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Meri's Corner

~ A Writer's Thoughts and Reviews

Tag Archives: nanowrimo

Week 1 – NaNoWriMo and the quest for the Words

08 Monday Nov 2021

Posted by MBenson in NaNoWriMo, Personal Thoughts

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amblogging, amwriting, balancing, creativity, discoveries, enjoy, fantasy, goals, inspiration, life, musings, NaNo, nanowrimo, online presence, original fiction, original work, ramblings, real life, thoughts, time, time management, update, Urban Fantasy, WIP, word count, writing

So, we’re a week into November (it’s a week and one day, but I am not counting today just yet because I still have 12 hours to get some words in between and after my work day today.

Are you participating in NaNo this year? (Let me know down in the comments!)

My first week has been fairly good as a whole. I had one day where work got to be too much so I just rolled crashed after a couple hundred words – but I was able to keep my check-ins every day going at least.

Currently, I’m pretty sure my word count would make a really good rollercoaster ride. I’m also trying to figure out a way to help me keep this fairly consistent momentum through and after NaNo – because if I can keep this up as a whole I could get a little more done with things.

More done would be great because I have:

  • a book that just needs editing
  • a book that technically just needs a final two chapters, though reflecting back on some of it I’m considering a semi-full rewrite. Maybe.
  • A novella that’s half done and the other half is semi-outlined I just need to flush it out and finish it
  • and more story ideas than I can count.

Plot bunnies abound, really. Which is also why I’m working on creating a Story Idea Journal because I’m tired of losing some of my ideas when I jot them down in a notebook that’s for something else, or in my planner than I then don’t look at for two years.

Do you have a good way of keeping your story ideas centralized and easily accessed when you get one? Or are yours like me, kind of all over the house?

Manic Monday

04 Monday Oct 2021

Posted by MBenson in Personal Thoughts, Writing

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amblogging, amreading, amwriting, balancing, creativity, discoveries, enjoy, fantasy, goals, Hotel Fen, inspiration, life, Monster Ridge, musings, NaNo, nanowrimo, Nine, Nine Universe, online presence, original fiction, original work, ramblings, real life, self publishing, thoughts, time, update, Urban Fantasy, what do, WIP, writing

I know that Monday tends to be a very large sigh of not again when we all start a new week (Somehow Sunday never feels like the start of a week despite though that’s likely just me because I work a Monday through Friday job).

Despite the very Monday feel to today, I hope that everyone reading this has or had a wonderful Monday. That it brought you something good, something that was able to make you smile, or at least something that wasn’t adding to your stress.

My Monday has been going a little everywhere – and by that, I mostly mean my brain. I have several things on my awareness that I want to do and I’m having a hard time trying to focus on one because all of them want my attention. So here I sit working on this blog post instead.

The Monday’est of Mondays.

 

Since my last blog post what have I been doing?
That’s a very good question honestly.

The boring answer is work. Work. And, more work. (My 9-5 has been eating a decent amount of my brain). However, that’s not ALL I’ve been doing either.

My co-author and I have been working on Book 2 for our Nine Universe, sequel to Hotel Fen and middle book of the Ragnarok Trilogy.
– We created a Wiki for the series. Super fun as a whole, not going to lie.
– Officially settled on the title for Book 2 – Monster Ridge – with the book slated for release July 23, 2022.
– And of course, we can’t write a book without an Outline, so we have spent the last month or so outlining the book. We finished it a little while back, the outline. The plan is to NaNo the book like we did for Hotel Fen. It worked really well as a whole for book one, so here’s hoping it works well for book two!

As well, my co-author has been sliding me short story competitions for magazines and things and when my brain can get around their theme, it’s been fun trying to write a few shorts for those.

We currently have a joint submission we wrote over a weekend pending decision.

As well, I submitted to FloraFiction.com’s Fall Haunting theme. You can find their website here: florafiction.com and you can find my submission “Lingering Ice” within its pages (page 16 to be specific) but you should definitely check out the magazine as a whole because there were a lot of good shorts, poems, and art/photography in the issue.

I have plans to overhaul my website a little more, make it a little more clean as a whole. So watch out for that in the coming months too!

Before I go though, how did your September go? Any hopes or plans for October to make spooky season fun? Let me know in the comments!

NaNo ’19 – Day Fourteen

14 Thursday Nov 2019

Posted by MBenson in NaNoWriMo, New Release, OwlCrate, Personal Thoughts, reading, Writing

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amblogging, amreading, amwriting, balancing, books, creativity, discoveries, enjoy, fantasy, goals, inspiration, life, musings, NaNo, nanowrimo, NaNoWriMo 19, NaNoWriMo 2019, online presence, original fiction, original work, ramblings, real life, thoughts, update, WIP, word count, writing

So yesterday, the 13th, was interesting. We had a gen contractor over at the house to fix a few things, and of course, the few things took a lot longer than expected. What was supposed to be a small fix became taking the old pipes of our shower out and putting new pipes, new fixture, and new tile in and took until about 10pm last night.

Which also meant that I spent a lot of time after getting home from work listening to banging, cutting, and overall contractor work being done in our only bathroom.

Which meant I didn’t really get anything done. Well, unless you count getting two episodes of Riverdale and an episode of Nancy Drew watched something. I’m still working out which of the many panels I want to go to this weekend, everything starts tomorrow! I’ve still got a lot of work on my words to do, but I haven’t actually given up hope either. I’m still hoping I can get caught up on things.

Queen of Nothing releases on Tuesday, so I’m also hoping to finish Wicked King this weekend. If you haven’t read The Cruel Prince and The Wicked King by Holly Black yet, definitely should give it a try. I recommend them. They’re sold as YA, but do be aware that there are some dark themes in them, as an FYI. I’m bouncing and waiting and chomping at the bit for the Owl Crate edition of the new book because they’ve been doing exclusive covers for the books that are a stark difference between the mass market covers and I love them and can’t wait to see how everything looks and what they do for this new release.

I’m going to try to update my blog while I’m at the con, maybe after everything settles from the day before bed. But that’s completely dependant on how the internet works at the hotel. More and more hotels are being super stupid with charging for internet these days, and I refuse to pay for it. If I remember correctly from last year though, this hotel gives complimentary internet just for staying at their hotel. We shall see.

NaNo count, still the same as it was when I first got a little written. Here’s hoping by Monday that number goes up though.

NaNo ’19 – Day Seven

07 Thursday Nov 2019

Posted by MBenson in NaNoWriMo, Personal Thoughts, Writing

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amblogging, amreading, amsick, amwriting, balancing, creativity, discoveries, enjoy, fantasy, goals, inspiration, life, musings, NaNo, nanowrimo, NaNoWriMo 19, NaNoWriMo 2019, online presence, original fiction, original work, ramblings, real life, thoughts, time, update, what do, WIP, word count, writing

I was able to get my internet back up and running, thankfully. So we have internet in the house once again. I actually stayed home from work on the 5th to be able to be home for the tech to come and fix it. And once he had fixed it I took some cold meds and basically slept for the rest of the day.

Yesterday was back up and to work, and cold meds had me sick to my stomach on the car ride to work and then woozy all day at work. So made the decision to not take those again while at work/before work because that’s just not good for getting anything done.

Mom and I got home yesterday and cooked a Hello Fresh meal for dinner and then I crashed super early again.

I will say, I am starting, slowly, to feel better. I’ve taken to sucking on peppermint and wintergreen because the mint helps to clear out the congestion in my sinuses and help me to breath without the need for too much in the way of meds while at work and it’s helped me get through the first hour or so of work today so far. And I’m about ready to make myself some tea even though I’m warm because the steam helps to clear out my congestion as well and I have noticed I’m a little dehydrated so more liquids will be good.

I’m hoping to kick this by Saturday so I can really push hard and get better back on track this weekend to settle into where I should be.

Hope everyone else is doing well for November! Stay hydrated! Stay warm! and stay Healthy!

NaNo ’19 Day 4 – It got worse

04 Monday Nov 2019

Posted by MBenson in NaNoWriMo, Personal Thoughts, Writing

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amblogging, amsick, amwriting, balancing, creativity, discoveries, enjoy, fantasy, goals, life, musings, NaNo, nanowrimo, NaNoWriMo 19, NaNoWriMo 2019, online presence, original fiction, original work, ramblings, real life, thoughts, update, what do, WIP, word count, writing

So, I missed Day three for this blog, but it’s not entirely my fault. I currently have no internet in the house.

Remember that storm I talked about that happened last Wednesday? Well, it had pulled a wire down from the corner of the house and Mom and I hadn’t thought it connected to anything because we didn’t have any problems when it came down. Turns out, that’s because it hadn’t been broken, the not causing issues.

It was our phone line.

You know, the one that grants us connection to the outside world via the internet?

We found this out because Mom, in a cold medicine haze, made the decision to snip it since it clearly wasn’t doing anything in our house…

So she left us with no internet…

Now I’m trying to get our provider to come out and fix it so we can have internet again. While barely being able to talk because my throat is super bad, my coughing is bad, and my head feels like it’s underwater with the sinus pressure and sick.

Needless to say too, I’ve gotten nothing done on NaNo too. I haven’t been able to think clearly enough to actually write anything.

How is your November going so far?

NaNo ’19 Day 2 – The Sick Has Me

02 Saturday Nov 2019

Posted by MBenson in NaNoWriMo, Personal Thoughts, Writing

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amblogging, amreading, amsick, amwriting, creativity, discoveries, fantasy, goals, life, musings, NaNo, nanowrimo, NaNoWriMo 19, NaNoWriMo 2019, online presence, original fiction, original work, ramblings, real life, thoughts, time, update, what do, WIP, word count, writing

It’s about 3:30pm on Day Two of NaNo. I’m already a day behind because, as the title of this post states, the sick has caught me.

I have narrowed down that the nausea is caused by the medication that’s helping with the breathing and the coughing. Of course, I didn’t make that connection until about 1pm this afternoon so I’m still trying to feel better stomach wise.

On top of which, I’m struggling to stay awake because even just chewing lunch took so much effort, though that might have been because I was battling the nausea. I’ve managed to get about half of chapter one done this morning despite cats deciding my notes and laptop were THE space to be, and feeling like if I close my eyes I might just fall asleep.

I am thinking if I take a small nap, I’ll be awake later because the rest of the meds will be – hopefully – out of my system and I can finish getting through chapter one and slide through chapter two as well.

Of course the risk is also that it’s not how it’ll go down and I’ll just sleep right through to day three. Choices and risks.

Current word count: 1,291

How is your day two going?

NaNo ’19 – Day 1

01 Friday Nov 2019

Posted by MBenson in NaNoWriMo, Personal Thoughts, Writing

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amblogging, amediting, amreading, amwriting, balancing, creativity, discoveries, fantasy, goals, inspiration, life, musings, NaNo, nanowrimo, NaNoWriMo 19, NaNoWriMo 2019, online presence, original fiction, original work, ramblings, real life, thoughts, time, update, what do, Winter 2019, WIP, word count, writing

Happy November, Everyone!

I hope that your November is starting out a little better than mine. You might be asking yourself, well why say that, and thinking that you’re sure my November has started off fine too. Weeeeelllllll, I’m not so sure about that.

For starters, I’m in the Midwest portion of the country that received snow. LOTS of SNOW.

Enough that I had to clear off my car before I could drive home last night. Enough that we really didn’t get any trick or treaters last night.

The snow actually started on Wednesday. I woke up and looked out my window at my neighbor’s roof and even half asleep was whispering, “no, No, NO!” to myself. In prepping to go to work, I cleared a BRANCH out of the street and pulled something in my back. On walking back to the house to email work I would be tending to my back I heard a super loud SNAP and looked to my backyard where a thick branch had broken off the tree. It took down whatever cable was attached from my house to the pole in the alley (not my landline – still have wifi, and not my electric, so we still don’t know what it is. We’re calling the phone company tomorrow to see if they can come out and at least determine if it’s theirs or not). It also took out my neighbor’s landline to the pole, which took out their wifi too.

Thursday night, on the eve of NaNo, my throat got a tickle.

I’m now coughing and queasy, but I’m at work because bills to pay and all that.

Despite being under the weather, I’m looking to do some NaNo Work after I get home from actual work. I might try to con my mother – we car pool to work because we work across the street from each other if I haven’t mentioned before – into leaving a little early today. I got the sick from her, I can state this confidently because she stayed home Tuesday and Wednesday sick with it. I’m hoping having it hit today, I can spend the weekend tending to it, drowning it in tea and honey, and writing, and just get over this before Monday or it settles too much in my body.

Maybe I’ll use a hot shower as my word count reward today, hit word count, take hot shower to let the steam help break up the sick in my throat. It’s definitely a good motivator. Though I’m also super ready to nap right now – which may be the meds I took so I’m not dying at work.

Wish me luck killing the sick before it becomes a monster.
I’m determined to not let it disrupt my NaNo and my November goals.

Also, since I’m not too into the vlogs and on camera, but more the writer behind the blog, I’m hoping to do a blog a day for NaNo. Even if it’s just a quick snippet of how my word count went the day before. High goals for me, but here’s hoping that by the end of November I’ve updated this blog thirty days in a row. =)

Happy writing, for those that are participating in NaNo!
Happy November for those that are not!

Stay warm, readers. And stay healthy!

NaNo Just Around the Corner

28 Monday Oct 2019

Posted by MBenson in NaNoWriMo, Personal Thoughts, Writing

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amblogging, amediting, amreading, amwriting, balancing, creativity, discoveries, enjoy, fantasy, goals, inspiration, life, musings, NaNo, nanowrimo, NaNoWriMo 19, NaNoWriMo 2019, online presence, original fiction, original work, ramblings, real life, thoughts, time, time management, update, Urban Fantasy, what do, WIP, writing

Design by Georgia Lange, Poster in the NaNoWriMo shop.

So, NaNoWriMo is right around the corner. Literally 4 days away. I’ve been so busy getting ready for it that everything else has kind of fallen by the wayside. It’s not a great quality in me, but at the same time, I admit that that’s how I am and while I try to change there’s no sense in getting mad at myself about it either.

I didn’t get nearly as much writing done as I’d hoped with the prepping and getting everything as ready as I can make it be successful for November. I did try to do that GrimsList prompting that I mentioned in my last post, and while I did get about two thousand words overall, none of the shorts that I started are finished. So for now, it will sit and wait and I’ll try to work on them in December. Maybe I can have enough to do a small anthology of horror for next Halloween.

My biggest shift is I’ve decided to rewrite a novel from four years ago for my NaNo Project, officially. The current WIP stands at forty-seven thousand words with two to three chapters missing to close up the story. It’s basically in a zero draft stage where everything can change and nothing is safe. I’ve been editing what I have this month, being really hard on it, so that starting Friday my goal is to rewrite a chapter a day to catch up, leaving me a few days to finish the missing chapters and hit 50k. If for some reason it shortens in the rewrite and I don’t hit 50k for it, I have a sequel novella prepped and outlined and ready for me to start writing on to get me past that NaNo finish line.

November is always interesting because we have Thanksgiving near the end and as such we aren’t allowed to be writer hermits because our families demand our attention and to put down our pen, phone, or keyboard at least long enough to smile, chit chat, and pretend that while we’re eating our turkey we’re not also trying to continue writing in our heads so once we get back to our writing implement of choice we’ll be able to hastily continue our words.

On top of that, I’ll be at a Science Fiction convention for three days, though I’m not looking for that to stop me or slow me down. I have goals and they will be successful and I’ll get that NaNo Win!

If you’re participating in NaNo and are looking for a writing buddy, be sure to add me. My user name on NaNo is MerisCorner

Time Flies, and I lose half a year

02 Wednesday Oct 2019

Posted by MBenson in Personal Thoughts, Writing

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amblogging, amreading, amwriting, balancing, creativity, discoveries, life, musings, NaNo, nanowrimo, NaNoWriMo 19, NaNoWriMo 2019, online presence, original fiction, original work, PrepTober, ramblings, real life, thoughts, time, update, what do, writing

I honestly don’t know where the time has gone with a lot of things right now. The year seems to be flying by, and part of what doesn’t help is my 9-5 has gone from easy to 60mph and I’m barely keeping up some days.

I was given responsibility over like 30 people, all of whom have to attend a conference in December, that I will also be attending. So there’s registration and flights, and a room block to get the best price on all our rooms. And it’s been a circus and like rounding cats at the same time.

If you’ve been following my Twitter, you’ll also know this next bit, but if you haven’t been, in June I ended up falling and ended up with a small fracture in my wrist and was in a cast for three weeks. Having my dominant hand in a cast, not fun. And since then I haven’t really been writing too much.

I’m not sure if it’s a block, or a rut or if I’m just really drained after work that’s been keeping the words at bay. All I know is I sit down at the computer to write, and nothing really comes up to put onto paper. I don’t know if part of my problem is I’m putting too much pressure on myself, and on my tying to write and that’s not helping either.

I was thinking of maybe trying to go to bed at better times during the week and get up an hour earlier to try and write before work. I’m not entirely sure if this would help, or work because I’m so not an early bird, but I’m not sure what else to try because right now I’m not getting much in the way of writing done and I know something needs to change.

With it now being October, it also means we’re into PrepTober, the month that precedes National Novel Writing Month. It’s the 31 days (30 now that it’s the 2nd) where we decide on what we’re going to write during November, plot out the characters, create a list of names to choose from if we need to insert a new character, and outline the story that we’ll be slowly writing out to get all those creative juices flowing.

While I’m still trying to get myself out of this rut, what better way to try than with getting everything ready to write, working out plots and characters, and having my list complete. Also, possibly trying to do a few writer prompts during October. Someone on Twitter created the #grimlist2019 for writers to get both in the October mood and in the writing mood. You can find the original tweet here if you’d like a little more information to participate or the prompt list. I’m not sure if I’m going to post the prompts as I fill them in or keep them to myself for the time being. Part of it depends on how they flow.

And, if my talk of PrepTober hasn’t given it away, I am going to try participating in NaNoWriMo this year. I’m hoping to get one or two shorts finished, and maybe even some editing done for one story that’s almost complete but just needs a few more chapters.

And I do plan to update this blog with my progress for both PrepTober and NaNo. I didn’t mean to lapse in posting for so long, but I guess, as they say sometimes, that is life. All I can do is strive to be better and carve out a little more time for writing posts.

Are you participating in Preptober or NaNo? Leave a comment down below and let me know what you’re working on!

Hello December – When Did You Arrive?

05 Wednesday Dec 2018

Posted by MBenson in Personal Thoughts, Writing

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amblogging, amediting, amreading, amwriting, balancing, books, enjoy, fantasy, goals, inspiration, life, musings, NaNo, nanowrimo, online presence, original fiction, original work, ramblings, real life, reviews, thoughts, time, update, Urban Fantasy, what do, WIP, word count, writing

So November is over. We saw it off with a fond farewell, a glass of Strongbow (my drink of choice), and a yippe!

Why?

Because National Novel Writing Month is over! And whether you achieved 50 words or 50,000 words, pat yourself on the back. Because you wrote, or you plotted and planned and honed your craft or business another way. There are many reasons for you to pat yourself on the back for what you did in November I’m sure.

I had good intentions of posting my stats throughout November as I went, weekly check-ins, but that kind of went down the tube.

With the year wrapping up, and finals arriving, a Holiday Party to plan, decorate and orchestrate mostly on my own for my department, things tend to ramp up here at work. Not only that, but applications for Fall are in full incoming mode as well, and I work closely with the DGS for ensuring materials are in, applications are reviewed, and questions are answered during this season – something that won’t officially end until February.

For me, my NaNo was kind of all over the place. I went through slumps, I wrote on several different stories to get my words, but I did achieve my word count.

And now December is here! With ice, snow, and darker mornings that make it difficult to want to get up for work. And I have two weeks before I am off for the Christmas Holiday. I get a little under two weeks of paid vacation off between Christmas and New Years – in which I’m hoping to both get a lot of writing done, reading done, and cleaning done.

Mom and I are hoping to move in a couple years. Somewhere maybe a little smaller, with a smaller yard that won’t take too much to manage. Ideally, I’m hoping for a three bedroom, two bath house. So we can have a guest room/library/office room, which we don’t really have now. We have a studio/office now but I guess part of the problem is it’s where everything from the living room goes when we have company – and the stuff from their last visit is still sitting in there being piled upon. So one of the goals this break is to get the living room and office cleaned out.

I’m trying to hand make some of my Christmas stuff this year. Though, that’s partially dependant on the stores shipping me the items I need make them. I’m just sitting here watching the order tracking information, waiting for them to be out for delivery. After I’m sure people have opened their presents, I’ll see about posting a picture of the final products on here. Not before.

I only have three books on my TBR this month, partially because I’m still working on writing things and with the Holidays, I’m crafting Holiday presents, and the last week of December is pretty much all Family stuff.

What books would those be?

Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco
The Evolution of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin
The Cruel Prince by Holly Black

The Cruel Prince is a serious need for me to read with The Wicked King coming out in January. I have the Owl Crate covered edition of The Cruel Prince, and last month they released the sales for a special edition box for the release of The Wicked King – with a special cover to make their The Cruel Prince cover. So I’m kind of super excited to see what the cover will look like when I get the box. So that’s a hard must read before the month is over.

What are you planning to read this Month? Did you reach your reading goal for 2018? Let me know down in the comments!

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I have new books for my TBR for 2023! My cousin asked what I wanted so I gave her some of the books I have wanted since sept that I haven’t picked up yet, Ans she was so kind to give me some off my list!
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