Sunday, November 01, 2009

November is a Busy Month

For the last few years I have considered October and Halloween/Samhain to be the kick-off for the Holiday Season. From October till the beginning of January we seem to be busy, busy, busy!

Today I began the process of morphing our yard/house from the Halloween theme to a more Thanksgiving one. Several of the elements are kept, some things taken down (like the ghost and the spider lights), while other things are left in place or moved (my fall leaf garlands, pumpkin bells). This seems to be a little tougher this year. I don't know what it is like in your part of the country, but here the stores seem to have gone right from Halloween decor to Christmas! I only found a little tiny corner of Thanksgiving things when I went looking. Sigh!

Besides gearing up for the Holidays, November is also a busy month because of two month long events that many in our blogging community will be taking part in. They are NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) and NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month).

The one most of our community will be taking part in is, of course, NaBloPoMo. Since I rarely manage to make more than a couple of entries a month, I did not join over at the website. I do, however, plan to take a stab at it. I'm betting I'll be lucky to make it a week! Still, if you want to give it a shot, click on the link and head over there. Even though I don't see myself making it a whole month, I am looking forward to reading everyone else's efforts.

NaNoWriMo, on the other hand, is for those of you out there who think you may have a novel in you. This writing exercise actually came first and the Blogging one was created later. I know a couple of writers who are going to give it a go, and I thought I would give them a couple of links that might help them along. It seems that Justine Larbalestier (How to Ditch Your Fairy, Liar, and more) and Scott Westerfeld (The Uglies Series, Leviathon, and more) are going to be taking turns giving out tips. Here is what Justine has to say:

Tomorrow is the first day of National Novel Writing Month. Although I’ve never taken part in it and probably never will,1 I think it’s an awesome way for beginning writers to learn the art of the first draft. I know many pro writers who also use the month to help them slay their deadlines. Nothing like knowing you have comrades-in-arms in your writing struggles.

Scott and me decided that we’ll spend the month offering tips. Scott’s tips will be over on his blog and will appear on the odd numbered days of November, mine will be here on the even days. Though as I’m still deep in Liar promotion, I can’t guarantee my tips will be 100% true. Who knows? Maybe Micah will take over for a few of them?

While I am not going to be doing NaNoWriMo any more than I will be doing NaBloPoMo, I am still going to be following these tips. Both of these people are writers I respect and I think anything they have to say would be enlightening to anyone who writes!

Oh, and this totally counts as my first day blog post!

How do YOU plan to spend the month of November?

2 comments:

Donna. W said...

It's a rare day when I DON'T post at least once.

mdeals said...

That is a 1 November of NaBlPsMo.

National Blog Posting Month..Good luck to all of you.