NaNoWriMo Prep 2014 + Big Announcement

Hello, everyone!  I apologize for my lack of posts!  School and work have bitten me in the behind and I haven’t had any extra time to devote to my blog. :-( I tried for a while there to keep up with my Monthly Favorites posts, but that was short-lived.  Ha ha ha.  Oh well.

But anyway, I’m back now! :D We’ll see how long I stick around this time. Recently, I’ve decided that I will be participating in National Novel Writing Month again this year.  I skipped last year because of bitter frustrations that I was still experiencing over my 2012 NaNoWriMo project, Fleur Valse.  I think I’m ready to give it another go.

As for my new novel’s storyline, I’m still trying to choose between several options that I’ve come up with.  All of them are fantasy, not surprisingly. :P Some are dystopian, others are…well, not dystopian, ha ha ha.  I’m starting afresh, that’s the only thing I’m certain of.  New world, new characters.  No returning to old, failed projects.  I’m going to try something different and see how it compares to my other attempts.  I think that a huge part of the reason why my past two NaNoWriMo projects have failed is because I’ve tried to write novels that I’ve come up with way beforehand, and the result is that I end up getting incredibly frustrated when things don’t turn out how I intended them to.  One month simply isn’t enough time to write a complex book, especially within the fantasy genre!

Plans?  What plans?  Nope!  I’m not writing out a detailed description of every character, scene, and chapter like I did back in 2012.  I learned the hard way that this sort of planning quickly becomes a to-do list, and nobody likes to do chores.

I’m going to go with the flow.  Take each chapter as it comes.  I’m going to let my words pour forth at their own pace and not worry about the details.  That’s what editing is for!

So most of my prep, so to speak, is comprised of copious amounts of fine coffee and tea along with a few simple writing exercises and brainstorming for ideas.  All of this is to help ease myself back into writing mode.  I’ve been terribly unproductive as of late (as you all know, why am I telling you this), and I want to avoid a reality shock, for lack of a better term.

This brings us to my “Big Announcement.” For the benefit of myself and my peers, I have created a private, online writing community called Writerly, which, if all goes well, will officially launch on November 1^st, 2014.  But another blog post will follow on that~ I hope that it will prove to be successful for its members in receiving feedback and critique from fellow writers, and also (of course) to have fun sharing ideas and inspiration. :-)

Next week, I will post a preview of the site!

That aside, I encourage all of my writer friends to give NaNoWriMo a try.  Come join in on the fun.

And that’s all for today!  Talk to you all soon!