With the holidays and the end of fall semester just around the corner, most activities are taking a break in December. This is a good time to catch up on reading. I started reading Bill Cobb<92>s Goodnight, Texas, which I<92>ll be reviewing in the next week or two, but 27 pages into the book, I<92>m ready to highly recommend it to the women in my book discussion group.
Or, fill in the gap between the regular season and the bowl game with a book on Penn State football. At this time of the year, I like to read books about baseball, as it reminds me that warm weather is coming.
The beginning of December also means that November has come and gone, and the NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) contest has ended.
Several of my friends made it to 50,000 words. I tried to log in my final count at midnight, but my computer took a hair too long and the counter was disabled. Officially, the website says I finished at 7600 words, but it was actually 8225. Either way, not even close to 50,000.
Even so, I think I did a pretty good job, considering that throughout November, my paying job required between 10-15 thousand words worth of articles, and many more words of emails and interviews. I easily wrote over 50,000 words this month, just not in my novel. As one of my Nano winner friends said, <93>I<92>d gladly give up my novel for paying gigs.<94> And of course, there was the Thanksgiving holiday, two football games, and a bit of travel time thrown into the mix.
It was a good experience. I went into the month without a plot or characters or a clue with what I was writing about. I left the month with characters, the inklings of a plot, and a story that finds itself unfolding when I least expect it. Sometimes I would write myself into a corner, wondering how I<92>d get out of it, but then I<92>d let it sit for a bit, and the problem would solve itself.
The problem with Nano as it is set up now is two-fold: first, November is a really tough month for most people, in the U.S. anyway, to write, and second, while lots of people start the novel, they don<92>t bother to finish it. I think in general most writers are like me, they are motivated by deadlines and time limits. So I<92>m going to propose January as Finish Your Novel Month. January is usually a quiet month. The social obligations are pretty much over. Super Bowl isn<92>t until February. Holiday gift buying and returning are completed. It<92>s a perfect month for curling up by the fire with a cup of hot chocolate and writing or editing, depending on where you might be.
Besides, what better time to make a resolution to finish that novel than New Year<92>s Day? Who wants to join me?
Or, fill in the gap between the regular season and the bowl game with a book on Penn State football. At this time of the year, I like to read books about baseball, as it reminds me that warm weather is coming.
The beginning of December also means that November has come and gone, and the NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) contest has ended.
Several of my friends made it to 50,000 words. I tried to log in my final count at midnight, but my computer took a hair too long and the counter was disabled. Officially, the website says I finished at 7600 words, but it was actually 8225. Either way, not even close to 50,000.
Even so, I think I did a pretty good job, considering that throughout November, my paying job required between 10-15 thousand words worth of articles, and many more words of emails and interviews. I easily wrote over 50,000 words this month, just not in my novel. As one of my Nano winner friends said, <93>I<92>d gladly give up my novel for paying gigs.<94> And of course, there was the Thanksgiving holiday, two football games, and a bit of travel time thrown into the mix.
It was a good experience. I went into the month without a plot or characters or a clue with what I was writing about. I left the month with characters, the inklings of a plot, and a story that finds itself unfolding when I least expect it. Sometimes I would write myself into a corner, wondering how I<92>d get out of it, but then I<92>d let it sit for a bit, and the problem would solve itself.
The problem with Nano as it is set up now is two-fold: first, November is a really tough month for most people, in the U.S. anyway, to write, and second, while lots of people start the novel, they don<92>t bother to finish it. I think in general most writers are like me, they are motivated by deadlines and time limits. So I<92>m going to propose January as Finish Your Novel Month. January is usually a quiet month. The social obligations are pretty much over. Super Bowl isn<92>t until February. Holiday gift buying and returning are completed. It<92>s a perfect month for curling up by the fire with a cup of hot chocolate and writing or editing, depending on where you might be.
Besides, what better time to make a resolution to finish that novel than New Year<92>s Day? Who wants to join me?
