My Ivory Tower

My name is Karin Huxman and I write romance for New Concepts Publishing. You can find my author page at http://newconceptspublishing.com/karinhuxmanbooks.html. I write a mix of time travel, contemporary, paranormal, and sf/fantasy and love every minute of it.

Monday, November 30, 2009

My NaNo Month



I finished my NaNoWriMo novel yesterday, it came in well over the 50k minimum. It has a beginning, a middle, and an end. But don't ask me what it's about. All I'll be able to tell you is that it is a meandering tale of love and murder set in Colorado. You'd think after writing the thing I'd have a better handle on the story, would be able to be a little more concise, or at least coherent, about it. However it really and truly is the roughest draft I've ever written. It is a skeleton of a story waiting to be fleshed out in every way. However, it is written. Yeah me!

Those of you who know me or follow my blog also know that I've been pretty well blocked for a couple of years. It got to the point where I wasn't sure I was going to be able to finish a novel length work. After all, I had three nicely formed ideas on paper for novels but just couldn't seem to settle down and work on one. And to tell the truth, I've always avoided these contests, motivational things. Why? Because I didn't think a real writer should need this kind of external motivation to sit down and do what she wanted to do. So you have to understand that my frustration level, even panic level, must have been pretty high to actually take on NaNo.

But it has been a blessing. Every morning since the first of November I've gotten up an hour earlier than I had to or wanted to. I've enjoyed the sunrise and written words upon words on a story that had been kind of fermenting, waiting for me to give it life. So the life I gave it is a bit unformed and creaky, but hey, that's what revising is for.

I learned a few things over the past thirty days.

- I can finish a novel again. Sure I'm multi-published but haven't released anything recently, see that blocked comment above.

- Getting up early to write only works if you have the right motivation. NaNoWriNo worked for me.

- Writing with the sunrise can be a very meditative experience.

- I can compile all my little Facebook one liners on the sunrise and see if I can find a poem in them.

- Coffee tastes better at 5:30 am.

- Morning is my most productive writing time, but not writing in the a.m. is no reason not to write later in the day. I found I could do that too.

- Excuses not to write are for wimps. Okay, that's a little harsh but I'm feeling pumped. These words will no doubt come back to bite me in the butt.

- Next year if I do NaNo, I'll do some character and plot prep work.

- Now that I'm writing again, I can justify some new tech toys. Must make my list.

- On the other hand, all you really need is a pen and paper.

- Getting back into the habit of writing every day is a blessing. Knowing I was going to write this blog today is helping a little with the let down feeling I always get after finishing a first draft.

So where do I go from here? Revising this work, naturally. But I'm going to let it sit for a while, gel if you will. I have several biographical profiles to work on, thanks Mur, and tomorrow is the first day of December. Jay actually brought the boxes of Christmas decorations home from the storage shed yesterday. Since last year I was still recuperating from that darned broken ankle, I'm looking forward to doing more decorating, baking, shopping, and just plain celebrating than I was able to last year. Oh, and this house could definitely use some dusting. Really.

I'll be writing, too. It's my passion. If I don't do it daily I feel less whole. It's a good thing to know about yourself.

The link to NaNoWriMo is www.nanowrimo.org for those of you interested. They also do a script writing month, called Script Frenzy, in the spring.

12 comments:

Donnell Ann Bell said...

Karin, How fantastic! If anything, NaNo put you on a wonderful schedule. 50,000 words in a month, I'm so impressed. Congratulations!

carl brookins said...

Hey, whatever works. Sure, that's a glib cliche, but you've discovered that getting going again is more about finding the trigger than about analyzing the why. Who cares why blockages happen? jus' keep on, keepin' on.

Karin Huxman - Romance Author said...

Hey Donnell, thank you. Some of the words are completely awful, and easily cut. :) I've never been good at tooting my own horn, but it feels right this time. Take care!

Karin Huxman - Romance Author said...

You are so right about analyzing what's causing a block, Carl. Just sitting down and trying to lay out the story is so much more important, at least for me. Everyone deals with these things differently. In my case, I spent too much time trying to figure what was stopping me. It was not time well spent.

Toni De Palma said...

Karin,your blog said so precisely how I've been feeling these last few months. You're inspiring :) Thanks!

Karin Huxman - Romance Author said...

Thanks, Toni.

Maggi Andersen said...
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Maggi Andersen said...

Hi from another New Concepts writer, Karin. Horrible to have writer's block. Once you have that story down, though, I find your enthusiam grows as you flesh it out and build that world you're creating.
Maggi Andersen

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Karin Huxman - Romance Author said...

Whoever is leaving me a comment in a language other than English, I am going to continue deleting because I don't know the content of your comment. Please comment in English. Thank you.

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