I’m barely squeaking in before my bedtime (yes, I go to bed early these days), but I got it done. There were a few points in the day where I was worried, but I even managed to take the kids to the library and get some grocery shopping done. So I think I had a [...]

Have you ever underestimated the amount of time something would take? Or underestimated the amount of time that would be stolen from working on that something? I did both of those things. I hadn’t looked at my 30 Days of PreWriting posts since I first put them up. I expected to have to fix a [...]

I have been a writer basically for as long as I knew my letters. I remember being four or five and asking my mother how to spell word after word as I wrote notes and letters to. . . someone. I don’t really remember who. In second or third grade, the school librarian helped me [...]

Storyfix.com saved my NaNovel this past November. I openly admit that I never would have made it to 50,000 words if not for the Story Structure series on that site. It was mind-blowing. Now, I’m hoping that the information there will save a different novel: my first. Some people will have read The Mansion when [...]

I do not like the Holidays. Ever since I worked the Holiday season at a Target about ten years ago, I just haven’t been able to get into the spirit. It’s supposed to be a season of cheer and instead it ends up being a season of rudeness, greed, and way too much traffic. A [...]

By the time this post goes up, I should be really really close to winning (like 3000 ish words away), if I’m not done already. Week Three was by far the hardest. And not even because of my novel. Week Three I was saddled with both jury duty and training with H&R Block for this [...]

My first NaNoWriMo was in 2006. I started the month with nothing more than a counting down tagline, a couple rough characters, and some ideas. And I was doing okay. I was slightly ahead, even. And then I hit the scene. The scene where my brain completely shut down. I couldn’t figure out why I [...]

I have a confession to make. I have never been behind before. At least not for more than a day. Even the year that I didn’t finish, I was right on track to make the 50k before I got stuck and ended up quitting. But this year, I was behind for almost a week. Starting [...]

One week before NaNoWriMo began, my uncle was murdered. And everyone in my head went silent. I have never felt so completely drained of creativity and imagination. The entire week, as I spent time with my family, avoided reading increasingly negative news articles, and prepared to attend the funeral, I was also thinking about the [...]

Today’s Link: www.nanowrimo.org First of all, if you haven’t signed up on the NaNoWriMo website, go do it. I’ll wait. Really. I’ve got time. The fact is, everything that I’ve said, and probably more can be found on that site. It’s also the way you win (by reporting your word count to the site). And, [...]