Okay, stalwarts, it's on! March mini-NaNo! Thank you for joining me in the crazy push to get a draft done by the end of the month. A draft. A beginning, a middle, and an end. A big, juicy, messy word-count boost to your work-in-progress. Of course you can start something new if you want to play and are not currently working on a novel. Or you can just vow, as I am, to finish a draft of your w.i.p. by the end of the month!
Amber suggested having a sign-up for accountability, and I think that is a good idea! So sign into Mr. Linky if you're on board. I'll post a new Mr. Linky every Wednesday this month and we can fill in our word counts for the previous week. Sound good? This being the first one, if you want to fill in a word count goal for the week ahead, you can do that. Or just sign up.
In a little bit of mental synchronicity, Jolie at Cuppa Jolie just declared March "Crack Your W.I.P. month" -- she's encouraging you to set an ambitious w.i.p. goal for the month and check in there for support. Somebody even promised red licorice whips to everyone who accomplishes their goal! Nice!
Okay, so there we have it. BIG PLANS FOR MARCH! March is, after all, when NaNo should be. November is a ridiculous month for it. I'm excited: no plans this month, no commitments, just this draft (and, you know, the whole life/family/friends thing, of course, minor detail :-)
So, how have my first few days of this March plan gone? I've written a lot of words, but I have to fess up that it's mostly been brainstorming and notes, but today I had some "snicks" that I think will carry me through . . . until I get confused again. Who, me? What?
So tomorrow real word count starts to get racked up. Excited!!! Good luck, all!
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Oops. I don't know if I did that right. I don't think I understand Mr. Linky--but I like the name!
My goal is to finish my WIP! I had already planned to do a mini NaNo with my critique group, so you and Cuppa Jolie have your fingers on the pulse of the writing world! March is WAY better for this. I'm so excited to have company. Thanks!
Great idea :)
While I always have the best intentions in November - it never seems to happen. Plus it works out perfectly as March has been set aside for this reason (with a writing holiday booked as well). I'm in!!
Yay! I'm excited! March is a much better month.... even if my best friend IS getting married in the middle of it. :)
My goal is to revise three scenes of my current WiP before next Wednesday.
I wasn't exactly sure how to quantify my goal since I'm reworking something that's already been written which is involving both new writing and fiddling with old. And I was tempted to say TEN chapters (my book has 30ish) but I have a bad habit of making overly ambitious goals, then falling short, then feeling frustrated with myself and getting in a funk. Figure it's time to try and kick that self-defeating habit.
Haven't touched my (real) Nano document for revisions, nor have I even looked longingly at the WIP short stories that languish on my desktop...vacation ruined my writing habit! Maybe this will be incentive to stop sabotaging myself and get back into the real work of writing. :)
I've got three little pieces I want to do -- and I want to keep them short and taste the glory of finishing! My goal is to finish two drafts of one of the three pieces this month. My first draft will be longhand, so wordcounts might be long in coming.
I just started a new project, and this will be a great way for me to keep motivated with it. I hope to have 5,000 words by next Thursday.
Thanks for sharing this challenge with us! I'm excited to participate and celebrate all of our achievements!
This girl will not complain one bit about being in sync with you, Laini. I'm all signed up...the more accountability the better. Love it, in fact.
Go, Club MarchNaNo. Let's Crack our WIPs!
I'm in! I'm in! I'm amidst a whole lotta life right now, but this is something I know I need to do this month--this moment--to bring joy to my life. So I'm in!
Thanks, Laini. And thanks, Jolie.
Love your books and your blog. I'm in and will tell my friends. Thanks for the inspiration.
Hey you!!!!
Hmmm... SO tempting. I just got a big inspirational download in my head for a new book... wonder if a big, messy first draft chunk is possible...
sending you good writing vibes!
Peter gets his paternity leave after Easter, so that's when my NoWriMo starts. Eight weeks - hope it'll be enough!
I'm in Jenn's boat--I technically got to the end of my WIP a couple months ago, but I've since been performing surgery on it: cutting scenes, rearranging scenes, writing new scenes... My goal for this month is to get this messy middle section all caught up to my last ten chapters or so, which were written after I'd figured out a lot of the plot holes that made my beginning so difficult. Once that happens, I can send it to the crit partners. March, here I come!
Some nice whip-cracking there, to be sure! My whip is done cracked, so I'll be catching up on the super secret Tell Me a Secret launch plans this month and cheering for you!
Hello! I haven't commented before, but I've started following your blog recently after discovering Not For Robots--which I find very inspirational and motivating to read, I really have to thank you for the time you put into that page--and I really enjoy reading your posts.
When you mentioned doing this in your last entry I had no intention of joining in, but I was going to cheer everyone on in the sidelines while picking at my own incomplete rough draft that's been sorely neglected since NaNoWriMo ended. But reading this post, the actual commitment post, made me change my mind, especially remembering that last November I intended to just sit and watch the NaNoers instead of participate, but I did participate and I actually accomplished the goal and felt amazing. So here I am, taking another leap! I have no idea what my goal for next week will be, but I'll think and plan out how to tackle this month over the next two days.
Thank you so much for this, Laini. :D
Being the BIGGEST quitter in the world, I'm going to set a slightly easier goal than an entire draft. I'll get back to you on that, but I am GOING to do this! Thanks for the challenge!
Yay, all you people! So excited to have company this month!!! I hope you had a good start -- mine was pretty good. I set out to write a particular section off the fairly spare outline I'd done yesterday, and to hit a word count, and I did both, so: so far, so good. Onward to tomorrow!
my goal is 10K words by next Wednesday. I'm 2K down so far. Yay!
I'm in. Goal: 4 chapters by march 31. Will see how my weekly word count is. Never done this before.
I don't even know what to set as my goal! I'm so excited about this, though! Maybe a more solid outline. I have a vague one, a whole lotta brainstorming and a few juicy scenes written to get an idea of my characters and their voices. I have 270 pages of miscellaneous stuff. I know my story. I think I need a more solid outline, for starters which I will start on tomorrow and finish by next Tuesday. By the end of March, I don't know what to pick! It's my first novel and I don't want to set my sights too high, but I don't want to shortchange myself either. I'll have a better idea once I get that outline complete, I think. Good luck everyone and HAVE FUN!
I'm a huge fan of your novels, and an equally huge fan of your blog. I've been reading it for a while, but this is my first time posting a comment - perhaps I was just too overwhelmed with inspiration before to post anything adequate! Anyway, excited to be part of the March Mini - I'm hoping to finish my second hi-lo middle grade novella (hoping to do 12,000 words by end of March - doable, hopefully!) Thanks again for the enormous globs of inspiration - your writing is so wonderful.
I'm in! It's a much better idea to finish a draft when snowdrops and daffodils are coming up!
Although, I'm almost done with my draft and had darn well better be done in two weeks...I'll fill in my revision word count!
Looking forward to a bit of extra motivation! Thanks for setting this up.
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