This will be short! Some of you might feel relieved! I tend to write longer posts but my writing plate is very full at the moment and I’m questioning whether I can keep up with it all. I just posted my blog to Medium.com for the day. I’ve been writing daily on that platform, instead of WordPress, to see if I can broaden my following and reach. I’m enjoying the feedback I am receiving there.
https://carollabuzzetta.medium.com/
I am participating in NaNoWriMo this month. Most of you probably know that the acronym stands for National Novel Writing Month. It is the month of November and a time aspiring novelists take to the page. Although I’ve thought of it many times before, I decided to really take the plunge this year and participate.
I have not worked on that yet today, however, I will this afternoon. So far, I am on target and have 5,063 words down so far in my novel. To reach the suggested goal set by NaNoWriMo, 50,000 words written in November, one needs to write 1,667 words per day. Yesterday was harder than the first two days. I wonder what today will be like.
There have been two revelations so far for me in novel writing.
- I am a pantser, which means I am writing by the seat of my pants! This surprises the h_ll out of me! Usually, I am a planner or which is called a plotter which means I organize my thoughts on paper, outline stories, and proceed very methodically. But, other than having a general idea of where my story starts, leads, and ends, I don’t have much on paper.
Yet!
By the end of the month, I will be a combination of the two, both a plotter and a pantser. I’ll need to take some time to write my timelines, events, and characters on paper to develop them more before typing like a maniac!
2) The most difficult thing I’ve found so far is the pacing of the story. I want it to flow, as most of my writing does, but with longer works, it is harder to find the right tempo. When to reveal things about the characters and story events is much, much harder. The pacing will be something I’ll need to work on throughout this month.
I know most of you are poets and this is a novel writing exercise but is anyone else participating in NaNoWriMo? Let me know in the comments.
Lastly, a poem for today. I wrote a grouping of three pet poems in October and instead of offering them all at once, I have posted them individually here. One per week for the last three weeks. Today, it is the last pet poem I have from my recent batch.
Image by Jill Wellington from Pixabay
The Invisible Pet!
We had a pet
Some years ago
Strange we never saw it
So, we didn’t know.
It must have lived
In our house at night
Creeping and crawling
Always out of sight!
Not a sound was made,
Nor a crumb dropped,
To make us think we had
A pet that stopped
At our house to live,
In the basement at night
Never seen, always so
Careful to stay out of sight.
Then, one day,
When we cleaned out.
A lost winter boot was found,
And we gave mom a shout.
But when we looked inside,
A food stash was found,
Cat kibble bits …
Cups of them, in a mound!
There must be a pet
We didn’t know we had
For whoever it was
Stored a lot of food by its pad!
© Draft, Carol Labuzzetta, 2022.
Image by Wokandapix from Pixabay
Finally, I’d like to encourage everyone to get out and vote! We moved this summer, but are in the same state (Wisconsin). There are a couple of hotly contested races here for mid-terms and voting is an essential part of democracy. Make your voice heard and exercise your right to vote this Tuesday! Enough said!
Today is Poetry Friday. Our host is Heidi at My Juicy Little Universe. Thank you for hosting Heidi! Please visit Heidi’s blog to post your link or read and comment on other participants.
The Apples in My Orchard 
I’m not doing NaNo this year. I did do it last year. I’m doing a 5 for 30–spending 5 minutes a day for 30 days on a project. It’s a picture book and I’m just playing with the idea for now. We’ll see what happens. It’s funny, I’m very much a planner in my real life, but in my novel writing, I tend to do a lot of pantsing–at least in the beginning stages. Best of luck on NaNo.
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Thanks Marcie! I’m intrigued with your 5 for 30 project. Maybe I’ll have to think of one of those for a winter month. My NaNo project is proceeding nicely. I hope I can stay on track. Why when we are planners in most other things, we become panthers when writing a novel. I think it’s odd but so far it seems to be working for me and prevents me from over thinking the story at this point.
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I have yet to do NaNo. I admire people who do this. And I am a pantser.
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Thanks Jone! It’s nice to know that about you! It makes me feel like I’m in good company!
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Best wishes for your ambitious month, Carol! I’ve never done any of the “months” – but I do have a kids’ novel I wrote a decade or so ago in the proverbial drawer. One of these days, I’ll drag it out and wrangle with it again… Enjoyed your invisible pet poem. :0)
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Thanks Robin. I’m using the NaNo guidelines as a motivator and goal setter for each day. So far it’s working. The pacing of my story has been the tough part so far. I’m glad you liked the per poem too. Thanks for stopping by!
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Good luck with all your writing this month Carol! I’ve done other month challenges but not this one… Love your “Invisible Pet” poem, beautiful field pic, and call to VOTE, thanks for all!
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Thanks, Michelle! I appreciate all you support! So far, so good with the NaNo challenge!
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Carol, I like your poem about an invisible pet. We’ve had a couple those kinds of pets, but most do not stay invisible.
Are you working on a MG or YA novel? I haven’t ever participated in NaNo because I like to revise after I write a chapter or two, though I am a pantster. I have never heard of a pantster before. I always think of a character and some kind of a problem in my head. Then, I start writing. Sometimes with poetry I write outside in my when I’m walking or hiking, though sometimes I don’t remember what I wrote in my head.
I hope you continue to write the amount you want to write every day. Just remember if don’t reach 50,000 words, it’s okay because you still wrote and that is a great thing.
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Good luck with NaNoWriMo! I discovered that I am a planner and I require a lot of pre-plotting. I am terribly impressed that you put together this post AND you’re still writing on Medium AND you’re doing NaNo. Feel free to cut yourself slack about the pacing of your NaNo novel. You can fix it later!
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Yes, Carol–a most impressive output at the moment. I’m interested to learn more about how Medium works. I didn’t realize writers earned money; I thought it was just way to get exposure. I’d love to talk with you about it. I wonder what would happen if I tried NaNoWriMo…I think about it every year and every year I don’t have an idea to even pants with…so I don’t!
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I had several students do NaNoWriMo years ago. One, with his family’s help, actually self-published. For those who did it, they thought it meant huge learning for them. Best wishes for you. I think that’s great, Carol. I love your poem. What a shock it must have been to discover that boot! Glad you wrote about voting, too. I hope people get out to vote, or have already. I dropped my ballot in one of the dropboxes last week! Crossing fingers for good results!
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Wow! I am impressed with your participation in nanowrimo. November is simply too full of activity for me. I have a state-level conference and family get-togethers this month. Someday, I might join in. You make it sound so possible! Thanks for that.
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This is funny and creepy! In my Patreon Group, I’m doing a 30-Day Challenge of writing a first draft of a poem every day. Last NaNoWriMo, I think I did a metaphor every day, bc I knew I needed to work on that skill. Good luck with your challenge! PS I just heard in a podcast that in France they use architect vs gardener as the metaphor instead of plotter vs pantser. I really like that! I’m a combo of both, depending on what I’m writing.
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Good luck with your novel! And I loved the Invisible Pet poem. It made me laugh because I’ve had many of those over the years.
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