Tag: NaNoWriMo

The Wonderful Challenges of November

On By Sue AgauasIn Fun Posts, Life Lessons, Post of the Month, Writing1 Comment

The eye records the trees waving and relinquishing the last of their brilliant fall foliage.

Squirrels scamper across lawns, vigorously tamping nuts into the earth.

Geese gather under apple trees gobbling up the sweet goodness of unclaimed fruit.

Flocks of red chested robins flit through treetops as they pass through the neighborhood chirping a final farewell on their flight to southern warmth. 

Dropping temperatures hint at advancing winter whiteness. 

From experience we remember. 
A season is closing, another arising.

The eye sees, but the heart must choose. 

I’m accepting two November challenges.

National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) begins November 1.

Along with writers all over the world, I accept the personal challenge to write a 50,000 word novel in thirty days. 
Ridiculous? Yes!
Difficult? Yes!
But a challenge that holds many benefits with its struggles.

November is also National Gratitude Month.  

Thanksgiving Day is November’s most famous day for giving thanks. 
This year, I’m challenging myself to practice thankfulness every day in November.
An interruption before getting busy with “important” things?
Definitely.
A bother to recite the obvious?
Possibly.But choosing to see blessings, whatever size, will bring to profit my heart.

I hope you join with me in the “Thankful Challenge” for November.

2020 Novel Writing Month Completed

On By Sue AgauasIn Books by Author Sue Agauas, Writing2 Comments

What an exciting month of writing November held for me. I chose to work on the prequel to Grandma’s Sock Drawer.

As expected, the writing journey had its moments when ideas seemed stale, action stalled out, characters became boring.

I’d say to myself, “You’re the one writing this thing! If you don’t like what’s happening, change it!”

I’d remind myself that writing Nano is more exploring, than settling down.
At the end of the month, if I like the story, I can work to make it the best. Nothing has to be permanent in the first draft. Everything can be improved. Thinking like this keeps me hopeful and excited about the story.

Even so, there were times I had to keep slogging along.
Then something clicked and things started to pick up momentum.
The story flew from my fingers through the last two weeks of November.

Characters asserted themselves on the page. (One day, for instance, my main character sat down and sobbed her heart out! I was so surprised!)

I found myself visiting familiar places with new twists.
Farms in need of planting,

meadows thick with wild, purple lupine flowers,

and spiraling tunnels in dark, echoing caves.

I crossed the Nano finish line of 50,000 words, plus, on the 27th.
But the story wasn’t finished, yet.

On December 2nd, the first draft was finally completed.
The thrill of accomplishing the Nano goal was surpassed by the excitement that I have for the beginnings of my prequel for Grandma’s Sock Drawer.

Yes, I have crossed the Nano finish line.

But only to start again.
A new goal.
A new energy.
A new commitment.
Polish this new story until it will shine in the hearts of readers.

I can’t wait to get started!

National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) 2020

On By Sue AgauasIn WritingLeave a comment

Write a novel in a month?

Crazy, right?

The challenge is to write your story in 50,000 words, in just one month. 

1,667 words per day for 30 days.

It’s up to you what you want to write about.

Besides the total word count, NaNoWriMo writing has one basic rule: No Editing!

November is the time: To Write.

If you like your story at the end of November, then you can edit. 

But for November, just enjoy writing. 

Always move forward. 

Don’t look back.

It’s exciting, frustrating, tiring, invigorating, revealing, requires discipline, and perseverance.

It’s crazy!

And I can’t wait to start!

The Year I Went Off Course

On By Sue AgauasIn Picture Books, Writing2 Comments

As I mentioned in an earlier blog post, I have run the Picture Book Marathon since 2010. But after 9 years of successfully completing the race, in 2018 I went off course for a very exciting reason.

November 2017, I had participated in my ninth Nannowrimo, (National Novel Writing Month). The fantasy middle grade novel that I wrote that month was one I knew I wanted to spend time and effort to revise and rewrite in the coming year.

The holiday season was a time to put aside the novel and enjoy family and friends. In January an opportunity arose to test the level of interest my novel would gather. Hurriedly, I rewrote and prepared the first six chapters to apply for the opportunity to appear on Kindle Scout for one month. 

Four days into February 2018, with 4 picture books completed, I learned that Kindle Scout accepted my submission. Starting February 5, 2018, the first six chapters of my book were available for people to read. 

 I was overjoyed! 

For the rest of February, people were reading my book! It was even called  “hot and trending” several days. There’s not a better feeling to a writer than to have his work read and enjoyed.

The rest of February was spent sharing this event with friends and family. That’s how I went off course in Picture Book Marathon of February 2018.

The positive feedback from that month supplied the energy to work on the novel to its completion. That’s the year I went off course from the Picture Book Marathon.

And that’s the year a whole new adventure began.

Picture Book Marathon

On By Sue AgauasIn Picture Books, Writing1 Comment

Yay! February has arrived! Today I begin writing for my traditional Picture Book Marathon.

In 2010 I stumbled upon a website that challenged picture book writers to create one picture book story, or at least the idea for one, for each of twenty-six days through February. I was looking for a new writing challenge since finishing my first NaNoWriMo novel in November 2009. That challenge was to write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November.

Writing a picture book a day seemed like it would be a walk in the park, after the demanding quota of 1,667 words per day of the Nano novel challenge. Writing 500 to 800 words or less seemed like a cinch

A piece of cake, I thought. And, as icing on the cake, you only needed 26 stories to match the 26 miles of a marathon, leaving 2 whole days in February to relax! (Unless it was leap year, like this year, then you had 3 whole days off!)

But the Picture Book Marathon had its own tests of endurance, in store for me, unique to writing for young children.

Though sometimes gasping for air, or clutching cramped writing muscles, I have managed to cross the finish line for 9 of these last 10 years.

More, later, about that one year I went off course. Right now, the starter gun has fired and I’m off to start my second decade of picture book marathons!

The Journey Begins

On By Sue AgauasIn Publishing, Writing3 Comments

Thanks for joining me!

Grandma’s Sock Drawer, a teen/young adult novel, has been accepted by Kindle Scout for a 30-day trial!

Grandma’s gone. Sukey’s inheritance is an envelope with Grandma’s letter and a key to Grandma’s ‘most precious treasure’, her sock drawer!

Why did a grandma that Sukey did not know, leave such a strange gift to her?

How do three pairs of unusual socks transport Sukey to other worlds?

Sukey must unravel the puzzle behind the drawer’s contents, and the new worlds they reveal, before the estate sale.

Will Sukey unlock hidden mysteries that lead to peace and connect her fragmented family?

This novel was created during the 2017 National Novel Writing Month, fondly known as NaNoWriMo.

NaNoWriMo is a whirlwind writing challenge to create a new novel, of at least 50,000 words, in the month of November.

During this creative endeavor, the writer is admonished to forsake editing of any kind.  To plunge headfirst into the characters and their mission to solve all problems to attain their goals.

Getting lost in this kind of free-wheeling creativity is a thrilling roller-coaster ride.

Some days you feel like you are just clink-clinking your way slowly to your daily word count of 1,667. You feel like your characters and plot are caught in a never-ending uphill climb.

But then, if you push through, you hit peaks that send you at break-neck speeds through the twists and turns of plot development as your character shrieks with joy before reeling again into another problem.

It’s quite a ride! But worth every moment of creativity.

At the end of November, Grandma’s Sock Drawer was complete.

Well, complete enough to begin the next step in the adventure. Perhaps, a more grueling step than the first.

“Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter.” — Izaak Walton