Nanowrimo

NaNoWriMo Week 1: Let’s get this party started!

/ Sonora / Leave a comment

We’re four days in! Whether you’re thousands of words ahead or haven’t even started yet (that’s right–it’s not too late), here’s my first weekly NaNo post with prompts, tips, fun ideas and hopefully some encouragement!

I’ll be doing this every Monday for the rest of November, so please tell me in the comments what you found useful, what you’d like to see more of, or if you have any ideas or tips of your own to share!

For now, welcome to week one! The land is green and comforting, the birds are singing, and the waters of the unknown plot are warm and inviting–it’s a great time to dive right in and try to figure out what the hell your novel is about. Mine has vampires and a cute grey/blue kitten. Besides that, I still have no idea where it’s going. Continue reading →

My Favourite Spooky Books

/ Sonora / 2 Comments

Happy day-after-Halloween, day-before-Dios de Los Muertos, and 1st day of NaNoWriMo!

As two of these events are traditionally spooky, let’s think about spooky books! Also, my NaNoWriMo story this year will probably have heavy vibes of all the books I’m about to mention, so I think this works nicely as today’s blog post. Disclaimer: I’m not a big reader of horror, so these books are not that–they’re just ‘spooky’ and play around with ideas of death/supernatural creatures/witches. You’ll also notice that there’s not much author/book variety here, so join in and please list your favourite ‘spooky’ books and why they’re worth reading in the comments! Continue reading →

NaNoWriMo 2018

/ Sonora / 4 Comments

NaNoWriMo 2018-why you should be writing a novel this month https://sonorahillsauthor.com/From the exact moment this is posted, it will be two days and fourteen hours until NaNoWriMo. Or exactly 3,720 minutes.

It’s coming.

And I’m so excited!!!

For those of you who pay attention: yes, today is a Monday and I usually post on Thursdays. But not this month, folks. For November I will be posting every Monday with NaNo themed content–prompts, pep-talks, and commiseration galore–as well as my usual Thursday posts. For me, NaNoWriMo has always been about trying something new–this bi-weekly posting is new for me, we’ll see how it goes!

What will your new be? A lot of people’s reasons for not doing NaNo is based on incorrect facts. I’m not here telling you that you have to do it–I’m just going to tell you how you’re missing out, and why your reasons for not doing it are wrong. Because I’m nice like that. Continue reading →

Writing Prompt #6

/ Sonora / 1 Comment

September is nearly over, autumn is in full swing, and let’s not forget November is only a month away–you know what that means. NaNoWriMo is coming!! Yes, it’s still ages away, but the time will pass before we know it, so why not start limbering up with writing prompts?! Or, if you’re just here to join in and have fun, that works too!

Today’s game: Double Up

Fusion of Snap Shot and Fire Starter!! Use both the sentence and the image to spark an idea for a flash piece. Continue reading →

NaNoWriMo vs. Camp NaNo

/ Sonora / 1 Comment

Commonly known fact: it’s April.

Not-so-commonly known fact: it’s Camp NaNoWriMo.

If you’re a writer, you’ve probably heard of NaNoWriMo–the once-a-year crazy writing frenzy that results in a flurry of novely things (some are more novel-resembeling than others). But you may not have heard of its summer-loving sister, Camp NaNoWriMo, so here is the breakdown of these two events: Continue reading →

Whose Voice is That?

/ Sonora / Leave a comment

IMG_20170316_165432There are a multitude of things that make up a character. Physicality, goals, fears, and looks are just a few, but there’s a big one that often gets ignored.

Voice.

Sure, maybe it’s obvious when a character has a specific way of talking, but what about when the entire book is written in the main character’s voice? Sometime’s it’s really obvious, but other times it’s so subtle that the reader barely notices. Continue reading →

Writing Junk is Important

/ Sonora / 2 Comments

I’m confident that nearly every writing book out there has this piece of advice in various forms:

“In order to write well, you have to write a lot of garbage.”

But what is this garbage we’re all talking about? On which ‘level’ of writing does this junk appear?

Well, just as there are numerous different words for unwanted items (junk, garbage, rubbish, trash, 废物, etc.), there are many ways to think about our literary waste. Continue reading →

5 Reasons Why NaNoWriMo is Awesome

/ Sonora / Leave a comment

If you are a writer, then you should be participating in NaNoWriMo.

I know, it’s a lot to ask. 50,000 words in a month is a big goal. Not everyone has the time, not everyone wants to, not everyone even thinks it’s worthwhile. Plus, November’s already started– it’s too late, right? The list goes on.

But hear me out. In my opinion, even if you file yourself under one of the above reasons not to, it doesn’t matter. Do it anyway. Here are my reasons why the benefits of participating in NaNoWriMo outweigh the negatives. Continue reading →