7th Annual NaNoWriMo Write-in at Tabb

This was our seventh year having a NaNoWriMo write-in at the York County Public Library-Tabb Branch. It's a delight to host this event every year.

For 2015, 21 wrimos joined me for several hours of writing, eating and word sprints. We were joined for the first time by our regional MLs, Robin and Kara!

Here's the room all set up Saturday and waiting for wrimos to fill it.

Welcome goodie bags and a sign-in sheet in front. Back table filled with prizes to be won!

And here's the space filled with writers ready to bang the keyboards and fill their journals with NaNo noveling. These images are courtesy of Cathy Welch from the 1 p.m-5 p.m. event on Sunday, Nov. 8, 2015.

I welcome the group before everyone gets down to the business of writing.

Write, wrimos, write!

Hampton Roads ML Robin, right, gets words on the laptop page.

Barbara's having a great time!

It's NaNoWriMo time! Why I'm a wrimo

National Novel Writing Month is a wonderful way to knock out a first draft of a manuscript. And that’s exactly what you have at the end of the 30-day personal challenge to write a 50,000-word novel in just a month. Because 50K is on the short end of actual novel length, you’ll have work to do after November. And therein is the joy of NaNo. You write without editing or fixing or fretting for 30 days. And then, when it’s over and you get some much-needed rest, the core of your novel is there and waiting for you. As writing guru Natalie Goldberg says, you're "writing down the bones" of the book.

For those who think perfection is required to draft a novel and that 30 days yields little of it, consider what New York Times best-sellingauthor Nora Roberts has to say: “I can fix a bad page. I can’t fix a blank page.”

NaNoWriMo gives you the freedom to just explore whatever comes to you. You can fix it, flesh it out later when you add the nuances that aren’t captured in the rush toward the 50K-word finish line.

Personally, I use NaNo to draft novels in a mystery series I’m writing. Every November I know I will immerse myself in the world of that protagonist. Later, much later, comes the revision, the editing, the fine-tuning that makes a messy first draft into a marketable manuscript.

As for my track record, yes, I’ve had epic fails. My first NaNo in 2008, was a true disaster. I couldn’t wrap my head around the idea of not editing or fixing each day’s work. But I got the hang of it and tout the benefits of the month-long challenge. I come back each new November to do it again, and again. Entering the 2015 NaNo season, I am 5-4, five wins, four fails. But even the fail of not reaching the 50,000 words in 30 days is actually a win because if you write anything at all during NaNoWriMo, that’s more than you would have written had you not tried at all.

#nanowrimo

NaNoWriMo 2014 Winner!!

Can I get a Woot! Woot!!

NaNoWriMo 2014

I've been MIA from the blog primarily because my focus this month ... and the month leading into it ... was National Novel Writing Month.

This year, I was determined to win the 30-day challenge to write a 50,000-word novel. My win/loss record was 3-3 leading into NaNo 2014 and I wanted to put a notch in the win column. It's Day 28 of NaNo, and I'm coasting toward that win.

How? Why?

This year, I discovered voice recognition on my phone! It's been there all the time, it just never occurred to me to write with it. I talk the story into the phone on the commute to and from work (20 minutes each way) and can get anywhere from 800-1,000 words done each way. This has been a game changer for me!

Granted, the writing is rough -- even rougher than a normal typed or longhand first draft because enunciation is not always on point and sometimes the app hears words that I'm not saying. Then there's the bit about punctuation. You have to tell the app to make a period, or a comma or a question mark or a new paragraph. So the first edit of what I've drafted via voice recognition will need to be cleaning up the punctuation and making real sentences out of sentences that go on for 200 words! But, guess what? I'll have a first draft. And that's what NaNoWriMo is all about!

So, wish me luck as I finish up the 50,000 words, because after that, I need to actually finish the novel. My guess is that it will take about another 50K to get to the end of the actual first draft. 50K in a month is remarkable, but it doesn't make a completed manuscript.

What's your experience with NaNoWriMo?

I participate in my region's activities and host a community write-in every year. Here's an article from the Daily Press about wrimos in Hampton Roads, Va. And yes, that's me in the video (before the hair changed again!) and garbed in my writer gear.