Ninnywrimo

Nanowrimo, Writing
Old woman with her embroidery.

Yes, I’m participating in Nanowrimo (National Novel Writing Month). No, I’m not doing a full novel. I’m doing a pared down version, thus the “ninny.” I wish I could take credit for the cute “ninny” in “NinnyWriMo.” It’s not an original idea, but darned if I can remember who came up with it! By all means, holler if you know.

First, I’m penning a new short story for a submission call about artists and their models (horror, of course). The deadline is November 30th, so it’s perfect timing for a Nano project. My protagonist is a needlework artist. Here’s a snippet:

Ekaterina smoothed the folded, little-boy’s shirt with her wrinkled fingers. Along the length of the placket ran her meticulous embroidery: star flowers for protection, geometric zigzags for joy, and holly berries for health. There was also a tiny, brown stain from when Ekaterina pricked her finger.

“For my grandson’s first day of kindergarten,” Ekaterina said. She passed the gift to Katherine, her daughter.

Katherine pinched the shoulder of the shirt between her acrylic nails, and Ekaterina’s careful folds fell out.

My second Ninnywrimo project is the bazillionth edit (okay, maybe the third edit) on my wasp novella. I will submit it also by the end of the month.

Here’s the submission call for the Weirdpunk Books art-horror anthology in case you have a story up your sleeve: WeirdpunkBooksSubmissions.

An update: Aha! It was D. Wallace Peach’s husband who came up with the Ninny of NinnyWriMo (except he called it “Ninny Rhino” heehee).

Today’s feature image by Laura Adai on unsplash.

Published

84 thoughts on “Ninnywrimo”

  2. I think NinnyWriMo works great too, Priscilla. And I’ve done those when I’m just not in the right/write place for a full fledge novel. I think it’s great to take advantage of some dedicated writing time, no matter what we’re working on. Good luck on both projects. (I love love the excerpt), and can’t wait to read them. 🙂 And mystery solved. Lol

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  8. It sounds like a great plan, and I love NinnyWriMo (and Ninny Rhino, genius!). I participated in NaNoWriMo once, many years back, and it worked well for me, although it was the third book on a trilogy, and I had it all pretty well mapped out (I’m not much of a planner, but at that point, I know where the story was going). I might try it again at some point when I have a specific project in mind, but I like the idea of adapting it and making it more flexible to fit other projects in. Good luck with yours! And love the idea of the horror story. Craft artists have long fascinated me, and the description is so vivid…

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  12. I love the Ninnywrimo term! I’ve participated in NaNoWriMo a couple of times, and although I pushed myself to finish, I’ve found that it’s not really for me. My pace is much slower, so Ninnywrimo sounds more appealing.

    What an intriguing excerpt with great detail and tension. Best of luck with your projects! I’m looking forward to hearing how they go. 🙂

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    1. Thank you. The words came so painfully today, argh. On the other hand, in my email box came a request for a full ms. (I had queried and sent sample chapters to a horror publisher a few months ago.) So I’m on a high right now.:-) Good luck with your writing, too, Anthony!

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  16. I am always all for making NaNoWriMo what you need it to be! I won’t be writing a novel but I am going to focus on giving myself time to query, because it is still related to my writing! I hope doing Ninnywrimo goes well and you can achieve all you’ve set out to do. ^.^

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  17. LOL! Love the Ninny!!!! I only did Nanowrimo once – never again! I wrote my 50k but I’ve never looked at the MS again – it was so chaotic! However, I did do my own “write 3 volumes in one go” in October this year and managed 89k words. Good luck with both your projects!

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