ISWG, NaNoWriMo and Where's My Clone?

If you're not familiar with 
the Insecure Writers Support 
Group, check it out here. 

Full disclosure, as I write this in October, I'm neck deep (as in someone else standing on my shoulders and we're talking about their neck), in NaNoWriMo and preparing for upcoming Author Events for all you book-loving holiday shoppers.  I love when you comment and I'm very glad you stopped by, but I can't promise that I'll get to check out your own blog post in a timely manner.  I will get there. Eventually.  

Hence my need for a clone. Has anyone got that process dialed in yet? I've noticed a trend in my blogging habits the past couple years. With the new year, I'm all refreshed and energized to spend blog time with you wonderful people. By the end of April's A to Z, I'm dead. And things only get worse from there. By mid-summer I'm down to once a month IWSG posts. I'd say this is a trend I'm hoping to change with the coming year, but again, I'm not going to make any promises. Maybe this is a sign I shouldn't dive into A to Z this year. Hmm. Things to ponder.

My tiny assistant Bitsy, kept

me warm while selling books

at Pumpkinfest in

Montague, MI.

So what's this NaNoWriMo thing? It's my yearly major writing binge where I join hundreds of thousands of other people around the world by writing 50,000 words in 30 days. Traditionally, that's supposed to be the rough draft of a new novel. This year, I'm aiming for 50K of whatever project my eyeballs and fingers agree on that day. As of this morning, my goal is to work on a total rewrite of 2007's NaNo YA fantasy endeavor that is half finished. I'd like to get another YA title out to accompany A Broken Race. I'd also like to generate a few new short stories to get into submissions early next year. I'd also like to get a million dollars, but as I don't play the lottery, the odds of me productively writing are far more likely.


In the further need for a clone category, I'm also on year 10 of acting as an ML for my region for NaNo. This means I'm organizing and hosting events all month, moderating a forum, writing regional emails and answering questions and encouraging the hundreds of writers in my region. While writing my own project. I also added a few extra tons of insanity and booked three weekend days of author events during November. Because who needs sleep? Can I write in my sleep? We'll find out.

This month's IWSG Question: How has your creativity in life evolved since you began writing?

The dress I made my daughter

for homecoming. She wanted

something 50's housewife.

Oh man, it's been a major evolution. When I first started writing, I had time to paint, draw, do needlework, sew, and more crafts than I could name in the time that I have to write this post. My creative endeavors were all over the board. But since I started writing seriously, about eight years ago, almost all of those things have fallen by the wayside. Though I still enjoy doing other creative things, my brain is stuck in creating worlds, characters, and plots.

I have dipped back into sewing in the past few months. After brushing the mental rust off and a lot of swearing at how hard it is now to thread the damned sewing machine needle even with my glasses on, I think I've got following a pattern and the improvising part of things figured out again. After this next project, which I really should do a post about, is finished, I think I'll put the distracting sewing machine back away. There are so many things I could do with it...but writing calls.