Winning NaNo

I typed "The End" sometime yesterday evening and uploaded my novel to the NaNoWriMo validator. Final count: 50,736 words that didn't exist on October 31st.

This is an extra-special NaNoWriMo year for me because my daughters, Bethany and Jill, and my niece Ashley also participated, spending long hours at their laptops, and zooming across the 50,000-word milestone. Early!

Their accomplishments are especially meaningful considering the distractions they had to navigate.

Bethany is the mom of two toddler boys and an integral partner in her husband's youth ministry.

Jill is the mom of a five-month-old baby and her husband is a full-time student and has a full-time job. She actually quit twice, then took up her story again and wrote more than 40,000 words in less than a week.

Ashley is an art restoration graduate student spending the year in Italy (and doing all kinds of intriguing things with ancient stuff).

So here's to three terrific and talented girls. Congrats and love*

NaNo Advice

For the last four days, I've been spending as much time as possible with a faraway friend who was in the area for a girls collegiate volleyball national tournament. We watched the games, browsed an antique store, strolled along the lakefront, and caught up with each other's lives. I wouldn't trade our time together for anything. But now she's back in Missouri and I've got to get back to NaNo-land.

Quick advice from No Plot? No Problem! for this week:

• Get caught up! Make it your goal to have at least 30,000 words by the end of this week.
• "Pick out a character . . . and do something big and reckless with them. . . . in figuring out how to fix the mess you've just made of your story, you'll give your imagination the kind of fertile improvisational environment it needs to thrive."
• "Spend pages describing the perfume your love interest wears, and why it's exactly the wrong thing for her." [In other words, keep writing!]

The Five-Word Game

My pal Karen gave me five words to use in a post: Zone, Ring, Dust, Pineapple, Elephant. Hmm!

As I'm writing this, three-year-old Jeremy is "in the zone" decorating his mommy's couch with poinsettia garlands. These aren't the typical red or white poinsettias, but lovely bronze, cream, golden, and rust petals that shimmer and shine. We first used these garlands and bouquets to decorate the reception hall at Jill's wedding. Jill is Jeremy's aunt.

While I'm writing, Jeremy's mom is getting ready for a Financial Peace University class that's held in her home every Sunday night. We all pitched in to straighten up with the clean-up to-do list. I vacuumed and picked up toys. Bethany has a dust cloth in her hand right now. Husband Justin is corraling Jeremy and little brother Jedidiah. They'll be going off on an adventure of their own while the class is going on. Perhaps they'll see a pineapple-eating elephant at a three-ring circus. Though I doubt it.

Less than fifteen minutes before the FPU class starts. And time for me to close up my laptop.

National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo)

This is what I'm up to -- writing 50,000 unedited words during the month of November. My count currently stands at 3972 which means I have a long way to go and I'm behind. The daily goal is 1667 which means that by the end of today, I should have 6668 words finished. I'm shooting for 7000.

Want to join in the fun? Get encouragement from the Kindred Heart Writers (my online writing group.

Then sign up at the National Novel Writing Month website.