New Year breathes new promise into Whirlpool writing goals

Okay, we're nearly done with 2009 and it's time to turn our thoughts to the new year. Cast away the old year's unfulfilled goals, ambitions, intentions and embrace a new vision for 2010. I admit, for the first time in decades, last year I began the year wtih my focus on something other than writing: my health. By any assessment, I met my goals and my health is way better than this time last year. So now it's time to return to my novel and slip into its universe and begin anew. My goal for 2010 is to finish the first draft of Whirlpool. January's goal is to write 20,000 more words and reach the 73K mark.

There are several sites that have picked up where Nanowrimo left off. For the truly ambitious, try BOOK-IN-A-WEEK. This is an on-going monthly gathering that will inspire you to go the distance. There are two JaNoWriMos. I've already signed up with JaNoWriMo 2010 but I may go ahead and sign up with the Live Journal's January Novel Writing Month, too. Any or all of those are bound to inspire you and give you that added incentive to hit the keyboard in 2010. Drop me a note and let me know your plans.

Nanowrimo 2009 The End: Admitting defeat so the phoenix can rise again

This year proved to be a giant bust for me when it came to Nanowrimo. It began full of promise with me loaded to the gills with enthusiasm, orchestrated plans, and a network of fellow wrimos to urge me on. I even had a side bet with a friend. The truth is I stumbled right out of the starting gate. Within 24 hours some kind of nasty virus invaded my body and took me down for two weeks. I don't think I ever recovered from that physical blow despite the best of intentions. So Nanowrimo 2009 became a huge disappointment. But I'm not down forever. There's always next year's competition and all the days in between. I still love all the energy and excitement Nanowrimo brings and may even look for one of the other monthly competitions to fire things up a bit. Perhaps I'll expand the coverage in this blog should I stumble across one....