Amanda Helms

Category: NaNoWriMo

  • Another year of no NaNo

    I’d had a thought about putting up a post about unicorns, but couldn’t quite figure out what would go in it aside from a rambling retrospect on my wallpaper choices as a six-year-old. So herewith, a post about writing, which I know I’m ostensibly supposed to avoid, as back in the day I was all, I…

  • Alas, poor NaNoWriMo! I knew him, Chris Baty.

    First off, the post title is a poor allusion for the following reasons: 1. NaNoWriMo is far from dead. 2. NaNoWriMo isn’t human, although many humans are involved with it. It’s closer to the Borg than a single human, except for the whole group-think-annihilate-humans thing.* 3. Because NaNoWriMo isn’t human, there is no skull for…

  • It’s one week until NaNoWriMo…

    …do you know where your novel is? Mine is located somewhere to the left of my medulla oblonglata. (Or at least that’s what I’m telling myself.) My novel is post-apocalyptic. It will not feature ninjas. It probably will not feature pizza. Unless, perhaps, characters discuss pizza within the context of bygone days, as in Boy,…

  • Disenchantment excerpt

    From Chapter 4. Might as well continue going in order. __________________________________________________________ Aelis found a secluded corner in the banquet hall and covered Lyra up with one of those ludicrous and pointless curtains while she went to find a servant to bespell into directing her to the dungeons. Since the glamour had affected the servants on…

  • NaNoWriMo: Fin

    Thousands of novelists are, as I write this post, frantically typing away at their novel, hoping their heads don’t explode or their fingers catch fire from the friction of speedy keyboarding. Or at least that their heads kindly delay their explosions and fingers their igniting until after midnight, local time, so that they may verify…

  • Disenchantment–exerpt

    This bit’s from Chapter 3. I suppose I should mention that I’m not going to post the whole novel as I do have hopes of shopping it around for agenting/publication at some point. Plus (as is to be expected, given the nature of NaNoWriMo, there’s a lot of suckage that I don’t want others to…

  • NaNoisms

    So one of my favorite threads over at the NaNoWriMo site is the NaNoisms thread. “NaNoisms” are the humorous mistakes that come about as a result of sleep deprivation and constant pummelings of one’s Inner Editor and Inner Critic, beings who are banished during the course of NaNo since the idea is to get the…

  • Disenchantment–excerpt

    The first scene of this year’s NaNo. The one I’m writing after my change on Day 3, I mean. Not horrible, but I’m sure I can edit it into something better. But editing is sacrilege for NaNoWriMo, so that’ll have to wait. Anyway. ____________________________________________________________ 1. The charm lay heavy in Gavin’s pocket, a ball of…

  • Two things that make me happy

    1. Getting in over 9000 words (and not even including the 843 I lost when my computer crashed during a Write or Die session) during the weekend means I’m caught up on NaNoWriMo after switching ideas on Day 3 last week. And if I get in approximately 2650 each day, I’ll hit 75k by the…

  • Miscellany Monday: NaNo Begins

    It’s a bad sign when I hit writer’s block on the first day. Seeing as I prewrote this post on Sunday, when it goes live I should be a Monday-night write-in, hopefully with a better clue of what I’m doing than on Day 1. Though I did at least hit my 1667 quota, if not…