Saturday, December 11, 2010
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
My first review
OK, so Jess and Mike came to stay for a few days...it was so wonderful to have them here for the minivacation. We did take in a bit of New Orleans, so I'll have to add to this. Anyway, the beignets were awesome!
I just posted my first review to Shvoom: Out of the Silent Planet , which was a real oldie (first published in 1938. It's a CS Lewis work.
So now I'm going to do the other two in the trilogy. I plan to write a lot of reviews to keep my habit of writing daily up. I just haven't done that because of Jess being here. But it was great to take a little time off work. (I go back in 2 days).
Anyway, here is the link to my review: http://www.shvoong.com/books/science-fiction/2084072-silent-planet/
I just posted my first review to Shvoom: Out of the Silent Planet , which was a real oldie (first published in 1938. It's a CS Lewis work.
So now I'm going to do the other two in the trilogy. I plan to write a lot of reviews to keep my habit of writing daily up. I just haven't done that because of Jess being here. But it was great to take a little time off work. (I go back in 2 days).
Anyway, here is the link to my review: http://www.shvoong.com/books/science-fiction/2084072-silent-planet/
Friday, December 3, 2010
From the Office of Letters and Light
Excerpts from the blog, OLL, with Lindsey writing and my comments in bold. Link is at http://blog.lettersandlight.org/post/2068578620/the-great-nanowrimo-stats-party
Holy pants and shirts, Wrimos! What an event. I hope you enjoy reading this statsy analysis of NaNoWriMo 2010 as much as I enjoyed compiling it.
General Stats Round Up!
For NaNoWriMo main:
200,530 participants, up 20% from 2009’s total of 167,150.
We wrote a total of 2,872,682,109 words up 18% from 2009’s collective word count of 2,427,190,537.
This averaged out to 13,960 words per person.
We had 37,479 winners, up 16% from 2009’s total of 32,173.
This gave us an 18.6% win rate!
For NaNoWriMo’s Young Writers Program:
45,000 participants, up 29% from 2009’s total of 35,000.
We wrote a total of 262,303,074 words up 58% from 2009’s collective word count of 166,218,038.
This averaged out to 5,578 words per person.
We had 11,000 winners, up 58% from 2009’s total of 6,941.
This gave us an 24% win rate
Our Top 50 Wordiest NaNoWriMo Regions
1 Seattle
2 Los Angeles
3 Germany
4 London
5 New York City
6 Maryland
7 Holland & Belgium
8 Twin Cities
9 Chicago
10 Dallas/Ft. Worth
11 Portland
12 Toronto
13 Boston
14 Denver
15 Atlanta
16 East Bay
17 Austin
18 Northern Virginia
19 Melbourne
20 Vancouver
21 Houston
22 Finland
23 Salt Lake City
24 San Francisco
25 Sydney
26 Elsewhere in England
27 Phoenix
28 Detroit
29 Sacramento
30 Pittsburgh
31 France
32 District of Columbia
33 St. Louis
34 South Bay
35 New Hampshire
36 Philadelphia
37 Ottawa
38 Yorkshire
39 Raleigh-Durham
40 Kansas City
41 Indianapolis
42 Birmingham-West Midlands
43 Sweden
44 Edmonton
45 Philippines
46 Northeast New Jersey
47 San Diego
48 Cleveland
49 Columbus
50 Central New Jersey
Our Top 50 Wordiest NaNoWriMo Regions by Average Words Per Person i.e., the people who spent time writing----some of them over 100,000 words!!!
1 Sri Lanka
2 Lithuania
3 Elsewhere in Asia
4 Chadron, Nebraska
5 Vero Beach, Florida
6 Port Elizabeth, South Africa
7 Fulton, Missouri
8 Quebec, Quebec
9 Isle of Skye, Scotland
10 Elsewhere in Scotland
11 Putnam County, Florida
12 Thailand
13 Dickinson, North Dakota
14 Eureka Springs, Arkansas
15 Haifa, Israel
16 Tuolumne County, California
17 Lincoln County, Oregon
18 Sudbury, Ontario
19 Darlington and Tees, England
20 Elsewhere in Alabama
21 Russellville, Arkansas
22 Coeur d’Alene, Idaho
23 Brantford-Norfolk, Ontario
24 Liverpool, England
25 Clemson/Anderson, South Carolina
26 Stillwater, Oklahoma
27 Switzerland
28 Elsewhere in Quebec
29 Moscow, Idaho
30 Southern Illinois
31 Elsewhere in Nebraska
32 Oswego, New York
33 Elsewhere in South Carolina
34 Austria
35 Busan, South Korea
36 Dundee, Scotland
37 France
38 Ashland, Ohio
39 Platteville, Wisconsin
40 Las Cruces, New Mexico
41 Cambridge, England
42 Snoqualmie Valley, Washington
43 Bahamas
44 Pretoria, South Africa
45 Gloucester & Cheltenham,England
46 Hungary
47 Lewisville, North Carolina
48 Bowling Green, Kentucky
49 Portsmouth, England
50 Northern Ireland
Our site traffic was also way off the charts this year.
In November, we had 4,970,589 visits, up 23% from 2009’s 4,014,203. We had 28,469,340 pageviews, up 11% from 2009’s 25,710,491.
Top 50 NaNoWriMo Cities (according to Google Analytics, based on number of November visits from these fine places)
City/Visits
1. London 126,290
2. New York 70,368
3. Seattle 55,528
4. Los Angeles 48,950
5. Sydney 43,442
6. Melbourne 42,257
7. Portland 42,049
8. San Francisco 35,278
9. Chicago 33,625
10. Denver 33,369
11. Minneapolis 33,108
12. Brisbane 26,179
13. Austin 25,080
14. Atlanta 24,312 HEY, a Southern city!!!
15. Toronto 23,659
16. Washington 22,557
17. Salt Lake City 21,999
18. Edmonton 21,979
19. Houston 19,994
20. Calgary 19,585
21. Tucson 17,604
22. Dallas 17,549
23. St Louis 17,350
24. Helsinki 16,739
25. Vancouver 16,515
26. (not set) 16,206
27. Albuquerque 15,357
28. Columbus 15,035
29. Phoenix 14,914
30. Indianapolis 14,866
31. Colorado Springs 14,828
32. Auckland 14,697
33. Sacramento 14,688
34. Dublin 14,666
35. Singapore 14,606
36. Ottawa 14,122
37. Adelaide 13,978
38. Raleigh 13,943
39. San Jose 13,794
40. Philadelphia 13,770
41. San Diego 13,519
42. Perth 13,410
43. Manchester 13,055
44. Glasgow 12,830
45. Madison 12,341
46. Pittsburgh 11,828
47. San Antonio 11,810 ------>>Good old San Antone!
Top 50 NaNoWriMo Countries (according to Google Analytics, based on number of November visits from these fine places)
Country/Visits
1. United States 3,394,953 -----THIS WAS WHERE I SPENT A LOT OF TIME: at PROCRASTINATION STATION!!!!
How fun was that?!?
So, if this was your first time, how did it go? If you’re a returning Wrimo, how did this NaNoWriMo feel different from previous years? Did the bigger crowds make for a more exciting event? Or just bigger crowds? Did you meet any interesting characters at write-ins? Did your region move up the list of wordiness? We’d love to hear your thoughts, impressions, and highlights of NaNo 2010!
Lindsey
Holy pants and shirts, Wrimos! What an event. I hope you enjoy reading this statsy analysis of NaNoWriMo 2010 as much as I enjoyed compiling it.
General Stats Round Up!
For NaNoWriMo main:
200,530 participants, up 20% from 2009’s total of 167,150.
We wrote a total of 2,872,682,109 words up 18% from 2009’s collective word count of 2,427,190,537.
This averaged out to 13,960 words per person.
We had 37,479 winners, up 16% from 2009’s total of 32,173.
This gave us an 18.6% win rate!
For NaNoWriMo’s Young Writers Program:
45,000 participants, up 29% from 2009’s total of 35,000.
We wrote a total of 262,303,074 words up 58% from 2009’s collective word count of 166,218,038.
This averaged out to 5,578 words per person.
We had 11,000 winners, up 58% from 2009’s total of 6,941.
This gave us an 24% win rate
Our Top 50 Wordiest NaNoWriMo Regions
1 Seattle
2 Los Angeles
3 Germany
4 London
5 New York City
6 Maryland
7 Holland & Belgium
8 Twin Cities
9 Chicago
10 Dallas/Ft. Worth
11 Portland
12 Toronto
13 Boston
14 Denver
15 Atlanta
16 East Bay
17 Austin
18 Northern Virginia
19 Melbourne
20 Vancouver
21 Houston
22 Finland
23 Salt Lake City
24 San Francisco
25 Sydney
26 Elsewhere in England
27 Phoenix
28 Detroit
29 Sacramento
30 Pittsburgh
31 France
32 District of Columbia
33 St. Louis
34 South Bay
35 New Hampshire
36 Philadelphia
37 Ottawa
38 Yorkshire
39 Raleigh-Durham
40 Kansas City
41 Indianapolis
42 Birmingham-West Midlands
43 Sweden
44 Edmonton
45 Philippines
46 Northeast New Jersey
47 San Diego
48 Cleveland
49 Columbus
50 Central New Jersey
Our Top 50 Wordiest NaNoWriMo Regions by Average Words Per Person i.e., the people who spent time writing----some of them over 100,000 words!!!
1 Sri Lanka
2 Lithuania
3 Elsewhere in Asia
4 Chadron, Nebraska
5 Vero Beach, Florida
6 Port Elizabeth, South Africa
7 Fulton, Missouri
8 Quebec, Quebec
9 Isle of Skye, Scotland
10 Elsewhere in Scotland
11 Putnam County, Florida
12 Thailand
13 Dickinson, North Dakota
14 Eureka Springs, Arkansas
15 Haifa, Israel
16 Tuolumne County, California
17 Lincoln County, Oregon
18 Sudbury, Ontario
19 Darlington and Tees, England
20 Elsewhere in Alabama
21 Russellville, Arkansas
22 Coeur d’Alene, Idaho
23 Brantford-Norfolk, Ontario
24 Liverpool, England
25 Clemson/Anderson, South Carolina
26 Stillwater, Oklahoma
27 Switzerland
28 Elsewhere in Quebec
29 Moscow, Idaho
30 Southern Illinois
31 Elsewhere in Nebraska
32 Oswego, New York
33 Elsewhere in South Carolina
34 Austria
35 Busan, South Korea
36 Dundee, Scotland
37 France
38 Ashland, Ohio
39 Platteville, Wisconsin
40 Las Cruces, New Mexico
41 Cambridge, England
42 Snoqualmie Valley, Washington
43 Bahamas
44 Pretoria, South Africa
45 Gloucester & Cheltenham,England
46 Hungary
47 Lewisville, North Carolina
48 Bowling Green, Kentucky
49 Portsmouth, England
50 Northern Ireland
Our site traffic was also way off the charts this year.
In November, we had 4,970,589 visits, up 23% from 2009’s 4,014,203. We had 28,469,340 pageviews, up 11% from 2009’s 25,710,491.
Top 50 NaNoWriMo Cities (according to Google Analytics, based on number of November visits from these fine places)
City/Visits
1. London 126,290
2. New York 70,368
3. Seattle 55,528
4. Los Angeles 48,950
5. Sydney 43,442
6. Melbourne 42,257
7. Portland 42,049
8. San Francisco 35,278
9. Chicago 33,625
10. Denver 33,369
11. Minneapolis 33,108
12. Brisbane 26,179
13. Austin 25,080
14. Atlanta 24,312 HEY, a Southern city!!!
15. Toronto 23,659
16. Washington 22,557
17. Salt Lake City 21,999
18. Edmonton 21,979
19. Houston 19,994
20. Calgary 19,585
21. Tucson 17,604
22. Dallas 17,549
23. St Louis 17,350
24. Helsinki 16,739
25. Vancouver 16,515
26. (not set) 16,206
27. Albuquerque 15,357
28. Columbus 15,035
29. Phoenix 14,914
30. Indianapolis 14,866
31. Colorado Springs 14,828
32. Auckland 14,697
33. Sacramento 14,688
34. Dublin 14,666
35. Singapore 14,606
36. Ottawa 14,122
37. Adelaide 13,978
38. Raleigh 13,943
39. San Jose 13,794
40. Philadelphia 13,770
41. San Diego 13,519
42. Perth 13,410
43. Manchester 13,055
44. Glasgow 12,830
45. Madison 12,341
46. Pittsburgh 11,828
47. San Antonio 11,810 ------>>Good old San Antone!
Top 50 NaNoWriMo Countries (according to Google Analytics, based on number of November visits from these fine places)
Country/Visits
1. United States 3,394,953 -----THIS WAS WHERE I SPENT A LOT OF TIME: at PROCRASTINATION STATION!!!!
How fun was that?!?
So, if this was your first time, how did it go? If you’re a returning Wrimo, how did this NaNoWriMo feel different from previous years? Did the bigger crowds make for a more exciting event? Or just bigger crowds? Did you meet any interesting characters at write-ins? Did your region move up the list of wordiness? We’d love to hear your thoughts, impressions, and highlights of NaNo 2010!
Lindsey
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Why NaNoWriMo ?
From a Nanowrimo Champ-ee-yon!!
Why NaNoWriMO:
To be succinct, I needed to get over some serious writer’s block.
In the third grade, I had a teacher who became my “inner critic.” (Note: Read The Artist’s Way, by Julie Cameron, for more information on the inner critic).
I had written a short story (the first part, I should say), about a girl who found an old trunk with treasures, and somehow became transported into a magical world. This teacher, who never intended to be cruel so far as I can tell, implied that in order to begin this story, it was essential that I already know the ending. I should only write if I know the ending, I became convinced.
I have spent about 40 years since, in and out of writer’s block, and have not finished anything but one short story (which I discarded) in all that time. I wrote for work, and not for myself.
***Now I know it does not matter if I know the ending from the outset. I am NOT tied to an outline, or any preconceived notions.
How I succeeded:
Find your voice. This includes what makes YOU unique. (more on that in later blogs)
Find what makes YOUR characters come alive. That is not found in their appearance, wealth, education, or even their diction, although these things may help you flesh out their character development.
No, characters come alive through their dreams; their pain, their past, their motivation. Think it over.
It does not matter if your first draft is total MUSH. JUST WRITE!
You can look for gems in the rubble after your first draft is done.
Right now, I have about 58K words. No, it is not finished; but two major story arcs are finished and I have a lot of subplots to work with. On November 1st, I had NOTHING!
TIPS:
*Plan ahead of nano wri mo if you can, but if you didn’t don’t be afraid, JUST WRITE!
*Use incidents from the news, from your past or those of your friends, from your favorite movies or books, but change them to make them uniquely your OWN
*Go ahead, and go into the Forums. Make friends, get moral support from others!
*Also, read the posts of other people who are panicking about NaNo, and realize that you are NOT alone!
*Go to the adoptables forum, and/or the “dare” forum, and decide if you see something there you want to write about, or just see if you can get some great ideas. You can always alter the ideas to fit what you are interested in writing about.
*Try to write about characters that excite you: you love them, you hate them, or you identify closely with them.
*If you don’t know the exact word for something right away, don’t waste a lot of time poring over it. Just put in the word “ROVER” instead, and mull it over later. You can go in at the end and say “Find” all the ROVER’s, and then fix them. But you’ll have a rough draft, YAYY!
**Best tip: go to Word Wars. Challenge others or just declare war against yourself. Don’t be afraid: JUST WRITE!
See my other blog, which will focus more on issues:
http://writinglite.blogspot.com/
Why NaNoWriMO:
To be succinct, I needed to get over some serious writer’s block.
In the third grade, I had a teacher who became my “inner critic.” (Note: Read The Artist’s Way, by Julie Cameron, for more information on the inner critic).
I had written a short story (the first part, I should say), about a girl who found an old trunk with treasures, and somehow became transported into a magical world. This teacher, who never intended to be cruel so far as I can tell, implied that in order to begin this story, it was essential that I already know the ending. I should only write if I know the ending, I became convinced.
I have spent about 40 years since, in and out of writer’s block, and have not finished anything but one short story (which I discarded) in all that time. I wrote for work, and not for myself.
***Now I know it does not matter if I know the ending from the outset. I am NOT tied to an outline, or any preconceived notions.
How I succeeded:
Find your voice. This includes what makes YOU unique. (more on that in later blogs)
Find what makes YOUR characters come alive. That is not found in their appearance, wealth, education, or even their diction, although these things may help you flesh out their character development.
No, characters come alive through their dreams; their pain, their past, their motivation. Think it over.
It does not matter if your first draft is total MUSH. JUST WRITE!
You can look for gems in the rubble after your first draft is done.
Right now, I have about 58K words. No, it is not finished; but two major story arcs are finished and I have a lot of subplots to work with. On November 1st, I had NOTHING!
TIPS:
*Plan ahead of nano wri mo if you can, but if you didn’t don’t be afraid, JUST WRITE!
*Use incidents from the news, from your past or those of your friends, from your favorite movies or books, but change them to make them uniquely your OWN
*Go ahead, and go into the Forums. Make friends, get moral support from others!
*Also, read the posts of other people who are panicking about NaNo, and realize that you are NOT alone!
*Go to the adoptables forum, and/or the “dare” forum, and decide if you see something there you want to write about, or just see if you can get some great ideas. You can always alter the ideas to fit what you are interested in writing about.
*Try to write about characters that excite you: you love them, you hate them, or you identify closely with them.
*If you don’t know the exact word for something right away, don’t waste a lot of time poring over it. Just put in the word “ROVER” instead, and mull it over later. You can go in at the end and say “Find” all the ROVER’s, and then fix them. But you’ll have a rough draft, YAYY!
**Best tip: go to Word Wars. Challenge others or just declare war against yourself. Don’t be afraid: JUST WRITE!
See my other blog, which will focus more on issues:
http://writinglite.blogspot.com/
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Poetry challenge
So here is an effort....
A haiku that I wrote when David and I worked together on the reading fair project:
Dawn
Cliff pierces grey sky
Orange clouds blanket needles
As lights pierce darkness.
--Tracy Hinote
13 Nov 2010
On Christian writer's dot com page, there was a challenge that you are to compose a poem as your first line, the one on the 5th line of the preceding poem: so I wrote this. Too worried about it though to post it on CW, so here it is...
Poetry challenge from CW using the fifth line:
while shepherds watched the sleeping sheep
a bridge to light and life
while shepherds watched the sleeping sheep
The Word crossed the chasm deep
A bridge to life, and light.
while slime and horror did seep
soul’s dark night made Heaven weep
for
a bridge to light, and life.
so He sent the Light to keep
His truth from darkness sweep
a bridge to light, and life.
He climbed the hill so steep
to bitter cup turned sweet
a bridge to light, and life.
--tlh Nov 27 2010
I think it gets the point across----thank God for sending his Son to us!!!
Talk to you soon....
Writers Write -- Always
Ok so here is one of those days when I felt like I "ought" to have written something. This weekend I did a lot of Christmas shopping; David stayed home sick from church with a bad cough; and it's back to work in the morning.
There is not a lot else going on...Jess and Mike are coming this week and of course we are excited about that.
I need to go work on my reviews, and plan to re-start brainstorming tomorrow..but today I am plumb out of anything creative to say. So I'll just say it! I'm out of creative ideas today!
I did write some poetry yesterday. I'm thinking of putting it in here...I'm just a bit afraid that it stinks. Phew!
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