Despite a strong idea, a somewhat realized outline, and an opening chapter, I decided not to do NaNoWriMo this year.
I “won” NaNoWriMo in 2011 and 2012, but swore that after the chaos of last year’s 50,000 word, several short-story sprint, I wouldn’t start another big project until I had graduated. At one point I even said I’d do NaBloPoMo (these acroportmanteaunyms are getting a bit ridiculous) to change things up a little bit. Now, staring down the barrel of my final grad school semester, with lots of big plans for this blog and my other writing, dedicating an entire month to a project that will likely rot, untouched on my hard drive doesn’t seem like the best use of my time.
But I want to feel like I’m participating, sort of. So for all you other people NaNoing your little fingers off, here are links to some of my favorite writing and grammar related posts from the series “Craft and Draft.” I hope they can help you capture those coveted 1667 words each day and maybe nudge you the 50k word mark with some lilting grace.
Plotting, Structure, and Pre-writing:
Go Small or Go Home
Literary Smiterary
Plotting Progression
Sheet Music
The Write to Read
Idea-logical
Imagery and Metaphor
Metaphor Galore
Imagine All the Imagery
Grammar, Syntax, and Word Choice
Branching Out
The Diction Affliction
Frag. Ments.
Resumptives and Summatives and Appositives, oh my!
Parallelogrammar
I’ll take words that start with “Ad” for $2000, Alex
Grammar (with an “a”, not an “e”)
Characters and Dialogue
Character Counts
Dialognostics
Editing and Proofreading
The Editor is Dead, Long Live the Editor!
Fixing What ain’t Not Broke
The Proof is in the Reading
I’m also happy to answer any other questions about NaNo, NaNoing, having NaNo’d, or why I’m so obsessed with English grammar.
Ask away!
“Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.” -Robert Louis Stevenson
Tagged: carrots, diction, Editing, grammar, guides, how to write, how-to, NaNoWriMo, nanowrimo 2013, national novel writing month, novel, photography, sentence patterns, syntax, word choice, writing
Literature and Libation 
No NaNo for me, either–I’m too busy with editing other writers’ novels this month. I do feel a bit like an outsider, though ;-( Maybe next year.
Thanks for sharing these great links, which I will now share as well!
NaNo can count me out too. Whenever I get into all that I get obsessed with word count and in the end it never works. Quantity takes precedence over quality. It’s not like I can’t keep writing the rest of the year anyway.
Thanks for sharing the writing posts! I’m sure I’ll have fun going through them. 🙂
Yeah, NaNo doesn’t really fit in to a routine at graduate level…it’s killing me slightly inside though, I have to say. Thinking of making my own NaNoWriMo time whenever I actually have free time…I’m in if you are!
Yeah, the whole “novel in a month” thing seems like something that shouldn’t be undertaken lightly. Of course, I can see the whole writing for writing’s sake argument. We had a professor in college who assigned 20 page papers because you got better at writing by writing a lot, at least that was his theory.
I think there’s definitely some truth in “getting better at writing by writing a lot.” It’s just more practice for ever future thing you write.
Totally, I’ve been meaning to get back into more creative writing. I’ve noticed my beer writing is starting to feel really “technical” in nature.
Yea, it’s weird how quickly you can slip back into it. I’m a tech writer by day, and often have to slap my self back into my “real” voice, or the voice that doesn’t sound like a corporate robot.
I’m hosting the Session in February, and my topic is “alternative beer reviews.” I hope you plan to participate 🙂
I need to start doing the Session. I’ve been really enjoying reading them for a while now, but haven’t actually sat down to participate.
I used to do a lot of creative writing, but haven’t in years. So it’s one of those situations where I’m still building/finding my full voice. I get into “production” mode and generate sentences that while correct aren’t particularly artful.
Great quote! This is the first year where I’ve felt ready to do NaNo–really do it–and it’s been fun so far. But you’ve got more than enough on your plate. Next year we’ll be NaNo buddies!