Madeline Turnipseed - Author

Hello Friends!  Happy Belated Thanksgiving! Today is the twenty-ninth day of NaNoWriMo .  My current wordcount is 44,956. (Yes, I know, behind.) FadingFairytales This year, in my region , we are having a bit of a strange year.  Most of us are behind.  In fact, almost all of us are.  We've been behind since the first or second week of the month, and just haven't been able to catch up.  This is weird for us, because usually we have several people that get way past 50k by the second week.  And we have several people that are the slow-but-steady type (I usually fall into that category).  Inevitably, we have some WriMos that don't make it to 50k words, but this year, we might have several more. I have words of encouragement for those who are behind. Today is the second-to-last day to get words in, and I have seen people drop well over 10,000 words into their novel in two days to finish at 50k.  But my words of encouragement are not just ...

Hello Friends! Today is the twenty-second day of NaNoWriMo .  My current wordcount is 33,855.  Still a little behind. I have a post for you today about keeping your creative juices flowing.  Since this is the end of the third week of NaNoWriMo, if you have been participating, you may be feeling them start to ebb.  How do you keep your brain from shriveling up when you're asking it to marathon out a major project? Feed it. happyfestivus You can do this several ways. 1) Actual food.  Your brain (and all the cells in your body for that matter) run off of glucose , which is a carbohydrate.  While the fastest way to get that energy to your cells is to eat simple carbs (foods high in sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, or fructose alone), that is where you get a sugar high and then the subsequent crash.  You can eat complex carbohydrates , like whole grains, starches, or vegetables, for energy that will last you longer.  That being said, I ...

Hello friends! Today is the 15th day of NaNoWriMo (halfway!), current wordcount is 22,323.  Yes, I'm a bit behind. I'm doing another research post today to let you in on some of the cool ways I've been thinking about my world.  My Neif are placed (rather poorly) in a swamp somewhere in the southeastern portion of the US. While this creates obvious water/temperature problems for them, as people made out of sugar, it also means they come into contact with an amazing array of plant and animal life.  (If the sugar thing is throwing you, you can check out my earlier research post about some of the science behind the magic of the Neif here .) I found a really great site,  http://www.wild-lab.com/ , which was developed by the Audubon Nature Institute and is used as an educational tool for fifth through seventh graders about Louisiana wetlands.  If you click "Go Through Curriculum As Guest" you can still access all the information without having a login.  V...

Hello Friends! Today is the eighth day of NaNoWriMo , my current wordcount is 12,310. There is lots of debate within the NaNo communtity about whether writers should be Planners (self-explanitory) or Pantsers (as in by-the-seat-of-your-pants).  Within the larger writing community you might recognize this as the difference between Outlining or Discovery Writing, or being an Architect vs. a Gardener. jerry8448 I will not tell you that one method is better than another.  Different methods work best for different writers.  Different methods can even work for different projects by the same author! My first NaNo, I started on Nov. 1st with one cool idea and half a plot. It was very difficult for me to get to the end of 50,000 words,.  I did it, but it was torture.  However, forcing myself to get those words down taught me what it is to build a scene off of a single uninspired sentence, and that is a skill I have been making good use of ever since.  La...

Hello Friends! Today is the 1st day of NaNoWriMo , my current wordcount is 395. I have some great news! Thursday, October 24th at 6:51 pm, I finally got to THE END of my NaNoWriMo project for last year!  Heck yes I looked at the clock, it was an important moment.  The bad news is, I had a week to finish prepping for my NaNo project for this year.  So I thought I'd talk about some of the research I've been doing, since I was spending time doing it anyway, and then you guys get a little flavor of what my story will be like this year. Most of my characters in this story are a humanoid race called The Neif.  They are about eight inches tall, made of sugar, and their bodies are the consistency of taffy.  Now, normally I would like to make my own taffy to get a literally hands-on experience, but unfortunately, time does not permit.  Maybe after the madness that is November. Here is a really simple taffy recipe. The Neif don't wear clothes.  I m...