Hoo! Four days into the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo)! Just settling into my rhythm, getting words onto the page. It’s an exciting month.
October was also killer, so to speak. Lots went on so let me show you how I met the goals for the month.
– Write 4 Flash Fiction Friday Stories (one per week)
– Done. Not only the four needed for October (and all of them with a Halloween theme!) but 5 for November, all Thanksgiving themed. I need to be able to focus on the novel so I got all 5 Friday flash fictions written and scheduled on my blog. You won’t miss a one.
– Update my Blog and Facebook Fan page (Both are titled ConniesRandomThoughts) weekly
– Did all of that. Indeed, I made quite a few changes to my blog. I changed the background color from boring gray to a more festive Autumn color. I added some new links to friend’s blogs and to a sign up for a newsletter for my fans. (See below for more about the newsletter sign up.) Not in the goals. I also update my Google+ page and my Twitter account, twice a day. If you aren’t a follower or friend on those sites I’m looking to build my communities there as well.
– Continue to revise short stories
– Did that.
– Continue to submit short stories
– I submitted one short to the Tucson Festival of Books and one to the Arizona ONE-BOOKAZ Goes Digital eBook Writing Competition.
– Finalize outline for November NaNo
– Done. I’m writing to that outline now. It’s the last of my Gulliver Station series. I wrote the first one last November (which has turned out to be book 3 of the series). I’m pretty excited about writing the final book. It’s taken me a year to do it.
– Other things
– I have begun looking into marketing for my books. I looked at some free training video’s by Jeff Walker, recommended by Holly Lisle. I was not able to take his course. But, based on the free information he published, Holly has put together an author-centric, free, self-monitored course on marketing. I’m going through the steps of that process as we speak. Most of the changes to my blog were based on the lessons of this marketing course.
– I put together a collection of Christmas themed stories. I already have the cover for it drafted and all of the stories. Also part of the marketing course, I plan to release the collection by the end of November. I had to write a couple of short stories to go into this collection. So I had plenty of daily writing practice for November’s NaNo.
Don’t forget to sign up for my newsletter where you’ll get first dibs on any promotions, book announcements, and other information. Go to the button on the right side of the blog or go to my Newsletter tab to sign up.
Halloween Tales released September 30th! I’m pretty excited about it. You can buy at: Apple, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Amazon or Smashwords today!
Links:
Kobo: http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/halloween-tales-a-collection-of-stories
Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/halloween-tales-connie-cockrell/1116995365?ean=2940045288972
Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/359689
Apple: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/halloween-tales-collection/id716418558?mt=11
You were pretty busy, Connie. Glad to hear you got all you wanted done!
Thanks, Ashe!
I signed up for Nano today (a little late!) Do you know if it runs every month? Loving your new Autumnal blog 🙂
No problem about signing up late. Just write every day and don’t worry about the 50K end point.
National Novel Writing Month runs only in November of every year. However, they do hold Camp NaNo last year in April and July. https://campnanowrimo.org/sign_in The rules for Camp NaNo are a bit different but still, it’s the same writing free for all that November is. I expect it will run the same in 2014.
Welcome to NaNoWriMo. My user name there is /conniecockrell if you’d like to Buddy or just send NaNo mail.
Hi Connie. Thanks for taking the time to reply, and for letting me know about campnano – it sounds great and I’ll be checking it out. I haven’t yet gone back to nano, but if I do then I shall drop you a hello 🙂