The Useless Critic 2.0

It's almost November, and that means for us writerly types, that means it's National Novel Writing Month . If you're not familiar with NaNoWriMo, it's a month of crazy amounts of writing. The goal is to get to 50,00 words of a completely original novel. No editing, no filters, just writing all month long till you get to the goal. I've participated the past two years, actually getting to 50,000 in my first year (humble brag be damned). Last year was...not as good. Long story short, I flamed out about halfway through. I did get some good material, but I just wasn't as committed as the previous year. Bitch knows how to make an entrance. I'm looking to change that. For this year, I'm sticking with my theme of reinventing a character from classic mythology. This time I've chosen Eos, the goddess of the dawn. She's an odd one, for sure, and that's why I was drawn to her.  In the research I've been doing, one of the strangest things ...

You guys... it's November. You know what that means! NANOWRIMO! National Novel Writing Month is upon us. Basically, you write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November. You can write more than that - and you probably should, because 50,000 words is not a whole lot (100 pages in Word, single spaced, Times New Roman, font size 12). But as long as you write 50,000 words you're in the clear. That's 1667 words a day for 30 days. You read far more than that on an average day! There's an extremely active writing community on the official forum and there are also Facebook groups, LiveJournal communities, and websites and message boards dedicated to the writing phenomenon. If it seems a little intimidating - well, that's because it is. I suggest you run out and buy "No Plot? No Problem!" by Chris Baty, the founder of NaNoWriMo. It's a well-written, informative book that should serve you well even when you aren't trying to write a book in 30 days. Do yo...