NaNoWriMo

12 Tips for Recovering from Writing Burnout

January 3, 2013 Writing Stuff
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As I write this, I’m suffering from acute sleep exhaustion after pulling an all-nighter. I stayed up until 5:30 a.m. to finalize not one, but two entries for RWA’s Golden Heart contest (the big contest for non-published romance writers) before the deadline. I’m glad I completed everything on time and met the deadline. However, I’ve now [...]

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Protect Your Wrists: Exercises for Writers

December 18, 2012 Writing Stuff
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Back in August, the keyboard I’d used for forever (about ten years) died. I tried using several other keyboards of various ergonomic configurations, but they all made my wrists hurt by the end of the day. After weeks of these inferior (to me) keyboards, my right wrist got so bad I had to wear a [...]

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NaNo Wrap-up, Part 2: Can Slow Writers Win Too?

December 6, 2012 Writing Stuff
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Whether we officially “won” NaNoWriMo or not, most of us who participated probably racked up higher than normal daily word counts. And building on my previous NaNo wrap-up post, that success can carry over into other areas of our writing life. Author Roni Loren and I have talked several times about our “slow” writing style. How we never truly [...]

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NaNo Wrap-Up: Are You Happy with Your Accomplishment?

December 4, 2012 Over-Achieving Perfectionist
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For better or for worse, the National Novel Writing Month (NaNo) of November is over. I don’t know about anyone else, but I’ve been catching up on sleep. (I lost count of how many nights I stayed up until midnight to get as many words in as possible.) It was a month of highs and [...]

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Actions and Reactions: The End-All-Be-All of Storytelling

November 29, 2012 Writing Stuff
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This might be a deep philosophical post. Or it might be random thoughts triggered by my remaining sugar coma (7 Thanksgiving desserts!). You’ll have to let me know. I’d been thinking about doing another post about actions and reactions in writing, but the more I thought about it, the bigger the subject became. My fascination with [...]

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The Point of a Scene: Thinking in Concepts

November 20, 2012 Writing Stuff
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A couple of months ago, I read a blog post that forever changed how I approached drafting scenes. That probably sounds melodramatic, but it’s true. We’ve often talked about the differences between plotters and pantsers (those who write by the seat of their pants), and how as a die-hard-and-happy-about-it pantser, I don’t want to plot [...]

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NaNo Check-In: Lessons from the Halfway Point

November 15, 2012 Writing Stuff
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Today, November 15th, marks the halfway point for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month—write a 50K word novel during November). That means all NaNo participants should reach 25,000 words on their NaNo project by midnight tonight. Yikes! That sounds like a big number—and it is—but I passed that milestone on November 11th. So far, I’ve been ahead [...]

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NaNo Prep: What Writing Tools Do You Use?

October 30, 2012 Writing Stuff
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Today is my last “NaNo Prep” post, as NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month—write a 50K word novel during November) starts on Thursday. But stay tuned because I’m planning a big post on Thursday with a gift for all romance writers. I’m excited about NaNo because this is the first year I’ll be participating. Of course [...]

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NaNo Prep: What’s Your “Next Big Thing”?

October 25, 2012 Random Musings
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I don’t usually participate in blog tagging posts, but every once in a while, one comes along that fits in well with my blog. On Tuesday, Janice Hardy tagged me for The Next Big Thing Blog Hop. As NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month—write a 50K word novel during November) is all about writing “the next big [...]

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NaNo Prep: Using Music to Get into a Writing Mood

October 23, 2012 Writing Stuff
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Last time, we shared suggestions on how to kick our muse into gear. One of my favorite techniques is using music. With NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month—challenge yourself to write 50K words during November) fast approaching, now is the perfect time to revisit all the ways music can help our writing. On a day-to-day basis, music—er, [...]

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