So Close Yet So Far … #Mondayblogs #NaNoWriMo

A very quick post here to record my progress in NaNoWriMo so far:  41,311 words.  Unless I quit now (which I won't), I should complete 50,000 by end of the month.  And then I will have 50k+ words of pure confusion.  What I'm working on originated as a short story, written in response to a…

Midway: To Hell and Back #NaNoWriMo #Mondayblogs

Hello, dear friends, I'm pausing for a few moments to let you all know that I'm still alive and well (or as one of my yoga friends puts it, "still vertical and sucking air!").  NaNoWriMo is going well as far as my word count:  reached just over 30,000 words today.  Yay!  Except my fingers now…

And It’s NaNoWriMo Time Again!

Yup, here I go again.  Time for NaNoWriMo (that's National Novel Writing Month for those of you who have been living under a rock for the last several years). I signed up again for the insanity of writing 50,000 words in a month.  I'm starting to think that this is truly my preferred method of…

A Brief “Happy Dance” Break from the Author of Clemency, A Novel in Progress

Enuf said.  Happy Turkey Day or Tofurkey Day, everyone! I finished at 50,132 words.  Thanks to everyone who hung in there with me!  And thanks to the team at NaNoWriMo! And, yeah, I'm getting me one of these:    

And We Begin … Almost

You remember this, from last year, don't you?   It will be my official cup of java starting November 1.  That's TOMORROW!   Several days ago, I introduced the idea of posting part of a novel on my blog, the parts already written, while I slave away at trying to finish said novel during NaNoWriMo.…

NaNo WIP: Maggie and Her Knitting

Following is an excerpt from my NaNoWriMo novel-in-progress.  Maggie Reynolds, one of the three cousins in The Widows' Club Book Four (I know, fancy title) is a knitter, like moi.  I'm having her take credit for my knitting so I can take credit for the word count in this post. *** Maggie draped the knitted…

NaNo WIP: Attack of the Giant Penis

Again, I'm having a bit of fun with my NaNoWriMo work-in-progress.  Here is an excerpt featuring Maggie Reynolds and a story straight out of Irish-Lativan lore. *** Maggie found a quiet corner in the cafe and set her tall Skinny Vanilla Latte on the table.  It was one of her little pleasures to have a…

The Insanity Has Begun: NaNoWriMo 2013

I will be drinking lots of caffeine. Although I may need more than just caffeine to meet my daily nutritional requirements. Wish me luck 🙂 Related posts: Pretty much several posts from Kristen Lamb's blog.  Start with this one:  http://warriorwriters.wordpress.com/2013/10/10/how-to-make-sure-your-nano-project-isnt-a-hot-mess/ At least two from Victoria Grefer:  http://crimsonleague.com/2013/10/13/authors-and-national-novel-writing-month-4-good-reasons-not-to-nanowrimo/ (hey, it's not for everyone!) and http://crimsonleague.com/2013/10/15/4-fantastic-reasons-to-sign-up-for-national-novel-writing-month/ Definitely…

8 Things You Need To Know About Character Arcs

This is a wonderful post for all of you currently writing fiction and needing advice/suggestions about character arcs. As I was reading Debbie’s post, I realized that I provided different arcs for different characters in my last two NaNoWriMo novels. That’s a good thing, but I hadn’t put much thought into why I was doing that. Debbie’s post actually gives me an understanding of what I’ve done and (hopefully) how to make sure the arcs worked for the characters.

MOON IN GEMINI

1. Character arcs are not 100% necessary. I’m going to get this out of the way first thing.

This argument is made all the time, and there’s some truth to it. There are some very successful characters that never have a character arc. James Bond is the one most mentioned. While he was retooled somewhat when Daniel Craig took over the role in the movies, the character has never undergone a significant arc. Miss Marple never has an arc, or Hercule Poirot, or Stephanie Plum.

See a pattern here? They’re all characters in a long-running series of stand-alone books. While there are series characters that have arcs (I would argue Indiana Jones is an example) most don’t have them. Mainly because having the characters change would disrupt the series too much.

2. However, not giving your character one can simply be laziness on your part. Just because there are…

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Writer’s Resources

John Hewitt has an amazing website at http://www.poewar.com. Every aspect of writing you can think of and, best of all for NaNoWriMos, a step-by-step approach for getting your jewel of a novel revised and ready for submission. Start here if you want to go directly to John's novel-revising guide: http://www.poewar.com/firstdraft/ Of course, Chris Baty and…