november – Tipsy Typer

Happy Halloween! (and may the odds be ever in your favor, Nanoers)

Happy Halloween to all of my ghosts, ghouls and goblins out there this lovely day! It’s hard to believe that October is coming to a close, and in a mere few hours the hustle and bustle of Nano (and the upcoming holiday season) will be settling in.

I will be honest, I did not accomplish everything that I set out to do in October. My editing projects floundered a bit, but I did get some good ideas ready to go for my Nano project, and got some fresh content for this humble little blog sorted out. All in all, I would rate it as a successful month. After all, I did get to run through downtown Portland dressed up as a banana while being chased by Gorillas.

And I got to spend a little bit of time visiting one of my favorite spooky spots, Halloweentown:

Not to mention trying on a few costumes at Target, and carving pumpkins with the family. I didn’t hit all of the holiday things that I wanted to do this year, but let’s be honest- there isn’t enough time in the month to do everything on my list.

I had a blast and went out into the world instead of spending so much time lost in my own thoughts. Sure, I could have managed to get a bit more work done, but every now and then we need to stop and remember that life is about more that a word count. And sometimes the best inspirations you will encounter will be out there in the world, not at home staring at a screen.

Now we are quickly hurdling towards November. I already went over my goals for the month yesterday, so I wont bore you by repeating myself. But I cannot believe that Nano will be here in a matter of hours! I feel like a little kid at Christmas, only instead of getting presents, I’ve been invited to work a season in Santa’s workshop- it’s a lot of hard work, but its also a dream no self-respecting child would pass up.

I planned ahead this year and even managed to snag a few days off from work so that tonight I get to indulge myself and stay up late for the midnight start! Woohoo! I think I’ve only managed to do that once or twice in all of the events that I have participated in.

So tonight, I will be dressing up the dog and taking him for our nightly walk. I will come home and eat pizza while I watch Hocus Pocus. I will glance at the clock every five minutes or so to see how close I am to midnight. And when that clock strikes, poof- I will turn into a moonlight writer, chasing my dreams through the flitting words on the page.

Good luck, my dear friends, have a safe and happy Halloween. And when you get a chance to sit down and start writing, my wish for you is that the words flow smoothly, the ideas never wane, and the characters dance through your dreams with a lively enthusiasm. This is what we do, this is why we can’t stop. We spill our souls onto the page and hope someone will read their own when they see the words. May the odds be ever in you favor.

Nano is Coming! November Goals Unveiled

Hidden amidst the costumes, the piles of candy, and the pumpkin spice coffees, dodging past Winnifred Sanderson, Michael Myers, Pennywise and Chucky- just beyond the veil of Halloween, a mystical adventure awaits the daring writer brave (or crazy) enough to wield their pen like a scabbard and charge into the unknown foray of the blank page. That is right, my dear literary lovelies, Nano is just around the corner. As in a couple of days away. The hourglass of October is nearly spent, the precious Nano prep time is coming to a close, and soon the curtains will part for November as the main attraction commences.

I will be honest with you, for all of the time I have spent organizing myself for November- I still don’t feel anywhere near being ready for the month. I don’t think I have ever starting November 1st feeling fully prepared, and perhaps that is where the adventure truly is. It’s all about walking into the challenge with the nervous anticipation clawing at you, asking whether you can make it or not. Will you take the castle, or retreat to find a dragon to help you slay your literary foes in December? We shall find out together, my friends.

As per the usual, it is time to make my writing goals for the next month. The past few months I have been working on finishing old projects- mainly in the form of editing. And while I haven’t found as much success with these projects as I had hoped, I think this is a theme that I need to carry on with throughout the year. This is a year of finishing, of tying up my loose ends so that I can move forward with confidence into whatever 2017 has in store for me. And so, my Nano project is going to be an old one that needs some new life breathed into it. I’m going to be picking up a project I started in Camp Nano this last summer. I didn’t get very far into it, and what I did manage to do needs a complete re-write. So I’m taking that old idea and creating something new. The benefits: I know a little bit about how these characters act and how to make them translate on the page. The cons: everything that I had before is essentially being scrapped, so I will be starting with a clean slate. I’m excited to get it going, to finish it. It’s an idea that I find intriguing, and I am curious how it will play out. I have my general plot figured out, but I always leave a lot of extra wiggle room when I plot so that I have the ability to adjust if the story starts steering me in a new direction halfway through.

In the spirit of the ‘out of this world’ Nano theme we have going this year, I am going to be shooting for the stars: it will be a ‘go big or go home’ Nano. This could either be an epic year, or it could spark and fizzle out before the month is up. I guess we shall see. So, on to the goals:

Naturally, my minimum word count goal is 50,000, courtesy of the Nano challenge. But this year I am going to make yet another attempt at the crazy, coveted goal of 100,000 words. I have tried to hit this mark for a couple years now, but I have not managed to make it. I usually start to slow down and come to a screeching halt at about the 75k mark- a milestone I am still incredibly proud of, but I deeply desire to hit that ever illusive goal, mainly because I have tried and failed so many times in the past.

Second: I am going to try to post every day of the month (gasp). This is yet another goal that I have striven for the past couple of months, but haven’t even come close to. I’ve been struggling lately with the blog, and I think it’s been pretty apparent. Life has been incredibly busy, and I feel like I’ve lost my voice. The best way to fight this little struggle is to embrace it. I need to nurture my daily habits until I start to see myself again in my work. I have to push through my self-imposed barriers to remember who I am as a writer. So if you see me waning on occasion, feel free to leave a comment and kick me in the booty- there is nothing more motivating than the people who are fighting right alongside me.

I am so excited and yet also incredibly nervous. I am terrified that I am taking on more than I can handle, after all, the holidays are upon us, and that has always been a busy time for my family. Then again, if I want this type of life, these are the challenges that I must give myself every single day. This is my favorite time of year, and I get to immerse myself in my favorite activity. Whether I get a gold star on my goals or not- at least I am still out here trying. That’s really all I can ask of myself.

So today- after the football game, of course (GO HAWKS!), I will finish getting myself ready for November. I will work through the Mount Everest pile of laundry I have waiting for me (it’s embarrassingly awful at this point, but I wasn’t kidding when I said life has been busy, I haven’t even had time for this simple chore). I will clean the house and figure out a few simple meal plans for the moth. Then I will be off to the store to stock up on some of my favorite snacks and drinks (tea time for the win! And perhaps a few Hershey kisses as word count rewards). I will go on the Nano website and stare longingly at the travel mug I hope to reward myself with if I hit 100k. I will go over my prep work one more time and make a few minor adjustments. Then I will take a little bit of time to relax with the book I hope to finish by tomorrow (otherwise it will be a long month before I get a chance to read the conclusion).

Tomorrow I will let myself fully enjoy the excitement of Halloween, one of my favorite holidays. I will settle in and watch Hocus Pocus and The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown. And then when the clock strikes midnight, I will begin my daring adventure. Care to join me, my friends?

A Bump in the Night: Nano Prep Season is Back!

Something wicked this way comes, my friends, a masterly challenge that will test the nerve and sinew of even the most accomplished of authors. That is right, the great word race is set to begin: Nano is well on its way, November 1st will ring in the beginnings of a daring adventure made special because in this solitary world of writing, we shall embark together. And yet, this trek is not for the faint of heart, there are plans to be plotted (or plots to be panned?), characters to be drawn, worlds to create; after all, even the great Gandalf had to prepare his wayward band of adventurers before they set their plodding feet to the trail.

For those of you who are wondering what the heck I am talking about, Nano (or NaNoWriMo) stands for National Novel Writing Month. This is a daring adventure that takes place the entire month of November. The goal: to write 50,000 words by the time the clock strikes midnight on the last day (and some years you are working right up to that point). You choose your own project; anything that your heart could desire. You track your own progress throughout the month, only verifying when you finally submit your work for a ‘win.’ If you are interested, go to http://www.nanowrimo.org to get more information or join us on this lovely quest. I promise, you wont be disappointed.

It seems that this year some new goodies will be awaiting us! The one I am most excited for? A brand new word-sprint tool! Considering that is one of my favorite ways to pile on my numbers, I am very excited to be trying this one out instead of timing myself with my phone. As usual, the message boards will still be up and running, and in most areas the local events will be kicking off. I’m still trying to work up the courage to go to one, but alas, it has not happened yet. I know I would be happy once I went, but it is terrifying when I don’t know a single person. I’m not exactly a social butterfly, so this could be an eventful adventure.

At this stage of the game I am typically pretty anxious to pick my project and get it registered. The sooner I do that, the sooner I can dive into my plotting (and delve into the slightly distracting world of the Nano message boards, a favorite way to lose myself when I need a break from the project itself). I am normally a big fan of starting a fresh project for Nano- because honestly, there is nothing better than the promise of a blank page at the beginning of a story, nothing can match the excitement of the unknown. And yet this time around, I think I am going to break my own rules. The past month I have been working on editing old projects and organizing my ideas and snippets for new ones. October is going to be much of the same. So I figured- while I am enmeshed in this world of polishing my words to make them truly shine- why don’t I follow that thread and pick up some older projects that were abandoned partway through? There is nothing more depressing than an unfinished story, broken promises just littering the pages, forever held in a state of suspended animation. They were good ideas that, for one reason or another, I got distracted from. And so this November is going to be the month of the Untold Ending, the Unfinished Story will finally find solace in it’s conclusion. And I will feel better knowing that I am one stop closer with them.

The main project will be my Vampire story that I was working on last Camp Nano- it seemed fitting, considering my prep month will be falling during the Halloween season. I love the story idea, but I changed a few key plot points halfway through the project- forcing me to change a lot of the beginning and re-frame the rest of the story. It was a necessary change, one I am happy that I made- but it put me behind. So now, it will be time to finish it. And, the best part- after all of the changes that I decided to make, I still have a ton of prepping to do through October.

So here’s to late-night writing with nothing but a bright laptop screen and a hot cup of spiced cider to keep you company. Here’s to long days at the office with a notepad off to the side so I can write in my spare moments. Here’s to message board bonding over our favorite writerly memes and long discussions about the inner psyche of the best villains, the inside jokes that only a fellow narrator will understand. Here’s to blank pages and common ground. Here’s to telling the stories my friend, to finally giving a voice to the thoughts that have been dancing through your dreams and distracting your from your daily life. It is going to be one beautiful trek, my friends.