I thought that I needed some community to get things going; the problem is that as with most things that involve more than one or two people, massive groups of aspiring writers wind up in sniping wars or discussing everything but the actual writing.

So, one of the things I'm doing today is putting all of my writing related social media groups on silent.

November is National Novel Writing Month, AKA NanoWriMo. I finally hit on a project that I wanted to work on and that had potential to be a longer work. In the days between leaving my job and November 1st, I even managed to get an outline together, as well as a character list and some specific scenes down. When November 1 got here, I was off and writing. ​

As a birthday present to myself, I registered for the Self-Published Small Press Book Fair this year.  If you didn't get a chance to visit the Book Fair, be sure to keep an eye out for it in 2019.

So, I'm not going to do a lot of big posts this month, most likely, but I will be posting on occasion to keep accountable and to let you know my progress on NanoWriMo 2017.

In preparation for this year's event, I have outlined the novel so I know the time frame (it takes place over a long weekend) and the setting, as well as the four main characters. The basic plot is this--in 2012, four college best friends reunite after 20 years over Labor Day weekend. It's Chick Lit, and it's character driven.  The lame (?) tentative title is Long Weekend.

There's also a tie in to Elegant Freefall, as one of the minor characters from that novel (which is in my desk drawer at the moment, waiting for revision), is one of the four main characters in the NanoWriMo novel.

I've also been listening to old episodes of The Story Grid Podcast in preparation for this project, and love the episode titled "The Mathematics of Story Telling."  It's somehow oddly comforting to know that I need 1/4 for the opening hook, 1/2 for the middle build, and 1/4 for the conclusion. There's also some great advice here about positive/negative balance for the characters.

How's your first day?  

Total word count at the moment for day 1:  2185
Projected end date at this rate:  November 23*

End date = 50K words. There's no guarantee that'll be the actual end of the novel.

So, I keep getting the questions:  "Where are you going?" and "Have you got a new gig?" I wanted to share a little here, as it seems that even though my email that went out to faculty indicated I am going to focus on my writing, I still get the odd instant message asking me what my plans are.

​Jenna Moreci's video is not only entertaining (with some NSFW language) but it's chock full of some great tips for both the writer and the beta reader.  Here are some tips for you if you decide to ask me to beta for you.

I don't care what type of writing you want to do or even if you are just someone who enjoys talking about literature--listen to The Story Grid podcast.  I even recently suggested it to my students of academic writing.