Yes, I’m still plugging away, as you can see from the word count chart on the right. Of course, you’ll also see that I’m running terribly, horribly, painfully behind. Tonight was a good night though, so I’ll focus on that.

The novel is also coming along nicely; I’m quite please so far with the results, if not the progress. (yep, probably jinxed myself there!)

This week has been very busy, and stressful, so writing has had to take a bit of a back seat. Let’s hope that things smooth out a bit for a while, and I can get caught up on my word count. It’s been discouraging, but I’m not giving up.

I promise a more in-depth post over the weekend. It’s late, and I’m exhausted.

First off, as you may have noticed, I was able to successfully move the typepad blog entries here. It was pretty easy, after my hubby pointed out that the path was incorrect. (duh!)

If you read the e-book, please let me know what you think (good or bad!). I’d appreciate your comments. My mom is reading it even as we speak, so keep your fingers crossed.
I’ll be keeping up with the blog over the next few weeks through Nano, and I’ll keep everyone posted as to my progress. Good luck fellow NaNoWriMo-ers.

Happy Halloween, everyone! We had about 240 kids this year, which was only around half of last year’s count. Yes, it looks very much like we’re being mobbed by zombie hordes. Isn’t that cool? Not bad for a rainy night.

Stay tuned, NaNo is soon to begin.

I thought I’d mention a couple things I have going on.

First of all, I’m outlining the Nano novel. As I’ve mentioned (how many times…), Nano begins on the first of November. I’ve participated for the last two years, and for both of those I wrote from the seat of my pants, so to speak. I’ve decided to loosely outline this year’s novel, probably outlining 6 or 12 scenes ahead. I’m hoping that this will give the novel a bit more structure without killing the spontaneity of the experience. I’ll keep you posted on how it’s working.

I’m also finishing up a short story for Paperback Writer’s e-boook contest. That will be posted here by Halloween, so please stop back by and download it. You should also check out her site for the other entries; I’m betting there will be quite a few of them.

I’m preparing to move this blog from typepad to its own server. It’s not that I’m unhappy with typepad, but we’re already paying hosting on that box, and it doesn’t make sense to pay both. Besides, the company we’re using Open Source CMS is very good. I’m thinking of giving WordPress a try. I’m not sure if that will happen this weekend, but I hope to have it finished before the e-book goes up. I’ll leave this one up for a while with a link to the new one.

So, that’s what I’ve been doing, and will be doing. Happy weekend!

It’s almost November, and National Novel Writing Month is just around the corner. Check out the NaNo Site .

I’ve participated in, and won, NaNo for the past two years. In 2004, I ended up with a novel that i still think is promising. It’s the one I’ve been editing for the past weeks. In 2005 I finished with about 60,000 words of swill. That’s how it goes.

If you’ve never participated, then it’s a great chance to get a rough draft (or most of one) in a very short time. Although 50,000 words isn’t really novel length, it’s certainly a great start. I’ve also learned that the speedy writing allows plot twists to develop that I’d never have considered and reveals character traits I’d never thought of.

Here are some tips for finishing NaNo, in no particular order.

1. Write every day. I know that’s an obvious one, but you really have to write every, single day. It’s very easy to fall behind, and you can quickly lose enough ground that you won’t even be able to dream of catching up.
2. You don’t need a block of time in which to write. You may want a block of time, and you’ll need to carve out writing time in your schedule, but you can squeeze some writing in virtually anywhere. Write while you’re waiting to pick up the kids, eating lunch, on hold on the phone. You get the idea. You’ll boost your word count, but more importantly, you’ll train yourself to fall into "writing mode" much more quickly.
3. Don’t edit. At all. Ever. Not even a little bit. Once you fall into the editing trap, you’ll waste precious time when you shouid be writing. You’re not shooting for a publishable work in one month. Think ROUGH DRAFT. Once you fall into the editing trap, you’re likely to never find your way out. You have been warned.
4. Don’t despair. No one said you have to write a great novel in one month, or even a good one. You want to write a novel, just a novel, in one month (as is that weren’t enough). Don’t stress yourself about its quality; you’re too close to the process to be any judge of the quality anyway. Write, and worry about reworking the novel later.
5. Enjoy yourself. Writing a novel in a month is hard work, but it’s also lots of fun. Why do you think thousands of crazy ambitious people do this every November?

If you’re doing NaNo and blogging about it, leave your blog address in the comments and I’ll link to you. I’d appreciate it if you’d reciprocate.

So, how many people out there are doing NaNo in February?

I am one of them, hence the shortage of blog posts lately. I’m struggling to hit my daily word goals (truthfully, I haven’t made my goal even once), so most of my energy is going into the novel.

So, if you’re checking out the blog, please be patient. I plan on getting some posts up in the next day or so, as well as a novel update. As for the novel, it’s a sequal to the November NaNo novel, but I’ve really been struggling to get the momentum going. Since I don’t normally write from outline, I’m literally working the story-line out as I go. Challenging, but ultimately, very fun and rewarding.