Fifty (one) Thousand Words

For what it’s worth, and to close off the first real series of articles on this blog on the first day of December… I crossed the NaNoWriMo finish line on Sunday evening with nearly a thousand words more than the goal. NaNoWriMo 2020 is in the bag. Complete. And I sit at my desk as …

Nineteen Thousand Words

When NaNoWriMo 2020 is all over and I’ve moved onto other creative thoughts that don’t fall into the category of “writing a frantic novel in one month” I will likely divert the topics of this blog into other avenues. For example, we are getting a dog in less than a week. Or, y’know, this whole …

Seven Thousand Words

On the morning of day five, before I’ve even written a single word towards my day’s goal total, I pause for a moment. Just a moment. Between keeping an eye on the American election results, learning that we’ll be welcoming a new puppy into the house in less than two weeks, and simultaneously trying to …

All the World’s a Stage

I admit that I’ve surprised even myself with the progress my story-shaping effort is taking with this methodical approach to outlining it in advance. Over the last few days I have walked around a story circle, planted some plot flags, and then sketched out some key character profiles. The next step is to queue those …