NaNoWriMo 2011 - Winner!

51912 was the official NaNoWriMo tally today.  Done!  For now at least, giving myself a week off.  So glad we had the great community here.  On my way out the door so more later. :)

The Home Stretch - A Thanksgiving NaNoWriMo

Here we go!  We are in the home stretch of NaNoWriMo 2011 and I have been pleasantly surprised.  My progress has been steady and I have no doubt I'll be a winner this year (this being my second, I didn't fare as well last year). If you are a little behind remember to just sit and write, no distractions, no editing, no excuses!

Though we still have a week left I wanted to thank everyone that has participated in the great writer communities on Google+ and Twitter.  The writer hangouts and NaNoSprints really were a lifesaver. Someone was always there when I needed to be challenged or spurred to write more. I am thankful for each and every one of you. Here's hoping everyone else is doing well with their projects (and in the U.S. have great Thanksgiving)!

NaNoWriMo 2011 - Day 14

Sorry for the lack of daily updates.  I was hoping to keep up the same format for each day.  I find though that I am so busy some days I can't even write.  Then when I can write I am playing catch up and have no time to update here.  I don't even think I've updated on Google+ or Twitter recently lol.

Anyways NaNoWriMo is going well, very well in fact.  I am just happy to be on target and actually getting more writing done than I ever have before.  I hope everyone else's month is going great!  I'll try to use my previous format for some posts when I can.

NaNoWriMo 2011 - Day 9

• Today's Word Count: 4351

• Current Word Count: 17615

• Words to Go: 32385

• Cups of Coffee: 2

• Hours Spent Writing Today: 4

• Number of Breaks Taken: 3

• Number of Characters Killed: 0

• Number of Times Writers’ Block Occurred: 0

• Number of Times I Almost Gave Up: 0 

Think I just about caught up to where I should be, maybe even surpassed it.  Now I am hoping to get back onto a regular writing schedule.  Playing Catch up is hard work.

NaNoWriMo 2011 - Day 8

• Today's Word Count: 3866

• Current Word Count: 13264

• Words to Go: 36736

• Cups of Coffee: 3

• Hours Spent Writing Today: 3

• Number of Breaks Taken: 2

• Number of Characters Killed: 1

• Number of Times Writers’ Block Occurred: 0

• Number of Times I Almost Gave Up: 0 

Trying to play catch up after a busy weekend is not fun!  All in all a good day of writing though, now if I can just do this again tomorrow. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

NaNoWriMo 2011 - Day 4

•  Today's Word Count: 2973

• Current Word Count: 9398 

• Words to Go: 40602

• Cups of Coffee: 1

• Hours Spent Writing Today: 2

• Number of Breaks Taken: 2

• Number of Characters Killed: 0

• Number of Times Writers’ Block Occurred: 0

• Number of Times I Almost Gave Up: 0 

NaNoWriMo 2011 - Day 3

Day 3 continued as a good day. So far NaNoWriMo has been good fun with loads of support and camaraderie from the NaNoWrimo, Google+ and Twitter communities.  The writing is till flowing smoothly, no lack of material...yet.  Also managed a 3 mile run this morning and a 2 mile walk after dinner with the wife. I can see the need to flesh out the story a bit when I get far enough ahead in the word count.  Right now I feel as if I am writing well, but a lot of the scenes are random and out of order.  They are all needed, but I am writing them as I am in the mood to see how they turn out.  I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not.  Though as long as I am not hitting a wall yet I'm happy.  I hope everyone else is having success too.

• Today's Word Count: 1996

• Current Word Count: 6425 

• Words to Go: 43575

• Cups of Coffee: 1

• Hours Spent Writing Today: 1.5

• Number of Breaks Taken: 2

• Number of Characters Killed: 1 (Minor character, needed a writing boost.  May reappear in later drafts)

• Number of Times Writers’ Block Occurred: 0

• Number of Times I Almost Gave Up: 0 

Very happy with today's progress. How did everyone else do?

NaNoWriMo 2011 - Day 2

Day 2 went well and a little bit quicker than yesterday.  Still thinking I may lose steam a little once I run out of outline and have to start connecting the dots.  As a whole though I am very happy with my progress.  I hope everyone else is off to a good start too!

• Today's Word Count: 1945

• Current Word Count: 4429 

• Words to Go: 45571

• Cups of Coffee: 1

• Hours Spent Writing Today: 1.5

• Number of Breaks Taken: 2

• Number of Characters Killed: 0

• Number of Times Writers’ Block Occurred: 0

• Number of Times I Almost Gave Up: 0 

Very happy with today's progress. How did everyone else do?

NaNoWriMo 2011 - Day 1

So excited now that NaNoWriMo has started.  I was able to get off to a good start today, though I am intimidated by some of your Day 1 totals!  I felt like I was writing out of order a bit. I decided to write three of my scenes that really don't come in sequence, but I wanted to see where each led.  I now have some good ideas for tomorrows writing.  I hope you all had a good day too, here's my stats for Day 1.  I know the progress bar to the right doesn't match, but I did a quick second writing session in the afternoon.  Now the site where I get the progress meter is down and I can't update it.  I may have to look at something else to track it here.


Edit: Well the site where I get my progress trackers is back up.  If anyone needs one you can find them at Language is a Virus.

• Today's word count: 2484 

• Current Word Count: 2484

• Words to Go: 47516

• Cups of Coffee: 1

• Hours Spent Writing Today: 2

• Number of Breaks Taken: 1

• Number of Characters Killed: 1( minor character whose job was always to die, lol)

• Number of Times Writers’ Block Occurred: 0

• Number of Times I Almost Gave Up: 0 (It's Day 1 - no giving up yet)

Very happy with today's progress. How did everyone else do?

Your Ideal Reader

When a publishing house considers your novel, one of the first things they ask themselves is, "Who's going to buy this book?"

One answer they won't even consider is, "Everybody."

Every book has a natural audience. When a publisher tries to market your book, they're going to target that natural audience.




This is true, even when a story has extraordinarily broad appeal. The Harry Potter series was massively
popular, but even so, plenty of people didn't read it. I know lots of readers who heard about it and just
shrugged and said, "So what?" I know others who read the first chapter and didn't get it and stopped. I know others who read the first book and then quit.

I'm going to bet that very few of them were 11-year-old boys. The ideal reader for the first Harry Potter book was an 11-year-old boy.

True, lots of other people liked the book. Zillions of adults. Zillions of females. But we're talking here
about which group loved it best. That group was the set of boys Harry's age.

Why think about these "ideal readers" when they obviously aren't the only readers for a book?
Simple. Every publisher has a limited marketing budget. Their game plan is to market your book