In I attended (oh, yeah I'm official this year) and was able to crank out 800 plus words in 15 minutes.If your a competitive soul, by all means try and beat me (you probably will).

The reason I like the word sprints is it's another way to break the novel writing marathon into manageable blocks. You have to write 1,667 words. Sound impossible? Sit down and write for 5 minutes. Shake it out. Go again. You'll hit the word count  sooner than you think. 

Keep an eye out. In a few weeks, I'll start bemoaning how much I hate my life and words. 

Until then, happy writing! 

Good morning Chicago,
To those of you who ran the marathon this morning, I salute you! To everyone else, I hope you are enjoying this gorgeous fall day. I'm currently with friends at a little cafe in Lincoln Park trying to be productive. So far I've had a scone, black tea, and (needing more caffeine) coffee. In the hours I've been here, I'm officially caught up with everyone's lives and done some plotting for the upcoming novel in November.


With days flying by it was great to sit down and do some concentrated novel planning. People tend to have very strong opinions about their magical process to writing and completing a novel. But whatever your process, the more you do it the more refined you get. For me, planning a novel means world building, which can be best the part. The odd thing is never knowing which detail will have a great deal more importance as the book takes shape and what becomes superfluous. Take Moonshine, my original plotting gave shape to the religions within Ravana. It got mentioned through prayer beads in the first novel, but never took on much more life. Didn't fit the characters. You can't consider it a waste of time though, because any planning helps give depth to the world and helps with any of the other subtle details cascading through. Plus who doesn't love planning out characters' names and features? This time around the main character has quite a few tattoos. I'm trying to keep it limited, but the list just keeps growing. 

Make sure to keep swinging by. Once November hits, you'll start to hear the griping on plugging through the word count. For now, I'll just be buoyantly happy (and pleasantly caffeinated). 

Happy writing! 

Ok, so mid-August is by no means November if you're counting down for Thanksgiving or (more importantly) Black Friday. But I (like many) know November first is the beginning of the arduous climb to complete a novel in exactly one month. Four weeks. Thirty-one days. 

That's right. National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). 50,000 word challenge. 

The uninitiated, the optimist, may think one sits down at a computer and types out 1,667 words a day without problem. Who hasn't heard of the writing greats who simply sat down and hacked out a masterpiece overnight? Of course, those greats did it without needing a single edit or misplacing a comma and after consuming a gallon of whiskey. Probably only one of those things is true.  The point of the digression is if you need any kind of pre-planning, now is the time to start gathering your thoughts on a myriad of points: characters, plot, research. 


The NaNoWriMo is a good challenge for anyone to attempt. My first novel was written during November. I developed carpal tunnel, but still a good experience. Especially for beginning writers, the challenge of writing every single day and hitting a word count is a good way to understand their own individual writing process. 


Don't get me wrong, every time I sit down to a computer I automatically look at my word count and add 1,667 words and try to reach it. I have learned when to force a word count, and when to back off and think through plots and characters. The difference between the first novel and the sixth is the confidence that the words will come (eventually) even if the words aren't particularly elegant--at least the text is on the page. 


What writing in such a condensed timeframe also taught me is to have a good grip on my world before sitting down. World-building is actually one of my favorite pieces of writing. Even if its a contemporary piece I try to plot out neighborhoods locations, sketches of main characters' houses, and trying to get in my characters' heads. 

So what's my to do list? Get to know the main chacater in my head. A snarky bartender with purple slurpee hair spiky hair. She's got a lip ring. And magic. 

Let's see where it goes, and let the countdown begin!