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To nanowrimo or not to nanowrimo?

It’s that time of year again – nanowrimo, or National Novel Writing Month. Thousands of people are devoting the entire month of November to writing 50,000-word novels.

I don’t actually have a plan this year, or even an idea of what my novel will be about. I’m just going to fly by the seat of my […]

We're all adjusting

Apparently it’s not cheating if you cheat at Nanowrimo. It’s called Being a Rebel. They even have Rebel badges and everything. Rebels are creating all kinds of books at Nanowrimo, including cook books, memoirs, short story collections, haiku collections, and more. I even saw that one person is doing the first draft of her thesis […]

We have our work cut out for us

GC and I both have our work cut out for us in November: I’m writing a book and he’s growing a mustache.

National Novel Writing Month (more affectionately known as Nanowrimo) requires participants to write a 50,000-word novel during the month of November.

This will be my third year participating. My first two novels […]

Feeling sorry for myself

Yesterday I was sick. It hit me very suddenly at 10:30 in the morning. I spent the day in my pajamas on the couch, trying not to throw up. I feel marginally better today.

In the afternoon I got an email from that job I’ve been after – the one where I’ve been taking all those […]

Story ideas

Last year I read Stephen King’s Book, On Writing. It was really good, as books about writing go. One of the things that stuck with me was that there is nothing new under the sun. There are no new ideas, just new combinations of ideas. He says to take two unrelated things, and combine them […]

Tabula Rasa

GC and I are about to embark on National Novel Writing Month (Nanowrimo), which starts tomorrow and continues for all of November. The object of the exercise is to write the first draft of a 50,000 word novel in 30 days.

Last year I had a plan. I knew what my novel was about: two people […]

My novel: Inside Out Pork Bellies*

Remember the novel I wrote in 18 days last November, as part of National Novel Writing Month (Nanowrimo)? Remember how all I could blog about all month was how crappy my novel was?

The thing about writing a novel that fast is that there’s no time for editing or even reading what you’ve already written. You […]

The End

On Wednesday afternoon, after 18 days of frenetic writing, I finished my Nanowrimo novel! I typed my 50,000th word, completed the sentence, wrote THE END and exhaled deeply. Woohoo. I hit the word count button, and it said my novel was 50,023 words long.

I don’t know what I expected…some sort of hoopla, I guess. […]

It’s a bad, bad book

My Nanowrimo novel continues to limp along. It’s up to 38,547 words now, or 101 paperback pages. If I were to choose one word to describe it, it would be “flaccid.” Lacking vigor or energy. Weak. Soft.

When you know your book is irredeemably bad, it’s hard to keep putting in the time and energy […]

This. And that.

1. Nanowrimo is sucking all the words right out of me, and the blog is paying the price. I’m up to 31,000 words now. The novel is atrocious.

2. I walked to Wellington Street to have lunch with my friend Richard yesterday, AND! For the first time in about eight or nine months, I logged […]