Will I Succeed This Time? #NaNoWriMo

It is that time of year folks. How on earth did we get to November already? I have no idea. All I know is it has been a long and challenging year, and yet it seems to have gone really quickly. Back in April I attempted to do #CampNaNoWriMo. It wasn't quite the success I anticipated, but at least now I have the beginnings of a YA novel languishing on my hard drive until such time as I feel the urge to finish it.

For #NaNoWriMo 2014 I have returned to my vampires. OK, I never truly left them. But this time I am writing a story about a vampire hunter. Hannah Oakley retired from the job nine years ago after the vampire she was hunting seduced and almost killed her. She never did finish the job, and the vampire is out there, somewhere. Hannah is now married with two young children, and finding motherhood both a joy and a chore (sound familiar?). We meet her at the point where she is remembering the past, wondering about her former vampire lover, and wondering if she will ever be able to slay the one vampire who broke through her strong defenses.

The good news is, I am getting into this story. It is quite exciting, it is calling to me, albeit it faintly at the moment, and I do feel the urge to write every day. My difficultly lies with the ever-present domestic distractions. I am currently home alone with my own two young children, one of whom returns to pre-school next week after an extended half-term holiday. Perhaps then I might settle into a proper writing routine. As it stands I have written 4,957 words. The NaNoWriMo stats tell me at this rate I will complete the challenge on January 10th 2015. I had better suck it up, get my ass into gear, and get some words on the page!

Happy writing, fellow Wrimos!


*Vampire hunter image courtesy of 500px.com

Need a Crazy Writing Challenge?

I know many fellow writers who eagerly participate in the annual novelling challenge that is NaNoWriMo. In fact, I found myself feeling a little wistful the other day when I realised how far away our next challenge is. I seem to write so much more productively when I have a fixed target date and a schedule in mind. Now, I know I could quite easily set myself plenty of targets to get my work done. In fact, my current plan is to write a minimum of 1000 words per day, whether that be in the form of a novel manuscript or short stories. But it is a slow progress at the moment.

Just the other day I received a newsletter from a website called Authonomy. I admit I do not spend a lot of time over there, but I am subscribed to their email list. On the the newsletter I received, something caught my eye. A group of writers have set up a new challenge. They want to write a full novel (or more likely a novella) in just 30 hours during 26th and 27th January. They are calling it National Novel Writing Weekend (or NaNoWriWee), and it is open to the public with prizes available. For more details, here is the link.

I did seriously consider entering this challenge. My husband just happens to be off work for a week because it is our daughter's birthday and mine, and we had planned to do some family activities together. But I couldn't recall any specific plans for next weekend. When I queried it with my husband, he informed me that I had already agreed he could attend a football game next Saturday, since he no longer has a season ticket due to his work schedule, and he hasn't been to a game in several months. I couldn't really change my mind now.

That wouldn't normally be a problem, except that we have a toddler (who will be 2 tomorrow!). I almost gave up on the idea of joining NaNoWriWee but it is still there, whispering in the back of my mind. Perhaps I could arrange for the grandparents to step in and babysit... Hmm, that's not a bad idea...