Winning

I’ve been babysitting, hiking, climbing mountains, and driving, so I haven’t had time to celebrate my win.  Today, I finally have a minute and good internet access, so celebration, here we come. 

Only, it’s a little less celebratory, and I’m not sure why.  Sure, this year marked the half-a-millionth word I’ve written over the past eleven Novembers.  Yes, I wrote over 50,000 words.  Okay, I brought new characters to life, put them in difficult situations, and watched as they grew into better versions of the characters I started with.  Fine, I wrote every day even while driving across the country and being a grandma to the most amazing human on the planet.  Yes, I marked my tenth NaNoWriMo win. 

All those things are important, meaningful, even, but this year, the writing was bittersweet.  That friend I lost.  She was a writing partner. I wrote with other friends, attended write-ins, and engaged online a little, but I felt the loss of my friend deeply. 

Also, I’ve been a Municipal Liaison for Ohio: Elsewhere for the past five years now, and I’ve relished being able to encourage, motivate, and provide safe writing spaces for other writers. But NaNoWriMo updated its website and made it harder for me to do my job online, and when I was in Ohio I was busy, so I didn’t run any ML events this year.  Also, I’m moving in 2020, so it just didn’t seem worth the extra effort to learn the new systems and cultivate write-in spaces.  So I was a terrible ML this year.  And I don’t think I’ll apply to be one next year in Pennsylvania.  

Everything has a season. Friendships end. We decide a job we’re volunteering for no longer suits us.  That’s okay. But it’s also okay for that to hurt, to grieve the endings when they come.  

So, this year’s win was also full of loss.  And, it was the first time my win has not been based on a single project or revision but on five different writing projects. So that made it seem less like a win as well.  I’m almost finished with the novella I finally settled on. I have notes and scenes for two other books in the works, but though I wrote 50,000 words, I didn’t finish anything.  

Still, I celebrated.  I climbed the highest peak in Texas.  I’ve been working a little bit on my writing every damn day.  I raised a cup of coffee to all the other writers who wrote this year, and I’m doing some reflection and goal setting for next year.

And today, I celebrate putting up this win post, even though it doesn’t sound very cheerful, because that helps me close out my November, too.  

We write through the good and the bad, that’s what makes us writers.  Maybe we don’t do just what we wanted to do, maybe we had to change course (several times), maybe we didn’t get our 50,000 or even 10,000 words, maybe we’re looking forward and wondering what’s next without a clear answer. But we sit down every damn day, and we write a little or a lot.  We keep moving forward, keep putting words on the page (or taking them off when we’re editing), and we celebrate ourselves because we do this work even when no one pays us, even when no one reads our words, even when writing reminds us of what we’ve lost. We’re writers, writing is what we do, even when. 

This Writing Moment

NaNoWriMo Screen Shot, Nov. 15, 2019.

It is possible that I’ve never been this far behind. I just clocked 16,077 words. I’m supposed to have over 25,000 words.  I am 9,000 words behind.  I can get stuck on the behind part. 

But, I’ve written over 16,000 words.  Words that did not exist on Oct. 31.  Beautiful words, awful words, wrong words, right words, misspelled words, typos, beautiful similes, forgotten vocabulary that has shown up in my character's mouth.  Words.  

I’m not even counting the poems I’ve written, the postcards I’ve written, the posts I’ve written.  

Here, in this writing moment, I’m creating a new world, a character I love with a wicked sense of humor that I think is actually showing up on the page (I don’t often write funny though that’s been a goal of mine).  I’m just showing up to write every day and letting the words come. 

It will be a mess.  

But there is so much joy in this writing moment. In getting these words on the page, in the morning, in the evening, in between chores, in between renovations, in between grief and rage.  

That is all there is--this moment, today, to write.  I do not have to worry about tomorrow or November 30. I’m just focusing on showing up today and learning more about my characters by throwing obstacles in front of them.  

And today, I’ve had a very good writing day. 

A Look at My NaNoWriMo Writing Sessions

It's nice to play with words for a warm-up before you settle into your novel writing. Image copyright Lori Gravley

Generally, I write 1,000 words an hour.  That means that most NaNo sessions for me are roughly two hours unless I’m trying to replace the ceiling in my kitchen.

Still, two hours is a good chunk out of a busy day, so I try to optimize my time.  Often my writing sessions take place right after a meal.  If I’m at a write-in, I eat and get to work. If I’m at home, I’ll have some fruit and tea and sit down to write. I write better when I’m not hungry. 

Once I have sated the rumbly in my tumbly, I settle in and open my document.  

I’ll often write some sort of warm-up, like this one, and though I’m mostly a traditional NaNo writer, I do write all my words for November, even blog posts, in a single document.  So I open up my November document and either move to the last day’s writing on my novel or to the end of the document where I right reflections on the process, blog posts, and questions to answer in my manuscript later. 

Some days, I’ll write a poem or type up notes for a poem. I’ve been known to warm up with a picture book draft.  So long as it’s writing meant for an audience (not business writing, but fiction or non-fiction related to writing.  It goes in my November document and gets counted in my word count. 

It often won’t be a part of what I count at the end of the month for NaNo words, but it helps me feel like I’m moving forward even through the messy middle or, this year, in the muddled beginning.  

Once I’m warmed up, I scroll back up to my draft and read the last 1,000 words or so.  When life is busy and frenetic, as it is right now with our kitchen renovation, my writing happens in a sort of fugue state.  I don’t always remember exactly what I wrote the day before, so re-reading reminds me of my world and my concerns. 

And, most of the time, once I’ve read those words, I’m ready to write.  Of course, that is aided by the fact that I never end at the end of something.  I end my words for the day in the middle of a conversation, in the middle of drama, in the middle of some action so that the next thing I write will be clear the next day.  

Then I write.  I finish the previous scene and start a new one. I take a look at my scene cards and my notes about the character arc.  I put myself in the setting and wander around in my imagination to see what comes up. 

Sometimes, I’ll make a deal with myself that I can’t get up from my chair, not for anything, until I’ve written a thousand words or the day’s words.  

Some days, I don’t reach my target, actually, every day since the start I’ve missed my target number of words, but at this point, I’m still writing every day and a few 5,000 word days will get my caught up to the desired NaNo total. 

Okay, eat something, get a cup of tea, visit the necessary room, and get those words done. 

What’s Working: Beat It

 

Beat cards based on Romancing the Beat. Image copyright Lori Gravley.

Okay, so I’m back to working on my original NaNo project.  I like the characters, I love their voices, and I’m interested in seeing where they’ll take me. My Wild Things revision will have to wait until December or at least until I've replaced the ceiling in the kitchen. 

The thing is, I did not plan this novel out and pantsing doesn’t work for me.  When I write by the seat of my pants, the novel seems too much of a mess to even consider revising.  

But even though I still don’t have a plan, I’m not really pantsing.  For revisions, I’ve created several decks of index cards to help guide me through character arcs and beats. Using the work of a number of authors who discuss beats, I’ve got cards that I link to my plot points.  I have another set of cards that look at character arc. 

For this novel, so far, I’ve been working through my romance beats. Using my beat cards to hit the main plot beats.  I write a beat and then I let it take me along for a few thousand words, and then I look at the next beat card.  

It’s working so far.  If you’ve never heard of beats, you might check out the screenwriting book, Save the Cat by Blake Snyder. It’s one of the first books where a screenwriter shared tips for creating scripts that hit all the high points of movie making. Writers like C.S. Lakin (12 Key Pillars) and Jessica Brody (Save the Cat Writes a Novel) have taken the screenwriting beats and adapted them to fiction.  Gwen Hayes (Romancing the Beat) has taken the basic beats and applied them to romance.  

If you are a pantser and want to bring a little bit of structure to your writing or if you're a pantser and you're feeling stuck, you might check out beats.  You'll find a simplified discussion over at Storyfix.com.

Today, I start on my Young Adult Romance Beat #4, No Way #1.  My notes about this beat say

• ·     H1 (the female main character) explains out loud or internally why she will not fall in love, not now, not ever but especially with H2 (the love interest).
• ·     They both protest too much.  

So, H1’s POV scene has her committing to her current path that doesn’t include love.  Often the love interest POV scene (if you have dual POVs) will include a recognition that H1is the girl (or guy) for him (or her).  But it will also show the reader how this character’s wounds and H1s wounds are going to cause problems for their relationship as it progresses. 

If you don’t know what I mean by wounds, stay tuned. I’ll talk about wounds a little later. 

I hope your words are flowing whether they are flowing from you like a river or being directed by you in some way by your planning. The joy of writing, especially at this point in your story, is often discovering things about your character you didn’t really expect.  

Have fun. Take joy. Write when you can. Progress, not perfection. 

Missing Mojo

 

Gonna try and rattle some bones and get my mojo back this week.  Photo copyright Lori Gravley. 

Writing about a writer’s block is better than not writing at all.

–Charles Bukowski

In a week and a half, I’ll be getting a new kitchen.  But first I have to move my kitchen into a small space, pack away lots of extra stuff, demolish the old kitchen, and paint the walls down to a bare white canvas. 

Yeesh, why did I plan this for November?  

But honestly, this wouldn’t be a problem most years.  I’d make writing my priority and the other stuff would get done in my spare time. Now, the sun is down, and I haven’t yet written a single word. 

It has nothing to do with the stupid kitchen or my failed marriage, or the shingles virus that is still making me feel uncomfortable in my skin.  

It has to do with my missing mojo.  I’m just not feeling it. I haven’t felt it all year.  I feel like I’m just phoning it in without really feeling committed. And, insert favorite expletive(s) here, I’m tired of feeling this way.  

I know that sitting down to work even when I’m not feeling it is one way to invite the magic back. Honestly, I don’t believe in writer’s block, but I think that what I have had this year is writer’s block.  

Which is just an easier way to say this:

·     I’ve worked too much this year as I’ve tried to get myself into good financial shape for my impending dissolution. 

·     I’ve had low-level depression this year as I’ve grieved but not been able to truly move beyond my 28-year marriage. 

·     My support system has been weakened by all the travel I’ve done this year.  I’ve only been in town for 14 of the past 44 weeks. Some of the travel has been personal, but much of it has been work, and some of that work has been conducting training solo, which means I’m alone in the evenings.  That can be nice, but this year it’s been difficult. 

·      I have worked very hard at my writing for the past eight years, and I don’t have much to show for it.  I’m feeling frustrated by the limitations of traditional publishing, but I’m also not sure I want to branch out into self-publishing. 

So, this low writing energy makes sense, but I’m not going through this whole month complaining every day about how hard it is to write.  To combat this writer's block I'm going to implement some new habits this week to see if I can find some joy. 

Routines, exercise, and limiting social media are three frequent recommendations for overcoming writer’s block, so I’ve taken those suggestions and put them into this week's plan.  

1.  I’m going to solidify my morning routine and add an hour and a half of writing to it. Here’s what I do in the morning: coffee, journal, yoga, meditate, get dressed.  For the next week, that routine will be coffee, journal, yoga, meditate, write for 1.5 hours, get dressed.

2.  I’m going to spend at least 15 minutes each day working on a new Pinterest board for the new novel and the new world. 

3.  I will not get on Instagram or Facebook until after lunch or 12pm, whichever is later. 

4.  I will take a short walk after lunch (and an hour of social media) and then I will come back and write for another hour.  

5.  Writing comes first, chores come later.  

6.  I will make a reward chart and track my successes in the above on paper.  

7.  I will listen to the voices in my head. I think I’ve got some hidden critics making it through into my writing time, so I’ll try to shine a little light on them this week, so I can respond to them appropriately. 

I’ll let you know how I do next Sunday.  Oh, and another note about how to overcome writer’s block.  Choose a different project and work on that for a little while.  I’ve been doing that already this week.  Thank you for joining me.  

Now, time to write.  

Doubts and Decisions

Piles and piles of drafts, copyright Lori Gravley

I planned a new romance in early October, got my characters down, laid out my primary beats. I was ready for NaNo early because I had to travel beginning on Oct. 16.  

Then, I had time to think, and a new world began to form in my head.  A series of novels that would fit more readily in line with my brand for young people--interesting characters, a vivid world--ohhh, exciting.  So, I did some character development and decided I’d just pants a little with my beat cards (the note cards I have the describe each of the beats in general, I’ll talk about these in a later post).  

Last night was kick off, and . . . I wrote 1300 words.

Every single word felt like a struggle.  I went to sleep asking why. I often do this as sleep gives me answers that I sometimes can't find in the bustle of awakeness.  

When I woke up this morning, I realized it’s because though I love to write new things, love to create new characters and worlds, what I really need to do this year is to tend the old ones.  

In the past ten years, I have written: 

• twenty-five picture books

• one chapter book

• four poetry chapbooks.

• two full-length poetry collections

• one verse memoir

• two medieval mysteries for middle grade (in a series)

• two adult romances (with an entire world and possibilities for more)

• two paranormal mid-grade novels (in a four-book series)

• two stand-alone middle-grade contemporary novels

• a book about putting a poetry collection together

• a book of essays on writing

• a memoir about marriage

I have revised some of these projects upwards of forty times. I have sent them out sporadically, but still:

• I do not have an agent. 

• I do not have a book in the world. 

• I do not have a contract for a book. 

I woke up knowing that my plans for this month needed to change.  My world and my characters won’t go away, but writing my 41^st book wasn’t actually going to move my career forward.  

And I do want a career in writing.  I love the rush of energy that comes from creating a new world, it’s that post-partum joy of being a new mother that is such a rush.  But if I just keep pushing these babies out without helping them grow to adulthood, I’m doing my darlings and myself a disservice.  So, I’m announcing right now that this year, I’m a rebel.  

I will rewrite the book that I’ve been trying to rewrite for a year, Wild Things.  It’s a book I love and that I think might have a place in the MG contemporary market.  As a reward, I’ve told my world and characters that I will give them January and February to come alive in this world. 

After all, I’ll need something to do while I’m sitting around waiting to hear from agents about Wild Things.  

Writing Amid the Chaos

Image copyright Lori Gravley

2019 has been a difficult year.  A young man I considered a third son died at the end of 2018. A friendship that I thought would last a lifetime ended painfully.  My marriage of 28 years gave its last gasp. My dog is dying. My mother’s Alzheimer’s has become so apparent even she admits she might need some help. My younger son has made some difficult and painful choices on his journey to adulthood. Yep, suckity for sure.  

Many of the difficulties are still in flux. I live in a 128-square-foot trailer that was once my office behind the beautiful 1880s farmhouse that I’ve worked hard to make a home but that we’ll be selling in the new year. We’re filing the dissolution papers in the new year for financial reasons even though it’s painful to have to interact and just seems to be prolonging the suffering. My son’s choices still haven’t resolved themselves. My dog is dying slowly, and while I’m glad to still have her companionship, it's difficult to see her suffer.  

But my word for 2019 is flourish, and, you know what, in many ways, I am. I’ve almost completed a new professional credential.  I’ve sent my work into the world. My writing is stronger than it has ever been. I love my vintage trailer, and this year I bought a van. Next year, I’ll live part-time in my trailer on my mom’s property, helping my stepfather care for her; part-time in hotel rooms for work; and part-time in a 21-foot Ram Promaster that has been made into a beautiful Winnebago RV. My tiny dreams are coming true in interesting ways. I am hurting. I am grieving. But I am flourishing. 

This year will be my eleventh NaNo and my tenth win.  I’ve built a new young adult world and made some interesting plans for this year’s novel, and I have an outline for another adult romance that I’ll draft in 2020 (I was prepared early, but then I changed my mind and decided to write YA instead).  The trick or treaters are knocking on the door, and I’m still working on my beats, but that’s okay.  I’ll wake up tomorrow, plan some, write some, downsize and pack a little more, and snuggle with my puppy.  

Really, I’m always writing in the middle of some sort of chaos.  But aren’t we all.  When I first participated in NaNo, my son was twelve.  I wrote while my husband was in Iraq.  I wrote through our first separation. I wrote when my older son and his then-girlfriend (now wife) moved to town for college and grad school.  

Someone said to me a couple of weeks ago, “There are other months you can write novels in.”  And I do write all year long, but I love the wonderful collective energy that is NaNoWriMo, and I welcome this creative collective as a still point in the middle of my shifting world. 

I hope you will, too. There will always be reasons not to write.  There will always be unfavorable external circumstances, but that’s one thing I’ve learned from NaNo, it doesn’t matter what’s happening on the outside, I can create stillness inside of my daily writing practice.

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.