Life Update

Life Update:
Two weeks from today I'm moving from the home I've lived in for the last sixteen years. We've had our children here and watched them grow. It's been a good place for us. I've loved it here. It's strange though; we've lived here so long but we really only know our direct neighbors. Our town is one of those small places where your grandparent's grandparents had to have lived there for you to be accepted. Ironically, my ancestors were one of the founding fathers, but I guess since I'm the first representative for the last hundred years or so that doesn't count. It's always seemed like an odd custom to me; this small town life, but like any custom I've enjoyed watching and analyzing it. The house we're moving to isn't part of a town, or a city; it's out in the country, which will be a nice change for us. We plan on having a few chickens and maybe a goat or two. I met my husband on a farm, so I guess it's only fitting we should spend the rest of our lives at one. Strangely enough in all this chaos I've managed to finish the first draft of my novel, 2084, as well as revisions and the first rounds of edits. I plan to do a soft release sometime in December. It's the second book in the Newstead Anthem series; a collection of three stand-alone books directly related to the Newstead Trilogy. It will be my shortest work, only two hundred pages, but all told it's taken me the longest. I think I started this book the first time over two years ago. So out into the world it will come and I for one will celebrate it's birth with a very large glass a wine. I'm making review copies of it available the beginning of December. If any of you are interested, just let me know.
How about all of you--what's going on in your lives? I'd love to hear it.

Until then,
-Melanie

NaNoWriMo

This is my third year participating in NaNoWriMo*, and I've found it to be a good tool as long as that's all you use it as--a tool. My first year it was an obsession. I had to finish. I. Just. Had. To. And I did, and what I finished was a horrible novel that was unsalvageable, although I did spend several months trying. Last year I began anew, only that time I ruled NaNo; I didn't let it rule me. I wrote, yes, and I wrote more often, but I wrote words that mattered, words I could use. The result of that was Blackbird, probably my favorite of all my books. But even with that success I wasn't going to do NaNo this year. I was already 23,000 words into my current WIP, and didn't want to put it aside to start something else. After some thought I realized I didn't have to. All I needed was 50,000 words written in one month, right? So did it matter where I started? I figured it didn't, so start I did. My current work is at 38,000 (or 15,000 NaNo words), which puts me a little behind, but I don't care. I love it--and in the end that's all that matters.

Any one else out there participating in NaNo? What has your experience been?

*For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about, NaNoWriMo stands for National November Writing Month where those craziest among us try to write a 50,000 word novel in one month. You can find out more at http://www.nanowrimo.org

IWSG

This November I’m participating in NaNo* again, which has given me all sorts of good material for this month’s IWSG, the biggest one being that I just can’t seem to write fast. No matter how much I prepare, I crawl along at about 750 words an hour, and that’s on a good day. Don’t even get me started on when I’m having a bad one. You’d think after four years in this writing thing I’d pick up the pace a bit, but I haven’t. Actually, I think I’ve slowed down a little. I use to write like crazy then go back and spend the next year editing and fixing. Now I go slower, which for me means a lot less time later on. So I prod on, but it does make it hard for NaNo when you see yourself falling further and further behind every day. Are there any other slow writers out there who feel my pain?

*NaNo is short for National Writing Month, which happens to be November. If you’re not involved I highly recommend it. It’s a wonderful accountability tool, not to mention a lot of fun. You can find out more at http://www.nanowrimo.org