Carrie Callahan

Finishing NaNoWriMo is always a great feeling! Each time I manage to cross that finish line, I feel like a "real writer"--whatever that means. This year, though, I may have finished the month, but I have yet to finish the novel. The manuscript I'm working on is called Blood Tramp Blues , and it follows a hitchhiker who is suddenly confronted with the cosmic indifference of the universe when she's saved from a lovecraftian monster by a woman with powers via blood sacrifice--the eponymous Blood Tramp. And it's 54,000 words in with four fat chapters to go (they might have to be split into more--we'll see). I'm trying to explore what we do when faced with cosmic indifference. Most people assume that facing your own insignificance leads inevitably to destructive nihilism, but I disagree. I ascribe more to the optimistic nihilist 's perspective: so what if there's no meaning? That gives me ultimate control over what I decide has meaning in my life....

It's that time of year again:  NaNoWriMo season! I have a novel draft I needed to get out, and just in time, too! For the uninitiated. NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month, which is November of every year. People from all around the world set a goal to write a 50,000 word draft of a novel by the end of the month, which roughly translates to around 1,667 words a day. The idea is that finishing a first draft--finally getting that novel you've been dreaming of writing--out of your head and on paper is incredibly encouraging. It empowers writers to really believe they can do it--they can write a whole book! I totally get that NaNoWriMo isn't for everyone, but I've had repeated success getting out first drafts under the pressure of the daily writing goal. Some people work well with deadlines, and I happen to be one of them! I don't do NaNo every year, because I don't have an idea every year. Or an outline. Or a set amount of time I can ...

Today is the second of the July. We're past the halfway mark of the year as well as the first of two Camp NaNoWriMo's . You can follow the link to learn more, if you'd like. Anyway! I have, in fact, completed my first ever manuscript thanks to Camp. Please hold your congratulatory applause, however, because I have some things to confess. It's common knowledge that no first draft is ever perfect, and I can now substantiate that idea with my own experience. Here are some of the awful things I've found so far in the re-reading of my "masterpiece": Adverbs These, as any experienced writer will tell you, are basically the bed bugs of writing. They're hard to get rid of and they just seem to multiply forever. Before you know it, your whole house is infested by creepy little critters. As I tried my best to pump out at least  2k words a day, I found these dastardly fellows an easy out. You can put plenty of adverbs in a sentence without worrying as muc...