Friday, October 17, 2014

Celebrate the Small Things, and Prep for NaNo, part 2

 
This:
 

Celebrate the Small Things

1. I came down with my personal "ick" again (just after I posted that it was over - ugh), but friends and family rescued me with lots of help for all the daily life happenings in our household.

2. Feverish (literally), I wrote crazy bits of writing (still moving forward) and decided to do a few re-publish, pre-sale experiments with my flash story, "The Bridge Snap" and the beginning of a new series of stories and memoirs, "The Horse in the Well."

3. I made progress on Champion's Destiny.

4. I spent some quality time with Captain Wrath this week. I delved into some of his earlier life as plain old Ben Cranston before his life starts to spin out of control.

5. Decided to have a super sale on all my books in e-book. Everything is 99 cents: short stories, novels, etc. from now until November 1st. See my Amazon Author Page for the list.


Friday Freebie: "Seedling" is up for free grabs for kindle readers and kindle apps again this week. Click on the title to follow the link.


Prep for NaNoWriMo, part 2: Theme

Theme is the basic big idea that drives a story forward. It's usually simple and can be summed up in one to three words:

Freedom

Faith

Love conquers All

Those are just some theme examples.

I didn't realize how much theme mattered until I was hopelessly lost in a convoluted plot with a dozen rabbit trails. Theme can help a writer stay focused.


What's your theme for NaNoWriMo this year? And, what are you celebrating this week?

21 comments:

Laura Clipson said...

Glad you made progress despite not feeling well!

cleemckenzie said...

I'm a No No to NaNo. Not something I'm interested in. Hope you're feeling better soon. I hate being sick. It gets in the way of all I want to do.

Tyrean Martinson said...

me too. :)

Tyrean Martinson said...

I'm started to feel better again - I just have to be even more careful of what I eat and how much I eat . . . something that is just a necessity for me that I want to ignore sometimes and ignoring that gets me disastrous results.

Unknown said...

Feel better, and try to take it easy just a bit. (This is like the pot calling the kettle black)!

Kate Larkindale said...

I guess the theme of my NaNo book this year is acceptance... Maybe. It may change as I write it.

Glad you're feeling better.

Suzanne Furness said...

Glad you made progress with your writing even though you weren't feeling well. Hope you are fully recovered soon.

Crystal Collier said...

I still think I'm insane for even considering doing NaNo this year, but deadlines... Anyhow, theme? Patience, true love is worth waiting for, and doing the right thing sometimes sucks. Those all work, right?

Crystal's Blog

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

No NaNo this year, but theme would've never occurred to me.
Time with Captain Wrath! That's good to hear.

Jeff Chapman said...

Best of luck with NaNo. Just "bought" Seedling.

Luanne G. Smith said...

I sometimes do some interesting writing when I'm sick. Especially on cold medicine. :P

Have a great weekend!

SK Anthony said...

Feel better!!!! Glad you made progress though. Good luck with NaNo!!! :)

S.K. Anthony: Deleting the Best Part of You

Kathryn Thornton said...

I wasted my sick day taking medicine and sleeping. Boy I feel silly now. Amazing you were able to be productive with a fever. I hope you are over it.

Unknown said...

Wow, you've accomplished a lot this week even with your "ick." Good for you! Theme is important. I always know what my main theme is but I can still get lost down the rabbit holes! lol

Anonymous said...

Sorry to hear about your "ick." Sounds like you made some great progress, though. I'm not doing NaNo at this point, but maybe Camp NaNo this fall. Hope you feel better soon!

Heather R. Holden said...

Aw, sorry to hear you're not feeling well. That's great about your writing progress, though! Also, I completely agree with you about theme. I like to figure out that kind of thing for my own projects, too...

L.G. Keltner said...

My son has been sick twice in two weeks. There's a lot of stuff going around. I hope you feel better soon and stay that way!

Leovi said...

Cute Pic Its range of fabulous books!

Kristi Campbell said...

I guess my goal is to actually DO NanoWrimo this year... I signed up last year and flunked with my words...

LD Masterson said...

Not doing NaNo but I'm playing with a new story. Good reminder to identify my theme up front. Keep feeling better.

Anonymous said...

Sorry you hadn't been feeling well. Hope you're doing better now.

Sounds like you've done quite a bit already. I'll get a hold of a work or two and put it on my TBR. I can't guarantee when I'll be able to have the review done since I'll be starting NaNo soon and trying to keep up with my blogs. Have a great day. Eva