Today is Day 5 of NaNoWriMo and I am currently participating in the local write-in here for the first time. I'm possibly breaking rules by blogging instead of working on my novel right now, but I wanted to supply everyone with a quick update.

I am currently sitting at only 11,872 which is ahead of the pace I'll need to hit the 50k goal for NaNo, but behind my personal goal of hitting 100k. The reason I'm behind is because yesterday, my amazing boyfriend surprised me by taking me out to dinner at a Brazilian steak house where I ate way too much food and hardly had time to get in my 1,667 words before falling into a food coma for the rest of the night.

So far today, I've been busy meeting up with my siblings to celebrate my birthday and picking out my birthday presents from my boyfriend. He told me he wanted to buy me some books on the writing craft, because he's supportive like that, and he's also smart enough that he knew better than to try and pick them out himself :P

I obviously haven't read them yet, but I'll share a picture of what I got at the end of the post, then share reviews of them as I get around to reading them.

For now, I really have to start working on my novel and putting this write-in designated time to good use. With luck I'll reach 15k by tomorrow.

I'd love to hear about any other NaNo success stories or what your favorite writing craft novel is.

Ciao.

​

I'm in no position to lecture anyone on what to do or not to do in pursuit of their dreams, but it occurred to me today that we should all take a moment to be grateful for the good things in our life, big or small. Be grateful to participate in something fun like NaNoWriMo. Be grateful for the people in your life who support you. Be grateful for the amazing piece of technology currently at your fingertips that is more advanced than the computers that sent man to the moon. Be grateful that you are capable of imagination and the capacity to form stories in your mind and put them down on paper, or even just envision the words of others as you read the stories they have written.

It's day 3 of NaNoWriMo. I'm approaching 10k words and will hopefully hit it by tonight. But if I don't, if I fall short of that self-imposed goal, I'm still grateful today for all that I have and all that I am able to do. And I encourage you all to be grateful, too.

Another day, another 1,667 words.

Actually, that's not quite accurate. Yesterday I wrote 3,770, so even though I've only written 1,411 words today, I'm already ahead of my Day 3 goal if I was just aiming for the 50k by November 30 goal.

While some of my success so far is coming from having a very helpful idea board hanging on my office wall to remind me of what direction my story is going, and more of it is coming from being able to bounce ideas off of my boyfriend (who usually doesn't say anything but also doesn't make me feel like I'm going crazy talking to myself), I think a lot of my success and inspiration is actually coming from the NaNoWriMo forum pages. There are people on there who have already reached 30, 40, or even 50k words in under 48 hours, and although I think that's crazier than talking to myself, I also think that is very inspiring.

And maybe something George R. R. Martin should consider.

But I digress. This isn't my first attempt at NaNoWriMo, and if I reach my goal of 50k (which I should be able to easily do at this rate) it won't even be my first time winning, but I do think it is the first time I've felt this motivated to finish, and to do a good job while writing.

It's early yet, and I'm not opposed to grabbing on to the traveling shovel of death to help add to the word count (and if you're a NaNoer and don't know what the shovel of death is, you should look into it because I used that during my first "win" and it still appears in The Bodyguard to this day), but so far I'm happy with the writing I've come up with, and pleasantly surprised that it's not the vomit draft I was expecting. 

If anyone else here is participating in NaNoWriMo this year, I would love to hear about it. And if you're still thinking of it, it isn't too late to join! If some people can write 50k words in less than two days, you can do that in less than 30.

Let's hear some cheers for the start of another NaNoWriMo!

*cheering sounds*

As you all probably know, November is National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo for short. During the month of November, writers have 30 days to write 50k words. That averages out to 1,667 words a day, a large but not undoable amount of words.

There are a lot of great resources out there to help people with their NaNoWriMo goals, but if you're looking for more information I suggested you go to the source at NaNoWriMo.org where you can find resources, forums, and swag to get you through the month.

So far, I've surpassed today's word goal with nearly 2k words written on day one, and plan to keep writing throughout the day. My goal this month is not just to complete NaNoWriMo and take home the title of "winner," but to complete a rough draft of the sequel to The Talented. This will be the fourth time I've scrapped and restarted T2, but I think this one will work because rather than starting over at roughly the same place and proving my insanity by trying the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome, I have completely changed the plot and setting for the sequel, and although I'm only one scene into the actual writing and have only plotted out the first half of the book, I'm having a better feeling about this than I ever had about the other versions of the sequel.

So best of luck to all the other NaNoWriMos out there, and if you've ever thought of writing a book yourself but are too daunted by the task, I suggest jumping in and seeing where it takes you. Now's the time!