LK Hunsaker's Blog: News and Ponderances - Posts Tagged "writing"

I just took a several day break from Facebook. Now, I love Facebook. I love chatting with people and seeing quickly what so many of my friends are up to at any given time. It's also a great way to see what's going on in the wider world and how people feel about things. Great way to tune in to reality. The problem is: time! Wow, it's a time sucker.

Particularly when I get involved in a conversation, I spend far too much time debating and pondering and it invades my off-line time, as well.

It can also suddenly feel like a huge personal space invasion. On days, I consider deleting the page and walking away. I doubt I will. I like the connection when I want it.

Over the several days I made myself step away, I became fully engrossed in finishing my rewrite of the current WIP. In fact, I was so fully engrossed, I abandoned FB (and other places) longer than I intended. But I got it done, at least the handwritten additions for the spots that were lacking fullness.

It felt wonderful enough to be so obsessed with my work that I'm only edging back into the social scene gently. Those pages still need to be typed. Then edited. Then passed to a few beta readers. Then re-edited. And several other WsIP are sitting and waiting for my time.

Writing and networking is a huge balancing game for a writer. If we hide too far deep in our little caves, we lose track of the gorgeous, full reality that infuses our work, and that's a shame. If we get too involved in that gorgeous, full reality, we don't have enough time to write it! That's a crime! ;-)

So, sometimes I'll be seeing you around. Other times I won't. Yes, I do feel sorry for a writer's friends, my own included.

It's an addiction.

I've been a Wrimo since November 2004 and I would have been earlier if I had found it earlier. Why? The challenge. At least at first it was the challenge to see how hard it would be to write 50K words of a new novel in 30 days along with a bunch of other insane writers.

I found out we're not all that insane. It is an incredible exercise in letting your thoughts go and allowing whatever comes to mind get to print. No editing. No overthinking. Just pure creative flow.

It didn't quite work that way for me the first year. I struggled. I only got to just over 30,000 words. But hey, it was 30,000 words I wouldn't have had otherwise, and a great experience. I had to try again the following November. Again, I strugged, but I made just over 50,000.

What an exhilarating feeling it is to shove through when you're tired, when you think you've run dry of words, when your muse has packed up and left for the west coast of Ireland to rejuvenate in the cold and rain and beautiful landscape ... where was I?

Oh, yes, it is indeed exhilarating. And it becomes an addiction. The past two years, I've reached over 90,000 new words of a new story in November. Instead of having a new book done only every 2 to 3 years, I'm producing one a year (at the moment, and knock on wood). I used to wonder how on earth authors could produce so fast. Now I know.

They push. They make it a priority. And they tell themselves they can.

That was the difference between my first and second Nanowrimo years. The first year, I thought it was crazy. The second year I told myself if others could do it, well durn it, so could I! And I did.

Now that the challenge has been won and I know I can, and that I can double that to 100K if I decide, I'm adding to my own challenge.

This year's Nano novel will be strictly literary, full of social issues, an experiment of sorts since I'm pulling two book ideas into one.

The past three years, I've finished the novels I worked on during November by some point of the following year and they have all been published. Each one is better than the last (at least I feel it is), even for starting so fast.

This year, I'll push it during November, hope for a full first draft (50K won't cut it for the full book), then set it aside to continue the book I'm working on now (the huge 3rd book of the Rehearsal series). Maybe before next November, I'll be able to finish both.

As a celebration of Nanowrimo, which, by the way, stands for National Novel Writing Month (nanowrimo.org), I'm offering the shorter, spicier version of last year's Nano novel for $0.99, only from now through November 30th.

The offer is only available through Smashwords and this one is only available as an ebook:
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/...
with the coupon code: CY54Y

Of course, if you want the full and less spicy version, you can find that at Smashwords in ebook version or at ElucidatePublishing.net in print. Or order from your local indie store!

*Note: The spicier version is not erotica; it is sensual with scenes that continue farther than the door.

Who else is in for Nanowrimo this year? You don't have to come to the end of the book by the end of November. You only need to aim at having the first 50K words of it done. Come play along! You'll be in good company. :-)

Here's my page if you want to add me as a buddy or watch my progress: http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/participa...

On my blog this month (my official site blog, that is), I have several writers sharing their favorite travel spots.

So far Shawn Kirsten Maravel shared her visit to Italy, Sarah Todd shared her visit to Cappadochia, Turkey, and I started the month with one of my favorite cities: Pittsburgh.

Still to come are visits to Maine, Idaho and Montana, North Carolina's Sugar Mountain, Washington D.C., and a few others.

Come visit:
http://lkhunsaker.blogspot.com