NaNoWriMo Daily Cookies: 30 days of support & encouragement

The writing process, writing advice, and updates on your work in progress
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Quill
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Re: NaNoWriMo Daily Cookies: 30 days of support & encouragement

Post by Quill » November 8th, 2010, 12:05 pm

Sommer, these are great and it's amazing that you are doing this along with participating in NaNo, too.

Hope everyone had a great 49-hour weekend (one more hour than the poor writers in Hawaii and Arizona!) with the clock change. And wishing all a productive week ahead.

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Re: NaNoWriMo Daily Cookies: 30 days of support & encouragement

Post by bcomet » November 8th, 2010, 12:19 pm

Sommer,

These are really great! (and particularly like comfort food as we embark on the Nathan Bransford is gone from the literary agenting world diet -Ahhhhh!)

(I especially loved the Calvin and Hobbs strip! Please, ivory tower and literary theory speak, DO.NOT. try to wave your evil sword at me! BWahahahahaa. I read Superman! before Foucault.)

bc

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Re: NaNoWriMo Daily Cookies: 30 days of support & encouragement

Post by Sommer Leigh » November 8th, 2010, 1:20 pm

Claudie, Quill, and BC! Thank you! I'm glad you're enjoying these. I joke with my husband that I am a collector of digital curiosities. I save everything I think is cool, useful, and fun, especially when it comes to writing. I have a ton of these things!

I am a couple thousand behind on my numbers. I didn't get any writing done this weekend because my car died and my husband and I spent the whole weekend doing emergency new car shopping. Good news is we have a fabulous new car, bad news is I didn't do anything for NaNo for three days. Oops.
May the word counts be ever in your favor. http://www.sommerleigh.com
Be nice, or I get out the Tesla cannon.

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Re: NaNoWriMo Daily Cookies: 30 days of support & encouragement

Post by Sommer Leigh » November 9th, 2010, 8:16 am

Day 9.

Every single year in November I get asked at least a dozen times where writers can get my word counter on the right side of my blog. Everyone loves it. I clearly love it. It is small, nondescript, no annoying ads, nothing fancy. It just is what it is.

Using the NaNo word counters is fine during NaNo, but I think the writers who ask me where I got it from are looking for something to use long term without going to the NaNoWriMo website. This one can be updated right from the code and works best on blogs.

Image

If you love it too you can get it at Writertopia ( http://www.writertopia.com/toolbox) . I've used it for years and years and I think I may have originally gotten the link for it from author Cherie Priest's blog. I only had trouble with it for about 24 hours last year when an influx of NaNoWriMo users on November 1st crashed the site, effectively killing my word counter. They had it back up and running pretty quick though. There are few things that give us writers more joy than the tools of our labor: word counters, writing programs, nice pens, and blank notebooks.

(This cookie is probably more interesting for people reading my blog, which is where I have been posting all of these. Sorry if this one isn't as exciting. Treat yourself to a new notebook and some real cookies today instead!)
May the word counts be ever in your favor. http://www.sommerleigh.com
Be nice, or I get out the Tesla cannon.

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Robin
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Re: NaNoWriMo Daily Cookies: 30 days of support & encouragement

Post by Robin » November 9th, 2010, 9:48 am

Thanks for the link, Sommer.
Robin
"A glass slipper is only a shoe. Dreamers who only dream never have their dreams come true."

http://www.RobynLucas.com/

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Re: NaNoWriMo Daily Cookies: 30 days of support & encouragement

Post by Sommer Leigh » November 10th, 2010, 8:40 am

Day 10.

Writer's block is a common excuse as to why we cannot get our writing done. I say excuse but I hope no one takes offense. It's just that I am a firm believer that writer's block has gotten the mean end of the procrastination stick for a long time, blamed for everything that goes wrong in our lives. But what we call writer's block is usually something else altogether that is holding us back, and figuring out what that is is the only way to survive as a writer.

Here is a link to a great article about writer's block by Elizabeth Moon that really sums up the whole affliction in a pretty straight forward, diagnostic way.

First, the taxonomy of "can't write". I like to divide the problem up by time of onset (in the writer's career and in the particular project), duration, and symptoms. This produces three main diagnoses, only one of which is true "writer's block." I call them Novice Nerves, Stuckness, and Block. Each has a characteristic pattern, and each responds best to different treatment. - Elizabeth Moon

Help! I can't write!
or How to Identify the Dread Writer's Block and Its Relatives
http://www.elizabethmoon.com/writing-block.html

Happy writing, writers!
May the word counts be ever in your favor. http://www.sommerleigh.com
Be nice, or I get out the Tesla cannon.

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Mira
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Re: NaNoWriMo Daily Cookies: 30 days of support & encouragement

Post by Mira » November 10th, 2010, 1:13 pm

Sommer, you are awesome.

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Re: NaNoWriMo Daily Cookies: 30 days of support & encouragement

Post by Sommer Leigh » November 10th, 2010, 2:11 pm

Mira wrote:Sommer, you are awesome.
So are you! Let's be awesome together.
May the word counts be ever in your favor. http://www.sommerleigh.com
Be nice, or I get out the Tesla cannon.

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Ishta
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Re: NaNoWriMo Daily Cookies: 30 days of support & encouragement

Post by Ishta » November 10th, 2010, 11:01 pm

Sommer, these are fabulous. You are awesome for posting these - the videos and cartoons are KILLING me! THANK YOU!

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Re: NaNoWriMo Daily Cookies: 30 days of support & encouragement

Post by Sommer Leigh » November 11th, 2010, 8:14 am

Day 11!!!!

Almost halfway there!

Here's a video by the awesome author Jackson Pearce about "faking it." As in, padding your word count just to get to 50,000 instead of concentrating on positive writing skills, being a better writer, and actually writing a story. This is very, very good advice for any writer, not just NaNoWriMo writers. Also, Jackson is awesome.

May the word counts be ever in your favor. http://www.sommerleigh.com
Be nice, or I get out the Tesla cannon.


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Re: NaNoWriMo Daily Cookies: 30 days of support & encouragement

Post by Sommer Leigh » November 12th, 2010, 8:23 am

Image

Happy Day Twelve! I'm no good at math, which is why I am participating in a novel writing challenge and not, say, an epic algebra challenge, but I do believe that means after today you have 18 days left of writing. That seems like ALOT. See what I did just there? That's called a transition, right into today's cookie!

Fun with grammar! Hyperbole and a Half ( http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/) is a fantastic blogger who once made me laugh so hard while reading this blog post ( http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/07/dog.html) that my husband was afraid I was actually having respiratory distress. Hell, I thought I was having respiratory distress. I'm not kidding.

Today I am sharing with you her post ( http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2 ... thing.html ) about dealing with people who use poor grammar on the Internet, specifically when it comes to the word "alot" which is not a word at all. It is a mistake. A very common one. To deal with it, she created a mythical creature, an Alot, to deal with not freaking out when someone crushes these two words together.

Enjoy!
May the word counts be ever in your favor. http://www.sommerleigh.com
Be nice, or I get out the Tesla cannon.

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Re: NaNoWriMo Daily Cookies: 30 days of support & encouragement

Post by bcomet » November 12th, 2010, 2:47 pm

YIKES. Sommer! 12 days into NANOWRIMO. I've hit 20,000 words and it's f.l.a.t.
or something or something

yes, I had to try a new genre, a complicated set of POVs, I was stretching out my writer bones...

my characters have made me CRY!

but now, the writing is worrying me.

HELP!

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Ishta
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Re: NaNoWriMo Daily Cookies: 30 days of support & encouragement

Post by Ishta » November 12th, 2010, 3:29 pm

bcomet: do you have an outline? Maybe start at the end of your story, then work backwards?

Those are my only ideas. (Worries for own NaNo project, which has fallen by the wayside while relatives visit from overseas #whydidIsayNovemberwasagoodtimetovisit?)

We're all pulling for you!

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Re: NaNoWriMo Daily Cookies: 30 days of support & encouragement

Post by Sommer Leigh » November 12th, 2010, 3:47 pm

bcomet wrote:YIKES. Sommer! 12 days into NANOWRIMO. I've hit 20,000 words and it's f.l.a.t.
or something or something

yes, I had to try a new genre, a complicated set of POVs, I was stretching out my writer bones...

my characters have made me CRY!

but now, the writing is worrying me.

HELP!
Deep breath! No panicking allowed!

It is ok if your writing is flat and kind of boring. (I mean, for the moment.) Depending on the program you use to type up your work, put a note somewhere in your draft where you noticed the writing is kind of not there so you know where to go back to. Then just keep going forward. You'll fix the yawn-worthy prose later. I think it is awesome you are trying a new genre and POVs. I am trying first person for the first time and I think that is part of what is slowing me down.

20,000 words is such a great start, especially if what you're doing is new and complicated to you. I have your same problem where I know I've got terrible writing and some of the chapters are soooo boring. I also remember how great it is to go back and edit. So that's what I am looking forward to doing. Editing after first drafting.

Remember it is ok to suck. It is also ok to be awesome. Explore both.
May the word counts be ever in your favor. http://www.sommerleigh.com
Be nice, or I get out the Tesla cannon.

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