Day 19: NaNoWriMo & PiBoIdMo; aka: what bug would you be?

253 That’s how many more words I needed to make it to the halfway point exactly. 253 more words and I would have written 25,000 words of the 50,000 goal. But, alas! The midnight gong sounded somewhere out there and Friday was gone. Just like that. Gone! *poof*

Okay, so for Friday, Day 19, I wrote 1019 words to make a total of 24747. The exciting thing is that my NaNo widget shows that I have written 50% of my “novel.” Yay! For me that is quite an accomplishment to date, but I am faced with the fact that I still have half of the writing to do in less than two weeks. Eleven days, actually. Eleven days to write another 25,253 words! Yikes! Can I do it??

I have been working on Valley Sunshine publication today so that is what took writing time away from NaNo, but VS is almost done. Then I can devote more time to complete the challenge. It’s all important.

Now, PiBoIdMo is another matter entirely. I was trying to come up with an idea for it when I looked in my binder to remind myself of how many more I need to win this challenge, and I made a wonderful discovery. I had already written one down for today! Having done it very early in the day, I promptly forgot about it. 🙂 And, I now have 30 ideas! DONE!

Oh, I almost forgot to tell you! Tara (originator of PiBoIdMo) has guest bloggers on her site for inspiration for those of us who are participating in her challenge. Some of them offer prizes if we comment on what they have written. I have been doing that on some of them. Well, this afternoon Tara let me know that I won a prize from one of the guest bloggers! I’m delighted! He (Neil Numberman) illustrates a writer‘s (Aaron Reynolds) books, and what I won is a drawing. Their books are stories about adventurous bugs, like fly detectives and such. Joey Fly Private Eye. Cute, huh? So what I have to do is send them a picture of myself and Neil will draw a bug caricature of me! lol Can you imagine that? I think it’s great. Now, what bug will they see me as? hmmm

So, my burning question to you today is: If you were a bug what one do you think you would be? 🙂

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings! 🙂

Day 17: NaNoWriMo & PiBoIdMo

Wednesday, Day 17 of NaNoWriMo and I am more behind than before. I only got 1141 words written before midnight. Inspiration was not happening until late, so I ran out of day, but it is actually better than I thought I would do. I’m up to 45%. Yay! My story has taken another turn, though. It’s like rabbit trails, I’m chasing down another one, all the while wondering what does this have to do with the main plot (do I even have a plot?) of my story? My total word count is now 22477 and I’m still not to the halfway point – short by 2523 – although in days I am past halfway. Yikes! The challenge ends in less than two weeks!

On the other hand, PiBoIdMo is coming along very well. Today (remember I’m writing Wednesday’s post even though it will post on Thursday) I came up with two ideas, which puts my total to 28. I only need two more to complete that challenge, but as I said before, I’ll keep going with that.

The great thing about PiBoIdMo is that I have discovered a community (neighbourhood) of writers. They write children’s books, where my interest lies. One writer posts prompts to inspire us, and today the one she shared really did give me an idea. Then later another writer shared something so cute, a funny photo she took of a little lizard – and I had another idea! This idea, though, really took off for me and I feel good about it. I think it would make a great picture book with some humour in it. Of course, I feel I would have to give credit by mentioning the above inspiring writer as the one who gave me the fun idea. (She said she has an idea for him too.)

I don’t know how many of my Picture Book Ideas will make good stories, but when the challenge is over I will have to go through them all and seriously work on them to see what I can do to make them book worthy.

I worked on Valley Sunshine awhile today which is one reason I didn’t get as much written for NaNo, but VS has to get completed and mailed out. Yesterday!

Do you ever get yourself overbooked with writing projects?

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings! 🙂

Day 8: NaNoWriMo & PiBoIdMo

I am falling behind. Today (Monday) I didn’t get much written for NaNoWriMo so I’m not up to where I should be by this time. I did write over 1000 words tonight but that’s not enough yet. I have a lot of catching up to do with Tuesday’s goal in the challenge being a total of 15,000 words. But the fun thing is that my widget says I have completed 24% now.

What’s interesting is that what I wrote tonight is a departure from the main story. My characters are taking me on a detour, and yet it feels as if there is a connection to the heart of the story. It is all still vague in my mind right now but I think it’s going to come together okay somehow. I will just keep writing and see what happens.

The really good news is that this morning I had two ideas for PiBoIdMo. In fact, one of them is built onto the idea I had for Day 2. It seems that now I have a full story roughed out for a picture book. Cool, huh? Well, I think so.

I’m having fun with all this writing.

When you write, do you find that your characters lead you?

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings! 🙂

NaNo Writing

It was so fun giving out awards to other bloggers earlier this week. Even more fun was receiving replies from some of them. It was so inspiring to me (thanks to Laura A. Best) that I am eager to post again so soon.

Now I am again thinking about NaNo writing. Have you ever heard about it? I learned about NaNo last year but didn’t get up the ‘courage’ to attempt it. National Novel Writing takes place the whole month of November. The goal is to write 50,000 words in 30 days! Sounds like a huge challenge, doesn’t it? And it is – especially where the writer does not start with anything at all or simply an outline. The rule is to write, write, write .. whatever comes to mind, with NO EDITING all the way through to the end of the month or upon reaching the 50,000 word count – and the challenge has ended.

Check it out at: http://www.nanowrimo.org

I am thinking of doing this, but … can I manage it? Of course, there is no shame in not reaching the goal, and most don’t, so if I don’t get anywhere near it I at least got started. The purpose is to write and get inspiration from just finding out what you can do. It is suggested to have a support group so that you can encourage one another along.

Have you ever taken part in NaNo? What did you learn about your writing?

Are you interested in participating?

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings! 🙂

Manuscripts and capturing ideas

Today I am still stunned by something l learned last night in writers chat. Our guest author revealed to us that he has over 700 – yes, read that as OVER SEVEN HUNDRED, completed manuscripts waiting for a home! Each of those has been submitted at least once. He also already has 500 published short stories and poems! And he is only in his 40’s!

I sat here marvelling, first at his achievement of 500 in publication, but when he said he has over 700 yet to be published — well, I don’t know if I have recovered yet from that announcement! I hardly can grasp the image of that. Imagine it! … Can you?

From that I realized I am not capturing my thoughts and ideas nearly the way I should be doing. Some writers carry a notebook and pen everywhere they go, others take a little tape recorder to talk into when something triggers their imaginations, some keep paper and pen by the bed at night (I do this) in case they get story ideas as they are falling asleep or are wakened by them, or maybe even dream them.

The point is … write, write, WRITE! Don’t lose ideas by not capturing them, thinking you will remember and then losing them! Ever have that happen? Never trust your memory, especially since – as a writer – you have so much creative thought happening. For sure some of it will get lost.

Do you have a stockpile of manuscripts? Or maybe you have tips to offer regarding capturing ideas ? I’d love to hear about it.

Thanks for reading, and … Creative Musings! 🙂