NaNoWriMo 2014 is almost over ~ Now what?

Today is the last day of NaNoWriMo and as I mentioned before, I have not reached the goal of 50,000.  I am not sad about it because it will be a great novella once I finish it so it's all good.  Now what?

Reading...

December is going to be my resting phase, well for writing but I plan to do a lot of reading by the end of the year.  Novels are my favorite of course but I have number of non fiction books on my list. Plus I'm going to be taking a writing class or two.  I will get into more detail about the classes at a later date.

Writing...

In January, I will be back to writing or at least editing my works in progress.  It's my plan to have the first book in my Sassy Johnson series ready for publication by April 2015. It's going to take a couple of rewrites and professional edits to get to that point but I think it will be down by then.

Blogging…

I do plan to keep blogging. As a matter of fact I may challenge myself to write at least 100 posts in 2015.  I think the best way for me to do that would be to write a few posts at a time and schedule them to upload once or twice a week.

I thought about starting a new blog as well. Blogger has been good to me but I want to have my own domain.  When I decide on a theme or niche I'll work on creating the new site but in the mean time, I will be here.

What about you?

Congrats to those that met or exceeded the goal and good luck to those who fell short because you can always continue the story at a later time.  I hope you all had a great time during NaNo regardless of your status. 

Happy Writing. I'll holler.

NaNoWriMo 2014 ~ Day 13

I haven't had this hard of a time writing since 2009.  The story premise is great but I just can't seem to flesh it out.  My muse has been telling me to finish editing the stories that I have already done.

Fine time to tell me but I was probably ignoring him anyway.  I was doing my own thing. Now I need him, but he won't help me.

When I ask for some ideas or inspiration, he pretends that he doesn't hear me at first. Then he's like, "You talking to me?  I thought you knew what you were doing."  God, I hate that guy sometimes.

I'm thinking he may be right though.

Some people may say that this is nothing but self doubt creeping in but honey boom (not boo boo), if you saw all the works in progress that I have you would slap me.

It just occurred to me that maybe this story is supposed to be a short story but I'm trying to make it be something it's not meant to be.  That may sound crazy but hey it's just a thought.

Now I don't want to be labeled as a quitter so...

• I will continue to work on this year's NaNo as much as possible.  
• I will not continue to beat myself up over missing word count goals.  
• I will start rewriting one of my other novels so I will feel productive.

Hey, you don't have to be like me.  Keep doing your thing and good luck.

Happy NaNo-ing!
I'll holler.

NaNoWriMo 2014 ~ Day 8

I am more than 2000 words behind on my word count and feeling kind of sad about it.  It's not like my ideas aren't continuously flowing it's just that I am having a hard time getting an hour to myself to really flesh out my ides.  I mean, I'm writing a paragraph here and a sentence there but not enough to meet my daily word count and it's driving me insane.  Family, friends and life in general keep begging for my attention and even though I try to tell them that I need a little time to myself, they pretty much ignore me.

During times like this I sit around and try to image how my life will be as a full time writer and I keep coming back to the fact that I will--

a) Always have to wait until everyone leaves the house or goes to sleep to write. 

b) Have to leave the house myself and post up at the library or in a freaking parking lot to get some privacy and a piece of mind.

I hope the rest of you are doing well with your word counts. If not just keep going like I plan to. Even if we don't reach 50,000 by November 30, it will be more than we had November 1.

Happy NaNo-ing...
I'll holler

NaNoWriMo 2014 ~ Day 4

I love NaNoWriMo with all my heart, to the moon and back as they say. But, it's driving me crazy all ready.  It's my fault though, cause I wasn't as prepared as I should have been.

Note to self and other writers--

If you are writing a series, be sure to re-read the previous book or books in the series so you won't make stupid mistakes.

Man, I was bringing folks back from the dead, calling folks by the wrong name and not remembering if  the character had 6 siblings or 9. 

Another good idea to do is have what I'm going to call a post outline. I have an outline that gives me a route that I could go in while I'm writing but I need an outline that documents where I really did take the story.  Basically a chapter summary. 

This may seem like common sense and I would have said that myself before I saw all of the ooops moments I had.  

Whew! End rant...

My total word count is 6050.  I was hoping to be at 8000 but crap happens.  If (or when) I'm too lazy to let you guys know my status, there is a little box to the left that will show you my total word count. Now sometimes the NaNoWriMo site "be in his feelings" but as soon as I'm able, I do update the total.

I hope that you are doing well with your novel. Happy NaNo-ing! 

I'll holler...

NaNoWriMo 2014 ~ Day 1

I thought about it but I couldn't make myself start writing at Midnight.  My outline wasn't done (it's still not done) so I wanted to milk as much time as possible.

My personal goal was between 2000 and 3000 although the official goal is 1667. Guess what I hit 2050 words.  It took me all freaking day to do it but it got done by 8:00 pm CST.  It feels good because if I stay at this pace, I will finish NaNoWriMo by November 25, which would feel really good.

I believe I did a no no today.  I started my novel with the character waking up. Now she was dreaming about sexy men and woke up in the arms of her even sexier boyfriend. That's a good thing, right?

How was your first day? Let me know.  And also, is there a such thing as too much tea? Really? I didn't think so.