Didn’t see this coming, did you?

A lot of people don’t realize I consider myself a movie buff. It helps that I don’t have cable TV and do have a Netflix subscription. But anyway, I want to keep myself in the posting habit. So here I am, sharing my top 10 favorite movies from the year I was born: 1979.

1. Apocalypse Now

2. Alien

3. Rocky 2

4. The Jerk

5. Real Life

6. The Amityville Horror

7. The Muppet Movie

8. Escape from Alcatraz

9. The Warriors

10. Moonraker

I started working on a brighter layout. So once again I’m brushing up on things like Java and PHP. I also procured a copy of Adobe Photoshop CS4 and have made a few graphics already.

And I’m working on a secret project involving NPI that may or may not come to fruition :)

I’ve had a serious case of  blogger’s block lately. I’d take blogger’s block over writer’s block any day. … But not necessarily every day.  

Today the doctor let us know my son is officially free of his heart and apnea monitor.

Here he is on Easter Sunday:

And here’s him being his usual cheerful self:

You may have noticed those little black and white cords. No worries; they’ve officially gone bye-bye and the next chapter can begin.

I finished reading A Game of Thrones. Finally. I had no idea just how much story laid between the covers, like I just read five very good novels rolled into one.

Then I started in on The Path of Daggers. I figure if I’ve read seven WoT books, I can read the rest. It’s been kind of nice settling back into Jordan’s familiar world, as good as George R.R. Martin’s was. I’m heavily invested in the characters of WoT and am excited to see the story through to the end.

My editing’s been going very well despite getting knocked out of my own NPI. My paragraphs have gotten … noticably larger lately– without feeling too info-dumpy. I feel like I don’t have to trim everything as much as I used to because the flow still seems to be there. But please. If it’s not, knock me off my high horse.

Maybe I should introduce you to Cirellio sometime. Maybe a passage from a chapter? He is the main character, after all.

And maybe I should change the way the site looks, something bright instead of dark? A change around here might be just the inspiration I need.

Welcome to the March 2010 Novel Push Initiative!

(It’s actually 11 days in but shhh….)

Very interesting outcome for the first 10 days. A lot of the veterans aren’t doing so hot while the newcomers are carving us a new one. There’s some serious writing going on here. People are hitting personal milestones left and right. In fact, I think we might have a lot of records set by the end of this month. We shall see!

• The break-down:

1. A “Knock-out” is 0-249 words. (After the Days of Reprieve are exhausted)
2. An “Update” is 250-999 words.
3. A  “Session” is 1,000-1,667 words.  (And earns you an extra Day of Reprieve)
4. A “Tougher-than-NaNo” is anything greater than 1,667.
5. A “THE END!” is when you’ve completed a WIP and type ‘THE END’.

  Read the rest of this entry »

I believe this is everybody in the Novel Push Initiative so far:

Janette Dalgliesh (Janette Dalgliesh)

Eliza (ExploringEliza)

Merrilee Faber (Not Enough Words)

Cassie (J.C. Hart)

Francesca (Making It Up)

L (The Book Bark!)

Ryan G. Sanders (Ryan G. Sanders)

Little Scribbler (Little Scribbler)

Anna Harte (quillsandzebras)

Julie K (Ramblings of an aspiring writer)

Megs (ODDS AND ENDS AND SCATTERED BITS)

Nick Enlowe

ONE MORE DAY LEFT TO JOIN!!!

Some of you were ‘maybe’s. So if you’re on the list and want out, let me know or forever hold your peace. ;)

Welcome back to the Novel Push Initiative!

This time around, there’s a very good incentive to writing more than 250 words per day, and there’s still that accountability we all know and love.

If this is your first time participating, welcome! I hope you’ll find support and encouragement (and your writing) will flow like water this March.

THE BASICS: Read the rest of this entry »

A lot of people didn’t finish the last NPI, but I’d like as many people to finish this one as possible.

So I’m affording you the opportunity to negotiate the terms with me before I post the ruleset for the March event.

Last time, it was 250 words per day, with three ‘Days of Reprieve’, which essentially meant you could write 0-249 words for three days out of the month and still pass NPI. The fourth time was considered a ‘Knock-Out’.

And I held the participants to that—After all if there’s no accountability, what’s the point of running an event that’s supposed to teach consistency?

What’s up for negotiation?:

1: 250+ words per day.

This can be negotiated. Would 200 be easier to maintain? Would you rather raise the bar and bring it to 350? Be honest.

2: 3 ‘Days of Reprieve’.

I like Days of Reprieve. At first there were none. Then there was one. Now there’s three (as of December’s NPI). Three seems like a pretty good number, but this can also be negotiated.

3: ???

Anything else you can think of.

Here’s some food for thought: We all know self-imposed deadlines can be great motivators. Maybe the only thing that’s better is a deadline imposed by someone else?

If you have any suggestions or negotiations, please share.

By the way, this post is exactly 214 words.

One year ago, I finished reading Chris Baty’s No Plot? No Problem!. His words were motivational and I was inspired, ready to tackle the remains of the rough draft of my first novel.

Then I got to thinking about how wonderful NaNoWriMo is, how many lives it touches and what it does for the world. It encourages people to unlock their imaginations and author 50,000 words in a month.

There are tons of critics out there that say NaNoWriMo produces nothing but garbage. I disagree with such a generalized opinion, but it only seemed natural that there should be a variant that emphasises consistency over quantity. So I came up with the Novel-Push Initiative (NPI).

Consistency really is tough. Writing every day can sometimes be a tall order, even for professional authors.

NPI is about writing 250 words (or more) each day, every day, for a month. As simple as it sounds, it never is.

The very first Novel-Push Initiative happened right here last March and was what I would call a success, teaching us innumerable lessons about our craft.

So I pose the question– Are you ready for the next NPI?

If so, sign up here. More information to follow!