Tag: NaNoWriMo

NaShoStoWriMo Story – and Galumphing submission – The Soldiers’ Return

On By Marcy ErbIn Stories, Writers - Marcy Erb2 Comments

I promised to post one of the stories from my NaShoStoWriMo challenge and I’m only a few days late doing that…this one was inspired by our Galumphing poetry challenge for November. The words were: glass, lake, soldier. This one came in at 713 words – so only a few minutes of your time. Comments and suggestions welcome – I thank everyone for their encouragement regarding my personal short story challenge.

The Soldiers’ Return

By Marcy Erb

When Carl saw the soldiers coming across the pasture in formation, he wasn’t that surprised. He’d seen this before as a child in Germany and so he knew he needed to remain calm. That way, if he was called upon to take any action or speak to the soldiers, he would be able to do so in a dignified manner. Plus, he remembered; nobody else in his family spoke German.

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NaShoStoWriMo Week 2 Complete – with unexpected word count!

On By Marcy ErbIn On Storytelling, Writers - Marcy Erb3 Comments

Well, week two of NaShoStoWriMo (my version of NaNoWriMo, but with short stories) is complete and I met my goal. I have 10 short stories written so far. Because a lot of NaNoWriMo revolves around word count, I felt compelled to tally up my word count so far for the 10 stories and…wait for it…16,438 words! Holy Toledo! I really didn’t expect it to be that high already. Some of my stories are under 1000 words, but most are in the 1000 – 2500 word range. One behemoth is 3200 words.

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Smooth Like Butter… and just as Thick

On By Steven D'AdamoIn On Storytelling, Writers - Steve D'AdamoLeave a comment

Week two of NaNoWriMo is in the books, and I made decent progress. 17,477 words as of yesterday. So yes, I did slow down considerably from the roaring first week numbers I put up. If you were in a fantasy league for writers, the talking heads would tell you to be cautious about my lack of performance in Week 2. You would have been crazy to think that he could sustain the type of production we saw in his first game week in and week out. The 10,000 words I churned out in week one solidified into butter, and the progress has obviously been slower.

The Slow-Burn Exposition

It turns out the detailed character building I touched on last week can slow down the progress of the overall story arc. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing. I’ve found the slower pace of detailing various characters a great avenue for further exposition, especially for the first couple of chapters of my story. I think the trick is to know when to add a kick to your step to move the story forward. I’m still trying to figure that out, but at least I know that I should speed up the pace soon. Here’s hoping my protagonists get their feet moving soon.

According to NaNo’s daily word count tracker, I am behind the curve, something that NaNo veterans vehemently encourage against in the forums. However, I will rededicate my time to writing this week. New goal for week three: 38,000 words. Cheers.

Steve D

NaShoStoWriMo! My Version of NaNoWriMo

On By Marcy ErbIn On Storytelling, Writers - Marcy Erb2 Comments

It’s been inspirational to see so many people participating in NaNoWriMo – and I was thrilled to see our own RSPC founder Steven D’Adamo roaring through it with over 10,000 words written so far. Go Steven!

I decided to challenge myself to a version of NaNoWriMo – with short stories. It’s NaShoStoWriMo (because one good abbreviation deserves another) and anyone is welcome to join me. I have challenged myself to write 5 short stories a week for November. That will be 20 stories by the end of the month. I have not set a particular word count for the stories, allowing it to range from 500 – 3000 per story. I have also not placed any restrictions on topic or style. I have hit my mark for the first week and am only a little behind for week two. We will see where this goes – but I am definitely not expecting 20 O. Henry masterpieces! Maybe one or two gems will result, maybe not.

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Creativity Sessions: The Little People Matter, Too

On By Steven D'AdamoIn Creativity Sessions, Writers - Steve D'Adamo2 Comments

We are one week into NaNoWriMo. As of this moment I have written 10,616 words of my story, which exceeds my initial expectations for this week. When I first signed up for the novel writing contest way back in September, I told myself that achieving  50,000 words in one month was not important; as long as I wrote a substantial amount of my story, I should be satisfied. Even 25,000 words of this story seemed like a fair goal, considering it sat in development limbo for four years prior to November. Continue reading “Creativity Sessions: The Little People Matter, Too” →

My Novel Idea: The Trouble with Genre

On By Steven D'AdamoIn On Storytelling, Writers - Steve D'AdamoLeave a comment

November officially begins in two days, and for me and a few hundred thousand other writers, November 1 marks the beginning of my first NaNoWriMo journey. I’ve already given a brief overview of what genre hole I’m stuffing my novel’s peg into, but I’d like to go into a little more detail. Continue reading “My Novel Idea: The Trouble with Genre” →

My Novel Idea – NaNoWriMo

On By Steven D'AdamoIn On Storytelling, Writers - Steve D'Adamo1 Comment

Writing 50,000 words in the span of one month sounds crazy to me. That means writing, on average, 1,667 words per day, which doesn’t sound daunting, but really is because I have to actually come up with 1,667 things to say every day.

Context? Yes, that might be helpful. Continue reading “My Novel Idea – NaNoWriMo” →