I laughed when I pulled out this card. Cling to the Impossible. It’s what I’ve been doing all month as I steal enough time from my days to crank out 50,000 words for National Novel Writing Month, but especially now in the home stretch.
Both my NaNoWriMo novel and the experience of writing it are fraught [...]
It’s blowing on Whidbey, and in November, the winds here often take out trees, power, and at times, even if we’re still plugged in, we lose our internet, especially here in the wild woods of Greenbank.
So, have at it! I’ll leave the interpretations up to you today:
Jump Ahead
Confront Values
Make it Larger than Life
Toy with Time
Face [...]
Oh, no. I’ve been avoiding this one, and almost put the card back. I’ve had opportunities for my character to Get Physical, and I’ve immediately gone another direction. Other characters in this NaNoWriMo novel-in-progress “got physical.” In fact, Jim is still in the hospital after being beaten. But my main character? No. Has she hit [...]
I have a full weekend coming up. The Brothers Four perform on the peninsula (for my MN pals, it’s that finger rising up the western edge of WA) and the kiddos will be packed off to one of their Whidbey “grandmas” so Karl and I can have some car time. Our date standards have lowered [...]
I love this NaNoNuj. Planting misinformation can be so fun. Just think of all that can go wrong if your character gets the wrong idea about something. This one goes along with the next card I drew. Misplace Blame. Maybe it wasn’t your character’s worst enemy who caused their latest frustration. Maybe it was a [...]
This morning a friend emailed to ask me why I thought he should invest in Christina Baldwin’s workshop “The Self as the Source of the Story.” (See my October 30 entry) If you know me, you may already be tired of hearing versions of this, but I’m pasting in my answer to him…
I’d love to [...]
In the novel I set aside before embarking on this NaNoWriMo adventure, my main character has a mentor who is actually his lost father’s enemy. I was thinking my NaNo novel didn’t have a disguised enemy, but as Nonny and her best friend Vince drift in different directions, I realize that he becomes an enemy. [...]
For those of you just peeking in here for the first time, I’ve spent many more years teaching than I have writing (at least professionally). Because of my years of teaching writing to writers of all ages, I have a lot of tricks for keeping the writing moving, and the one I’m sharing this month [...]
Hop on over and visit Tara Lazar for another turkey-time distraction: PiBoIdMo, or Picture Book Idea Month. Finding ideas for picture books are not usually my problem. I’ve even taught classes on the topic (what happens after the idea stage is more of a problem to me). I’ve always claimed that my problem was time [...]
Found this waiting for me on Facebook today from Debbie Austin…
I couldn’t help but notice
No NaNoNuj this week.
How ever will I NaNo,
My characters’ lives tweak,
Without your wise suggestions
And witty repartee,
That dose of inspiration,
That NaNoNuj per day?
It’s sort of like the NaNoWriMo word count. I intend to offer one a day, Debbie, but it’s an [...]
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