Category: discovery draft
-

Friday’s Findings: How to Write Fast
Some writers imagine the writing process as slow and meticulous. They take their time composing that first draft, lingering over it for months, maybe years. These writers are tortoises and they don’t mind. However, in How to Write Fast by Sean Platt and Neeve Silver, the writing process is the hare, not the tortoise. They…
-

NaNoWriMo Day 29: Seeking the senses
On Thanksgiving Day, I accompanied my mom and her husband to volunteer at a church serving T-day meals to the homeless and low-income families. It was a nice break from working on my NaNoWriMo project. The three of us ending up on the team of volunteers who picked up paper plates and cups from those…
-

NaNoWriMo Day 28: Over the finish line
I wrote the last 2800 words yesterday and reach 50K. I won NaNoWriMo 2022! My project is called Normous, and it’s a novella. It is the fifth episode in my series I call Consortium. In my blog posts throughout this month, I described how I outlined Normous in three steps, and then spent the rest…
-

NaNoWriMo Day 27: Home Stretch
Two milestones yesterday: I reached 45k words. And I finally did a 6k day. I did several sprints all day long. Most were 30 minute sprints and a couple were 45 minute sprints. And I still managed to get non-writing stuff done. In between writing sprints, I would exercise for 15-20 minutes. Or I would…
-

NaNoWriMo Day 26: Background noise
I finally reached 40k yesterday. I tried to write 6,000 words total, but after 3700, I just stopped and started watching a movie. Sometimes, when I’m writing, I’ll throw on a movie in the genre I’m writing, something I’ve watched a million times before, and write. Because it’s not something new to watch, I’m not…
-

NaNoWriMo Day 25: Two ways to write your scene
I haven’t been writing much the last few days. I got busy with work and yesterday was Thanksgiving. I wrote a little, but I didn’t push myself. You see, I’m on vacation until December 3, so I have the next five days to write and reach 50k. I have about 12,000 words left. That’s about…
-

NaNoWriMo Day 24: Thankful for what I’ve learned in NaNoWriMo 2022
I am reading about people on Reddit, Twitter and other social media platforms who have decided to stop NaNoWriMo. That’s okay. I’ve had my years where I just wasn’t into it. But I have never subscribed to the thought that someone who doesn’t finish NaNoWriMo, doesn’t win. Everyone wins at NaNoWriMo, even those who don’t…
-

NaNoWriMo Day 23: Rules
Last day of work until December 5th. I’m a little behind on NaNoWriMo, but I intend to spend my free days in November finishing my NaNo and getting to 50k words. My story arc is complete, but I won’t be writing the entire story out as a narrative before the end of November. That always…
-

NaNoWriMo Day 22: Starting with dialogue
When I start a scene, if I’m not sure what to write to start things off, I go to my default: dialogue. Then I add in some physical actions followed by interior thoughts and emotions. Then I layer in some description – I make sure the reader knows what the characters look like as close…