The Tribe Abides

Okay, PowerByPineappleJuice isn't a part of our weekly tribe, but someone needed to fill in that fourth slot.  

For over six years, I've been writing with a group of women on Sunday mornings from 7ish to 10:30ish every Sunday I'm in town.  We come and go, so we aren't always at our regular table at the Underdog Cafe and Emporium, but most weeks, one of us is there, laptop open, working away on our words.  

Sometimes we read each other's work (during the week, never on Sunday morning, that's writing time), but more often we're just there to share the trials, tribulations, joys, and celebrations of this writing journey.

This year, for half the month of NaNo November, I was traveling, but I got to check in with my tribe through our NaNo buddies page.  And I tried to sit down and write when it was time to write, even when 7 AM Ohio time was 3 PM Nairobi time, 1 PM Cairo time.

I talk to one member of my tribe almost daily, the other members of my tribe, I email weekly or check in on Facebook or Instagram.  And writing together (and apart) is a powerful motivator.  We all won NaNo this year, and I'm certain part of that is the support both active and passive, that we give each other in our writing throughout the year and throughout the month.

So, build your tribe. You don't need to write the same things.  You don't need to be critique partners, but you will support each other, encourage each other, compete (nicely) with each other, and you will all grow as writers.

I celebrate my tribe, the Wrimettes, and I'm so thankful to have them as part of my life.  I wish you luck in finding (or celebrating) yours.

NaNoWriMo: Time to Celebrate

Image © Lori Gravley

Maybe your words are on the page, all 50,000 of them.  Maybe some of them are on the page (1-49,999).  Maybe your story is still kicking around in your head.  Still, it's time to celebrate.  

Let lessons learned, new goals, and plans wait for tomorrow.  

Today, celebrate your courage.  Celebrate your words.  Celebrate your journey.  

It isn't over yet.  It's just the beginning.  

Catching Up/Momentum

A new day, a new reason to get the words down.  Image © Lori Gravley.

On Nov. 20, for the first time since Nov. 4, I actually caught up to that little upward line on the NaNo bar graph.  I had written all the words I was supposed to have written this month.

I breathed a sigh of relief.  Today, though I’ve had a lot of other stuff to do for my bill-paying work, I made enough time in my writing schedule to keep my personal word line aligned with the line on the chart. 

That’s momentum.  Pushing forward and meeting goals creates more movement, movement we don’t have to work too hard to capture.

Of course, there are always forces dragging us down—work, families, dramas, disappointments, fears, and many other physical, social, and psychological demands on our time and attention. 

But, if we pay attention, there are forces pulling us forward, too.  That’s part of the wonderful magic of NaNoWriMo.  Our friends and buddies pull us.  The National organization pulls us. The charts and forums pull us. Our own characters pull us.  We can feel torn between the pages and our daily lives, but during NaNo, we tell ourselves and our families that it will be over at the end of the month.  We’ll have finished the book, just a draft, and we’ll be able to focus again on all those things other people want us to focus on.

But for now, we can use the momentum of this powerful month to pull us through to the next milestone (40,000 words? 45,000? a win?), the next scene, the next chapter ending and beginning. All of these things help pull us forward, and even if you aren't hitting that NaNo win milestone of 50,000 words, the work of NaNoWriMo has given you momentum.  

I find that momentum generally lasts well into the new year (leading to possibly overly ambitious goals).  But even if it ends on Nov. 30, it's helped pull me through a large portion of a book that didn't exist or didn't exist in this form before Nov. 1.  

I hope you're feeling the pull of your book. Let it take you to a strong finish.

Honoring Your Storyteller

Nurturing the storyteller.  Image © Lori Gravley

In this week’s pep talk, writer Alaya Dawn Johnson says, “Telling stories can seem like not just a luxury, but an indulgence that’s shameful for you to even desire.”  I had just been thinking about a note I wanted to write to a former writing teacher explaining why it had taken me twenty-one years to send out a manuscript we had worked on together. 

My reasons for abandoning my writing for so many years are sound.  I’m not sure I could have done what I’ve done any other way, but the simple fact is, for nearly twenty years, I didn’t honor the storyteller who resides in me.  There are tears in my eyes as I say that.  The woman I was all those years ago couldn’t have made a different choice, but now that I’m able to honor my storyteller, we both feel grief for all the years when I kept her silent.  

I was afraid that if I let her speak, what she had to say would bring disastrous consequences. 

I know now that letting her speak might have been painful.  There would have been repercussions.  But we would have faced them together, and none of them would have been as dire as I once imagined. 

I know now that I honor that storyteller who lives inside of me by speaking and by silence.

And I do little things to take care of her as we work through difficult tasks together.

1.  Feed her tea and coffee.  Perhaps because I’m really tired after a long flight, but the first thing that comes to my mind about how to honor her is this. Maybe it’s because I’m a little ADD, but the judicious application of caffeine at just the right time in the process helps my storyteller get the work done.

2.  Feed her beauty.  This may be art. It may be a walk in a quiet wood. It may be reading poems to her or perfect picture books or an emotionally engaging novel or movie.   It may be stopping in the middle of a busy airport and appreciating the art installations or the architecture, but my storyteller thrives on beauty. 

Julia Cameron’s groundbreaking working, The Artist’s Way, builds in specific “artist dates” to help feed the storyteller, but for me those dates don’t even have to be specific or solo.  Visiting botanic gardens with my husband, going to concerts with my sons, or going to a gallery alone—all of those things feed beauty to my storyteller and help her thrive. 

3.  Take care of the body she lives in.  I recently saw Sharon Olds give a reading at the Folger Shakespeare Library in DC.  When asked what advice she had for young poets, the only advice she gave was “Take care of the vessel of your art.” She explained that a failing body or a body that complained too often made it difficult to do the artists work. 

Taking care of the vessel means different things for different people. Some people can’t tolerate caffeine.  I can’t tolerate sugar, so I’m working (sporadically, for years) on limiting my intake of sugar.  My body likes to dance  and sweat.  It likes to stretch, and it likes to swim.  Those movements feed me and my storyteller. 

4.  Listen.  I started to write “Even when I wasn’t caring for my storyteller” but I think I’ll change that to, as I was beginning to care again for my storyteller, I found I needed more and more silence.  I needed space to listen.  Quaker meeting helped some, but for a couple of years I also instituted a Day of Silence during the week--a day in which I did not speak to my family or to anyone. 

This Day of Silence in my life gave me space and permission to begin to listen again to what the storyteller was trying to say.  It gave me practice in cutting out the noise and chatter that were so much a part of my daily life.  It gave my family practice in having a caretaker who could choose not to meet their needs for one day a week. 

I don’t have a dedicated day for silence anymore, but I build silence into everyday.  Out of that silence, the stories percolate into my consciousness.  The words I want to bring into the world arrive.

5.  Take time.  Because I now take time for my craft everyday, I’m able to capture many of those words that are arriving. 

6.  Find good companions.  The storyteller, like all of us, likes to know that she's not alone. That's one of the powerful things about NaNoWriMo.  All of us, writing together, seprately in our own little spaces.  It nurtures the storyteller to know that what she is doing others are doing, too.  

Six years ago, during NaNo, a friend and I began to meet at a coffee shop to work on our novel at 7 am Sunday mornings.  Now our group has doubled and we meet every Sunday, all year long.  I have another friend who I've been meeting with for nearly eight years to write deeply together.  Holding space for each other's creativity makes the storyteller in each of us feel honored.  It's powerful to have companions on this journey to support, to nurture, to challenge, to listen.  

You may have just hit a challenging point in your storytelling.  Mine came early this year, but a friend said to me just the other day.  “I don’t know why I thought this was a good story to tell.” 

That’s just the middle speaking.  Keep telling the story, take care of your storyteller, remember that the words you put on the page aren’t the final words, they are just a start.  And drink more coffee. 

All will be well.

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.