Eric James Spannerman Discusses his Experience with Nanowrimo

Nanowrimo, Writing
2014 was the year in which I made the jump from hopeful writer to published author. My first book, Applied Natural Magic, was released by Musa Publishing in August of 2014 as part of the Darkside Codex series of steampunk stories. NaNoWriMo 2013 was a big part of getting me to that point, and Dianna has asked me to share that story. Although writing a NaNoWriMo draft was difficult, producing the draft was not the most difficult part of the process. My biggest obstacles emerged during the four months I spent hammering the raw material of the first draft into submittable form. Fortunately, there are some things to do prior to and during NaNoWriMo that make the transition from draft to usable manuscript easier, and I'm going to focus on those.…
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Before you finish that draft

Novels, Uncategorized, Writing: The Process
After an excruciating process taking anywhere between a few weeks and several years, your first--or second, or third--draft is almost finished. Your adrenaline's pumping and you're ready to power through to the finish line. As antsy as you might be to finish it, I suggest instead you pause and take a deep breath. It's time to create a plan for after you've crossed the finish line. Start by scheduling a couple says off. You can write, of course, but jumping straight from one book to the next isn't a great idea. Give your brain some time to relax and refill the creative well by enjoying somebody else's book or doing something fun. You might want to focus on stories very different from your current WIP so you can get out…
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Tactics for when you’re stuck on rewrites

Editing, Goal setting, Writing
I've spent a long time in rewrites--first working on Moonshadow's Guardian, then the second draft of my 2011 Nanovel--and the last two weeks have been the most unpleasant of all. Each day I wrote a page, maybe less, of the actual novel and spent hours entranced in other writing. Avoiding the novel itself. Late last week I hunkered down, figured out the issue causing my avoidance and worked through it. Now I'm back to work on my novel, confident I won't stall again. When you've been working on the same project for a long time it can be difficult to continue. You start to lose your enthusiasm and writing becomes like walking on hot coals. Every scene seems an insurmountable challenge. The book itself becomes a monster you avoid like…
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Advice from a Caterpillar

Nanowrimo, Writing
Hello, author. A brief introduction should be in order. I'm Mr. Caterpillar, and I first tried this NaNoWriMo thing in 2008. I had been aware of the event since many years prior to that, but 2008 was when I finally tried in earnest to do what I had been pretending to do since I was in single digits of age. Using an electronic typewriter, and a lot of encouragement, I would put up to one single paragraph on a sheet of paper and consider that a "page" of writing. After ten "pages" or so, I had written a "book". The rest of the page was left open for illustrations. I was usually the star of this story, and various friendly talking caterpillars of different shapes and sizes were something I…
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Words of wisdom from Nanowrimo veteran Bethlyn Bechtel

Inspirational, Nanowrimo, Novels, Writing
Hi! My name is Bethlyn and this will be my second year participating in NaNoWriMo. My friend has asked me to “impart wisdom” upon her readers by sharing my tips, experiences, encouragement and anything else I can think of. This task has proven more difficult then I imagined and I have been sitting here, thinking, trying to come up with a good message for days. I haven’t done much Nanoing before, and although I did win my first attempt, I failed miserably at Camp Nano. What ideas could I share to encourage any newbies? My first thought was to share with you how I plan out my story ideas. I have a strange way of corralling those plot bunnies, however. I call it “dream writing.” When I have an idea…
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