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Part instruction, brainstorming, motivation, & critique, our supportive group meets the second and fourth Saturday of the month and is user-friendly, inspirational, and empowering. Every woman deserves a room of her own.

"As soon as coffee is in your stomach, there is a general commotion. Ideas begin to move...similes arise, the paper is covered. Coffee is your ally and writing ceases to be a struggle."~Honore de Balzac

Monday, October 31, 2011

50,000 Words & Counting!

Yes,it can be done!

I decided to try the NaNoWriMo challenge a month early to see if it's even feasible to get 50,000 words written in 30 days. I wanted to do so before I urged my writing students to sign up. I am happy to report that it is not only possible but highly recommended for any writer needing to get that rough draft in the can.

As of this minute, I have 52,057 words on my desktop in one long document or sixteen solid chapters or 200 pages. I'm not finished with the manuscript, but getting close to the resolution. I predict I will have 20 chapters when finished.

The experience has been:
1) Grueling
2) Enlghtening
3) Challenging
4) Addictive
5) Motivating


To celebrate my success, I booked a manicure, pedicure, and massage. No, the masseuse could not get that huge knot out of my shoulder from being at the computer too many hours. There are some other side effects of taking on this challenge you should know about before you plunge in.

You won't eat right. Your dog won't get enough exercise and neither will you. Your laundry won't get done. Your car won't get washed. Your house won't get vacummed or dusted. Your emails will pile up. And forget any social life.

There's a positive side to all this:

You'll have an excuse to not eat right and to having a messy house. Your dog will love you anyway. And for an obsessive-compulsive me, you will get that rough draft over and done with so you can get to he fun part of writing which is sculpting all those words into something resembling art.

Tips for NaNoWriMo:

1) Get the POV narrator right. Once you've figured that out, the POV narrator will tell the story. Simply stay out of his/her way.

2) When you take a bathroom break and come back to the computer, get started again by rereading the last five pages and plunge ahead.

3) Take your laptop to so when you wake up in the middle of the night, you can put down those words in your head.

4) Stay out of the way and let your characters tell the story.

5) If you get stuck, play the "What if" game and throw in another obstacle or complcation.

And now, you'll have to excuse me because I've got more writing to do on this future best seller. My POV narrator is talking to me and even though she's an unreliable narrator and I have no clue where she's taking me on ths remarkable journey, I'm hooked and eager to get to Chapter Seventeen.

Good luck to you during the official NaNoWriMo month!

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