Beautiful Books #2 – Discuss ALL the NaNo Writing

We have made it past the halfway point of NaNo, peoples! Just two more weeks to go. I can’t even believe it! If you’re still with me after enduring the loopy trigger my brain switches to during NaNo, bless you. Today my post actually has a purpose and isn’t some caffeinated induced randomness my NaNo brain produces. Well, there will be some of that but at least it has a topic. I’m joining in on Beautiful Books, a linkup designed by the ever lovely and brilliant Sky and Cait. What is Beautiful Books you may ask? Pure awesomeness! Beautiful Books…

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You've just crossed over into…

For me, NaNoWriMo is kind of like the Twilight Zone where the rift between fiction and reality is a little fuzzy. Fiction starts feeling real and reality seems distant and hazy. When you spend an entire month stuck inside a novel it gets awfully difficult remembering those characters aren’t actually real, and those events didn’t just happen, and. . .did I remember to shower this morning? It’s a very dizzying time, NaNo. You may have tried to hold on to your sanity those first few days, but by the time you’re stepping into week two it has given up on…

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Halfway There…?

Well, it seems NaNoWriMo has descended upon us! And, you know, it’s a totally good idea to reach the halfway point 4 days within the event. . . Right? Riiight? Because it’s not like I’ve lost hold of reality. Noooo. Hehehe. . .heh. . .heheh. Ahem. So maybe my OCD tendencies kick into hyperdrive during November and I can’t seem to stop making myself write. And yes, I hit the halfway point last night. But my goal for NaNo is not to reach 50k but to finish my book as quickly as possible. And since my books always end somewhere…

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Beautiful Books – Plottery Talk {October 2014}

You all probably know by now Beautiful People is like my favorite blogging thing ever. I get to answer a list of questions about my characters, which happens to be my favorite thing to talk about. Um, yes please! Well, the beautiful Beautiful People (yes, I just said that) hosts Sky and Cait decided to do something awesome for the next three months. Yes, Beautiful BOOKS. In honor of NaNoWriMo (which happens in less than a week? WHAAAT???) they’re doing a linkup revolving around our NaNo books (or any current WIP if you’re not doing NaNo). For this month they’re…

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Magic Storytelling

Have you ever watched a show or seen a movie or read a book and by the end you’re just sitting there stunned, wondering how the writers produced such magic? And, more importantly, how can you incorporate that same magic storytelling into your own novels? I think us writers are always on the search for better storytelling, hoping maybe, someday, somehow we can stun people with our beautiful stories just as much as you were by that one special book or that mind-blowing show. I find myself in this position for, well, the majority of my life. I consume stories…

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That Time October Exploded

We interrupt your peaceful blog reading to announce. . . NANOWRIMO BEGINS IN 10 DAYS. Um. . .excuse me? 10 days? *cue the scrambling around, hastily making plot notes, assuring coffee supplies are sufficiently high, all affairs are in order, laundry is caught up, and farewells to your friends and family are taken care of* Yep. In 10 days those bravely insane writers will be locking themselves up in their writing spaces to pound out 50k or more words in a month, only showing their bleary-eyed faces for more caffeine. Because writers aren’t already mad enough people, right? Of course…

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The NaNo ‘14 Cast

It’s that time of year again, peoples! Where that last smidgeon of sanity us writers have gets flung out the window and locked out for a month. That’s right, NaNoWriMo is coming! Which means October is NaNo-prep month. I’m a wee bit behind on my prepping this year, but I’m starting to get into the swing of things. It hasn’t been easy though, this year’s novel is being stubborn, but I’m starting to discover its secrets and pull a story out of it. As I know I’ve mentioned, every year of NaNo since my first in 2010 I write each…

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Kindred Spirits and a GIVEAWAY

Once in a blue moon, you may stumble right into a person, and as you get to know them you begin wondering if you were separated at birth. Maybe you spilled your coffee on them in Starbucks and now, years later, you laugh about it and are grateful for your clumsiness. Because how else would you have gotten to know this awesome person? Or maybe it was something more direct, like another acquaintance introducing you. Or maybe, chance of chances, you find each other’s blog in the infinite vastness of the internet. It seems impossible to discover such a person…

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Dear Writer

Don’t be scared. If there’s a story in your heart, write it. And write it bravely. Through my journey of writing, I would often come up with some wild ideas and always thought, “Oh, I could never write that.” For my current WIPs, plot points popped in my head on a constant basis and you know what I would do? I’d laugh, think that would be fun to put in the book, but be too scared to actually write it. I always kept it safe. I was scared. “Is that idea too out there?” “That’s too complicated to sort through.”…

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Naps, Roses, and Hobbitses

I’ve been staring at the screen for several minutes trying to think of a clever way to open up this post, but my brain’s all, “Haha, nope. Go take a nap or something.” I tend to ignore my brain, but a nap sounds awfully nice. So Thursday my throat started feeling like murder, and then as the day progressed I slowly seeped into a state of death. Then over the weekend it all came in full force—fever, a throat that felt like a dragon was lodged inside trying to claw and burn its way out, a headache akin to a…

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