And Another Thing

I learned about writing from NaNoWriMo is

5) November is a lousy month to tackle this challenge.

The beginning of the holiday season is not a good time to try to produce 50,000 words in 30 days. Families tend to balk at the idea of you taking your turkey dinner into the writing room so you can get 500 more words. When your company has driven across two states in a snowstorm, they kinda want to see your face.

My suggestion is to move it to April, June or September. Whichever works best for you.

What I Learned About Writing From

National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo)

For those of you who may not have heard of NaNoWriMo, it is a writing event that takes place during the month of November. Participants sign up to write a "novel" in one month. The goal is complete 50,000 words in 30 days. Don't worry about doing the math--it comes out 1,666.6666 words a day. Now 50,000 words isn't quite a novel, but it's a great start.

The writer should be starting a new manuscript. Some preliminary work, such as character sketches and plot outlines are allowed. Then on November 1st, the writing begins.

I've participated three times, and learned some great lessons.

1) If at first you don't succeed . . .

My first time attempting NaNoWriMo, I failed. Epic fail. Life reared its head, and I didn't start until 5 days in. Then I froze. My total word count for the month was about 1,500 words.

The following year, I made it to 25,000 words. Better, but not the goal. Still, it was 25,000 more words than I had at the beginning of the month.

On my third try, I made my 50,000 words and a bit more. So satisfying.

Sticking with it paid off.

2) Writing every day is a great habit to have.

Once I got in the groove and writing every day became the norm, it was much easier to maintain. I got to a point of missing it if I skipped a day.

3) It doesn't have to be great writing.

Putting out a predetermined number of words a day means only that you write that number of words, it doesn't mean that the result is brilliant. And that's okay. Especially in a first draft.

Occasionally, though, there are flashes. Because when you're writing every day, in the groove, your brain works on the story even when you're not writing. So you don't have that boot up time. You sit down and start. And sometimes you surprise yourself.

4) They're more like guidelines really.

The rules say that you will start a brand spanking new project. But what if you have a work in progress? Will the NaNo Police come and wipe out your manuscript?

They didn't take mine away.

See, I had a WIP that was halfway there. I didn't want to abandon it to start the next manuscript. So I finished the WIP during the second week then started the next one. The world didn't end. I finished my first manuscript, and got a great start on the second.

It's your project. Make it work for you.

I highly recommend trying NaNoWriMo. If you've tried before, and didn't make it to 50,000, try again. Maybe make your personal goal to get 1,000 more words than you did the first time. I think you'll be glad you did.

Jenny Asked

First, a GOOD ON YA! to Jenny for getting her rewrites plus done for tonight.

How did the plan work? Pretty dang well, actually. Just saying I would do that helped me sleep. Or it was sheer exhaustion from the two previous pretty-much sleepless nights. Whatever. I slept.

And I'm still staying mildly ahead of where I need to be to have 50k on Sunday the 30th. 50k! Pretty frikkin frakkin cool as a friend of mine said recently.

I did not write at all on Saturday. I was only slightly ahead of where I needed to be on Friday so I knew that not writing anything would put me behind again. But I knew I could make it up without a lot of sweat. I'd done it before. I'd done it before from a much much scarier place. I've been 7-9k behind. What's 1,100 words? Chicken feed. I can do that with one keyboard tied behind my back.

Again, working on TNN is extra special liberating. Just the most skeletal of outlines to worry about--or ignore, which I seem to be doing more and more with better and better results. No feedback from outside yet to color what I'm doing. Just writing for the sake of making shit up. Gotta love that.

So here I am at work this morning trying to explain why my weekend was so great. "What did you do?" I wrote 3,000 words on Sunday. "And?" And I goofed off on Saturday because my cold had me down, but I wrote 3,000 words on Sunday. "That's it?" I went to brunch with Jonnie and Steve. "Oh! That's nice."

The Downside of NaNoWriMo

I wrote about being at the fun part. And I'm still there. With the shift over to TNN, I'm having even more fun because of the novelty. It's a shiny new story. No one has seen these words, these characters except me. There are on expectations on them. Plus there's the happy from putting "The End" at the end of Vesta. All good stuff.

And all the good stuff is leading to more good stuff. I've been thinking of trying my hand at a poem for a magazine Nicole turned me on to. Haven't written poetry pretty much since high school (I won't admit here how long ago that was). But something about the theme of toys, games and puzzles spoke to me. I knew what game I wanted to write about, but nothing really came to me. Then I started getting ideas of how to work it. I'm liking the ideas. A good thing. I'm also getting ideas for MMG rewrites and Vesta rewrites-how to flesh out that scene better, maybe that one should be trimmed or cut altogether. Also very good things.

So where's this downside I speak of? These brilliant ideas are all coming to me between one and five in the morning. Can't turn them off or shut them up. I get almost there. Use the breathing, relaxation and meditation techniques I learned over a year ago when I was first hit hard with insomnia. Get just about there. Right on the edge. Then Vesta will whisper something to me or Wardell (my protag from TNN) will knock over one of my notions about him or a setting from any of the books will materialize fully formed and beautiful in front of me and I start all over again. No, I haven't gotten up and written anything down, because it always feels like I immediately file it away and start slipping off to dreamland again. Until the next one starts in.

The plan is this: tonight I take my journal to bed with me. Relax, meditate and then start writing. Write whatever comes to mind about Vesta, Wardell, Kitty, Zack, Lily--I don't care who it is--and keep writing until the well is dry. It could turn out to be a lot of words that won't count toward NaNo goals. Don't care. I've got to get all these people to shut up after nine o'clock at night. They can start again as soon as the alarm goes off in the morning, but for pity sakes sleep on the same schedule as me.

Or I'll kill all of you off in the second chapter and bring in new, obedient, considerate characters.

Thank You and You and You

Thanks to all the cheerleaders who are keeping me going through this long strange trip of NaNoWriMo. You guys are great.

And another thank you to Jenny for being brave enough to volunteer to be the first CWCer to submit a whole novel to the group. It's given me an extra month so that I don't have to worry about cleaning up the mess I've made of Vesta over the past two weeks for a while. Plus I get to look forward to reading what she's done with a novel that I already like very very much.

A little light on word count yesterday, but I did finish Vesta and start TNN. Then I went to see The Secret Life of Bees with some of my non-writer friends. Had a great time, and it was a nice was to celebrate hitting the halfway point.

TNN feels like working without a net after writing the end of something I've been writing on for almost a year. This is new and different and I don't really know the characters very well yet. I don't know if they'll like me or I them, but we're taking those first tentative steps. Still being overly polite with each other. Not comfortable enough to show our true selves. But that should ease off by the end of the week. Let's face it, none of us--not even fictional characters--can keep the mask in place for very long.

Now, back to work.

For Those of You Keeping Score

That was, indeed, over 5,000 words written yesterday. 5,382 to be exact. Vesta will be finished today. Then it's on to TNN. And I have very little planned for it.

What a ride!

The Fun Part

Shhh. Don't tell anyone, or we may jinx it.

But I'm getting to the fun part of NaNoWriMo. Of any writing, really. My characters are starting to think for themselves. They're doing things I didn't anticipate. They've ended up in situations I could not have forseen. Zack (CWCer's LEAST favorite character in the book) has turned out to have some pretty cool stuff going on.

To try to maintain this, I'm writing every single friggin' day. No matter what. And I've gone into superstition mode. "I wore this ring on the days that I logged the most words, so I will where this ring all the time now."

Okay, back to it. Just wanted to post something about my writing that wasn't total whinging.

My Wonderful Excuse

As you can see by the NaNo count on the right, I seem to be going backwards as regards my writing goals. But I have a wonderful excuse for why I didn't get more done over the weekend.

Well, I have a good excuse.

It's an excuse, you decide its merit.

I was house and dog sitting for Jonnie and Steve. So I had to give some attention to the dogs. Plus there's the extra time that normal things take to accomplish, because you're not in your usual environment. So there's that. But J&S have a new addition to the family since the last time I housesat. A big-screen HD TV. I spent a little time getting acquainted with this new addition.

And the biggest culprit in all this not writing? HBO. They decided to show a True Blood marathon. I read the book that the series is based on, Dead Until Dark. And I liked that book. A lot. As a matter of fact, I picked up the next three books in the series. For those of you unfamiliar with it, the series is about Sookie Stackhouse, a waitress in Louisiana who can hear people's thoughts. The books take place in a near future just after vampires have come out of the coffin, so to speak. They are able to drink a synthetic blood now and are lobbying for equal rights. Sookie meets and falls for a vampire, whose thoughts she can't hear. The main story, however, is a murder mystery. Seems other waitresses who've been involved with vamps are being killed.

The series contains all the elements of the main plot of the book. The characters from the bar and Sookie's family are there. There's the "What's up with Sam", her boss, element. The murders. Bad vamps. Ambiguous vamps. Bill the Vampire's trouble walking the line between the vampire world and the human one. And there are a lot of added storylines. A lot. Voodoo and exorcism. A wacky girlfriend for Jason, Sookie's ne'er-do-well brother, and all the comes from that. But one of main things I loved about the book is missing: the funny. Now there is humor in the series, but not the belly-shaking, tear-squeezing laughs from the book. And for all the nudity and sex, a lot of the sexiness is missing, too.

Did I like the series? Yes, I did. After all, I spent the better part of the weekend watching it. And I really want to see the final three episodes, even though I know at least part of the ending.

The Dexter television series did a similar thing with Darkly Dreaming Dexter. Main story is there. Lots of extra stuff added to make it fill up a full television season. They, however, managed to keep the funny. And maybe even add to it.

I understand the changes. You have a 300 page book that takes several hours to read. When you film it, it takes even less time to watch, because the pictures take care of setting and character description. And you need to fill 12 episodes with an average running time of about 50 minutes each. So you need more stuff. And in both cases, they have added well.

Here's the question: Do you think we as writers who all love our television (and you know we do) maybe try to put too much in our books? Do we try to fill them up with all the extra stuff that we see in our favorite shows? And if we do, is it a bad thing?

NaNo Gets Short Shrift For A Bigger Issue

I'm off to a slow start this year for NaNoWriMo. But I'm looking at it like athletic training. You start slow and build. Yeah, training. So, I'm stealing time at work where I can. And I've got a weekend coming up with nothing much planned.

What about tonight?, you ask. Well, there's this thing called an election going on. And I know I'm going to be parked in front of the tube, watching Comedy Central's coverage--don't laugh, they usually have the smartest and least annoying people covering these things. Elections are important. So, I'm giving myself permission to care about something other than writing tonight. I'm hoping there's a clear outcome before I go to bed. And I'm hoping it's the one that helps me sleep better.

BTW, if you haven't voted yet, please do so. Vote your conscience.

November Goals - Is There Anything But NaNo?

It probably won't feel much like it, but there will be other writing-related things I need to complete this month. Let's see how I did in October--which seemed like a really, really long month to me.

--Rewrite 2 chapters of MMG. (6/2)
--Write 31 pages of Vesta. (7/31)
--Complete CWC critiques. (2/2)
--Read Dexter and The Graveyard Book with an eye to the "nuts and bolts." (1.5/2)
--Edit PPW NewsMag. (DONE)

Not too shabby. Especially with all the extra I Did This things I accomplished.

So, what do I need to do in November?

--Write 50,000 words, naturally. The first part of the month, at least, will be dedicated to Vesta. If I finish the novel before I hit my word count, I'll go on to another whatever.
--Complete 2 CWC critiques (thanks Jenny!)

Wow, that really is it. Reading this month is going to be hit and miss and mainly for fun. I'm dog and house sitting next weekend so that usually means the next Sandman book.

Ali's calling for a "Write For Yourself" month. I would hope I usually do that. I'll let you know at the end of the month whether it felt like work or not.

Okay, off to waste time on Facebo . . . I mean, time to go knock out a few hundred words.

I Don't Need A Hero

A couple weeks ago, I realized that I wasn't enjoying Heroes the way I had in the first season. Too many characters, too much of them acting against the way they'd been drawn. Even the acting started to bother me. It seems like many of the main characters--the ones we've known from the start--now have one expression. Peter Petrelli in particular. [say that ten times fast] And part of the problem for the show is that the one before it, Chuck, is a heck of a lot more fun to watch. Still have a guy saving the world, but he's a bumbling hero. All he wants is the girl he can't have. Besides any show with Adam Baldwin in it has a definite advantage over one that doesn't.

Then this week my Entertainment Weekly shows up with a cover story about Heroes being in trouble. The other day Courtney posted on her blog about no longer taking up DVR space with the show. I also realized that over a month into the new season and the Pirates have not discussed it once. Bad signs all around. Looks like that fascinating tipping point thing has kicked in.

For me, though, it's going a bit deeper. More shows are annoying me this year. Top of the list? I may get lynched for this, but House. This show, too, suffers from a surfeit of characters. And I don't like the new ducklings. Never did. Bring back Chase and Cameron. Those two held their own against House. And why would anyone let this man treat them? You'd better be at death's door when you show up, because he's going to put you there anyway. If he's such a diagnostic genius, let him be geniusy. Instead of one big mystery, let there be half a dozen people with different problems. I've always thought the best parts of the show were when he's working the clinic. That's almost been non-existent this year. And please let's end the requisite strong woman reaching middle age and realizing she forgot to have a baby-oh my!-subplot and let Cutty get back to being the kick-ass administrator she's supposed to be.

I guess this is a good way to feel going into NaNoWriMo month. I won't have much time for television watching anyway. Guess I'll just wait until Burn Notice and Dr. Who come back. In the meantime I can watch my DVDs of Dexter Season Two and both seasons of Torchwood. Maybe check out True Blood online. In December, of course.

NaNoWriMo Challenge

So, I was thinking of doing NaNoWriMo again this year. Maybe "win" it for a change by actually making the 50k word goal. And I had planned to do that by finishing Vesta and then, if I had word count left, I'd start something else. But I didn't have a something else to start.

That's where Evil Editor comes in. On his blog he is issuing a challenge to the minions. Go to a random number generator site. Set it to pick 5 numbers between 1 and 562. Take those numbers and find the Face-Lifts that go with them in EE's archives (the hardest part of the whole thing). Each will have 5 fake plots to go with the title and one real plot from a query letter. When you're done, you'll have 25 fake plots to choose from. You'll have to scan the query letter to see which is the real plot. Often, they are much worse than any of the fake ones. Pick one, make sure it's not listed on NaNo Prep 1 list and submit it in the comments section of that post. Then on November 1st, start a writin'.

Whaddya think?

Duck!

The challenges are flying fast and furiously around here as we get closer to the end of the month. Ali and John are in the middle of another smackdown. I'm feeling challenged just getting out of bed in the morning. Bad cold, project at work whupping my butt, yada yada yada. It's all by way of the old excuse of not enough time. Whatever. I'm over it.

I did make a change to my goals for the month based on some feedback from the ever brilliant Jenny. Chapter count is much easier to manage and more practical than page/word count when it comes to rewrites. Chapters are the units we're dealing in once the novel is done. Even if we query with word counts. So, chapters it is.

The NewsMag is out the door, and I have a couple weeks until the deadline for the next one. I have no plays or hockey games or parties or anything else to attend between now and the CWC meeting. So. 31 pages of Vesta is 2.8 pages a day in order to give myself time for a polish before I make copies. Really doable. I have the first chapter of MMG pretty well done, just one scene to add. A push to get another one done, but not at all out of the realm of possibility.

Time to just do it, as the ad says. There's a writing marathon next month and NaNoWriMo the month after that. I need to condition these flabby writing muscles before then. Who's with me?

December Goals

I can't believe November and NaNoWriMo are over. It was a good ride, even if I didn't get close to 50k words. Major congrats to everyone who participated in any way.

My goals for December are to keep up the momentum from November. Just keep plugging away at Vesta. 10 or more pages a week sounds good to me. I thought I might be ready to start on MMG, but I'm not feeling it yet. Maybe it will hit next week or the week after. Whenever it does, I'll jump in. But until then, I have Vesta to keep me going.

So what are your goals for December?

Three Days to Go

So, only three days left of November and, therefore, NaNoWriMo. I should break 20,000 words today or tomorrow. That's not all that bad, really. And I like the Vesta story, which is even better.

What I'm going to take away from the experience is to just keep plugging away. Every day if at all possible. Even one hour can mean another three or four pages. At an average of 250 words per page, that's 1,000 words right there. In one hundred days, you'll have a pretty hefty novel on your hands. That's three and a half novels a year. At just one hour a day. When you look at it that way, how can you not keep at it?

Of course, we're all human and we all let other things intrude. But I will do my best to stay mindful of what I accomplished this month. And use that knowledge to do the same each and every month.

Heckler

Although I'm still making good progress on the Vesta story (really need a title for this, but don't think it will happen until the end) I am beginning to hear that inner Heckler. "You should put more in about the story cards early on" and "You need more setup with the great aunt." So far I've been able to tell him to shut up. And that is the point of the whole NaNoWriMo exercise. To shut off the Heckler (or editor or critic) so that you just get the story down.

I do know it's a pretty bare bones story right now--with a few flashes of great (if I do say so myself, and I do) evocative writing. The benefit of having written one novel is that I also know that's how I work. The first pass is to build the skeleton of the story. I may know what the end is, but rarely how to get there. That's what is both fun and frustrating about my process.

Ali just posted about Freshman Comp. students and their inability to just let go and brainstorm. To have fun with writing. I was lucky to finish high school before they went to so many standardized programs. I had some fantastic English teachers. I also had the martinet who was more interested in even margins than what was between those white spaces, but she was in the minority. I took Creative Writing from a man who taught us to journal and to free associate. Our high school College Comp. teacher played music and showed us paintings as prompts. Funny how often I hear the voice of the one bad teacher, though. But I'm learning to shut her up, too.

And on a totally different note, I just looked outside and it's starting to snow. Should be a good day for writing.

Hitting Stride

Almost two weeks in and I finally feel like I'm hitting my stride. Comfortable with the pace, even if it's not as fast as others, I know I can maintain this one. So 5-10 pages a day seems to be what I can do. This means that I now have 36 pages of a book that only existed in my head until November 1st.

Another nice thing? I'm having fun with it. The words seem to flow easier than when I first started. Not that everything is planned in advance. On the contrary, characters are showing up who I didn't expect. An eighty-year-old black woman who may be hinting at secrets about Vesta's parents' deaths. Hmmm. And a gray tabby cat just walked out of the swamp on Thursday. That last one may be because of Ali's new cat, but still, I didn't expect Vesta to have a cat.

Anyone else hitting a stride? Just letting go and writing? I hope so.

Made Me Laugh

I'm at 17 pages, and pretty dang happy about it.

And Some Stumble

Looks like John and Whit got off to great starts on the NaNo front. Jenny has written an amazing amount in the last month.

Me? Crashed and burned. Okay, not exactly. More like stumbled and smoldered. Only seven pages since the first of the month so majorly behind at this point. The good news is that I have not planned anything for this coming weekend except writing, and the minimal amount of housework, so I should be able to at least get close to catching up.

Ever the optimist.

And They're Off

to a 4-note theme. 100 points for anyone who gets that reference. My money is on Nicole for this one.

So November 1st. Time to state goals for the month. I've already said I'm going to attempt NaNoWriMo this year. That's 50,000 words. Which I believe D.B. (the accountant) figured out is between 6-7 pages a day. So, two hours of non-editted typing should pretty much get me there. The non-editted is always the hard part, but is the main point of the whole exercise.

Wow, just felt myself tense up thinking about that. So an addendum to the goal is to do it without hurting myself. My buddy, Geoff, actually ended up in the hospital a few years back from stress and exhaustion. Deep breaths, walks, plenty of sleep. All part of the monthly goal.

For the rest of the week, through Sunday, I'll write 24 pages and attend the Scaring Your Readers Workshop that PPW is sponsoring on Saturday. Tension was one of my weak areas in MMG so an all-day workshop should help.

Good luck to all of us on our goals this month, whether or not we're doing NaNo.