Tag: National Novel Writing Month

The Magic of a Highlights Foundation Writing Retreat

November 29, 2021 / Katie L. Carroll

Quick reminder that there are just a couple of days left to get 10% my entire catalogue of books using code NOVEMBER10. Just go to the Purchase Books page and I’ll ship them directly to you. All books are signed with an option to personalize, and all purchases come with fun book swag!

For those of you who have been followers of my blog for awhile, you may remember the last time I went to the Highlights Foundation or a writing retreat and wrote “Highlights Foundation Unworkshop: A Little Creepy, A Lot Productive.” My writing friend Katlyn Duncan and I enjoyed it so much, we scheduled one for the following fall.

Then COVID happened and we had to put the trip on hold, but we finally made back early this month! And it was amazing!!! Yes, amazing with three exclamation points.

With this retreat scheduled for early November and me just starting a draft of my latest young adult novel, all the stars aligned for me to attempt National Novel Writing Month. NaNoWriMo (for short) occurs in November and a bunch of writers attempt to draft a book (i.e. write 50,000 words) in 30 days. It’s an intense experience, and one I was not in a position to attempt in recent years.

This year, I stayed in Cooper’s Cottage, which was a bright and airy cabin full of Floyd Cooper’s illustrations and with a view of the hiking path. It was not haunted, though one of the other writers I was on the retreat with stayed in my old cabin, and (spoiler alert) that one is still haunted. I actually didn’t write much in my cabin because I was retreating with three other writers this year and we mostly wrote in common spaces or in one of the other cabins (but not the haunted one!).

As I said, it was an amazing trip, and I highly recommend a Highlights retreat for all of you creative types. I wrote a ton of words and set myself up for successfully completing my NaNoWriMo challenge (as of November 28 when I’m writing this, I’m at 47, 250 words for the month and on track to finish on time). There’s much to be said of having everything taken care of for you so you have the brain space to only think of writing.

As a teaser for what I’m working on, I composed this poem in the Highlights word garden. As you can see, it’s kind of an intense story, but I’m really pleased with how it’s coming out. Though there will be a ton of revisions to come.

dark and light
scream within
the storm
Katie L. Carroll

My retreat mates are all vloggers, so you can check out their videos about the experience below. I kind of hate making videos myself, so I’ll be sticking to this old blog for now.

November #InkRipples: Finishing That Book (Or Not!)

November 13, 2017 / Katie L. Carroll

It’s no secret here on the Observation Desk that I’m a notoriously slow writer. I’ve expressed how I feel about prolific authors (see Confessions of an Author: Prolific Writers). More recently, I blogged about Why Is It Taking Me So Long To Write The Second Elixir Book. It took almost ten years from when I first started writing ELIXIR BOUND for it to become a published book. I’m not exactly winning any speed awards over here!

via GIPHY

So I am afraid I have no business offering any kind of advice on the November #InkRipples topic of Finishing that Book! I’ve tried NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month, where many writers try to write a complete book, i.e. 50,000 words, in the month of November). Last year I tried a modified version of it (see Gearing up for National Novel Writing Month 2016) and fell short. One year I actually won NaNoWriMo and wrote 50,000 words of a story, but that story has since become a drawer manuscript that will probably never be published.

But you’ll tell me that no words are wasted, even the unpublished ones. Or that the words will come and to take whatever time I need writing them. This is what I tell myself (and those things are both true). But that doesn’t mean it isn’t frustrating to be a slow writer. Couple that with the fact that I never feel like I have adequate time to write, and that makes for a very frustrated writer.

Nevertheless, I’m still plugging along over here at my achingly slow snail’s pace. How about you all–what do you do to get that book finished?

#InkRipples is a monthly meme created by Katie L. Carroll, Mary Waibel, and Kai Strand. We pick a topic (November is all about Finishing that Book!), drop a ripple in the inkwell (i.e. write about it on our blogs), and see where the conversation goes. We’d love to have you join in the conversation on your own blogs or on your social media page. Full details and each month’s topic can be found on my #InkRipples page.

NaNoWriMo and ELIXIR SAVED Sneak Peek

November 21, 2016 / Katie L. Carroll

NaNoWriMo is in full swing! As I’ve mentioned, the book I’ve been working on is ELIXIR SAVED, a companion novel to my published YA fantasy ELIXIR BOUND. I thought as little treat, I’d share the working blurb (i.e. jacket copy) for the second Elixir book.

The Elixir has a way of entwining the lives of those it saves. Kylene was spared from a painful death by a poisoned spear, Zelenka from a vicious animal attack, and Devon from an incurable childhood illness. Although saved by the Elixir, none were left without scars. After a shocking message from the Higher Beings, each one will embark on a journey. Kylene is sent to the frozen depths of Blanchardwood, Zelenka back to the wilds of Faway Forest, and Devon on a spiritual journey of self-discovery. Three paths that lead to war against an ancient foe where even the Elixir cannot save everyone. They will be pushed to the limits of what they think they can do. It all comes down to how much they are willing to sacrifice with their second chances.

Three lives saved by the Elixir; three lives bound by it. In ELIXIR SAVED, escape back into the world of the Kase family in this much-anticipated follow up to ELIXIR BOUND.

Alrighty, back to the grind for me. Gotta get those 25,000 word finished!

Gearing up for National Novel Writing Month 2016

October 31, 2016 / Katie L. Carroll

November is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo or NaNo). The idea is that crazy writers set aside the month of November in an attempt to draft 50,000 words of a novel. That’s approximately 1,667 words a day, including weekends and holidays.

Before I had kids I actually did NaNoWriMo one year, the whole 50,000 words. And it sucked. The process of writing that many words in one month sucked. The words themselves sucked. The story sucked. And it sucked the life out of me! It’s a manuscript where I really liked the initial idea, but when I revised it, nothing was working. I tried different point of views, shifting tenses, reworking the plot. Let’s just say I’ve moved on from this story and it kind of soured me on the whole NaNoWriMo thing.

Elixir Bound by [Carroll, Katie L.] But I’ve been in a bit of a writing funk the last few months, since summer really. I’ve done lots of “smaller” writing things (writing a new beginning for a finished manuscript, working on a picture book idea, and the usual parenting articles and such). I had a few spurts of productivity, but not a lot of new words flowing. And I really have been wanting to get a draft done of ELIXIR SAVED (a companion to ELIXIR BOUND). Like I’ve been working on a first draft of this manuscript for years and it’s really starting to weigh on me.

Now it’s a tough manuscript to write because one of the point-of-view characters is based on my sister Kylene (and even has her name) and can be emotionally draining. So I’ve been lenient on myself when I’ve had to take breaks, but it’s time to get this one done. I decided to come up with a plan to finish. Earlier this month I took a look at how much I’d actually written, and it was a lot more than I thought I had–over 50,000 words. To put that into perspective, the completed novel of ELIXIR BOUND is a little over 55,000 words.

Now I knew that SAVED, with its multiple points of views and more epic scale, was going to be quite a bit longer than BOUND, but it was a nice surprise to see that I had accumulated so many words. It was heartening, and it made me feel like I could actually finish this first draft…and soon. That’s was when I was like, “I could use NaNo to get this done.”

With so many words already, I don’t need to set the (unrealistic for me) goal of 50,000 words in a month. I’m going to halve it for a goal of 25,000 words, which would be about 834 words a day or 1,137 words a day if you only count weekdays. That seems doable to me, and it should be enough to finish off the draft. And you know what, even if I don’t meet my exact goal, it’s going to serve as a framework to get me to the finish.

I’ve spent the last few weeks outlining the plot I already have and listing out the scenes I still need to write. I’ve written, formatted, and scheduled all my November blog posts (with only a few updates needed when the dates get closer), so I don’t have to worry about those. I dusted off my old NaNo profile (for anyone else who is doing NaNo, my username is ktlc1113 if you want to look me up on their site) and got it all up to date. I’ve squared away all my other freelancing, etc… work. (The kiddos will still be around all month bugging me, but not much I can do about them!)

I’m ready to start…tomorrow. And hopefully by the end of the month, I’ll have a finished draft of ELIXIR SAVED. Wish me luck!