Thursday, November 4, 2010

A "write in" with other writers

NaNoWrMo has different groups available (check the website) in your local area to get together with other writers and have a "write in." Most of these are held in coffee shops though some might be at someone's house. I went to one at a Starbucks about ten minutes from my house. (Very convenient!) It was cool to meet another writer and her friend who came along to offer moral/reading support. :) 

The write in helped me to not be distracted (as I so often am) by household chores, children, ringing phones, etc. when I'm sitting down for some uninterrupted writing time. I will definitely go again. (I hit my minimum word count that night and have posted 4,223 words of my new story so far!)

The point of "just writing" is to not self-edit as we so often do. I was finding myself constantly trying to think all the scenarios through in my novel rather than just let the words come out. It's a bit freeing to let my imagination take over and see what happens to the characters and the story line. I might hate it when I go back and read it when November is over. Who knows?

Keep writing! (And if you didn't sign up for the National Novel Writer's Month, give yourself a challenge, a goal for writing this month. 100 words a day? 1,000 words a day? If you don't hit it on one day, keep going on the next day. Don't give up for missing a day.)

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

NaNoWrMo!

NaNoWrMo is here!  That is, National Novel Writing Month! Check it out here. 

What's it all about? Writing, writing, writing as much as you can on your current novel project in just one month! We, as writers, tend to daydream, edit, anguish over scenes, dialogues, descriptions...on and on. Well stop it! Just write! Upload your work (and you can do fancy copyrighting stuff to make sure no one takes it) to the site. If you hit 50,000 words by the end of the month, you get credit for accomplishing a huge goal! And yes, people can cheat and upload rubbish or previously written stuff. But that defeats the whole spirit of the challenge. Real writers won't do that. Right, guys? ;)

Let's have fun and just write! If anyone out there wants to get together and have a "write-in" at a local library, let me know! (Lots of desks and outlets available at the library!)

If you're going to do this, sign up today! You'll get encouraging e-mails to work on your story. Try to writer 1,600 words a day. You can do it! :)