It's Almost November!!

Hello everyone!

It's October 10th. That means that are 21 one days until November and to me and thousands of other writers that means it will be National Novel Writing Month, also known as NanoWrimo. The goal for NanoWrimo is to write a 50,000 word novel in one month. It sounds hard. It's not easy but it can be done. The first time I did it was the year that my mother passed away. I didn't have a job so I had plenty of time and I finished early. The following year I was in school so I didn't finish. The next two years was able to succeed. This year I plan to try again.

As anyone reading this blog knows, I submitted a partial to an agent and didn't hear back from her. I am considering this kind of a blessing because after letting it sit for a while I understood more what this particular agent was talking about at our meeting. She asked questions about the climax and how everything ties in together. I also started a new book but I was having trouble staying on track. I don't do too much plotting ahead of time so even though I made to 7000 words it wasn't going the way I wanted it to. So, what I am going to do is combine the two ideas to try to make one story and NanoWrimo is the perfect place to do it. I had seriously debated on whether I was even going to try it this year until I had this idea.

At the Midwest Writer's Workshop Dennis Hensley gave a speech during lunch about what to do if a manuscript isn't working for you or if have writer's block. He told us about the recreate eight:

1. Reshape
2. Re-energize it.
3. Reverse it: Think about what you want to say and then reverse it.
4. Rearrange it
5. Reduce it
6. Expand it
7. Combine it
8. Replace it: Sometimes you just have to let it go.

Hopefully my ideas will be saved by doing some or all of these. Otherwise I might just have to do number 8. I will keep you posted on how things are going along. I have 21 days of planning to do. After that I am not allowing myself to look at the other two manuscripts until the end of November.

Good Night and good writing!!
Patti