To 50K and BEYOND!

If you follow me on social media, you know that I have committed to undertaking the National Novel Writing Month challenge of writing 50,000 words in 30 days. That was not a typo... fifty THOUSAND words in thirty DAYS.

I've done this before and it was painful and frustrating and exactly what I needed to kickstart myself into writing the trilogy I had been researching for literally months.

#WIPjoy Day 1 - Visual of your Work in Progress

So here we are again and I have spent a lot of time talking about, researching, plotting, and agonizing over my current book.  Its a work in progress (WIP)  in that I have been working on it...just not writing it. That is something I hope to remedy with #NaNoWriMo this year.

I did an entire month of #WIPjoy which I love because it makes you think about and explain aspects of your characters and novel you may not have delved into otherwise. I find the quarterly Twitter event quite helpful and encourage you to take part in the winter. Its great fun and you meet a lot of other authors which is always a good thing.

I'm working on a scifi mystery. It takes place in the near future where Elara Savoya, a tech hunter is dragged into a high stakes international plot that will put the space race and ultimately man's place among the stars in jeopardy. So yes...I'm raring to go on this one.

One of the intimidating things about #NaNoWriMo is that it takes place during the holiday season. For those who take part in NaNoWriMo and who also live in the United States, that means Thanksgiving. A huge family dinner with tons of prep and cleanup and time spent socializing. Great for the soul...not so great for the word count.

As a fix, Christen E Krumm has proposed a BACKWARDS NaNoWriMo. This involves frontloading your wordcount per day so that as you start to inch towards the holidays, your required words per day to stay on target goes down.  

This method has you go gangbusters while you're still all excited and hyped up on Halloween candy and gives you a break as you head towards Christmas decorating, shopping, partying, etc.  Here's a helpful writing plan from Christen's site.

Backwards NaNoWriMo Plan

I think I'm going to give this a try. Anything to get my first draft done before the new year. I'm hoping to hit a few conferences and I'd love to have a working draft to pitch or talk to editors about. 

What about you? 

Are you thinking of doing #NaNoWriMo this year?  If so...add me on your buddy list (Raquel Byrnes) and I'll do the same. Just leave your user name in the comments.  Happy writing!

#WIPjoy and Playlists

This month is #WIPjoy! Its a Twitter event that happens every season, so four times a year, that brings together authors to share their Work In Progress and encourage one another. I love this event and look forward to it every year. The amazing Bethany A. Jennings @ SimmeringMind and S.D. Grimm @SDGrimmAuthor make WIPjoy both fun and uplifting. 

Veridian Playlist on Spotify

We are currently on Day 5: Tunes for Your WIP.

Whenever I start a new book I also start a playlist. I've always used music to help me not only get in the right mind-set for a give scene, but it really helps me to organize my story in a way that a visual chart doesn't quite touch.

I get a better sense of the pace with music. Too many fast, exciting songs and I realize I need a lull scene to give the reader a moment to catch their breath.  On the flip side, if my song list consists of too many slow pieces, I write in something that picks up the pace.

The playlist for my sci-fi thriller, Veridian, is coming along nicely. Since its a future-noir, I get to have some moody jazz, great old big band pieces, soulful love songs, and awesome space themed soundtracks.

A playlist is never complete until the book is finished, but its certainly fun to see what other authors use for inspiration.

#WIPjoy is such a fun way to connect with authors, see what they're working on, and to get sneak peeks at upcoming books.  I highly recommend checking it out.

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