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Tuesday, November 1, 2016

Halloween Wrap-Up + NaNoWriMo

We bid farewell to October with trick-or-treating, a candy-induced headache, and lots of non-food treats that we passed out as part of the Teal Pumpkin Project. The TPP is a way to help include kids with food allergies or disease-related dietary restrictions in the holiday. My son happens to fit both of those categories as he has food allergies and eosinophilic esophagitis.

Shout-out to the Target not-quite-dollar section for the goodies we passed out.



Most of the kids were super thrilled to grab some vampire teeth or a pencil, which my daughter and I handed out while she sat out trick-or-treating with a stomach ache. And then, that kid came.

“Why are you giving us this stuff?”

Because, you little shit, it’s Halloween. Now grab a pencil and get off my porch. Luckily my daughter has more tact than I do, and told him “Happy Halloween.”

Halloween is also more than just a fun holiday. For me, turning off the porch lights and sending the kids to bed marks the beginning of a month-long literary adventure. NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month, begins once the clock strikes midnight and the calendar flips over to November.

It’s kind of like a Disney fairytale, but with lots of coffee and telling the prince to fuck off because you need to write.

The goal of NaNoWriMo is to write a 50,000-word novel in a single month, which averages out to about 1,667 words a day. I’ve lost track of how long I’ve participated in NaNoWriMo, although I skipped last year due to a fun combination of school + work + husband’s deployment + son’s hospitalization.

I’m being a NaNo rebel this year, as I’m not actually starting a brand-new novel from scratch. Instead, I’m using the crazy motivation that is the month of November to add 50,000 words to an already in-progress novel that I’ve been struggling to finish. The Articulate Boy is sitting at 20,665 words, but I’m starting my word count at 0 for NaNoWriMo to ultimately land at 70,665 words by the beginning of December. On the bright side, it will give me plenty to cut during edits.

How was your Halloween? And are you participating in NaNo, or do you have other literary plans for November? Send me a buddy request if you're on the NaNoWriMo train!

13 comments:

  1. Good luck with NaNo! Let's hope you get lots of time to write.

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    1. Lots of writing time would be wonderful, but I'm already prepared to squeeze it in where possible.

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  2. A kid actually said that? Ugh! How rude!!! I'm assuming that child's parents weren't nearby. Good luck to everyone doing NaNo! Crazy month! I'll probably be working on this four-page synopsis all month, at this rate!

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    1. Yuuuup. His parents were back at the sidewalk, but most parents do that, including myself when I take my own kiddos. And good luck with the synopsis, I feel like they sometimes take more effort than the actual book itself!

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  3. Oops, Nano snuck up on me.
    Loved your treat ideas.

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    1. Thanks! We handed out Halloween-themed pencils and erasers, bouncy balls, small containers of bubbles, and vampire teeth.

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  4. We have a couple kids with special dietary restraints in the neighborhood. I didn't even think about it until after the fact, but I'm wishing I'd had a non-sweet item for them as well.

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    1. No worries that you didn't! Their parents are probably prepared to handle it afterwards. As soon as we get home we dump out his bucket and replace the candy with safe alternatives, then use the dairy-free candy to replace the chocolate out of our lactose-intolerant daughter's bin.

      As a side note: We are literally the least fun family to eat with.

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  5. Great idea. I just ended up asking all the kids if they had allergies/restrictions. The only one who did still found something they could eat but in the future I may do the toy rout. There's too much candy anyway.

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  6. I didn't sign up but am doing Nano with another writer friend.

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  7. I've participated in NaNo before! Have fun with it.

    I also participated in the teal pumpkin project both this year and last year too. I hope your son had a good Halloween.

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