November 10, 2014

Getting There with NaNoWriMo: Day 10 Check-In

Well, it's the tenth day of NaNoWriMo and I'm way off the mark, word-count wise.  However, I'm happy with my progress so far, in another way.

I discovered as I delved into my project that I was trying to stick too much stuff into one book, and that things would work better -- especially for the reader -- if I were to reorganize things into two or more books.

These are non-fiction works which I plan on uploading as eBooks on Amazon, etc., when I'm done.  Breaking the project into smaller bits, targeting to specific issues, may be welcomed by a reader who's not interested in more than specifics in one area.  A smaller word count will probably work better here when setting a price point, too.

So, am I where I need to be numbers-wise?  Nope.

I'm satisfied with how things are progressing though, and that's important.  Success for me this month will be to discipline myself to work steadily on my own projects and get them finalized (as opposed to working on work for other folk).  With this, I hope to have a new routine established that gives me a block of time each day dedicated to my own publications.

So, here I am evaluating things on Day 10.  I can catch up on the word count, and I think the change in perspective towards this project is a real breakthrough.

So, when I look at my NaNoWriMo progress, I'm succeeding.

November 1, 2014

Ready, Set, Go: I Signed Up for NaNoWriMo


 After debating for the past couple of weeks, I signed up to participate in National Novel Writing Month 2014.

I signed up on the last possible day to do it — on Halloween.  I tried not to ponder the implications.

Shortly before noon yesterday, I went to the NaNoWriMo site and entered my username and password.  It was easy enough.

And, yes, it was pretty spooky, too.  I've made a commitment now.  Gulp.

Thing is I'm not interested in publishing what I write into their website so I can obtain "Winner’s Badge."

What I'm doing is using the pressure of the daily word count from NaNoWriMo to help me discipline myself to write 50,000 words. In one month.

This month.

I'm not writing a fiction work, so it doesn't really fit into the "novel writing" which by definition is the goal of NaNoWriMo.

I hope this isn't cheating.

Image courtesy of National Novel Writing Month.

January 2, 2014

Free EBooks: Kindle First Offers a Free New Release Every Month (Pick One out of 4 Choices)

Here's a great freebie if you have a Kindle:  Amazon has a program called "Kindle First" which offers you a choice of four different new releases for the price of $1.99 if you are not a member of Amazon Prime, and gives you the ebook for free if you have paid for an Amazon Prime membership.

This month, out of the four choices, I chose a romance novel -- surprising myself because I'm really a big mystery fan, but the description here regarding how the town really became a character in the novel intrigued me enough that I opted for the romance selection.  Actually, it appears to be more romantic suspense so I'm not far off the mystery mark anyway.


Image above:  I chose Nancy Naigle's new release, Mint Juleps and Justice, for my monthly freebie this month from Kindle First.