Darnit - I hate being a grown-up. But here’s the thing… I realized this last week that I was using NaNoWriMo as a procrastination technique instead of working on revisions for my manuscript #2. That is NOT a good plan and was the easy way out. So after some pep talks from those who love me, I’m back on the revision bandwagon and am off the NaNo train. Which is a bit sad, because that manuscript was going really well! But if I hurry and get these revisions done, I can get back to that story, which is living and breathing inside my head. So, this is my official good-bye for NaNo 2008. sniff, sniff

Folks, the insanity of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) started yesterday. So far, my insanity level has been low because I’ve taken it easy. I had the extreme thrill (NOT) of spending Thursday night in the emergency room with a Satanic kidney stone, so I’ve been a little slow moving the last few days. But I’m not worried. I know what I’m capable of when I get going. I’ve had a 10,000 word day before, I’ve had several 7000 days in the past. So I fully believe that I’ll cross the finish line.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with NaNoWriMo, the goal is to write a 50,000 word novel during the month of November. You cannot work on a pre-existing manuscript - you must start from scratch. Now, in order to do this you need to average about 1666 words per day. So at that rate I should have 3333 today, but alas I only have 2134. No worries. It will all come together.

I’m doing something crazy this time. I’m writing a story that’s been in my head for years and I don’t have a true plot for it, nor an outline, nor a synopsis. This is full-on Fly By The Seat Of Your Pants writing and I love it. I need this. I need the joyful abandon of putting a bazillion words on the page. Some of them will suck (actually, many of them will), but it’s okay. It’s FUN and I really need writing to be fun again.

So here I am in the land of NaNo. Several of my Austin RWA chaptermates are participating too. And many of my Twitterbuddies are joining in the fun. So it’s a wonderful support system and I’m thrilled that November is here!

I recently participated in April Kihlstrom’s wonderful online class on the topic of “Book in a Week”. Unfortunately, during the official week of writing I was unable to participate due to some work scheduling issues. So, I started my own Week today, along with my friend Michelle. Today’s output was less than stellar, but I had several interruptions in the schedule. Tomorrow I’ll be home free and plan to write my fingers to the bone. My goal is to have the rough draft of my manuscript completed by next Saturday.

If you’ve never done Book in a Week (BIAW) you may think I’m crazy. But this is actually my second time to do it and I find it to be an amazing way to write that junky first draft. Giving my characters a concentrated week to work out their issues and also focusing closely on the flow of my plot is really the answer for me. I’ve learned from my previous BIAW and from last year’s NaNoWriMo that I am definitely a “balls to the wall” kind of writer (pardon the expression). I write much better in concentrated blocks of time in one huge push. I know some people who can write a steady output of 5-10 pages a day and do wonderfully with that, but it doesn’t seem to work for me. I can’t maintain the flow as well, nor the motivation.

Now if I could only find a way to do Revisions in a Week!

At my new day job several people use Twitter, so I decided to investigate it on Friday. OH MY. I’m sucked in! I set up an ‘emmaclair‘ account and now I’m rolling in the wonderful land of tweets and followers. I did a search for users with ‘romance writer’ or ‘romance author’ in their bio and found many great women online and I added them to the list of people I’m following. This morning I ‘tweeted’ about my writing goals for the day and the very wonderful Keli Gwyn kindly wrote directly to me to encourage me. I saw her posting at a great time when I needed a bit of a pick-me-up - thank you, Keli!

So, what is Twitter, you ask? There’s a cute video on the Twitter home page that gives a great explanation, but the basic premise is this: you can post a 140 character ‘tweet’ about what you’re doing right now. Think of it as micro-blogging. You can post these from the Twitter website directly, from another online tool that you download (I like twhirl), or via SMS text from your cell phone. So if you’re stuck waiting in line somewhere, you can text that info and all of the people who are following you will be able to see it. If there are people that you’re very interested in following you can even have their tweets sent to your cell phone via text so you don’t even have to be in front of a computer to follow them.

My husband thinks this is information overload and I can see where he’s coming from. But I think of it more as connectedness. Today I sent a message to Grammar Girl, who I think is fabulous. And I also received the kind note from Keli Gwyn whom I’d never spoken to before. I like that sense of community.

Are you Twittering? If so, please add me (emmaclair) to the list of people you’re following and I’ll add you too.

We have a lot of wonderful authors in our Austin RWA chapter and one of them is Julie Kenner. Today she posted her First Sale story on Dear Author and it’s a great one, so I thought I’d share. Enjoy!

Google has recently launched a new concept: Knols - little units of knowledge. The official definition from the Knol homepage: “A knol is an authoritative article about a specific topic.” Well, there you go!

For all of my writerly friends out there, this is good news. This is your chance to share the knowledge you’ve gleaned from the hours of research you’ve done while procrastinating on writing your actual novel. Kidding! Seriously, though, if you’re now an expert on women’s undergarments from the Regency period, write a Knol about it. If you learned the intricacies of the political history of Guatemala, write a Knol about it. What a great way to get your name out there! And that can never hurt with selling books - whether you’re published now or will be in the future.

Get started by reading the quick “how to” page on the Knol site. And if you do post a Knol, please let me know. I’ll dab my eyes like a proud mother.

A fellow member of my critique group shared with us a great link from the website “Advanced Fiction Writing” by Randy Ingermanson. I love this article! Please be sure and keep reading until you get to the “About Those Pesky Rules” section. This is where it really all came together for me. I finally have a METHOD to revisions and man, oh man, have I needed that.

This week I had one of those wonderful moments where it was clear WHY I love being a member of the Romance Writers of America. On Tuesday night at our Austin chapter meeting I was telling my friend Julia about the details of the editor appointment I had at the National Conference. Julia told me that she’s good friends with an author (we’ll call her K here) who has that same editor and loves her. Then the next day I received an email from Julia that included K’s email address and the fact that K would love to chat with me about what this editor likes and is looking for. So, I sent an email to K and the very next morning I had a wonderful, long, detailed email from K full of such helpful ideas and thoughts!! How great is that? I’ve seen this kind of behavior over and over within RWA. The wonderful women (and men — waving at Gary) that I’ve been getting to know over the past few years have all been so supportive and non-competitive. It’s such a great feeling to part of this group!

Do you have a similar story? I’d love to hear it.

I’m so proud and impressed! Diane Farr attended our “Creating a Web Presence” workshop at the RWA National Conference and then went right home and built herself a site using Wordpress.com. Hooray!! I’m so glad that Michelle and I were able to be Wordpress evangelists!

If anyone else from our workshop has built a site, please let me know. I’d love to see it!

I’m happy to report that I believe my editor pitch went well! She had several ideas for pumping up my plot and I’m more than happy to incorporate them and send her a new synopsis. No names posted yet about which editor or publishing house… but hopefully in the future I’ll be able to post some good news here and be more detailed.

I really enjoyed the Golden Heart and RITA Awards Ceremony tonight. There’s something so inspirational about it! Next year I hope to see several of my friends (AND ME!) represented in the list of finalists and winners. With all of the amazingly talented friends I have in Austin RWA, it’s not a stretch to think that will happen.