NaNoWriMo - Hitting the Top Early

My eighth year of NaNo!

I posted about how I got a late start with NaNoWriMo again this year, but that I figured I could still pull it out because I usually get a few hot writing streaks during the month.  Well, I can't believe it, but I hit 50K words on November 16.  And that is considering that I only wrote for 12 of those 16 days.  This comes out to (what for me) is a blistering 4430 average words per day, on those days I was writing.  I'm pretty astonished.  This is the fastest I've ever reached the 50K NaNo goal.

So if you are a NaNo-newbie, maybe you are wondering how I did it ... and if you can, too.  First of all, I'm sure that you can do it!  What I'm not so sure about is if what works for me will work for anybody else.  But on the off chance that it might ... here are a few thoughts on how I'm cranking away this year.

1) Writing in all the spare moments.  I usually like to write when I can sit down and really focus, but that's not always an option.  I find this year I've been doing a lot of writing in 100 to 200 word bits and pieces.  A few lines of dialog here, or a brief description of a scene there.  I keep my computer open and ready to go, and whenever I have to wait around, I write - waiting for laundry means words, waiting for an email from a colleague means words, waiting four minutes for my tea to steep means words.  It is really adding up.

Wow - 50K on day sixteen.
I wonder if this graph is just going to flatten out
now, or if I'll keep on writing at this pace.

2) Having so much fun with the book.  This year, I picked back up on a piece of writing from the past that I really enjoyed.  It needed a lot of work, but I liked the way the first part of it came out, and wanted to finish it.  This is a book I'd want to read, myself.  It has vampires, zombies, battles, true love, and, well, it's not Princess Bride but you can't have everything.  So I say, when it comes to NaNo, don't settle for an idea you feel ho-hum about.  Pick something that you are really emotionally invested in.  That emotion will carry you through the dry times, and keep you going. 

3) Defining the characters.  When I do get times to focus and just write for a while, the words have been flowing out of my fingers fast.  Part of this is because I did a pretty good job of defining the characters in the first chapters.  Now all I have to do is put them in situations and write down what they say and do.  It is a total adventure for me.  Even though I know the ending of the book already, I'm not exactly sure how the characters will get there, or even exactly who will be alive at the end.  So it's all pretty exciting.  The characters are leading it all, and taking me along for the ride.  And they talk a lot (and spend time running from zombies, and fighting with a vampire war-lord, and on and on ...) - that's a lot of words.

4) Recognizing that writing is good for me.  I've been very distracted by the world these past weeks.  For some people, the reaction is to freeze up and not be able to write anything.  For me, I noticed that I felt better after writing, even if it was a very tough writing session.  So I pushed myself to write even (especially) when the world was pressing in.  My last post was to keep on writing, and I feel it is keenly important, now more than ever, that we do indeed keep on writing.  Give it a read for some encouragement.

Image Credits:  Particpant badge from the NaNoWriMo site, and a screen grab of my own data, also from the NaNo site, on my page.

NaNoWriMo 2016 - Getting Started

Pen, Paper, and Computer
The tools of the proverbial trade.

November!  Which for me of course means NaNoWriMo.  If you don't know about NaNoWriMo - that stands for National Novel Writing Month.  Many fanciful people like myself take November and ADD 50K of writing to their normal workload, along with feeding ourselves, and doing laundry, dealing with the day job, doing whatever other writing we said we do, etc. 

And a large subset of those writers so inclined and dedicated head over to the NaNoWriMo.org site.  At that site they can track their progress, interact on the forum, and keep in touch with other writers in their local area.  I love the word tracking tool - nothing like giving a nice data display to a scientist.  It's also the place to find out about 'write-ins' that happen nearby, which gives you a chance to meet other local writers and have some company while pounding out some words.

I think one of the reasons I enjoy NaNo so much is that I'm a terrible perfectionist.  I'm often stymied by trying to make everything I produce just so.  It was and is NaNo that gives me permission to just write those fiction words without the constant pounding of my inner editor.  In fact, I now have lots and lots of words drafted into novels that do indeed desperately need an editor ... but that's a different challenge!

Right now it's NaNo time!  That means just put pen to proverbial paper and get writing!   

I've had a slow start, as usual.  This year I'm only two days late, but this is a month packed with other commitments, not to mention, as always, Thanksgiving.  Getting words in over the T-giving holiday is always the major challenge of the month.  Still I recall I started one NaNo nine days late, and spent the entire month playing catch up.  So I'm not too far behind, and am very optimistic about my progress thus far.  Almost 1.8K of words a day will do nicely, if I can keep up the pace.  I have a tendency to write nothing for a few days, then pound out a few 3K and 5K days in a row.  But you don't want to count on the time to do that.  Better to keep that steady pace up to ensure reaching the goal.

How about you?  Do you have a book idea that is just burning to be written?  Did you take the plunge this year for NaNo?  Might be time to give it a try!

Image Credit:  Image - Writing Tools Creative Commons CC 2.0

Blog Hopping for NaNoWriMo 2016

The NaNo starting blocks,
soon to be filled with racing writers!

Aaaaand the prep for NaNoWriMo 2016 has begun!  People are gearing up for this year's crazy sprint of 50K words written on their novel all in the month of November, and once again I aim to be among them.

I've been asked why a "serious writer would bother with something as amateur" as NaNoWriMo.  (I really have been asked this).  But that's not how I think of it at all.  I think of it as a time to share the excitement and joy of being a writer.  A chance to link with others who simply want to put words to page.  An opportunity to immerse with others in the creative process.  In other words, I find it fun.

And hey don't miss this, they are giving away a chance to write your NaNo novel next year in a castle!  CLICK here to enter!  Sounds amazing.

Anyway, what this post is really about is blog hopping.  I'm not exactly sure what that is, but someone has started a blog hop page, and I'm hoping this will give me the chance to meet other writers, especially local ones, who just enjoy writing and the whole NaNo experience.

So here's my info:

Name:  J.A. Grier - BUT I started my NaNo account with my old pen name, Bryce Ellicott.  So that's the name you have to look for there.  Now I can't change it, but I'm hoping they add that functionality someday.

NaNo Book Title:  "The Trentsville Terror."  It's my vampire/zombie/gay-romance novel.  The first part of which, "The Duke of Cantersburg," I wrote a couple of NaNos ago.  The book needs, oh, probably another 60 to 70K of words to finish up, and NaNo is the time to tackle it.

One Sentence Summary of Book:  Dude meets vampire, falls in love, and the two of them try to save the world from zombies.

NaNo Goals:  Well, 50K words is always my goal.  I usually do a bit more than that, and it would be great to actually push through and finish this book if I can.  Of course first I have to figure out the ending ...

Fun Facts About Me:  Most of this is already in my profile information - I'm a scientist, educator, writer, poet, paper artist, beaded jewery maker, cat-lover, and wine drinker.  I've written stuff from textbooks and scientific papers to essays and poems.  I just love writing, but particularly love anything in the 'speculative' fiction type genres - sci-fi, horror, fantasy, mythic, and general weird stuff.  I'm the kind of person for whom the first draft is not the problem.  Now getting things published, that takes more time.  But I've had success with a few dozen poems, a couple of stories, one of those textbooks and a load of papers and abstracts.  Now if I could get those novels out there ...

Social Media Presence:  Right here at http://www.onewritersmind.blogspot.com and on Twitter at @grierja  I'm also on DeviantArt at http://jagrier.deviantart.com/gallery/, where I sometimes post free poems and stories.

Link to starting post(s):  
http://www.emilylaynewriter.com/p/nanowrimo-2015-is-almost-here-to-give.html  


Image Credit:  https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PressureSensitiveStartingBlocks.jpg  Public Domain

Considering that First Draft of that NaNo Novel

I was over at Ana Mardoll's "Ramblings" blog and spotted this post, with a pie chart describing the first draft of a novel.  The pie chart is from Finding Wonderland, and it shows a humorous breakdown of what a first draft of a novel might look like.  Ana Mardoll uses the plot to illustrate the importance of rewriting that first draft.

It was inspiring.  I am definitely in the write-rewrite-iterate camp of writers.  Edits and rewrites are what make musings turn into masterpieces (more or less).  Anyway, I took out my draft of my NaNoWriMo novel and paged through, looking for what *my* first drafts seem to include.  Being a scientist with data in hand, I had to plot it up of course, with many thanks to the inspiring influences:

My version of a plot inspired by Finding Wonderland and Ana Mardoll - It shows the general contents of the first
draft of my NaNoWriMo novel.  It is surprising how my first drafts all seem to look pretty much like this.

The first half of chapter one turns out to be all completely unnecessary conversations between characters talking about their lives and stuff.  I thought it made good sense when writing, and now I see I can just jump right in to the action and really not lose anything at all.

Also fun to note is that I have far too many homages to various pop culture icons and works, such as the Hitchhiker's Guide, MST3K, Star Wars, and even the Simpsons.  I really want to keep them, which is something of an indication of their need to go.

And wow, there are a lot of holes here.  Especially the times I say "We'll have that discussion with so-and-so soon" and either the discussion never happens, or so-and-so does not actually exist in the book.  Or both.  I also see that I get through my initial draft writing by just jumping past anything that stumps me.  Say like important connecting scenes.  Or the names of anything at all.

Of course keep in mind this is a NaNo draft, which means one is trying to write like crazy to get those 50K words by the end of the month and still have time to cook and eat a Thanksgiving turkey.  So leaving gaps behind is a very functional strategy - for a draft.

And the sex scenes, well, most of them are actually plot critical.  So I guess I'll just have to make sure I send them to a publisher that likes that kind of thing.

In the end, I'd say about 50% of what is here is workable, and the other half just needs to get thrown out.  My challenge is figuring out which half is which ...

Image Credit:  My pie chart of my novel data.  Inspired by Finding Wonderland via Ana Mardoll.

And off we go again - NaNoWriMo

Amongst the crazy things one can do in November is to decide to write 50,000 words in 30 days, i.e. the NaNoWriMo challenge.  I've done this five years running now and I do like to keep up a good streak.

But.

Writing 50K words in *20* days, that's even crazier.  And that's the position that I'm in because I only just started today.  This month has been so demanding.  The whole fall has been that way, actually, with proposals to write, classes to teach, science to do, education research to publish, conferences to attend and my usual Halloween bash to throw.  And then I got sick.  For a week.

At first I figured I'd just skip NaNo this year, since it is always tough, and I really don't need the extra stress.  But that idea just wouldn't sit right in my gut.  I kept on coming back to the idea that I had this great streak going, and didn't I really enjoy the pressure in some weird way, and wasn't it in fact a great way to get some writing done after all?  In five years I've managed to produce the full drafts for about 2.5 books.  Not bad.  That on top of my usual writing means about a novel every two years.

Now if I could manage to get them edited and published ... but that's another thing completely.

Right now is about the 'write now.'  And that's what I've decided to do ... so off we go with the scary zombie/vampire story with a dash of gay romance and a twist of apocalyptic flavor.  It may never get read, but I know I'm going to have a fun time writing it.

UPDATE:  I did indeed manage to pound out the 50K again this year!  This was the easiest time I've had of any past year, as well.  (So I can never use the "I'm late" excuse not to start.)  I think it was because I had a really solid idea and some scenes and chapters sketched out in my head.  Plenty to write about.

November is Nuts - From Cons to Composition to Comets

Comet ISON

November is nuts.  This one moreso than any previous November because both NaNoWriMo and the Tucson Science Fiction Convention overlapped.  This was the first time I'd been to a TusCon, and even though I had to spend a lot of time working on my science presentation for that venue, I still refused to give up on my yearly encounter with NaNo.  Which means I am way, way behind 'composing' my latest novel.  (In this case, the third in the 'Voidspace' trilogy).  I am writing this at the airport, taking a break from NaNo noveling.

This recent adventure started in October, since I had to spend time getting my science talk pulled together.  And worrying about it on the side, which is a pursuit unto itself.  This meant no prep for NaNo this year.  I was also giving two different versions of the same talk - one for the science institute I call home, and the other for the Con.  And THEN I was also invited to be on a writing panel at the Con.  Wow.  Fun, but a lot of work to get it all done. 

So November started, I traveled to Tucson, gave the firs talk, and then the second.  I am very, very happy to say both went well.  I received a lot of positive feedback from both talks, and generated a lot of questions and good discussion at the Con.  I have to admit I was a little surprised, since I had intentionally taken myself out of my comfort zone and talked about a topic upon which I have done very little study - astrobiology.  I'll be posting a review of the material in another blog post.  Can't really get the whole feel of the talk down unless I post a youtube performance, and I am definitely not going there.  :)

The panel was sort of 'eh'.  I enjoyed the panels I attended but the one I was on was too 'combative.'  It's the first time I've been a member of a writing panel instead of a science panel, and I was disconcerted by how there was no structure.  The panel chair said he would poll the panel with questions, but by the time things would have gotten to me, we were on whole 'nother subject or question.  Once or twice I sort of wedged myself into the conversation so I could make a quick comment or two, but for the most part felt unneeded and superfluous.  Still, it was a very good experience for me.  There always has to be a first writing panel, and it was good to have something of a learning experience.  Hopefully next time it will be a smaller panel with a more definite structure.  They are probably all very different from one Con to the next, and even one subject to the next.

Certainly giving the science talk was my cup runneth over, so I maybe I should focus my efforts on that area when offering my services at a Con.

And of course, one cannot forget that we have Comet ISON in our skies right now, screaming it's way towards the sun.  For the moment, it appears that ISON will survive its close approach with our star.  But it is always possible for a comet, especially one like this, to disintegrate completely as it endures both the heat and the flux of particles.  It might get quite bright, might stay mostly the same, might disintegrate - it's definitely worth watching to see how things evolve.

More posts to come with details about TusCon, my astrobiology talk, and naturally, NaNoWriMo.

Image Credit:  Photographer Michael Jäger via Sky and Telescope Magazine

Not a New Year's Resolution, Really

I've long been a detractor of New Year's resolutions.  After all, if I haven't started something important during the year itself, I'm not likely to happen to start it on January first, either.  Yet I have to say there is something compelling in the idea of a fresh start.  Of course, any day of the year could be defined as a fresh start, or the first day of the rest of your life, etc.  But for the time being I am succumbing to New Year's new-start fervor, and deciding to post a few goals.  Not resolutions, mind you, just goals ...

The first is my story writing goal.  Last year I started on May first with the idea that I would write a story a week.  I managed 15 stories during that run, with a smattering of others coming in later in the year.  Nanowrimo naturally took a bit of a toll on the story writing as well as the poetry writing.  Realistically, I now see that too many other writing projects get sidelined if I'm writing a story a week.  So this year the goal is going to be half that - 25 stories this year, while keeping up my poetry and novel projects.

The second goal is the childhood horror poetry chapbook I've been working on.  I'd really like to get that into shape for readings by Halloween of this year.  I'm hoping to use some of April and NaPoWriMo to get a few more new poems written for the collection, and then have some time later in the summer for editing.  Meanwhile, I'm hoping to get a few more of the finished ones published.  So we'll see how that project progresses.

I have one novel that needs editing pretty desperately.  I'm only up to chapter three on the new draft, and the rest has been sadly languishing.  Time to get that manuscript shaped up.  I also have another novel that needs just about 15K more of writing to be finished.  It would be great to get that one tied up and then into the editing stage.

Then of course, there are the science fiction novels I am perennially writing.  Would love to get the first in that series drafted ...

But I also had some notions of doing a bit more freelance writing, especially in the area of astronomy, outreach, planetary science, and the like.  I had drafted a proposal for an article on science and religion, and have an outline for that piece.  Perhaps there is a market out there that this might match well.

Okay, that is really enough.  Plenty.  And yet I know when new opportunities and ideas come along, I'll still find some way to make room for them.

What are your writing goals for the year?

Image Credit:  Happy New Year! by Jon Glittenberg CC 2.0 flikr via Creative Commons

Moving on from November and NaNoWriMo

It's been ages since my last post - but given that NaNoWriMo takes up all of November, I'm only going to count myself out of the blog posting for three months :)  Real life can be like that, as we all know.

But in spite of things being even more insane than usual, I did manage my fourth straight win with NaNoWriMo.  I was behind the whole time, but not quite as behind as last year.  I was also home more towards the end of the month, and usually I'm away over Thanksgiving.  So it was easier to come up the final stretch and finish off the 50K.

As usual, I think it is a good exercise, as well as fun.  I am always tempted to write and edit at the same time, and will sometimes derail myself if I do that.  NaNoWriMo helps get you into the habit of just writing the story down and seeing where it wants to go.  There are plenty of times it heads off somewhere new and better so long as I let it have that freedom.  Editing while writing seems to limit some of that mutability.

I love the badge with the "0 Excuses" part, but it isn't quite true.  I have plenty of excuses even when I win :)  November's a rough month to write half a novel.  But it does help to remind me that there really is no easy month to write a novel, after all.  And the lightning bolt is also misleading.  NaNo is not like motivation by lightning bolt.  It's like trying to charge yourself up by holding a D battery to your tongue for a month.  Still, I definitely enjoy it.  I always like lurking on the forums, seeing what interesting ideas folks have, the trouble they get into, and then eventually how things come out.  NaNo is like it's own little story every month.  The kind where everyone involved hopes they already know the ending.

Still, I'm about 20K or 25K away from finishing this draft, so I have some more December work cut out for me before the editing can begin.  I'm thinking I might let it mellow a bit and tackle that in the new year. 

Image Credit:  Winner's badge 2012 National Novel Writing Month.

 

Five Ways to Motivate Yourself to Edit That Writing

Writers seem to fall into two categories when it comes to editing.  Either they struggle to produce a first draft, and then relax and edit; or they happily pound out a first draft, and then look forlornly at the fruit of their labor and wish it could edit itself.

I am in the latter category, and so I am very interested in how to stay motivated to do what I find to be the most difficult part of the writing process.  Here are a few tips that work for me, and I hope they will help others with my mindset.

1.  Learn how to edit.  This one seems like a no-brainer, but I actually had to realize this consciously at some point.  I thought I knew perfectly well how to edit, because my idea of editing was moving around a few paragraphs, cutting out a sentence or two, checking for consistency errors, and then fixing up the spelling and grammar.  Those are certainly things you do during editing, but that isn't the heart of the process.  I had to go back to the drawing board and really dive into the nature of editing.  Until I did, I had no idea how to address issues with major and minor plot arcs, how to rewrite entire sections, how to check the progression of character growth, and so much more.  The short version is, that in becoming a more skillful editor, editing has become less tedious.

2.  Rally your support network.  If you don't have people to help support your writing efforts, it is worth the time to build a network.  This might include a personal writing group in your local area, joining a writing association or society, connecting with people at local small bookstores, finding like minded people via social networks, using online writing forums, and more.  They can be there to help motivate you, just as you can be there for them.

3.  Make a schedule and set benchmarks.  Any job seems daunting when you look at the whole thing at once.  Break your editing project down into pieces.  Set reasonable deadlines for each of those pieces.  Set benchmarks so that when you reach certain points, you can go back and reassess how your plan is working, and tweak it up if necessary.

4.  When editing, don't do anything else but edit.  It's easy to get distracted if we allow ourselves to constantly multi-task.  We find ourselves texting, tweeting, checking email, seeing if we have any phone messages, eating at our desk, etc., all while we occasionally take a stab at editing.  Instead of taking that kind of a approach for a long time, take a single-task approach for a short time.  Take a twenty minute chunk and do nothing but edit.  Stay on task.  It will be easier to swallow if done in small increments, but as you develop focus, it will be more natural to just do editing, and ignore the email.

5.  Celebrate when you reach intermediate goals.  So many times we deny ourselves any celebration or congratulations until a project is utterly completed.  It is more motivating to set intermediate goals along with your long term goals, and then be sure to celebrate all of them.  Have others join in when you celebrate, and do something to mark the occasion, however small.

Well, that's five!  There are a lot of other ways you can motivate yourself to get those edits done.  What are your favorite ways to keep yourself chugging away?

Pax, all.

Image Credit:  Editing, Nic's Events, Flickr via Creative Commons, CC 2.0

NaNoWriMo 2011 Begins

Image:  NaNoWriMo 2011

Midnight, the start of November 1, 2011.  Which of course means NaNoWriMo is underway.  For the first time I have an outline worked out for the novel I intend to write (or start writing, anyway) for a NaNoWriMo.  Fifty thousand words is short for a novel, especially one of mine, given how I like to crank out text.  So NaNo is really an opportunity for me to get a story out and rolling.

It's also an opportunity to reach out to other writers, new and old, local and distant.  It's a great place to look for blogs and tweeple to follow.  (I can't even believe 'tweeple' is a 'word.')  Hanging out on the Forums is also a great source of time-wasting amusement.  Seeing as how the daily work of a writer can be so solitary, NaNoWriMo provides a way to include more interaction.  As well as some fun.  Good luck with the writing ...

New Projects Amidst the Snows and Melts

Photo: Crystal Grotto in Snow

While I wasn't surprised at the usual December rush and January catch-up, I was indeed surprised by the overall magnitude of catch-up. So while the snow variously piled up and melted away (iterate) outside, I was busy inside, trying to finish edits to my novel and keep up with paperwork for a poem to be published in an anthology.

Although I did not keep my blogging schedule, I can at least say I kept my overall writing schedule. But since this blog, and your blogs, remain very important to me, I have once again renewed my commitment to blogging, and have returned - hopefully refreshed and invigorated to tackle the challenges of 2011. Or to continue to tackle them, since the year certainly started off in the fast lane for writing projects.

My novel with the working title "A Warm Day in Hell" is now edited and ready to go for further critique, if necessary, and publishing, if I can hone in on the skill and luck necessary to make that happen.  I'll be taking it to "The Muse in the Marketplace" conference in Boston later this spring.  It should be a great meeting for networking, learning more about how to approach the issue of publishing, and hopefully a chance to get my novel one step closer to the printed page.

Late last year my poem "Officemate" was selected for publication in an anthology being produced by the Maryland Writer's Association.  The book is close to rolling off the presses, so soon I should be able to tell you more about it.  I can already say the Association has been quite proactive in setting up readings, events, panels and more to give area poets a chance to meet, mingle, and present their art.  I am looking forward to participating in a reading or two in the spring and summer, and perhaps attending a writing conference if my schedule permits.

In addition, of course, is this blog.  I have really enjoyed my association with other writers in the blogosphere, and want to expand that.  I've forged a few good partnerships on deviantArt and I think the art helps keep my posts fresh, interesting, and useful (definitely for me, anyway, and hopefully for you, too.)  I've wanted to make sure my own project updates were included on the blog, but were not the focus.  The focus is on writing.  Along with that I did want to continue my 'weekly' writing prompts.  My goal is an archive of about 100, to use as an educational tool, a fun activity, and to keep my own creative wheels turning.  I thought it would take two years to build, but given the pace it is looking like three or four.  They call that the 'Planning Fallacy'  :)

Those are my most concrete goals for the year, but other ideas continue to percolate.  I am working sporadically on two other novels, one a stand alone book, and another a part of the sci-fi series I've been kicking around for so long.  I've been trying to produce a body of short stories to publish, say 25 or so, as a means to hone the craft and get some name recognition, but that goes slowly.  I have eight right now, and I have not worked very hard to get them out on the street.  As always, I'd rather be writing than anything else, and that is not too practical if the goal is publication.  Otherwise, I have my eye on producing a chapbook of poetry centered on my theme from last year, 'the horror of childhood.'  I have about a dozen good drafts in the theme, and want to work through NaPoWriMo (A poem a day in April) to see if I can manage to get the number up to two dozen.  And of course I'll rifle through my ideas and outlines for novels come November, and jump in once again on NaNoWriMo.

That is enough.  It is certainly plenty.  And yet I actually hope I can do more.  I've been kicking around an idea for a workshop for other writers.  This would be something I would offer to writers of science fiction, given my own background in planetary science and astronomy.  One idea was a workshop about why water is considered necessary for life as we know it and the basics of astrobiology, so sci-fi writers can be more informed about the topic when they create their own life, alien or otherwise.  It would be an enjoyable way to meet other writers, and to give something of value to the community.  So the first question for you, is this ... if you as a speculative writer could attend at workshop given by a professional astronomer-type, what subject would most grab you?  What do you hope you'd walk away with?

I'm interested to know how others have set up their goals for the year.  Has 2011 started with a mountain of projects, or has it moved in nice and easily?  What are your major milestones, and your 'if everything goes perfect' plans?  Any meetings or conferences in the works?  Plans for your blogs?  I'd love to hear it ...

Pax
Bryce

Image Credit:  Crystal Shrine Grotto, Wikimedia Commons, CC 3.0

Ending Another NaNoWriMo

Image: Nano Bag o' Skulls

First things first, this image needs a good caption. Write what should be the title or caption to this picture and put it in the comments. I'm sure I'm not the only one coming to the end of NaNoWriMo with some mixed feelings.

The real story behind the bag starts with the fact that our Halloween decorations were put away rather haphazardly this year. When I went to find certain winter holiday decorations, I had to move a pile of skulls out of the way. The NaNo bag was convenient. Then I looked over and realized I had a NaNo bag full of skulls and had to take a picture.

Why mixed feelings about NaNo? It isn't NaNo in particular, but this month has made it clear just how much my writing routine has changed in the last year. This is a good thing, by the way, but still, it a dose of reality to be ingested and assimilated. Two years ago I was writing as I pleased (or not), and left bits and pieces of work in various stages all over various hard drives. Millions of words of writing, actually, and while I had the idea that 'I'll get some of it published someday' I didn't have a plan for that.

Now I do have something of a plan, and it includes 'administrative' work as well as the fun 'writing with abandon' work. I have to be more focused and efficient, planning out projects in advance, choosing what old writing needs edited and what new writing needs to be done before I can move forward. My time includes looking up markets for short stories, targeting them, submitting them, and then iterating the process as necessary. It includes taking bits and pieces of novels - all the outlines, sketched out scenes, character profiles - and crafting them into actual books. There is also staying informed with general goings on in the speculative genres, writing in my blogs ... you know it all, I'm sure.

This year's NaNoWriMo made the changes in my approach much more clear to me. Last year I wrote over 75K just on the one novel, and poked around with various other projects without too much direction. I updated my word count daily and spent a lot of time on the forums. This year I'll clear the post at just over 50K, and didn't spend as much time as I would have liked on the site. I had to split my time more efficiently. I wrote with 'some abandon' which was fun, but more controlled than last year.

Still, I met new people, finished one project and started another, and had the experience capped by being interviewed by writer and fellow blogger Maureen O'Donnell for the Columbia Patch. So my feelings are mixed, sad to see NaNo go before I could really lose myself in it, but also glad to see it go, since I do need to keep my writing schedule balanced to meet all of my goals. In any case, as of this moment, I'm planning to get involved again next year.


Image credit: Bag o' Skulls by me.

NaNoWriMo - Hit the Ground Typing

Image: NaNoWriMo Badge

 Once again I've chosen to take part in National Novel Writing Month by joining the 'Office of Letters and Light' in their particular novel writing challenge. This challenge is so widely followed that it has become synonymous with the month, itself. Their NaNoWriMo challenge is to write a fifty thousand word draft of a fiction novel in thirty days. I participated last year and found the experience both enjoyable and focusing.  You might wonder why a serious writer would get involved ... but I have a few reasons a writer might find this exercise worth the time.

1.  Get It Down On Paper. For those who have internal editors that keep them from just getting the words out of their heads and down onto paper, NaNoWriMo can be a great exercise in turning off this editor and forcing yourself to "just write." A draft is a draft, after all, and you can't edit what you don't have on paper.  (My problems are not with creation of text, so the word goal is not prohibitive for me. My issues are definitely in the editing stage.)

2.  Reinforce the Writing Schedule. For some, the 1700 words a day or so that are necessary to reach 50K means a shift in routine. The goal helps some people to really carve out the time needed to write every day. This can lead to a better writing commitment throughout the year.

3.  Support Literacy Education. The non-profit organization in question, 'The Office of Letters and Light' runs a Young Writers' Program for children 13 and under. They fund it through book drives and such, but they also rely on donations and product sales associated with NaNoWriMo.

4.  Meet Your Community.  The writing community on the Forums is reasonably lively. Although many of the writers are young, there are specific places for those of us with a few (or more) decades under our belts to congregate. In addition to the on-line community, there is your local community. Kick-off parties and write-ins attract people to meet in specified locations to socialize and get some writing finished. It gets a person out of the house, or your usual writing venue, and into someplace new. And I enjoy the opportunity to simply meet other people in my area, regardless of if they intend to continue in the future with writing or not.

5.  Push Through The Problems. In a typical writing day, I'll work on several projects. If one is giving me trouble, I'll put my efforts into another that isn't so troublesome. But this has the drawback of never really forcing me to work through a problem. I tend to wait until it solves itself, and it usually does, but it can take a very long time. NaNoWriMo is a venue in which you must force yourself through the sticky spots. You must keep writing. I have found this to be a good exercise for forcing my brain to work on, through, or around plot issues, even when it does not want to. Again, this writing is to produce a draft. Plot holes are for December (theoretically).

6.  Fun. This is the best reason of all. Participation in NaNoWriMo is exciting and fun. Writing, something I do every day, has become like breathing - I'm glad I do it, but I don't make a holiday of the fact that it is there. NaNoWriMo makes writing into a celebration. It helps me remember many of the reasons why I enjoy writing in the first place.

So good luck to the novelists, whether involved with NaNo or otherwise. Hopefully this November will see some prodigious, if not well edited, writing.

Image Credit: NaNoWriMo 2010

Update: Back to Writing, Again and Always

The last several days have been difficult, with ups and downs galore.  Writing is my passion, and nothing can stop me from writing for long.  Yet, sometimes it seems there are barriers in the way every time I try to sit down.

I long for the moments where I can 'just write'.  So much like the Zen meditation ideal to 'just sit.'  (Or 'just anything' for that matter.)

I've made some very good progress on my novel for NaNoWriMo; I'm already up over 40K words, and only half the month has gone by.  Even better, I'm pretty happy with how the draft is turning out.  It will need substantial edits, of course, every draft does, but it won't need a major rewrite to get it into readable condition.  I'm glad I chose a story that was totally unconnected with my massive Sci-Fi universe.  This is a wonderfully self contained project.  One book, one idea, one story.  I don't have to worry about continuity through millions of words of writing (which is what I have already produced for the series, so far).  Just one book, beginning to end.  It is wonderful to be able to be focused like that.

I've been able to keep up, more or less, with my blogging as well.  In addition to this new blog, I've been writing another blog on a totally unrelated topic for about a year and a half.  That has been both very enjoyable and very useful in a host of ways: as a means to get ideas down in one place, as a motivation for doing research into topics that interest me, to get occasional feedback, and to work through any issues that have me stuck.  That blog was a huge motivation for me to start this one, since it has been a really good experience.

I've also been doing some research into how to better serve the community of people I'm interested in, that is, writers and readers of science fiction and fantasy.  I'm already a part of the community as a reader, a consumer, and that entry point is easy.  But getting involved as a writer, a provider, is quite different.  As a consumer, I know exactly where to go to get what I want to read and watch.  I'm only beginning to learn where I as a writer need to go to find the resources I need to write and publish in the way I truly wish.

So update: one novel chugging along, blogs chugging, some research going down, and as always, the occasional work on my big universe.  Haven't written any poetry in a while, but that's a different part of the brain.  I don't want to disengage my full-steam-ahead novel circuits at the moment.

Up and out

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tnarik/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

Profanity in Fiction - To Swear or Not to Swear

 

I noted on the NaNoWriMo Forums a thread called "Swearing is Good."  I checked it out, and found that it was mostly frequented by teen writers, some of whom were talking about ways one could use swear words to pad out their word counts.  I found this amusing, partly because I can easily write copious amounts of bad text without adding swearing.  Probably already in my text, as it is.

Anyway, I read the thread because I've always been interested in how writers (and readers) of fiction view the inclusion of 'touchy' words and themes, such as swearing, sex, torture, and more.  Being a sci-fi/fantasy writer and fan, I enjoy reading works where these things are handled well, and add depth, drama, and realism to the story.

I took a look around the net and found a few other things that caught my eye.  One was a blog post from January of this year entitled Profound or Profane? which includes an Ernest Hemingway quote I have always liked:

I've tried to reduce profanity but I reduced so much profanity when writing the book that I'm afraid not much could come out. Perhaps we will have to consider it simply as a profane book and hope that the next book will be less profane or perhaps more sacred.
 
In some ways, this encapsulates my view on the subject.  I've always seen my job as a fiction writer as a recorder of what my characters say and do.  As the writer, I naturally have some power over what I report, and how accurately.  I don't usually 'ask' them to swear, they do that or not depending on their personalities.  Occasionally, I'll force the issue one way or another to make a specific point in the story, but I don't have to do that very often.  Some stories I write simply have a lot of swearing, others have none.  There are times when you can't get rid of the profanity without simply ditching the story as a whole, and there is no point to that.  (Note post from Grammar Girl discussing attempts to remove or replace swears.)  Everyone is different, and some audiences want their stories with that kind of edge.  And after all, most mature readers have eclectic tastes, so at times they want such writing, and other times they choose something else.

Pax

Image Credit:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/myklroventine/ / CC BY 2.0

A Novel in a Month

 

Strategy number two for getting into a better writing habit - join this year's NaNoWriMo.  If you are a writer anywhere online these days, you've probably heard of it.  NaNoWriMo is a program run by a non-profit organization that promotes National Novel Writing Month by encouraging authors to write 50,000 words in the month of November.  Each year, tens of thousands of aspiring and published writers converge on the NaNoWriMo site to sign up, get support, track their word count, and eventually bask in triumph on November 30th (or vow to try again next year.)

I first heard about NaNoWriMo from a family member who participated and finished a novel in a previous year, with much gnashing of teeth.  This person found attaining the standard 1667 words a day to be a pain, since I think she was actually trying to write something good.  Now, I usually have no trouble producing copious amounts of text, but it tends to possess little or no cohesion on the first go round.  The whole purpose of NaNoWriMo is to write without editing.  To just write.  No rereading and chopping out of bad parts.  And ideally, no starting over.  Just get the idea out into the world, and edit the freaking thing in December.  So anyway, she said, somewhat wryly, that I could probably handle it.  This already being my style.

And so for the first time, I'm doing NaNoWriMo.  I started a few days late, so had to do some catch up.  But as suspected, keeping up with the word count is no problem at all.  As usual, I give my characters a world and a scaffold of a plot and they immediately run off and start doing their own thing.  I just have to write down what they say and do.  It's one of the major reasons I write, because of how much I love to watch and record their lives (or in the case of this novel, their afterlives).  Now, readability, or marketability, of said writing remains unknown.  But before I can try to see if I can really turn this into my day job, I have to have a complete product of some kind.

The problem with my current stories is that I have thousands of them, all in one science fiction/fantasy universe, and they are all interconnected.  So writing any piece of it can alter the other pieces.  Keeping the continuity sharp has been challenging.  To start me on my way to "I do this for at least part of my living" I need something that is a package in and of itself.  One project, one book, no trilogies or more.  Something not affiliated with my usual stories.  I don't tend to write like that, since my universe is where my heart is.  But I do have other ideas that float in and out, and so I picked one for NaNo and ran with it.

So if you are interested, you can check me out on the NaNoWriMo site, along with thousands of other writers all exciting just to be writing.  And what else is there, really?

Pax

Image Credit:  NaNoWriMo