NaNoWriMo is coming!

NaNoWriMo is coming!

For anyone not aware, November is NaNoWriMo for many authors (National Novel Writing Month). It is a month filled with a ton writing as we all try to complete a 50,000 word rough draft of a novel. And it is so much fun!

This wonderful autumn month we are currently enjoying (I love this time of year! Anyone else a sweater-weather kind of person??) is lovingly dubbed "preptober" for all of us participating in NaNoWriMo. October is the month where we prep our novel for November. And that is exactly what I have been doing.

For a long time, I had no idea what I was going to do for NaNoWriMo this year. I was stumped. The last two years I wrote Return to Sherwood and its sequel, but that story has come to a close. So what would I write next? That was the unanswerable question.

I have many story ideas and partial manuscripts (just one or two chapters), so I went skimming through them to decide which one I wanted to craft into a real novel. It took a great deal of searching, but I finally found one that I wanted to write.

I'm genuinely giddy about writing it, to be honest.

I am going to be dipping my toes into a brand new genre this time around. My Robin Hood series is Historical Fiction (if only loosely based on historical events), Return to Sherwood and its sequel is Historical, and the Finding Hope trilogy is Dystopian. This time around, I'm going to be writing Crime Fiction!

I'm a little bit terrified. I read lots of mysteries and suspense/thriller novels and absolutely love them. But writing them? Even genre has its own rules and styles, and Crime Fiction is a foreign language in many ways. So yes, there's a lot of fear involved. Fear that I won't be good enough to match this genre. Fear that I just don't have what it takes to write Crime Fiction.

But there's also a great deal of joy. I love the story idea, and I have been having more fun than I can easily describe prepping my novel for November. I have my outline, my character profiles, my period research (because yes, it is rather historical in its own way. I can't help it. History is where my heart lies).

I'm eager for November to arrive so that I can actually start writing this novel.


Are any of you participating in NaNoWriMo? If so, what sort of projects are you working on?



Happy Writing, Everybody!

Quarterly Writing Goals

It's October! That means a lot of things in my world. First, it's the #preptober, the month authors use to prep the book they plan on writing in November--for those authors, like myself, who write a novel for NaNoWriMo every year. Second, it's the beginning of the last quarter of the year. And you know what that means?

Yep.

It's time to look back at my goals from last quarter and make some new goals to finish out the year!

Goal #1 Finish the sequel to Return to Sherwood. I did it!!! Woot! Woot! That novel took me so long to finish, but I finally did! Now it just has to be edited...

Goal #2 Edit Return to Sherwood POVs. This, I did not finish, but I certainly got started and worked steadily through. It's a massive project removing 15 individual POVs to edit/revise personal character arcs and then put all the POVs back together again. I got a lot done. I'm happy.

Goal #3 Send Return to Sherwood to my editors. This was only if I finished the above goal, which I did not, so this did not happen. But I'm not disappointed. The above goal is a behemoth of a project and I did work hard on it.

Goal #4 was simply to purchase some more ISBNs. My car broke down this month so I had other bills, and therefore this goal was not met.

Goal #5 was to find a Cover Artist for Return to Sherwood. I did this once before, and it didn't work out. I have now done it again. It remains to be seen if it actually works out this time.

I also later added the goal of brainstorming the next story I will write. And I did my brainstorming. :)

I have been very productive since coming back to work. My lazy summer off work I got nothing done, but here in the routine and structure of my job, I'm very productive in my writing time. I've been editing my next novel, finishing the next manuscript, and brainstorming a brand-new story. I'm very satisfied with August and September.

Will I be as productive in the last three months of the year? Only time will tell...

What are my goals for the last quarter of the year?

Finish Editing Return to Sherwood POVs  This is still a huge project, but I have been chipping away at it steadily and plan on getting done before Christmas.

Edit sequel I'm throwing this out there, but only if I finish the above goal. The sequel will have to have the same overhaul edit of each POV which will take a long time and a lot of hard work.

#Preptober  October is, for writers who participate in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), the month where we prep whatever novel we will be writing in November. For me, that is the novel I brainstormed last quarter. So this quarter, particularly in October, I need to do character profiles, outline the novel, and research.

Write New Story  In November I will be writing the novel that I prep in October. It is a mystery/crime fiction which is a completely new genre for me to write in. It is a genre I read frequently, however, and I am excited to dip my toes into the murky waters!

Purchase More ISBNs  I plan on publishing Return to Sherwood next year, and will, therefore, need at least one new ISBN before then. An author can never have too many ISBNs on hand.

Plan for Conferences  This one is fairly simply; I need to decide what conferences I am going to in the Spring. I usually only go to one, but I have been looking into a second one for next year. I need to get that all sorted out before the New Year.


So there you have it; my goals for the next three months. For the most part, I will be editing Return to Sherwood and writing my mystery novel.

Happy Writing, everybody!



Are any of you participating in NaNoWriMo? If so, what project are you working on?