For those of you keeping track at home, you’ll notice that it’s been nearly two months since I posted. It’s been a whirlwind around here and my poor little Lightning Droplets blog had been put on the backburner because of it. Lots of exciting things have happened, though, and I’d like to share!
My last post was in November, when I — bravely? insanely? masochistically? — took on my first NaNoWriMo in the middle of my first semester of an MFA Program and my first semester teaching college composition. I did not reach the goal of 50,000 words, but I did feel like I accomplished a lot. I started a novel I’m quite excited about and reached my all time daily peak (6,000 words in one day!) and even my monthly best at 17,165 words on one piece (I did write a few other things in November). You might know from my Write Fast post that I am not a fast writer, but in November, I averaged over 500 words a day. This is about the same word count as Tom Robbins, who is a favie fave of mine, so I am feeling pretty good about that.
Also in November, I found out that I won a grant! The grant pays for my class to publish a collection of essays written by my students. It also pays for me to go to two writing conferences. So, anyone going to AWP this year will see me there! Woohoo for a free week in Seattle! I’ll also be going to the Pacific Rim Conference on Literature and Rhetoric in Anchorage, so that will be a nice little weekend, too.
By the time the end of the semester rolled around, I had been nominated for Best of the Net, published in Yemassee, Flash Frontier, Exegesis, and Saw Palm (forthcoming), written 15 solid pieces in three different genres, done two panel presentations, a roundtable discussion, two craft papers, a position paper, and two Prezis, contributed to the WriteAlaska website, produced a full-length book with my students, read 18 books,submitted work to sixty literary magazines, and drank many, many pints of Alaskan beer.
You can see why my little blog here has been neglected. I have lots planned for next semester as well, but Lightning Droplets will hopefully get a little more attention as I settle in more to my new life and my new home in the Arctic.
Update: Also, just to let people know, I have joined Amazon’s Affiliate Program. So… Lightning droplets is now a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.
Nice work!
No worries. My writing is much lesser than 500 words 🙂
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Well done!
Congratulations on all your doings. So happy for you.
a great year! Hope 2014 continues the excitement
Glad you’re back. I was starting to think that Lightning Droplets was a Flash in the Pan.
Congratulations! I think NaNuNeeNeeNuNuMo is for lemmings. A book should be theme-driven, not over-the-cliff-together-we-go driven. Yes, it’s nice to have done it; it proves a certain amount of intellectual stamina. And no, not all the output is drivel. But it can be a profitless diversion, cranking out a ration of daily verbosity without underlying, deeply-inner-motivated theme*. So I’m glad you’re back, too. I found merit in what you’d posted or I wouldn’t be following you. I don’t follow a lot of blogs; yours is exceptional. Keep it up!
* Theme: a statement or question about the human condition looked at from all sides. Not to be confused with a didactic “Message.”
Congrats, you’ve accomplished quite a bit. Hope to follow in your footsteps with my own writing accomplishments in 2014! ! 🙂
Congratulations on an excellent 2013! May 2014 bring you even more wondrousness. 🙂
Exhilarating! I’m excited for you! Keep on going!
Hate to state the obvious, but yes, I would agree that you have been fairly productive. Good going!
Wow! I’m worn out just reading all you managed to do. Good for you!
I am exhausted, simply reading this! Well done on all the accomplishments. Hope you managed to squeeze in a super Christmas!
That is a very good high on one day writing. My best ever, over all my novels, was only 1000 words more. I was on a total roll, but it was still killing.
The Happy New Year I wish you seems likely to be one with plenty of excitement.
Have a look at your book. If it is entertaining, and/or stimulates thought, and/or is informative, then do some fine tuning and carry on – even a couple hundred words a day is fine, but it is good to keep up momentum. I suggest aiming it at a good deal more words than 50 000, though.
Thanks for reading and liking my story. Congratulations on your accomplishments, it’s always awesome to see someone who loves writing being recognized for that. Well done!