You #NaNoWriMo, I'm Taking a Break

'Tis that time of year again. When writers all over choose to accept the challenge to write a novel or what-have-you that amounts to (at least) 50,000 words in a span of 30 days for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo or NaNo). Madness? To some. Inconvenient? Perhaps. November is the official start of the holiday season. And for those with families, in school, or just in general trying to write period can be hard fought without the deadlines. However, deadlines work for many people. Just sayin'.

This year it's been difficult for me to balance my creative, professional, and personal life. In the end 2 out of 3 of these things got more focus with me often saying "I'll catch up on writing later." I've written a bunch: for Fiction Femme Fatale every month, for my blog bi-weekly (if not more) as well. I wrote and rewrote query letters galore and have edited in long stretches or small snippets. Not a week goes by that I don't write something. But in terms of my short story Collection? The headway made isn't as much as I anticipated.

I was considering NaNo. I'd like to focus on revising my Collection OR drafting a contemporary YA book with a male protagonist. I've had the new YA idea since late last year. But, now that I am finished with one YA book do I want to pursue another or really stick to one major project along with several shorter stories/essays on the side?

The upside is that when I was sick of the Collection I went to my YA sci-fi book and vice versa. But now that the YA sci-fi book is out for querying it's mainly the Collection. And I need to consider how I can utilize my time well for either work. I'd like to think that this is the time for me to pull up my straps and steer this Collection to where I've wanted it to be since its inception. Yet a new project with no set guidelines on where to revise or edit or finesse it is a bit more fun in terms of letting go.

Either way I do plan to write. Many December deadlines loom that I must fulfill and frankly if there's time I should utilize it. But this did get me thinking about time management. And a fellow writer Courtney had a month where she went offline. Yup, completely offline with some rules. No social media or internet and barely checking email. While I can't not check email daily because of my full-time job and my pending freelance projects I am thinking it's time for me to make November a Break Month. Meaning NO social media primarily. I'm going to start off with a week of no social media (no Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, LinkedIn, etc.). After that week of going cold turkey I'll set in other barriers such as looking at Facebook twice a day and Twitter twice a day and such. Not repeatedly checking for more information. I'll be limiting my internet use to specific sites (no Buzzfeed or HuffPo as easy distractions). No, I'll be looking more at NY Times, Washington Post, and BBC News. Without FB or Twitter it'll be easier not to look at all these random lists people post online.

The goal for me in November is to prioritize. Maybe I'll end up writing/revising 50,000 words inadvertently for NaNoWriMo. Maybe I'll just do a lot of freelance work. Or I may do a crapton of baking. But my goal is to use less time online just wasting time because it's easy. If I'm going to waste it I won't waste it looking at a screen but going outside, baking, reading, and more than hopefully writing. My goal for November is not just to write but to find a method that makes me get stuff done with as few distractions as possible.

So, happy writing whether you do NaNo or not. Either way I hope your days are productive.

National Novel Writing Month (#NaNoWriMo) 2012

As NYC and NJ residents begin to heal post-Sandy November begins, holidays approach and well, it's that time again. NaNoWriMo officially begins today and I'm doing it people. I. Am. In!

While I know the goal for NaNoWriMo is to start something new and write at least 50,000 words in 30 days or so I am going to pull an Erin Morgenstern and revise a piece in progress. (Last year, Erin had posted a letter of support to NaNoWriMo participants about how she was revising her best-selling book The Night Circus during NaNoWriMo.)

My goal is to completely revise the latest draft of my young adult (YA) novel in progress tentatively titled The Facility. I received feedback from my critique partners on the near-finished piece at the end of the summer and have yet to really sit down and tackle revisions. Via their helpful comments I believe I have a good sounding board for doing a full revision from start to finish and then hand off the finished product to a beta (avid) reader friend of mine once I'm done. So let's hope I can complete my goal for this year of finishing this book.

My username on NaNoWriMo is jenn.bakerhenry. So feel free to hit me up via the NaNoWriMo board.

Happy Writing!

National Novel Writing Month 2011 Comes to an End...

As per my post on Halloween I, again, entered *National Novel Writing Month (aka NaNoWriMo). Last year I did horribly. But this year....

That's right! I won. I. Brought. It.

So, as I've told friends and fellow NaNoWriMo(ers) my contemporary YA novel is done with many hiccups, inconsistencies, syntax issues, repetitive words & sentences, and some time frame problems. But it is done! And the main plot point throughout was maintained.

I'm going to let that piece sit and marinate for a bit before delving back into it again. With the end of the year coming at a super-fast rate I have some goals to accomplish for 2012. One of which is to complete and submit a story from said collection to literary magazines. I'm flabbergasted at how much my collection and other projects  (including a fantasy YA piece and short pieces) have taken shape this year. And I have a lot of great critique partners to thank for that.

I'll be doing a post next year about character development and how much that can help as you pursue a long project. I know, I've done many baking posts this year (not that that's a bad thing) but I aim to do a healthier mix of writing and baking posts for next year.

And congrats to all those who participated in NaNoWriMo this year. It really isn't about winning or finishing or completing the next great piece of literature. It's about trying to focus on a new project and learn where your strengths and weaknesses may be and most importantly it's about writing no matter how much you actually get done.

See y'alls at next years' NaNoWriMo...maybe.

*NaNoWriMo is also in need of donations to keep it afloat! I donated once I crossed the finish line but feel free to donate as much or as little as you can.

National Novel Writing Month Begins...Again! (And Update on Bout of Books)

I'm participating in National Novel Writing Month (aka NaNoWriMo) again. Last year you may recall that I failed miserably at it. You can see my bevy of excuses here. The aim last year was to finish a new idea I had been tinkering with but 1/3 of the way through I just did not like what I was writing and went back to my passion project--yes that short story collection you keep reading about!

This time I have a plan. For over a year I have been mulling over the side story of one of the characters from my collection. In realizing that an additional 'coming of age' story wouldn't work as a short in the collection I decided to write a companion YA contemporary novel centered around this character where the collection ends. While I was away at my artist residency at Jentel I wrote an outline for this YA novel. I've tinkered with it since but have steadily not written a thing (though have made copious notes) in preparation for NaNoWriMo. I figure that since I do love the characters in this collection and this particular character, Kayla, very much (hell, I've been living with them for 4+ years at this point) that it made sense to delve into something I wanted to do and reserve a set amount of time to do it. And having a framework for the story arc(s) will help me so that I won't be scrambling for ideas of what should happen next like I was last year.

Like always the premise for NaNoWriMo is to write a 50k word novel (or more) in 30 days taking place throughout the month of November. There are write-ins where you can participate with other NaNoWriMos and a large online community.

While I anticipate I'll have much on my plate with a full-time job, freelance work, and social outings (it is wedding season after all!) I hope to be able to focus on this piece while also dabbling with others during the month. But we'll see. I aim to get a completion badge dang it!

If you're also on the NaNoWriMo site feel free to tag me. My username is jenn.bakerhenry.

Bout of Books Read-a-thon update

On October 23rd I posted about being a part of the Bout of Books read-a-thon.

Results: I read all three books I had listed and enjoyed Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self and Wonderstruck very much. Eve I was lukewarm about. (You can see my reviews on Goodreads.) But, the kicker is that I read Wonderstruck in 2 hours the day before the read-a-thon officially began. So my total count from October 24th to October 30th was actually two whole books. Not bad, but I could've done better had I had my weekend free for just reading.

Pluses: I met some great people and one of the entrants in Bout of Books organized a Twitterchat a couple days in which was fun. We talked about what we liked about read-a-thons and books in general. Connecting with avid readers and all-around cool people.

There were also some cool giveaways and contests held during the read-a-thon and I think in general it was nice to see other writers and book reviewers sites to see what they were reading, are reading, intended to read and were excited about.

I'd definitely do it again and have already signed up for another read-a-thon, a holiday one, set for December 2nd-4th. So hopefully I'll be able to block off time to actually read.