NaNoWriMo Take Five (?)

All decked out, and no
place to go

Happy Halloween! 

Hope you are ready for the influx of ghosties and superheroes and Harry Potter lookalikes! :) I'm going through a bit of nostalgia as this will be the first Halloween we have spent without a full cadre of dressed-up Dunnes. With my eldest away at university and my other two teens in a new city with busy lives, I'm not sure any of them of will dress up.  The witches brew and mummy dogs will still be cooking up in the kitchen, and I'll be wearing my favourite purple and black striped tights.

So. October 31st also means preparation for one of the busiest months of my year... November. Remembrance Day. Diabetes Awareness Month (one of my teens is a juvenile (Type 1) diabetic). Christmas preparations. American Thanksgiving. And--when I'm feeling particularly crazy--National Novel Writing Month.

And this month I'm feeling particularly crazy.

The truth of the matter is, with all that's been going on, I'm in a bit of a writing rut. Not blocked (I'm not a believer in writer's block), but significantly decelerated. My mojo needs some gojo. There is nothing better than a month designated to not just pick away at, but to FINISH a project when you're an author. A suspended inner editor and a permission slip to let the laundry pile up...with several hundred other crazy nut-bars write (miss-spell intended) there along with you.

My first NaNo project!

If you've followed me since the beginning, you'll know that Treasure in the Flame started out as a NaNo project in 2010.

In 2011, a little idea I'd titled Red Sand Selkie battled it's way through to becoming SKIN.

2012 was Dependent's year.

2013 I worked on Off Grid (currently under sub).


In fact, just about every year since I found NaNo, I've used November as a month to do something with my writing.

This year for NaNo I'm HOPING to barrel through and finish at least one of the sequels I've got on my laptop... And I'm starting with the much requested sequel to SKIN, tentatively titled SWIM.

 Ocean and Sam are in trouble. Deeeeeeep trouble. And I have to get them out of a very nasty mess. I'm about 25k words in, making it a perfect 50k+ word winning NaNo project.

And that's the great thing about NaNoWriMo. You can't really 'lose'. Any words down at this point will be winning words. And in the end, you get a sequel. Wish me luck!

And now, back to my regularly scheduled Halloween candy pilfering... ;)


Brenda


*Nano Image Courtesy of National Novel Writing Month