NaNoWriMo 2023, Dead As Dreams Update, And A Halloween Pic

It's November! Yay! And I can't do what I originally planned to do for NaNoWriMo. Booooo.

As of this morning, I had two scenes left to revise in Dead As Dreams (Saga of Souls & Dreams). Right now, it's one (mind you, the scene I worked on today ended up being over double what I estimated it would be...). So, I need to finish that scene tomorrow. I'll be counting the revisions for both scenes on my NaNo word count.

But once I'm done revising, I need to dive directly into editing Dead As Dreams, as I FINALLY intend to publish it on November 29.

This means no drafting fun this month for me. Sigh. I've been wanting to get back to Magic Morsel, add to Gemini's Echo, and draft the next Fortunes of Fate story. All that will likely have to wait until 2024, as if past Decembers are any indication, I'll get no writing done this December.

However, that doesn't mean no NaNo. I'll be counting every hour of editing as 500 words. NaNo Rebel! Forever and always. And I probably won't hit 50k, but do I ever?

So that's the scoop with NaNoWriMo 2023 for me. I won't be keeping track on my blog at all for NaNo progress either. Life has me a tad overwhelmed right now. Good luck to all those undertaking the NaNo challenge (rebels or not)!

Oh, just for some fun, here's a picture of my fairy garden decorated for Halloween. =D

NaNoWriMo 2022 - Aren't I Always A Rebel?

Hi, all! It's that NaNoWriMo time of year again!

Unfortunately, I didn't have time to create a NaNo Bites document for this year. I just got back from a New Orleans trip a week ago, and now I'm elbows deep in revisions and a beta read. So, we're going with the classic word count meter.

Wait, you want details? Lol. I guess. ;)

I need to make tracks on the Dead As Dreams revisions, so I'll be continuing to focus on that instead of fresh words. Heck, I'm pretty much re-writing the novel anyhow, especially once I get through Chapter 24. I am scared to see what kind of mess I'm dealing with for the second half.

Yeah, that makes me a NaNo Rebel again. I'm also a NaNo Rebel because I'm not aiming for 50k. My stretch goal for the month is 25k instead. With a couple beta read jobs to deal with, and the impending doom of NaNo Crud, I'm guessing 25k will be quite a challenge in and of itself.

As you can see by the meter below, I've already made some progress! I'll try to update it throughout the month, but if I don't have time, I'll be sure to at least do so at the end of the month with my final word count.

If I can hit that elusive 25k, I'll be 65k into the Dead As Dreams revision.

That's all I got for now. I'm hoping I can find the time to post some New Orleans pictures to the blog before the end of the year. We'll see. Always crazy at the end of the year!

Happy reading and writing!

5351 / 25000 words. 21% done!

NaNoWriMo 2021 - Never Give Up

Oh, yes, it's that time of year again. Fall has descended in my area of the U.S. and winter is just around the corner. Halloween and Thanksgiving - holidays to be juggled (Black Friday, too, which is a holiday for some).

Wait, no, that's not right. Right, r...wite, WRITE! That's more like it. It's that time of year where a bunch of crazy writers attempt to write 50,000 words in a month. NaNoWriMo time! (There are some crazy writers who write this and more almost every month of the year - I feel burnout coming on just thinking of that possibility for me.)

So, this is my yearly National Novel Writing Month post. Not sure if you'll see any other updates on Born to Write in November, though I may add some updates to this post if I feel so inclined.

This year, I initially had the intention of aiming for the 50,000, since I've never hit 50,000 in a month (not just during NaNo). Then I made a schedule for myself and realized how unrealistic aiming for 50,000 was at this time. I think if I go for 50,000, between the holidays and kids, I'd burn myself out for all of 2022, and I don't want to do that.

25,000 sounds way more doable, and a goal I've aimed for many NaNos in the past, though I also never reached it. My best NaNo year was 2015 when I hit 20,214 words. Even if I simply eclipse that by a handful of words, I'll be happy. As I've said before, NaNo is a way for me to challenge myself and push my limits. But there's a fine line between pushing limits and being completely unrealistic.

Of course I'll be a NaNo Rebel this year in more than word count. I'm planning to add onto Magic Morsel so I can at least finish the current "arc" of the episodes and have enough to publish one episode every Friday through the rest of the year on Kindle Vella. And I've also been chomping at the bit to get back to Gemini's Echo. Therefore, those are the two titles I'll be adding words to come November 1.

I'm going to try the NaNo Bites thing again. Here's hoping it imbeds nicely into this post, but if not, here's a direct link: NaNo Bites 2021.

Stickers are fun. XD Here's hoping I can at least get 50 of them - 500 words = 1 NaNo Bite!

Both of my kids want to take part in NaNo this year, too. That'll be extremely interesting for the grade schooler. I'll likely make her older sister help her on the NaNoWriMo Young Writers Program website. Oh, and another reason 50,000 seems crazy is because the kids have off the WHOLE week of Thanksgiving week. Oy.

For those undertaking NaNoWriMo this year, good luck and happy writing!

NaNoWriMo 2019

Oh, no, it's already NaNoWriMo time! Man, that sneaked up on me. Shouldn't it still be the beginning of October? Actually, I keep thinking it's December now since Mother Nature dumped a bunch of snow on us on Halloween (way too early for it). My mind is seriously confused.

I guess that's as good a way as any to start out NaNo this year. Better off that than sick (OK, I'm knocking on all the wood, seriously hoping the NaNo Crud doesn't descend on me - stay away until December 1, please).

Anyway, part of me really wants to shoot for the 50,000 words this year. I originally had planned to, since Thorns Entwine the Blade was supposed to release in October. But now that the release date has been moved to November 13, I have a lot of things to do for that this month as well.

I'll just say, I'd be insanely happy to reach 25,000 words. If I get further, even happier. One of these years I'll have the whole month of November clear of other obligations, including the mini humans, really I will.

This year, I'm working on Downward Spiral (Urban Unicorn, 1). I started this novel a while back during another NaNo, and I've decided I'll be working on this series next. I'm going to draft them all, then revise them all, and then finally publish them (which means publications will be pretty sparse after Thorns for a while).

I'm being a bit of a NaNo Rebel, of course. Not only am I not starting a fresh project, I'm also rewriting what I'd already written on Downward Spiral. I've had several new ideas since I first started writing it, and I want to incorporate those before I move on. I only had 10k words written before, so I'm not rebelling too badly - lol. And it'll probably take me longer to rewrite than fresh drafting anyhow, as my brain is still stuck in editing mode. Heh.

Without further ado, here's my word meter for the year. You'll notice, I've already started writing (well, rewriting), even after doing some editing on Thorns today, too. I'll try to update the word count daily. Happy NaNoing, everyone!

NaNoWriMo and Halloween 2018

Combo post! For me, the start of NaNoWriMo and Halloween go hand-in-hand, anyhow. I mean, by the time I get to the end of October and the start of November, everything's just melded into one huge lump of mushy memory. October can be a little rough for me, some years, and this year especially since the flu screwed up a lot of my plans.

Anyway, NaNoWriMo!

Nope, I'm not aiming for a full 50k this year. Not even going to consider the idea. I probably won't really be posting over in the NaNo forums at all either. A low key and quiet half-assed half-goal NaNoWriMo sounds perfect to me.

I actually have several tiers of goals this year and then a bonus goal. And yes, I'm continuing revisions of Thorns Entwine the Blade (Trinity Torn, 2) for the most part. So...

❦ Low - 8,000 words of revision
❦ Mid - 15,500 words of revision
❦ High - 19,750 words of revision
❦ BONUS - 6,000 words of a rough draft (of what is still to be determined)

The low goal is pretty much my normal monthly goal. My normal goal last month was destroyed due to the flu and post-party prep exhaustion, so I would like to catch up a little to the backlog if possible.

So, we'll say the overall goal for this year's NaNoWriMo is 26,000 words. I'll still use the potato buddy counter, but I'll also use one of the official NaNo meters on the left side. Don't expect to see this climb until November 5, though, as I have a beta read job that needs to get completed, and it's top priority.

That's enough of NaNo. Simple this year -- and I won't report final progress until the first week of December! Let's hope the NaNo Crud stays far away.

Onto Halloween. It was a bit of a scramble this year, and I didn't take too many pictures during the Halloween party because of this. But I'll wrap up this post with a couple at least. None of me this time, since I decided I'd be lazy and just throw on a Pusheenicorn hoodie. =D I hope everyone had a Haunting Halloween!

NaNoWriMo - Slight Change of Plans

I know, I'm only eight days into NaNoWriMo, and I'm already changing my plans!

It's nothing earth shattering, but this plan takes my NaNo Rebel status a bit farther.

Are you dying to know? No? Oh, well, I'm going to tell you anyway.

Since revising Thorns Entwine the Blade has been taking as long (or longer) than drafting fresh words, I've decided to count my revisions toward NaNoWriMo!

Some of you may think I'm taking the whole Rebel thing too far, but honestly isn't the core goal of NaNoWriMo to push yourself to complete more than you normally would in a month? I'm still reaching for the stars with a goal of 50,000 of combined revised and drafted words. All the work counts!

And maybe, this year with that combined goal, I'll actually reach 50,000 words for the first time! Unless of course the month explodes on me. It's a possibility. My eldest just clocked a fever on the thermometer (eep).

So, here are the edited goals to reach 50,000:

❦ Thorns Entwine the Blade (Trinity Torn, 2) Revisions - 20,000 words

❦ GSD vs. Everything Complete First Draft - 15,000 to 18,000 words

❦ Blood Stains the Soul (Trinity Torn, 3) Pretty Shitty Beginning Draft - 12,000 to 15,000 words

This removes my last goal of wandering wherever my whims drag me, but that's OK. The renewed decision to aim for 50,000 is spurring me on.

As of this blog post, I'm at 9000 words, 5134 of Thorns revisions and 3866 of adding to the GSD vs. Everything draft. I'll tweak my counters on the left side a bit due to the shift in goals. The original NaNoWriMo post counter will remain at 9000, while the one below will keep counting up as I write and revise more (until I post another update, if I do). We'll start it with the Potato Dude watching TV, in honor of the next GSD chapter ahead -- GSD vs. Entertainment.

Reaching for that 50,000!

NaNoWriMo 2017 - Rebel Rebel

Now I have the song "Devil Devil" stuck in my head. Hey, at least it's a good song.

But that's not what this post is about. No, of course not. It's November 1. And we all know what that means, right? NaNoWriMo!

I am deep diving in revisions for Thorns Entwine the Blade right now, and I need to keep making progress on those if I want to release the novel in March or April. But I can't resist the temptation of NaNoWriMo! It's a weakness. Maybe even an addiction at this point since I never do hit 50,000 words (I'm still OK with that, by the way).

So, I'm all in this month. Along with a goal of 20,000 words for revisions, I'm also hoping to reach at least 25,000 words for NaNoWriMo, though I have scheduled stuff to shoot for 50,000.

What am I, though? A NaNo Rebel, always and forever. There are so many projects that I want to work on, so I'm going to use NaNoWriMo this year to finish some things up and most importantly have fun. No pressure at all. This will be fun drafting time.

The projects I intend to work on are as follows:

❦ GSD Vs. Everything - I am 12,000 words into this. I am hoping for 18,000 more words (though some won't count toward NaNo as I have one or two sections that will be copied from elsewhere). This is the first task, and I may not get any words written today because I still have to read through what I've already written since it's been so long.

❦ Blood Stains the Soul (Trinity Torn, 3) - Back in 2004, my first NaNoWriMo, I wrote out a mad dash of 14,000 words on Thorns. I kind of want to do that for Book 3 in the trilogy as well. Get down the bones and things that are floating around in my head. I want to see where the words take me. I'm not even calling this a rough draft. More like a free write with a prompt? My aim is 15,000 words on this.

❦ Now, those two don't add up to 50,000. If I do complete the above projects, it's a free-for-all. My whims will take me to the well of words. I could start a Fortunes of Fate story, inspired by the votes I've already gotten (if you haven't voted yet, please do: Which Tarot Card Next?). Or I might continue Chains of Nect. Oh, oh, or work on the Rabid Unicorns idea. A Fractured Fairies story? Another completely different shiny that is preying on my brain (I have so many that nibble at the edges)? Who knows! I sure don't right now.

What do you think? Am I completely off my rocker? Will I fall flat on my face immediately and get absolutely no revising or writing done? I sure hope not - lol.

My usual NaNoWriMo meter is below, and I'll tweak the word count meters in the left column as well. I may just have NaNoWriMo update posts throughout November, but we'll see. Depends on how well I can keep my head above water.

Happy writing AND happy reading!

Nov. 1 - I completed the chapter GSD vs. Sleep, so it's only fitting that the potato dude is nodding off. And now, I actually go to sleep... Zzzzzz.

Nov. 8 - The counter above will remain at 9000 -- pop over to my newest post, NaNoWriMo - Slight Change of Plans, to see the words continue to climb!

NaNoWriMo 2016 - Coming Full Circle

Back in 2004 I joined in on NaNoWriMo for the first time. Since then I've participated in almost every NaNo (I missed one in 2007 when I was pregnant with my first), and I've joined in on some of the Camp NaNos.

I've never hit 50k.

Some might think this is sad, but I don't think it is. NaNo, for me, is using the crazy energy from all the writers undertaking this endeavor and spring-boarding myself into completing more writing than I normally would have gotten done. I mean, I'm a NaNo Rebel for the most part anyhow. I haven't actually started many "new" novels during all of my attempts. It's about progress, no matter how little, for me on anything I need to work on at the time.

Speaking of being a NaNo Rebel, this year I have come full circle. That first NaNo back in 2004, I started the sequel to Mind Behind the Mind. It didn't have its own title back then (I didn't even have the series title picked out), but I wrote 14k words. And it gave me new insight into Mind, to better direct my revisions at the time.

Most of the words were pretty much crap, though.

So, I had to start rewriting the sequel, which is now titled Thorns Entwine the Blade, this year. I hadn't made much progress before NaNo began. But I intend to make plenty of progress during NaNo!

I am using some of the old words, but things are getting added, rearranged, and cut. I was clearly writing sparsely, as I've added a lot more words already, especially with internal dialogue. While I wasn't a Rebel that first year I started this, I am definitely one this year! Part of the month will be rewriting (not revising - trust me, the writing isn't just getting a little face lift). Then hopefully I'll get into continuing the draft.

This year I'm back around to the first novel I started during NaNoWriMo. Who knows, maybe this will be the year I actually hit 50k!

OK, maybe not that last part - lol. I'm about to have a threenager on my hands. Toddler's birthday is a few days away! My main goal is 25k again this year. Last year I hit the 20k mark - my best year ever, so let's see if I can hit that 25k at least. If I get more, it'll be gravy. I do know I need to avoid the NaNo Plague, which seems to descend on me every NaNo attempt.

And I'm posting this after my first writing session today, so I already have 1668 words on the meter! I'll attempt to keep the cute little emotions updated throughout the month as well, so feel free to check back in on this post. I'll also be updating the meter to the left on the main page of my blog.

Happy NaNoing, everyone!

NaNo 2015 Results

I figured I'd post one update at least. I had wanted to do more, but too many other things seemed to take precedence.

Anyway, NaNoWriMo 2015 is now over. Amazingly, I didn't come down with my usual NaNo Cold (maybe getting sick so much the couple of months before had something to do with it). And nothing major stopped me in my tracks. I definitely realized early on, though, that 50k was not going to happen with a toddler at my heels. I figured that would be the case. Heck, I'd rather be napping with her right now, I'm just utterly exhausted.

So, right, no 50k. However, I did reach 20k! I burned through almost 3k yesterday, just so I could hit the 20k mark at least. OK, it's not the hopeful 25k (though it was close), however, it's over 5k more than I ever managed to write for NaNo in previous years. I feel accomplished. And even though I didn't hit 50k, I am not a NaNo Failure. I completed two short stories as well as adding a bunch of words to Chains of Nect.

Of course, the words don't stop flowing because NaNoWriMo is over. Nope. Got to keep chugging along!

NaNo 2015 - Long Live the Rebellion!

You knew it was coming, didn't you? NaNoWriMo 2015!

This year, like many years, I'll be a NaNo Rebel. I plan to complete the rough draft of two short stories (one was completed yesterday during my first writing session!) as well as continuing the rough draft of Chains of Nect.

We'll see if I can hit 50,000 words this year. Heck, as in past years, I'll be happy with 25,000. My toddler just threw a supreme fit, reminding me just how far out of reach 50,000 might be. =P

I also need to see if I can squeeze in some revisions of a couple short stories. And "Dreams in Shadow" will be released this month, along with a pre-order for another story!

Without further ado, the awesome word count meter: