The Last Day of NaNoWriMo

Yes, I know I quit. Yes. I know tomorrow is the last day of NaNoWriMo. However, the day I quit the contest, I started writing Eastside Faerie again. I have my writing rhythm down and don’t need a contest to push me to create. But, I’m grateful the contest exists. NaNoWriMo inspires a lot of[…]

NaNoWriMo Day 23 and 24: I Accidentally on Purpose Quit

I still wanted to participate in NaNoWriMo because I like the community. However, I wanted to change my goal. Don’t ask me how I did it but somehow in the process of changing my goal from an unfeasible 50K words to a likely 40K, I deleted any numerical goal. My new goal, according to NaNoWriMo,[…]

NaNoWriMo Day 22: Woefully Behind/Brightly Optimistic

Every year I do NaNoWriMo, I am either on point or ahead, some years I get a little behind, but I almost always win the contest. But, what is winning? Getting 50k words in a document? Honestly, I could write nonsensical drivel and get fifty thousand words in a few days. I would get zero[…]

NaNoWriMo: Day 20 & 21 (featuring excerpt from Warrior Tithe)

Yesterday, I made progress in Eastside Faerie. Today I’m rewarding myself with working on Warrior Tithe. I thought starting with Fagan’s (Fergus from Tam Lin: A Modern, Queer Retelling) side of the story was too bleak, so I’m starting with Aoife’s side of the story. Here’s an excerpt from the rough draft, that will likely[…]

NaNoWriMo Day 19: Getting Over the Hump

I wrote about 2, 289 words yesterday for the Warrior Tithe project, bringing my NaNoWriMo word count to 28086 words. This means that I’m behind on NaNo and not writing Eastside Faerie. However, because I took a step back and took a break from the project, I realized I wrote myself into a corner with[…]

NaNoWriMo Day 18: Excerpt from Warrior Tithe

Day 18 had the same problem as day 17. I have the sketch of the picture I want to paint for Eastside Faerie, but I’m blocked in filling in the finer details. Whenever I find this happening with my writing, I do several things: Take long walks. I usually listen to audiobooks instead of music[…]

NaNoWriMo Day 17: NaNo Rebel to the Core

A week ago, I had writer’s block. I realized why. I had another project in my head (two, actually) and until I get some words down and at least a few notes worked out, Eastside Faerie, my NaNoWriMo project will suffer. So, today I spent mostly working on Fagan and the Selkie (definitely a place[…]

NaNoWriMo Day 16: How it Went

I woke up in the rental while it was still pitch black outside. The Pacific Northwest gray and rainy that blossomed at dawn and a good cup of coffee made for the perfect writing ambience. I wrote about a thousand words and got some marketing work done. After we drove home, I spent the afternoon[…]

NaNoWriMo Days 14 and 15: Update

Most of yesterday was spent traveling and getting set-up in our rental, so I didn’t get much writing done on the 14th. Today I woke up to this lovely view and wrote 2503 words. Over 200 of those words were the beginning of a prequel to my novella Tam Lin: A Modern, Queer Retelling. I[…]

NaNoWriMo Day 13: What’s with the Ducks, You Ask?

In the Before Times, rubber ducks were the mascot for Seattle area NaNoWriMo participants. (In case you haven’t heard it rains here a lot, but we like it.) We’d place one in our writing space during NaNoWriMo to identify each other. It was a cool way for participants to meet and commiserate. I carried one[…]

NaNoWriMo Day 12: How it Went

I didn’t meet my word count for Day 12, but the day wasn’t a complete wash. After my morning workout, I revised and edited an article. I also worked on some marketing campaigns for my novella. Those writing-related endeavors took up a good chunk of my time devoted to writing. I jotted down some notes[…]