A to Z - Day 14

N is for NaNoWriMo

For those of you who are unfamiliar with NaNoWriMo, it stands for National Novel Writing Month. This is an amazing phenomena that occurs once and year and, for me at least, cannot be replicated at any other time.

The goal of NaNo is to write a 50,000 word novel (approximately 175 pages) during the 30 days of November. Anyone can sign up and it’s absolutely free. You start writing on November 1st and must upload your finished product to the verification page by midnight, November 30th. You can read all about it in depth HERE.

The first NaNoWriMo took place in San Francisco, in July, 1999. There were 21 participants. The next year it was moved to November, given a website, and the participants swelled to 140. The third year the participant numbers topped 3,000 and the organizers were forced to start asking for donations to help offset the costs of keeping it going. By 2010 there were over 200,000 writers participating.

To succeed at NaNo you have to be able to write a minimum of 1,667 words a day. The pressure is intense. You have to push forward without looking back. The only thing that matters in NaNo is the quantity of words, not the quality.

I have a friend who doesn’t understand why anyone would participate. What do you get for your trouble? Well, my friend, you get a finished draft, a downloadable certificate, and best of all, a feeling of accomplishment. You get to call yourself a novelist, because you just finished your novel.

I first tried NaNo in 2006. My story topped out at 34,000 words and I didn’t win the challenge but I did end up with a complete draft. I’ve participated four more times since then and have three more drafts to show for it, all more than 50,000 words. And despite my whining and complaining and lack of social life, I’ve loved every minute of it.

There’s a sense of community about NaNo that’s hard to explain to anyone who hasn’t given it a try. Thousands of writers, all over the world, churning out words as fast as they can: there are write-ins and forums and your own page on the NaNoWriMo site.

If you’ve never participated in NaNo, I strongly urge you to mark your calendar and sign up. I’m always looking for writing buddies and you can find me on the NaNo site as Lady Cat. See you in November.

The Good, the Bad, and the NaNo

I validated my 50,000 words Friday night, and completed my novel on Sunday. Time for the traditional NaNo Wrap-up Post. :-)


This is my third year in a row I’ve won NaNo, which means I have three novels sitting around waiting to be edited. Okay, that’s not exactly true. I’m close to having my first completed NaNo novel edited – I just set it aside for the month of November. I hope to have it ready to be submitted, or self-published, by the beginning of the New Year.

The first time I won was amazing. After years of writing (mostly poetry, short stories and articles) I had not only finished a novel, I did it in 30 days. Okay, so it needed a lot of editing, but that’s to be expected.

The second time I won was even more amazing. Not only had I finished another novel and within the 30 days, it wasn’t going to require nearly as much editing.

And then we come to this year’s NaNo.

I had my idea well in advance – I knew the characters and the story, I even knew the setting. And then at the last minute I was seduced by a shiny new idea. 12,000 words into it, I discovered that not all ideas are suited to NaNo, so after taking a day to think about it, I scrapped it and started from scratch again.

The writing using my original idea went surprisingly fast, but it was also not very good writing. Yes, I know. NaNo is all about quantity rather than quality, but still. It’s like I forgot everything I ever knew about writing. Like show, don’t tell. This story is probably 80% telling.

One thing that really surprised me, considering my preferred genres all contain romance, if not erotica, is that there is no sex in this novel. None. I tried to encourage my two main characters to have sex – even set them up to have sex – but all the good stuff happened behind closed doors and we’re not really sure if it really happened at all. Seriously!

So. Does this mean I’ll be scrapping this story? Not at all. While the execution leaves much to be desired, the story itself is pretty good. Granted I’m really not looking forward to editing it – I’ll probably just use it as a really detailed outline – but it’s the beginning of a potential series and has a lot of important stuff going on.

So all in all, I’d have to declare this year’s NaNo to be a success. How about you? How did your NaNo go?

NaNo Excerpt – Week Four

Skyler has an assignment he’s not sure how to handle, so he goes to his sister for advice.

Skyler paused outside a familiar door and then knocked once before entering.

“Skyler!”

He was just about knocked over as a small body ploughed into him. With a laugh he swept her up the air, holding her high above his head. She shrieked in delight and he gave her a hug and a kiss before putting her down again.

“How’s my favourite girl?”

“I’m good. What’d ya bring me?”

He laughed. “Little mercenary. Here.” He pulled a story disk out of his pocket and handed it to her.

She read the title, gave a squeal, then raced away again. It was a story she’d been asking for, as he well knew.

“You spoil her too much,” a gentle voice said. It belonged to a slim, dark haired woman just entering the room.

“How’ve you been, Rhea?”

“Fine, we’re all good.” She peered closer at Skyler. “You look tired. I hear you and Bran have been up to your old tricks again.”

“What do you mean?” He made himself at home on one of the sofas.

“I mean, you’re sent on some mysterious assignment on a lifeless planet and come back with a beautiful woman. The only surprise is that Bran’s the one that got shot this time, not you.”

His eyes narrowed. “How did you find out? Just how high is your security clearance now?”

“High enough that I was sent down with the team to clean up after you two.” She poured them each a drink and he took his gratefully. Rhea was a xeno-anthropologist, the head of the alien artifacts department on the Valkyrie.

“What clean up? We didn’t do anything, the mess was already there.”

“You sheered off the top of the fountain!”

“So what? We needed to get inside it.” He took a sip of his drink and felt the liquor burn its way down. Just what he needed.

“You couldn’t just cut the top off and move it?”

“What is your problem?”

Rhea leaned forward. “That fountain was covered in writing, or didn’t you notice?”

He looked at her sheepishly. “I’m sorry, we didn’t even look. But we had a scamp recording everything, surely—”

“The scamp’s recordings were incomplete. We got just enough to tantalize us, but it’s going to take a lot of work to make any sense out of it.”

“Oh. Sorry. I guess we were in a bit of a hurry.”

They drank in companionable silence. Rhea studied him carefully. She knew him better than anyone and knew when something was troubling him.

“That’s not what brought you here,” she said suddenly. “And I don’t think you’re here just to drink my best liquor. What’s going on, big brother?”

Skyler took a fortifying pull on his drink before answering. “I need your help,” he finally admitted.

For another excerpt, check out my other blog

Definition of NaNo

Last night my husband and I had the following conversation:

Me: (while typing away on my laptop) What did we decide to do about the car tomorrow?

Him: Didn’t we just have this discussion?

Me: I could always have it for the morning, then pick you up after my workshop so you could have it for the afternoon.

Him: I just suggested that.

Me: Oh, sorry, I wasn’t listening.

Him: *big sigh* That’s right, you were NaNo-ing. I should know better than try and talk to you during November.

Me: What?

Him: Never mind.


And that’s NaNo in a nutshell. :-)

NaNo Excerpt - Week Two

As you know, if you read the post below this one, I've jumped ship with my NaNo idea from the SNI to the OI. So far I've done 7,000 words in 2 days so I think there's a good chance I will not only catch up, I will actually be able to finish with this story.

Anyway, this story is along the lines of my space opera (which you can still catch on my other blog for the month of November), only this is set way before it. It's seven years into the Kohl-trin/human war and follows the firefighter class starship Valkyrie on it's quest for a repository of knowledge that may swing the war in the human's favour.

In this scene we have three of the main characters going behind enemy lines to retrieve some important information from the Hall of Records on Agon, which is the home world of the Old Race.


They were finally out of visual contact with the Valkyrie. Skyler put the Sunstar on automatic and he and Bran joined Calandra in one of the aft compartments.

“The last transmission we had from the Valkyrie said that even with their long range scans there was no sign of a Kohl-trin ship in the area,” Bran told her.

“Let’s not thank our luck yet,” she replied. “I’m sure they’ll have an outpost on Agon. We’d better start hoping they aren’t immune to jamming.”

“Have you pinpointed the exact location of the catacombs?” Bran asked.

“Yes.” Calandra sorted through the ancient charts beside her and handed him one. “This one should give you all the information you need for navigation.”

He thanked her and disappeared forward again.

“How long until we reach Agon?” she asked Skyler.

“Three days. The Sunstar’s a fast ship. We should be all right provided our jamming equipment does its job and we don’t come close enough to the Kohl-trin for visual contact.”

“You worry too much. You should have been a diplomat.”

“You’re forgetting,” he answered. “I almost was.”

“Ah, that’s right. You ran away and joined the scouts instead. Have you ever worked things out with your father?”

“My father is not a very forgiving man, especially when all his well-laid plans come to nothing.”

“Perhaps in time.”

After a moment’s silence Skyler spoke. “Is it hard going back to your home world?”

“How did you know it was my home?” she asked, astonished.

“We special status people have our methods,” he said with a grin.

“Hmph. To answer your question, yes, it is hard. But well worth it if I can find any information about the keys.”

An alarm filled the small ship. Skyler hurried forward.

“Kolh-trin patrol,” Bran told him.

“Have they seen us yet?”

“I don’t think so.”

“Good, let’s get that asteroid between us and them.”

They maneuvered the craft behind the asteroid, keeping it between themselves and the Kohl-trin ship. A second ship appeared.

“Now what?”

“We land,” Bran said.

“Are you crazy?”

“It’s our only chance. We’re small, if they aren’t looking for us they might not notice an unusual rock formation on an asteroid.”

They landed, they waited, they watched, they sweated. One of the ships drew closer.

“Shut down all systems, including the jammer,” Skyler said.

“Why?” Calandra asked from behind them where she was watching.

“To keep them from coming closer. If we shut down all systems we don’t need the jammer. If nothing’s jamming their signals there’s no reason to investigate.”

“How long will our air last?” she asked.

“About seven hours,” Skyler told her. “Let’s hope it doesn’t take them that long to give up.”

It took a little less than two before they felt safe to move. Bran turned the scanners on first, making sure the Kohl-trin ships were well away. The coast was clear and they quickly switched everything else on and lifted off.

“That’s the trouble with a jammer,” Skyler said. “It jams our own equipment as well as everyone else’s.”

“We’d better take turns sleeping,” Calandra said. “I’ll go first, I want you two fresh when we reach Agon.”

If you'd like to read another excerpt, you'll have to go to my other blog.

NaNo Insanity

Yes, that's right. This year's NaNo has made me totally insane.

Why? (you ask)

Remember that SNI (shiney new idea) that bullied it's way into my NaNo? Well, it's taken rather a dark turn and a couple of days ago I wasn't sure if I wanted to continue with it. At least not for NaNo. It's not a story that can be rushed, and rushing is what NaNo's all about.

So, I took the night off to think about it and decided that I'd be doing the story a disservice if I rushed it. It's not a tale that can be written quickly, there's a lot of serious stuff going on there.

And where does this leave me? Well that's a good question. I managed to get over 3600 words on my OI (original idea) written tonight, which, when added to the words I had on the SNI puts me on target word-wise.

But is this cheating? (Rhetorical question people). On the one hand, we have the continuity of the story. It's kind of missing the point if you win NaNo with half a dozen story beginnings. On the other hand, just because the words aren't in the same story doesn't invalidate their qualification as NaNo words. They were written in the spirit of NaNo, and that's what really matters, right?

For now, I'll be keeping the words from the SNI in my word count, but I hope to have enough words on my OI by the end of the month that this won't be necessary.

So, how's your NaNo going? :-)

NaNoWriMo - Week One

For the month of NaNo I'll be posting an excerpt here every Friday. This week's excerpt is the opening scene. For those unfamiliar with the concept of NaNo, I'd like to emphasize that this is a ROUGH DRAFT. :-)

Jaxson Hunter nursed his drink slowly, he was starting to feel a distinct buzz from the whiskey and he wanted to prolong the feeling. Idly he glanced around the hotel bar, trying to see where the blonde had gotten to. Ah, there she was, sitting alone at a corner table. He contemplated going over to see if she wanted some company, then dismissed it as a bad idea. She didn’t look like a one night stand kind of woman, and that’s all he was willing to offer.

He’d noticed her the moment she’d entered the hotel bar. He wasn’t the only one, several heads had turned. She was average height, but there was nothing average about her looks. Underneath a cascade of wavy blonde hair was a heart shaped face and pouty lips just made for kissing. The body-skimming blue dress she wore showed off her curves in a modest way without flaunting them. Add to that breasts large enough to have just a hint of bounce and an ass firm enough to sink your teeth into and it was a wonder there wasn’t a stampede to get to her. Good thing this was a respectable hotel.

“She’s probably a hooker,” Jace, bass player for the White Knights, said as he sank into the chair opposite Jaxson.

“Who?”

“I’m not blind, man. You haven’t been able to take your eyes off her since she sauntered in here.”

“She didn’t saunter, she walked. And there’s no way that woman is a hooker, she’s got way too much class. And she’s not exactly inviting attention. In fact, she reminds me of . . .” His voice trailed off. Suddenly he tossed off his drink and signaled for another. “I just can’t help wondering what a woman like her is doing all alone in a bar.”

“Well, she won’t be leaving alone, if the guy I heard talking in the can has anything to say about it.”

Jaxson refocused his attention on his friend. “What are you talking about?”

Jace shrugged. “Happens all the time. Pretty woman gets tanked, sleezeball guy hangs around waiting for her to leave and ends up with a one night stand. The way she’s been drinking, it won’t be long now.”

Taking a closer look at the woman in question, Jaxson realized she’d been drinking pretty steadily. He didn’t think she was meeting anyone here and it didn’t seem as though she was looking for company. She’d been approached several times when she’d been sitting at the bar sent them all on there way with a polite smile. That’s probably why she moved to the table, so they’d leave her alone. It was working so far, but he had to wonder for how long.

She reached for her purse and swayed slightly as she got to her feet. A man in a rumpled business suit sitting at a table nearby stumbled to his feet. He almost tripped over himself as he weaved his way towards her. Jaxson came to a decision. Standing up, he caught the other man’s eye, glared a message at him, and shook his head slightly. The man hesitated, took in Jaxson’s size, then shrugged and went back to his own table.

Jaxson tossed a couple of bills on the table. “I’ll catch you tomorrow before I leave.”

“Aw, man!” Jace said in disgust. “There he goes, ladies and gentlemen, the embodiment of the White Knights.”

Happy Hump Day!

Yes, I know I posted this guy over on my other blog but he's just so darn pretty I thought I'd share him over here as well. ;-)



Two days of NaNo under my belt and it's going pretty well, other than the fact I don't seem to get any real writing done until after midnight each day. For those who aren't participating in NaNo, I thought I'd share the plot (such as it is) of what I'm working on for the next 30 days:

Shannon Price and Jaxson Hunter were highschool sweethearts until a series of unfortunate events sent Jaxson seeking his fortune elsewhere. An anonymous, one night stand starts Jaxson thinking about that night and the girl he left behind. A visit to his brother in the old home town proves to Jaxson that those old feelings weren't buried quite as deep as he thought, and the encounter he thought was anonymous was anything but that.

But the girl he left behind is a woman now, a married woman. And looking too closely into what really happened that night may bring disaster to them all.

And for those of you who are participating in NaNo, you'd know this already if you were my writing buddy. :-p I'm Lady Cat over there. Look me up and add me to your buddy list!