NaNoWriMo

Today I blogged about NaNoWriMo on the ACFW Colorado blog. Check it out.

It's Official

Rejoice and praise God with me. I'm a winner in the 2008 NaNoWriMo challenge. My final word count came in at 50,350 words. Whew!

The glory goes to God, because without Him I wouldn't have had the impetus to keep my rear end in the chair and my AlphaSmart on my lap.

This month has been a real learning experience for me. Now I know that it can be done (this is my third completed novel, but my first completed in a month), I'm hoping I won't drag my feet on future projects.

Now on to editing! Here's where I can let my perfectionist come back, sort of. With a reduced role, but she is needed. As much as I also need my crit partners! They have cheered me on through this month. And I appreciate them so much. You know who you are!

NaNoWriMo Update

Last week was not a good week for finding writing time, even with my two-week old "new" schedule of getting up at 5:30 and sitting down by 7:45 to write for two hours. By Thursday evening I'd only added less than 2500 words to the total word count. Not good. I was going to write after Randy went to work Thursday evening, but I was so tired, I couldn't even think straight. So I felt the Lord's urging me to set aside Friday to write—all day.

With frequent breaks on Friday—to do laundry, bake bread that was soy-free (sigh, fighting yet another rash), and eat—I wrote a total of nine hours with a word count just shy of 11,000 words. Didn't know it could be done! God is good and gracious. It was all Him, believe me.

So with today's two-hour writing session done, I've now completed 41,935 words toward my goal of 50,000 words by Sunday. Only 8,000 words to go. And the story is definitely on the downward slope. Thanks for all your prayers and encouragement! Keep it up through this week . . . please. *smile*


Daily Bible Reading: Tuesday, November 25—2 Chronicles 13–14; Luke 7:1–30
Wednesday, November 26—2 Chronicles 15–16; Luke 7:31–50
Thursday, November 27—2 Chronicles 17–18; Luke 8:1–25
Friday, November 28—2 Chronicles 19–20; Luke 8:26–56
Saturday, November 29—2 Chronicles 21–22; Luke 9:1–17
Sunday, November 30—2 Chronicles 23–24; Luke 9:18–36
Monday, December 1—2 Chronicles 25–27; Luke 9:37–62

NaNoWriMo

National Novel Writing Month is November. For several years now, I've heard all the hype surrounding this month as it relates to novel writers. And I've had several acquaintances sign up and join the mad dash to write 50,000 words in a month. And I thought they were crazy. And so I continued to think until last Friday. In my quiet time I was praying about another issue when the Lord challenged me to reexamine my reasons for not signing up for NaNoWriMo this year. So I started through the usual—November is a horrible month to attempt writing 50,000 words; I don't write "seat-of-the-pants"; I'm a planner, I need more time to plan this novel; etc. But He reminded me that I hadn't done too well writing on my own schedule. So I signed up. Now I have officially joined the craziness. And yes, I keep thinking I'm mad for doing so. BUT . . . I'm ahead of my needed word count per day, which I figured at 2500 words, not writing on Sundays and ending by midnight on the 25th (to give me time for Thanksgiving). So today, my second day of writing, I have 5972 words written. Three chapters of a cozy mystery.

Can't help but wonder if a cozy mystery can really be written SOTP. Probably not without a lot of revisions. But then, in the crazy world of NaNoWriMo . . . that's what December is for! LOL

Daily Bible reading: Tuesday, November 4—Nahum; Colossians 2
Wednesday, November 5—Habakkuk; Colossians 3
Thursday, November 6—Zephaniah; Colossians 4
Friday, November 7—Ezra 1–2; 2 Timothy 1
Saturday, November 8—Ezra 3–5; 2 Timothy 2
Sunday, November 9—Ezra 6–8; 2 Timothy 3
Monday, November 10—Ezra 9–10; 2 Timothy 4