NaNoWriMo!

I knew this would be a crazy year (2014 Calendar), and it hasn't let up. Fun and craziness are in full gear for November, which is National Novel Writing Month, known by participants as NaNoWriMo.

November 1 write-in at Geeksboro

I did pretty well the first week, fueled by our local group of writers. We met up for write-ins at Geeksboro, a unique coffee shop and movie theatre with a gaming, communal-TV-watching clientele.

2014: A Writer's Calendar

New Year's brings out all the goals and resolutions for the coming year (especially for bloggers).

I don't know how people do it.

I like goals to keep me on track, but the holidays (preceded by NaNoWriMo) are so crazy. I need time to ponder important decisions, like how I might spend a precious year of life.

I don't want to wait too late, though. In 2010 I didn't make goals until June! Last year, I wrote a retrospective of my writing year in April, my blogiversary and Wordsmith Studio's anniversary.

As I work on goals over the next few days, I'm considering all the writing events and opportunities coming up in 2014. This list might be useful for other writers, too. If you know of similar events (especially free ones and month-long challenges), please add a link and short description in the comments.

January

Robert Lee Brewer of Writer's Digest will help us kick off the year with daily ideas or prompts starting Jan. 1 at the Get Started Write Challenge. Look for the latest challenge here or follow @robertleebrewer or Twitter hashtag #gswc.

Joy Weese Moll encourages people to read books that will help them with their goals — writing or otherwise — in her New Year's Resolution Reading Challenge.

National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo) starts every month at BlogHer. Sign up by Jan. 5 to join this month's challenge. (See November for more.)

Cartoonist and encourager Debbie Ridpath Ohi hosts the 250-500-1000 Words A Day Challenge.  You choose your goal and start anytime during the year. Debbie has links to fun word-count widgets you can add to your blog.

February

I've always wanted to do The Month of Letters Challenge, hosted by author Mary Robinette Kowal. People love to get real letters in the mail. The challenge is simply to mail something — a letter, card, postcard — each of the 23 days that the mail runs.

Lynn Palermo hosts the Family History Writing Challenge throughout the month of February, a great nudge for those who've always wanted to put those stories or that research in writing.

April

Two Camp NaNoWriMos are planned this year, one in April and one in July. The camps, similar to NaNoWriMo (see November), match you up with a small group of fellow writers in your genre.

If you're more interested in poetry than noveling, Robert Lee Brewer also hosts the April PAD (Poem-A-Day) Challenge at Poetic Asides.

May

I'm a member (and social media admin @quakerquip) for Quakers Uniting in Publications, an organization for writers and publishers. Their annual meeting is in New England this year, May 1-4, at Woolman Hill Quaker Retreat Center in Massachusetts.

July

Camp NaNoWriMo — see April.

September

Writers' Police Academy is not a free event, but I always participate and have an awesome time. Registration will open soon for the Sept. 4-7 event in North Carolina (fills up fast!).

October

For nonfiction inspiration, Jane Ann McLaughlin (@JaneAnMcLachlan) hosts the October Memoir and Back Story Blog Challenge. 

November

November means National Novel Writing Month! It's not just about writing 50,000 words in 30 days, it's the huge motivation from doing it with other writers cheering you on. We have an active group of local wrimos and love to meet up in person for that extra writer mojo.

For poets, Robert will encourage you to write a chapbook at the November PAD Chapbook Challenge.

November is peak time for NaBloPoMo — the challenge is to write a blog post every day. BlogHer provides optional prompts from the month's theme. One participant has a list of FAQs on an unofficial guide site.

December

Did you write a poem a day in November? Poets follow up by editing in December, then submitting their manuscripts!


Welcome to Wordsmith Studio's New Year's Bash Bloghop! Did you just arrive from Janice's Inspiring Quotes for 2014? Hop on over to MobyJoe Cafe for the... well... Jeannine's different perspective on New Year's Eve.

Evening of Scribbling Frenzy

Last weekend, to culminate National Novel Writing Month, Triad "wrimos" rocked our third annual mini-marathon write-in, an Evening of Scribbling Frenzy, at the Archdale Library (in North Carolina).

This is our local version of NaNoWriMo's Night of Writing Dangerously, an international event held in San Francisco.

San Francisco's on the opposite coast, a little far away for most of us. But we boasted wrimos from three counties! 












 

We had an optional steampunk costume theme. 

(My steampunk board on Pinterest)

Word sprints, pizza, and door prizes!

Like Books? — Black Friday to Cyber Monday deals

Do you like books? How would you like a coupon toward genealogy books, writing books, or a NOOK® eReader?

You get a discount and the comfort of shopping from home on the craziest shopping day of the year, all while supporting your small independent bookshop (me). Win-win!

FamilyTree Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday Sale
The link sends you to FamilyTree items on sale. Get an additional 15% off your entire order through Cyber Monday (Nov. 26) with coupon code THANKSFT.

A few of my WD books

Writer's Digest Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday Sale WritersDigest
(Did you notice, there's a NaNoWriMo menu at the top of the page?)
Get 15% off your entire order (whether it's from the sale page or other items) through Cyber Monday (Nov. 26) with coupon code THANKSWD.

Barnes and Noble: (ANY book - see update below)
OK, here's the exception to the "comfort of home" — you get the coupon here, then actually go to a Barnes and Noble on Black Friday to buy a SimpleTouch™for $59. But it's a great deal and you get to hang out in a book store. 
NOOK® Black Friday Offer - $40 Off NOOK Simple Touch™ at your Local BN Store! Hurry, while supplies last!
Last minute update: Even if you're not interested in an eReader, click the link, then click to learn more about the coupon. Scroll down and you'll see a coupon for 30% off any one item — book, DVD, Angry Birds board game (highly recommended by my nephew)...

If you miss Friday's deal or if you just didn't want to leave home, try this one:
NOOK® Cyber Monday Deal – Get Free $20BN Gift Card when you buy a select NOOK®! Online only, hurry while supplies last!

I don't have an eReader, but this is really tempting. I've downloaded several historical eBooks lately (see my Irish History page), including the Annals of Westmeath, but I don't like reading on the computer.

Do you like offers like this and the DNA genealogy sale I posted last week? Would you like to get them by e-mail? Or would you prefer offers to sit politely in the sidebar with no mention in posts? I'd appreciate any feedback in the comments.

NaNoWriMo starts

Where did you start writing for National Novel Writing Month?

I don’t remember where I started writing in 2008. Probably at home, while checking in with fellow Wrimos on the Nanowrimo fora for central North Carolina and Ireland.

In October 2009, I went back to Ireland to gather more research for the novel I’d drafted in 2008. While in Dublin I met one of the MLs (municipal liaisons coordinate Nanowrimo events for a region). She was kind enough to arrange a pre-nano meetup at The Library Bar in the Central Hotel. It wasn't quite November yet, but it felt like a great start to hang out with fellow Wrimos from overseas.

The Library Bar in Dublin

November 1, 2010 — this is probably the best picture I'll ever take of starting Nanowrimo. I was camping in Cape Canaveral, where I’d gone to see the space shuttle launch. The launch kept getting postponed (and finally cancelled for that month), so I ended up camping in Florida all week. Here I am in the predawn hours on Cape Canaveral beach, starting a memoir.

Cape Canaveral Beach, Nov. 2010

My camper starred again as Nanowrimo 2011 debuted. I went down to South Carolina to research my family saga’s sequel. Not that I’d finished the first story yet. Historic Camden hosted a Revolutionary War re-enactment right where my Irish immigrant family lived — you guessed it — during the Revolutionary War. I learned lots of good details about life in that era, and wrote several posts about colonial life here on Travels with Books.

Before

So, where did I start Nanowrimo 2012? Right here at home. As a little bit of excitement, I did turn my spartan guest room into a cozy writing den.

First I vacuumed the room, which hadn't been used in a while. I'd been meaning to add the rug. I dragged a little shoe dresser into the guest room for a desk-table, than attached a reading lamp to it.

Here are the “before” and “after” pictures:

After

We'll see if the pillows give me enough back support.

See the little shelf of writing inspiration? I need it — I’m the most plotless I have ever been.

I really don’t want to start another novel when I haven’t finished the work-in-progress that’s so dear to me. My Bible study idea didn't work out because I can’t find my research notes. My current idea (as I type this) is mostly nonfiction, something along the lines of: 30 Days, 30 Blog Posts.


I may add in some creative writing exercises to help fuel up or reboot the novel come December.

Good thing I have a copy of Chris Baty’s No Plot? No Problem! (aff link). You can read my review of No Plot? No Problem! on the new Wordsmith Studio site.

Triad NaNoWriMo Calendar

(updated Oct. 30: added Winston-Salem write-ins and links) 
(belated update Nov. 24 for final week events)

National Novel Writing Month is almost here! Our wonderful Triad, North Carolina group talks all year on Facebook, so we're already psyched to start typing our novels and see each other in person again. The most up-to-date list of write-ins and other events will be posted on our region's page at nanowrimo.org, but here's a handy calendar for everything planned so far.

Wednesday, Oct. 31
11:45pm - Midnight Write in High Point! Contact our wonderful Municipal Liaison if you're interested, as it's at her house.

Thursday, Nov. 1
5pm - 8 pm, Kick-off Party! High Point Library, Morgan Room. Snacks allowed (and encouraged).

TBD - Virtual write-ins at Chatzy.

Friday, Nov. 2
5pm - 8pm, Winston-Salem write-in at Barnhill's Books, 811 Burke St.

Saturday, Nov. 3
5pm - 8pm, Greensboro write-in at Geeksboro coffee shop, 2134 Lawndale Drive.
5pm - 8pm, Stoneville write-in at Stoneville Public Library, 201 E. Main St.

Thursday, Nov. 8
5pm - 7pm, Archdale/High Point write-in at Tannery Books, 3407D Archdale Rd.

Friday, Nov. 9
5pm - 8pm, Winston-Salem write-in at Barnhill's Books, 811 Burke St.

Saturday, Nov. 10
1pm - 4pm, High Point write-in, High Point Library, Morgan Room.
5pm - 8pm, Greensboro write-in at Geeksboro coffee shop, 2134 Lawndale Drive.
5pm - 8pm, Stoneville write-in at Stoneville Public Library, 201 E. Main St.

Thursday, Nov. 15
5pm - 7pm, Archdale/High Point write-in at Tannery Books, 3407D Archdale Rd.


Friday, Nov. 16
5pm - 8pm, Winston-Salem write-in at Barnhill's Books, 811 Burke St.

Saturday, Nov. 17
1pm - 4pm, High Point write-in, High Point Library (Morgan Room).
5pm - 8pm, Greensboro write-in at Geeksboro coffee shop, 2134 Lawndale Drive.
5pm - 8pm, Stoneville write-in at Stoneville Public Library, 201 E. Main St.

Thursday, Nov. 22
Happy Thanksgiving! No Archdale write-in this week.

Friday, Nov. 23
5pm - 8pm, Winston-Salem write-in at Barnhill's Books, 811 Burke St.

Saturday, Nov. 24
5pm - 10pm, Evening of Scribbling Frenzy! Saturday's write-ins combine for a marathon event at the Archdale Library. Bring a snack and if you can. Optional steampunk costume theme. No charge, but about $10 recommended for a pizza order and donations to the Office of Letters and Light (nanowrimo).

Thursday, Nov. 29
5pm - 7pm, Archdale/High Point write-in at Tannery Books, 3407D Archdale Rd. This event may be cancelled if no one rsvp's.

Writing in first gear, preparing for hyperdrive

It's been fun getting back into the genealogy data I brought back from Ireland. I'm looking at dates, ages, and marriages of the children of my main and supporting characters, with a special view toward finding subplots for the novelized version of their lives. Though no storylines have jumped out at me, yet, I did notice a sadly high child mortality rate. Some of these houses full of children in the background of my scenes - didn't have as many children as I'd thought.

A different writing epiphany came to me at meeting for worship Sunday. I plan to participate in National Novel Writing Month (just 22 days away!) - but I don't want to start a new novel. Ideas are plentiful: steampunk, Neanderthal, all kinds of bizarre stuff. What I really want to do is keep revising Moate; those other concepts just seem like distractions. Since I've worked on Moate through two nanowrimo seasons, more revision seems like a rule-breaker this year (and wouldn't meet the 50,000-word goal).

For years I've been toying with a Bible reading guide, and the one devotion I'd written in my mind came back to me Sunday night. *lightbulb flash* That's what I'll do! I don't know if that idea will expand to the required 50,000 words, but the outline is easy (a calendar).

I'm not saying I can work on both the nano-novel and Moate at the same time. Just that thinking about the Bible won't yank me out of my Christian historical mindset. It may even give me ideas to incorporate. Plus, now I have something to work on at write-ins!

Are you participating in NaNoWriMo this year?

Interruptions and Accomplishments

We interrupt these colonial era posts for a brief announcement from NaNoWriMo:


I won!

Now for another trip, this one in the present (not back in time), followed by somewhat-regularly scheduled blogging in December.

Thank you.

NaNoWriMo 2010 wrap-up

A funny thing happened at the end of nanowrimo 2009 — we didn't stop writing.

Oh, we relaxed over the holidays, and we didn't have that word-count deadline to push for. But two of us were finishing or editing our novels and decided to meet weekly. And two more joined us to work on short stories and writing projects. We met all year in the local Barnes & Noble cafe, and by July, we were psyched for another nanowrimo!

Wrimos at the High Point Library

That excitement carried over into the most active nanowrimo group our region's ever had. In addition to our B&N write-ins, Aislynn and Elizabeth planned Monday night writes at the High Point Library (whilst some Greensboro folks met simultaneously at Panera Bread), Darren planned Sunday write-ins at our traditional nanowrimo coffee dives in G'boro, and I planned (with lots of help) a local Night of Writing Dangerously at the Archdale Library. We had 11 writers typing away at that event, buoyed by pizza, chocolate, coffee, door prizes and wi-fi. We even had a used book sale to browse through during breaks.

Most of us met the "Tentacle challenge" by using tentacles somewhere in our stories!

photo and tentacles by Don Morgan

Since I've been working on the novel about my ancestors for at least two nanowrimos, I took a break this year and wrote a memoir about "my year in a foreign country in the middle of North Carolina." I finished my draft of Siler City Blues with 56,224 words.

Most of it looks awful and boring, but at about 25K words I think I may have written some good stuff. I'll look at it later.

For now, after a four-month break and a lot of nanowrimo inspiration, I'm ready to get back to my novel.

Back in North Carolina

Just for the record, the space shuttle Discovery launch was scrubbed for this window because of a significant leak that they need to repair. The next opportunity will be Nov. 30 through Dec. 5. You can find updates here. I'll be writing up my experiences as a member of the press at Kennedy Space Center for the newspaper soon, and will post a link here on the Travels with Books blog next week.

I really enjoyed hanging out at KSC all week (much longer than I'd planned!). I also enjoyed camping in my little Scamp, my home away from home. I would have enjoyed it more if I could have unhitched and stayed in one spot. Because of weekend vacationers and other people who came in to see the launch, they were playing musical sites at the campground and I had to reposition almost daily. I brought it with me to KSC several days and got funny looks and comments from some of the guards.

I returned to N.C. to find National Novel Writing Month in full gear. This is the most active we have ever been in the Piedmont area (officially the N.C. Greensboro region on the website), with events scheduled on Monday nights at both the High Point Library and Panera Bread in Greensboro, Thursday mornings at the High Point Barnes & Noble, and Sunday afternoons at various coffee shops around UNC-G. I think there are more write-ins at GTCC, too.

I didn't meet my quota as I was driving up and down the southeast, but I did work on my story a little in the campground in South Carolina on the trip home. I also stayed up last night to take advantage of the time change — way too late — but I was determined to turn that little box green! Hopefully I will catch up with all of these write-ins going on.

WFMAD Challenge - Timing

I took Laurie Halse Anderson up on her challenge to Write 15 Minutes A Day in August. It turned out to be the worst time in the world to take on a writing challenge - but then again, maybe it was perfect timing.

I had been struggling with my characters in the last third of my multigenerational historical novel. I couldn't even picture them, and there are great big unknown years in their fact-based stories. On top of that, my shoulder had been aching, worse and worse. In mid-August I could hardly lift my arm, and got the diagnosis: torn rotator cuff, bursitis, and maybe a pinched nerve to top it all off. I am banging this post out with one hand. Since I have to do that at my dayjob as well, writing at home while trying to heal has really lowered in priority.

The good thing, though, is the "just 15 minutes" part. It's freed me up to put my novel aside and get my notebook out (easier with one hand). Some days I just journaled, about my struggles, my characters, whatever. Other days I tried out Laurie's prompts; she always had something to try on her blog. Plus, I've been reading and reading. To paraphrase Ann Lamont (I'm reading "Bird by Bird"), writer's block is simply when you're empty and need to fill up. So I'm taking a little novel sabbatical and trying to fill my creative gas tank.

I don't think I'll keep doing the 15 minutes for the next few weeks, since it's really been a struggle, but I do plan to keep reading and to have my journal ready for when I have some thoughts in my head. I plan to get back to my novel, which I've been working on all year up 'til now, by October. And then I'll take another break from it for November's nanowrimo - National Novel Writing Month! - to write a memoir.

By the way, I met the challenge! I think I wrote all but three days in August.

2010 Goals - How are we doing?

Last year started off so hectic I didn't even write down goals until June. This year, I started thinking about them in January, but tweaked them for a month. And the tweaking continues.

Things I want to do in 2010 (priorities are in blue)
1. Finish novel: write missing scenes, fix timeline and facts, add descriptions and background, and revise and edit.
Thanks to my nanowrimo friends, I work on this at least once a week. I've added lots of the missing scenes, but I feel overwhelmed at all the other things I still need to do before I even let anybody read it.

2. Declutter. Hah! Ahem, well...
3. Get published in a magazine.
I sent out my first query in years, but forgot to follow-up when I didn't get a reply.

4. Make a Storybook for a relative who has a big birthday this fall. That includes scanning Daddy's negatives from the 50s and getting names and information.
I haven't even started on this! But I still have months to go.

5. Make a Storybook of my trip to Ireland.
I labeled the photos and made some notes. The good thing is, I have a June deadline to get one of these books done because I have a prepaid certificate. Deadlines are good for me.

6. Index the 18th-century church records from the meeting in Ireland.
I made good progress on this until the past month, about 160 pages done. This also helps with my novel, which is based on the people in the records.

7. Run in a 5K.
This got dropped for schedule conflicts, but now it's back on - in two weeks!

8. Go on a mission trip.
I got to do this in March. We went to Jean Lafitte, Louisiana to build a house for a family still in a FEMA trailer from Hurricane Katrina.

9. Other items: Blog and network (I've done this, but it's very time consuming). Market and sell my first book (Got a review, but haven't done much). Scrapbook back to 2004 (haven't).

I love alliterative goals (inspired by FlyLady). I tried Monday minutes (indexing church records - this went well until last month)
Tuesday tweets (fell by wayside)
Tuesday taxes (very useful. The rest of year, this means business paperwork)
Wednesday walking (in full force)
Wednesday weed-out (decluttering - forgotten)
Friday finances, Freelance Friday and Saturday sales (business) mostly fell by the wayside.
An early "Nine-o'clock Novel" turned into the Morning Write, 1 to 3 days a week.
Sunday scrapbooking/scanning/see people (made progress on visiting older relatives)

Some of these went well, like Monday Minutes, until my work schedule changed, I went away on a trip and then I had meetings every night for three weeks. Hopefully I can get back to my own goals and routines now.

It's Sunday. I'd better start scanning. How are your goals coming along?

December, already

Whew! I did that thing we think we're too old to do anymore - stay up late almost every night the last part of November! Nanowrimo is over now, but I'm still exhausted. I didn't quite make my goal of 25,000 words, but I met my real goal of adding lots of needed scenes as I revised my draft from Nov. 2008. I finished with just over 20,000 words, and got virtual pats on the back for it being all handwritten. Several people that I met at the coffee-shop write-ins won this year, cranking out 50K on their laptops and Neos - way to go!! And, we drank lots of coffee and had fun.

Now, what? First, I'm trying to catch up on sleep. Second, I'm back to reading. Writing is great, but that fire needs fuel and books are a good source.

Today I saw that Geneabloggers has an idea for people who are writing more about their ancestors than about their own lives: an Advent Calendar of blog prompts. Although I missed Dec. 1, I'm going to answer the one about Christmas trees. Here's a picture version of the calendar.

When I was small, we had one of those aluminum, silver trees. I think we may have hung a few ornaments on it, but it didn't need any extra glitter or sparkle. We had one of those rotating lights that hypnotically turned it into different colors (the 60s version of a lava lamp!). Somewhere in our family's collection is a photograph of me with my "Dancerina" doll, lit only by the red glow of that light.

(The link is to someone else's YouTube video; we didn't have videos back then.)

Poplar Ridge graves

Cool! Trent Briles has done it again - shared his work so we can research tombstones online. He just posted his transcription of Poplar Ridge cemetery in Randolph County, N.C. (Trinity zip code): Poplar Ridge cemetery

I've been busy with nanowrimo this month, so I don't want to stop and look up that branch of the family. But, note to self: go back and look at this cemetery for the Briles and Kindley families. I already noticed a Queen Briles and I'm pretty sure that's one of my relatives.

Thomas!

I don't work on my novel on Sundays, since writing is my job as well as a passion. I went to the Nanowrimo write-in anyway, for coffee and fun. I took along some dead people to play with — some genealogy notes and blank paper to draw a family tree.

Tonight I was reading through the notes from my research trip to Ireland. You get so many facts running around in your head that sometimes you need to draw pictures or trees, and sometimes you just need to stare at a page or skim through your notes when you aren't doing anything in particular; just time to think. Sometimes those little facts running around my brain start colliding with each other, and that's when I solve mysteries.

For the past few years I've been wondering what happened to Joshua English's two surviving brothers, John and Abraham. He had many siblings that did not live past childhood. One of the little facts I planned to check on this trip was the death date of his baby brother Thomas, because the date was the same as when their father Thomas died.

Tonight, I had one of those wonderful little brain collisions. The incorrect death date (I found out it belongs to the father) collided with some old note I had written somewhere that said, "Who is this?" I did a search on my computer and found the note. There was a Thomas English at Joshua's wedding, long after their father Thomas had died. Joshua's little brother was at the wedding; Joshua's little brother lived!

I have another Thomas English.

Saturday in Dublin

I'm glad I got a little time in at the National Library manuscripts collection today (short hours on Saturday), because they will be closed for bank holiday on Monday. Every vacation I've taken to U.K. or Ireland has had a bank holiday. Now I'll have to figure out what to do both Sunday and Monday, when libraries and most attractions are closed.

Had a nice meeting with some Dublin nanowrimo members, including the MLs (local organizers) and a new writer. We met up at the Library Bar, a lovely lounge in the Grand Hotel that has good decor, bookshelves, chandeliers and beat-up wooden floors, plus a good salad and a pint. Who could ask for more?