Hello friends, I am crawling out of my NaNoWriMo-induced hole to a sea of Movember moustaches plastered on my friends’ upper lips, a dusting of snow on the ground… and I think I’m going to climb back in, to be honest. I haven’t made my 50k yet but I’m on track and the biggest story challenges have been worked out, the fores all shadowed, plot devices oiled up and ready to run, and now is the time to write the fun stuff.

I had a particularly good year NaNoWriMo this year, including our rural/elsewhere group being assigned an ML for the first time, which did wonders to create a sense of community, our weekly write-ins taking place on discord (online). She is also a generous ML, sending us swag packets including stickers from our previous NaNoWriMo years – which made me squee with delight because stickers turn me into a twelve-year-old every time. She also tossed in some chocolate writing fuel, a notebook, sweet bookmarks, and a tiny bottle I’m to open in case of emergency (I haven’t yet). This was on her own dime, not NaNo’s, to which all I can say is thank you.

On a fun note, someone introduced me to 4thwords, a web-based fantasy writing game wherein you have to write so many words in an alotted time frame to defeat a monster and move on in your quest. If you like games, it could be a wonderful tool to build your daily writing habit. There is a fee of $4 per month, but also a thirty day free trail to see if it works for you. Several of my writing friends are using it now and loving it, so I’m going to try it out after NaNoWriMo is over. Click here to go to the site and see if it’s something that will get you writing too.

Gotta go, my wordcount is waiting!