NaNoWriMo 2013

I've been doing NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month, for few years, starting to feel like I have somethings to say. I don't want to say wisdom, because I feel like I've been doing it for such a little time compared to some others. My first year was 2009, I'd just started high school and was looking for something to write something other then Harry Potter fan fiction. Kristina Horner's video that year convinced me. (She's done one every year for a while and at the bottom of this post you'll find links to all of them and to some others!) I've been doing it since 2009 and did every Camp and Script Frenzy (rest in peace) since then.

And if you're staring at this post going 'great, but what the hell is it?' Well, my dears, it is a insane month where so, so many people try to write 50k! Or less or more. Personally, I've been part of the 'overachievers' club for the last couple of years now. It's certainly been an interesting thing to try and write even more then 50k. My goal this year is 250k, but I'd really like to hit 300k. If you're at all interested, overachievers have their own forums this year on the NaNo site, Beyond 50k!

The point, though, about this post is that if you've ever wanted to write a novel or have an idea if your head, maybe NaNo is the right place. If 50k seems too much to write in one months because you have this or that, just - give it a shot. Maybe aim for 30k, 20k, just try to make as much time as you can, cutting out the stuff you don't need and that will be there come December.

Now, my main advice for NaNoWriMo, if you're going to do it, is to know whether you're a pantser or a planner in advance. Also, you might want to check out Chris Baty's book, because it is lovely. Chris Baty, by the way, is the one who created NaNoWriMo in 1999.

Also: writing buddies. Checking in the comments of Kristina's 2013 video can help or you can add me on the NaNo website. If you've got any questions, feel free to just ask them in the comments. Happy writing! Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got like four novels I should be planning out.

Now, to try and convince you, some people who can talk about this way better then I ever could.

Kristina Horner:
2009 - Why I Do NaNoWriMo
2010 - NANOWRIMO
2011 - You are a SUPERHERO
2012 - NO EXCUSES (a NaNoWriMo pep talk)
2013 - 5 Ways to Get Your Novel Written
NaNoWriMo (updated) music video (just do it)

John Green's video from 2009
NaNoWriMo!!!

Little Book Owl (a BookTuber who I love) did an awesome video that, if you have no idea how to do NaNoWriMo, has pretty much all the advice I could ever offer you
How To NaNoWriMo

A friend of mine (and awesome author) Robyn Schneider did an official pep talk for the YWP, young writers program, and she talks about suck dragons so....
NaNoWriMo YWP: How To Vanquish Your Suck Dragons

Dewey's Read-A-Thon (October 12th-13th, 2013)

I didn't really have a huge stack of books to get through, which is kind of surprisingly with my read-a-thon past, but I had some books I wanted to read. I always love this read-a-thon, because it's a short and sweet one and everyone is on Twitter talking about how they're reading this and their snacks and at about 3am everyone either passes out or gets extremely delirious.

Anyway, I wanted to tell you the books I read and how pages it was, because I like this keeping track of page count thing.

Books:
Coraline: Graphic Novel by Neil Gaiman, P. Craig Russell
The Mark of Athena (The Heroes of Olympus #3) by Rick Riordan
The House of Hades (The Heroes of Olympus #4) by Rick Riordan

Pages: 1,255

So it was only three books but both the Riordan books were long, both almost 600 pages, and I had started Mark of Athena before but I didn't count that hundred or so pages. Anyway, I had a lot of fun and got a lot of reading done and oh my god Rick Riordan knows just how to do a middle grade adventure, let me tell you. If you participated then I hope you had an awesome time and got some reading done, and hopefully I will post more regularly now. Ha, NaNoWriMo is coming, that's not going to happen.

And if you're reading this and going 'Casey, what is this read-a-thon thing that is 24 hours and I missed' then you should go to the website and check it out.

Dewey's 24 hour read-a-thon is tomorrow!

It's been how long since I've made an actual post here? That's not excepted, what happened to that plan, self? Okay, besides that, the yelling at myself and saying I am very sorry about not posting, I just realized (almost 8pm) that tomorrow is the Dewey 24-hour read-a-thon. I vaguely remember it happening last year and I really wanted to participate this year because this is apparently the year of me doing read-a-thons.

So on the thirteenth, probably late in the day, I'll put a post up talking about tomorrows day of reading and what happened. I have actually been reading the last couple days, which is perfect, so I think tomorrow will be awesome! I also want to make a post about NaNoWriMo, because it is coming. Too slowly, in my opinion, but I also really need to actually plan out my stories.

Anyway. The read-a-thon tomorrow. Official twitter, blog. Check it out! (if you want to sign up, it's simple, in the left bar is a link to all the posts you'd need. To be a participant or just a cheerleader)

September Wrap-Up / October TBR

September:

• Torchwood: Golden Age by James Goss (audiobook)
• Shadow (Paper Gods #0.5) by Amanda Sun
• Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (audiobook)
• Instructions by Neil Gaiman (audiobook)
• Legion by Brandon Sanderson (audiobook)
• Something From the Nightside (Nightside #1) by Simon R. Green

I really didn't get a lot of reading done this month, I did get quite a bit of writing done even though it just was kind of a 'eh' month for me. Just - one of those months, I guess.

October:

I have no idea what I want to read, I've been kind of preparing myself for H.P. Lovecraft. I've never read anything by him and he lived like ten minutes from me and I love horror so it's ridiculous I've read nothing by him. I just don't really know where to start, I'm still kind of figuring it out.

Also Rick Riordan's new book comes out on the tenth! And I never read the one from last year (I got spoiled like the day after it came out and just couldn't bring myself to read it, it was just kind of annoying and sad). And Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson just came out and I really want to read that, I've learned I kind of love everything he writes and can read it pretty quickly since it sucks me right in.

There's other books around but after my kind of suck reading month, I'm not sure. Also, I currently stand at having read 99 books this year, after upping my goal from 50 to 100, but I don't think I'm going to up it further, just so how many more past 100 I can get.

Also I'm so, so sorry for not posting here all month. I honestly don't know what happened, I haven't been feeling very in the mood too, and I just need to. It's been a weird month, an off month I guess. well, more off then normal.

I hope your Septembers were good and your Octobers are spook filled (ooh, another reason for some Lovecraft, I just realized) and also pumpkin filled.