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 »

Every three months … .

Yeah, remember? http://5-rings.com/blog/2009/09/every-three-months/

Shall we try this again?

Let’s make it nice and easy.

Ten days isn’t a lot of time to get prepared. A lot of you might be coming off a NaNoWriMo crash, hoping for a little R & R.

I know I’m exhausted from the rollercoaster ride I’ve been on….

So the new rules (and I use that term loosely) are as follows:

THE BASICS: Read the rest of this entry »

Merrilee Faber’s running another Novel-Push Initiative this month (Yes, she asked my permission first). 

I decided to join—It’s always fun, and I’m kind of curious to see what it’s like to participate without having to worry about everyone else’s tallies. Read the rest of this entry »

I try to remind myself that I can say something today that I couldn’t say last year, and honestly wasn’t sure I’d ever be able to say: I’m done with my first draft! I’m in the editing/revision step. How would me-one-year-ago feel if I could go into the future and read this post?

I have-to-have-to-have-to keep editing if I ever want to finish this novel, seek publication, go to places like Worldcon and World Fantasy, network and meet people, and have fun writing more novels.  And I intend to do just that. But I can’t just write ‘I need to get scene X done by date Y’. It’s never been that simple for me; conventional methods never seem to work. Read the rest of this entry »

All over the interwebs, it’s “What was it like writing your first novel?”

And the canned answer is: “It was like having a baby.”

Is writing a novel really like having a baby? Read the rest of this entry »

THE BASICS:

• Event will run from May 1st-31st.
• Simply write 350+ words per day!
• To discourage project-jumping, please pick only one project for this event (preferably something novella/novel-sized).
• You’ll need to publish your daily word counts every day by midnight using a blog of some kind; something that I can check against a time-stamp (Even a Twitter account will do).

               The simplest Tweet can look like this:

               350 words.
               11:59 PM May 1st from web.

• Of course, you’ll want to double-check your local settings to make sure it matches your time zone.

ADDITIONAL RULES:

• You are allowed to project-jump if and only if you finish your manuscript during the event.
• If you’d like to participate but haven’t signed up yet, you’ll need to reply to this or any of my blog posts before May 1st, stating what project you’d like to work on and a link to the blog you wish to use for the event. Alternatively, you are also welcome to contact me.
• You can be as detailed as you want with your posts. The simplest post can just be a word count, but you’re welcome to keep track of your total word count, talk about what you’ve been writing, and maybe even share a snippet or two—if you’re feeling generous.
• Since we’re upping the ante from 250 to 350 words per day, and I’d like to see everyone make it to May 31st,  I am allowing one day of reprieve. Hopefully, this will go a long way to prevent burn-out/serve as padding in the event of an emergency.
• NaNoWriMo famously averages out to 1,667 words per day. So here’s the revised break-down:

1. A “Knock-out” is 0-349 words.
2. An “Update” is 350-999 words.
3. A  “Session” is 1,000-1,667 words.
4. A “Tougher-than-NaNo” is anything greater than 1,667.
5. An “End of the Book” is when you’ve completed your MIP and type ‘THE END’.

WHAT’S IN IT FOR ME?:

• At the very minimum, if you keep up, you’ll end up with 10,850 words added to your work-in-progress. This is a great kick-in-the-butt for us procrastinators!
• I think you’ll find NPI is surprisingly uplifting and friendly—everybody participating (and the people watching from the sidelines) tend to be extremely supportive. Which leads me to…
• You’ll meet lots of new friends! :D
• I will periodically link to each of your sites and post your word-tallies up to a “Knock-out”.

So, still with me? Great! Again, I advise you to take no prisoners as you march your plots ever forward, towards—and beyond—May 31st. 

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

Out-of-the-blue-rant time! A rant about … vegetables? No, don’t worry. This does have something to do with writing.

Brave souls may click below to proceed. …

Read the rest of this entry »