I sincerely hope you and yours are getting through the current crisis in once piece and are gaining whatever good from it that you can.

 

Thing 1

First on the agenda: My new website, DeenaNataf.com, is live! Not finished, but live nevertheless. You can see it, but don’t be disappointed because I have a lot to add to it. But at least the skeleton is there. I finally paid someone to figure out what was wrong with the site, and he fixed it in 10 minutes. I hope to have resources for writers, my portfolio, and BulletproofWriting.com posts on this new site.

 

Thing 2

Second, NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month, begins this Sunday, November 1^st! Are you in?

Remember: It doesn’t have to be about writing the Great American (or English, etc.) Novel and publishing it with Simon & Schuster; it’s about creating and sustaining a writing habit. Why not sign up for NaNoWriMo and see if you can write every day for a month? Give yourself a goal: 250, 500, or 1,000 words a day; or 20, 30, 45, or 60 minutes a day.

Write whatever you want; it’s not like the NaNo police are going to come to your house and ask why you’re not writing a novel. Commit to, say, writing 3 short stories, or even journaling before work. It doesn’t matter what you write. All that matters is that you sit down and do it!

Here are a few resources from the folks at NaNoWriMo to help get you started:

• Basic information about NaNo and sign-up button
• FAQs
• Pep talks and encouragement from famous (and not-so-famous) authors
• Cute checklist of preparations to make before you begin
• “The 9-Step Plot Dot”
• “51 Questions You’ve (Probably) Never Asked about Your Characters”

 

Thing 3

Even if you don’t choose to participate in NaNoWriMo, it’s always a good idea to hone your craft. So let’s learn something!

The following rules can be especially valuable for those writing specific books or articles, but all writers need them.

According to the wonderful grammar and writing book, Woe Is I, which someone gifted me (thanks, JG!), you can use both me and I when you have a simple comparison without any extra nouns to complicate matters:

• He’s a better man than I.
• He’s a better man than me.

• His old girlfriend was more complicated than me.
• His old girlfriend was more complicated than I.

However, when inserting more nouns into your sentence, it’s best to clarify with a few more words. I’ve discussed this in another, earlier post in more detail.

Let’s take, “She gives more respect to our father than I” vs. “She gives more respect to our father than me.” Which one is correct? It depends on what you’re trying to say.

• She gives more respect to our father than I do. (I.e., our father don’t get no respect from me)
• She gives more respect to our father than she gives to (I.e., Papa comes first)

 

That’s it for now! I want to get this out post-haste, so all of you NaNos can get ready!

Please let me know in the comments below if you’re going to take up the challenge and join NaNoWriMo. What have you decided to write? And what will be your goal: words per day or minutes per day?

Can’t wait to hear from you!

 

Happy writing,