Category: NaNoWriMo 2023

That NaNoWriMo 2023 Project – How it’s Going

On By Elly in NairobiIn NaNoWriMo 20233 Comments

NaNoWriMo month feels a lot like a writing marathon. It is creating a daily frenzy, every day making 1,667 words at the least to stay on target. That is, embracing those moments when you stare at the cursor and beg for creative inspiration and it feels like no hope is coming, but then you type two words, then three, and then…whoosh, three thousand come at you. Relief floods you, you can log a decent word count into the NaNoWriMo graph, and then you go to sleep. Guess what, you wake up the next day and the same process starts again.

I’m on Day 24, and the good part of this process is that there is comfort to the writing routine. I have accumulated some 40,000 words so far. I would judge about 32,000 of them are decent enough to work with later. As I continue, I have a whole story that I did not have at the beginning of the month. So, that’s the good part, the big win!

nanowrimo 2023 project

The challenging part is getting past the daily life noise. I may have a daily writing goal but managing to keep up with it while faced with my life obligations is a feat and a half. You manage the job, chores in the house, family things, pets, procrastination, and the odd visits from unexpected crises…these are the few things that show up on the daily life map. Setting aside the time to get 1,667 words down can feel like a battle crisis. I need to work at getting the writing done, literary carve out time amid the unavoidable noise. Some days, it felt painful to find the writing time, but others have felt easy. I’m grateful for the easy days and proud of the painful ones when it felt like I might give up but kept at it anyway. Gotta celebrate these wins.

I have shared the good and the challenging. Here’s the funny and extra cheesy enjoyment.

Happy Nanowrimo Graph

Despite the griping to get these words done, I find it exciting to see the graph rise daily. Every day, I’ll do my best to get the words in even though it is like 11:30 pm at night, just to see the graph grow or to win the word count badge. It is so oddly satisfying! I’ll smile like a silly goose, happy that I got in that count before midnight. And who doesn’t enjoy winning fun little colorful badges!

Badges of honor

So, that’s my NaNoWriMo progress so far. There are six days to go, and I have about 10,000 words to get done. I’ll let you know if I win that completed certificate!

To read a snippet of this nanowrimo story find it here: The Hidden Queen. It is a draft and may change in the future. For now, it is what it is. Enjoy!

Nano Prep 2023 – Plans and Plans

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It started with a character worksheet; to be specific, this worksheet – 51 Questions You’ve Probably Never Asked Your Characters. It takes more than a minute to answer these many questions. The experience is fun, you end up thinking up all these little side ideas, and amass a bunch of notes for each character. In the end, the process of creating characters can feel quite intensive, but you end up with a wealth of information. Information that truly makes the next step easier.

I moved to deciding the type of plot to use. Now, I’ve primarily been someone who sits and comes up with a story as I go. This idea is fun while it lasts, until you get stuck in the middle chapters and have to spend a few days, maybe months finding away to be unstuck. Hence, I became someone who writes on the fly, while also making plans before I started. Then, in time, the structure made more sense, and I fell in love with it some more. So, here we are. Testing out different types of plot ideas. I’m very sure this plot plan will work for me this time. Plot Method: Save the Cat! Beat Sheet. Hopefully ^_^ Maybe, I just like that it has a cat in its name.

Now that there was a map, the last week has been filled with word-building! For this, there was this worksheet – 20 Questions to Ask Yourself When World-building. I will confess that I’m still answering some of the questions in this worksheet and we’re now fully past world-building week. It is a lot of work thinking up places, lore, habits, meals, legends, and landmarks. It might end up being an encyclopedia of sorts. Someone stop me now before encyclopedia status that is, hahaha.

Alright, thankfully, we’re now in the building a community week. I’m excited by Nano this year because after an application, I became the Municipal Liaison of my Nanowrimo Region. A fancy way to say that I’m our region’s cheer leader. I get to hype everyone up for the challenge, and share info about Nano Prep. More importantly, it means getting immersed in it like no other time, so, I’m glad I’m managing to get some prep done. I can’t wait to put in the word count through the writing sprints in November. Which is like a blink away? Ever notice how the days fly when you’re having fun?

Alright, this is it for Nano-Prep. I came out of it with an encyclopedia, so yay for me. NaNoWriMo, here I come on Nov 1st. Let’s see how the story goes.

If you wanna join in this fun writing challenge, sign up here: nanowrimo.org.

To access the worksheets, you need to be logged into nanowrimo.org.

NaNo Prep 2023 – Week One

On By Elly in NairobiIn NaNoWriMo 20232 Comments

NaNo Prep :Week One – (Sept 18 – 24, 2023)

Activity: Developing a Story Idea

This week starts the first week of the NaNo Prep 101 course. Let’s go on a little development journey. My goal is to come up with a usable story idea that I’m passionate about. I have seven days to come up with a good one. I’ll be honest here and confess that I’ve probably spent the past week thinking about this idea. So, it will be two weeks in total.

I’ve drawn inspiration from the NaNoWriMo theme this year. The theme is “More than one way to tell a fairy tale”. My imagination is on overdrive. Whether I can keep this up is up to the next few weeks and what I can get down.

Influences that I can’t ignore: I’ve leaned heavily on YA books I’ve read.

Then, I’ve drawn a dash of inspiration from the stories my maternal grandma used to tell us in her kitchen before bedtime. Of ogres in the forest, and an old witch who would get on your back and refuse to get off if you carried her…shiver.

And so, here goes.

My NaNoWriMo 2023 Book Title is: –

Book One
The Hidden Queen by E.K.
 
The Story is: - Airi/Aisha lives in Nairobi, Kenya. She has a harmonious life with her family. She is a good student and has spent school holidays at her grandma’s farm. Airi/Aisha has done so for ages. Until one day…when she discovers a secret in her grandmother’s farm.

Current status: - I’m still living in Undecided, Ohio with a large part of this story and it needs work. I hope the next week will be full of more information. The good thing is that I’ve finally decided on a title. Yay! I even made a book cover. Useful procrastination. ^_^

I’m also sharing this idea as it is not a new idea. It has been written by others, a lot masterful, Chronicles of Narnia comes to mind. In between the small paragraph above, there has been an infinite collection of chicken-scratch writing on notebooks. A thousand crossed out thoughts and a character name that may change. That is the process. Yours might be more elaborate or simpler. I hope you have a great one!

I’m Looking forward to NaNo Prep Week Two Sept 25 – Oct 1. is Characters Week.

Wanna join in? Sign up here: NaNoWriMo

NaNoWriMo 2023

On By Elly in NairobiIn NaNoWriMo 2023Leave a comment

I’m excited to be part of the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) experience this year. I’ve done this before, but for some reason 2023 is feeling more exciting, so I’m going with it and hoping to see what I get out of this experience by the end of November 2023.

What is NaNoWriMo about?

  • It is a choice to take on a writing challenge and complete a novel or write 50k words of a novel in November. The challenge is done in daily bits. That is, writing 1, 667 words every day to make 50k words in thirty days. This is without worrying about how much editing you need, or how well the plot is flowing. You can worry about all that once you get to November 30th. You can choose to jump in and start on November 1st, 2023 or plan your novel six weeks ahead (NaNo Prep) and start your writing on November 1st. Sounds manageable, right?

It is a fun challenge to take on and have fun with it! The experience at least leaves me with the start or the bulk of a novel, or an idea that I can take to the next level.

NaNo Prep starts on September 18th, 2023. Follow as I work to get a story from idea stage to 50k at the end of November 30th, 2023. I’ll do my best to post this process on this blog in notes and emojis ^_^.

Wanna join in? Sign up here for NaNoWriMo.