Oh Nuts

And just like that, it has been a week since NaNoWriMo has ended! This year I ended the month with 50, 168 words, but my story is far from over. Today was my region's TGIO party and the first time that I was able to make it. And I had a nice time with my  fellow writers As an ice breaker to get to know other people from the region, one of the ML's gave each person a certificate with their username on it and then we had to talk with someone that we hadn't met/talked with before and share a goal that we reach or something that wasn't related to our word count. Once we had talked with someone about the goals or whatever it was that we did then we had to sign each other's certificate and hand them back to the ML (Municipal Liason) who was handing them out. Once we finished with the ice breaker we did lunch and then the ML's started handing out the certificates back to everyone. As we got the certificates we got to pick from pencils, red pens or purple pens an...

A while back I discovered the editing site Canva and I have been dabbling in it on and off since then. Since I don't have a Pro account and just use the free version, I am a little limited in what I can do with it. But I still enjoy using it and I have been able to create quite a few things for Instagram as well as covers for the novels that I write during NaNo. And since I really haven't given you much of an update on how I am doing with NaNo I decided to share a few covers that I made with Canva. The cover with the mountains on it includes the original title for my novel and the other two covers include the current title which fits better.

This is another result of another picture prompt that I used. While this isn't the picture that was used as the prompt, I like what I wrote from it. Photo by  Markus Spiske  on  Unsplash As they neared the end of the race, the entire group of cyclists suddenly became tired. Unsure of what was happening to them they all stopped riding and got off their bikes. Before they could properly stand them up all the cyclists passed out on the ground where they had stopped, with their bikes laying on their feet. The people around them watching and directing the traffic seemed unfazed by what was happening with the cyclists. They continued with what they had been doing as if nothing had happened. A short time later the cyclists woke up and continued the race to the finish line. Shortly after the group had ridden away, another group of cyclists in the race came through the area and were affected by the mysterious drowsiness. These cyclists also dismounted and fell to the grou...

This is another Picture Prompt that the writing support group I am in did the other week and it made me think of the movie The Greatest Showman  that came out last year, and it is partially what inspired me to write this prompt. I included the picture we used as the prompt at the bottom of the post. Photo by  Becky Phan  on  Unsplash Walking along the dusty road the trio of weary travelers came across a small but strange sign placed in the ground. On the sign it said Magic Circle – Clothing Optional Area. ¼ Mile. Placed in between the words “Magic Circle” and “Clothing Optional Area” was a drawing of what looked like clothing laid out on the ground beside a cactus, the sun, and a mountain. A red arrow pointed them in the direction that they needed to head in. Curious as to what a Magic Circle with an optional clothing area was, the trio set off in the direction that the arrow pointed. After walking the quarter of a mile the trio came to a large red and whi...

This is from the same writing group video chat that I was a part of the other week. For this picture prompt, I have the actual picture that we used, though I don't know where it originally comes from. And the paragraph and a quarter that I wrote for this prompt is something that I liked and might possibly use for something in the future. But I could change my mind by then, I don't know. Anyhow, I wanted to share it with you all, like I did with the last two paragraphs that I wrote. Unknown The old house stood alone surrounded by dying trees and browning grass. No one had lived in it since the owner, a woman by the name of Miss Whitman had passed away several years before. Since she had no living relatives that people could find the house stood alone and forgotten. Until one day when a strange young woman appeared at the office of the only lawyer in town. Placing a small stack of papers on the surprised man’s desk, the young woman informed the lawyer that she was Miss Whi...

I don't remember if I mentioned this in my last post or not, but in a support group I am in for NaNoWriMo has been doing video chat groups and the other night we had another one where we did word sprints and talked in. And the first sprint that we did was a picture prompt. In the picture was a metal table with two chairs and what looked like an ashtray and a couple drink coasters on it. When it comes to writing prompts and sprints like this I tend to start writing without thinking about specific characters. Which is how I came up with this paragraph. Photo by  Henry & Co.  on  Unsplash "Sitting on the unoccupied table the ashtray felt the ambiance of the sidewalk as people strolled past minding their own business. It had made friends with the drink coasters that rested on the table with it. Emblazoned with the logo of a neighboring restaurant the coasters didn’t make a sound when patrons of the restaurant used them for their drinks. When no one was sitting at...

Typically I am not someone who readily shares stories that I have written with other people. This is mostly because I don't like the way that it turns out so I don't want to let other people read it because of that.  But today I have decided to share a short paragraph that I wrote last night while I was taking part in a video chat with other writers. The prompt for this was a picture of a loaf of bread (different than the one pictured here) and in the background was a banana or two. And since the story idea that I have for this year's NaNoWriMo is based on the Greek gods and mythology I decided to use one of the characters that I am slowly creating for this idea. So this is what would happen if the Greek god Zeus was a high school football player in the kitchen and trying to make banana bread for the first time. Photo by  Taylor Kiser  on  Unsplash "Standing in the kitchen Zeus looked at the piece of paper in his hand. Having never baked anything before in ...

Here is the last few days of NaNoWriMo's Prep Time Instagram challenge!!! Day 26: Paradox I was a little lazy on this one and just found a quote with a paradox in it. Day 27: Where/When in the World Some of the characters in my story for NaNo are from Greece. Day 28: Fresh Air Again I cheated a little on this one because this is a picture that I took back  on my family's vacation last month. Day 29: Suddenly... For this one, I was having a hard time coming up with something until I found this song called "Suddenly" on YouTube the other night. And the section of lyrics that I took a picture  of goes with the last day's prompt. Day 30: Time To Write While @nanowrimo doesn't officially start for another month I will be taking this time  to write an outline and organize my thoughts for the story that I want to write.

Here is days 20 - 25 of NaNoWriMo's prep time Instagram challenge #InstaWrimo. taken by me Day 20: The Sands of Time My original idea was something completely different and a little goofier.  But the Warren Dunes in Michigan works instead. Day 21: Novel Dedication Since none of my stories are finished or have dedications, I am borrowing the dedication from  a book called "A Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust" by Alan Bradley. Day 22: Banned Book There are a lot of books out there that are considered banned.  So I just had to pick out one. Day 23: Cliffhanger When I first read this prompt, I was going to do something on the sarcastic side, but I couldn't think of anything. Until I remembered that any good book series ends on a cliffhanger in one of the books. Day 24: Living Literature This was another one that I had a hard time finding something for. My first idea was to find a biography, then I decided to chan...

Here is the next round of pictures for NaNoWriMo's Prep Time Instagram Challenge.  Day 15: Plot Twist  Since anything can become a plot twist, these kids number and shape cards make a great plot twist by organizing them into a pile and then pulling one or more off the top and incorporating the number(s) and object(s) into the scene that you are writing. Day 16: Novelist Music  These are two of my writing playlists and there is a variety of music on both of these as well as my other playlists so that I don't get tired of listening to the same songs. Day 17: Main Character  Since I am still in the early stages of planning out my novel for @nanowrimo this is what I currently imagine my main character to look like. Day 18: Cast Your Villain In my head, the villain for the idea I am doing is more of a mean girl rather than a villain.  But that could change.   Day 19: Cast a Supporting Character A supporting characte...

I am slowly catching up with the next round of pictures for NaNoWrimo's Prep Time Instagram challenge. You can follow my writing Instagram account at @megan_writes3294. Day 9: Oops! - For this, I just used the Shamrock plant that is in my house because this is something that it does throughout the year. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Day 10: Outline/Novel sketch - Since I am bad at planning/outlining my novels here is a picture of the word doc that I started to collect reference for my story. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Day 11: Fur Baby - Because Sully is the only pet in the house he gets to be featured again! ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Day 12: New nanowrimo.org profile screenshot - Although this is a screenshot I am counting it. I was also at a writing event that my home region for NaNo was hosting.  ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Day 13: Time Piece - Since I wasn't entirely sure what to do for this prompt. Here is a picture of a clock that I found on Google. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Day 14: Cover Art - I am still in the early planning for my NaNo story so t...

It's that time of year again where I slowly start talking about National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) again. While I might not reach the target word goal of 50,00 words each year I still enjoy doing it. Because it challenges me to write something that I don't think is that great. And while I am a little behind in sharing the pictures to my writing Instagram, I decided to share the pictures from the first eight days that I did for NaNoWriMo's Instagram challenge. NaNoWriMo.org Day 1: Past/Future - When I first read this prompt I wasn't sure what to do for it. But then I decided to use the book I was reading at that moment. Especially because "The Alice Network" goes between two different time periods for two fo the characters. So it is the past for one person and the future for another. Day 2: Shelfie - This one was easy to do since there are numerous bookshelves in the house. But the one pictured is the one in my room, which I am slowly...

While it took me twenty-eight days to do it, but I won NaNoWriMo this year. But the writing of my novel is far from over because there is still quite a bit that I would like to add to it. Now that NaNo is finished I need to find the motivation to finish it and not let it sit and collect dust on my USB drive. During the month of November there was one day during the beginning and then two days this past week where I didn't reach the daily word goal of 1,667 words. But I managed to make it up by writing anywhere between 1,000 and 3,000 words each day to keep moving forward. Since all writing platforms (eg Google Docs, Microsoft Word, etc.) all have slight variations on what they consider words, like hyphenated words and that sort of thing. According to Word, numbers, when they are written out like 1234, are counted as words, which I thought was interesting but I kept it. And when I went to validate my novel after reaching 50,048 words the website added a few more words making t...

Happy Thanksgiving to all of my readers and NaNo-ers from the US. I hope everyone enjoyed reading the two articles that I wrote and shared the past two weeks as well as the first NaNo update I shared. Because this can be a busy holiday for people here in the states I know that the word counts won't get added too, but I thought I would share some encouraging words today with a brief update on how I am doing. Photo by  Element5 Digital  on  Unsplash In my last update , I mentioned how I had made a calendar with a personal word goal for each day on it as well as using an outline and doing research on several different topics. Well, I have managed to keep up and still stay on top of my word count even though I started my job at Kohl's last week. Over the past couple of weeks, I have noticed that I tend to write the most at night when my family is starting to either head off to bed or sit in a different room quietly reading. Typically that happens between 9:00 - 10...

This is something that I put together years ago for an online magazine that I used to write for called "Ink and Fairyfust." And I just recently rediscovered it while I was cleaning out a lot of old docs in my Google Docs. Since it is NaNoWriMo now I figured it was a good time to share it. Photo by  Yeshi Kangrang  on  Unsplash “Fantasy is escapist, and that is its glory. If a soldier is imprisoned by the enemy, don't we consider it his duty to escape?...If we value the freedom of mind and soul, if we're partisans of liberty, then it's our plain duty to escape, and to take as many people with us as we can!” ― J.R.R. Tolkien “At all ages, if [fantasy and myth] is used well by the author and meets the right reader, it has the same power: to generalize while remaining concrete, to present in palpable form not concepts or even experiences but whole classes of experience, and to throw off irrelevancies. But at its best it can do more; it can give us exper...

At 12:00 am this morning, this thing called National Novel Writing Month aka NaNoWriMo started. I have mentioned it multiple times before and I will probably continue to mention it multiple times again this month as well as for the next few years. As we begin this month of insane writing here are a few memes and writing prompts that I have found on either Pinterest or Facebook and decided to share here. Enjoy!