BW44: Non Fiction November

 

Happy Sunday! November is the month we celebrate the wonderful wide world of  Non Fiction which encompasses a broad range of categories - from biographies and memoirs,  creative nonfiction to fine arts, philosophy or psychology, history to science,  spirituality to religion, self help to health and fitness, cook books to crafts to name a few. 

Plus our author of the month is Margot Lee Shetterly who wrote Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race.  My family read the book and watched the movie based on the book and both were educational and enlightening and prompted much conversation in our home. 

November 1st is also National Author's Day so show some appreciation for the authors who provided us with all our great reads. 

And the beginning of National Novel Writing Month in which writers attempt to write a 50,000 manuscript in the month of November. I've participated over the years and found it to be a fun, creative, and challenging way to write a rough draft. 

The Greatest Nonfiction Books

New Nonfiction To Read This Fall

23 in 2023: New Books on Art, Crafts, & Creativity

12 essential books on writing for National Novel Writing Month

This post brought to us by the letter I and industrious, imagination, improve, and illuminate. 

BW44: November - National Novel Writing Month

  National Novel Writing Month

November is coming up fast and that means it is time for Nanowrimo which is short for National Novel Writing Month.   If you aren't aware of what it is - here's the skinny:

National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write 50,000 words  by midnight, November 30.

Valuing enthusiasm and perseverance over painstaking craft, NaNoWriMo is a novel-writing program for everyone who has thought fleetingly about writing a novel but has been scared away by the time and effort involved.

Because of the limited writing window, the ONLY thing that matters in NaNoWriMo is output. It's all about quantity, not quality. The kamikaze approach forces you to lower your expectations, take risks, and write on the fly.

Make no mistake: You will be writing a lot of crap. And that's a good thing. By forcing yourself to write so intensely, you are giving yourself permission to make mistakes. To forgo the endless tweaking and editing and just create. To build without tearing down.

I've been participating since 2007 which makes November a very crazy, stressful, interesting month.  Why do I do it?  Because it challenges me to be creative.  However, going to do things a little differently this time.  I'm in the midst of editing a story, which involves a lot of rewriting.  I'm going to be a Nano rebel.  I've checked in with the powers that be and the consensus is 1 hour of editing is equal to 1000 words, so shooting for at least two hours of editing a day. Yeah!  It's doable.  Plus the sparkly idea percolating in the back of my head may just get incorporated into the story.  

My son is also participating through the Young Writer's Program and he gets to set his own writing goal.  He loves writing fan fiction and would probably write 8 hours a day if I let him.

So if you have ever had the urge to write, jump in and join the rest of the nanowrimo's. For those nonwriters among us, check out the Irish Times new book club or Russia Beyond the Headlines article on children's literature and How Dr. Dolittle became Dr. Ayobolit.

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BW45: National Novel Writing Month and Nonfiction November

Welcome to November and colder days and early nights, curling up in a comfy chair, with a good book or two or three!  November is also the month of writing craziness, National Novel Writing Month in which participants try to write 50,000 words in 30 days.  I discovered NaNoWriMo back in 2007 and have been doing it ever since.  My son joined in last year and will be doing so again this year writing a fan fiction story combining several characters from different video games and movies. 

I'm being a rebel this year and totally reworking a story I started three years ago.  A minor character turned into a major character and it became her story. I had multiple points of view and plot holes the size of Wyoming.   So, I decided to rewrite the whole thing.  I'm combining or eliminating other characters altogether.   I've been in a writing slump for quite a while, so hoping the challenge will get me back in the habit of writing everyday.  

I'm also declaring November to be Nonfiction November.  I don't read a lot of nonfiction and have all these books sitting on the shelf feeling neglected.  Plus I created the C.S. Lewis and Inspiration Mini challenges at the beginning of the year and failing miserably at those. Decided now would be the perfect time to plunge into those books.  I'm going to keep it simple and not bite off more than I can chew, like I usually do. I'm committing to one a week.  Waiting in the wings are Lewis's Mere Christianity, St. Theresa's A Life of Prayer and  George Orwell's Why I Write.  For my husband, since he's already read the book and driving me crazy about reading it -  Yes, Your Teen is Crazy: Loving your kid without losing your mind by Michael J. Bradley.

What reads are on your nightstand for November? 

Daylight Saving Time ends tonight so don't forget to set your clocks back an hour if you are in the U.S. or a country that observe DST. 

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Link to your reviews:    Please link to your specific book review post and not your general blog link. In the Your Name field, type in your name and the name of the book in parenthesis. In the Your URL field leave a link to your specific post. If you don't have a blog, tell us about the books you are reading in the comment section of this post.

BW44: National Novel Writing Month

It's that time of year again - time for Nanowrimo which is short for National Novel Writing Month.   If you aren't aware of what it is - here's the skinny:

National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30.

Valuing enthusiasm and perseverance over painstaking craft, NaNoWriMo is a novel-writing program for everyone who has thought fleetingly about writing a novel but has been scared away by the time and effort involved.

Because of the limited writing window, the ONLY thing that matters in NaNoWriMo is output. It's all about quantity, not quality. The kamikaze approach forces you to lower your expectations, take risks, and write on the fly.

Make no mistake: You will be writing a lot of crap. And that's a good thing. By forcing yourself to write so intensely, you are giving yourself permission to make mistakes. To forgo the endless tweaking and editing and just create. To build without tearing down.

I've been participating every year since 2007 which makes November a very crazy, stressful, interesting month.  Why do I do it?  Because it challenges me to be creative.  Plus I get to lock my internal editor in the basement and have fun just writing without worrying about the rules, plus it gives me a head start on completing a first draft.  This year I've had a goal to learn more about editing and revision, because, yes at some point, I'll try to get one of these puppies in good enough shape to query a publisher.  

There are so many how to and do this and that rules books.  I've come across a few that have really been beneficial and even recommended by professional editors including James Scott Bell's  Revision and Self Editing and K.M. Weiland's Outlining your Novel.

I'm currently reading Writing Begins with the Breath by Laraine Herring.  

In this distinctive guide to the craft of writing, author Laraine Herring shows us how to tune into our bodies and connect with our emotions so that our writing becomes an expression of our full beings, rather than just an intellectual exercise. With warmth and wisdom, Herring offers a path to discovering "deep writing"—prose that is unique, expressive, and profoundly authentic. Lessons and imaginative exercises show you how to: stay with your writing when your mind or body starts to pull you away; explore the five senses in your writing; and approach your writing without judgment.

Plus I just received The Writer's Journey, Mythic Structure for Writers by Christopher Vogler which is based on psychological writings by Carl Jung and the myth making philosophy of Joseph Campbell.  It's a big book and sure I'll be using it more for editing once I'm done with this first draft. 

So if you have ever had the urge to write, jump in and join the rest of the nanowrimo's. For those nonwriters among us, check out Publisher's Weekly Best New Books for the Week of October 29th

 A fool-proof method for sculpting an elephant:  first, get a huge block of marble; then you chip away everything that doesn't look like an elephant.  ~Author Unknown

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 Link to your most current read. Please link to your specific book review post and not your general blog link. In the Your Name field, type in your name and the name of the book in parenthesis. In the Your URL field leave a link to your specific post. If you have multiple reviews, then type in (multi) after your name and link to your general blog URL. If you don't have a blog, tell us about the books you are reading in the comment section of this post.