Unexpected challenges

No sooner do I restart my blog after 10 months then my Internet connection at home decide to fail! I will have to find out what's wrong with it, but in the mean time I can write from my work computer. If I had a laptop, maybe this would not be a problem. Soon, however, I WILL have a laptop, something basically everyone in America already has. I've been saving up for the past few months in anticipation of NaNoWriMo. I can't wait! I've begun the outline for my story in preparation for Nov. 1. I will not repeat the mistakes of last year and approach the beginning of NaNoWriMo with a story that is not fully-formed and characters that are only shells of actual people. Of course at the time of beginning novel writing month 2008 I thought I had everything all set and ready to go. It wasn't until I started writing that I realized I just didn't have any idea what would come next, and though that can be a bonus to the creative process in general, when you have only 30 days in which to write 50,000 words, that really is not a good thing. My other problem last year was not having a laptop. The only way in which I could attend the write-ins with friends was to bring along my trusty notebook and pen my novel by hand, afterwards returning to my desk and typing up everything I had already written, a practice that slowed down the entire process not only while I laboriously hand wrote the text but then while I wasted time typing it all up when I could have been making better use of that time by plowing through unchartered territory. But, like I said, this year will be different. I will put into practice the Girl Scout (and coincidentally the Boy Scout) motto, "Be prepared," I will have my brand new, gleaming laptop buzzing in anticipation of what is to come, and I will have a year of experience behind me from which to draw for inspiration.

In the mean time I have been keeping busy planning writing groups for my writing club, Just Write. The club began as an e-newsletter in November 2007 and has risen in ranks from about six members to our current sixteen. Four people have told me they plan to do NaNoWriMo this year, plus I've had interest in our meeting in person to do other writing as well, hence the writing groups. In the works are three groups: the writing meet-ups to meet once a month and focus on members sharing and critiquing short stories and such, the noveling group to meet once or twice a month and work to encourage those novelists who enjoying the company of others while writing, and the online group, which will meet once a month on our discussion board at http://justwritenow.ning.com/

Please come by and see us and maybe even sign up for Just Write. We are an international group, and welcome anyone who enjoys writing.