Uh-oh. Anybody see the date today? It’s November 30, or in other words, the last day of NaNoWriMo. And my novel so far only consists of 17,069 words, a long way short of the NaNo goal of 50,000 words in a month.
I think we can all safely assume that I’m not going to come up with 32,931 words in the next twelve hours or so. So this year, rather than being a NaNoWriMo winner as I was last year, I guess you’d have to call me a NaNoWriMo loser!
So where’s …

So I got re-started with NaNoWriMo and then I had another few days where I just didn’t get the fiction writing thing happening. And then today I read the Quiet Rebel Writer’s confession that this year she’s a NaNoWriMo dropout. Not quite what I was hoping to read about.
What can I say? The big problem is I broke my promise to myself about writing my novel before I wrote my paid writing. When push comes to shove, and I have just a little time, then I just have to do …

Regular readers might have been expecting a bit of a report on my NaNoWriMo progress after I started 10 days late but with great enthusiasm.
Excuses for not writing this week? Let me count the ways … or at least give you the abbreviated collection of bad reasons I gave myself for not writing. Starting with going back to teaching after nearly a month off (hey, more exhausting than I remembered) and leading through various dramas up to spending a fair whack of time helping out a friend with a problem, …

The relatives are safely back in Switzerland. I’ve nearly caught up on all the work I got behind on while they were here. November is rapidly ticking by. All this can only mean one thing: it’s absolutely, undeniably time that I got started on my novel draft for this year’s NaNoWriMo.
While other writers have been tapping away at their keyboard since November 1, I’m starting today. Since NaNoWriMo winners have to write 50,000 words before November 30, that leaves me with a daily target of 2,380 words (if you start …

The arduous yet addictive novel-writing feast that is NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month, for the uninitiated) began yesterday, November 1 – but I was busily holidaying in the south-west of Australia. I’ve got a tough week coming up relaxing on Rottnest Island with my in-laws from Switzerland, and only after that will I be seriously getting into NaNoWriMo.
But I’m excited about it. After last year’s NaNoWriMo “win” (that’s the term they use if you successfully complete a novel of at least 50,000 words during November) I know that I can …

So if I’m not planning to write my serious second novel for the 2008 NaNoWriMo month, does that mean I skip the event altogether? Or should I turn my hand to some of the other writing ideas I have, for something a little less literary and more fun to write?
Recently I’ve really enjoyed reading a bunch of novels I’ve got from the “Humour” section of the fiction books in my local library. In theory, I dislike the way my library divides up all the fiction into weird categories including “Family …

You might well think I’m insane to already be considering my next attempt at NaNoWriMo, but it turned out that writing a draft of a novel wasn’t as hard as I expected, especially with the bonus pressure of a deadline and people watching me.
But I also learned a lot from the experience and come November 1 next year, I’ll be doing some things differently. In case I forget these personal pearls of wisdom, I thought I’d make a list:

Plan my novel more. This year, especially because of the spontaneous, last-minute …

Panic over. I’ve finished the first draft of my novel. Not only have I become a NaNoWriMo winner (hence the special icon they gave me on the right), I’ve even managed to fulfill my New Year’s Resolution to write a novel in 2007.
Yay me! There’s a lot more work to be done on this manuscript before even my closest critics can lay eyes on it, but the substance is there. Plus I’ve learned that I’m not as skilled at procrastinating as I thought.
Thanks to everyone who’s been cheering for me …

So, almost a week ago I posted in a panic that I had just a week or so more to get from 21,000 words to 50,000 in this November novel-writing challenge. Now it’s almost the end of Wednesday, the third last day of November. Things are going OK, in fact probably according to plan: my NaNoWriMo profile is showing 40,357 completed words now.
But there are always a few tricks thrown in. My husband surprised me by coming home early tonight, instead of Friday, which is lovely (“great to see you …

So it’s the start of Day 22 of the NaNoWriMo challenge to write 50,000 words of a novel during November. I’ve written 21,606 words. HELP!
I love statistics, but not these ones: I’ve written 43.2% of the required words, but 70% of the time has passed. But there are a few things in my favour. It’s Thanksgiving in the US, which means two of the blogs I write for don’t publish today or tomorrow, giving me several bonus hours of writing time. Secondly, my husband’s suddenly heading up to work on …