#nanowrimo21
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I declare the "No Novel NaNoWriMo"!
Ok, since a lot of folks will be confused now:
Since my life is pretty hectic right now since my mother is at the hospital and for safety reasons back in ICU, I surely have no mental space for a new project or NaNo in its classical sense. Besides the fact, I will probably have only a little time.
So I decided to shelf all ideas for now and go into NaNo with the following goal.
Write at least 30k throughout the month for whatever works.
I'll gather all the short stories, flash fics, when I wrote on a WIP and count them together for the No Novel NaNo.
I will do regular updates, as I always did with NaNo. So lookout for this funny sign
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Best of luck to everyone doing NaNoWriMo!! 🙌
If you have questions, want some motivation, or need someone to yell at you to stop procrastinating… I'm here for you!
Reply to this (or send me a message) and I'll help you. 🤞
What are you waiting for tho? Go get writing!!
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Part One (Take Two) of my novel/self-publishing bullet journal and book bible. Not to jinx us all, but I think this year will be better than the last two (🤞).
This video features a Table of Contents (index), motivational quote page with quote by Chuck Wendig, a self-publishing task list, an ideal writing schedule, and a brain dump page for page ideas.
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Write what you want to in your first draft.
This sounds silly but if you are imagining fanfiction-like scenarious for your characters that don't really fit your story, write them down anyway.
You can still use it later or in another context.
Just write, you can do it!
#sam writes#writing#nanowrimo#nanowrimoprep#nanowrimo21#nanowrimo 2021#writing advice#national novel writing month#writerblr#nano 2021#nanowriting#writer#writing inspiration#the writing process
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I’ve done it.
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NaNoWriMo21 is complete and I’m clocking in at 61,121 total words written for the month. Over 50,000 of those words are for Haunted. Feeling pretty good ☺️
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Officially completed NaNo with 52k, I'm so so happy, it's unreal!
I wanna thank so many people here and my wonderful friends over at NaNo for answering my queries, no matter how bizarre and just tolerating my ranting, lovely, lovely people!
To the people I talk to practically all day, everyday for hyping me up and keeping me going, I love you all so so much❤️!
A big, big, big thank you to @dbzebra for being such a tremendous help throughout the way, be it bouncing off whack ideas, helping me clear my ever-scattered brain or just life in general :)
I remember being on the 17th page, already running behind and going -'why do I even write? I won't read this honestly, why will anyone else? Why should they? In fact, making them read it will make me all the more upset because I made them suffer'. I wanted to tear apart the notebook altogether and simply give up, but I voiced it out here and he was there to help in an instant, it couldn't have been more than fifteen minutes honestly and sitting with 116 written pages now, I'm simply speechless, forever thankful 🫂❤️🥺! Seriously couldn't have done it without you❤️!
Now I'm going to eat the cheese slice I've been wanting to all month lol, please treat yourself to something nice if you happen to read this and want to celebrate with me 💕!
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This is the first time in like six years I am honestly attempting NaNoWriMo, so I had set my goal to at least beat my last word count of 8,000 words
Folks I'm about to reach 20,000 words, this is way more than I realistically thought I could do this month. The fact that I have a real chance of completing 50k makes me want to cry I am so proud of myself
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my advice to nano writers, new and old:
if you’re intimidated by your beginning, start in the middle! chapters get reordered all the time by editors who think things are out of place, so do your favourite bits, then fill in the gaps! remember, nano is about quantity, not quality.
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NaNo21 - Say You’re Here
Below you will find the first chapter and a half of the story as it stands so far. I am currently at 1855 words. Enjoy! (comments more than welcome)
Chapter One
Harmony McDowell pressed the end call button on her phone and then sat down heavily on her bed. Her dorm room was suddenly too small. Not that it wasn’t already a closet. She’d been lucky enough to score a single in a school that was packed.
She looked down at the phone in her hand and then sent a text to her mom, I’m coming home.
Melody (Mom) ICE: dont you dare!! everything okay here. you have finals.
I can talk to my professors. They’ll let me take them later.
Melody (Mom) ICE: nothing will change in four days. take the tests,
Harmony sighed and replied with, fine!
She dropped the phone unceremoniously on the bed and began pacing the tiny space. Her mom was right that not much would change in the next few days with Lyric’s condition. But she still wanted to be with her family as they discussed what was next.
Harmony knew what was next, though. She’d been reading every article she could about leukemia since her sister’s diagnosis nearly a decade ago. Even as a 10-year-old, she’d deciphered medical articles that were written by ancient doctors. It was what made her want to go into the field of medical research in the first place. Well, as soon as she discovered it was a profession. She wanted to find better treatments for leukemia and all other diseases and, hopefully, cures.
Lyric was now going to go on a national registry to find viable donor matches. It’s always more likely to be a relative, but none of them matched for various reasons. Not even Harmony, which was a big blow.
Their grandparents were all long gone and both their parents had been only children, so there weren’t cousins or aunts or uncles to match. They had to hope someone, somewhere would decide to donate and be a match.
Harmony’s phone started buzzing on her bed. She could hear the faint tinkling of her ringtone. She must not have turned it up all the way after leaving her lab.
Lyric’s smiling face came up on the screen with the name Babee Seester.
“What’s up, buttercup?” Harmony asked.
She was immediately met with sobs from the other side. “Did you know?”
“Did I know what?” Harmony asked, instantly put on alert.
“That Dad isn’t my dad.” Lyric sobbed.
“What? That’s not true. What made you think that?”
“It is true. I just heard mom and dad talking about it.” Lyric paused to sniff. And between sobs, she said, “Mom and Dad are fighting and I heard him say it was time I knew I wasn’t his. And mom said it’s not my business to know because Dad is always going to be my dad. And he d that it may be true, but that I have another family that could be a match and it isn’t fair.”
Harmony was speechless. She finally managed, “Shit.”
“So you didn’t know?”
“This is new to me.” Harmony sighed. “Look, I’m going to send some emails and I’ll be home either tomorrow late or early the next day. Don’t worry, I’m going to try to help sort this all out.”
Harmony sat down at her computer and pulled up her email. She sent emails to each of her professors asking if she could schedule her exams for the next day. She only had four to take. One final was a paper that she was already almost done with and the results to an experiment that she could put most on her lab partner since she carried him almost all semester and her teacher knew it.
She didn’t get any replies right away. She didn’t expect it. She started packing anyway and hoped that she would hear from them soon.
****
Harmony waited outside her professor’s office for the last exam of her semester. She had agreed to let Harmony take the exam in her office at three that afternoon. The others had given her a take-home exam that she completed that morning and sent right back. One had told her that under the circumstances she could wait, but it wasn’t life or death at the moment, so she went ahead and finished it.
While she waited for the teacher to arrive to give her the test, Harmony opened up Facebook and started scrolling. Aubrey Price smiled at her from an ad for Price Cafe, his family’s business. He held a tray of pastry he no doubt made. His green eyes shown bright in the picture and she was sure it wasn’t some editing trick. She knew those eyes well. She remembered them up close. Her heart began to race as she went back to that night.
“Miss McDowell, hello!” Mrs. Baum said as she walked up and unlocked the door.
Harmony closed her phone and pushed away the racey image she had been conjuring. “Hi, Mrs. Baum. Thank you for letting me take the exam early.”
“It’s no trouble. You’ve told me about your family’s struggles and I want you to be with them. And it helps me get one exam graded a little early, so thank you for that.” She laughed and motioned for Harmony to have a seat at the table in the corner of the room. She placed a stapled stack of papers in front of her. “I’ll give you an hour. But I know you won’t need it.”
“History’s my hobby.” Harmony said as she took a pen out of her bag.
It was more than a hobby, actually. Her father Caleb was a high school history teacher and was part of a Civil War reenactment group. They had spent many weekends and family vacations learning more about the history and creating their own characters.
Harmony had signed up for a freshman-level Civil War History class because she figured it would be a breeze for her with all her upper-level biology classes in the mix. And she had been right. Everything they had been learning in class, she had known since she was thirteen. She enjoyed finding out new facts and getting in on the discussions. She’d even been able to earn an extra credit for the course by bringing in her costume and explaining it to the class.
It took her less than 20 minutes to finish the exam. She walked over and placed the papers on Mr. Baum’s desk.
“I know your major is far from history, but I could use a TA next semester. If you’re interested.”
Harmony nodded. “I’ll think about it.”
“I hope you decide to take it. You’re very bright, Harmony.”
She hesitated a moment and said, “I was considering a minor in history. I think I have enough time to complete the course in the next three semesters.”
“Do you have a moment for me to look into it?” Mrs. Baum indicated her computer. “Or would you prefer to speak to your advisor?”
“I don’t like my advisor. He’s a curmudgeonly old drunk.”
The older woman laughed. “Heber is a recovering alcoholic. But I see your point.” She turned to her computer and tapped around on it for a few minutes. “Looks like you’d have to drop choir and voice lessons to make it fit, but it’s doable.”
“And what if I decide to stretch it out for another year?”
“Then we can definitely make it work.” She clicked a few buttons and her printer started whirring. She grabbed the paper and passed it across the desk. “These are the courses you need to complete the minor. Take the winter break to consider and let me know what you decide.”
“I will.” Harmony stood and left the office. She considered the paper while she made her way back to her dorm to load her car.
She sent a text to the family chat, Got all my exams done early. Heading home. We need to talk.
Melody (Mom) ICE: did not need to do that.
Caleb (Dad) ICE2: Drive safe, kiddo.
Lyric: WOOT!!
Harmony got in her car and drove.
Chapter Two
Aubrey liked the cafe best when it was busy. He had been up baking since four, but he didn’t mind in the slightest still working at four that afternoon. His brother Graham was supposed to take over, but he got stuck helping get his daughter’s winter play set up.
The cafe closed at 5, but they always had the most people in the last two hours. Not as much as the first two hours of the day.
Conrad came into the main room and signaled his son. “Take off, kid. You’ve been working since before we opened.”
“Graham isn’t here today. And you’re still recovering. I can handle another hour.”
Conrad gave his son a hard look. “Okay, but you take a day off next week and I’ll cook the pastry.”
“No one likes it when you make it.” Aubrey teased.
“I’m the one who taught you,” Conrad pretended to be hurt. “You betray me.”
Aubrey laughed and then noticed someone signalling him from across the room. “Gotta deal with customers.”
He worked steadily until the last customers left and then got to work with the cleaning.
Aubrey changed his clothes and headed to the school for his niece’s performance. Being surrounded by so many families his age was a little jarring. Not that he was old enough to have an elementary school kid unless he fathered a child in high school, but he could have. There was that one interaction with Harmony McDowell. But that had only been three years ago. And she had definitely never had a baby. He was sure he would have heard of that. He wasn’t on Facebook as himself, but he did manage the cafe’s page and he sometimes lurked on her page.
The stage was filled with pretty much every kindergartener. They sang some familiar songs and did some cute little dances. Hayley, his niece, stood behind another little girl and barely moved. She was an extremely shy little girl, but Aubrey could usually get her out of her shell. But he remembered the nerves of standing in the crowd in front of everyone for these performances.
As soon as the performance was done, the children shuffled off the stage and the parents left to find their children as the next age group’s audience moved in.
Hayley jumped up at Aubrey. “Hi!” She exclaimed.
He laughed. “Hi. You were really pretty up there.”
“Thanks. But now I want to eat! Daddy said we could get pizza. Are you coming?”
“I would love to.” Aubrey kissed Hayley’s cheek and then sat her down.
Conrad lifted Hayley up onto his shoulders. “Let’s get out of here.”
Pizza Pie was busy. Aubrey saw some of his former high school classmates had arrived in town from their colleges. He nodded and waved to a few as they made their way to a table in the back of the restaurant.
He hesitated a moment when he spotted Harmony at a table with her friend Luke and his girlfriend Kathy. He saw her look over and then quickly look away. Of course.
#say you're here#nanowrimo#nanowrimo21#nanowrimo2021#nano#nano21#nano2021#national novel writing month 2021#writeblr#writing
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NaNoWriMo Day 2
I’m not gonna lie, even though it’s only day 2, I did not want to write today. I worked a long 10 hour day with a lot of documentation and by the time I was home, fed, showered and ready to write, I wanted nothing more than to just crawl into bed and go to sleep. But I swore to myself that this year would be the year that I finally got that badge for updating every single day, so I trudged through some words. If we’re being honest, they came easier than I expected them to come and for that, I am grateful.
Today I am especially thankful for my friend @naromoreau who allowed me to info dump a whole bunch of nonsense from the inside of my brain to try and explain this half baked plot that I’m working with. I’m really not great at figuring out details on my own, but I do exceptionally well when people guide me with questions that force me to think and really nail down details and Naro gave me that opportunity today that really helped. Do I have an end game for my plot? Yes. Do I have any idea how I’m getting there? Still no, absolutely not, but it feels like less of a lost cause now.
Here’s today’s snippet that is supposed to be properly creepy. I know without context these snippets won’t mean much to anyone but I like sharing them so bear with me!
It comes to him in nightmares, even though he can’t say what, exactly, it is.
It looks like the shadows coming to life, forming together to create one large, shifting mass. It’s black and deep, entirely unknowable. It doesn’t have a face, but it has the feeling of eyes, staring at Cayden— always, always, always watching him. No matter where he goes, no matter how he moves, it’s always watching him.
At first, it just stands there— if standing can be used to describe what it’s doing. It just exists, a few feet away from him, a roiling mass of black that makes no moves of its own, makes no attempt to approach or contact Cayden in any way. It just exists and it watches him, even when Cayden has moved completely out of its sight. The feeling is familiar, too— the way it settles on his shoulders, follows him everywhere he goes. He recognizes the chill as it drips down his spine, a slow slide to the base of it, wrapping around his bones. He recognizes it, but in the middle of a nightmare he can’t quite place it.
That’s when the rain starts, the familiar drops dotting his skin like freckles.
But this time, the rain bites like little shards of ice, each spot it touches marked by a sharp sting. Cayden closes his eyes against it, wipes at his face, but the sting remains, as if the rain had branded him somehow. He scrubs across his face, at his eyes, pushes the hair off of his forehead. He tries to rid himself of the feeling but no matter what he does, it won’t go away. The pace of the rain never shifts, a steady stream of tiny bites against his skin.
He opens his eyes.
It’s staring back at him.
Part of him knows that he should be afraid, that he should be terrified because he had left it behind, he was certain that he had left it behind. But there It was, suspended, somehow, in the midst of the rain— floating, almost, in a space where the rain didn’t seem to exist. It wasn’t wet, wasn’t experiencing the same stinging sensation that Cayden was. It was just there, it’s invisible eyes focused on him. He stared back at it, mesmerized against his own will.
“Soon,” A voice said.
Cayden could swear it had come from the mass, but it didn’t have a mouth.
Cayden glances over his shoulder to where he had left it, but there’s nothing but rain drops and the expanse of an abandoned city behind him. He turns back. It’s even closer now.
If it had a mouth, Cayden is certain that he’d be able to feel it’s breath ghosting across his cheeks, over his nose. It moves almost as if it were breathing, expanding and collapsing in a pattern consistent with breathing, but Cayden feels no breath, hears no sounds.
“Soon.” It repeats and this time Cayden is absolutely certain that the voice came from it.
He stares into the black mass before him, wonders how he can feel it watching him when it seems to be nothing more than a black hole— completely empty in the middle and stealing everything around it.
“Soon, what?” He asks, his voice startlingly loud in the massive silence that was surrounding them.
The words seem to echo around them, bouncing off of the empty buildings. It looks like the city Cayden has lived in his entire life, but there’s something that’s different about it. He would look, would spend some time investigating if he could bring himself to look away from the thing across from him, but he can’t. There’s something about it that demands all of his attention, that makes keep looking when he doesn’t want to.
“You,” It whispers, it’s voice directly next to Cayden’s ear even though it hasn’t moved again. “Will be mine.”
The words are colder than the air, colder than the small beads of water that still sting his skin. The words are colder, even, than the ice that floats in his veins. Cayden takes in one breath, blinks—
It’s gone.
But the freezing, aching chill it came with lingers, even after it has disappeared, rooting Cayden to his spot as the rain continues to fall down around him.
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Say You’re Here - first excerpt!!
Harmony’s phone started buzzing on her bed. She could hear the faint tinkling of her ringtone. She must not have turned it up all the way after leaving her lab.
Lyric’s smiling face came up on the screen with the name Babee Seester.
“What’s up, buttercup?” Harmony asked.
She was immediately met with sobs from the other side. “Did you know?”
“Did I know what?” Harmony asked, instantly put on alert.
“That Dad isn’t my dad.” Lyric sobbed.
“What? That’s not true. What made you think that?”
“It is true. I just heard mom and dad talking about it.” Lyric paused to sniff. And between sobs, she said, “Mom and Dad are fighting and I heard him say it was time I knew I wasn’t his. And mom said it’s not my business to know because Dad is always going to be my dad. And he d that it may be true, but that I have another family that could be a match and it isn’t fair.”
Harmony was speechless. She finally managed, “Shit.”
“So you didn’t know?”
“This is new to me.” Harmony sighed. “Look, I’m going to send some emails and I’ll be home either tomorrow late or early the next day. Don’t worry, I’m going to try to help sort this all out.”
#nanowrimo#nanowrimo2021#nano2021#nano21#nanowrimo21#national novel writing month#national novel writing month 2021#writeblr#catch me as i fall rewrite
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me when I see it's Halloween
me when I realize nanowrimo is tomorrow and I have to do it bc I mentioned it to my therapist and now it's my biggest goal in my treatment plan
#luffy posts#i love Halloween#but nanowrimo is like the snail#inevitable... immortal...inescapable#nanowrimo#nanowrimo21#luffy writes#fr fr this kept me up last night oof
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It's hard to let go of the worry if people will like my writing and just write what my feeling tells me needs to written.
The first draft is just you pouring your heart onto the pages.
Judging will happen much later.
#sam writes#writing#nanowrimo#writerblr#nanowrimo21#nano21#nanowrimo 2021#nanowrimo2021#national novel writing month#original wip#current wip#wip#writing advice#writeblr
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NaNoWriMo 2021
I just finished up NaNoWriMo 2021. Well two days ago I did. My Novembers have been filled with writing since 2007 when I first learned about it. The early years I barely pushed out the 50k, usually writing many of the words the last two days of the month. As the years progressed I ended up writing more, learning how to work around job schedules, college schedules, babies who grew into toddlers, who then grew up to pre teens and teens that have tried the young writers program once or twice.
As the years progressed the amount of words progressed. A few years ago I really focused on using November NaNo as a finishing month, where I would working on finishing my WIPs that I worked on earlier in the year that never were finished. WIPs from years priors. Random outlines that never made it anywhere.
I have been over achieving (OA) for the last few years, focusing on things of that nature. 2019 I tried for 300,000 and I came in just over 295k. Based on a program that inflated my word count and I didn’t realize until the last day at zero hour. I tried for that number again last year and once again this past November. I learned about MilWordy challenge, the challenge to write 1,000,000 words in a year. I thought hey I could do that. I didn’t succeed in doing that in 2019-2020 or again in 2020-2021. I tried to use November as a jumping off point and I still managed to miss it.
This year though. When October was looming I wasn’t sure if I had what it took to even OA this past November because of the crappy year I had and the fact that writing wasn’t happening in the smallest amount. Yet, November. November opened up a world that I haven’t felt in such a long time.
I decided to try for the Half-MilWordy this year. From November 1 2021 to October 31 2022, my intention is to write 500,000. I have currently written 227,021 words. I think this year might be the year I can do it. I figured I would put this out here. If I do as well as I hope then I will up my numbers again.
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I actually did it! 53,599 words during Nanowrimo making the grand total of my current draft 69,366. I’m taking a few days break because work is picking up but I want to keep up this pretty fast pace so I can have an editable draft by the new year. Keep your fingers crossed for me!
Congrats to all those who participated. It was a real sprint.
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