Standing there, looking back at what you've done...

You get this empty feeling because it's all over now.  You did so well!  Or maybe you don't feel like you did well, but you certainly did better than you thought you would...  NaNoWriMo is over now, and now what?  I keep seeing the question asked all over the place.

I won't pretend to be quite as awesome as Chuck Wendig in his post-NaNo blog posting..  but I cannot stress this enough:

You are allowed to write today.  You are allowed to write whenever you want.  You do not need the permission of November to accomplish something big.  Something real.

If you aren't done yet, press on!  Push yourself!  Still see if you can aim for that 1667 word goal every day.  Or maybe for you, it's 500.  Maybe for you, it's 1000.  Maybe it's 3000 or 5000.  However, I'll be the first to say 5000 every day may not be a reasonable goal to expect yourself to hold up forever.  I'd say set the bar to a reasonable but difficult level.  1000 is not so hard when you get in the habit of it.

My personal goal is 1000-3000 when I'm actively writing something.  I go in spurts of writing and editing, since I have kids and a job I have to work with/around.  If you can write full time, you should absolutely be writing and editing some, every day.

Not the same project, sorry if that was confusing.  Write one project in the morning, take a break, and edit another project in the afternoon.  Some people can't do this, can't work on multiple things at the same time, and if that's you, that's OK.  Do what you can, but do SOMETHING every day.

If you want to keep going with word sprints, you can roll with them by yourself by setting a timer or watching the clock just like you did in NaNo.  You can also see if you can find a community of people who are interested in doing the same thing.  I'm currently in all of these, because, let's face it, some of them are bound to fizzle out.  I can hang out and stick with them all, and whichever of them wins out, I'll be there.  So I share my links with you!  Use them wisely.

• NaNo MS Recovery Group
• WriMore International
• NaNoWriMo AYR
• NaNoBuddies forum
• Writing Forums, a not-NaNo, but always busy awesome writing hub to visit.

If my links don't work or something, you can always bug me for them again, here, or my FB page: bekajoi (this is the name I use most places if you're continuing this weird stalking thing of yours!  LOL)

Also, if you know of good places, please let us know!  I'll add them to my link list.  :)

Don't stand there staring behind you at what could have been.  Make it happen.  It's in your hands.  Do with it what you will.  You know you can.  I know you can.  So do it already!  :)

Three Sentence Story / Bottle Tree Outline

Wrote this for a Terribleminds flash fiction challenge.  Whole story, three sentences, any topic.  It also is a short version of what I have planned for my own bottle tree challenge for the week.  I did a short version here for Terribleminds as something of an outline for the bigger one.  Trying the outline thing before I begin the big work, for once.  We'll see how that goes.

Sunlight glittering off the colored glass baubles that hung from the old oak tree had been too enticing to wander away from, Morela, the ghost of a young woman, reflected from her cobalt prison.

She looked about herself and while the gleaming rainbow colors were appealing, all she saw was how trapped she was, the darkness of the other spirits trapped in the other baubles around her, and how none of them seemed to crave freedom again.

She, however, could not stand to be trapped, so at night while all the other spirits were resting in the dark warmth, she radiated all the light and energy she had pent up within herself during the day, burst her prison of glass into a hundred pieces, and was free to roam about, happily haunting the living, once more.

Link to a most brilliant blog posting

This is so me.  It's so brilliantly true, I just can't stand it.  I'm deep within the thralls of #8, and need to smack myself some goblins.  They are mean little buggers!  Anyhoo, if you love to do the writing thing like I do, however sporadically I am able to actually DO it, give this a little look-see.  I am really starting to like this guy's view on things.  :)

http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2011/08/17/the-life-cycle-of-a-novel/