Opening Day at NaNoWriMo

The official first day of getting ready for NaNoWriMo is up and running. The home page is full of useless but fun stuff that you can waste your precious writing time on. That's why they give us a full 30 days before the real start to get all that looky-lou out of our system. They offer a lot of support in the form of information and forums. You can get a mentor or set up your own challenges with friends or other writers from the far reaches of the globe. Check out the latest and greatest tech upgrades for the site and drool over the prizes for completing your word count.

I am looking forward to our regularly (more or less) scheduled letters from the man himself, the great and wonderful Chris Baty. Our own personal cheerleader who will try his hardest to inspire, cajole and help push us along.

One last very important piece of information I will take advantage of for this year is to try and finish as many of my obligations during the month of October so I will have as much time as possible to just write.http://www.nanowrimo.org/

Pre-NaNoWriMo Challenge

So back in February I made that final decision and moved on to greener pastures. My Friday night group of ladies has turned into one gonzo power house writing/critique group. The dynamics of our group has weathered a lot of ups and down, some tears and a revelation or two. Our meetings have become the most important night of the week for me. Of the five of us I bring up the rear in actual writing produced but I have found I do have talent in some areas and still need work in others. The most important results of our circle of five has been the bonds of friendship we have formed and the freedom to be very honest with each other.

Each day between the meetings I try my best to find some little piece of time to write. I'm not always successful. The group has pulled ideas and new avenues of possibilities through the cobwebs lining my mind. I wake up in the middle of the night or early in the morning with dreams fighting to find their way onto a blank piece of paper once again. After ten years of struggling with the slow, going nowhere pace of my past group I feel like I'm finally a driver at the Indy 500. I'm working on a little pre-race maintenance and soon I'll have that baby idling.

This all bring me to the fact that the start of this years NaNoWriMo is only 30 days away. I plan on signing up for the challenge again. As a newbie last year I made a fair showing but didn't make the finial goal. So as of today I start with the things I learned last year. Number one is to make an outline of some sort on what story I will be writing. I know, I know. It really is suppose to be a more by the seat of your pants kind of thing. But I did that last year and would get off track and be lost way too much. So my goal for the pre-NaNoWriMo challenge is to do an outline. Nothing is carved in stone but I will hammer at it a little. So here is our group. Come check us out.

http://fridaynightwrite.blogspot.com/