Day 7 of NaNoWriMo

So yesterday was kind of a break in the action for me. I only wrote a couple hundred words, but it was much needed break. Considering that I am ahead of the word goal, I'm confident that I will hit 50,000 words by the end of the month.

Todays blog challenge is to tell about your favorite place to hunker down and write. Let me give you the tour. You open up the plain wooden door of my room, grabbing hold of the brass door knob and turn the handle. An old antique bed frame is there to greet you immediately on your left. The iron frame worn from use but no less functional. The bed is made currently, a light green sheet on the bottom, neatly tucked into the corners are on the bottom, with a darker green heavier blanket made out of wool is on top. Near the heard of the bed this blanket is folded forward about a foot. 4 pillows are setup near the head of the bed, two having the same color case as that of the bottom sheet, a light green.

Right next to the head of the bed, there's a wooden desk, antique. It's a flattop desk, sanded smooth with several drawers. A metal plaque tells that it is from the Leopold desk company, no longer in business Walking past the desk on the left hand side of the room on the wall is a large whiteboard. About 4 foot by 5 foot long. It's currently full of hand drawn maps of a fantasy world, with certain locations marked on there with their names. You now come to the window in the room, which is double sided. The dark red curtains are drawn aside, letting the daylight filter in. To the right of the window a large wooden bookcase, it is full from top to bottom with books from all genres. Some of the titles include Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, The Great Gatsby, Lord of the Rings, and countless Star Wars books. A metal lamp is placed in the corner by the bookshelf, and a soft, plushy chair is there as well, the cushions a light yellow in color.

That. Is where I like to hunker down and write. Next to my bookshelf if I need to pause in my writing and get some inspiration from a book, or stand up and walk over to my whiteboard to jot down some notes or update my maps.

NaNoWriMo Day 5

So today is day 5 of NaNoWriMo! I've been really engaged with the process and it has been a great experience so far. Today there was a write-in and craft day a fellow Wrimo hosted. While I didn't take part in the crafting going on (the others made some really cool shirts!), I did get some writing done and met some more Wrimos. It's nice being around others who are all working at accomplishing the same goal and who are supportive!

So the challenge for today is to "name two songs from your playlist that you feel are connected with your novel in some way, and explain how they are."

Funny thing is, in the first 5 days of NaNoWriMo, I hadn't listened to any music until tonight! I didn't get a playlist going, I didn't have my internet radio station at Pandora going, nothing. Just the sound of my laptop keys typing away and the chaotic ping of the chat room pinging away.

Tonight however, I was listening to a fellow Wrimos music station while I was writing and it really inspired me and I think I wrote some of my best stuff so far! The music that really did it for me was by a group called Danzig - Black Aria (yes, THAT, Danzig). The reason it worked is that it's a very dark, dreary sounding album, perfect for the atmosphere of my novel, which I hope, is coming off dark and dreary; seeing how it is set in a world that is in constant war and knows no times of peace. I'll be adding more to my playlist everyday as NaNo continues! 

An update on my word count total so far: 11,591.

Day 3 of NaNoWriMo

So today is the third day of NaNoWriMo and I am finding it to be a fun and exciting challenge! The social aspect is what makes the whole process shine.

Last night on the 2nd night of NaNoWriMo I went to my first ever write-in with the regional group I joined, OCGR. The write-in was held at the Rivertown Crossings Barnes and Noble; inside of the Starbucks. Now normally this would have been great for all those coffee drinking writers out there. Ironically enough, our group which had 8 members, were of the non-coffee-drinking variety. Despite this I believe we all supported the Starbucks in some way by buying other drinks and snacks. Green Tea Lattes are my new best friend.

While I did not get the most amount of writing done at the write-in as I would have sitting at my desk, I met a lot of really interesting people and we had some fun conversations and we got to talk about everyones novels they were writing. We got to help each other out when we all suffered a bit of writers block. It's a great atmosphere of everyone supporting one another and enjoying the couple of hours spent on a project a lot of people want to do but few accomplish.

So right now I'm 6,230 words into my novel. It's coming along at a decent pace. I'm a fly by the seat of my pants writer, especially for this project, or as we are known to fellow Wrimos, a pantster. I've written more in 3 days during this project then I have during the first 10 months of the year.

I heard a Nano motto the other day and I'd like to repeat it here;

"The first draft of a novel you write with your heart; the second draft you write with your brain."

Less Than 4 Hours Till Kickoff: Introduction Post

So the start of my first attempt at NaNoWriMo will began in less than 4 hours. Excited? Yep, you bet. Nervous? Absolutely! This is going to be a fun experience, one in which I hope to grow as a writer.

Ever since I was a young kid I had a passion for reading. I also had a passion for pizza, and thanks to Pizza Huts Book-It program; I spent a lot of time reading and ate a lot of pizza.

Over the years I had my own ideas for stories; of faraway lands, heroic characters, and scum-of-the-earth villains. That's where they stayed though, inside my mind. I never thought I had much of a chance to write a novel. Little support, and a lack of confidence caused a lot of those ideas to wither and die.

I found my way to NaNoWriMo last year towards the tail end of the event and completely fell in love with the idea. Like I said though, it was towards the end of the month so I was not able to participate. Well hang on to your seats folks cause I've got the midnight oil burning for the month of November this year!

It's not about making the NY Best Selling List, getting published, or having my work become famous. It's going to be about finishing what I set out to do. I've never completed a story. In 30 days, I'll be able to say the opposite.