• ducks in a row, plan ahead
    encouragement,  networking,  Uncategorized

    NaNo Prep

    NaNoWriMo is just around the corner. What’s that you ask? It’s shorthand for National Novel Writing Month. Each November since 1999, participants have attempted to write a 50,000 word novel. That’s a lot of words! Resources: Word Tracker NaNoWriMo’s website at NaNoWriMo.org is chock full of helpful resources. There’s a word tracker to show progress toward your word count goal. It’s set up as a graph. With days on the X axis and word count on the Y axis a target slope gives you a daily word count goal. Your actual progress shows where you stand in relation to the target slope. If you write every single day with no…

  • critique partners, friends
    networking,  revision,  writing craft

    Critique Partners

    Last month I talked briefly about the importance of networking. Today I want to dig a little deeper. Your critique group or partner is probably the basic building block of your writing network. Goldilocks Principle Critique partners are ‘first eyes’ on your work. They become trusted partners in your writing process. So how do you find them? If you’re a student, it can be as easy as tapping a fellow classmate. But be careful. Your goal is to find someone who is unafraid to make suggestions that will improve your work. Like Goldilocks you want to find a partner that is just right. You don’t want your critique partner to…