Wrimo Wednesday!

Actually, its Nanowrimo for the whole month! My mom called me last week. She asked if I watched some recent television show. "Nope," I said to her, "I really don't have a lot of time for tv." She then told me that she noticed (thanks to Facebook!) that I have more than enough time for Nanowrimo. I had to explain the reality of it to her. Just because I say I am doing Nanowrimo doesn't mean I am succeeding at it. What it really means is that when I have a few minutes I will jot some words down in my nanowrimo novel.

To prove my point:

Word count to date: 3,276.

According to the Nanowrimo website I will finish this nano-novel by May 31st, 2012. Do I need to remind you that this program only goes until the end of November of THIS YEAR?!?!

So my aunt (also an author) emailed me over the weekend. She said she was interested in this Nanowrimo thing but couldn't really find much information on it. I gave her the details of the program and explained that you didn't win anything. People call it a contest but its more like a program.

Her email to me: So what is the point of doing it then??

The point for me is what I wrote in the paragraph above. I do a lot of technical writing. I don't give my brain the creative pleasure it needs for balance. To me, nanowrimo is fun. It provides me with the motivation and push to get me writing again. Yes, I will admit, that I shouldn't need such a program to get me to write. I should make the time to do this because it is my passion, it is part of who I am. I need to relearn how to write every single day no matter what. Nanowrimo helps me do that... for the month of November anyway! Besides, I've met some really cool people who also do the program!

So... I will keep doing the program no matter if I complete the projects each year or not. No matter if I have the time or not. No matter if other people see the point of it... or not.

Write (and read!) on my friends!

Wendy Ely

Happy Thanksgiving!

Where on earth are my blog partners??? I dunno so I'm stopping by to wish all of our friends who read Wicked Thorn and Roses a very Happy Thanksgiving! We are so glad to have you be part of our lives even if it is only through our blog.

My holiday plans start off with enjoying the evening tonight with movies. We rented Eat, Pray, Love, The Christmas Carol (the new one!), and the new Pet Semetary. We'll also be making the desserts tonight and I let the kids help with the cooking on Thanksgiving Day. Holidays around our house always seem to be fun and silly... the way holidays should be.

As for my Nanowrimo-novel: I'm still at a little over 18k. I've decided Dreaming of Him would be a novella and I'm about to wrap the story up. So why the low word count? I've gotten an editing job and have been busy editing a manuscript. Now that I've finished the editing project, I will be returning to my own writing before school resumes next week.

What are you doing for the holiday? Do you have any family traditions for Thanksgiving?

Talk to you soon,
Wendy Ely

I will NOT give up!

It's Wednesday again... a day that I get to sit in Starbucks, update you on my Nanowrimo progress while taking a break from the novel and school :) And today I wish I was bringing better news on my progress but... well... It's over halfway through the month and I've only gotten to 16k on my nano-novel.

I won't give up! Next week is my Thanksgiving break so I will have 7 full days to write! In order for me to finish Dreaming of Him for nanowrimo, I will have to finish during my break since I start a business law class the following week that my teacher insists as being haaaard!

That's all for my progress this week... what's yours? Please inspire me to get my fingers on the keyboard!

Wendy Ely

Progress and a kid!

One thing I've learned this week which I haven't figured out any other year while doing Nano is that it is really good to have someone do the program with you. I'm not saying write a book together but be there for each other.

How did I come to learn this tip? Because my daughter is doing the young writers program of Nanowrimo. She has been pushing and taunting me all month long. Yes, some days she comes off as being a pain in my butt by calling out through the house, "Mama! I have more woooooords than yoooooou!" but she pushes me to do more. She also inspires me. Her word processing program on her laptop doesn't work so she is writing her entire Nano-novel by hand. She doesn't complain either which I would do if I were in the same boat as her.

On my other posts I mentioned writing this Nano-novel for her. It's a paranormal with no sex (at her request).... as a gift to her since she helped me come up with the plot. The other night she was so discouraged with her book. "Mom, I don't think I can do this," she had exclaimed while flopping down on the couch next to where I was busy typing away. After trying to convince her that she could finish her book, she still wasn't hopeful. I asked her if she wanted to hear part of Dreaming of Him which is the book I'm working on. She listened to what I had so far. She hopped up off the couch with a revived passion for her book. "I have to write!" And off she went. She told me that night that I inspire her :)

I got her started on this Nanowrimo thing (she started doing this program when she was 10) and now I wouldn't do it without her. So, nanowrimo writers, find someone to do the program with you!

As for my progress~ I'm at 8,626 words. According to my nano stats, at this rate I'll finish my nano-novel by December 28th! Not so good. So how are your books coming online?

Talk to you soon,

Wendy Ely

That damned Nanowrimo!

As suspected, my life is so crazy that I'm already behind on the 2010 nano-adventure. How many words do I have? 1500! Yep, that is all. If I was on track I would have about 6k so far. Btw~ my 13 yr old is doing the youth nano program and is delighted that her word count is higher than mine!

I do love my plot and the characters. I'm tempting my hand at a paranormal with romantic elements. Can I pull it off? I dunno but it is fun. This one is titled Dreaming of Him.

Are you doing Nano? If so, I'd love to hear about your progress and I certainly hope it is going way better than mine!!

Talk to you soon,

Wendy Ely

Nanowrimo? I must be crazy!

No, really! I must be crazy to sign up for Nanowrimo this year! Let me tell you how busy I am... I'm in paralegal school, plan a big move sometime in late November, and have just started a new job. Now this? I must've gone nuts.

But I've participated every year since 2003 so why should this year be different? If you don't know what Nanowrimo is, let me give you the details.... you sign up at www.nanowrimo.org . The purpose is to write 50,000 words in 30 days during the month of November.

Jesse's Brother (published with Lyrical Press) was a Nanowrimo project. I also won Nanwriomo with New Year's Resolution (coming soon from Captiva Press)! Crazy as it sounds (and no matter how much I'm convinced that I am nuts), Nanowrimo does jumpstart the creative process to get me writing. I need this right now so I'm game even if I don't win this year. Putting in my best effort counts, huh?

Besides, doing Nanowrimo will give me something to blog about during November so check in here starting next Wednesday to see how I am doing with the word count while juggling the balls of life along with it.

Who else is doing Nanowrimo?

Talk to you soon,

Wendy Ely

Nanowrimo? Huh?

Don't ask me what my word count is for my Nano-book. It amazes me how one simple email can change the whole course of your week ... or month. It happened to me on Sunday so I've been focused on another project which should (keep your fingers crossed for me) lead to good news soon! I've been writing like crazy but not on my nano-book and guess what? I'm fine with this!

I also have been crazy busy with my upcoming release of Confessions! I'm giving a copy away over on my facebook page today so stop on by and maybe it'll be you. A blog tour has been set up which is always fun. I meet so many new and interesting people while doing them. My critique partner (Buffy Christopher) and I are doing another workshop Saturday so we're preparing for that and wow... life is just overwhelming right now but I keep going one word at a time!

Have you gotten your copy of Jesse's Brother yet? It's gotten great reviews so maybe you should. You can find it here... http://www.lyricalpress.com/jesses_brother

Happy reading... and talk to you soon!

Wendy Ely

Muse Whammy

Today has been awesome! My son’s played the first of three football games in the championship. It’s a win or out situation. Both won, so they both go to the second round!!!!! I’m still riding on a high!

Now, let’s talk NaNo…Demon Eyes is my story. Only one problem, my muse suddenly decided he didn’t want to write about Demon Eyes, but instead wants to chat about DragonBlood. But I can’t complain because it needs to be written too. I just knew where DemonEyes was going, so was prepared to write it. And I have over 10,000 words already. Yeehaw! LOL

I was stuck on DragonBlood, floundering where to go with it, and the morning of November 1st, I was lazing in bed thinking about my book and suddenly my muse screamed THIS is where DragonBlood is going. After 10,000 words I can’t complain! And I never write by an outline. I wish I could map out my story before I write the first word, but at the beginning of a book, I rarely see anything but the beginning and the end. The middle comes to me as the story is revealed.

Do you ever get whammied by your muse? And, if you’re doing NaNo, how is the writing going for you so far?

New Book Trailer and Nanowrimo update

It's almost time for the release of Confessions so I decided I needed to finish up the book trailer. And I LOOOOVE it! I'll be giving away a free copy of Confessions the week of the release so watch for it :)

As for my nanowrimo project.... I have figured out another problem I've encountered over the past year. I used to be able to sit down and whip out a few thousand words a day with no problem. I could write a novel in 2 months. Now that I've most of the year doing book edits from the publisher, I've unlearned how to write quickly. Even when I know what's coming next I can't seem to do it. Needless to say, Nano-novel is moving along at a snails pace. I probably won't finish it but have done a few great but dark scenes. If you remember, my goal is to add 50,000 words to an already written novel so I can break through that hurdle of writing short novels. So now the novel is long-er but not long yet!

Wish me luck and let me know what you think of the new trailer!

Wendy Ely

Which Type of NaNo Are You?

There are two main types of NaNo people.

1) Those who want complete control (as much as possible) They are the ones who draw up maps of their world, create detailed character sheets, write a complete plot tree, a family tree for all of their major characters and even go to the extent of providing drafts of each room or scene the characters will interact in. Basically, planting down the words is a given after the fact.

2) Then there are those who will live by the seat of their pants. Taking the thrill of NaNo to new heights by not preparing anything. They may have a title of their book, they may even have a skeleton outline, but generally that's about it. These people believe that planting down 1667 words per day is good enough and everything will fall into place.

Trust me. I have tried both methods. None work for me.

The year I won NaNo, back in 2007, I was working on my sequel to Unicorn's Peril. I had already created the world in which my characters lived in the previous book, so really I was just writing a flow on. A different animal all together is the sequel.

The year I lost NaNo was the year I tried to do something from nothing. In other words, method 2. That failed miserably. I needed time to work out just where my characters would be in the world I was going to create. Indeed, I neeed to know what and who the characters were (their main characteristics anyway) I got lost in a quagmire of plot and the novel failed at about the 20,000 word mark. It hasn't been worked on since (I no longer speak of it) True, parts have been used in later works.

I do some planning with my novels, but I also like the actual enjoyment of writing from what's in my head. I don't, however, do a lot of planning to the point of drawing up plot trees or whatever, I'm not anal about it. Then again, I do like to have a feel of what's going on. See? Difficult, isn't it?

This is my new approach to NaNo this year. I have a title, a basic main plot worked out and I have a sketch of the characters who are in my story. You could say I am sitting firmly between the two types of NaNo people.

Time will tell.

The 4-1-1 on Nanowrimo and my plans!

The buzz on blogs and networking sites is Nanowrimo (national novel writing month) which runs in November. Some people call it a contest, I call it a program. The goal is to write at least a 50,000 word novel during that month. It's crazy. It's fun. And it pushes through writer's block. The site is www.nanowrimo.org

So with all of the works-in-progress I have already, what should I write? Well, last year I wrote New Year's Resolution. My problem is that I'm stuck in a rut of writing short novels. I can't seem to get out of the 60,000 word category. For nano this year I'm going to add the 50, 000 words to New Year's Resolution! Yep, I am. My critique partner asked me if I am crazy. I must be just a teeny bit, huh?

And I'm going to blog about my journey adding so many words to an already written manuscript! You can find my blog over at goodreads.com under Wendy Ely. Watch me take this giant step to over come this writing hurdle!

Are you doing nano this year? What are you working on?

Happy writing and reading,

Wendy Ely