Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!!

 

While we are celebrating the day with our families, exchanging gifts, and eating special holiday dinners, let us not forget the true meaning of Christmas.  It is the day we celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ.  It's a day of new beginnings.  A day of Hope. 

 

Merry Christmas, everyone. 

 



(Last) NaNoWriMo Update

It's 10:20pm on the East Coast.  Just a little over an hour and a half to reach 50k.

My final word count: 50,052

Yes, I could have continued writing...after all, I do have over an hour left, but I had to stop and upload to validate my word count on www.nanowrimo.org.  Plus, I had to call and scream and cheer with my friends who have suffered--and triumphed--through this month with me.

I am still a little in shock though...

Now here comes the fun part...................EDITING!!!

Congrats fellow NaNoWriMos!

Megg

Final Day of NaNoWriMo

It's finally here. 

 

November 30th. 

 

The last day of NaNoWriMo 2012.

 I haven't quite made it to 50k yet, but I am a lot closer than I thought I would be by this time.  Tuesday was a terrible writing day for me and I definitely did not achieve 3000 words that night...more like 1000.  Meaning on Wednesday, I had 11000 words to write between Wednesday and today. 

Fortunately, I have an amazing friend who refused to let me give up Wednesday night.  I was ready to throw in the towel because I knew that 11000 words in three days, while not impossible, would be somewhat difficult considering I couldn't call out of work to write.  But there we sat, in Barnes and Noble (with a venti Peppermint Mocha) and before I left, I had over 3000 words.  When I got home, I wrote another 2000. 

Last night was almost as productive when I wrote over 4000 words after I got home from work.  And now, all that is left is 1,389 words until I reach 50k.  The finish line is right there and I will cross it before the day is over.

This month has been tough, and to any and all people that have had to put up with me these last 30 days, I'm sorry.  I promise that come December, I will actually sleep and have conversations that have something to do with anything other than writing, my characters, or my storyline (I'm sure I will still have those conversations...but I'll talk about other things too).  And I promise to try not to comnplain too much about having to edit 50k words.

Congratulations to any and all NaNoWriMo participants.  We did it.  We survived November.  And even if you haven't reached 50k yet, don't worry.  The point is that we all did it and we all wrote something unique, we all created something that is our own.  And no one can take that away from us.  Be proud of what you've written and everything that you've accomplished.

 

The finish line is so close! 

I will see you in the Winner's Circle!

 

Megg

Last Week of NaNoWriMo

This is it...

 

The final four days of NaNoWriMo.

 

And I'm behind on my word count...again.

 

But it's okay becaues I still have four days.  And if I can write 3000 words everyday for the next four days, then I will reach and surpass my goal of 50,000.

 

3000 words/day is not that hard.  At least, that's what I keep telling myself.

 

This month has been amazing for me as far as writing goes.  For the longest time, I was in a writing slump that I wasn't sure I'd ever climb out of.  And now I look at my 38,000+ partial manuscript and I know that I've done it.  Sure, my novel is far from completion, but 38,000 words is still something to be excited about.  And believe me--I am.  yes, this last week was somewhat difficult with so much going on, but I won't let that take away from how much I've already accomplished. 

 

These last four days are going to be hard.  I've already set my dvr to record all my shows coming on this week and have resigned myself to the fact that I won't see sunshine (partly because it's cloudy out and supposed to rain) until I reach my goal. 

 

So for all you NaNoWriMo participants still struggling to make your word count...keep going!  You still FOUR days to make it and you can get there!

 

To all of you NaNoWriMo participants that are just about to meet your goal--or to those who have surpassed it already--congratulations!  And don't stop at just 50,000! Keep going!  See how far November can take you!

 

Good luck!

 

Megg

 

 



(Another) NaNoWriMo Update

Day 18 of NaNoWriMo

Target Goal on NaNoWriMo for the end of today is 30,006 words. 

Word Count as of 5:25 pm on Nov. 18: 30,259 words

Good luck and keep writing!!

Megg

NaNoWriMo Word Count Update

It's almost 2am on the 18th day of NaNoWriMo!!

Sadly, I am still behind on my word count, but today was a very productive day of writing (well technically yesterday was...).  I did say that I would update my word count later on tonight, but I decided not to wait.  So after adding up all my different documents I've worked on, my word count as of right now is....

I know that I should have hit the 25,000 word mark a couple of days ago, when we were halfway through the month, but like I said, I was behind...like 9000 words behind.  And now...well, now I'm still behind.  But only by 2000 or so.  (I'm not including how many words I'm supposed to do today, since we're only two hours into today).  So, I just need to double my goal for today, and I'll be about even with where I need to be.  

To NaNoWriMo participants: KEEP GOING!  We're over halfway there!

Megg

Halfway Through NaNoWriMo

We're already more than halfway through November.  For NaNoWriMo participants, this means that we should all be past the 25,000 word count mark.  This past week has been more difficult for me, but I'm hoping that I can make up a lot of ground this weekend (which is why I won't post my next word count update until Sunday night).

But even if I don't make up as much ground as I would like, I still have almost two weeks to get to the final total of 50,000 words.  It's going to be a long, grueling two weeks, but I can do it!  And so can you!

So, if you're struggling through your novel like I am, just keep going.  That scene that isn't meshing right with everything else will still be there for you to edit in December.  It's not going anywhere.  If you're stuck, go to a different scene, work with another character in your book.  Just don't stop writing.  Reward yourself it that helps.  For every 1000 words you write today, get up and have a mini dance party or watch a Maroon 5 music video (which may or may not be what I've been doing...).  Step away for a few minutes and come back feeling inspired and ready to shell out another 1000.

Good luck this weekend and I hope everyone out there participating covers a lot of ground this weekend, whether you're behind your goal, or you're looking to get ahead some.

And now, I'll stop procrastinating and get back to work!

Megg

NaNoWriMo Update

Welcome to Day 5 of NaNoWriMo!

Word Count as of Nov. 5 at 1:00 am is 10,124

To any other NaNoWriMo participants out there, good luck and keep writing!  

Megg

Thought for the Day

"This is how you do it:  you sit down at the keyboard and you put one word after another until it's done.  It's that easy, and that hard."  Neil Gaiman

I felt like this was a very appropriate quote for the first day of NaNoWriMo.  Because there comes a time, when you must shut out everyone and everything else, leaving you completely alone with your writing. So you must sit down--turn off the wi-fi, the tv, and the phone--and just write.  Start with one word, then two.  It'll turn into a sentence before you know it.  And pretty soon, you'll have one chapter, then two. 

Just like Mr. Gaiman said:  "It's that easy, and that hard."

Happy NaNoWriMo!

Megg

NaNoWriMo

It's that time of the year again...NaNoWriMo is back!!

The National Novel Writing Month is just less than an hour away here on the East Coast, and I am ready! For the next 30 days, I plan on throwing myself into my writing and coming out of this month with a manuscript.  My biggest issue with participating in this month has always been that I tend to edit while I write.  I don't like moving on from a scene until it is perfect (well not perfect...but as perfect as it's going to get at that point in the book).

But NaNoWriMo isn't about ending the month with a complete, polished manuscript that can be sent to a publisher on December 1st.  It's about getting your idea and your material onto paper.  It's about pushing yourself beyond your limits and embracing your creativity, letting it take you to places you've never gone before.

So for the next 30 days, I will hide my red pens (or give them to a friend, so I'm not tempted to pull one out and make just a few corrections) and focus solely on putting my words onto paper.  I will periodically post updates during the month to track the status and hopefully by the end of November, I'll have a compete (ugly, unedited) manuscript.  And in December, I'll post about how much of a pain it is to edit, but at that point...the hard part's over.

Right?

Or else I'll find out that writing it was the easy part and editing it was what stalled me in the first place.

Either way, I am looking forward to the month of November and the challenges it will present that I will strive to overcome.  I am looking forward to holding my novel in my hands at the end of this month, proving that I survived NaNoWriMo.

 Good luck to any fellow writers out there!!  And check out the official NaNoWriMo site:  http://www.nanowrimo.org/

Happy Halloween and Happy NaNoWriMo.

ATTENTION

Everyone:

Please go see this movie.  

That is all.

Hello World

"Hello World.  How've you been?  Good to see you my old friend."

Last night was one stop on Lady Antebellum's We Own the Night tour with Darius Rucker and Thompson Square and I must say that it was one of the best concerts that I have been to.  Music has always been a great outlet for me...just like writing.  That's why I write best by putting my iTunes library on shuffle and spending the night writing and listening to music.  Last night though was so amazing.  I love Thompson Square and it was great getting to see them, and Darius Rucker just blew me away (especially with his song, Southern State of Mind and his rendition of Hank Jr.'s "Family Tradition").  But the energy that Lady A had on stage was just incredible and lit up the entire sold-out arena.  And their song, "Hello World" was so inspiring to hear live.  

The weird thing was that I wasn't even going to the concert.  My friend and I had tried to buy tickets a month ago and we couldn't get seats.  This past week, I was listening to the radio at work, and they were giving away tickets to the 24th caller and you had to name the 6 hottest songs that they had just played and the artist who sang them.  I figured, what did I have to lose by calling in?  The first two times it was busy, but the third time, there was a pause, and then a ring, and then someone picked up on the other end.  After a lot of freaking out and jumping around the office, I named off the six songs and won a pair of tickets to the sold-out concert.  I've called countless times before for various concerts and had never won that it almost stopped me from calling this time, but I'm so glad I did.

There was a reason I was at the concert last night, a reason why I got to feel the energy from the stage through the whole crowd.  It's left me feeling motivated and inspired and alive.

"Hello World."

Thought for the Day

"I learned that you should feel when writing, not like Lord Byron on a mountain top, but like a child stringing beads in kindergarten--happy, absorbed and quietly putting one bead on after another."  Brenda Ueland

This is not specific to writing.  This quote can be applied to any job or career, and really, to any area of life.  I really don't have much to add to this.  I think it speaks for itself.  I will end with these few thoughts though:

Do what makes you happy.

Live your life doing things that you love.

I love writing.  There are times, yes, where it gets tedious and I just don't want to do it.  There are other times though, when I sit down at my computer and get so wrapped up in the story, so involved with the lives of my characters, I feel like I never want to leave their world, my world, the world that I created.

That's the great thing about being a writer.  Writers hold the power in their hand to make whole worlds and nothing can hold us back except the limits of our own imaginations.  We hold the power to take readers to new and exciting places and meet exotic characters that they just can't help but fall in love with.

I love the feeling I get when I become lost in a book that I'm reading...but when that book is the one that I'm writing, I have this hope that maybe someone else will feel the same way I do when they read it.  They'll fall right into it, right into every scene with my characters, living their story with them, as if it was their own.

So, maybe I did have more to say on this than I thought, but the main point I'm trying to make is be happy, and do things that keep you happy.  And if you're doing something you love, and you're just not happy with it, take a break.  Get away.  Take a road trip for a day and go up to that mountain top, or go stick your feet in the ocean.  Clear your head.  And then, just sit down and write.  Maybe it's not what you're supposed to be working on and maybe that deadline is looming awfully close.  But write for you.  Get lost in your writing all over again.  Remember why it used to make you happy.

Find your spark.  Lose yourself in your writing and find your happiness inside.

Megg

Thought for the Day

"I love deadlines.  I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by."  Douglas Adams

This one's for you.

You know who you are.

Mid-Year Check In

So it is now June in the glorious year of 2012.  This also happens to be my first post of the year...I get the feeling that I'm doing something wrong here...

The good news is I have been diligently writing, even though I haven't been keeping up with my posts on here.  The trick now is to merge my 27 documents (or so) into one.  Hopefully, once this happens and I help all these individual scenes fit into the my manuscript, my thoughts will be much more organized and I'll be able to clearly map out where I go from there (not that I'll follow it, but at least I'll have a guideline to throw out the window).

So here's to a fabulous 2012 (well the rest of it...the first half has been pretty fabulous already though), and I know the one thing that would make this year absolutely fantastic would be to finish my manuscript.  And I intend to do just that.

Megg