Five New Things I’m Trying for NaNo This Year

 Like many of us, I’ve been thinking a lot about NaNo this year.  Over the summer as I was revising a novel, I read up on Beat Sheets (Save the Cat and Story Engineering). I began reading some inspiring books by James Scott Bell in August.   I’ve always been much closer to a pantser in approach, but the limitations of that approach have been evident as I’ve worked through some revisions, so I’ve been trying to find a new way to work this year.  And, I think I’ve found it. 

I won’t know how it turns out until January next year when I do my first read through of my NaNo novel, but I’m excited about the possibilities, so I thought I’d share some things I’m doing differently in no particular order.

1.  Keeping a scene list. James Scott Bell recommends taking some time at the end of every writing session to take notes on scenes.  This is one of the most time consuming parts of revising for me, and though I think there’s some benefit to rereading a novel to create this list, this year I’m going to create my scene list as I go.  I haven’t decided on format yet, but at a minimum, my scene list (written on index cards) will include characters, objectives, setting, and obstacles. 

I’m hoping this list will help me when I go back in to look at the structure of the book during revision.  Time will tell.

2.  Imagining alternatives.  James Scott Bell suggests stopping every once in  a while during drafting to think about the ten worst things that might happen to the character next.  Then, you choose the worst things and make them happen. 

Because I love my characters, I don’t like to see bad things happen to them, but my favorite writer, Kate DiCamillo, always makes her characters go through heartbreaking things, and her books are more satisfying because of it.  So, this year, my goal is to let my characters suffer.  Imagining the worst things that can happen to them at several points in the novel should help me increase their suffering. 

Aaack, I’m having a hard time just thinking of this.  Deep breaths.  Okay, I will let my characters suffer.  I will let my characters suffer.  I will.

3.  Music.  Bell suggests listening to movie theme music that matches the purpose of your scenes.  So I’ll waster, er, spend time this weekend downloading some movie tracks for drama (The Mission), hope, terror, despair, avenging, etc.  And then I’ll have something to listen to when I’m writing the novel.  I’m very influenced by music, and can’t listen to words while I’m writing, so this sound track ideal seems promising.  I’ll let you know how it goes. 

4.  Jump start.  Again, it’s Bell who recommends writing 350 words before you do anything each day.  Getting 1/5 of my daily word count goal down in the morning while I drink my coffee seems like a useful tool for priming the pump each day.  I’ll try to apply another trick that works for me, walking away in the middle of sentence, so that it’s easier to come back and sit down to work.  And, of course, if I get twice that amount written in the morning (like I have this morning) then that’s even better.

 5.  Character letters.  I often have detailed character descriptions before I begin work each NaNo, but though I’ve done some work, another idea I’m borrowing from the prolific Mr. Bell.  He suggests stopping at points along the novel’s way and writing letters in the voice of your characters.  Ask them what’s missing in their lives? As them what they really want?  Ask them about their actions and motivations.  I like that this practice also helps build the voice of characters, voice that will show up in first person narration and dialogue.  Besides, it’s much more interesting than a fill-in-the-blank character sheet. 

Bonus Task 6.  I’m including this here not as a suggestion, but because I think I’ll be referring to it as we go through the month.  This year, I’ve mapped out the major beats and listed some key scenes.  Using Blake Snyder’s Save the Cat and James Scott Bell’s Super Structure, I’ve come up with a fifteen point outline of this years NaNo novel.  It covers the big events and also has space for scene lists during the dreaded middle.  If you don’t know what beats are, don’t worry, it’s really just a list of the major plot events that will take place in my book.   It identifies the novel’s theme and then takes a look at how that theme will guide the character through the three acts of the story. 

There’s still plenty of room for pantsing in here, but I’m hopping this big picture view of the book will help me make it through a very busy November.  If you’re free this weekend and this sounds appealing, read Super Structure (details below) and outline as you read.  If you’re reading this on Monday,  don’t worry.  Pants away.  You can go back and apply these techniques to your novel during revision.

I hope you’re visualizing yourself working each day, picturing the words filling up your documents, and picturing yourself raising your hands in victory as you finish that 50,000 word. 

Many of these ideas won’t work for you, but take what you need and leave the rest.  Most of all, get ready to enjoy your words and the world you make in NaNo this November. 

Source List:  AN IMPORTANT REMINDER  Now is not the time to read these books unless you want to choose one to read over the weekend (Super Structure would be great).  But put these on a list for next year.  These books will give the critical part of your brain a work out.  All you need to do now is take some deep breaths, do some warm ups (character letters anyone), and get ready to write. 

Bell, James Scott.  Just Write.  Writer’s Digest Books. 2016.

Bell, James Scott.  Super Structure. Compendium Press. 2015.

Bell, James Scott.  Plot and Structure.  Writer’s Digest Books. 2004.

Brooks, Larry.  Story Fix.  Writer’s Digest Books. 2015.

Brooks, Larry.  Story Engineering.  Writer’s Digest Books. 2011.

Snyder Blake.  Save the Cat Strikes Back. Michael Wiese Productions. 2009.

Snyder, Blake.  Save the Cat.  Michael Wiese Productions. 2005.

Writing Prompt Wednesday: Golden Fetching in the Snow

Image © Lori Gravley, Yellow Springs, Ohio, 2016

Play with point of view--dog, ball, snow, thrower, watcher, neighbor, other small dog (not pictured).

Hot and Cold: The Tension of Opposition

As I type this, Night and Day is playing in my head, and I start thinking about dualities, but this isn’t a post about dualities (that was a couple of weeks ago). It’s a post about the way my writer’s life seems to swing between extremes: desperate hope and abject fear.  Okay, that was a bit of hyperbole.  The fear and despair isn’t really absolute, but it can be paralyzing at times.  During those times, it’s hard to send work out.

For a long time, I thought the solution to swinging between these extremes was getting a “big book” published or getting an agent.  My friends with agents and big books assure me that this isn’t the answer, that the fear and despair still live at the far swing of the pendulum. 

Yesterday, I mused aloud with my writing friends as I was sending out a new batch of queries that maybe I’d chosen the wrong career.  My friends reminded me that I didn’t choose this, it chose me.  

While that’s not entirely true--I could just write and write and store my work in an empty trunk (okay, at this point it would probably be two trunks) and not worry about publishing--it is somewhat true.  I’ve always written.  It’s been a constant companion.  I told my 6^th grade teacher, Mrs. Hackett, that I was going to be a writer.  And I am.

But, the thing is, I would write whether I was ever published or not. I have a job that pays the bills, but I think the world needs my work.  I think that there are children whose lives might be a little brighter if they could spend time with my characters.  I think there are poets who might find some truth in my words.  I think there are parents and teachers who might see the world and their charges a little differently through my picture books. I tell stories that I would like people to hear.

So, I write, and I’d like my writing shared with a broader audience, so I vacillate between extremes.  I’ve learned that when I’m feeling hopeful, I should send my work out to as many agents and publishers as will read them. 

Yesterday, I felt hopeful.  Did you know Kate DiCamillo was rejected by 45 agents before she finally got representation?  So I sent two picture books and my completed verse memoir out to a total of eight agents. 

Today, I got the nicest rejection from an agent I'd sent my work to earlier this year. The agent said that though the project wasn’t right for him, I should continue querying agents.  That encouragement was enough to keep my on the hopeful side of the pendulum for a little while longer. 

So, I’m headed back to my spreadsheet to send the book out to four more people.  Wish me luck, and good luck to you.  I’ll keep hoping.  I’ll keep working.  I hope you’ll do the same.

Writing Prompt Wednesday: Swing

Image © Lori Gravley, Portal, AZ

Responding to a Rewrite Request

Image © Lori Gravley

I’m always rewriting my work—from small edits to larger revisions.  For me, this is where my work as a writer begins to feel like work: learning to see my poem as it is on the page and responding to it in ways that make the poem better.

Just reading that last sentence makes me shiver.  I realize that I’m surrounded, psychologically speaking, by my projections.  My husband very rarely comes into focus for me as himself, he’s often seen by me as who I think he is, the same for my children and my friends.  I’m working on this.  Yoga and meditation help.  Compassionate Communication helps. Getting older and becoming more aware helps. 

In revising my writing, the helps are the same.  Being patient, sitting with what is, being aware of common patterns, and running my ideas through wise guides help me see my work as it is and not how I expect it to be.

So does the list of revision thoughts I’ve compiled from feedback I’ve gotten through the years.

What’s making me think of this now when I'm immersed in planning my next novel is the feedback I just got from an editor.  He asked me to remove the I-ness from a poem.  My first response was, of course, the nerve.  But I slept on it and woke this morning to give it a try.  It was easy to remove the I and the new poem was a better poem.  I’ve added *examine the I-ness* to my list of revision strategies, it joins other useful tactics that I frequently apply when I revise my poems:

--inspect the articles and conjunctions,

--kill your darlings (find the poetic word or vocab word that sticks out in the poem and delete it),

--look for the form (is it organic or is it leaning toward a sonnet, a ghazal, couplets?)

--break the line, space the line,

--write to the turn (find the turn in the poem and then pay attention to what leads up to that turn and what happens after it),

--explore cutting the first and last lines,
and now --examine the I-ness.

Update: The advice he gave must have worked.  My poem, "Late Summer Song," will be published online at the beautiful e-zine Plum Tree Tavern. 

Writing Prompt Wednesday: What God

Image © Lori Gravley, Tucson, AZ, 2013

How did he get turned to stone?  What if he came to life?

Getting Ready for NaNoWriMo One: Overcoming Duality

Black or white/plot or pants. 

Image © Lori Gravley, Maputo, Mozambique, 2013

Anyone who knows me will tell you that I’m a recovering black/white-aholic.  I tend to see the world in dualities, even though I know that it’s more complex.  This shows up to remind me of the work I need to do when I have to make a decision for November:  plot or pants.

I’ve spent a lot of the year reading up on ways to approach novel design: StoryFix, Wired for Story, Save the Cat, and James Scott Bell’s books have all been my wise guides this year.  I think that I need to master a more rigorous approach to planning my novel.  But I hesitate.

I’ve always done some planning. I have copious character notes, timelines, school calendars, maps, etc. for the series of novels that Knowing and Seeing are from.

I have piles of research notes for my Christine novels. 

But I’d like to spend more time making my words beautiful and less time making sense of the books I’ve written during the revision process, so this year, I’d like to try the scene building approach that so many writers use.  You can find the ten-scene outline here.

Terry Pratchett began his books by writing his most important scenes first and filling in later.

This sounds right to me. I’d like to have that overall arc before I write.  Then I think, well, if I’m doing that, shouldn’t I do all forty scenes that Save the Cat suggests? 

On good days, I stop myself there.  As with most of life, writing doesn’t have to be all or nothing.  I can write out the ten scenes, do the character development I normally do, do the research this novel will require and then pants the rest of the scenes in the novel, filling in the gaps.  If that worked for Sir Pratchett, perhaps it will work for me. 

I'll be public with my commitment.  This year, I’ll move beyond duality, and write the ten scene (maybe twenty ;-) outline of my novel before November begins. I don't have to have a detailed outline of every scene.  I can plot some and pants some.  I can be grey.

On Nov. 1, I’ll be ready to jump into those pre-planned scenes, and I'll let myself pants the rest.

Last Quarter Check In

I paid my quarterly taxes.  I've updated my spreadsheets. The air is cool and the leaves are turning.  So, it must be time for me to do my quarterly check-in.  You can see my updated Write Club chart on the left.  You'll notice some things are already done.

I finished submitting work to agents in August. It helped that I changed this title.  It started as submit Wish You Were Here to agents, but since that project is more literary than commercial, I decided to go ahead and submit some picture books and my mid-grade novel to agents to see what kind of response I'd get.  I also submitted some picture books to publishers.  In total, I've now submitted to nearly thirty agents and publishers, well above my goal of twenty.

Not surprisingly, then, my rejection goal is also complete.  This goal was a late add in, but I love the idea of celebrating rejections, so I wanted to track them.  Tracking rejections has inspired me to submit more work, go figure.  Since August, when I added this tracking to my list, I've submitted nearly 100 poems to journals and anthologies.  That's more than I sent the other six months of the year. I've gotten some lovely rejections and some acceptances already.

This morning, I finished my blog post a week goal.  NaNoWriMo is coming up soon, and I'm spending the month of October planing and outlining.  In November and December, I'll spend almost five weeks travelling for my other job, so I scheduled all my Writing Prompt Wednesday Posts.  I've got some fun pictures and prompts coming up in the next few months. I hope you'll stop by for inspiration every Wednesday.

I read my 1,000th picture book just a little while ago, so I've checked off that goal, too.

I'm on track to write a picture book a month for the next three months.  I have a long list of ideas, so I don't think that goal will cause me any problems.

That leaves three more: Christine, Poem a Day, and Year of Writing Dangerously.

Obviously, I won't complete Poem a Day this year.  But I've written many poems this year, and I'll continue to do so.  This month, I'm working on short poems (14 lines or less).  Next month, I'm working on children's poetry.  I've learned so much from this challange and though it wouldn't work for everyone, it's pushed me to explore new things with poetry.   If I weren't writing so often it might take me years to begin to explore some of the new things I've learned.  And 192 poems out of 277 days isn't bad.

I'll write more about Christine in a later post, as I'm still working through the resistance I've had to finishing this work.

The 365,000 words goal is easier to deal with.  I've been writing low word count projects this year.  I finished Wish You Were Here, I've written many poems and blog posts, I've written ten picture books so far and have a huge list of inspiration that will keep me writing well into next year.  I've completed a lot of work this year, but that hasn't equalled a lot of words.  I imagine I'll write at least 100,000 by the end of November, but the word count goal looks like another goal I won't meet this year.  And I'm okay with that.  Really. I've written 73,000 new words this year, even though this is the first year I've tracked my word counts, I'm pretty sure that's more than I'd written by this time last year.

What I really wanted was a way to quantify and make measurable the goals I have for my writing life.  I tell my husband all the time that he's got it easy in his job--other people generally give him tasks or ideas to work on.  All my work is work I assign myself, tracking goals helps make that work more measurable and helps me learn what's realistic for me.

I'm working on a creativity coaching class with Eric Maisel, and it's interesting to find that other people don't like the kind of measurable goals that I set for myself.  For some people, this type of goal setting leads to resistance.  But I've learned to appreciate setting and tracking specific goals, and when I find I'm resisting a goal, it gives me a place in my psyche and my processes to explore, so I can learn how to set more effective goals next year.

I'm already thinking about next year's focus.  After two and a half years of working towards a poem a day, that seems more like a daily practice now that I won't need to track.  I feel better if I take an hour or three to work on my poetry everyday.  I don't think I need a goal for that anymore.  I'll let my thoughts continue to percolate through the next few months as I decide what I need to do next year to push this writing career a little farther.

I hope you'll be thinking about your goals, too.  About what kind of goals work for you. About what matters to you.  About your life as a writer.  I look forward to hearing what you discover.


SaveSaveSaveSave
SaveSave

Writing Prompt Wednesday: Wordless

Tia Steele, Ethiopia, 2013 © Lori Gravley

Ta Da!

I posted this to our One Thousand Picture book group on Facebook, but it occured to me that this information might be helpful to many writers needing to find wise guides for their work.  Obviously, if you're writing longer works, the time constraints and numbers will be different, but these approaches work whether you're deciding what to read or reading through large numbers of books. 

1.  Author studies.  I found authors who were writing in areas I was interested in and ordered every single one of their books from the library.  Heck, if you do an author study of Jane Yolen, you'll be able to read about half the requirement.  This month, I've immersed myself in Jonah Winter, Dianna Hutts Aston, and Laura Purdie Salas. 

2.  New book and library display intervals.  I went to the library and pulled all the books I hadn't read off the new shelves and all the books I hadn't read that were faced out (twenty at a time) and sat down at one of the short little tables to read and add them to my Goodreads list.  I chose some to check out for further study, and then (because I love my librarians) returned the books to the proper places on the shelves. I brought my librarians cookies today to celebrate my 1,000th picture book.

3.  Bookstore power hour.  I did this twice during the past year, once in the early summer and today.  I went to Barnes and Noble and pulled books (ten at a time) from the shelves, logged on to my Goodreads with their network, and read until the hour was up.  Today, in that hour (and a half, I couldn't stop), I read thirty-two books, enough to push me over the top.  I made notes about authors I might want to do a study of and gave stars to the books I thought merited 4 or 5 stars.  This is a great thing to do because the face outs are either new books, classics, or books that are selling well.  I put the books back where I found them when I'm done. I heard one of the booksellers say they had 256 boxes to unpack and display.  I've worked in bookstores, so I know they have enough to do without replacing the books read by obsessive picture book readers.  I thanked them when I left. And they thanked me for putting the books back neatly.

(Note: This is adapted from a post I made to the One Thousand Picture Books Challenge group on Facebook.)