The Friday Poem: Post NaNoWriMo
December 2, 2022 at 6:00 am (Editing, NaNoWriMo, Poetry)
Tags: NaNoWriMo, poem, victory, writing
The Friday Poem: Preferred Formatting
December 3, 2021 at 6:00 am (NaNoWriMo, Poetry)
Tags: editing, NaNoWriMo, postnano
The Friday Poem: Writing Brain Connections
November 12, 2021 at 6:00 am (NaNoWriMo, Poetry)
Of Writing and Scones
April 14, 2020 at 9:03 am (NaNoWriMo)
Yay! I got back on the writing horse last night, fixed a scene in chapter 5 and added 500 words to chapter 6 of Firebound. In one way it doesn’t feel like much, but I haven’t written much of anything since last Wednesday, so it’s a vast improvement.
Let’s be honest, this #campnanowrimo or #stayathomewrimo hasn’t been as easy as we’d like it to be. I know my mind has been distracted by what is going on in the world, having my regular work at home with me, (just right there by my elbow,) trying to make sure my child doesn’t disappear into her handheld devices, and the unsettled weather yesterday. (There’s been a lot more baking too lately, particularly scones – cranberry, blueberry, and now chocolate chip.)
So, I’m making the commitment to write every night, after dinner, until bedtime. I really want to get this novel drafted and that is going to require some focus. Don’t wish me luck, wish me focus. #tirgearrtuesday
I’m late to camp but . . .
April 4, 2020 at 10:50 am (NaNoWriMo, Writing Inspiration)
I’m late to camp but here I go!
I’ve signed up for this April edition of Camp NaNoWriMo, and I’m hoping it will help me get writing again. This pandemic thing has been mentally stressful on everyone. For me, it has been a little bit easier because we’d already been through a tornado and a flooding that cut us off ten years ago. That meant we prepped a long time ago. I’m also lucky to have a job where I can work from home. Most of my stress comes from worrying about others, figuring out exactly HOW to work from home, and figuring out how to keep the learning going at home for my daughter. I haven’t really been writing.
BUT, I have kept my writer’s group going weekly through Zoom meetings. This week I presented chapter 5 of my current work-in-progress Firebound. Reviews were favorable with lots of good suggestions for improvement that I plan to implement today. I really want to get working on this book again. To that end, I’ve joined Camp NaNoWriMo 2020 and committed to a 1,000 words a day. (I’m hoping to do more than that but I find setting my goal lower and keeping pressure low helps me start and then I can keep going if I feel up to it. Momentum is a wonderful thing.)
Is anyone else working on a project right now? Have you joined Camp NaNoWriMo or are you going it alone? If nothing else, I highly recommend journaling during this difficult time.
Writerly Update: NaNoWriMo in Progress
November 12, 2019 at 5:00 am (NaNoWriMo, Writing Inspiration)
I just love the moments of serendipity that come with working on a new story.
It helps me to visualize my characters if I pick someone to play them in my mind. I finally decided on Friday that a guardian angel character was most like Chris Pratt, at least visually. I was clicking through the television stations that night and landed on American Ninja. Strangely enough, Chris Pratt was guest hosting.
Sometimes it’s a matter of creating those moments out of the things that happen to me. The other night my daughter woke me from a sound sleep where I was dreaming about sleeping (very meta I know.) As she patted the blankets near my head to wake me, in my dream it turned into a ghost attacking me. I woke with my heart racing and adrenaline coursing through my body. First I thought, well it’s going to take a while to get back to sleep after THAT. Then I thought, what a great bit for the story I’m working on!
I also recently saw a picture from my local animal shelter of Rottweiler puppies that were up for adoption. A day or two later it occurred to me that I could use a guardian angel manifesting as a Rottweiler to keep a demon away from my main character’s house.
See how it all comes together? THIS is the most FUN part of writing.
I’m running a little behind, around 10,000 words as of Sunday night, but I’ve now written a couple scenes that I really LOVE.
Writing Update: NaNoWriMo Uprising
November 5, 2019 at 5:00 am (NaNoWriMo, Time Management)
I hosted a write-in at my library this past Saturday to kick-off NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month.) We had thirteen people in attendance and lots of writing got done. Prizes were given out for highest word count in a writing sprint, lowest word count, best line written, and worst line written.
Unfortunately, I had to spend my writing time editing, but I got it done! It’s back with the editor now and hopefully we’ll move forward from there.
With limited hours in the day, I’m a bit behind on NaNoWriMo but I made a start on Saturday, getting 600 words in. Another 1200 on Sunday. Though not as many as I had hoped, it is still progress.
I plan to catch up as time goes on. 2,000 words a day is not an unreasonable goal.
For me, NaNoWriMo is all about getting words on the page. I suppose I’m what they term a NaNo Rebel. I open a new document and EVRYTHING goes into it for the month. It could be a novel I’m working on, a digression into a short story, or even book reviews and blog posts. Every word counts.
Right now I’m filling in the missing bits of my Iwo Jima recon short story. Once that is drafted, I’ll move on to continuing the second novel in my paranormal series. I’m really looking forward to it.
There are quite a few quirky angels and demons in the books. Strangely enough, I just found out that an old family favorite, the Polish cookie Chrusciki, means “angel wings.” I may have to make some for the book release party.
Weekly Writing Update: Firebound
July 2, 2019 at 6:00 am (Characterization, NaNoWriMo, Writing Inspiration)
It’s Camp NaNoWriMo! For those who don’t know, that means July is all about writing something NEW and shiny!
I’ve decided to work on my second novel in the paranormal romance series. This one is titled Firebound. I sat down to work on plotting yesterday and realized . . . I have absolutely no idea where this novel is going. That’s both exciting AND scary.
Right now, what I have is a young woman named Jennifer who is a lapsed Catholic. She died briefly in a car wreck but was resuscitated. While dead, she spoke to an angel. (I figure that’s gotta turn your world upside down.)
She also doesn’t know yet that her best friend is an angel who was born as a human for a lifetime, AND that her friend has been using her talent for healing to speed up and ensure Jen’s burns heal well.
It’s also paranormal romance so there’s the whole love interest thing.
Oh, we got complications, don’t worry. She has burns and is considering becoming a nun now.
See, she is realized she really wasn’t doing much with her life, just minimally working an office job so she could drink too much and chase cute boys. Now she’s waking up to life and wondering what she can do to make a difference in the world?
Her eyes have been opened, literally and figuratively, by the accident and her angel encounter. She can now see the demons lurking in our midst
This should be a fun novel! Battling demons takes time, whether they’re internal or external.
Writing is my present to me
December 11, 2018 at 6:00 am (NaNoWriMo, Time Management, Writing Inspiration)
Christmas is coming and I’m in full present production mode! However, the writing must go on.
Now that the post-Thanksgiving cold has finally begun to abate, I’m back to adding to my NaNoWriMo novel, Unprepared. It’s a lot slower going than during NaNoWriMo, I only added 400 words at lunch today, but I’ll keep chipping away at it until it is done.
What is Unprepared about? When an agricultural engineering professor loses his wife and daughter to a bioengineered virus, he also loses his will to live but he may be one of the few people who can put his town back together again when it’s all over.
The book picks up when a quarantine goes into effect. The powers that be at first believed they were dealing with a particularly virulent flu pandemic, possibly bioengineered. However it is clear that it is even worse than that. They are losing people quickly and towns are soon isolated, dealing with their own disasters.
It’s amazing sometimes the ideas that come to light when I’m writing fast. This novel includes: chicken broth, a backhoe, biogas accelerating enzymes, Albuterol inhalers, and an inverter.
I’m looking forward to saying this draft is done.
Bit by Bit
December 4, 2018 at 6:00 am (NaNoWriMo, Writing Inspiration)
You know, I feel like I’m not getting much done . . . all . . . the . . . time. But that’s just a feeling.
The truth is that in the last ten years, I’ve self-published a book of poetry, written a good number of short stories, drafted three novels, with a soon to be fourth, and edited several of them to a point I feel is nearly ready for publication.
And, it seems to be getting a bit easier to envision and complete a novel length story arc.
I said to a friend the other day that when I started out, I struggled to write a short story that went longer than 2,000 words. They were complete, but very bare bones.
Now everything wants to turn into a novel!
So, I finished NaNoWriMo on my novel Unprepared with 50,000 words. Then I added in the 25,000 I wrote on it previously. 75,000 words . . . and it’s not even done!
I still have a bit more to write to finish the story arc and some fleshing out to do, but I will soon have a complete trilogy. It’s an exciting prospect.
And there’s so much more in my head to write. It’s a little frustrating and also invigorating. I love the writing life.
Melora Johnson's Muse 