A NaNoWriMo Interview with Christin Rice :)
Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash
Happy Week Two of NaNoWriMo November!
After clocking in my writing this morning, my tally is holding steady at 8,181 words and counting. I’m 100% certain that I wouldn’t have written half this much without the daily writing practice.
But don’t take my word for it: I’m thrilled to introduce fellow novelist, MFA graduate, mom extraordinaire of a super-cute baby daughter, and all-around awesome friend, Christin Rice, who kindly talked with me earlier today about her NaNoWriMo 2019 journey.
*What inspired you to take part in the challenge?
I really like a short term challenging challenge, especially for writing. It propels me and a project forward to have a short-term focus, knowing I can work at a pace that would be unsustainable in the long-term. In my pre-baby life, I could do back to back challenges like that, but with a nine-month old I am focusing on just the month of November.
I also was realizing how good the timing was: December writing is always interrupted by holiday stuff. I travel in January whenever possible.
And my baby turns one in February which is my self-imposed deadline to figure out when/how/what to go back to work. Which means if I want some pages of first draft, November is my best bet. That's good motivation to just get going and keep going.
*What project are you working on?
It's a new novel, and man it feels GREAT to work on first draft fiction. I haven't done that in a year because I've been focused on revising a novel, then writing some creative nonfiction, and oh yeah, having a baby.
The novel is not about IVF and infertility, but that plays a big part in what is happening in the character's lives.
It's really fun to mine some of my direct experience, but put it in a very different context and explore how complicated it can all be through two complicated female characters (I looooove complicated female characters).
*Anything else you'd like to share about the NaNo process?
Don't revise while writing!
Don't let yourself read more than one paragraph back, and that's just to ground yourself on where to go next. You can revise in December, but no editors in your head in November.
Check out more of Christin’s amazing writing at her blog: Invincible Summer.
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Taking your own NaNoWriMo 2019 journey? I’d love to talk to you about your project. Email away.
Photo by Tim Mossholder at unsplash.com .
