 To write a book in a month? Fifty Thousand words here I come. Given a win this Nov. my steampunk/fantasy wip, Skyborn, with be over 100k for the first draft. I expect that will be heavily trimmed down during revisions as sentence structure gets tightened up, but edits will tell when the time comes. I won my first NaNoWriMo by writing almost entirely on my phone, here, there, and everywhere, when I had time. Which, unless you are one of the speed demons out there, 50k in a month a takes significant time investment. (There are some who spill their counts out in the first day or week. Ouch and how?) But I tend to be the plod along to the standard daily count of 1667 until the last few days when I hit my deadline pressure point a dump out a couple 5k days and call it won a day or two early; though the story is often not complete yet. This year, I am going to try adding dictation to my routine and see how it goes. I also have a specific writing channel on pandora that I listen too when I'm writing. It's kind of pirate metal, weird but has a beat, and I absolutely only listen to it if am I writing. Video game music is a great soundtrack option too-If you are like me and can't stand silence anyway. I always have something going given the choice. So for those of you who are braving the challenge, welcome! I won't say it's easy, but it is doable! Prepare your snacks. Stretch your fingers. Here are some link you might find helpful, we all have our own systems of churning out the words. The official site! www.nanowrimo.org You'll find partners, sprint, gauntlets, and all sorts of word games to bring the challenge along. Writing Game fun! Get your word count and progress in the story game here. https://4thewords.com/home It is a paying game, but past Nanowrimos have been open and free for the month and if you win the official nano, there's been discount codes for the site. Free and simple, if unfinished, is Fighter's Block, it's timer system keeps the fingers moving. http://cerey.github.io/fighters-block For writing progress breakdown beside the official site, try Pacemaker https://www.pacemaker.press/ There's a NaNoWriMo facebook group, which usually has sprints running all month Same for Twitter. Probably tumblr too, though I've not run into it. Track all of your new characters and their imporant details with my Writing Workbook series! https://www.chknyght.com/writing-workbooks.html You can find some fun prompts here: https://www.chknyght.com/fav-writing-tools.html Whatever you do, don't stop, don't edit. don't fall into the research pit. It can all be made pretty and sensical after the fact, in like February. Just make notes as you go. I like to insert them like ((this in parenthesis)) so I can find them later with the search function. It is an international month of writing madness! If you join the challenge, good luck! If you're not writing, cheer us on! If you know one of us in person, check up, make sure we are eating, and aren't beating our head on our keyboards, or totally lost in the worlds we are creating. It happens. ;P 
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Or NaNoWriMo as we call it, # it, sob it into our keyboard, scream enthusiastically into the night of Nov1, sob it into our keyboards about a week and a half in. Ok maybe a little dramatic, maybe, but we are writers, what else do you expect from us? You know, besides the cliché introverted, coffee-guzzling, cat-snuggling, drowning in the research wondering why we aren't getting any work done writer's life. NaNoWriMo if you have heard of it, starts Nov 1, the goal being writing fifty thousand words by the end of the month. We all approach it our own way, classic, rogue, overkill, planner, panster, plantser. However we pull it off, the idea is to spew out the first rough draft of your book. Once, it exists, it can all be made pretty later, draft two-infinity. Nano is purely for getting it out there. There are actually other months, April and June I believe, that have similar challenges called Camp NanoWrimo. This will be my fifth NaNo, I am semi-rebelling by working on an already in-progress project, Skyborn a steampunk tale I worked on previous Nano, but I am intending to add another full 50k to it, so it still counts. ;) There's time to prepare and jump in! Have a book you've been dreaming about? nanowrimo.org/nano-prep-101  In other news, Nightvision Dawn's Sacrifice is off to endure its first editing round. Getting it edited is nerve-wracking, but my developmental editor, Michelle Dunbar, will help me make it the best it can be, and it's nice to have other eyes on it to point out the weak spots that I'm blind to.  Inktober is upon us, and I say that with nearly the gravity bestowed on NaNoWriMo, (a thing for next month if you haven't heard of it.) Inktober is not my brainchild, but it is amazing for brain sparks. It is a prompt list generated by the artist Jake Parker who started the idea of spending the month flexing our art muscles by drawing daily in ink. This month, they've added the idea for writers to join in by writing 50+ words for the prompts. It's a creative exercise to help us break out of ruts or back into the creative stream if we need a jumpstart. It can be scrabbles and drabbles or masterpieces with hours of work poured into them. If you live on s.media, especially IG, and follow any artists, chances are really good your going to be seeing a lot of inkwork, if you haven't already as I'm writing this two days into the month already. I haven't officially started either version of Inktober, though I usually try my hand at drawing all month. I'm still scrambling to hold to deadlines for Nightvision. It's happening, but not at the pace I need it to be. This blog post is already longer than what I've written on Nightvision yet today; though, it is my plan for the rest of my day. I do have a few ideas sketched out, mostly illustrations for Nightvision to keep my brain on the right track, so hopefully I'll get some proper ink on my fingers. If you are curious, inspired and want to join in; here is the official prompt list, though there are several unofficial lists, or rogue players in general. The idea is to create, whatever form that takes.  Some of my sketch plans to be inked. Everything starts as scribbles. ;) It doesn't have to be perfect or pretty in the first drafts, some of these have already be refined since I snapped these pics. There's a couple of peeks into Dawn's Sacrifice here. Princess Nakai, Prince Dante, King Marius, King Marius's Elemental, Lemurta, Queen Jeziah. |
AuthorC. H. Knyght. author of fantasy and paranormal tales. Magic is creation. Archives
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