News — nanowrimo

Happy Friday, and happy mid-National Novel Writing Month to those who are participating.

This is “over the hump” day, the halfway mark where, for many of us, things begin to flow. We’ve figured out who the Big Bad is, or we know what our hero has to do to finish strong. We’ve had an aha! moment. Words pour out of us like water, and we’re ready to go the distance.

Maybe.

Or maybe we’re ready to scrap the last 25k words because they sound like nonsense, endless babble that goes nowhere....

Technically, the last third of National Novel Writing Month doesn't start until Wednesday. But who's counting?

My son runs cross-country in the fall. (That's him in the picture above. He's a tall, skinny white boy wearing a purple and white school uniform, running across a stretch of grass, with cars and trees in the background.) For varsity and JV, this is a 3-mile run (5k), usually through a town park. The terrain can be anywhere from nearly flat to multiple steep hills, open fields to dense trees. Running doesn't stop just because of...

We're halfway through NaNoWriMo, and in the U.S., we're a week out after one of the ugliest election seasons in my memory. Whether it's from word count or feeling disheartened at the election results, you're not alone.

Bear with me, I'm going to quote the Bible. Trust me, this is significant, and I'm not using it to beat anyone over the head. I'm finding encouragement anywhere I can get it, and I think you'll understand why I find this relevant to us in the author/reader/book community right now.

Are you as excited as I am that it's almost National Novel Writing Month? I don't know about you, but since I'm a product of the 1970s, I still sing the Muppet Show theme song in my head when I'm excited about something starting. (Okay...maybe that's not a '70s thing. Maybe it's just me.)

So, let's talk about getting things going. If you're a serious planner, you probably already have everything organized and ready to go, even with two weeks left until NaNo starts. If you're a pantser, probably not so much, but hopefully you've at least got your idea....