Sit Down and Write Month - Kickoff

It's November 1st...time to sit down and write! If you have decided to join us, I couldn't be more happy. Let's lift up and support each other along our writing journeys.

As I mentioned in the announcement/sign-up post, I will also be participating in Sarra Cannon's Heart Breathings Rough Draft Challenge. You can read my initial explanation of the challenge in the sign-up post here. They have created a website for the challenge and it is live for signups. I'm headed over there as soon as I publish this post. I just look at it like...what could be better than two communities supporting each other in writing? 

There's a free Rough Draft Challenge planner/plotting workbook you can get if you sign up for the Heart Breathings newsletter here. 

The initial videos for the Rough Draft Challenge are listed below. Whether you decide to join the challenge or not, Sarra's videos are very uplifting and helpful. You can subscribe to her YouTube channel and watch for free anytime. There is a wealth of helpful writing videos on her channel.

• Saying Goodbye To NaNoWriMo ✨WELCOME TO THE ROUGH DRAFT CHALLENGE
• Preptober Planner Walkthrough 2024
• 10 Steps To Start Your Novel ✨PREPTOBER 2024
• How I'm Planning My New Book
• How to Join the Rough Draft Challenge
• Last Minute Novel Prep ✨💎ROUGH DRAFT CHALLENGE

I did not have time to do much novel prep in October so during the early part of the month, I will be doing that. I'm setting my word count goal at 25,000 for the actual novel writing, which will be about a quarter of my planned word count for my novel. If I write more, that will be even more of a win...but I don't want to spread myself too thin with the holidays starting this month. The image above is a page from the Rough Draft Challenge planner/plotting workbook, and my notebook with my novel planning notes.

What is your word count goal? Writing plans? Share in the comments and/or over on our Discord. If you haven't joined it, here is the invite link: https://discord.com/invite/CVrqt423wC

If you're not joining the Rough Draft Challenge (and updating your word count on that website), here are a couple of sites where you can keep track of word counts:
Pacemaker
Word Count Tool
Writer's Atelier (this is a post with a whole list of options)

We're ready, right?! I'm excited!

Here's another pep talk quote for you...

"You'll probably always be your own worst critic, but you won't likely be a fair one—don't be afraid to seek (and apply) feedback from trusted sources, while remembering that outside of true errors, it's all subjective. Good or bad, they are all just opinions—ultimately, you have to do what best honors your voice as a writer." —Christina C. Jones from "IndieLab"

Let's do this!

via GIPHY

You're invited to join Sit Down and Write Month!

I've been posting about this on social media...I'm bringing back Sit Down and Write as a regular challenge!! The reason? I defected from NaNoWriMo (left, deleted account, the whole shebang). If you're a writer, you probably have already heard what has been going on starting with last year, and then this year's debacle. If you haven't heard what has been going on, you can read my post on Facebook here (it's public so you should be able to read it whether you use Facebook or not). 

All this being said, there is no judgment here. If you are still planning on doing NaNoWriMo, you are welcome to join us for this challenge.

So, this challenge is now Sit Down and Write Month. This year will be hosted in November, but I'm thinking of foregoing November starting in 2025. November is a busy time for so many people due to the holidays. I'm leaning toward March and July, 31 day months so we get that extra day. Weigh-in on your feelings about this in the comments.

I had mentioned on social media that I wanted to share something fun with you and so here it is. I have talked about author Sarra Cannon in previous blog posts...how I use her HB90 planning system, and follow her Heart Breathings channel (and her author channel) on YouTube. You can read those posts here and here for details. Sarra's Heart Breathings is a community for writers and for years she has hosted Preptober for NaNoWriMo, also recording her writing journey during NaNo, calling them the NaNoWriMo Diaries. Well, she has also chosen to leave NaNoWriMo and distance herself from it. She is still doing Preptober, and she has created her own writing challenge for November, the Rough Draft Challenge. I will be participating in her challenge along with this one. Watch these two videos (Video 1, Video 2) to learn more about it, and you can get your own Preptober planner (and access to the resource library she mentions) if you sign up for her newsletter (you can sign up for that here). She is going to have different word count levels, and her husband is helping her put together a website where we can update our word counts. 

If you would rather not join in on Sarra's challenge, that's fine. I have set up a Discord for us for chatting, sharing challenge prep, and word count check-ins. Here's the invite link for that: https://discord.gg/CVrqt423wC

You will notice the text channels in the sidebar once you join. 

If you would prefer to just interact here, that's fine too. I'll be creating a menu at the top of the blog and will link this post there (along with a link to our Discord). I will also be updating with new blog posts, sharing challenge prep and progress during November.

Here are a couple of sites where you can keep track of word counts:

Pacemaker

Word Count Tool

Writer's Atelier (this is a post with a whole list of options)

I think that's everything! I'm so excited! If you would like to join us, just leave a comment below. No official sign-up required. And jump over and join our Discord. We would love to have you!

Let's do this writing thing!

Oh, and here is your first pep talk. This was written by K.M. Weiland, an author who writes fiction, and craft books for writers. She has been very helpful for many writers. I have her books myself. 

Print this manifesto out and stick it up where you write, or put it on your computer as wallpaper, or as a wallpaper for your phone. Why? Because if you're writing, you're a writer. Don't let anyone convince you you're not.

My NaNoWriMo Journey 2023

That's right...I'm at it again! I'm going to try really hard to post my progress regularly here. I'm trying to establish a presence as a writer. I think it will help me with accountability and may even help my confidence. We shall see.

My goal for NaNo is 50,000 words, of course. I'm placing a Pacemaker Planner progress widget in the sidebar. I will continue writing in December because my plan is 90,000 words for my novel. So, 40,000 words in December. 

I'm a huge fan of Sarra Cannon (author). Her planning system and writing tips (and everything else) have been such a big help to me. She's doing NaNo too and she does daily vlogs called The NaNoWriMo Diaries. You can check her out on her Heart Breathings YouTube Channel here. She really is so much fun.

So, here I go. I have not started writing yet so I'm a bit behind, but hoping to start tonight or Friday at the latest. I have extra time on the weekends so I can catch up. I know I can do it! 

Are you doing NaNoWriMo this month? Let me know. You can also send me a buddy request on the NaNo site @MSMwriter.

A Quick Update

Hello there. Just wanted to write a quick update. I decided to change the url for this blog to better fit with what is now (and has been for a while) the title of the blog. The new url is msmwriter.blogspot.com

If you follow via follow.it, there is no need to do anything. You are still subscribed. However, if you subscribe to my feed, you will need to update the feed address in whatever feed reader you happen to use. The new feed address is http://msmwriter.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/defaults You can also subscribe to the new feed via the widget in the sidebar.

Sorry for the sudden change. Thanks for continuing to follow my writing journey. Hopefully, I will have an update on that front soon. 

Keep writing!

Blog the Journey - Writing plans, Camp NaNoWriMo, and HB90

Wow, looks like my last post (besides the one last year informing subscribers of the new email subscription service) was in November 2018. That certainly is some kind of neglect. Well, this is my attempt to make this a thriving "writer" blog. I'm calling it Blog the Journey. I'm going to basically be blogging weekly about my progress on my novel. Perhaps it will help with accountability. I hope so. 

I have discovered a life-changing system that is really helping me better organize my time because, let's face it, my life, priorities, schedule are a mess. Since I work from home and have very flexible hours, it's difficult for me to pin down any kind of time in advance. HB90 has really helped me prioritize and plan my time to help me achieve my ultimate goal which is to get my book written. 

HB90 is a quarterly bootcamp created by author, Sarra Cannon (Heart Breathings). Learn more about her and Heart Breathings here. This quarter was my second time through the course. That's the beauty of it. Once you purchase the course, you can participate every quarter without spending another penny. Yes, you become an HB90 alumni! Sarra takes great care of her bootcamp participants, newbies and alumni alike. It's just a great community that has inspired me tremendously. Check out Sarra's Heart Breathings channel on YouTube. I love her videos. She has writing tips video series, videos about planning and planners, and a lot more. The HB90 course for this quarter is closed, but if you click my HB90 vision board in the sidebar, it will take you to the course page where you can read more about what the course entails. The next course should be open for enrollment around early September in preparation for quarter 4, October - December (I am an affiliate so if you do decide to sign-up in September via my link, I will receive a small commission. I will update the link in the sidebar in September). 

HB90 centers around task blocks inspired by the Pomodoro Technique. 30 minute task blocks (25 minutes work time, 5 minutes rest), though there is much more to HB90 than that. But I'm mentioning the task blocks to give you an idea on how I'm working using them. Of course, you can configure your task blocks however you like. 50 minutes work, 10 minutes rest, etc. Basically, I figured out I could do 230 tasks blocks this quarter which is 115 hours. I was on vacation the first part of July so I figured out 2.5 tasks blocks this past weekend when I returned, and 20 tasks blocks per week through the end of the quarter. Breaking it down further, that's 10 hours weekly - 8.5 for writing tasks (plotting, writing, etc.) and 1.5 hours for blogging and doing my HB90 plan for quarter 4 (in September). 

Yes, I am doing Camp NaNoWriMo this month, but have set a very low ball goal. 12,000 words. Hoping I will meet my goal, but if I don't, I'm not going to beat myself up about it. At the moment, I'm working on fleshing out a bare bones story, then some plotting and character development, then on with the writing. I know I'm going to have a lot of editing when I finish, but that's part of the journey.

My goals for HB90:

1. Top priority - start writing/write my novel

My Good/Better/Best goals at the end of the 90 days (end of September)...

• Good - 20 percent done (18,000 words)
• Better - 1/2 done (45,000 words)
• Best - 100 percent complete (approx. 90,000 words)

2. Blog the Journey - One blog every week 

I missed the first week (my starting week being this past weekend) so that's 11 blogs instead of 12 starting with this week as week one. 

About the novel (not set in stone):

Genre: folk horror (based on/retelling of a Hungarian fairy/folk tale)

Definition of folk horror

Hopefully, next week I will have an update for you on word count. Wish me luck...and thanks for taking this journey with me!

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An update for my followers

You may have heard that Feedburner's follow by email function is going to be discontinued next month. At first I was in panic mode, but soon found there were easy solutions to the problem. Thankfully! So, I decided to switch over to follow.it which is a free email subscription service. If you were already subscribed via Feedburner's service, you won't have to worry about missing any email updates from this blog. New visitors can now subscribe via email at any time so you won't miss any of my future posts. You can subscribe now by filling out the form below, or on the form in its regular home in the sidebar.

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Sit Down and Write 10, #NaNoWriMo, and writing during the holidays #sitdownwrite

After much contemplation, I decided to dive into the fray that is NaNoWriMo once again. I made Sit Down and Write two months this time so...

1. In the event I fail NaNoWriMo (which I usually do), I'll still have another month to work on my WIP.
2. If I finish even part of my novel during NaNoWriMo, I will have a good start to continue working in December and beyond.
3. Two months is a necessity during the holidays. They should really change it to two months and call it National Novel Writing "Months"... lol

So, why bother with Sit Down and Write? Well, I thought this would be a good place for those who are participating to interact and get support when they need it. I'm going to create a master post and pin it to the top of the blog. I will post updates there and I'll leave comments open so we can interact.

Remember, this isn't just a writing challenge for those writing a novel. If you're wanting to get some blogging done, or work on articles, or poetry...whatever you're working on in the writing department is fair game. 

Let me know if you're doing NaNoWriMo, and/or if you want to participate in Sit Down and Write, by leaving a comment below.

I hope you will join me!

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