Taking a look at my writing buddy list over on the nanowrimo site I see that there are several folks really close to crossing into the winners circle. Most are roughly 5k away.  I’m waiting with confetti on the other side.

I’m looking forward to finishing the items for Picklesnot Design. Once they are done I am going to start working on that idea I mentioned I had.  That’s really all I have to say for today.

Happy Turkey Day everyone!

May your words be plentiful, and your day filled with good food, friends, and family.

Take a break from writing for the day.

Today is the day! The day when Nano-novelists start to officially validate their mss and cross that line into the coveted winners circle.  When I went to go to my novel information it immediately declared I was a winner. But I loaded my mss again just to double check before I went to claim my badges and certificate.

This year I finally did something that I have been wanting to do since I first started participating in Nanowrimo. I donated. It wasn’t much, but I was happy to be able to give what I could. The joy that the Office of Letters and Light brings to children by building classrooms and small libraries is a worthy cause in my estimation. If you haven’t done so yet, please try and donate. For the last few years I’ve been helping out by using  GoodSearch as a search engine (it donates 1 penny for every valid search done to your charity of choice) when possible. So if you can’t donate outright, try using the search engine.

That winner’s circle is looking pretty nice right now. Hope to see more of my fellow writers joining me.

Did you know that the month of November has spawned some interesting spins on the idea of Nanowrimo?

For instance – there is NaBloPoMo the goal is to write a blog entry every day for a month….

Most recently there is a comic artist that has taken up the challenge of writing a comic strip every day for the month of November…how cool is that?

And we are now in the home stretch! Welcome to week four of Nanowrimo.  There is light at the end of that tunnel. The plot bunnies have been wreaking havoc on everything by this point and your novel doesn’t look like the idea you started out with. That’s perfectly alright! Embrace those plot bunnies for they increase your word count. This is also when you stop writing in contractions and spell every single itty-bitty word out. To be on the safe side, make sure that internal editor is still locked safely away in that little closet…

Got back from a trip to Norman. It was a nice little break. Even got a book recommendation from a friend – though  for the life of me I can’t recall what it was called right at this moment. I will have to wander over to goodreads and see if I can jog my memory.

Speaking of books. What are you reading at this moment? What would you recommend? I’m taking any and all suggestions right now.

I see the word counts are increasing. There have been plenty of word sprints going on the last few days according to Twitter. Keep it up.

Just a few more days until official validation word count begins. How is everyone doing? Still tapping out those words? Awesome!

I’ve started putting together an idea for another story. It’s not completely formed yet, but there is a kernel of inspiration taking hold.  Looking forward to seeing where it will go and what will come of it.

Today I bring you a wonderful little comic called Two Lumps:

(you can click on the image and get a bigger version to read)

You know what I realized today? It only took me one package of macaroons to finish writing this years Nano-novel. Interesting. I think it might have had something to do with the fact that I recently started a work-out program and am meeting with a personal trainer twice a week.( Go me!) As such my diet has changed. Still, only one package of macaroons. It took way more than that to finish last year.

I think I may have to find a suitable, perhaps healthier, reward for reaching word count goals.

Today I followed @nanowrimo on Twitter a lot. There were virtual write-ins happening all over the place. There were several word sprints over the course of the evening. They varied in length between 15 minutes to 40 minutes at a time. Fingers flew and words were written, records were broken and word counts increased.  It was fun to watch even though I was not writing myself.

I enjoy doing word sprints and seeing how much I can get down on the paper especially when I am stuck. Word sprints helped me a lot during this Nanowrimo. They seem to make me through the mental roadblocks in my head so I can see what is on the other side. Granted a lot of times this also causes a few detours but all in all it is a good thing.