I'm at Lia's...and why I'm saying no to NaNo

First off, please stop by my interview on Thursday at Lia's blog!

Secondly, I'm bowing out of NaNo. In retrospect, writing a 20K novella in the 2 weeks before NaNo didn't exactly get me off to a good start, but I needed to get that draft, the followup to Full Disclosure, finished. It still needs revisions, and I have many, many projects in various stages of completion. With the release of my first book this month, and all the various promotion-related things that come with that, adding NaNo into the mix was just too much. I have a day job that gets a lot busier this time of year, along with a job freelance editing, and well, something had to give. And my sanity was not an option.

The good news? The 16K I have of my NaNo Blaze, Heat Lightning, is pretty solid, I think. The story's off to a very good start and I'm going to keep going with it at the reasonable pace of 1K a day, 7 days a week. That will keep the writing muscles oiled without adding yet another stressor to my life. And seriously, life's just too short. Writing, even though it's become a business for me, too, is a stress reliever. But if I'm fighting with myself and feeling pressured and guilty to get words on a page without the promise of a check when I'm finished, I need to re-evaluate. And I have.

I think NaNo's a great thing for a lot of writers, but really, quality ALWAYS trumps quantity. Sure, sometimes you find hidden gems you never realized were there when you're writing furiously. You also write a fair share of clunker pages, because you've got one eye on the clock. I believe firmly in setting goals and following deadlines. I need them. But I think it's important to focus on the end result and how much work you want to put into it once all is said and done. I'm very happy what I've written so far is in solid shape (and one of my CPs has verified this, so I'm not totally nuts) which means this month's writing was far from a waste. 

Now to keep going.

Will I do NaNo next year? Not sure, but I'm leaning toward no. But never say never!

Good luck to everyone still doing NaNo! There's a lot of month left! 

Me, I'll keep plodding along with my daily 1K. ;)

 

Do You NaNo?

I'm referring to NaNoWriMo, of course, that yearly madness that occurs in the month of November where writers across the globe write madly to complete a 50K ms in a month. Some don't make it - I didn't last year - but you always get more words down than you would have normally, and you usually have a lot of fun. Okay, and spend a fair amount of time pulling out your hair, too. ;)

Since September is bearing down on us pretty fast, I'm thinking of how close November really is. I already know what my NaNo project will be, a Blaze I've been thinking about doing for about a year and a half. My hero survived a death by lightning strike, only to come back to life missing some of his memories - and his sex drive - and possessing some freaky new abilities. And the only woman who can bring him out of his sexual cold spell is the chubby girl he teased when they were in elementary school, a girl who is now a sexy, confident woman who has sworn off anything but committed relationships. Should be fun! And a little crazy, but that's what NaNo is all about.

Do you NaNo? If so, do you know yet what your project will be this year? If you don't do NaNo or similar timed writing challenges, why not?

26K in 8 Days?!?

It seems impossible, I know, but it can be done. Will it be done by me is the question. ;) I'm not giving up on NaNo yet, but I'm trying to write well enough that I won't get stuck revising this version of VT another few times. I'm so ready to move onto a new project, so this draft's gotta be good. Or a reasonable facsimile of good.

I'll be posting about my chat with Brenda Chin on Monday, 11/24. Until then, I'm giving the NaNo my all. Wish me luck!

And one last thing...a big "thank you" to my good friend Helen Hardt (who has already finished her NaNo project...woohoo, Helen!) who picked my blog as one of her choices for the I Love Your Blog award! Sometime soon I'll pick seven of my favorite blogs to pass the award on to - maybe after I recover from my NaNo hangover. ;)

Plugging Along...

As you can see on my word count meter on the sidebar, I'm currently sitting at just under 21,000 words. I'm a wee bit behind. And yes, I am the queen of understatements. ;) But I'm not worried. Much. I know I can crank out a lot of words pretty fast, but apparently November 30th still seems far enough away for me to not be concerned. Not that I want to be concerned, anyway, because NaNo is supposed to be all about freeing your creative side and banishing your inner editor to the broom closet, where she belongs. This is supposed to be FUN. So stressing about it is totally counterproductive.

Heck, I'm just happy to be maintaining enthusiasm for my third from the ground up rewrite of Virgin Territory in the last year. Won't even mention the revision drafts in there, either. But this experience has taught me an important lesson. A couple of them, actually. If you're targeting a line, make sure you have a solid grasp of what that line's requirements are before you sit down to write. Chances are good the editors of that particular line won't change their guidelines to fit you, so that means if you haven't done your homework, something will have to change - and that something is your story. ;) Another important lesson is to be careful what characters you let out of your imagination, because some of them won't let you move on to the next story when you get tired of trying to tell THEIR story the way it should be told.

Later this week I intend to post about my recent conversation with Brenda Chin, Senior Editor of Harlequin's Blaze line. She's a terrific editor and we had a great conversation, which I want to talk about a little here. Becoming a Blaze author is my quest in life at the moment, so I definitely took Brenda's suggestions seriously.

And to everyone NaNo-ing like me - or just trying to meet personal deadlines - keep plugging along. Every word you write gets you closer to the two best words ever: THE END. :)

NaNo Madness...

I posted a blogging schedule a couple weeks back, but I won't be following it until Dec. When I came up with my handy-dandy plan, I sorta kinda forgot NaNo was on the horizon. Since it's my first year, I intend to do it right.

My project? The oft-lamented, much maligned and (occasionally) dearly loved Blaze-in-training, Virgin Territory. This is my 3rd "official" draft of the story since Thanksgiving of last year (though I've completed another Blaze-targeted ms since then) but after my recent chat with Brenda Chin, I decided it needed a complete overhaul. Again. From scratch. Among my challenges? Learning to write short sentences. My wonderful CPs could attest to my difficulty in accomplishing this task, I'm sure. ;)

But I think I'm making progress. Of course, I thought that the other 2 times I plodded through VT, too. LOL

Anyway, current word count is 5, 183. I've added a word count meter to the sidebar, which I'm pretty obsessive about filling in. Sometimes it seems like the only reason I'm writing is to make my little red bar move. But hey, whatever gets the words on the page. That, after all, is the whole point to NaNo.

And when in doubt, BICHOK.

The question for Tuesday, Nov. 4th: will Cari, the girl obsessed with presidential politics, manage to write her 1,667 words with such distractions afoot?

Hope you other NaNo'ers out there are enjoying the ride, too. :)