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Preptober & Freaky Flash Fiction Fridays

Hello Readers!

It is October, which as we know is Halloween Month!  This is any horror writers favorite time of the year for sure. I'm no exception. 

But! October means a couple of other things:

1. Freaky Flash Fiction Fridays!  That's right! For the second year in a row I will be posting freaky (more like spooky, but that doesn't work with the alliteration) flash fiction stories on Fridays. This allows me to keep writing short things while I work on a novel, but it also allows you to get a taste of how I write (a little, admittedly the stories I post are unedited first drafts, but still).

2. October also means we are 31 days away from NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month).  This year, I am participating in Preptober (#preptober).  Now, if you participate in NaNoWriMo and are a pantser, you can disregard this rest of this post.  However if you are a plotter, or a mix of the two (which is what I am...though I want to be more of a plotter) then keep reading.

I used to be a "by the seat of my pants" kind of writer.  And that method still works well for me when writing short or flash fiction, but I've NEVER been able to work on a novel that way.  And I've never even been able to meet my own personal goals that way.  So I am becoming a plotter. 

I think I've mentioned it in other posts before, but plotting is fairly new to me, so I almost need an outline to be able to outline. SO I am participating in Preptober this year to allow me to get in a good place for NaNoWriMo and my writing goals in general.

Real talk: I've had a rough August/September.  I had to put down my cat of 15 years, I didn't get the dream job I interviewed for, and just fell out of touch with the things that mean the most to me.  So I'm getting back into my good habits and Preptober is a good way to do it.

You can participate in Preptober too! There are a couple of handy calendars that you can download but basically this is how it breaks down:

Week 1: Character
Week 2: Setting
Week 3: Scene (think of this as jotting down the major scenes that need to happen)
Week 4: Plot

If there is anything worth sharing about my plotting, I will here, otherwise come back on Friday for a spooky story!

Until next time,

B Strong
Memento Mori
&;
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