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Day 11 2023

Resurrecting this place a bit

Current Word Count: 15161
Goal Word Count: 50k
How you're feeling so far: Oh my god I am hitting that wall hard. I finally got the "okay this is what we're establishing at this point in the story" but really I'm just. How do words work? Am I a hack? What is writing? I went to school for this? Am I good at it? Am I doing Anything right? How did I get here? How do I work this? Where is that large automobile? This is not my beautiful house. This is not my beautiful wife.
What's changed in your project: I've cut out like at least 2 whole ass characters and merged them into one woman. I've killed off her husband to merge him into her. Is she a good character? Who knows but she loves to cause situations and manipulate I guess.
Anything else: I'm so far behind on NaNo, words can not describe (I wish they would, my word count would be higher)

Current Mood: happy

Yay!

I finished the first chapter of a 27-chapter beast yesterday! I've been mulling over whether to start the work or not for weeks on end, but NaNoWriMo came, so I said "fuck it". It turned out to be the good choice - NaNoWriMo did its wonders and I've never been happier with a spur of the moment choice (I decided to participate literally on November 1st). I haven't written this much - almost 3 000 words - in two days since... I don't even know, honestly.

Though I fear that no words or close to none shall be written today, because it was a very busy day and I just want to curl up in a ball and sleep. Oh, and read a book before that, of course. But even those words I've already written are better than none, so - before curling up with a good book - I'll at least attempt to churn out some today, too. Those words may simply be the foundation of a Shitty First Draft, but an SFD is better than nothing!

And how are you doing, fellow wrimos?

Halfway There!

Let's do a halfway roundup!

In the comments, let's discuss:

Current Word Count:
Goal Word Count:
How you're feeling so far:
What's changed in your project:
Anything else:

Writer in distress

ETA: Yesterday I ended up writing 3500! And it felt super great! Thank you all for cheering me on - I'm definitely looking into your sprint recommendations.

Y'all, I need some support. I'm INCREDIBLY behind after 3 days last week of basically no writing.

I just did some maths and I have a plan. If I write 2,500 more words today, then I'll be back on par if I can write 2,500 words tomorrow and Saturday. I think that's doable? I've got lots of other stuff going on, but I feel the deadline for this grimoire sneaking up on me. I'd love to have a complete manuscript by Dec 1st so I can start editing, then get it to the printers by mid-December.

Ahhhhhh I guess I just needed to whinge with people who are also NaNo-ing.

Anyone else in distress and need a pep talk?

Current Music: Jolie Holland

Ack! Behind again!

Project: Immersion Grimoire

In spite of all my grandest hopes and dreams from last week, I found myself behind again. Part of it was some mental health stuff going on Friday, and then all of Saturday I was at the Nordic Women's Retreat here in MN, and then Sunday was pesky migraine time.

Yesterday's words: 2,310
Today's words (so far): 1754
Total on the project: 14,957

I'm STILL behind, but not panicking about catching up as much as I was yesterday. I had to focus on other work on Friday (including mental health stuff), then all day Saturday and Sunday morning I was at the Nordic Women's Retreat, and on TOP of that I had a migraine most of Sunday so if I wasn't at the retreat or teaching I was sleeping. So that set me back a good three days.

But at this rate I think I'll catch up in no time.

How's it going for all of you? Here to cheer you on!

Current Location: The Rookery
Current Music: "Nobody" b Hozier

Weekly Goals: First full week of NaNo

Today's Word Count: 2,371
Total Word Count: 6,686

And with that, I'm officially caught up! Plus I spent a looooong time today rewriting my curriculum and therefore the outline of this grimoire. I am going to go celebrate by reading something silly.

I also wanted to check in with all of you - since November got started, our chats have slowed down which I'm assuming is because we are all busy typing away. I am an Extremely Type A person, and so I love setting weekly goals.

My weekly goals:

1. Finish the introduction
2. Finish the "abbreviated history of 20th century witchcraft" section
3. Maintain the traditional "1,667 words per day", ending up with 15k+ by Sunday

What about you all?

Current Mood: accomplished
Current Music: "High" by Sarah Slean

First word count update

Project: Immersion Grimoire
Today's Word Count: 1978
Total Word Count: 1978
Mood: Behind but determined!

I wrote a bit about NaNoWriMo in my newsletter - specifically that November feels like a really good time of year to turn inward and begin to focus on writing and stories. It's not exactly the easiest month to write 50k, but seasonally it feels right. When I was a wain I had friends who did NaNo every year, and I always looked forward to hearing how their progress was going. Now, as the fall starts to come on, I start to think about what major writing project I'm going to embark on.

I'm ... definitely starting behind, but my writing time got et up on Friday because of wifi struggles (I need wifi for the writing because research and crosschecking my notes in google drive). Hoping to catch up tomorrow - I don't have much of anything scheduled during the day, so I'm planning on cleaning and writing most of the day. It would be great to get ahead so I can relax a bit if I get sick.

Current Music: Portishead

Oh lord. That NaNo mindset

I literally just had the thought "I can't wait for NaNoWriMo when my life will get much simpler."

And then I LAUGHED at myself because I know it's gonna be a tumultuous ride! But it will be an internal ride, rather than the running I've BEEN doing.

Anyway, how's NaNo prep going?

I am feeling woefully unprepared, personally. Hoping to take some time next week to actually look at the outline of my grimoire and see if I can shift it around or get more prepared. Or if I really just need to dive straight in.

Current Music: Patti Smith

Get-To-Know-Yous and Project Intros

Hey everyone!

I know a bunch of people are interested in using this space to track our NaNo projects, so I figured it'd be nice to have some intros.

Let's do a round of posts to get to know each other.

Here are some possible questions to answer:

1. Who are you?
2. What are your fave books?
3. Have you ever done NaNo before?
4. What's your project looking like? What kind of support do you want/need?
5. Anything else you wanna share!

I'll start!

1. Who are you?

I'm a queer femme witch, living in the Twin Cities, MN. I'm a total weirdo, in love with pop culture and trying to become a professional writer.

2. What are your fave books?

It feels cliche to say this, but the Harry Potter series was incredibly formative for me. The HP Fandom fostered a sense of community for me when I was just learning about being a witch.

Otherwise, in terms of books, I love Fun Home by Alison Bechdell, The Border of Paradise by Esme Weijun Wang, The Red Tree by Caitlin R. Kiernan, and countless - COUNTLESS - books about witchcraft. I'd say The Border of Paradise and Fun Home probably have the biggest influence on my thinking about writing fiction.

3. Have you ever done NaNo before?

Yes! I won one year, and I think I've participated 2 other times.

4. What's your project looking like?

I'm writing a couple of things, and want to use NaNo to finish them. I'm working on a grimoire for a class I'm teaching, and I'm also writing a book about Norse mythology. I need to have the grimoire done by the end of the year, and I'm not quite set on a goal for a manuscript of the book, but ideally by summer. This is kind of like a jump start - I really want to do getyourwordsout next year, so this is a bit of a jump start of that.

I'm not totally sure what kind of support I want - mostly I want a chill space to talk about word counts and such. I've already got beta readers for my various projects, but sometimes I need a lil encouragement. Would also love any suggestions on the editing process, as well as pitching work if any of you have done that. Also ... encouragement on the fiction front! I love writing and reading fiction, but I write so much for work stuff that I don't have much energy at the end of the day for fiction writing.

5. Anything else?

Not totally sure! I love horror and weird fiction, and so I kind of want to jump into writing some of that in short story form. I'm also back on my bullshit with fandom, and I've got a fanfic that is on the backburner while I try to get other stuff finished. I'm constantly reading like, 5 books at a time and so my attention is a little scatterbrained.

Like I said above, I'm a professional witch and tarot reader and that is a HUGE part of my life, but I kind of want to keep Dreamwidth more anonymous. I need to do other things than chat about work all the time.

NaNoWriMo 2017- Day 4

Day 4- 26 days left

Today's goal is 6,668.

How goes the writing? Did you reach your goal?

NaNoWriMo 2017- Day 3

Day 3- 27 days left

Today's goal is 5,001.

How goes the writing? Did you reach your goal?

NaNoWriMo 2017- Day 2

Day 2- 28 days left

Today's goal is 3,334.

How goes the writing? Did you reach your goal?

NaNoWriMo 2017- Day 1

Day 1- 29 days left

It's finally time to put pen to paper, hands to keys.

Today's goal is 1,667.

How goes the writing? Did you reach your goal?

NaNoWriMo 2017?

Anyone else going attempt NaNoWriMo this year?

For the first time in years, I am seriously planning on writing a story. I have no plot, but my main characters are loud and demanding.

Discord Server

Hey, guys! With NaNo coming up just around the corner, I'd like to invite everyone to come join the Discord server I've set up.

https://discord.gg/WFg6XrN

If you're into word wars, and would like to host them somewhat regularly, I'm in need of a few Word War Czars who can run them. Otherwise, come in and hang out, and get some writing done!

Survey for a collaborative writing platform

Hey guys! I'm one of the developers over at Plover and we would terribly appreciate your thoughts on current state of writing as a hobby. It is intended to be an integrated writing environment with an immersive social worldbuilding component. Your feedback is important to us and will shape the platform in the months to come, so please take a moment if you can by filling out this survey. Much thanks everyone!

I beg your pardon for the x-post. :-)

Camp NaNoWriMo

I know it's a little late to ask if anyone is doing Camp this month, but are you? I decided to work on the writer's bible for my Battlestar Galactica story.

So what about in July? Anyone making plans for July's Camp?

Current Mood: accomplished
Current Location: The Mole Hole

T - 4 Days and Counting

Who'd doing NaNoWriMo this year and what are your projects for November?

Last year I deconstructed and re-wrote an original series Battlestar Galactica fanfic I wrote back in the early 89's. This year I'm planning on a historical fiction story called Tales from The Silk Road.

I even got the husband into writing NaNo this year. He's doing a Weird West piece he's had an idea for for a long time. Frankly I'm surprised I could talk him into a lot of stuff over the past few months. I have effectively dragged his antiquated tail and most of his technology into the 21st century after many many years of him digging his heels in with denial that he needed to join the rest of the human race. I even got him onto Facebook. I never even prayed that could happen.

Current Music: Very rough draft of my NaNo playlist

Are you ready for next weekend?

Just one week left until NaNoWriMo starts. For some of us this will be the last free weekend until December. If you haven't started one, consider making a NaNo survival kit. Get all those must haves together and ready to go. Any 'must haves' you want to share?

Enjoy the weekend, and write down those plot bunnies. You'll need them next Saturday.

The most magical time of year is coming....

Anyone else doing NaNoWriMo this year?

If you are, have you started planning yet? Or are you a complete pantser and you won't know what you're writing until you start on Nov. 1?

Remember, the time to plan is sloooowly running down.