10.23.2011

NaNoWriMo: Where Only the Strong Survive

Hey yall! October has been a crazy month! The month started off with Austin Teen Book Festival which was AWESOME. I got a gazillion books signed for me and my library. I just got back from a trip back home to Connecticut with brief stops off in Rhode Island and Massachusetts. New York was in the travel plans too, but so much to do and lots of family to see! So we decided to put off that leg off our trip until next time! So I've had a nice little writing hiatus and I am ready to get my ass in gear.
November, November, November. November is National Novel Writing Month or otherwise known as NaNoWriMo. Now, once again, because I have all of like four writer friends let me break this down for yall. NaNo is pretty easy in theory.
1. Sign up.
2. Write 50,000 words in one month.
3. Binge eat or something. Whatever coping mechanism suits your fancy will do.
4. Sleep for the entire month of December.
The idea is to WRITE, it doesn't have to be like Crime and Punishment or anything good at all, it just has to be something.... besides the same word over and over. :o) And hey if it's good, then AWESOME. So if you haven't guessed by now I am braving the writing elements and I have officially signed up for NaNoWriMo. Signing up was pretty exciting, until that OH SHIT moment hit me like a ton of bricks. Not only is November National Novel Writing Month, but it's also my birthday (WOO!), Ian's birthday, our nieces birthday, and Thanksgiving. This equates to a BUSY MONTH. Oh and by the way I work two jobs. I've got four stories that I've kind of got brewing in my head and I have a couple hodge podge of pages that could maybe sort of be the start of something. I have a good idea of which idea I'm going with for NaNoWriMo so keep me in your brain or heart or whatever because November's going to freaking suck in the best way ever.
And lastly, YES, I'm still querying. Kind of. I've sent out 9 query letters and have received 8 rejections/no response means no. There's one last letter floating around in query world and I'm not trying to be down on myself or my work but I'm not really expecting a positive response. Since my most recent post concerning queries, I sorta kinda had a breakdown. I'm not trying to be dramatic, I promise, but when someone rejects something so personally tied to you it feels like they're rejecting you as a person. Everyone keeps telling me not to take it personally, but I say NO TAKE IT PERSONALLY. Because, what it comes down to is that one of the major ingredients to good writing is making it personal and letting a huge horrible chunk of you shine through in your work. So yeah it's personal and it hurts but maybe it will be worth it. Who knows? We'll see.
Moral of the story: November is going to awesome suck and take it personal because it is personal.

J
PS- did you know Halloween is my favorite holiday and I have NO costume? I am so slacking, what are your Halloween plans? And because I love pictures check out these bad boys from East Coast trip!



























My only ATBF picture, but that's okay because it's with Ashly!