So this is my 11th year participating in National Novel Writing Month ( Nanowrimo.) I just looked at my stats from past years and the very first book I wrote in 30 days in 2013 was THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE HOME, the second book my MacQuire Women Series. That book and every other one since I’ve written in the month of November during the challenge has gone on to be published.
Yay!
These are my five top reasons why I love love love doing NanoWrimo each year for today’s edition of the Friday Five.
doing the challenge forces me to write every single day. I don’t get a chance to slouch off like I routinely would during the other 11 months.
doing the challenge fosters habituation. If I write every day for a month, it becomes a habit in my brain and I want to continue doing it after November ends.
I see instant progress daily as my word count increases because I never edit until the book is finished.
I get to meet new authors on my buddy list
I get to encourage and motivate other authors in the challenge
Are you a writer who participates in Nano? If so, drop a comment and tell me why you love it – or hate it!!
Every November, from the first to the thirtieth, hundreds of thousands of people worldwide, attempt the National Novel Writing Contest ( NANOWRIMO) challenge of penning a 50,000+ word novel in those 30 days.
I have participated in the event for the past 9 years and will again this year.
The goal is to write at least 1700 words daily to reach the minimum 50,000-word count set up by the challenge. The exercise helps build momentum for your writing ( you have to write every single day!), makes writing every day a goal and a challenge, and forces you ( gently) to sit your butt down and get that word count done without distractions.
As a writer, I know that life intervenes on my writing time almost daily. This challenge makes you push everything else to the side and do the work first. Love that.
If you’ve been trying to get your manuscript finished, or attempting to begin a new one, consider this NANOWRIMO challenge. If nothing else, it will help you remember that the only way to get a book written is to…write it!
Today, I get to do something I haven’t done in quite a while: Attend a New Hampshire Romance Writers of America meeting IN PERSON!! I’ve been zooming the once-monthly meeting since the pandemic forced us all to shelter in place but today I get to go livelivelive!
Added to the wonderful feeling of seeing – in person – all my writer friends again, I am presenting the workshop today to the members.
It’s been a minute ( and then some) since I gave a live talk to a group. Thankfully, this group is so accepting, welcoming, and just plain fun, that I know even if I stumble, I will not fall with them holding me up.
If you’re a writer, I hope you have the blessing of a supportive collection of other writers you can hang out with and learn from, too!
This is the first weekend I’ve actually been at home in over a month. RWA, visiting my daughter, a friend’s daughter’s wedding, family vacay, book signings, have all drawn me away from my home every weekend since the beginning of july.
Next weekend I have another book event which I mention below. But for now, I’ve got nowhere to go or be for the next 48 hours.
I’m laughing right now because I almost feel a little lost…what should I do with my free time?
I could always clean the house – give it a good scrubbing from top to bottom but…no.
I could go shopping. SInce I’ve lost all my weight I need new clothes because my old ones are hanging on me. The thought of being around people – hordes of people – isn’t doing it for me, emotionally, so…no.
I could tackle the projects I’ve been putting off lately due to travel and book deadlines, like the scrapbook I want to make for my daughter about her engagement, wedding, and first baby’s birth. I’ve got all the pieces, I just need to sit down and put it together. Alas, the thought of doing that isn’t sparking joy in my right at this moment.
I could write. I’ve got a book I need to finish by the end of the month and then get to edits. It’s due to release on 11.1 and I am not even half way thru the first draft. But I’ve been carving out writing time all week and have added 10,000k words since last weekend, so I feel I deserve a break.
The weather is supposed to be in the 80s here today, with little humidity. I’ll take Maple on her 5 miler this morning and then I’m going to…
Read. I’m gonna hang out on my favorite room in my house – my four seasons room – and just…read.
Bliss.
Heaven.
Relaxing.
Soul-energizing.
Just read.
Whew. Glad that decision is made. It was exhausting figuring out what to do, LOL!
So just approved the galley edits for my upcoming Magnolia Blossom book It’s Witch O’Clock somewhere. I lovedlovedloved writing this first lovers/reunited story about a witch and former teenage bad boy-turned-good guy. I’ve just seen the cover and it’s beautiful! I’ll share when I’m allowed to, heehee.
Twenty years ago, Barstone bad-boy Declan Wolffe, rode out of town on his motorcycle leaving the town that looked down on his family, and the only girl he’d ever loved, in his rearview mirror.
But now he’s back. Rich, successful, and determined, he’s got plans for the town. And for the girl he left behind.
Gigi Gordon has made a successful life for herself in Barstone as a real estate agent. No one but those closest to her knows she’s a 10th-generation witch and she wants to keep it that way. Her life is disrupted, though, when the boy who stole her heart rides back into town with a plan to shake things up.
Declan may have plans, but Gigi has a few of her own. The biggest one? Protecting her heart.
And now…a little teaser:
“I’m so mad I could spit.” Gigi slammed her briefcase down on her desk. “Or worse. Hit something. Anything.”
“I’m taking it the meeting didn’t go well?” her secretary, Kathy said, wincing at the force with which Gigi’s bag hit the ancient desk.
“It was actually going great until the so-called developer showed up.”
Eyes wide, Kathy stood and moved to the coffee bar. “You look like you need a cup of tea. And Weber was actually there?”
“Not his name. It’s the company’s.” Gigi plopped down into her chair and closed her eyes as she dug deep down for some semblance of calm and peace. The light incident was worrisome since she hadn’t had an outburst manifesting itself physically in years. Not since…
Don’t go there. You’ll only get all riled up again.
“So who is he?” Kathy asked as she poured hot water over the jasmine leaves Gigi kept in the office. When it was done, she handed it to her.
Gigi sighed before taking her first sip. As the warmth of the calming tea steeped within her, she looked over the top rim of the cup and said, “Declan Wolffe.”
“Holy shit. D.C. Wolffe’s back in town?”
Since her reaction upon seeing him had been the same, she understood her secretary’s outburst.
“Unfortunately. And he’s the one proposing to modernize the downtown.”
“Weber was his mom’s maiden name, wasn’t it?” she asked, squinting off into the distance. “The business name makes sense, then.” She speared her boss with a quizzical eyelift. “He still drop-dead gorgeous?”
“Also, unfortunately.”
Goddess. How she wished he’d turned old and fat and bald.
“Why is that?” Kathy asked. “It’s so unfair men get better looking and we…don’t.” She glanced down at herself, shook her head.
“Stop. You’re just as gorgeous as you were in high school. More.”
Kathy rolled her eyes. “Says the girl with the lavender eyes and the body of a Hollywood bombshell.”
I was Gigi’s turn to roll her eyes.
Kathy shook her head again and sat back down at her desk with a sigh. “D.C. Wolffe, Barstone’s very own bad boy, back in town. Talk about a prodigal. I thought for sure we were in his rearview mirror for life. Who’d’a thunk we’d ever live to see this day?”
Not Gigi, that was for sure. Although she knew, intimately knew, the bad boy persona and rep was wrong and foisted on him once upon a time by a town that didn’t take kindly to people who were different. Again, another fact she had intimate and firsthand knowledge of.
On that summer day long ago when she’d watched the back end of his motorcycle shoot away from her as she stood in her front yard with tears streaming down her face, she thought she’d never see him again.
More to come when I’ve got a cover and a release date to share!
Peggy Jaeger, Author 