5 Things I Liked About NaNoWriMo

5 Things I Liked About NaNoWriMo

• Forums - I'm kind of shy, both online and off, so I've never been one to just dive into forums but NaNo's forums are the exception to this rule. You can connect to some really awesome people. gather a wealth of information on all kinds of topics, or play some really silly games while you're procrastinating. You can also find other writers who sympathize with the fact that you characters only want to talk to you about other stories and not the one in which they are the main character. (Normal people usually freak out when you complain about your characters not talking to you.) AND you can find writing buddies to keep you motivated! 

• No Editing - Okay................I totally complained about this rule just about every day. BUT, I think it's a great concept. Writing as much as you can without stopping to edit what you are writing is a great way to get everything out of your head and onto the paper. Not going back and editing later also keeps you from chopping up your word count or from completely deleting your work. I also liked following the "No Editing" rule for (most) of NaNo because it really showed me that I'm a natural editor and I can't NOT edit. I just can't. It drives me crazy and it actually distracts me from my writing because all I can think about it is the fact that I've repeated myself in two different paragraphs and I typed the wrong character name three paragraphs ago. I can't let.it.go. 

• Scrivener - Okay, this isn't technically a NaNo thing but had I not decided to do NaNo and stalked the forums, I probably wouldn't even know about Scrivener and I would be missing out. And if you don't know what Scrivener is, it's possibly the best writing software I have come across yet. You can find it here. 

• An excuse NOT to cook for Thanksgiving - This may not seem like much to most people. Especially those Pinterest Super Moms out in the world but it was like an early birthday present to myself. As soon as I told my wonderful hubs that I wanted to do NaNo this year, he nixed Thanksgiving at our house! (But if I'm being completely honest that's also probably because he married a mediocre cook who tends to get drunk during Thanksgiving dinner). 

• WINNING! - Seriously. And not even just because they made that cool little graphic that I immediately slapped on my blog. Winning NaNo was the best part of NaNo because I finally proved to myself two things: I am a writer. I CAN write a 50,000 word novel. (With the exception of what I actually wrote for NaNo) I am the world's worst procrastinator and I have a stack of manuscripts that are half-written so the fact that I even finished NaNoWriMo with a 50,000 word novel was a feat in itself. And I can't lie. I'm very proud of myself. 

What things did you like about NaNo this year? Better yet, what things did you NOT like about NaNo this year? 

Wasting Time: Favorite Websites

Since I have been spending way too much time browsing the internet instead of writing, I thought I would share some of my favorite websites and blogs. Some of these are helpful for aspiring writers like myself and some are just good for laughs or wasting time hoping that inspiration will hit you again. 

• NaNoWriMo - Of course, right? I could spend hours wasting time in the forums. My favorites are the Adoption forums because I'm always having a problem coming up with a good name for characters and the Games forum because what better way to procrastinate than to goof off with other procrastinating writers? 
• Masquerade Crew - This may be considered shameless promotion but I love this site because I am a crew review member. I've only reviewed one book so far but the selection of books to review is pretty awesome and I am looking forward to doing more soon. This is also a great site to find a new book to read if you're having problems trying to decide what to read next. 
• Kandee J - I love, love, love Kandee Johnson and all of her fabulous makeup tutorials. My husband loves her too because she's the reason his wife looks closer to the hot momma he first fell in love with and less like the sweat pants, pony-tail wearing housewife/stay-at-home-mom that he sees every day. (Thank you, Kandee J!)  Also, check out her personal blog. She's great. I love her. KandeeLand
• Mental Floss - Because you need to know that there are roughly 70 ingredients in a McRib. And the 50 old British words that we need to bring back into casual conversation. If you feel Floby-Mobly (look it up), browsing Mental Floss just might make it better. 
• Writer's Digest - This one is pretty self-explanatory. Writer's Digest provides all kind of resources for writers in all stages of their writing. I especially love reading the stories of how people found their publishers because it gives me hope that one day maybe I'll be able to tell one of those great stories. 
• Novelicious - This is a great website for readers and writers of women's fiction. I waste way too much time on this site too reading the writing tips and book reviews. Love the ladies on this site and the writing tips are great! 
• I Write Like - This is a fun website if you want to compare your writing to well-known authors. You paste in a little bit of your writing and the analyzer tells you who you most write like. Depending on the story, it tells me I write like Ian Fleming and Chuck Palahniuk. If you every need a confidence boost, I would say this would be a good site to visit. 

That's all for now. I'm sure I'll have more to share later since I'm so easily distracted. Also, Twitter. If you ever want to get sucked into a time warp and wonder what you've done with the last three hours of your life, just get on Twitter. 

What are some of your favorite sites to waste time on?