What the what happened to December? If you are anything like me you are totally startled by NoMoSlackMo being only days away. Two short, measly days to be precise.
Don't panic. Seriously take a few deep breaths. Drink a Pepsi or a shot of Tequila or whatev calms your nerves. Better? Sweet...
NoMoSlackMo is our second chance. NaNo may have chewed us up and spit us out... and then stomped on us with golf cleats. Stupid Nano. But NoMo is a different kind of month. NoMo is a month filled with words that fly onto the page. A mont filled with laughter and support and with Melissa and I around... plenty of comic relief. Usually not intentional.
So it's all going to be okay. Promise....
Now a few little business items...
Melissa and I decided to it might be nice to have a forum where we can chat, give feedback on writing, slack off, etc. And so the NoMoSlackMo forum was created.
Here are your step by step instructions for joining us in a month of writing fun...
Step One: Go to NoMoSlackMo Forum
Step Two: Sign up
Step Three: Post, ask questions, etc.
Again people I must stress how important it is that you not leave Melissa and I to our own devices. The last time we were left in a room (or email inbox) together we had our precious little drunken bar baby... NoMo. And I know NoMo is cute and all but really. We need supervision.
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
I've Got Nuthin'
Hi everyone,
We are getting closer.
I have nothing particular in my head. I'm nervous.
I don't know what exactly I want to write or where to begin.
I have some books on writing, perhaps I need to just take some time & sift through them.
Does everyone else already have a start or a character or a lead of some sort already?
I'm going into this blindly; and although I've always wanted to have a firm beginning of something, I'm beginning to feel really intimidated and unworthy and stupid for even attempting this.
We are getting closer.
I have nothing particular in my head. I'm nervous.
I don't know what exactly I want to write or where to begin.
I have some books on writing, perhaps I need to just take some time & sift through them.
Does everyone else already have a start or a character or a lead of some sort already?
I'm going into this blindly; and although I've always wanted to have a firm beginning of something, I'm beginning to feel really intimidated and unworthy and stupid for even attempting this.
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Introductions and a Book Idea
Seasons Greetings! I think I am long over due for an introduction, as the newbie. Hello! I'm Kate, or more commonly known as Busted Kate on my blog or through Twitter. Thanks for including me, this really is a fantastic idea for a contributor-based blog.
My blog is based (mostly) on infertility. I call it a humor blog, but there are those Hallmark/after-school moments in there too. You can check it out here if you're interested. Even though I've only been blogging for a short period of time, I think I would consider myself a life-long writter. As a child I wrote short stories and poetry. In high school I was the editor of the "Features" section. In college I wrote other kids term papers... just kidding!
As a manager for a non-profit healthcare company, I do a lot of writing today... but it's mostly policies and procedures, memos, and position papers. Important yes, but fun? Not so much. I started my blog to have a creative output, and now that I've gotten back into the habit of writing for myself again I'm finding the ideas are beginning to flow easier.
One book that I have always dreamed of writing is the true-life story of my grandfather. I actually wrote a post about him and brief retelling of his story on my blog (here). It is such a compelling story, I almost feel neglectful in not having put it down on paper sooner. So that story is definitely at the top of my list.
However, I do believe the assignment was to come up with a novel idea (what a novel idea! ha!... oh enough booing from the peanut gallery). That I think I will have to ponder a little more, clearly my creative juices have not clearly out the cobwebs completely.
I look forward to learning from you all, and using your modivation to challenge my writing even further. Again, many thanks for the inclusion, and happy holidays! Kate
My blog is based (mostly) on infertility. I call it a humor blog, but there are those Hallmark/after-school moments in there too. You can check it out here if you're interested. Even though I've only been blogging for a short period of time, I think I would consider myself a life-long writter. As a child I wrote short stories and poetry. In high school I was the editor of the "Features" section. In college I wrote other kids term papers... just kidding!
As a manager for a non-profit healthcare company, I do a lot of writing today... but it's mostly policies and procedures, memos, and position papers. Important yes, but fun? Not so much. I started my blog to have a creative output, and now that I've gotten back into the habit of writing for myself again I'm finding the ideas are beginning to flow easier.
One book that I have always dreamed of writing is the true-life story of my grandfather. I actually wrote a post about him and brief retelling of his story on my blog (here). It is such a compelling story, I almost feel neglectful in not having put it down on paper sooner. So that story is definitely at the top of my list.
However, I do believe the assignment was to come up with a novel idea (what a novel idea! ha!... oh enough booing from the peanut gallery). That I think I will have to ponder a little more, clearly my creative juices have not clearly out the cobwebs completely.
I look forward to learning from you all, and using your modivation to challenge my writing even further. Again, many thanks for the inclusion, and happy holidays! Kate
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
10 Days and Counting....
Hello all!!!
We are ten days and counting from the start of the best writing month of your lives! *Are you picturing me as like an inspirational speaker...up on stage...pumping my hand in the air and jumping around? Cause that is totally what I pictured when I typed that. And then I spent a few minutes laughing.*
Anyway...I was saying... TEN DAYS. That's crazy right? So what does everyone have lined up? Do we have characters? Do we have the beginnings of a story? Do you have a blank page and a lot of wishful thinking?
Personally I have the beginnings of a story. I have four kick ass paragraphs and then I have a few pages of mindless craptasticness.
We are ten days and counting from the start of the best writing month of your lives! *Are you picturing me as like an inspirational speaker...up on stage...pumping my hand in the air and jumping around? Cause that is totally what I pictured when I typed that. And then I spent a few minutes laughing.*
Anyway...I was saying... TEN DAYS. That's crazy right? So what does everyone have lined up? Do we have characters? Do we have the beginnings of a story? Do you have a blank page and a lot of wishful thinking?
Personally I have the beginnings of a story. I have four kick ass paragraphs and then I have a few pages of mindless craptasticness.
Monday, December 21, 2009
The count down begins!
Hello Readers..
My name is Heather Polke for The Fabulous Finds I am sending you all a little Monday love.. The Holidays are around the corner and it's a crazy time. The mall is the worst place in the world to shop. The parking lots are bustling and the lines are crazy..Not to mention the price tags.. I feel the mall's prices are much higher than any strip mall store. I just saw a commercial for Marshalls/Tjmaxx.. They showed carolers standing in the middle of a mall singing to all the shoppers about how they spent way toooo much money while shopping in the mall and that they should rethink being there.. Pretty good commercial.. You know what else got me this holiday season.
I am always thinking about my business even when I am not working.. I have been in retail for over 25 years from being a buyer to a children and Handbag designer. I have to say this, customer service is gone.. I would really love to go to companies and teach customer service skills. What I also discovered is this.
Black Friday and any other day that flyer's came out.. Walmart get this.. Put out there flyer stating that their sale was starting on a Sunday.. You received the flyer on Thursday.. So you look through it and discover that at 6:00am doors will open and you can try and buy that certain item at a great price. But the catch they only have 2 per store. The other catch they started selling the items the day before on Saturday. Very upsetting.. So enough about all this negative holiday stuff.
I am happy to be part of this site.. Please swing by and send me comment.. I wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and a Healthy and Happy New Year.
XO,
TFF
My name is Heather Polke for The Fabulous Finds I am sending you all a little Monday love.. The Holidays are around the corner and it's a crazy time. The mall is the worst place in the world to shop. The parking lots are bustling and the lines are crazy..Not to mention the price tags.. I feel the mall's prices are much higher than any strip mall store. I just saw a commercial for Marshalls/Tjmaxx.. They showed carolers standing in the middle of a mall singing to all the shoppers about how they spent way toooo much money while shopping in the mall and that they should rethink being there.. Pretty good commercial.. You know what else got me this holiday season.
I am always thinking about my business even when I am not working.. I have been in retail for over 25 years from being a buyer to a children and Handbag designer. I have to say this, customer service is gone.. I would really love to go to companies and teach customer service skills. What I also discovered is this.
Black Friday and any other day that flyer's came out.. Walmart get this.. Put out there flyer stating that their sale was starting on a Sunday.. You received the flyer on Thursday.. So you look through it and discover that at 6:00am doors will open and you can try and buy that certain item at a great price. But the catch they only have 2 per store. The other catch they started selling the items the day before on Saturday. Very upsetting.. So enough about all this negative holiday stuff.
I am happy to be part of this site.. Please swing by and send me comment.. I wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and a Healthy and Happy New Year.
XO,
TFF
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Secret Prompts
Anyone need a writing prompt or two to get the creative juices flowing? How about a lil' something to spice up your character?
I won a book from one of my fav bloggers, Jenners, called The Secret Lives Of Men and Women, compiled by Frank Warren. People anonymously sent in postcards, notes, etc to Frank with a secret they wanted to get off their chest. He compiled them into this book for the world to see. It's funny, sad, touching, and a perfect bathroom read.
As I was looking through it I started to think about the people who sent in these secrets. What type of person would keep this secret? What is the back story? What has happened since they let sent it in?
I actually came up with a new character based off one of the secrets, that will probably never be fully revealed during my story, but adds depth to my character.
Head on over to our NoMoS BlogFrog community discussion- Secret Prompts - to check out some of the secrets posted if you're looking for a writing or character prompt.
Feel free to post, either here or in the blog frog, or on your blog or continue to keep it a secret, with what you write.
I won a book from one of my fav bloggers, Jenners, called The Secret Lives Of Men and Women, compiled by Frank Warren. People anonymously sent in postcards, notes, etc to Frank with a secret they wanted to get off their chest. He compiled them into this book for the world to see. It's funny, sad, touching, and a perfect bathroom read.
As I was looking through it I started to think about the people who sent in these secrets. What type of person would keep this secret? What is the back story? What has happened since they let sent it in?
I actually came up with a new character based off one of the secrets, that will probably never be fully revealed during my story, but adds depth to my character.
Head on over to our NoMoS BlogFrog community discussion- Secret Prompts - to check out some of the secrets posted if you're looking for a writing or character prompt.
Feel free to post, either here or in the blog frog, or on your blog or continue to keep it a secret, with what you write.
Friday, December 11, 2009
Talk Amongst Ourselves
Melissa and I are talking to ourselves. Which I gotta be honest, not so bad. Seriously the two of us are pretty great company. But... if you lovely ladies would come and join our awkward discussions...yep...way better.
Click it...Yep right here...or here...okay or here too...yep right here will also take you to our blogfrog NoMoSlackMo community.
Click it...Yep right here...or here...okay or here too...yep right here will also take you to our blogfrog NoMoSlackMo community.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Sucker for a Good Cause
So I got an email today from Blogfrog. Honestly I vaguely remember joining a blogfrog community but I'm not even certain what it was. Anyway I get all these random emails from them but this one actually caught my attention...
Copied from email...
"BlogFrog would like to inspire you to "Give the Gift of Community" to your blog readers and to The Children's Hospital! For every community that adds 20 new participants (someone who starts or replies to a discussion) between now and the end of the year, BlogFrog will donate $10 to The Children's Hospital."
So... $10 isn't much right...but $10 is better than $0. So in the spirit of holiday awesomeness...click on the little community widget over there on the sidebar and join the conversation.
Also...add a blogfrog to your blog and get the required 20 new participants and blogfrog will enter you for a drawing of a $100 Target gift card.
Copied from email...
"BlogFrog would like to inspire you to "Give the Gift of Community" to your blog readers and to The Children's Hospital! For every community that adds 20 new participants (someone who starts or replies to a discussion) between now and the end of the year, BlogFrog will donate $10 to The Children's Hospital."
So... $10 isn't much right...but $10 is better than $0. So in the spirit of holiday awesomeness...click on the little community widget over there on the sidebar and join the conversation.
Also...add a blogfrog to your blog and get the required 20 new participants and blogfrog will enter you for a drawing of a $100 Target gift card.
Friday, December 4, 2009
Did We Miss Anyone???
Okay so I think we have sent off invites to everyone who is following...but we might have missed some of you. So if we did, which you know I'm pretty sure we didn't because Melissa and I are perfect in every way, but on the off chance we did miss you. Please send us out a little email telling us to stop ignoring you and we will gladly get you added as an author.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
My book's theme
After much thought and encouragement from friends and family mine is going to be about faith and God. It is going to contain things I have learned in my walk with God, about his endurance and patience and love. How I went from a sexual abuse victim to an overcoming teacher to those who may be walking where I once was. How I went from fatherless to daughter of the King of kings...
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
excuses, excuses, excuses...
I was thinking today and wondering....
Our Border Collie pup that we got in October.
How long did it take my fellow slackers out there to realise that you were not going to make it through the crazy November NaNo challenge?
Me? I think it was in the first couple of days.
It's funny....I start to realize that something is not going the way I had hoped.....then my mind starts working.
Okay, what I'm really talking about is how I start laying blame.
On everyone but me.
The easiest place for me (for those of you who don't know me) is this guy
and I posted about if you're interested.
But there were plenty of other reasons that went through my mind for my November Flop....
~my kids and husband. --I mean come on do you really need to eat and have clean clothes all the time. Couldn't you just "wing it" for one month?
~the college age kids who started this whole thing. --Obviously they don't worry about cooking, cleaning, caring for a family. I don't remember if they had a job or not. Yeah, I know plenty of mom's out there who work and succeeded....okay, this is where I admit my "slackerness".
~November?--yes I'm blaming a month (or whoever chose it)! Really, could there be a worse month to do something like this? Ever heard of Thanksgiving? Christmas shopping and preparation? Flu season? Yeah, had them all at my house .
~the weather--we had some really unseasonably warm weather here in the Chicago area. Who wants to be inside writing when it's the last "hurrah!" for doing fun things outside. It was never this nice out other years....only the year I decide to do NaNo.
I loved to hear how long you held on to the "November dream" (I made it to 18,064 words- week 2) and any good excuses why you failed (or didn't start)?
Hi Everyone!
Let me introduce myself. First of I have the honor of being a fellow slacker with Kim...I do believe it was us who first coined the term! LOL
I've joined this because as you can see from my blog things went crazy in October and I never got to even think about participating in NaNo. So, in January, I will be giving the world the honor of writing about the idiots I've dated/married.
My book "You call this love?" will be entirely fiction (don't want any lawsuits!) but, it will give detail aobout the variety of men in my life--starting with my father. This should be interesting!
I've joined this because as you can see from my blog things went crazy in October and I never got to even think about participating in NaNo. So, in January, I will be giving the world the honor of writing about the idiots I've dated/married.
My book "You call this love?" will be entirely fiction (don't want any lawsuits!) but, it will give detail aobout the variety of men in my life--starting with my father. This should be interesting!
Saturday, November 28, 2009
NoMoSlackMo- No More Slacking Month
WELCOME TO NoMoSlackMo! No More Slacking Month! November's second chance cousin.
Maybe those 50,000 words for your New York Times Best Seller were just out of your grasp this year. Here's your chance to try again, on a smaller scale. On a more personally accountable scale. And a lot more fun scale.
See the brains behind this operation are Kimi @ So Many Kids So Little Time and Melissa @ Mommy is in the Bathroom. They are slackers just like you. They gave up on their novel in November, ashamed and angry for letting themselves down.
But as luck would have it, they found each other through blogging. And after a wild drunken night of nothing more than a comment or two, these two complete strangers made this little baby- NoMoSlackMo.
Please, they are not fit to do this on their own. Join them. Help them raise and nurture little NoMoSlackMo.
If you are interested in participating here's the low down-
Anyone who wants to participate will become an author on this blog with the ability to post whatever they want about their NoMo project, writing, avoiding writing, writing prompts, etc.
Just sign up as a follower and we'll email you to join our little Slacker family.
*Please be sure to leave us a comment so we can easily have your email address to add you as a blog author! Plus we want to say Hi! and Thank you! :)
More details to come as January becomes closer.
Please pass this on to whoever you think may have slacked off or has an interest to write a novel in the month January!
Maybe those 50,000 words for your New York Times Best Seller were just out of your grasp this year. Here's your chance to try again, on a smaller scale. On a more personally accountable scale. And a lot more fun scale.
See the brains behind this operation are Kimi @ So Many Kids So Little Time and Melissa @ Mommy is in the Bathroom. They are slackers just like you. They gave up on their novel in November, ashamed and angry for letting themselves down.
But as luck would have it, they found each other through blogging. And after a wild drunken night of nothing more than a comment or two, these two complete strangers made this little baby- NoMoSlackMo.
Please, they are not fit to do this on their own. Join them. Help them raise and nurture little NoMoSlackMo.
If you are interested in participating here's the low down-
- Writing takes place from January 1, 2010 to January 31, 2010
- Goal is to reach 50,000 words by midnight on January 31, 2010
- You don't have to start from scratch. The point is to finish what you slacked off on in November.
- You can start from scratch if ya want.
Anyone who wants to participate will become an author on this blog with the ability to post whatever they want about their NoMo project, writing, avoiding writing, writing prompts, etc.
Just sign up as a follower and we'll email you to join our little Slacker family.
*Please be sure to leave us a comment so we can easily have your email address to add you as a blog author! Plus we want to say Hi! and Thank you! :)
More details to come as January becomes closer.
Please pass this on to whoever you think may have slacked off or has an interest to write a novel in the month January!
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Writing Links
Coming Soon
If you have a helpful writing link that you would like added to this page, email us at nomoslackmo@gmail.com
If you have a helpful writing link that you would like added to this page, email us at nomoslackmo@gmail.com
Word Count Meter How To
Okay so here is what you'll want to do to set up your word count meter.
Open new post
Put "Word Count" as your label so it will pull up in the search
Click Post Options and change the date to 11/01/09
Then...
Copy and paste this code
Then title the post as "yournamehere's Word Count"
To update your word count change the number here "word=0"
To update your mood change the number here "mood=0"
Here is the mood legend
Mood What the Writer is Doing/Feeling
0 Very frustrated
1 Ready to shoot computer
2 Shocked at what's written
3 Sleeping
4 Watching TV
5 Logical & Calm
6 Working at novel
7 Joyful
Open new post
Put "Word Count" as your label so it will pull up in the search
Click Post Options and change the date to 11/01/09
Then...
Copy and paste this code
Then title the post as "yournamehere's Word Count"
To update your word count change the number here "word=0"
To update your mood change the number here "mood=0"
Here is the mood legend
Mood What the Writer is Doing/Feeling
0 Very frustrated
1 Ready to shoot computer
2 Shocked at what's written
3 Sleeping
4 Watching TV
5 Logical & Calm
6 Working at novel
7 Joyful
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