Tag: Night of Writing Dangerously

Progress

~ Chelsea ~ 2 Comments

Well, I completely failed at updating this blog, it would seem. November was very productive for me. I was able to complete the National Novel Writing (NaNoWriMo) challenge of 50K words in 30 days; even completed my personal challenge: 50k by the 18th, since I was determined to ring the bell at the Night of Writing Dangerously convention they have each year (this last year was the LAST year so it was either then or never).

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Since then, I have not looked at the piece. Not because I think it is bad, but because I feel like I need to rewrite the entire thing due to it being a bit lighter than I thought it was going to be. I believe it is mainly due to the music I had been listening to, which was much more upbeat than I would typically listen to for such writing. Granted, I keep coming up with new characters and stories to add into this story, which is not helping in completing the story.

That is one thing I have noticed through the years, I have written little pieces here and there but most of it seems to be a part of the same world or same storyline without it being said in so many words. I think I may need to take everything, reread it, and lay it out to figure out what the heck I have actually done in the past ten to fifteen years of writing. Yes, it has been that long since this story has started. I have been aiming to get it out this year, but I am unsure that is going to actually happen since it is a bit more complex than I thought it was going to be.

I do not want that to be an excuse though, so I am not going to allow it to be. June has just started and while I am slacking slightly, I really would like to have this be the start to “finishing” this story and then take the plunge into editing and publishing before the year is out. If I can do that then I will be a very happy person come the end of the year.

The fear of being a fraud always freezes me up but I have joined quite a few great writing groups who have all said they have felt the same way, and even after publishing still have that feeling, but I will have to just push through it to get to the dream I have. I am not in anyway hoping for this to pay bills, but I want to get my story out there and feel like it would be a failure for me not to get the story out there for SOMEONE to read.

If you follow me, if you are reading this, send me a message, send some encouragement and some kick in the butt to get it done. THANK YOU IN ADVANCE.

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LAST YEAR of NaNoWriMo Night of Writing Dangerously

~ Chelsea ~ Leave a comment

I just received this email from the staff at NaNoWriMo. If you have been holding off to join us on this fun adventure, then this is the last year to get in on it.

Hi everyone,

For twelve years, the Night of Writing Dangerously has been an important fundraiser for NaNoWriMo, but equally importantly, it has been an opportunity to connect in person with the writers for whom NaNoWriMo has been a guiding light and a shining star. The community-building aspects of the event were always as important to us, if not more so, than the fundraising side.

But over the course of the last five years, the fundraising side of it has become increasingly challenging. The total amount raised by the Night of Writing Dangerously has been steadily decreasing, while costs to put on the event have risen sharply. The number of people able to attend the event has also decreased, as our necessary price increases have put ticket prices out of reach for more and more people. Costs are slated to increase again this year, and we’ve had to sit down and wrestle with the realities of being a small non-profit organization.

And as a result, we have made the difficult decision that 2018 will be the last Night of Writing Dangerously.

We know many of you will be incredibly disappointed to hear this news. We are disappointed as well; we love this event, and have worked hard to try to find ways to make the math work. We hope that in the future, we’ll be able to plan a new in-person event that will be accessible to more participants, with all the joy and inspiration of the Night of Writing Dangerously.

Let’s send the Night of Writing Dangerously off on a high note

And in the meantime, we hope you’ll join us to send off the Night of Writing Dangerously with our biggest, best event ever. We’ll be pulling out all the stops to make our final Write-a-thon one to remember, and we’d love to see you there. We know that not all of you will be able to join us this year and were already planning to attend in future years, and we’re sorry that won’t be happening. We’ll keep in touch as plans for future events develop, and we hope to see you at a NaNoWriMo event down the road.

But if you can attend this year, we recommend getting your fundraising up and running or buying your ticket as soon as you’re able to, as we suspect there’s going to be a full house this year.

The Night of Writing Dangerously has been an incredible event for our organization and for the writers who have attended it. We will miss it greatly, and we will remember it fondly. We are so grateful to you for the support you’ve given our organization over the years, and we hope this decision won’t dim your memory of past events or dampen your enthusiasm for future NaNoWriMo events. The future is bright, friends, we just have to give it some time to reveal itself.

Sarah Mackey
Director of Community Engagement

Workspace

~ Chelsea ~ Leave a comment

I have an office and it is finally at a point where I can actually work in it. I have been putting it off as I organized the rest of the house, but I finally have the majority of the house done and was able to focus on my office. It is by no means done, but I have a desk where my computer is now set up. I have my books starting to fill shelves I am having to add to. My pictures are all finding homes on the walls. I even found a service I can send my son’s artwork and school work into and they will photograph it for me and make a book of it all for me. I am in 7th Heaven with that idea. I have about three or four boxes of stuff and received another bag of it home the last week of school so I think the majority of the papers, now, are his school work.

With all of this accomplishment I have less excuse to write. I tried to do NaNo’s April Camp and flunked out after the first week. I could not find the time or the motivation as I was still trying to get the house under way. The next camp is in July and while I have no idea what I am going to do for it, I plan on doing as much writing as I can. I have been going to the gym during the day, which will open up the evenings to allow me to write. I just will have to make sure I am not too tired. I cannot seem to focus if I am too tired.

Information for The Night of Writing Dangerously has come out and I have my fundraising page setup here. I have only a week left before prices go up and would love if you could help me out in going. I went last year and had a wonderful time with networking and actually getting a really good chunk of words in during that night. There was so many speakers and fun stuff to do that night. I wasn’t sure what to expect but it was a wonderful experience and I cannot wait to do it again.

Alright, enough procrastinating, back to writing.