Tag: NaNoWriMo

amazon · Audible · Emergence Ascended · Emergence Collective · NaNoWriMo

NanoWinner 2023

Joe HallettLeave a comment

I completed the NaNoWriMo 2023 Challenge a day early! But I am not finished with the novel. I succeeded in meeting the fifty thousand-word minimum, but there is still a lot to do.

My takeaway from completing the challenge: First of all, I have been a member of NaNoWriMo since 2012. I have started it but never got anywhere. This year I officially registered for the challenge, (it has been on my bucket list of things to do at least since 2012)

Dedicating time to write every day and write enough to keep up with the daily word goals had developed into a habit. And when I am writing I am writing more, faster. Remember it too almost two years to the day to complete Emergence Ascended from starting it after Emergence Collective and that is a little over sixty-thousand words. So to do comparatively the same in thirty days blows my own mind.

It is changing my writing ‘style’. I was a ‘pantser’ as they call it, I write by the seat of my pants, making up the story as I go, typically. But For Yellow man I did write an outline, cast of characters, notes and fair about of research before starting it. So The value of the outline for me has increased substantially. Honestly I never wrote outlines because I am lazy. I will use outlines on future books, (Oh the bigfoot story is probably next FYI)

So, what now? Now, I am going to keep working on Yellow Man and finish it. I dread the editing phase that is coming. One of the reasons why it takes me a long time to get the story on paper is that I tend to edit as I go. During NanoWrimo, I didn’t. I ignored types, wrong words, grammar and punctuation to get complete the challenge, but now I have a nightmare to clean up. I am also taking the weekend off from writing, and prepare to start recording Emergence Ascended again. I have some projects that I set aside during NaNoWriMo that I desperatly need to attend to, Laser engraving projects for myself and a couple clients (Custom laser engraving stuff) Check out my etsy site to see what I am talking about.

All in all I am proud of accomplishing NaNoWriMo, (I get to call myself a novelist now) And I am glad os the skills that NanoWrimo has taught me. If I can do it, YOU definitely can, so I expect to see you next year!

amazon · Emergence Ascended · Horror · NaNoWriMo

NaNoWriMo:Final countdown

Joe HallettLeave a comment

NaNoWriMo 2023 is on the last four days! I kept up on the word count this weekend, and I am currently (as I write this) 42554 words. I did just under 5000 yesterday and around 2000 on Saturday. Thursday the 23rd was an American Holiday, which put me in a bind to keep up, and I was already behind and still am. The good thing is that I have less than 8000 words to finish. 2000 a day is doable, so I have high hopes of completing the challenge.

How is the actual story going? Yellow Man, my ghost story is turning out pretty good. I am on track with the elements I wanted to get into the story. It is nowhere near finished I will be writing on it after NaNoWriMo for certain, but it’s getting there. Not that I have really established my writing style or found my voice as they say since I am new to writing, NaNoWriMo has upended my comfort zone. I have no idea how the pacing is (A personal struggle), are there long drawn out boring parts, did I slip in that nugget of info to keep you guessing? I who knows, I do know that writing at this pace there is going to be a lot to fix, and the editing is nightmarish and I don’t even want to think about that now.

Oh Yeah, just a reminder, I do have a new book out, Emergence Ascended is out on Kindle. Be sure to get you copy! I look forward to seeing your ratings and reading those reviews!

Audible · Emergence Ascended · NaNoWriMo

Writing status: Legendary

Joe Hallett5 Comments

My fingers actually hurt. I had started the weekend already desperately behind on my word count for NaNoWriMo. Saturday was filled with publishing Emergence Ascended (click to buy 😉 ) putting me farther behind. I planned on today for the big push to catch up. Today was the most I have ever written in a single session. My fingers hurt, and my eyes feel like they are bleeding. Feels so good.

5390 words logged in today. I am still behind, though, but not so far that it is impossible to catch up. I am feeling confident that I am actually going to complete NaNoWriMo.

Horror · NaNoWriMo · writing

Half way there.

Joe Hallett4 Comments

Just a quick update. Well, NaNoWriMo is half over. I have fallen behind over the last week. I am 5000 words behind, but I hope to make up for lost time this weekend. I still have high hopes and good spirits about completing this challenge. I was starting to feel frustrated that I was not keeping up, but I know that you can not fail at NaNoWriMo. It’s a personal challenge, so the 20199 words I have written in the last 2 weeks are a remarkable success, in my opinion, whether I complete it or not. I looked up how many people finished NaNoWriMo with 50000 words, and I was surprised that only about 10% to 20% actually finished (According to Wikipedia). So I feel pretty damn good that I know if I push hard enough, I too can do it. (I wish I can add blog post to my word count LOL but I play fair)

Audible · blogging · Emergence Ascended · Emergence Collective · NaNoWriMo

Audible Update: Took on too much

Joe HallettLeave a comment

As excited as I am about having my recording studio ready, I will have to wait to record. At least its not because of technical issues that are the most frustrating for me. But because this month is packed, and I don’t have enough time or mental energy to do it all.

NaNoWriMo has taken a life of its own, dominating my time. I wrote a lot in Yellow Man this weekend, but I am still a couple thousand words behind. Currently sitting on seventeen thousand words. (Which is crazy to me.) It was just bad timing to be honest. I had just finished writing Emergence Ascendedand am still working on the final edits. So to try to record Emergence Collective is too much. After NaNowriMo is over, I can cool my jets a bit and dedicate myself to that project.

Audible · Emergence Collective · narrators

Audible update: A new space

Joe HallettLeave a comment

A quick Audible update. I got my recording area set up for the most part. It’s a little ghetto, but it functions. I did a quick audio test, and it sounds a lot better. I still pick up a lot of household noise, but I like to record Sunday mornings when it’s still quiet, so I do not think that will be an issue. I plan on recording a chapter tomorrow just to break in my space. I also made a decision to re-record the first chapters, which had unbearable sound quality.

NanoWrimo : I am keeping up with the word count that I need to, to finish on time. I feel pretty good with how its going so far. The story is starting to flesh out.

Emergence Ascended is still under construction, last round of editing is going well, I suspect it will be ready in the next couple weeks, and the Art for the cover is coming along as well, ETA is undetermined, but I am hoping it will coincide with the editing and get published before December.

Author · blogging · NaNoWriMo · writing

National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo)

Joe Hallett9 Comments

No, Mork, that is not Nanoo Nanoo. NaNoWriMo is a writing challenge to finish your novel of fifty thousand words (or more) in one month, held every November. Sounds crazy (especially when it took me two years to write sixty thousand). The idea is not to end November with a ready-to-publish manuscript but to get your crazy idea out of your head onto proverbial paper. Bang out two thousand words a day, and you can login a sixty thousand word novel that is ready to be dissected, rearranged, edited, edited, etc…

This year I joined officially. It was good timing since I finished Emergence Asended, I am ready to get to work on “Yellow Man” (I have got to come up with a better name). Oh… maybe “Slicker”? Anyway, I figured I’d give it a shot. I do not expect to do two thousand a day; that’s a great average, but I hope to keep close to it, more on the weekends and whatever I can pound out at lunch and breaks from work. If you are a writer and you want to participate, It’s not too late to start. It is only day two. Search my username JsHallett on NaNoWriMo.org and we can be writing buddies! Challenge and support each other, or join the forums and make new friends.

Are you gonna join? Let me know in the comments, or just say hi!