I Am Back, and Determined to Make This Blog Succeed

After fading out for about eight months while wrestling with some health issues, I decided to restart a writing blog under a new name. However, when I logged on to Blogger earlier today, I was very pleasantly surprised to find that this blog still existed. Somehow I was under the impression that I had deleted it earlier this year. Clearly I did not, and I am glad.

There is a new spin off from the National Novel Writing Month contest called the National Novel Reading Month, or NaNoReadMo. This new event challenges its participants to read one novel each week -- and comment on it in some manner to family, friends, or others – for four consecutive weeks. While I am sitting this year’s reading event out, it is inspiring me to increase the amount of fiction and nonfiction reading I do, and to begin writing coherent review commentaries on what I have read, with these commentaries to be posted here. Over time, my personal commitment is to develop my review writing skills to the point that one or two a month compare favorably (in terms of writing quality and length) to the reviews found in The New York Review of Books. A second focus will be the writing and posting of shorter, highly polished reviews as well. Along the way, other types of writing , writing contests and other writing-related topics will be explored in this blog as well.

March Is Just Around the Corner, and That Means One Thing: National Novel Editing Month

Those who complete the utterly, crazily enjoyable National Novel Writing Month (WriMo) in November likely are already aware of this March follow-up. So, for those who either skipped WriMo last year, or who have otherwise not heard, March of every year is reserved for the editing companion to WriMo. This free contest challenges its participants to complete, and log, at least 50 hours of editing activities on previously written fiction. Most participants use March to begin (or continue) the process of shaping their WriMo output into something that, begins to resemble a coherent, readable work of fiction.

Fifty hours in one month sounds like a daunting total to reach, if not surpass, yet it is not. Spread out over the month, this total will be reached with only 1 hour and 40 minutes of editing activities per day. As with WriMo, there are those who fall short of this total for one reason or another. At the same time others finish well above the fifty hour threshold.

This year, my EdMo efforts will focus on my 2009 WriMo romance novel. To get ready for the editing onslaught that begins next Monday, I have been reading and critiquing what is currently written. So far, I have uncovered enough plot discrepancies, plot holes, dialogue weaknesses and weak or inconsistent descriptions to keep me occupied throughout March. I am not grousing about these discoveries, for this is how a writer learns how to improve her understanding and, ultimately, mastery of the craft.

Last year I took part for the first time, and finished with just over 100 hours for the month. This year, I am planning on logging 120 hours for the month. I am confident I will get there.

For those desiring more information on the National Novel Editing Month, or who are interested in signing up, point your browsers to NaNoEdMo for more details.

I am back after another hiatus, another NaNoWriMo win, and a laptop change

Two and a half months ago this blog, and my general blog, Random Musings, went on what I thought at the time would be a permanent vacation. When this hiatus began, I was deep into participating in the 11th annual National Novel Writing Month contest and was struggling with an eight year old Sony laptop, and its arthritic keyboard.

By the end of last November, I won the 11th annual National Novel Writing Month contest with a final word count a little over 70,000, a personal best. This year I took on the challenge of writing a romance novel for the first time. This is turning out to be a rewarding challenge. First, it is providing me valuable practice in developing a fragmentary major character description into a three dimensional, believable person. As the writing (and soon the rewriting) progresses, I am learning more about my own personality and motivations. Plus, my main characters are showing me the value of, and need for, reconciliation between family members.

Thanks entirely to a surprise offer from a relative in December, I have retired the Sony Vaio laptop, replacing it with a new Hewlett Packard Pavillion laptop. At the same time that I gained a larger screen and keyboard, this changeover also allowed me to upgrade from Windows XP (32 bit) to 64 bit Windows 7 Professional.

I have never been much of a Microsoft booster. Still, with Windows 7, Microsoft finally has a Windows version that really works. For the first time, I feel like Windows is working for me, rather than against me. For the first time the Internet is a joy to cruse because it is so colorful, and fast. My cable internet provider claims in their ads that their service is “90x faster than dial up.” Finally, I believe it.

So From Both Sides of the Fence is back in production, this time much more likely to stay that way.