ATTN: Those who have read/are planning to read my novel this year:

Oh some things have changed. Yes, yes they have.

When I thought about how messy the whole noveling on my blog process was last year, I made a rash decision. A decision with so little thought put into it that it is awesome. Instead of noveling my progress here, I have set up a completely new site with a completely new theme with awesome features.

All NaNoWriMo noveling will take place here: nanowrimo.thegoodmanblog.com.

Oh but that’s not all. I have built an entire WordPress template especially for National Novel Writing Month – and more specifically for my fellow WriMos that post to WordPress.

The new theme is called Modern Linguist and is based on Chris Coyier’s WPTypo theme, though with some decidedly drastic alterations. Notably, the theme has these amazing features:

• Built-in word counts pulled from the NaNoWriMo API (as soon as it’s activated for 2009, anyway)
• Clean, minimal interface. Not widgetized as to keep it focused on your novel(s)
• Choose-your-own Font Style with 8 (eight!) different typefaces
• Width optimized for online reading
• Typography based – no images in the template by default
• Optional Synopsis display on the front page
• Yearly category navigation (for easy novel separation)
• Special displays for registered/logged-in users

It’ll not only be a better experience for readers, but also for the person doing the noveling.

I’m looking at a launch date of 30 October, just in time for NaNoWriMo (which starts on the first of November). If you’re interested in using the template, let me know in the comments and I’ll make sure answer your questions and email the theme to you when it’s done!

For all of you that had an account here on my blog, that’s all been moved over to: http://nanowrimo.thegoodmanblog.com – you can login with your same credentials and should be able to read last year’s novel still. If you have issues, shoot me an email.

If any of you check out the new template, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

And for those of you who have no idea what I’ve been talking about, read this post.

I won. I got to 50k words! I’m still not done with the story, but it shouldn’t be too much longer.

Thanks to everyone who’s been cheering me on and/or reading the story. It’s been super helpful having that accountability to keep writing. And I’ve done it! I’ve written a novel.

I’m excited to do this again next year too. What a great program.

I would also encourage all of you to join in next year. Check out NaNoWriMo’s website by clicking here.

I am SO close to finishing my novel. Less than 5,000 words to go.

I’m excited to finish!!!

I didn’t write anything yesterday for NaNoWriMo. I wrote about 300 words during my lunch today. I think I’ll have to try and write a ton this evening when I get home. I need to get that wordcount up.

On a brighter note, one of the sites I manage is doing really well hits-wise (for its normal rankings anyway). That’s the one thing that is making me feel good about today. That and I drank Jasmine tea at lunch. Mmmm.

And! Jessica is back from her field trip. Which means I can hang out with her when I get home. Though I will most likely be ignoring her for the sake of noveling. Maybe this is a sad night.

Yeah, busy today. Plans were denied for the rebuilding of HH on campus, so I have to deal with that. Plus I have to redo the entire Presidential Search section on EDU.

On the plus side, I broke 25k words last night on my novel. Which is a good thing

***Note: I fixed it. It actually works now.***

I have set up something special for you. It’s different than before, but will be easier.

Bookmark this link. I will update that page with new novel postings. It’s a one-stop-shop for my NaNoWriMo updates. It’s only available to you registered peeps, so make sure you’re logged in so that you can see the page the way it’s meant to show up. And start leaving your comments there. I’d like to hear your reactions if you’re having any.

Thanks again for reading, I hope you’re enjoying yourself!

I am 12ish% done with my novel with 25ish days left in this writing intensive marathon. I think I even have a decent story and some direction coming on, after four days of writing. It hasn’t been as  hard as I anticipated, but it’s not exactly easy to come up with a story on the fly either.

And I will for sure do it again next year. It’s awesome

Well, I did it. Jess and I started our novels yesterday. I’m 1847 words on my way to the 50,000 word goal.

My friend Matt suggested I should post my writing updates to this blog. I think I might but it’s going to be a private affair. Most of what I am writing is going to be garbage. That’s the nature of writing a first novel and especially so with the speed and intensity that this marathon calls for. So. I think I’ve come up with a compromise.

I am not going to list my novel updates publicly for all of Google to find and index. Instead, I’ll post them here as private posts, at the moment. I don’t want to subject anyone who stops by to that kind of literary grief, so I’m giving you the choice.

If, in your sick and twisted mind, you feel the need to commit mental self-masochism and actually want to read the crap that’s going coming out of my fingertips (not literal crap), you can register yourself on this blog and I’ll find a way to open up those posts to subscribers.

I’m only going to leave registration open for a limited time, so if you want to keep up, register right now. I’m hoping that in exchange for me sharing this embarrassing, terrible, not-fit-for print creative drivel with you, that you will encourage me to keep going and get to my 50,000 word goal. I’m looking at this as school. I want my writing to get better and I’m told this is the best way to do it.

So you decide. Register?

Last night I did something crazy. I committed myself a grueling, month-long excursion into authoring an entire novel in one month. November is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and I will be joining the thousands around the world participating in this crazy write-off. The goal is a 50,000 word novel, from scratch, in a month. But I think I can do it.

NaNoWriMo.org sponsors the event and has a little community going on on their site during the month of November. Jessica is going to be joining me in this quest. I’m really thankful for that. I am not sure I could make it through writing fiction every day for 30 days without some help and motivation.

There’s still time to sign up if this sounds like something you’d like to do. If you decide to, let me know here and we can be “writing buddies” and hopefully get through this huge challenge. I am really excited for it as writing a novel is something I’ve started and stopped several times over the last couple of years. This time, I’m going to finish.

I’m just guessing here, but I would expect my blogging to slow down a bit, though I will try to post excerpts from what I’m writing–that aren’t complete trash–to this blog. And if you are going to be writing for this, I’d love to give you a link in my blogroll and follow along with what you’re doing.

If you’ve stumbled here and are already a participant and need a writing buddy, click here to go to my NaNoWriMo author profile.

The writing starts tomorrow! I’m excited, nervous and a little intimidated. But let’s do it!