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NaNoNaNo...WriMo!
NaNoWriMo is here! For those of you who are not writers or who are just realizing writing has social elements to it, this stands for National November Writer's Month. It's where you sign up on the NaNoWriMo.org site and pray you have what it takes to type (or write) out 1,667 words a day, all of those words attached to a book you're authoring.
If you'd like an idea of how this works, and how I'm failing miserably at it, check out my stats here: https://nanowrimo.org/participants/klgore/novels/you-again-book-2/stats. While you're at it, be my buddy and let me know how you're doing (if you decide to plug ahead in this venture). It's not too late to start! Catch up this weekend.
Tips to stay focused
1. Turn off all social media. These time suckers will pull you away from the difficult task of trying to keep a story moving forward at breakneck speed.
2. Use a timer. Set to one hour. Force yourself to stay in that chair until you have written for that long. Reset when necessary.
3. Don't give out details about your story before you've finished writing it. You don't want to derail the process with people's opinions and bored expressions!
4. Read books! It will help keep your brain focused on fresh ideas.
My Personal Venture
If you check out my #NaNoWriMo page, you'll see that years ago I started a novel titled You Again. I plan to make it a trilogy, so now I'm working on the second book in the series. I also plan on seeking a literary agent to represent me. And yes, I had a literary agent years ago, and yes, it was a painful process finding one and an even more painful process being rejected by top publishing houses. But the experience was invaluable, and although the houses ultimately passed on my previous three books, two novels had very close calls and editors praised my writing. That's enough to give me hope to try again. I still have to finish the first one and edit it, but I have amazing critique partners who will help me shape the books into something worth reading. So stay tuned!