Chick Lit Goddess

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I’m Thankful For NaNoWriMo!

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I’M BAAACK!!!

Before I start blogging about why I’m thankful for NaNoWriMo, I’d like to take a minute to thank my faithful readers, friends, and family for being patient with me for not posting a blog the entire month of November.  Without your support, I don’t think that I would have made it as sane as I did (well, maybe).  I will be continuing to blog throughout the rest of the year.  As for next year, I will be reviewing more books, and interviewing more writers, (YAY)!

When one thinks of November, most will think of Thanksgiving, and about how soon it will be until Christmas is coming.  Well, when I decided to participate in National Novel Writing Month, I knew it would be something that would be difficult, but I thought why not add one more thing to my plate (two Gotham Writers’ Workshop classes, a girl’s only weekend with my sister, and working on edits for my first book, and Thanksgiving with seventeen of members of my family), but I was ready to take the challenge.  (I will explain my whole experience in Monday’s blog, but I wanted to first explain why I’m thankful for NaNoWriMo being in November).

Here is why I’m thankful for NaNoWriMo:

  • Day after day I learned what it would be like to be a “real” writer.
  • NaNo taught me to focus on what’s important in the story, and to pay attention to the plot
  • I think that NaNo cured me of wanting to continually correct my grammar and punctuation, but since I had a thirty-day deadline I couldn’t which was so hard to not do
  • Most of all I’m thankful for the lesson of “just write,” which will teach me to be a better writer

Anyway, I survived National Novel Writing Month – and I won!  Writing my second book consumed me.  It was all I knew, and all that I thought about.

Love y’all!

Messy Bookshelves

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I can only imagine how many books I have in my house, in my car, and some even in the garage.  There are books everywhere.  Literally!  While I have a fair amount of bookshelves in the house, there never seems to be enough space to hold my book buying obsession, which means that there is no system of organization and I want to change that.  Just recently I took all the cookbooks on the shelf in our kitchen and organized them into size and type of food.  It was an all day job, but the end result is gorgeous and I’m proud of the work I did.  Cookbooks are easy, but other books aren’t.  Over the years I have accumulated so many genres of books it’s unbelievable (fiction, non-fiction, biographies, self-improvement, text books from high school, and sports, just to name a few).  I could open a bookstore!

This leads me to wonder, how do you organize your bookshelves?  Are they in any kind of order?  Your help is greatly appreciated…

**TO BE CONTINUED ONCE I’M IN THE PROCESS OF SOME KIND OF ORGANIZATION PROCESS**

NaNoWriMo Ideas

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**I’d like to apologize for a blog not being posted for the past week or so.  Things have been busy around here, but I thank you my faithful readers, for all your sweet comments and support.  Now, back to blogging!

It’s been about a month since I decided to take part in NaNoWriMo and I still haven’t made an outline (YIKES)!  I finally narrowed down my book idea and thought this would be so much easier, but writing it all out is easier said than done.  The parts I’m stuck on are the beginning and ending; I find this humorous because this is usually where I find it easiest.  Anyway, to help motivate me, I’ve started to watch The Bold & The Beautiful once again, and it’s working!  I quit cold turkey on my soaps (I loved As The World Turns) when I was writing my “Redefined Dreams,” and so much on that show has happened!  I can see why it’s won so many Daytime Emmy’s!

I can see how not only reading can jog some thoughts, but so can TV!  It can also be very distracting, which is a good thing B&B is only a thirty minute show.  I hope by the end of this week I will have an outline for what will be my second completed book!

Wish me luck!

Refreshed Writing

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A different kind of writing is like a breath of fresh air...

As many of you know I am taking a Mystery writing class from Gotham Writers’ Workshop.  Well two night ago I came up with a wonderful plot and then I outlined it, and then wham-I began to write my first mystery!  I started writing just after dinner and continued, as I sat in bed and listened to my husband and cat snore until three o’clock in the morning!  I was a mad woman.  During that time span I had written just over 3,700 words, which isn’t that bad-especially because I’m not a mystery writer.

With all the new ideas that seemed to flow, I found it to be very refreshing.  I needed this story to find me, and not for it to find me.  I needed the hows, what’s and the whys of my story and its characters.

I thought that it wouldn’t be a good idea to take the mystery writing class, only because it’s way out of my league.  Well, I’m encouraging you readers to jump out of the pond and do something that isn’t “you.”  Do something grand and make it fly!

Good luck!

Writing Backwards

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I have two Booth reviews in my Gotham Writers’ Workshop mystery class, each consisting of at least 3,750 words.  My first Booth submission isn’t due until the middle of November but since I’m participating in National Novel Writing Month, I thought that it would be a good idea to get ahead on some projects that might conflict with NaNoWriMo.  Anyway after a sudden thought of a story, I jotted down some notes and thought I really had something.  After completing a few other items on my To Do list, it was time to start my murder mystery!

I finished the night with over 1,300 words and love what I’ve written so far.  After closing my laptop off for the night I thought of the next few events, but don’t know how to write from A to Z, but rather from Z to A.  Have you ever wanted to write the story backwards?  I’m seriously considering this!  BUT HOW?  Do I write line by line, from ending to beginning, or Scene Z to Scene A?  Have any of you done this before, or even thought about doing this?  I know it sounds crazy, right, but for you writers, is it really that insane?  You know how it is, Mr./Mrs. Writer’s Block comes for a visit and won’t go back home until you’ve had some time to mull and stress over until it hits you, and you beginning writing like a mad woman or man.

As I write this I’m beginning to think I’ve lost my mind and have too many things on my plate, but really it’s not that bad.  (See THIS blog for what I have coming up during the month of November).

Any backwards writing comments or advice are much welcomed!

Thoughts For Tuesday

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Preparing for NaNoWriMo

I spent a lot of time this weekend trying to come up with a type of outline for my book during National Novel Writing Month, NaNoWriMo.  I jotted ideas down in my phone, but whenever I opened Word, ready to start typing, I had nothing!  I must have opened and closed the document three or four times the entire weekend, each time excited that this would be it and I’d have an outline.  No luck!

While I’m not exactly stressed about this, I am wondering if I should even be participating in NaNoWriMo, but something tells me that I can do this, so at least my confidence isn’t completely busted.  I know that it will come to me eventually, hopefully before November 1st, and when it does I’ll be ready!

For now I will be focusing on what I know I need to do to help me write a book in a month:

  • Work on creating a conflict and go from there
  • Create strong characters; a Hero and a Heroine and their character description
  • What do I want the message to the reader to be?
  • Do I need to do any research for my work?  (A destination perhaps?)
  • Make a schedule that ables me to at least write 1,633 words a day, along with two GWW classes, a girl’s only weekend with my sister, and Thanksgiving all in my favorite month!
  • De-stress!
**Any help, tips or thoughts are greatly appreciated**

Bartlett’s Roget’s Thesaurus

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A few months ago I was at the library and asked for a thesaurus.  The librarian said that she didn’t know if they had one because everyone uses the internet, but that she would look.  Minutes later she came back with their “only” thesaurus that they had.  How can a library only have one?  While I understood how and why this could be true in my generation, especially with the growth and advances in technology.

As a writer, this really bugged me.  How can one of the most beloved type of resource for writers be not in use (print) anymore?  Aren’t libraries supposed to have books in print?  (I know that they are now carrying audio books now, but would you really listen to a resource book like that?)  Most of the time when I flip through a thesaurus or even a dictionary, it can give me inspiration and help me learn more new words.  Anyway, HERE is the thesaurus that I was handed.  At first I was confused at the layout of this book, but once I got that down, I was in love with such a brilliant book.  While I was there that day I was so amazed with this book that I didn’t want to leave, but I couldn’t check it out (you can’t check out resources).  Weeks later I was still thinking about that book and couldn’t find it at my local library, so I bought it online.  Below are some pictures that I took to show you how much I love this book:

Bartlett's Roget's Thesaurus

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Your Memoir Character & Your Fiction Characters

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Yesterday I started my Memoir class.  After reading the introduction, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that it’s okay to exaggerate some.  The advice that was given was to write it how you saw and/or remembered everything about it, even if it wasn’t exactly true, (ex: stretching the truth in a conversation).

Like fiction, memoirs can be short or long.  They both have to have some kind of plot, with a beginning, middle, and end, but the most important part, especially in memoirs, are the main character.  You stories in either genre, have to make the reader want to turn the pages.  We the writers, want you, the reader, to connect with the story or characters that have been created.

HERE is a blog that I wrote awhile back and I’d like to revisit the following question: When writing, how much are your characters like or unlike you?

To My Readers, Thank You

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As a blogger and unpublished author I’d like to thank the readers.  Recently I made the 5,000+ hits on my blog and I couldn’t have done it without y’all!  When I started this blog I didn’t think that it would be something that I would keep up with, nor anyone would read.  I was very wrong!  Yay, someone’s reading my stuff!  Now it’s, I wonder what my faithful readers/subscribers will say about this!  While it has been a struggle at times to come up with topics to write about, I thrive on the anticipation of the day-to-day topics!  This leads me to a new though, Why do we blog?

For most people there might be many reasons (keeping family and friends up to date, publicize your project(s), give your opinions and/or reviews, and to use your blog somewhat of a journal).  My blog is about all the above, but mainly it’s for my readers.  I write for the people who read my blog and take something away from it and  I write for the people who come across my blog and are generous enough to comment.  I write for the readers because without them, the writing wouldn’t be nearly as rewarding.

Here’s to another great year of blogging!