Hey all,
That quote from Lord Acton says a lot about my writing philosophy. And today's blog gives a peek into how I came to that belief.
I try and do something special every November. Have you heard of the writing challenge, NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month)? For those who haven't, in a nutshell it's a thirty day challenge to write 50,000 words. It's been around since 1999 and it's humble beginning in San Francisco consisted of just twenty-one writers. According to their online history, it was a rocky start, and it took a few years to get things up and going well.
But I think they figured things out. At last recording, NaNoWriMo boasts an author gathering of more than 310,000 entrants and even more during their summer camp for young writers. A bit of a change from the twenty-one aspirants who gathered together that first year.
I started in 2006 and the novel I chose to write is my best selling book, The Mylari Chronicles: Eyes of Fire. It was the first time I'd ever set aside a block of time to do nothing but write, and it really worked out for me.
I won the challenge that year and had Eyes of Fire finished in two months. It was accepted for publication two weeks after that. It was the beginning of an adventure, and several thousand sales later, I realized that this was what I wanted to do with the rest of my life.
So in a way, I owe it all to NaNoWriMo. And if you like my work, I guess you do too! LOL
While my travels with Cirque du Soleil don't allow me to "officially" participate in NaNoWriMo every year, I get to join in this year. I'll be writing the second book in my Dragon Games series, called Truth or Dragon. As of this writing, I'm a little behind because I was paying catch up with another project, but starting today I'm hitting it hard and fast.
If I have a block of time and the inspiration is flowing, I CAN write up to 10k at day, but I usually feel good if I make half of that. Some days I do more, some less, and since I'm determined to continue living during the challenge, things may go a little different than I've done in the past.
We'll see.
If you're interested in seeing what I've done so far, head on over to the NaNoWriMo site and see my page. You can check and see how much I'm writing each day and leave me a message if you want.
If you're an author or someone who wants to write, join on in with the challenge. It's fun and it teaches you a lot. Use it as a tool to hone your craft, or just have fun and write, write, write! No matter what you choose, you'll find doing NaNoWriMo is thirty days well spent!!! Sign up link is here... http://nanowrimo.org/sign_up
I'll be back on Tuesday with a quick look at yet another one of my books! Until then...
Hugs,
CJ England
Follow Your Dreams
http://cjengland.com/wanderingstar/whathappensinmexico.htm
1 comment:
Good luck!
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