Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Inspiration: JuNoWriMo

Thursday's Children: The Thursday's Children blog hop is a chance for authors to write about what inspires them. Thanks again to Rhiann Wynn-Nolet and Kristina Perez for hosting.

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     I'm not much for bandwagons. That being said, I sure do jump on a lot of them.

     I never pictured myself as the type to get into WriMo-ing (writing a novel in a month with a big group of like-minded aspiring authors). I figured I'd write a novel when I felt like writing a novel, and if I wanted to start on October 13, I'd start on October 13 and not wait for November 1. I'd write until it was finished, not until I reached the end of the month or attained a certain pre-ordained word count goal.

     Well, I had already decided that I was going to start drafting my next novel in June. I didn't want it to drag on for months and months and sap time and energy away from my family. So, I had the goal to get it finished by the end of the month. About three weeks later, WIPpet and blogging friend Kate Sparkes mentioned she'd be participating in JuNoWriMo. Turns out I wasn't the only one out there in cyberland hoping to draft a novel this summer.

     Thus began my adventures with JuNoWriMo. I put (almost) all other blogging on hold and focused on my draft. I met some great cyber buddies and participated in some blood-pumping wordsprints. Participating in JuNoWriMo gave me a built in cheerleading system. When my wrists felt like they were on fire after typing five thousand words in three hours with only one break, other JuNoWriMo-ing tweeps loaned me their sympathy. When I went three days without touching my manuscript because I felt completely unable to go on, my JuNoWriMo buddies cheered me on. (One of them even offered some explicit advice on how to stimulate my muse. I still haven't told him my muse is quite masculine...)

     Well, thanks to JuNoWriMo, about an hour ago I finished my first draft. Would I have made it to this point if I had been writing completely on my own? Who knows? But running this month-long marathon with a few hundred encouraging comrades certainly made the journey more rewarding and fun!

(If you want to find out when JuNoWriMo Draft 1 becomes a real, live published book, sign up for my newsletter on the right-hand side-bar!)

Vote: The Beloved Daughter was nominated for Book of the Month at bookfun.org. Give it a click!

Random Fact: My fastest 30-minute wordsprint during JuNoWriMo got me 1,505 words.

11 comments:

  1. Glad JuNoWriMo got you going! I do occasional Twitter sprints but nothing like WriMo.

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    1. I had never done anything like it either. It was really fun!

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  2. That's awesome!! I admire anyone who can stick through and create a draft in a month :)

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    1. Thanks Kate, I actually recommend it once now I can move on with life and not be so single-minded!

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  3. Wow good for you that's great. I don't think I could write that much in a month - don't think I'd have the stamina or at least I'd have to do nothing but write to complete it. I admire you for that. :-)

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    1. Yeah, it did feel at times like writing was all i was doing. Which, I guess, is why I'm glad I did it so fast because now I can go back to being a mom!

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  4. Way to go! A whole book in a month is impressive...I'm lucky if I get a page a day. Congratulations!

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    1. Thanks CJ! It sure feels good to be done! But even a page a day means you're writing every day!

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  5. I am so impressed that you've written a whole draft of a novel in a month! Amazing. :-)

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  6. I bowed out of JunoWriMo to work on a revision for my agent, but I'm looking forward to Camp NaNoWriMo in July. Love me some WriMo! =D Congrats on your success!

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  7. I've never tried a WriMo, but you may have just inspired me!

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