NaNo 15: NaNo All Year: A List

National Novel Writing Month is the magical month when we do impossible things.  You can take the energy and the tools of NaNo to build a writing practice that will help you reach your goals.

1. Write everyday. 100 a day=36,500, 500 a day=182,500, 1000 a day=365,000. It doesn’t have to be a single project. Just sit down everyday with the intention to write and keep track of your words somewhere. Build those muscles.

2. Read good books. Both within your genre and without. Read books on craft. As Jane Kenyon says, “Keep good sentences in your head.”

3. Write with friends. If you loved Write-Ins, create your own weekly Write In. I’ve been writing with friends on Sunday mornings since 2010 (We started in NaNo). There is a power in going it alone, together.

4. Race yourself. Are you a word sprint addict? Do you like the spirit of competition a word spring gives you. Create the adrenaline rush by setting a timer on your phone. Set a goal that’s hard to reach. Feed the muse chocolate if you reach the goal.

5. Create community. There are a number of wonderful online writing communities. On Facebook, on Instagram, on Yahoo groups. Find a group whose spirit meets your aims and check in with them regularly. 10 Minute Novelists and NaNoWriMo on Facebook are current favorites. If you write for Children, SCBWI Blue Boards are great. Don’t let community building eat up all your writing time, but build your community a little bit each day.

6. Visually track goals. My favorite part of NaNo is the wonderful bar graph that shows how many words I’ve done and how well I’ve stuck to goals. I haven’t found an app that does it as well as NaNo, but MyWriteClub is a website (in Beta testing) that allows you to track goals for several projects (it also has a Word Sprint feature). You can write your daily count on a calendar. Make your own bar graph, pile up the pages you’ve finished on your desk.  However you do it, visually tracking your writing goals is a powerful motivator.

7. Believe in yourself. How did you finish NaNo? You believed you could even if you wrote 20,000 words, you wrote just a little over 500 words a day. That’s impressive. If you didn’t complete what you set out to complete, you still built some new habits. You can make those habits last through the year. Give your writing a chance, build your writer’s muscle. Let your writing be a gift you give yourself all year long.

NaNo 15: Making Promises

What comes after our 30 days and nights of literary abandon?  A promise to revise, of course.  

Somewhere in the middle of this novel I was looking for inspiration, and I found a video interview of Kate DiCamillo that I’d never seen before. (Which is strange because I’m her biggest fan.)

I was feeling like my novel was really a steaming mess of poop and that it was time to throw in the towel. (I know, I know, “The first draft of anything is shit.”—Earnest Hemingway. Where did that sign go?)

I had poems to write, and they are always sweeter when I first look at them than novels are. I had chapbooks to organize. Contests to enter. Poems to submit. And what about those essay ideas. All of those things were much more interesting than this awful, unplanned, hot mess of a novel I was working on.

But then I saw Kate, and yet again, she changed my life. In the interview, she said that she generally writes two single-spaced pages a day. I write for kids, so for me that’s about 1,400 words a day (pretty close, right?) Then she made the life changing comment. When she revises, she also revises two pages a day. But, get this, they are double-spaced. So it takes her twice as long to revise as it does to write.

Here's the link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0k8jP4Ivf18

Now, if you’re keeping track, this is my sixth NaNo novel. I’ve done serious revision on two of them, and probably it took me twice as long to revise as it did to write. But I thought that was just me. I thought I was such an awful writer that I had to spend an extra long time on revision.

But Kate has won two Newbury Awards. She’s a genius. She tells stories I wish I could tell. Doesn’t it just flow for her? Aren’t her drafts prettier than mine? Nope, probably not. Not if she has to take twice as long to revise.

So, I gave myself permission (again) to write a really awful book with huge plot holes, unanswered questions, inconsistencies, and factual errors (it’s historical fiction). And then, my writing got easier.

I’m going to finish this. Then I’m going back to my poem a day practice in December and I’m going to let my novel sit quietly under my bed (which is where newly created novels love to live). I’m going to start trying to answer, one at a time, the nearly three hundred questions I’ve written down, things I must know to tell my story true. And come January, I’ll begin to slowly dive back in to find the heart of my novel and then I’ll work, page by page (no more than two a day, Kate says), to make my novel the best story it can be.

The mantra of my dream agency (they represent Kate) is “The world owes you nothing; you owe the world your best work.” So, in the new year, I’ll settle in to make this NaNo novel disaster the best work that I can make it.

I hope you’ll join me. The journey has really only just begun.

NaNo 15: Thankful

Happy getting ready for Thanksgiving Day.

Some of you have finished. Yay, you. I hope you took some time to do a huge happy dance of your choice or at least wiggled your tush a little in your chair.

Some of you are almost there. Yay, you and me. We've got this. What a wonderful excuse you have to bow out of tense Thanksgiving festivities early.   Give yourself the time it takes to write 1,667 (or 2,500 or 5,000) words for the next few days. You can finish this. See my earlier Pep Talk for some things to try or check out the pep talks and videos for this week for some fresh inspiration.

Some of you have a long way to go. Life got in the way. That’s okay. Give yourself permission to fail. If I had not failed to complete my project the first year, I wouldn’t have known what to do to be able to get my projects done for the last six years (No Plot, No Problem was a big help to me that second year.) You’ve still got more words than you started with. And you have some idea about what made things hard for you so that next year you can line up sitters, get rose-colored glasses, read some books on character or plot development, and prepare your family for your November marathon.

No matter where you are in this year’s journey, enjoy it. Maybe get up early with me (6 am) and write tomorrow to get the words out of the way before you have to cook. Find some time to give to your novel, treat it like a beloved member of your family this Thanksgiving, and give thanks to your muse, to your words, to the teachers who have helped nourish and inspire you, and to your own self for having the courage to set off on this journey and see it through this far (no matter how far you are).

I’m thankful that you are right here with me.

NaNo 15: Competing and Winning

If you're like me, a bit competitive, this whole hullabaloo about winning may be making you nervous.  After all, you've (I've) been chugging along, doing the work, and you're (I'm) still over 10,000 words from winning.

I'm write on track.  But some of my buddies are changing colors before my eyes and getting winner exclamations posted below their photos. I'm writing just what I need to to win, about 1,667 words a day every day.  I will win, but I'm not first.  Wah. 

Okay, crying is over.  Now, I'll celebrate those friends who have caught fire this year and finished their words, sometimes over 100,000 before the deadline.  I'm impressed.  I'm awed.  And I'm just a little bit jealous.  But I can still celebrate all the winning taking place around me.  It's amazing to be a part of this organization and this challenge.  

And I am going to win.  Even if I don't write another word.  I will have won.  I've made great progress on my historical novel despite my poor planning.  I've learned more about my period.  And I've put in 4-6 hours of writerly work nearly every day this month.  This is the life I want to live.  The life of a working writer.  

Of course, it helps that my youngest is off at college and doing well.  It helps that my office trailer was delivered and it's all set up.  It helps that my husband likes to cook and clean.  It helps that I have not had any consulting work this month.  It helps that I've been working all year to get to this point.  But what really helps is that I set that intention.  I aimed at 50,000 words plus continuing other projects and submitting other work.  And I'm hitting that mark.  

Even if I didn't write another word, I'd be a winner.  But I'm here, warming up with this little message at my Sunday morning writer's date, and I'll get at least 1,667 words in today.  I'll tell more of my protagonist's story.  I'll throw in another red herring, I'll have my character have a little more conflict with her mother and her own heart, and I'll have her learn something important even though she won't yet know it's important.  I'm writing to the end of the project.

And somewhere on the way, I'll hit 50,000 words, and I'll post them on NaNoWriMo.org.  I'll get my purple badge and order my shirt.  Then I'll wake up on Dec. 1 and continue writing. I hope you will, too.

Remember, even if you've only written 500 words, you've still written more than you would have without the challenge, so color yourself a winner.  

NaNo 15: Sticking Past the Middle

Heather Sellers, in her book Chapter after Chapter, talks about a phenomenon that often assails me as I get into the sticky middle of my current book.  She calls it the "sexy new book" lure.  Maybe you're feeling that lure.  It's like the seven-year itch for writers.  And getting through it requires the same things that getting through the "sexy new" lures that might arise seven years into a relationship: commitment and fun. 

You're here, you've got the commitment part down.

  

And if you read Charlaine Harris' Pep Talk then you may have some idea as to how to inject a little fun, Post-It Notes, anyone?

This year, I've been using two other tools that have helped me keep going even when the going gets rough: Story Cubes and Fiction Magic.  What these tools have in common is that they ask me to think of new ways to see what happens next.  I like that I have these tools, but you don't really need them.  

Instead, you can think of your favorite book or character and play the "What would Sookie do?" or "What would Dresden do game?" Or, even better, "What would Harris do?" or "What would Butcher do?"  

What do your favorite characters do and what do your favorite writers do just when things start to seem too predictable?  

Does the character get into a situation where what she values is in conflict with what she needs to do to save the day?

Does your writer up the tension with a plot twist?

How does your favorite writer up the ante for the character you love?

How does your favorite character get herself in trouble and back out again?

The answers to these questions will help you find the way to the next 1,667 words.  

This year, the mug I'm using has a quote on it from Cheryl Strayed "Be brave enough to break your own heart."  I do that by putting my character into terrible situations that I'm not sure she can get out of.  And then it's easy to write the next 1,667 words.  

Keep writing.  Even 500 more words is 500 more words than your story had before you sat down to write.  

NaNo 15: Double, Double

You know the rest.  Though I hope your month so far is free of toil and trouble.  I'd like to say that donating today on Double Up Donation day would ensure that your month continues without either, but I can't promise that. 

What I can promise you is that by donating today, you'll be supporting a life-changing organization (and you'll be able to write it off on your taxes).  You'll also get $50 of donation goodies for the price of $25.  

But what about that life-changing bit?  Really, writing is life changing. It makes people without a voice feel heard.  It helps people find the truth about their lives and heal from old wounds.  It helps us feel connected to one another.  It creates lifetime friendships.  Research says that if you're friends with someone for five years, it's likely to last for a lifetime. This is the sixth year that I've been writing NaNo with friends, so I'm calling it for a lifetime.

NaNo taught me that I could do what I set out to do. It taught me to show up for my craft everyday.  It taught me that getting words on paper was just the beginning.  NaNo has changed my life.  For that, it's worth donating.  But I donate so that the Office of Letters and Light can stay open to bring more of this life-changing mojo to schools, community centers, and libraries.  I donate because I believe in the value of stories. 

And I donate because I look really cute with a halo.  I hope you'll join me, even if you can't afford $25, donate the price of a cup of coffee, or the change you find under your car seat. And donating improves your chances of finishing, so it's worth at least a few bucks, right?

NaNo 2015: Writing to Unstuck

It's only Day Five, but already I'm wondering if I picked the right project for this year.  I didn't do enough research.  My character development is shockingly gaunt, and I'm wondering how I'll get beyond the first act. 

But I've been here before.  See my post from a little later last year.  This week two slump (distressingly early this year) is something that's dogged me since my first Nano try seven years ago.  I didn't succeed that first year, but I've made it through every other year.  I'm telling you this so you'll have some tools to make it through, too.  Here, then, are ten tips to making it to Week Three and beyond.

10.  Chocolate. Of course, keep the chocolate close by so you don't have to get up from your computer to get it. Keep your butt in the chair and write until you've got your daily word count in.

9. Can't forward the plot.  Go to the end of a document and do a little character development or think of something awful you can do to your protagonist to raise the stakes. 

8.  Take your character on a walk.  Have her meet someone interesting who can introduce some new plot element. You might take yourself on a walk, too.  Or meet writing friends for a writing date. 

7.  Feed your character.  Admit it, all your chocolate is gone. There's nothing for you to eat within arm's reach, set your character down for a meal--let the conversation advance your plot.

6.  Put your character to bed.  Let him dream something that enhances the theme without giving anything away, plant seeds for later. 

5.  Plant image seeds for later.  Is there something that's important to understanding your book's theme, what picture brings it up for you.  Throw a little visual or aural image in that will resonate later on.  Not sure what that image is since your a pantser, write an image that feels compelling to your character.  Don't be surprised when it comes back later. 

4. What's the threshold, where does the character move from the known into the unknown in your novel.  Has she already moved beyond it.  If not, now's the time!

3. Is there a villain or an annoyance you can throw at your character?  If it's a mystery, is there a red herring you can introduce?

2. Does your character know what she really wants?  If you think so, give her something else to desire and let her feell torn between the two things.

1.  Don't give up.  Sit in the chair.  Remember, "The first draft of anything is shit" --E. Hemingway.  So let your 2nd week (even if it starts too early, ugh) pile up loads of dung-like words into your document.  Let go the image of successful writers who write brilliant first drafts.  They don't exist in reality.  Let your first draft be a beautiful mess, but let your first draft be. 

0.  Find a Write In and go write.  (Put earphones in if it's a talkative one and revel in the fact that you're the dedicated one writing and not chatting.)  Don't leave until you've done 1667 words. 

NaNo 2015: The Power of Intention

Over five years ago, a friend and I came up with a list of twenty wishes and then we made dream sheets for each wish.  When my beautiful 20 foot 1963 Avion office trailer was delivered in September, I checked item #15 off that list.  I pulled the little dream notebook I'd made out and moved that decorated page to done.  I still have those things I can't control in my notebook--getting my novel published is one of those things and I've decided that two of the things on that list don't really matter to me in the same way now, so I'm letting them go.  

But just a little over five years ago, I set some powerful intentions. I've made most of them (call me Fairy Godmother if you will) come true for myself.  

I've finished yoga teacher training. I've competed in road races. I've backpacked for miles and miles.  I've also written hundreds of poems (and published quite a few), finished three novels, a poetic memoir, and two self-help/memoir books that are uncategorizable.  I've done a lot of other things, too.  

And I have my beautiful trailer all ready in my backyard to give me solitude, a large second screen for writing, and a hot pot for making tea and coffee.  

The woman I was is envious of the woman I am now (especially the trailer part--over twenty years in the dreaming, squeal).  I still have a lot of work to do, but those things that I set out to do with intention and dedication, I've done. 

Now, I'm ready to check another thing off.  The novel I'm writing this November isn't on my list, but it's another step towards that published book.  I'm still headed towards some of those other goals, and I've let go of one or two of them and replaced them with other things. I'm still dreaming.

So, what do you intend.  Will you let yourself picture that little bar at the bottom of the word processor that says you've written 50,000 words?  Will you give yourself the time to meet your intentions?  Will you join me in making (y)our own wishes and dreams come true? 

 I intend to finish this novel, though I don't quite feel ready to begin it. I hope you'll join me. 

Plotter/Pantser/Writer

In the back of The Shepherd's Crown, I found an interesting bit about who Pratchett wrote, so I've been exploring this a little further today and found this interesting interview. In case you think he's a total pantser, in other interviews he talks about how those first 15-20,000 words are the pivotal scenes in the story and that he then goes back and fills in. Oh, and as someone who loves to work with wood, the Carpentry School of Writing works for me. 

Q: I'd like to talk a bit about the practical side of being a writer. You've said you are from the Carpentry School of Writing. And you think it's very important that writers work on their craft. Could you expand on that a bit? 

Terry Pratchett: Okay. I have to say that I change the metaphor about once a week. But it may help if I give you an idea of how I go about writing. 

I'm about 10,000 words into my next book. Do I know what it is about? Yes, I do know what it is about, it's just that I'm not telling myself. I can see bits of the story and I know the story is there. This is what I call draft zero. This is private. No one ever, ever gets to see draft zero. This is the draft that you write to tell yourself what the story is. Someone asked me recently how to guard against writing on auto-pilot. I responded that writing on auto-pilot is very, very important! I sit there and I bash the stuff out. I don't edit -- I let it flow. The important thing is that the next day I sit down and edit like crazy. But for the first month or so of writing a book I try to get the creative side of the mind to get it down there on the page. Later on I get the analytical side to come along and chop the work into decent lengths, edit it and knock it into the right kind of shape. Everyone finds their own way of doing things. I certainly don't sit down and plan a book out before I write it. There's a phrase I use called "The Valley Full of Clouds." Writing a novel is as if you are going off on a journey across a valley. The valley is full of mist, but you can see the top of a tree here and the top of another tree over there. And with any luck you can see the other side of the valley. But you cannot see down into the mist. Nevertheless, you head for the first tree. At this stage in the book, I know a little about how I want to start. I know some of the things that I want to do on the way. I think I know how I want it to end. This is enough. The thing now is to get as much down as possible. If necessary, I will write the ending fairly early on in the process. Now that ending may not turn out to be the real ending by the time that I have finished. But I will write down now what I think the conclusion of the book is going to be. It's all a technique, not to get over writer's block, but to get 15,000 or 20,000 words of text under my belt. When you've got that text down, then you can work on it. Then you start giving yourself ideas. 

From an interview with Terry Pratchett from April 2000. http://www.writerswrite.com/journal/apr00/a-conversation-with-terry-pratchett-4001

"NaNo's coming soon.  I'm starting to think about it," my faithful, trusty, six-year, started-in-NaNo writing partner replied. Of course, Sarah from Headquarters has been in touch, and I woke up this morning thinking about my project for this year.  But having someone else say to me, "It's almost NaNo" made it real in a way that emails and morning thoughts hasn't. 

This morning at 7 AM  I settled into my hard chair at my local coffee shop for my regular Sunday writing date.  I asked our usual question: What are you working on today?

"NaNo's coming soon.  I'm starting to think about it," my faithful, trusty, six-year, started-in-NaNo writing partner replied.

I didn't say it, but I thought, "Eek."

Of course, Sarah from Headquarters has been in touch, and I woke up this morning thinking about my project for this year.  But having someone else say to me, "It's almost NaNo" made it real in a way that emails and morning thoughts hasn't.  It's almost November.  

To be fair, not really.  There are nearly two months left.  But it is time to decide which project I'll work on--Medieval mystery or the third book in the Knowing series.  And once I've decided, I'll need to start planning.  I'm a planster (planner + pantser).  I make some plans but don't marry them. My project can develop with a clear outline, but I can diverge from that outline where I need to.  

And I need to start living in that world, or at least be ready to live in that world.  If I choose to do the third of my Knowing series, then this October would be a good time to work some more on the Seeing revisions.  If I choose to live in Medival France, then October will be full of translations and research.  Even when I approached my novels by the seat of my pants, I needed this immersion before November to help get me ready to dive right into 1667 words a day.  So, it's time to think about making some decisions.  

I have a lot to keep me busy.  But I'll set the pot full of ideas on that back burner and turn the gas on low so that it can start to bubble away.  

What are you doing to get ready?  What can we here as your MLs or on the NaNoWriMo site do to help. 

See you in November.

Writer’s Tips from the 30A Songwriter Festival

Ahh, I just got back from a beautiful five days in south Walton County, Florida.  My toes still have sand between them.

I went to research the setting of my draft novel Blown Away. And Jason Isbell, Graham Nash and many more amazing songwriters were scheduled to perform at the 30A festival.  Since the panhandle of Florida is where I grew up,  I decided it was time for a visit. 

I’m so glad I went.  I compiled some great notes. I saw old friends. My traveling companion was amazing, and the music was inspiring.

As I thought about the advice the performers shared with fellow songwriters, I realized it was great writing advice, no matter the genre.  I’ll share some of it here.

Jason Isbell shared the funniest writing advice.   At 21, when he started writing songs, not much had happened to him. He said that instead of writing about his life, he wrote about the lives of family members who had pulled him aside at reunions and told him stories with the caveat that he should never tell anyone. Isbell’s songs--dramatic monologues in the voices of the deep south--are a testament to the success of his advice to write other people’s stories when your own aren’t interesting enough.

The Grahams, a husband-wife duo out of Nashville, shared inadvertent writing advice during their set when they talked about the genesis of their last two albums.  Last year, the Grahams spent time travelling the Mississippi, living part of the time on a houseboat and listening to the stories of locals up and down the river.  Their album Riverman’s Daughter was culled from those travels.  This year, they're headed out on the rails. Their nomadic nature appeals to me, and their songs are beautiful. Using locations and faces as inspiration for songs, poems, and stories is great writing advice, you can find more discussion of using places as inspiration in Richard Hugo's brilliant book of essays The Triggering Town.

Graham Nash’s set was full of great writing inspiration.  Unlike Isbell and The Grahams, Nash’s songs come from small everyday moments of intense attention—whether that small moment is a bet with someone about writing a song before he leaves or shopping for a vase with Joni Mitchell. Nash’s songs crystalize the everyday into moments of beauty. 

Though it could be taken as pedantic in the worst way, the artwork at the top of the post also contains good advice, especially since the genre fiction I’m working on has very particular sets of expections or “wants” from publishers and readers.  I’d like to remember to tell true, authentic stories that will meet my reader’s need instead of writing stories based on formulas and perceived expectations.

I think my one-off book set in Grayton Beach is about to become a series. That way I'll have a reason to travel to NW Florida every year for inspiration at the 30A Songwriter's Festival.