It's Over!

November was a VERY long month!  My Grand Opening, my failed NaNoWriMo, the remodel of my craft room, and everything that happened in between really took it out of me.  A quick update on each...

Wire Willow had a pretty good grand opening.  I sold quite a few items, all of them were sold to friends and family, but I now have a site that looks more experienced and popular.  My only disappointment was that I still can't seem to break into the Etsy clientele.  Just means that better marketing and research is needed.  Why are they important?  There are WAY more of them and the hard core etsy shoppers spend a lot more and shop more often.

Failed NaNoWriMo.  I was about 6,000 words into my book when I decided, it sounded too much like a romance novel.  No, there wasn't any hanky panky, but the mood and POV wasn't a sharp enough contrast to what I've written before.  I want to scrap the whole thing and this time REALLY try to make something different.  That means I need to slow down, really think about it, and then tip-toe ahead.  NaNoWriMo is fun, but not everything can be done at a sprint.

My room.  I know, still haven't taken pictures of it.  Well I have but they didn't turn out very well.  Until my husband has time (hint hint) to get some great ones taken you'll just have to take my word for it.  The room looks wonderful.  I've already begun to retreat to it more often.  And while I haven't gotten much writing done in the small closet retreat that I made, my cat sure does love it!

So what does December hold?  If I survive the holiday then I'll call that good enough.  I need some time to just relax.  But I wouldn't say no to more etsy sales!

Painting Splatters

A few before pictures might be nice

I've been working my butt off with this Etsy sale, even taking my two days off to make jewelry so that I wouldn't run out of pearl items to be posted (I underestimated how many of them my mom would buy...). 

It was when I got off work yesterday and went into my craft room to write that I realized, I could not write in that room.  Since we moved in it has become a bit of a junk center.  Don't want something cluttering up another room?  Shove it under the bed.  Don't want to sort through some papers, well I've got this closet of death that fits stuff like that quite nicely.  And the worst part...they had painted it pink.  Almost every wall in our recently purchased used mobile home was splashed with a very pale shade of off pink.  I think that it has finally driven me batty.

This picture was taken when it was mostly 'clean'.

So when my husband woke up an hour and a half later he found a huge pile of junk in the living room and me in my craft room with ratty clothes on and white primer streaked in my hair, on my arms, and even on my back.  (Hey it is hard to paint in those tiny closets!)  Luckily my husband is awesome and he even helped out by spray painting a lamp for the room and slapping on a bit of the paint color while I was asleep.  Although it is a tiny room, painting every one of those nooks and crannies is going to take forever!  So don't be looking for finished project pictures yet but I'm hoping that within the next week I'll be able to show you what a couple of cans of paint and some spray finish can really do!

And that book of mine?  I've still been trying to work on NaNoWriMo but it hasn't nudged too far past the 5,500 mark. Right now I'm not too worried about making that mark.  Like I said, I couldn't concentrate to write in that room.  After the remodel I'll go back to pounding it out and getting it ready.  That might mean that the book isn't done until sometime in December but I'm not going to freak out.  At least not like I did on my craft room!

Preping for NaNoWriMo

You can imagine the kind of upkeep these two require

November is nearly here which means that it is time to prep for NanoWriMo.  My husband and I have decided to participate again.  Last year it was so helpful for us to dive into new projects and get something done.  The editing of those books has been a little drawn out, since we are both still working on them.  But it is time to set those aside and get a fresh burst of air into our writing.

I've worked a little bit on an outline and some ideas for characters but I really want to hold off on writing anything until midnight on November first when the event begins in earnest.  I'm excited to find out if there is a local group of authors here in Bangor and possibly try to meet up with them for a write in once or twice.

The real prep work for all of this is completely non-writing related.  I have so many other commitments in my life.  There is my WireWillow shop on etsy, my pets, my housework, and various other projects that need my attention.  In November they could all become distractions that lead me away from my writing goals which is why I've decided to prep.  I'm going to get everything done in the next couple of weeks that I've been putting off.  I need to photograph and post my christmas jewelry.  I need to paint my room before winter.  I need to fix shelves and give my dogs a thorough brushing...well you get the point.  My hope is that this way I won't feel bad when November rolls on through and I've gotten nothing done except for work on my book.

So how about it Randy?  Do you still have NaNoWriMo written on your calendar for this year like you said you would last year?  Has anyone else decided to take up the challenge?

NaNoWriMo

The challenge, frustration and fun.

Since most of my present readers are not writers I thought it would be a great time to introduce NaNoWriMo. It stands for National Novel Writing Month and was first started in 1999. The idea is that writers and want-to-be-writers set aside time from midnight November 1st to 11:59 PM November 30^th for a daunting challenge. One story, 50,000 words. It is much harder than you might think.

To make it easier they stress that this is not about making a perfect story or even an edited story. The website boasts 'No Plot? No Problem!' This is about diving in and just getting something new written.

The first year only 21 people picked up the challenge. Ten years later, it grew to over 170,000 and over 2.4 billion words were written by the participants. This only counts the ones that signed up on the official website, something that I did not do. Then again, last year I didn't finish either.

This year Kris and I have decided to join the official group for the first time. I will be starting on a brand new sequel to my first novel and Kris is writing a new detective story. Both projects have been on the back burner due to us working through edits on earlier stories. We'll get back to those later, but for now it is refreshing to have something fresh to start.

Watching from the outside last year, it was impressive how supportive the other writers are. Everyone 'wins' this contest by simply writing 50,000 words on one story. Any genre counts, even fan fiction. People band together in coffee shops, internet chat rooms, and anywhere that they can find a fellow writer to help each other cross to the finish line. During the month of November blogs that have stayed silent for months will start up again with new frustrations or inspirations that the challenge brings. Writing is a very solo experience for many of us but NaNoWriMo acts against that. For one short month we are all together.

Wish both of us luck and I'll keep you posted on our progress!

Lindsay-6,644

Kris-5,012

NaNoWriMo Goal for today's date-8,335 words

We're a bit behind already!