Camp NaNo

Hello, everyone!  Things that have happened since my last post:

1. Saw The Addams Family: the Musical, which, as a huge fan of everything The Addams Family, I have wanted to see since I heard about it.  And it did not disappoint.  The audience laughed throughout the entire thing! (And so did I.)

2. Attended some GREAT panels and met Tracy K. Smith and Mark Doty at a poetry conference.  It was an inspiring weekend and I actually wrote a few poems in the week since.  I need to take time to do that more often.

3. Sat in the front row at my niece and nephew’s school play, which was adorable and funny, as it is every year.  This was also the first year that my niece was old enough to have a part and she played her part so well!  Not that I expected any less.  My niece is cool.  (So is my nephew, who sang along with the chorus.)

4. Met with one of my beta readers.  When we made plans to discuss my manuscript and I asked, “Should I scrap the novel?” she almost hung up on me.  It turns out, she likes it!  She had two things that she wants me to work on and suggested that I turn off editor brain and read through the novel like it’s any old book that I’d buy and read for fun.  That’s easy for her to say!  But I’ll try.  I think the key to doing this will be to sit down and read it without any pens around.

So, in the weeks ahead I will be going through that manuscript again.  And…

I’ll be participating in Camp NaNoWriMo in June!  The purpose is to write a 50,000 word novel in a month, which comes down to about 1,667 words a day.  I set up my camper info and have been placed in a cabin.  I have been working on an outline and am so excited to start writing this novel!   You can track my progress here, but I also plan to check in on my blog as well.  Let’s see if I meet this word count.  The only time I have completed 50,000 words was the month before NaNoWriMo a few years ago.  Unfortunately, that doesn’t count!