Confessions Of A NaNoWriMo Non-Starter

By Bonnie Randall

Part of the How They Do It Series (Monthly Contributor)

I always have the best intentions. While not optimistic enough to believe I can blast out an entire novel within one (albeit boring and dreary) month, I do always think I’ll be able to attach a sizeable chunk of text to whatever work I have in progress.

But…then life happens. Projects get off-track. Sometimes lose their luster. Or maybe it’s just some sort of unconscious Oppositional Defiance Disorder that turns me mostly mute in the month of November, and I squirm with unproductive guilt as I look at friends’ Facebook posts and watch their word-count climb before my very eyes.

Guest Author Bridget Whelan: What do Creative Writing Exercises do for Creative Writers?

By Bridget Whelan

Join me in welcoming author/blogger Bridget Whelan to the blog today to discuss writing exercises and why not all of them are created equal.

And on a special "Cyber Monday" note: Bridget's book, BACK TO CREATIVE WRITING SCHOOL, is available from Amazon for free on Monday December 2nd through midnight (This is international, so "midnight" might differ in your area)

Bridget has taught creative writing to lawyers and journalists, teachers and nervous beginners who haven’t written since they left school, business leaders rushing from the office and youth club members too cool to rush anywhere.

A lecturer in non-fiction at Goldsmiths College – the leading creative university of the UK – just two years after graduating from the MA creative writing programme, she is now teaches at many locations in south east England, including City Lit, the largest adult education centre in Europe. She has also been a guest writer in schools and Writer in Residence at a community centre serving the unemployed and low waged.

Her own writing career was launched when she won first prize in an international short story competition. She was granted an Arts Council bursary to complete her first novel A Good Confession set in 1960s Ireland and London.

Take it away Bridget...