Sounds like a Bon Jovi song, doesn’t it? Ooooo, we’re halfway there… 0000OOO, livin’ on a prayer! But these four NaNoWriMo-ers aren’t relying on prayers to reach that exalted finish line of 50,000 words (although we’re certainly prayin’, cheerin’, and rootin’ for them). With only a couple weeks left, they’re applying every ounce of discipline and dedication to reach their goal.
And the challenges before them are not insignificant. Real life doesn’t take a holiday for NaNoWriMo, and that includes day jobs, academic responsibilities (tests?!), professional responsibilities, extracurricular commitments, family duties, health issues, and technical difficulties! And don’t forget holidays (Thanksgiving isn’t canceled, after all) ! This is an epic journey for our writing team and we spoke to each of them (briefly) to see how they’re doing, find out what they’ve learned so far, and hear their plans for these last two weeks.
If you’re just joining us, check out our initial interview and workshop with all four creageous (creative and courageous) members of our NaNoWriMo Team:
- NaNoWriMo Project: Part 1
- NaNoWriMo Project: Part 2
- NaNoWriMo Project: Part 3
- NaNoWriMo Project: Part 4
The NaNoWriMo Project – Halfway There
Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:00:49 — 41.8MB)
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Meet the remarkable people featured on this podcast…
Your Co-Host: Jared Axelrod
Jared’s website: jaredaxelrod.com
The superb The Battle of Blood and Ink
Fables of the Flying City: fablesoftheflyingcity.com
Jared’s Tumblr feed: bornofanatombomb.com
@planetx on Twitter
And your panel of bold and dedicated writers…
John Mierau
Serving Worlds is John’s website where you can discover the fabulousity that IS John Mierau
Veronica Giguere
Veronica Giguere is a voiceover artist and author. She is a co-author, voice talent, and producer for the Secret World Chronicles podcast, and she writes and worldbuilds for comic publisher IncubatorPress. She is also an active voice at HG World in The Diary of Jill Woodbine, and she continues to read for authors in the realms of science fiction, fantasy, romance, horror, and erotica. Rumors exist of an mild-mannered alter-ego steeped in academia, fueled by caffeine, who trudges through the mire of higher education administration in pursuit of the letters P, H, and D while masterminding first-year college transition curriculum. Said creature often dabbles in psychology and early adulthood learning strategies, possesses an affinity for comic books and small talking horses, and strives alongside her spouse to raise literary-minded geekchildren. Supposedly, she is an expert on time management.
Check out Voices by Veronica to learn more about her incredible vocal artistry, and Visit her blog for the full spectrum of Giguere artistic awesomeness.
Starla Hutchton
Starla Huchton is a two-time Parsec Award nominated author, graphic designer, voice actor, and unrepentant geek temporarily based out of Newport, Rhode Island.
http://www.starlahuchton.com
http://www.designedbystarla.com
Links to all my projects are available via those websites.
Christopher Morse
Christopher X. Morse is an actor, podcaster, writer and part-time supervillain currently residing in Philadelphia, PA with his brilliant and beautiful wife, Erica. When not trying to write or perform silly fiction, he can be found with a book of silly fiction in his hands.
http://www.christopherxmorse.com/
http://www.supervillaincorner.com/
http://twitter.com/VillainCorner
Wonderful to hear from everyone as they go through their projects!
Thinking about talking with Jared at the beginning, I’ve heard people complain about Nano as well. But it’s more that the pressure of the month doesn’t work for them. And they know Nano’s not for everyone. And that’s cool. Everyone gets through it differently.
I do love it as it gives me a great chance to stop, drop, and roll…okay sounded good. But I stop the other stuff, drop the ‘extras’ I’m doing, and let my own words roll.
I have to say the finished product…is a hot ugly mess! Crazy things. But much was learned of the world, characters, and story. I pretty much agree with Jared’s thoughts on Nano. But I’ve not finished after Nano…which is on the top of the list for 2013. I’ve got last years Nano I want to revisit now, and seeing how that goes, maybe this years. 🙂
As for 50k…it is a lot yet not enough. I find it gives me the bare bones of a story to manipulate, mold, and create detail from. A start.
Dave. We’ll be looking for you to join next year!!
And I have all sorts of notes to go on with everyone, but I feel as I’m rambling. So I’ll finish off with way to go! And keep up with the words, no matter how many they end with. It’s more than you started with. 🙂 Take care all! And John, dude, here’s sending lots of thoughts to you to get through that count. We have faith!
What I find remarkable is that they were all surprised by secondary characters.
Veronica’s protagonist had a boyfriend appear out of the blue. Starla had a romantic librarian show up. Christopher had a well mapped out secondary character die on him, which meant another character stepped up to fill the void. Even with his relatively low word count John talked about how the secondary characters where key to moving his plot along.
That is the amazing thing with secondary characters. They can really make or break the story for you. And give you so much to play off of with your main.
Some people might think secondary characters are weak, but there is a huge strength in them to build your character in personality and the world around them, also to add to the plot. There are very important and key to play up. 🙂
Great discussion with all of them.
And I have to say listening to this podcast made me ready to finish up this Nano project and dive into another. Okay, so I’ve got to get back those ground zero drafts I have from last year and this year when done, to make some sort of complete story out of them. That is the goal for 2013.