The NaNoWriMo Tag

I was tagged for the NaNoWriMo tag! I meant to do this in November but it was a busy month and my blog suffered for it. (Oops.)

To get back in the blogging groove, I’ll be doing the tag today instead. :)  Thanks to Shay, from The Story Goes, for sharing this one!

1.) How many times have you done NaNoWriMo?
I’ve been doing NaNo since 2009. I signed up for the YWP that year to write 25,000 words. I’ve done NaNo every November since on the main website.

2.) How did you first find out about NaNoWriMo?
I first heard about NaNo in November 2008. A lot of people were blogging about their NaNo novels, so I got curious and looked into NaNoWriMo. It looked like fun so I decided to join in the following year.
 

3.) What was the name of the first novel you attempted NaNo with?
Under The November Moon. It was the first in what became the series that I focused on for my first three NaNos. I’ve finished several drafts of the first two books, and have an old outline of an idea for a possible prequel. Book three is somewhere around 20K (I think), but the story wasn’t working at all. It’s a series that I loved writing and it has some of my favorite characters ever in it, but I’m still trying to figure out the best way to end it.
 

4.) Give us a 1-sentence summary of what you’re writing this year.
An assassination changes the lives of a political family and launches an investigation about who was behind it and what they plan to do next. 

*cringes* The book is about much more than that, but I’m still working on a summary.
 

5.) What’s the best piece of writing advice you’ve ever been given?
Probably to just keep writing. Even if you have to step away from writing for a while to remember why you love it, don’t give up.
 

6.) Did you ever take a year off from NaNo? Why? 

In 2011, I almost had to, and it is so far my least successful year. I was in my second semester of college and had 15 credit hours, so I really didn’t have time to dedicate to writing as much as I’d hoped.
 

7.) What’s your biggest inspiration when finding out what to write?
It varies for every project. For this year’s NaNo, Songbirds, I had the opening scene of the book in my head, but it took a while to figure out the details that made up the rest of the story.
 

8.) Read us the first sentence from one of your novels.
Since I’ve already shared the first sentence of Songbirds here, I’ll share the first sentence from my other narrator’s POV. :)

I hate hospitals.

9.) Why do you love writing?
It can be incredibly fun to chase after a story idea and get to know the characters that go along with it. I like being able to tell stories, whether they are silly or serious. I love writing because it is fun and immersive and always full of surprises.  :)