NaNoWriMo

Wordful Weekend

February 23, 2013 by Carey Jane Clark

Back in November, I began a middle-grade novel (a middle grade novel is one aimed at the “tweens” age group) with the working title Truth and the Tepawani: An Adventure in the Amazon for NaNoWriMo. I decided last-minute to take the plunge and try to write for National Novel Writing Month, and didn’t really think I’d get as far as I did. The goal of NaNoWriMo is to write an entire novel in a month. The minimum word goal is 50,000 words. But this word goal is actually on the high end for a middle-grade novel, which is more at home at around 30,000 to 40,000 words (unless you’re writing fantasy).

In these posts, I hope to bring you inside my writing process and share a little of what I’ve learned of the art of writing fiction in the 10 or so years since in the midst of diapers, first teeth, nap times, and interrupted nights, I began making it a serious pursuit.

I finished NaNoWriMo 2012 at 32,905 words. I was immensely satisfied with that accomplishment–and exhausted. I decided to rest a while, and then Christmas came, and then the preparation for Chinese New Year, and–you see where this is going, right?

But last week, I picked things up again and even had a breakthrough, and I’m very close to calling the first draft of this book done. And then it will be time to revise, revise, revise.

And to start the next one. This time, another book for an adult audience.

But what’s the current book about? It’s the story of a 12-year-old boy who spends his summer vacation with his missionary cousins in the Amazon basin and makes an astonishing discovery certain to turn modern science on its head–if the evidence hadn’t mysteriously vanished.

An Update

November 20, 2012 by Carey Jane Clark

My apologies, in advance, to my subscription readers for this post. You may want to read it on the blogsite instead.

You may be wondering, “Where in the world is Carey Jane Clark?”

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Well, I’m still here in China

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But have been busy with NaNoWriMo

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But also with final pre-publication editing of the print version of After the Snow Falls

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since it will become available for sale in the very near future.

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I have also been very busy as we’ve started a weekly ESL Class in our home

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which has been taking some time to prepare.

While we won’t be celebrating Thanksgiving this week

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because we are Canadian

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and celebrated Thanksgiving in October when it is proper and fitting for a Canadian to do so,

I am still thankful

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for all our many blessings

and I will post again tomorrow, when I am all caught up with life again.

- Carey Clark

Furniture! At Last!

November 6, 2012 by Carey Jane Clark

I can’t believe it’s November 6th. Probably the only reason I know the date is because Sweetpea’s birthday is tomorrow. I realized today I’m overdue for my Write This Way post for November. (I’ll get that up later this week.)

There has been much activity at our house. We started ESL classes for the neighbor kids a couple of weeks ago, and that’s taken quite a bit of time for me to organize and prepare.

And Thursday last week was a really big day because our furniture finally arrived!

Here are some pictures of my favorite rooms, although every room makes us sigh with pleasure upon walking into it. After seven months sleeping on the floor and crouched around Rubbermaid-type bins pushed together in lieu of a table, we will never again take furniture for granted!

Here is the final edit of the homeschool room (except for the fact that our If/Then Chart has disappeared from the cupboard door behind Pumpkin–anyone seen it?) This space was lovely to work in even with our tiny little table. Now it’s truly our dream homeschool space. Everything is so convenient, we have storage for all our things. Wonderful!

A table! AND chairs! Wow. This is the marvel everyone seems to be appreciating the most. The kids keep remarking about being able to tuck their legs under something and how easy it is not to spill and make a big mess. My biggest thrill is the round table. I grew up eating at a round table. It’s so cozy and conducive to conversation!

Yep. They’re as comfy as they look. Already caught myself snoozing on the sofa.

As wonderful as the rest of the house is, this is perhaps my favorite little corner. It’s where I’ve been hammering out a lot of the words for NaNoWriMo (current count 7041–down a little on my daily count today since I was baking for Sweetpea’s aformentioned birthday).

It’s right next to the homeschool room, so super convenient and my desk matches JavaMan’s–a his and hers set.

A special word of thanks to Home Essentials of Hong Kong for making it all come together.

What a blessing! We are overwhelmed–again!

- Carey Clark

NaNoWriMo 2012

November 5, 2012 by Carey Jane Clark

I made a decision recently to write every day. To see if I could keep that up for a whole year. The plan was to use 750words.com and just do it.

Then a friend on Facebook asked who was doing NaNoWriMo. I’ve wanted to. Every year I’ve wanted to. I always made excuses, and I never did it. Sometimes, the excuses were somewhat legitimate. The rules are that you must be working on a brand-new novel–not a single word can be written before midnight November 1st. So when I was still finishing After the Snow Falls, I thought it would give me literary ADD if I started something else.

But this year, I had already been doing research for a new novel. I hadn’t written a word yet because I was still working out details of plot. I put the push on, hammered out a plot I’m very pleased with, and took the plunge.

Today is day five (5), and I’m just packing it in for the day after writing my 6,387th word. I’m a little behind–our furniture arrived last week. We spent a chaotic day in a sea of dressers, chairs and tables with mountains of cardboard and protective plastic wrap. We had to rush to get everything set up because 20 students were coming for an ESL class THAT NIGHT!

With the help of some good friends and neighbors we finished the job and the house looked beautiful and serene in time for 20 kids to come in and bounce all over the new furniture! (Pictures and post to come).

I’m hoping to make up the words over time–I exceeded the daily count today and yesterday. And I’m loving this! I’m wondering why I’ve never tried it before! I learned so much the first time around with After the Snow Falls. The seasoning of that experience has definitely taught me the tricks I need to keep going.

And this experience is teaching me a valuable lesson of its own: you never know what you might be able to accomplish unless you try.

- Carey Clark