Meredith Anderson's Blog: Worderlands - Posts Tagged "writing-goals"
NaNoWriMo 2023
Is anyone here participating in NaNoWriMo this year?
After my first win last year (with The Magical Wares House [working title]), I'm not - not exactly, anyway. This month, I'm aiming to write more words than usual but not necessarily 50k. Maybe more like 10k words? I'd also love to finish another story or two, and start finding more ways to share my words with you all. (Where do you all go to find dark fantasy short stories? That's where I'd like to be.)
Anyway, last night I was up around 2.30am and it was at this point that I decided to do some writing. My brain has always worked best at night, when the rest of the world is asleep, when there are fewer things to interrupt the flow of words, fewer sounds to be heard over the clacking of keyboard keys, when the dogs are sleeping on the bed behind me instead of wrestling with each other over a chuck!it ball or barking at possums...
I use 4thewords, and last night it helped me to get to 1,888 words, bringing my total to 2,168 words for November so far. (I had written 280 words when attending writing sprints through my writing group's virtual kick-off party.) And more importantly, it was fun to lose myself in another world for a while (and beat up a few monsters along the way).
I winged it, and didn't know what I was going to write until I was writing it. When that's my approach over planning and plotting and possibly scheming, it feels like the story is coming from somewhere other than from me, from some higher power maybe, from the universe, or from the characters themselves. There's something wildly satisfying about that, becoming a conduit for these stories, and being taken along for the ride just as much as being the one to record them.
To those who are writing this month, whether for NaNoWriMo or otherwise, what's your process like? Are you happy with the progess you've made for the month so far?
---
One last unrelated thing: I just got some feedback from an author on the last manuscript assessment I worked on - all positive things! It was such a fun manuscript to work on, and I hope to work with the author again soon. :D
After my first win last year (with The Magical Wares House [working title]), I'm not - not exactly, anyway. This month, I'm aiming to write more words than usual but not necessarily 50k. Maybe more like 10k words? I'd also love to finish another story or two, and start finding more ways to share my words with you all. (Where do you all go to find dark fantasy short stories? That's where I'd like to be.)
Anyway, last night I was up around 2.30am and it was at this point that I decided to do some writing. My brain has always worked best at night, when the rest of the world is asleep, when there are fewer things to interrupt the flow of words, fewer sounds to be heard over the clacking of keyboard keys, when the dogs are sleeping on the bed behind me instead of wrestling with each other over a chuck!it ball or barking at possums...
I use 4thewords, and last night it helped me to get to 1,888 words, bringing my total to 2,168 words for November so far. (I had written 280 words when attending writing sprints through my writing group's virtual kick-off party.) And more importantly, it was fun to lose myself in another world for a while (and beat up a few monsters along the way).
I winged it, and didn't know what I was going to write until I was writing it. When that's my approach over planning and plotting and possibly scheming, it feels like the story is coming from somewhere other than from me, from some higher power maybe, from the universe, or from the characters themselves. There's something wildly satisfying about that, becoming a conduit for these stories, and being taken along for the ride just as much as being the one to record them.
To those who are writing this month, whether for NaNoWriMo or otherwise, what's your process like? Are you happy with the progess you've made for the month so far?
---
One last unrelated thing: I just got some feedback from an author on the last manuscript assessment I worked on - all positive things! It was such a fun manuscript to work on, and I hope to work with the author again soon. :D
Worderlands
A blog about writer-y things. And possibly other things.
- Meredith Anderson's profile
- 20 followers
