Fin!

Mink writes the final chapter of his autobiography.

I have FINISHED the revised draft. It feels great. And with one day to spare! This is the fourth draft of the book, and it is the first draft with which I have felt happy. Obviously it will need a read-through, edits and perhaps a couple of pick-up things, but I think that the essential shape and substance of it has taken on its proper and final form. Hooray! The word count is sitting at about 105,000, but will drop down a bit in editing. I'm looking forward to seeing that fat wad of printed-out pages, and smelling the fresh ink. It's one of the most satisfying moments.

This is unrelated, but LOML and I put up these Ikea clocks to keep track of the time in all our important time zones. Never again will I miss a call from New Zealand because I forgot about daylight savings, or have to look up the time in London six times before an interview (although I probably will, because I am neurotic). LOML made the magnetic orange letters underneath each clock - clever thing!

(The wall is actually a very pale mushroom-y colour, but looks weird here).

Now I think it is time for a celebratory nap under a celebratory blanket.

Those of you who are working on projects for Nanowrimo - how are you doing? Do you expect to reach your goal by tomorrow? If not, do you still feel good about what you have achieved?

Happy weekend!

Apologies for my absence - I have been doing this all weekend! Well, this and eating. And sleeping. I know I should really be working to finish up the revisions by the 30th, but I decided to take Thanksgiving weekend off and just work all that harder on Monday and Tuesday. And it is lovely to do nothing!

LOML and I had a great first Thanksgiving - some lovely friends invited us to a dinner on Monday night, and another couple of lovely friends invited us to Thanksgiving dinner on the day itself. We tried our first marshmallows and yams, our first pumpkin pie and our first green bean casserole. And I made my first chocolate cream pies. Which fell apart in spectacular fashion - the filling didn't set, and the Graham-cracker base cracked and collapsed. Luckily LOML went on a rescue mission to the bakery, and so all was not lost.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go right back to painting and drinking wine and eating leftovers. I hope you are all having a lovely weekend - and happy belated Thanksgiving to those of you here in the US!

Checking in

Is this week a little on the crazy side for everyone? With the holidays coming up, it seems like time has truncated itself somewhat and it is becoming more and more difficult to fit everything in. Rather like when we go shopping in our Mini. I am still on track with my work, and the book is now sitting at about 103,000 words - definitely need to cut it down during edits in December! How are you doing? Are things on hold this week while you spend time with family?

In other news, LOML and I will be celebrating Our First Thanksgiving this week! I feel like an illustrated children's book is in the works - Kiwis at Thanksgiving. Or something.

Homesick turkey

My favourite vintage skirt! No surprises there. Mum found it in a thrift store during her visit to Austin, and I altered it to fit.

I've been feeling a bit melancholy for the past week or so; a little homesick. I love every country that I have lived in, but the downside (outweighed by the positives, naturally!) is that I am homesick for about four or five different places at any given time. Apparently this is to be expected - I've heard that expats are filled with elation for the first three months in a new country and homesickness for the next three months before settling in properly. So I'm due for a bout of this particular type of malaise. I love Austin more than I can say, but I really miss my mum and my friends. Someone needs to get cracking and build an underground train service connecting Zimbabwe, the UK, New Zealand and Texas. I'm sure it would be popular.

In Nanwrimo-lame-oh news, the revisions are still rocketing along at a good pace, and I'm definitely still on track for finishing the book by the 30th - even with all the Thanksgiving celebrations this week! It's LOML's and my first Thanksgiving, and we're lucky enough to have some great friends here who have invited us to various dinners and events. I'm really looking forward to it. How are y'all getting on? (So Texan). Are you still on track with your projects? I have a feeling that most of us are going to fall off the wagon come turkey-time on Thursday ...

Friday Show and Tell (Volume Three)

It was pretty exciting to wake up this morning and see this in my inbox. Katie Allen from The Bookseller interviewed me last week and I'm delighted that she managed to shape my ramblings into this article. Thank you so much, Katie!


Click to embiggen, or go here to read it online.

I was going to press on with another chapter revision today, as I'm making such good progress. Instead, however, I have decided to stop, take a breather, and go over everything I have written so far. I am going to finish off one scene, but otherwise I think it's going to be more valuable to take stock of where I've been before I go roaring off into the sunset to finish revising the final quarter of the book. We'll see.

These words from Sara of Orchids in Buttonholes struck a chord with me this week:

"As my characters plod along, unaware of what’s next, I sort of envy them. Because I know what comes next for me and this novel of mine – revision, research, editing, rewriting a paragraph fifteen times, beating into submission a conversation between two characters, rethinking and reworking and tearing it all apart to build it back up again (and again).

I love that part of it – I really do – I just don’t want to think about it right now; I don’t want to get ahead of myself and imagine editing my words before they’re even written, or imagine the end of this month before I’m there. I do that often, with work and with life, and whenever I think about my “what nexts,” I remove myself from where I am right now.

And when that happens, I’m no longer entirely present for the scene and the sentence and the phrase I’m writing at the moment. I start to think about what I haven’t done yet, what I should have done, what I needed to do and will need to do. Instead of praising myself for getting this far, however far it is, I overwhelm myself. And I’m not even nearly there yet."

I'm guilty of this, too. I try to take my work day by day, without thinking too far ahead, to avoid that overwhelmed feeling - it reminds me of rock climbing, in that it's better to concentrate on reaching the next hold and solving the immediate problem rather than looking up at the full height of the rock face.

How are your Nanowrimo projects going? Are you happy with your progress?

Hello!

I am still here and alive, I promise! It has been such a productive few days for me that I haven't had time to check in. I've revised 21 of 33 chapters, so I'm on track for finishing them by the end of my Nanowrimo-lame-oh period. How are you getting on with your projects? Have you found that your pace has picked up at all this week?

Monday inspiration

Need some Monday inspiration? I do. These wise words from Holly at Decor8 really spoke to me this morning:

"Allow for some trial and error and nip negative thinking in the bud while you are capturing. Imagine that you are painting. While you are capturing, or creating, be careful to not become overly critical of your work or to allow what others may think to come into play. That’s the fastest way to shut yourself down. It’s fine to evaluate your work as you go along, but it’s best to not over-analyze while you’re in “the zone”. Trust your creativity, believe in what you are doing. Avoid allowing the opinions of others to form the one that you have of yourself. Trust your inner compass because it WILL lead you if you tap into it, listen, and obey. It also keeps you on track when others start to throw darts or challenge the authenticity of your work. Trust in your unique voice will help you to stay on track, focused and forward moving."

Trusting myself is something I struggle with daily. I am one of life's second-guessers (and third, fourth, seventy-sixth and millionth guessers, too), and my critical, over-analysing alter-ego is always looking over my shoulder. I don't think that I will ever quite conquer this, but I'm learning to work through it. Do you find this difficult, too? Have you developed any good techniques for dealing with it?

One technique I tried today worked wonders. LOML suggested it - he uses it at work sometimes when he really needs to focus on a project. It's called 10 + 2 x 5. You work for 10 minutes, take a 2-minute break, and repeat this 5 times, thus producing a good hour's worth of work. You are not allowed to skip either the work-time OR the break-time (a very good exercise if you're a work-through-lunch type like me!). It really does keep you very focused and energised. Might be a good one for Nanowrimo-ers to try - let me know how you get on!

Friday Show and Tell (Volume Two)

To be honest, it seems like all of us in the group are really struggling this year. Struggling to find time; to stay motivated; to juggle personal lives, work and writing.

Here's the thing:

That's absolutely okay.

Do not feel guilty (guilt-free zone, remember?). Feel proud of whatever you have done, even if it's only 1,000 words in two weeks. I would hate for you to feel discouraged, or to feel that you have failed in any way if you haven't stuck to your word count goals. Celebrate whatever you have done, and be proud of it. Whatever you have written simply didn't exist two weeks ago!

For the full list of group participants, go here.

Sara talks about having a loose outline and how it helps her to stay motivated.

Mervat has had a really rough week, as difficult events in her personal life have pushed Nanowrimo into the background - I know she would appreciate it if you popped by to say a few kind words.

R. talks about warm-ups for writing - purchasing a beautiful new notebook and starting research!

Rosalind talks about the 'second week blues.'

Bec talks about falling off the Nano-wagon (been there!).

Katherine is making great progress on her Nanowrimo project despite working night shifts and being absolutely exhausted.

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone, and remember to focus on what you HAVE achieved.

Look over there!

Since I'm about halfway through with my revisions, I'm spending today reading through and editing the first half of the book. This helps when it comes to moving on to the second half - looking back at where I've been gives me a better idea of where I'm going. I've made great progress and feel a lot more positive about the whole thing, because I LIKE the first half. That is a good position from which to revise the second. How did your writing day go? Hope it was a good one!

So I just stopped by to point you towards a great pro-Nanowrimo article by the fiendishly awesome John Scalzi. For some reason there has a bit of a Nano-backlash on the interwebs recently, which I find a little puzzling. Sure, it doesn't work for everyone, but it works brilliantly for many, many people. It's good practice. It's a fun way to meet like-minded people. It forces you to set a goal and meet it in daily increments. None of these things are negative, in my opinion. And if it doesn't appeal to you, or it doesn't help you, then don't do it.

"Is it going to work for everyone? No. Is it going to be useful for everyone? No. But it’s going to be useful for some, and that’s fine – the ones it’s not useful for will find some other way to climb that mountain. Meanwhile the skills that those it works for learn — write every day, keep writing, get that story done – are skills that are transferable outside of the NaNoWriMo context and will be a benefit when that new writer, having completed the task of writing 50,000 words in one month, decides to try to write 100,000. In April. Or whenever. Yes, there may be some people who fetishize NaNoWriMo or take less than useful lessons from it (“Novels must be 50,000 words! They must only be written in November!”), but let’s entertain the notion that this will be more about those particular people than it is about NaNoWriMo." - John Scalzi

And another more colourful but no less pithy quote from the same article:

“Dude, a program that encourages thousands of people annually to celebrate the act of creating words — of creating their own words — and you want to piss all over that? If you look to the right, I have some kittens you can set on fire while you’re at it.” - John Scalzi

Hear, hear!

Thinking of a title is too challenging today

Beret - vintage, thrifted
Scarf - vintage, thrifted
Dress - '60s vintage, a thrifted gift from Milla
Belt - vintage, thrifted
Bag - vintage, thrifted
Shoes - vintage, thrifted
Pin - vintage, a gift from Silvia

Milla sent me a gorgeous package of thrifted vintage goodies when I first moved to Austin. It was a wonderful welcome present! I have made good use of everything she sent, but this is the first time something has appeared here. I needed to look smart today because I'm judging a middle school creative writing contest, and went to pick up the entries this morning. "Look, I am a serious person! In Blue!" Or something. It's so lovely reading through all the entries - some are really very good, and all are sweet. And some involve polar bears and aliens. There should be more books about polar bears and aliens.

Wouldn't it be fun to be back in English class again, writing stories with a disproportionately large pencil in an exercise book? Throughout my childhood in Zimbabwe we used the same brand of exercise book every school year. It had a brown cardboard cover with a Zimbabwean animal printed in red, and the paper was sawdusty newsprint that tore if you pressed too hard with your pen. We used checked pages for maths and lined pages for everything else, and we had to Respect The Margins. I still resist writing in margins, because it has been so ingrained into me that Writing in Margins is Bad. I filled dozens of those books. And because my stepdad was a teacher, I got endless spare ones that I could take home and use for writing my 'novels.' I had an imaginary publishing house called Unicorn Publishing - made a stamp for it and everything - and I wrote out careful title and dedication pages for all my 'books.' I also wrote the year in Roman numerals at the front, because that made them seem more official.

I came across a couple of great articles on writing this morning that I thought you might find interesting. Laini talks about diving into your story rather than hovering around the edges, and Chibundu points out that writing a novel can feel an awful lot like constipation. I agree. And I also think that sometimes it can feel an awful lot like diarrhea. I was going to go on to say that we need some sort of metaphorical fibre to keep our writing life regular, but I think that may be stretching the analogy too far.

Midnight writing session

Urk. I have had bouts of insomnia ever since I can remember. My brain decides that night-time is terribly exciting and there are hundreds of important things that need thinking and worrying about RIGHT NOW. It is like a small child that refuses to go to sleep and keeps calling out for a bedtime story and a glass of juice. It also decides that it is very important to consider such questions as "What would a cross between a spider and a Macaque monkey look like?" and "Why is a grapefruit called a grapefruit, anyway?" Not-sleeping used to make me awfully anxious, and still does on occasion, but I try not to give it too much attention. If I'm wakeful, I'm wakeful. There's nothing wrong with having a cup of tea in the early hours and watching a bit of late-night telly. It's when you start to fret about being awake that it can really send you into a tail-spin, I find. Or perhaps that's just me!

One of the advantages of being a writer, I guess, is that insomnia can sometimes provide a certain inspiration - even if you do crash in the morning. So I'm up at 1am working on a chapter.

More photos are materialising from Saturday night - these ones from the beautiful Laura.



From left: Aisha (I am probably spelling this wrongly - I'm so sorry!); Ashley; Sandhya; me; Rose; Joanna; Laura.

Glitter and debauchery

So remember that ladies' night I went to on the weekend? There is now (non-incriminating) photographic evidence. All photos are by the talented Joanna of Keep Austin Stylish, which explains the sudden leap of image quality on my blog!

Rose and I getting ready.

Laura and Sandhya.

Er ... yes.

Designated Photographer Joanna and Laura!

I have been head-down, bum-up working on my revisions for Nanowrimo this week - how are all of you doing? Are you keeping up the momentum?

Saturday night, Monday morning

Hi everyone! How was your weekend? How is your Nanowrimo project going?

I did no work over the weekend, but have caught up today, thank goodness. I went out for a girls' night on Saturday with the lovely Sandhya, Joanna, Laura, Rose, Ashley and Aisha (apologies if I have spelled anyone's name wrongly!). It was my first introduction to the clubs of Austin on a Saturday night, because I'm kind of a nana and prefer to go to bed early with a book and a cup of tea, and it was great fun. I can't remember everywhere we went, but I do have a clear memory of sitting in 24 Diner on (I think?) Lamar at about 3am sampling fried chicken and waffles. Which is a disgusting concept that translates to a disgusting taste. Sorry, fans of chicken-and-waffles, but I am not joining your ranks. Randomly, Jessica Alba was sitting at the next table, looking depressingly beautiful for three in the morning (and possibly eating something a lot healthier than I was, but I couldn't tell). All in all, Sandhya hosted a wonderful night - although the best part of it for me was probably sleeping over at her place afterwards, chatting in pyjamas and bonding with her cats! I now have a sore throat and am suffering from the-morning-after-the-morning-after syndrome, but it was all worth it.

I wish I could say something more useful, but my brain still feels like it is made of fried chicken and waffles. I just wanted to check in with the group to see how everyone was doing with their writing - I'll see you tomorrow with something of greater nutritional value!

Question

Hi everyone!

I haven't done any work at all today, but it has been lovely. I'm heading out for a girls' night on the town tonight with some lovely Austin ladies, and won't be back till tomorrow afternoon, but I wondered if I could pick your collective brain: can anyone recommend a good, reasonably priced place to stay in New York from which we can easily head downtown without too much hassle? We're going to be flying into Newark, if that helps. And we'll be doing all the typical touristy things, naturally!

Thank you! And to those of you who worked on Nanowrimo today - hang in there, and don't forget to get the odd bit of fresh air and enjoy your weekend, as well.

Friday Show and Tell (Volume One)

Hi everyone! And congratulations on making it to the first Show and Tell Friday this Nanowrimo. How are you feeling? Buoyant? Energised? Shattered? Dejected? Triumphant? It has been a pretty intense few days. For me, this week has meant reassessing my Nanowrimolame-oh project to make it more realistic, and I'm very happy with that decision. Work has been going pretty well, too - I've stuck to my goal of revising a chapter a day, and the book is taking shape. I think I'm on track for finishing all the revisions by the end of November.

I have been through all your blogs and picked out a few posts that I think the rest of the group will find interesting or helpful (please don't be offended if you are not featured - I chose things that I thought would appeal to most people or that tickled my fancy, and there are more Friday posts coming during the month!).

For the full list of group participants, go here.

Sara's goal for the month is 100,000 words. Holy cow!

Rosalind is writing a third draft of a play while commuting on the train.

Lighting the Lamps expresses fears that many of us share about writing 'drivel.'

Amy links to these two interesting articles: one for Nanowrimo and one against. Unsurprisingly, I'm FOR Nanowrimo all the way - anything that encourages goal-setting, creativity, persistence and enthusiasm is positive in my book (pun intended).

Katie Anderson shares a picture of her writing space.

Mervat talks about how doing her taxes and musing on left brain/right brain relationships affects her Nanowrimo experience. (The visual test in this post is very interesting! For me, the dancer changes direction every time I look away and look back. What on earth does that say about my brain?)

Here's the thing: you are all doing a fantastic job, no matter how you did this week. Even if you only wrote 500 words of a novel, that's more than most people would achieve in five days. So don't forget to congratulate yourself - and banish any feelings of guilt! This group is a guilt-free zone.

How did you do this week? What were your experiences? If you skipped a day, why did you skip it and how did you feel about it? Have you reassessed your project at all? Have there been any surprises along the way?

Fall might actually be here

Headpiece - Diva in New Zealand
Dress - vintage '50s, thrifted
Belt - vintage
Bag - vintage, birthday present to self from Two Squirrels Vintage in Christchurch
Tights - who knows?
Shoes - thrifted

It has actually been cold for the last couple of days! Well, cold for Austin. It's quite a nice change, and fun to wear warm clothes and drink hot beverages without actually being freezing and miserable. Also, it makes Mink more affectionate and amenable to sitting on laps and sleeping on feet, which is nice.

Hope your Nanowrimo day is going well! I've revised one chapter so far today and am aiming to get another one done by this evening. I'm also going to visit all the group members' blogs today to compile tomorrow's Show and Tell post. Good luck and stay warm!

P.S. For the full list of group participants, go here.

P.P.S. I have uploaded some new vintage dresses to my Etsy shop!

P.P.P.S. I am hosting a clothing swap for the Austin Ladies Who Lunch blogging group! If you're part of the group, head over to New to Austin to put your name down. It will be great fun, and I have a huge amount of clothing to give away!

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

My progress:

Er ... hey, did anyone watch that show about penguins yesterday? That was a good show.

Oh, my PROGRESS. Sorry, I thought you said my HEADDRESS. Which I thought was a little weird because I'm not wearing one, but now I understand.

...

I would love to answer your question, but I have an urgent need to clean my computer keyboard with a Q-tip.

Yeah, so I didn't get much done today.

It has been a bit of a weird day for me. First of all, Mum left this morning. I knew I was going to be sad, so that wasn't a surprise, but I wasn't expecting it to hit quite this hard. I think it's because we're very close and have never lived far away from each other before - even though the rest of our family is scattered all over the world! So, I ate an enormous bowl of pasta, drank lots of hot chocolate and stayed in my pyjamas for most of the day, wallowing. Then I had a conversation with my agent about my next book, which drove home the fact that I really need to have it finished by the holidays so that we can deliver it early next year. I am (relatively) on track, but there is still a lot of work to do.

I read this post on the lovely Luinae's blog a couple of days ago, and it resonated with a lot of the decisions and changes I have been trying to make lately - slowing down, focusing and simplifying. The principle is simple: start empty, become full. And it applies to almost everything, from writing a book to organising a closet. Think about it - instead of tidying out a cupboard by taking things away, take everything out. Enjoy the clarity and space that the emptiness gives you. Then put items back, assessing each one for its value to you and your life. It's such a great way to organise and focus. It occurred to me while reading this that this is how I revise my novels - I open up a new, blank document and transfer scenes across, assessing each one as I go, making sure it fits and is necessary, and rewriting where needed. I can build a whole book that way. So why not try it in other areas of my life, as well?

And that's when it clicked. I can apply this principle to my time, to make sure that I'm focusing on the right things. I cleared my schedule until it was completely blank, and then examined everything I had to do in order to determine its importance. Unfortunately, although hosting this Nanowrimo group and taking part in the experience is important to me this month, the Young Adult novel has bitten the dust! I just can't work on that as well as finishing the book before Christmas and working on the big freelance jobs I have this month. Instead, I am going to continue revising a chapter a day and finish revising my work-in-progress by the end of the month ready for edits. So it's a change of plan, but I think it's a good one.

In other news, I am hosting a clothing swap for the Austin Ladies Who Lunch blogging group! If you're part of the group, head over to New to Austin to put your name down. It will be great fun, and I have a huge amount of clothing to give away!

How did you get on with your Nanowrimo project today? Are you finding that it's morphing into something that you didn't expect? Have you had to adjust your course at all?

Six impossible things before breakfast

My progress:

1,000 words of my Nanowrimo project written
Chapter 5 of work-in-progress revised
Three cups of coffee consumed
One antihistamine taken to combat hayfever-type allergies
Two hours of non-productivity caused by reaction to the antihistamine (whoops)

Sometimes (all right, most of the time) my mind is like a small, recalcitrant child who needs constant tricking and bribery in order to get any work done. One of my favourite ways to corral this small and disobedient part of myself is to work in my pyjamas before breakfast. It tricks me into relaxing and letting the work flow - and it makes the day's task seem smaller and more manageable, somehow, if I can do it while wearing cat-printed flannel and then reward myself with cereal. That's how I did my Nanowrimo (lame-oh) work this morning.

Thanks for your comments on the previous post, Nano-participants - it sounds like you're all doing a great job! I'll be popping over to everyone's blog this week to check on y'all's progress (so Texan right now) before Friday's show-and-tell. How did your second day go?

P.S. Check out this interesting post from the lovely Maggie Stiefvater arguing against Nanowrimo's usefulness. It certainly isn't effective for everyone, and for some people it can be downright destructive - but if you can get something valuable out of it (as I find I do), then that's great. I do think she raised some excellent points.

How did your first day go?

Mink looks down on you with approval.

My progress:

1. Chapter 4 revised (work-in-progress)
2. 1,000 words written of Young Adult novel
3. 4 cups of coffee consumed

If any of you would like to clock in with your day's progress (and caffeine consumption) in the comments, please do so.

P.S. For the full list of group participants, go here!

Day One: the official list!

Hi everybody, and welcome to Nanowrimo! It's so lovely to see so many familiar names from last year's group, as well as so many new participants. I'm also excited about the range of projects that we're all undertaking - there's great variety. I'm hugely excited about starting this journey with all of you! Good luck, and I'll see you at the end of the day to check on progress.

Andrea (me!)

"I haven't signed up on the official website this year because I'm only aiming for 30,000 words. For my Nano project this year I am planning to complete a first draft of last year's Nano novel (by writing the aforesaid 30,000 words!) and make up the other 20,000 words by revising that amount in my current work-in-progress. Should be fun!"

Jenni

"I've tried to do NaNoWriMo several times before, but I never go through with it. But this time, I'm determined! My SN is kittenbonanza. I don't have a title yet, but I'm thinking it'll be a cross between The Craft, Heathers, and The Wicker Man--as you can see by my inspirations, I don't have a whole lot of time to read for fun anymore!"

Leah

"I am taking the plunge - I've never really committed to anything solid in writing, just gone through life thinking 'One day I'll be published and then everything will be grand'. My Nanonwrimo username is leahrobinnapier. My project, I think, will be to overcome the first blank page and to keep going, and learn a lot about quantity not quality, which is something that has always intimidated me. I hope it will be half-history of the place I grew up, and half coming-of-age in my time. It may turn out to be nothing like that at all, though. Thanks for this opportunity!"

Vikki

"Okay again I'm am gonna try and do this, my music theory exam is on the 3rd Nov so exams shouldn't impact too badly this year. I'm undecided which to attempt: unfinished book from last year to completion? Or see how far I get with shiny new idea/book. Dunno. My usename is still Vikki56."

Maree

"Mine is mareejones. I'm hoping to have good success this year but it is hard as current book will have to battle it out with NaNoWriMo new book!"

Sara

"I'm so glad you're organizing this group again, Andrea - last year it was such a big motivator. My user name is orchidbuttons. This year's novel is a rewrite of part of last year's NaNoWriMo project, but I'm starting from scratch with my word count."

Luinae

"Yay!

Username: http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/user/519390 My actual username is Luinae
Genre: Young Adult Political Fantasy
Title: Whispers of Freedom
Excerpt:
“He loved your mother, Aereth,” said Carragh.
“My father didn’t love anyone.” Aereth’s eyes were stony. “I saw the look on his face when he saw her body. He didn’t look sad, or grieved. My father looked angry, like a man cheated of his prize.”"

Mervat

"I too have so much on and will go for your Nanowrimo-lame-o, even though I have signed up for Nanowrimo (user name: The Writing Instinct). I will be working on current project and aim to write 30000 words from outlines I have prepared.

Genre: Literary Fiction
Working title: THIRB - I'll th-tick with this acronym for now :D

And, I may join twitter...

Thanks again for continuing to inspire us, my dear."

R.

"Eee, I'm going to try this this year! I think having a support group will bolster my confidence that I can actually reach such a fearsome word count (the most I've ever written is 3k - I like my stories short!).

My Nano username is theladyafterwards, and currently have NO IDEA what I'll be writing."

Hayley

"I'm so in, yay! My username is silhouesque. I buddied all the above folks.

I haven't done it before, the most I've written for a novel is about 10k.

Alls I know about what I'm going to write is that it'll be young adult somethingorother. And it'll probably have some weird, unrealistic element to it."

Gina

"Andrea!
I want to join!
Thanks so much for doing this.
Sometimes I just need a little push--you were it!"

Ally

"Hello! I will be attempting a NaNoLameO. Username is Axsis. I'll be aiming for 30k or thereabouts, because of being Busy and Important, and also because I'm not sure how long I can sustain Vampire Hospital. It is about a hospital. Staffed by Vampires. Although I was going to attempt a Musical NaNo and write Quake! I think my point is that I have no idea what I'm doing, but I'm going to do something. Sorry to ramble in the comments."

Rosalind

"Hello!

Nanowrimo-lame-o sounds just about right to me! I'm actually working on a new draft of a play (so word counts don't really apply) but it would be so helpful to be part of a motivational group.

My username is: veronicalake."

Lighting the Lamps

"My username on NNWM is lighting_the_lamps. I have 70,000 words of an approximately 90,000 word novel written, so my challenge will be to finish the first draft of my novel next month. Currently, I have some very finished chapters combined with a mish mash of part scenes and long chunks of dialogue that need breaking up."

Missdaillecourt

"This will be the first time that I dip a toe in the Nanowrimo waters.
My username is mangwanani.

At this stage I only have a vague concept for the novel, but growing up in Zimbabwe (I've been living in Brisbane for 6 years now) has the potential for a semi-fictionalised account of growing up there. I'm contemplating using a dystopian landscape, plenty of room for surreal, descriptive passages!"

(A fellow Zimbabwean - yay! - Andrea)

Amy

"I have done Nano in the past, but in general I was a Nano Lame-o. I either used the write-ins as support groups to revise a previous piece, or if the piece was new for Nano, I never reached near the 50,000 word target. I tend to draft slowly and I normally write YA, so my previous novels have been shorter, like in the 35-40,000 word range (which I think is more fitting for a younger reader. Exceptions of course include any storylines involving wizards and vampires.)

My name on Nano is amyrussell001, and tomorrow I'm going to finalize my plan and/or outline so I'll be ready to go. Will either be YA or middle grade fiction. :)

Are you going to attend any of the organized write-ins or put together some with this group? Those are always such a help to me."

(I won't be attending any of the local write-ins, but I would love to meet up with members of my group who live nearby! And I will be organising writing sessions on Twitter. - Andrea)

Andrea

"I'm ready to try again. Last year I failed miserably. We'll see what happens this year. I still have absolutely no idea what I'll be writing about.

My username is andreastaats."

RebeccaK

"I am not writing a novel - but a conference paper I need to give in December and hope to submit to a journal in January. So I am not strictly playing by the rules, but will have a go anyway! The word count will be 6,000 - but I have a tonne of research still to do, and a presentation to put together, so I figure they must count for some words!

username: blackswanspond"

Katie Anderson

"Hi Andrea,

I would love to join your NaNo group! My username on NaNo is katie.anderson

This is my second year doing NaNo. Las year I decided on a storyline at 1am on 1st November (in the middle of our Halloween party). This year I finalised my idea on 30th Oct - so I'm already way ahead!

Don't have a title yet - is it okay if I supply that at a later date? Thanks!"

(Of course! I don't have one either. - Andrea)

Alexandra Crocodile

"I'm chuffed to be able to be part of your group, I was so vexed that I didn't make it last year!

My username is vintage stories! I haven't a title yet, and I'm not even sure what I'll be writing, so this group is just what I need to boost my writing."

Rachel

"Hello!

My name on NaNo is earlgrey.

This is my first year attempting NaNo, and I hope to meet the 50,000 words despite being in school. I have a couple of ideas at this point, but nothing solid. I think I am just going to start writing and see where it takes me!"

Gea

"Hi Andrea (& other writers),

It feels a bit like party crashing since I don't normally leave comments on blogs, but I'm doing Nano this year and after failing miserably last year, I'm determined to do everything this year to make sure I will be a winner! Joing your writing group seems like a very good way to keep enthusiastic and not give up in the second week, so here goes.

My username is "geedee"

I have an idea for a plot for the first half of the novel, but no title yet (and I'm afraid to jinx it if I say too much at this point), but I'll be writing a chicklit kind of book. Or it may turn out to be something completely different, who knows..."

Urban Adaptation

"Well, I signed up. And I have no idea what I'm doing. But I keep telling myself that that's okay. Because it is. And although it's scary I'm looking forward to it all the same. My nanowrimo name is urbanadaptation. That's all I've got right now, but it's a start."

Katherine

"Hello all! I've been reading here for some time but haven't commented before. This is my first time doing NaNoWriMo. I'm hoping it will help my habit of starting writing projects and never finishing them. My username is whelmed and so far I have a vague idea about about a marriage that breaks up after the husband recovers from a long illness. Working title is So Happy Together."

Kathryn from Schoolmarm Style

"I'm in for the first time ever. My username is KathrynC. I started an adult historical fiction novel this summer that I plan on continuing. It's titled "Sideshow" and it's about a farm girl who runs away with the circus to become a tatooed lady."

Kaellesea

"ello.

My username on nanowrimo is losk.

I'm writing a young adult fantasy novel.

This is my first comment here too!"

Andrea

"I'd love to join you for a low key nano-wrimo/lame-o.

My username from last year is The Rainbow Notebook, but I'll just be doing a small prose/poetry project rather than a novel this year.

It will be a chance to pick up some of the ideas I never quite finished last year and incorporate new inspirations.

Vampires and heroines of silent movies are among my ideas so far!"

Cheryl

"This will be my second year doing Nanowrimo. I loved it so much last year, and am really looking forward to writing away towards 50,000 words again this year!

My username is cherylwarner. I'm writing a fantasy novel."

Joyce

"Ok Andrea-
I have officially signed up! Not exactly sure what my topic is but hopefully I can kick something into shape! How many words per day? Yikes!
J2push"