Shameless Self-Promotion

Life has a way of getting busy, even when I think I’ve got whole days to devote to my personal projects.  Seems like there is always some vitally important thing that must be attended to asap and the things that are at the top of my personal Want-to-Do list get shuffled off the Today list and onto the Next Week list.   However, I have persevered amidst the chaos of life this week and have posted information about my critique service on the Between the Lines Critiques page.  Let me know if I can be of help!

Laurin

Do you NaNo?

Do you NaNo?  I suppose I should really ask, do you participate in this crazy enterprise called National Novel Writing Month? 

I had heard about it for a number of years and in  a moment of extreme dementia last year, I signed up to write 50K words in one month.  And not just any month.  November! 

Now, for me, this is not only the month of Thanksgiving and crazed Christmas shopping, it’s also the month where we celebrate our son’s birthday, darling daughter comes home from college for a whirlwind visit, and we travel down to my parents’ home for the holiday.

Could they have picked a worse month?  Okay, December would probably be worse, but (to quote Gray’s Anatomy) seriously.  Seriously?  November? 

Amazingly I completely a first draft in that frenzied month.  Granted it was only about 30K, not the target 50K and my books usually come in around 100K, but that was a respectable first draft for me.  And I wrote it in 30 days.

Have I mentioned that I’m a really slow writer?

I have not finished that novel, in the sense that it has not been sent off to my agent, but in the course of six months it went from a glimmer of an idea to a third draft.  It’s now sitting on my file cabinet at about 300 pages.  It still isn’t ready for the light of day, and honestly, I’m not sure what to do with it, so I’m employing that age old technique of letting it sit.

But I wrote the first draft in 30 days… in November.

Are you up for the challenge?  I am.  I’m taking the plunge once again.  Honestly, it was exhilerating and I discovered that even in my small town there is a strong contingent of NaNoWriMo die hards.  I made a new writing friend last year.  I proved to myself that I could write fast when given the proper encouragement.  And I love the little widget on my NaNo home page that I can update every day and watch the little blue line reach for the 50K mark.

So, why don’t you join me in this writerly madness?  Go to the National Novel Writing Month site and get set up as an author — did I mention that it’s free? — then set me up as your friend – LaurinW – and we’ll egg each other on to that 50K finish line.

Laurin

First drafts

Writing begins with an idea, followed by lots of playing with ideas (aka brainstorming), followed by some or a lot of planning.  Eventually the writer arrives at the first draft and begins writing.  I think that works for blogs as well, or perhaps it’s just the way my writer’s mind works.   At any rate, that’s how I approached this blog, Between the Lines. 

I had an idea  for a blog (egged on by my good friend Elizabeth Holcombe, writer, blogger, and crafter extraordinaire).  I let it incubate for a while.  I talked to friends about what it should focus on.  I explored other blogs.  I danced around for a while, flirting with a concept.  Did I really want to commit to a regular writing gig?  This, for me, is very much like the beginning stages of writing a novel.  In fact, it’s exactly like the beginning stages of writing a novel.  And just as with my novels, one day I sat down at my computer and began.  Hmm, that would be today.

So what does this have to do with you? 

If you’re a writer, you can probably relate.  Or maybe you’ve got a completely different process for beginning.  Or maybe you are recently bitten by the writing bug and haven’t found your process yet. 

Between the Lines is a place to talk about the process of writing and all it’s wonderful, frustrating, and exhilarating side roads and detours.  I want to talk about the craft of writing, revision, creativity, my favorite writing books, my favorite novels, things that inspire the creative muses in me, writers or writing that I admire and/or can learn from, the business side of the writing life (not my favorite topic, but one that should not be avoided), good writing teachers and workshops, and anything else that crops up and impacts a writer and her or his craft. 

I hope you’ll join in so this becomes a lively, far ranging conversation!

So, when you start a new project, be it a piece of writing or some other creative endeavor, what’s your process?

Laurin