Five years ago, I embarked on my first real attempt at National Novel Writing Month. I signed up, planned my schedule, roughed out an outline, and buckled down. November 1, 2009, I began writing. Two weeks later, I raced past the 50,000-word mark. The ending was rushed and the details were hazy and the charactersContinue reading “NaNoWriMo and my first published novel”
Tag Archives: National Novel Writing Month
A Writer’s Notebook: NaNoWriMo 2012, dead and gone
Those of you who actually follow may have been wondering where I’ve been. What’s more, you’re probably wondering what happened to NaNoWriMo and the Writer’s Notebook. As for the latter, the short answer is that I didn’t finish, for the first time since I started. The longer answer I hinted at in my last PhotoContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: NaNoWriMo 2012, dead and gone”
A Writer’s Notebook: NaNoWriMo 2012, week 3
Man, I cannot believe I have only a week left. And you know what? This might be the year I don’t make it. It’s not for lack of trying. I’ve just been busy with schoolwork and, somewhat unexpectedly, moving. Because, you see, my wife and I have just bought a house. Or will have whenContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: NaNoWriMo 2012, week 3”
A Writer’s Notebook: NaNoWriMo 2012, week 2
Is it week 2 already? I’m all over the place in the stories and characters I’m playing with, and the writing is coming in fits and starts — some days I manage fewer than 1,000 words, some days I knock out twice that many; sometimes I hammer out all the words at night after work,Continue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: NaNoWriMo 2012, week 2”
A Writer’s Notebook: NaNoWriMo 2012, week 1
It’s only the second day of National Novel Writing Month, but I’m off to a running start. As of 2 pm, I’m sitting on just over 5,500 words. Some of my fellow WriMo buddies have been congratulating me on the output, but I keep reminding them that I have a LOT of work to do thisContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: NaNoWriMo 2012, week 1”
A Writer’s Notebook: NaNoWriMo prep and notecards
Yes, once again, National Novel Writing Month is just around the corner. Yet I wasn’t entirely sure I was going to participate this year. I had a great idea for a novel, but I’m not yet into it enough to plow through a rapid-fire month of 1,700 words a day. Plus, I’m teaching more this year andContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: NaNoWriMo prep and notecards”
A Writer’s Notebook: NaNoWriMo 2011, the recap
So, it’s finished. A final total of 51,557 words, most of them bad, most of them destined for the trash bin. But that’s what NaNoWriMo is all about: pounding out words no matter how bad they are, without attachment to what you write because you’re more likely than not to cut it all anyway. What’s interestingContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: NaNoWriMo 2011, the recap”
A Writer’s Notebook: NaNoWriMo 2011, week 3
I’ve said before that I want this whole apocalyptic novel-in-stories to focus on the characters and their personal struggles more than on the trappings of the whole apocalyptic genre thing. Which is to say, I don’t want to eat up much page space with descriptions of the apocalyptic environment or background on how the worldContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: NaNoWriMo 2011, week 3”
A Writer’s Notebook: NaNoWriMo 2011, week 2
This has been a strange week. If you’re following my daily word counts, you’ll see a lot of spikes and dips: on days I teach, my word count plummets, sometimes into the mere hundreds; then, on days I don’t teach, it leaps up as I try to make up for lost time. So far I’mContinue reading “A Writer’s Notebook: NaNoWriMo 2011, week 2”
The sounds of my NaNoWriMo
Long-time readers know I love having music while I write. Sometimes it’s just background noise, but often it’s a specific set of songs, and in the case of whole books (like my story collection or two of my novel projects), it’s full-blown soundtracks, with each song selected and organized to reflect what’s going on inContinue reading “The sounds of my NaNoWriMo”
Samuel Snoek-Brown 