NaNoWriMo 2013

NaNoWriMo is just around the corner. 64 days to be exact. If you don’t know what NaNoWriMo is let me explain. NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month and the objective is to write 50,000 words in 30 days. That works out to be 1,666.67 words a day. Quite a challenge, but it is achievable. I know because I finally did it last year (2012) after failing the two years before. What makes it interesting is that Thanksgiving is in the month of November, so you have to work around that. Last year my wife and I went for a week to Minnesota to visit my daughter and her family during NaNoWriMo. I lost some serious writing time. My daughter, who got me into this, was taking the challenge also and we stayed up a couple nights working on our novels. If you are up for the challenge Google NaNoWriMo and sign up. I have one tip to pass on and that is…don’t give up. Carve out a writing time and turn off anything that will distract you especially people. Just WRITE, WRITE, WRITE. Good Luck. I’ll see you on the other side.

Dan Wells on Story Structure, part 5 of 5

Here it is Part 5 of the 5 part series on Story Structure by Dan Wells. I hope it was helpfull.

Dan Wells on Story Structure, part 4 of 5

Here is Part 4 of 5 in the Dan Wells series on Story Structure. Listen closely to the segmant on Try/Fail Cycle. I thought this was worth remembering.

Dan Wells on Story Structure, part 3 of 5

Sorry I am so far behind on posting  Dan Wells videos on Story Structure. It is the season for writer distraction, you know. What with shopping and traffic.

Dan Wells on Story Structure, part 2 of 5

Here is Part 2 of Dan Wells class on Story Structure. I will post Part 3 tonight and Parts 4 and 5 tomorrow. Hope they are as helpfull to you as they are for me.

Dan Wells on Story Structure, part 1 of 5

I just found this video on another blog and thought I would share it. There are 5 parts so I will post one a night.

As for my revision process that started yesterday...I am currently reading my novel. In every chapter, page, paragraph and sentence I see REVISION. But that is good. At least I'm seeing things that need to be fixed/deleted. I would rather have this then being so in love with every word I wrote that I couldn't delete, remove or rewrite any of it. I will continue reading my novel, taking notes along the way, and next week I will start to work on Chapter 1. Here I am going to spend the most time. When I first started this novel I wrote in the 1rst person then switched over to 3 person. Now I have to change the beginning. I am hoping it doesn't become a big ordeal.

As for the vlog - I had a problem downloading the video. Spent half the day on Sunday. I will try again later in the week.

Revising NaNoWriMo novel

As I said in my previous blog entry I have completed NaNoWriMo 2012 and now have a “novel in the rough”. I say rough because it needs a lot of work (revising). I have decided at the insistence of my lovely wife to use the NaNoWriMo principle to my revising and put a 30 day deadline on completing the first revised draft. So starting Monday, December 10, 2012 I start and must be finished on January 7, 2013. I have enlisted the aid of my daughter and wife to read my rough draft and give me feedback on structure, story line, plot, character development, ect. Not on grammar and punctuation. That can come later. I trust their instinct and judgment when it comes to this. Also, as well as posting on this blog once or twice a week on the progress I am making on the first revision I will be posting a video blog as well. My blogs will be Tuesdays/Thursdays and my Vlog , as I am told it is called, will be posted on Sunday night or Monday. I will play this by ear and see how it goes. So here is my first introductory blog about my NaNoWriMo revision process; because you know it is Thursday.