Carly's Ramblings Blog - Style

2021's Last 2 Months.... NaNoWriMo and Beyond

Blogging Circle of Friends
DAY 3279 October 29, 2021

October is almost over and the insanity of nanowrimo begins. Are you participating in the writing challenge? Or are you working on other goals?

I am participating in NaNoWriMo. I have every year since 2012. 9 years of the insanity, though the first year, I only remembered the day before it was to start and I decided to go for it. Being a discovery writer, who only plans when things get tight, I did very well and I met a lot of local NaNoWriMo people who have become great friends.

That surge of writerly confidence brought me to WDC the following spring and by the next October (2013) I was prepping with the best of them.

I have decided to write a whole new novel this year - a paranormal romance. I am excited. I have done the prep exercises in the October NaNo Prep Challenge and I logged the last of my assignments this morning. Am I ready? I think so.... I can only plan so much and then I need to write. I think I am ready to get in there and learn more about my characters and their world. I will find clarity as I move forward.

This November is going to be busy. NaNoWriMo will be a strong focus, but so will caring for my mother as she is having hip surgery on November 3. I will be taking time away from supply teaching to be her caregiver so I will be home to write while she is resting. With all the prep I have done, I expect I will be on track to move forward.

I hope to still get in some supply work, but I will be more selective over the course of the month.

With mom laid up, I will be in charge of getting the groceries and all the heavy lifting. She will keep me on my toes, I am sure.

Most of my groups shift into NaNoWriMo mode. The only bit of extra is the Wild Writer's Festival which is online. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday nights at 7 pm from November 1 to 21. There are also Zoom meetings Saturdays and Sundays so I will have to put the links into my calendar and pay attention. I will also need to post links for Guelph NaNoWriMo events and KW NaNoWriMo events. I won't bother with Cambridge as they let the library run their program and don't do anything interesting.

Last year their was an overnighter in Guelph - online of course. KW did a longer write in, but I think they finished at midnight or 2 am.

Write ins are all online in Zoom or on Google Meet. Discord (Guelph) and Slack (KW) are other ways of conversing.

On WDC I will be doing writing sprints with the October Preppers. I will be participation in the NaNoWriMo Write-a-thon.

I will also try to complete 4 more contests before the end of the calendar year. This will be for I Write in 2021. I know they are giving out extra weeks for paricipating in the Prep and the Write-A-Thon, but I want to say I actually did 52 contest in 52 weeks and not a few contest with bonus weeks. The point is to write, enter and review.

One of the contests I need to do is a paranormal romance short story. Given that my Nano novel is a paranormal romance... I think I can wing that.
I also find that I need to remind myself that the whole world does not revolve around NaNo. Other writers are working on other projects and challenging themselves in other ways. I Write in 2021 helps me remember that. And besides, sometimes you just gotta write a little poetry or blog to keep from drowning in the mire of your NaNoWriMo story. It's a cleansing, of a sort.

Good luck to all of you, whatever you decide to do. With only two months left in 2021, let's make it shine. What goals have you got left you want to tackle?