Thoughts on "winning" NaNoWriMo

First posted Oct. 30, 2009:

For those of you who are doing NaNoWriMo with me, I want you to take a moment to ponder... what does winning mean to you?

Is it precisely what the NaNoWriMo website says: 50K words in 30 days? Or is it more than that? (And, less.)

To me, NaNoWriMo is about put up or shut up. Do you want to be a writer? Then write. Do you want to write a novel? What have you done this very day to make that happen? Or, what did you prioritize instead? Was that the right choice?

Because NaNoWriMo is limited to a single month, it is easier to make sacrifices for our writing because we know it isn't going to be like this forever. We don't think too hard about recording a few t.v. shows, delegating a few household chores, and making a little more room for writing time, because it's a special event. In December, everything can go back to normal.

But what if it didn't? At the end of the month, win or lose, what will you have gained? There is a very distinct possibility that you will find that you were happier writing your novel than you were sitting on the couch watching reruns. Or you'll find out that your partner/kids can cook a meal or two every week without anyone being poisoned. Can you keep that going?

I have never won NaNo, in the strictest sense. I have never made it to 50,000 words without bringing in words that I wrote before November 1. In fact, ~30K words is the most I've ever gotten in one month. But you damn well better believe that I am a winner because of NaNo, because I kept writing, and rewriting, until I had an actual novel. Beginning, middle, and end, no plot holes... a BOOK. I wouldn't have that book if not for NaNo.

Think about the many goals that can be part of your NaNo experience: quieting your inner editor, getting a first draft done, getting a new character written, finding some new internet friends or perhaps even meeting some local Wrimos. If you keep those in your head as prominently as you do the 50K number, then you'll be less likely to give up just because that number seems too far away, and you'll be more likely to recognize that you ARE a winner, just for trying.

Good luck and break a leg!

2012 addendum:  If you need more inspiration, please check out Chuck Wendig's 25 THINGS WRITERS SHOULD STOP DOING.  Number 2 is "stop stopping."

Bookshelf porn (week 7)

idea by CKHB, engraving by Danger!Awesome

Why is this bookshelf porn? Because it's the laser engraving we just had done on my husband's Kindle cover, and therefore it's his portable bookshelf.  I'm very pleased with how it came out...

And in NaNoWriMo news, have you all checked out the VERY cool offers associated with being a participant?  For example, there's a free trial version of Scrivener for the month of November (complete with a customized NaNo template), plus 20% off the software for all participants if you decide to buy, and 50% off if you're a NaNo winner.  I've been a fan of Scrivener ever since they built a Windows version -- back in my pre-MacBook Air days -- so if you've ever thought about trying it, now's the time.

Go on.  You know you want to join in...

November means no excuses

Once again, I am rebooting an old NaNoWriMo-themed post, this one from 2009.  There's also a post I wrote after Grub Street's 2011 Muse & the Marketplace writing conference, called The Writer Is The One Who Stays In The Room that I think addresses the same issues.  

Sometimes you need to walk away from your work to get perspective, especially if you're editing.  But this month, you're not editing, and we don't WANT perspective.

• Don't get it right, get it written.
• You can't edit a blank page.
• Write so fast, your inner editor can't catch you.

Run, writers, run...

Originally posted October 29, 2009

In my opinion, one of the most valuable lessons taught by NaNoWriMo is how to write even when you're not inspired or in the mood to write. It's so romantic to think of writing as the result of a spectacular burst of creativity, and it all just flows magically from that seminal idea... but hey, sometimes there are deadlines. Sometimes, it's November. How do you write without the magical, genius, inspiring, motivating idea?

Maybe you take a long walk, and let yourself get bored to clear your brain, and let a new idea come to you. Maybe you take a nap or listen to music that makes you jump around and then start fresh afterwards. Maybe you reread earlier parts of your work-in-progress, looking for a nugget of information that can -- indeed, should! -- be expanded. Maybe you read another book to consider how other authors dealt with similarly thorny plot dilemmas...

Or maybe you Just. Keep. Writing. Sometimes the risk is too high that, if we walk away to "refresh" ourselves, we may never come back. And in November, any writing you do to help move your story forwards does count towards your final word count goal. Go ahead, do a little free association! Maybe indulge in some character development, writing short scenes that you know will never make it into the final draft, but that nevertheless help inform your own sense of the characters, and perhaps help you see the next (plot) encounter these characters will have. Write that backstory or give the character a crazy dream sequence. It all counts towards your 50K, and it gets you into the habit of working through the tough moments.

And don't forget the NaNoWriMo forums! Don't know what your character would do next? Get online and ASK someone! Join a word war, find a writing prompt, let someone else name that character you're currently calling "Bad Guy #2." Or just go moan to a crowd of sympathetic ears who will all encourage you to get back in the saddle. Writing need not be such a lonely endeavor, at least not next month...

Obviously, sometimes a break from writing really is called for, but I think that beginning writers often take too many such breaks, waiting for that romantic AHA! moment where the plot is suddenly laid out before us like a freshly paved highway. Sometimes, you just have to keep plugging away. As Stephen King says, you have to build good habits so that your muse knows when and where to find you when the time is right.

And in November, it's all good. Every dumb word you write gets you one word closer to your NaNo novel. And your odds of writing one good page in the midst of several bad pages are infinitely higher than your odds of finding a good page on your desk when you didn't write at all that day, because you were stuck, or had writer's block, or weren't feeling it.

When inspiration hits, by all means grab it and milk it for all it's worth! I have twice started my NaNo early because I think the spirit of NaNo is to write more, and I wasn't going to let a great idea get away because of a fun-but-artificial start date.

But if inspiration doesn't hit? Keep writing anyway. You will never know what you are capable of creating if you don't keep going over those rough spots.

NaNoWriMo, or "In Which I Tell Salon To Go %^@& Itself"

It's all fun and games until you expect someone else to read it.

This post first "aired" on November 3, 2010.  Another National Novel Writing Month starts tomorrow. And I could think of no better way to celebrate that fact than by re-posting my rant aimed at someone who Just Didn't Get It.  If you're thinking about joining NaNoWriMo, DO IT.  It's an amazing thing.  And I'll be with you all month if you do, I promise.  In the meantime, please enjoy my venting.  I've edited slightly for readability and to include some updates.

I am here today [11-3-10] because I have taken great umbrage at Laura Miller's recent Salon article, Better Yet, DON'T Write That Novel, in which she declares that NaNoWriMo is at best unnecessary, at worst a total waste of time and energy.

She's wrong.

Laura, you admit that the program is "an event geared entirely toward writers", and that you are "someone who doesn't write novels." So, with all due respect, you don't know what the hell you're talking about.

Laura recognizes that "[t]he purpose of NaNoWriMo seems laudable enough..."

Above all, it fosters the habit of writing every single day, the closest thing to a universally prescribed strategy for eventually producing a book. NaNoWriMo spurs aspiring authors to conquer their inner critics and blow past blocks. Only by producing really, really bad first drafts can many writers move on to the practice that results in decent work: revision.

And yet, she feels the need to rain on the parade of everyone who is trying NaNoWriMo by saying that "Nothing about NaNoWriMo suggests that it's likely to produce more novels I'd want to read." (Oh, except for New York Times bestseller Water for Elephants.)

She talks about "the selfless art of reading" as compared to "the narcissistic commerce of writing". She says that "I'm not worried about all the books that won't get written if a hundred thousand people with a nagging but unfulfilled ambition to Be a Writer lack the necessary motivation to get the job done. I see no reason to cheer them on."

I do see a reason to cheer them on.

Look, lady, you said that even if a Wrimo -- as some of us call ourselves -- manages to get finish a book, no one will read what we've written. And that's mostly true. The reason you see people on Twitter complaining about bad and inexperienced writers prematurely submitting their novels for publication is that NO ONE WANTS TO REPRESENT OR PUBLISH THEM. If someone submits a GOOD novel that was written during NaNoWriMo (and, presumably, edited later), then the agents and editors don't complain.

[As proof, please take a look at the latest list of published Wrimos, and in particular look at the names of the attached publishers. Random House, Scholastic, S&S, DoubleDay, HarperCollins, the list goes on and on.  These professionals are not buying dreck, okay? They'd like to stay in business.]

You may bitch about commerce, but the reason capitalism is supposed to work is that little thing called supply and demand, and if no one wants to read these books (no demand), then they won't actually hit the stream of commerce because no one will buy them. The market is not about to be flooded with 100,000 shitty novels, and your precious reader's eyes will not be marred by having to read the contents therein.

Laura says that these writers need no encouragement because,

Writers are, in fact, hellishly persistent; they will go on writing despite overwhelming evidence of public indifference and (in many cases) of their own lack of ability or anything especially interesting to say. Writers have a reputation for being tormented by their lot, probably because they're always moaning so loudly about how hard it is, but it's the readers who are fragile, a truly endangered species.

Again, you're partly right, Laura. SUCCESSFUL writers are hellishly persistent. Plenty of other writers, however, fade away without you ever knowing about it. I don't think the world is harmed by 100,000 badly written first drafts, but I do think the world is a better place when people chase their dreams, if only for one month out of the year. I think 100,000 wanna-be writers who always said "some day" but never gave themselves the permission to try and to make mistakes would be a horrible shame, a waste of spirit that more than balances out the waste of paper you fear. (And by the way, there can be no "selfless" act of reading if we don't "selfishly" write the damn books for you.)

Anyone who actually reads the NaNoWriMo website will see that the people behind the program DO advocate revision: December is National Novel Finishing Month, and March is National Novel Editing Month. The people who write crap novels in November and try to submit them in December? They were going to do it anyway. In fact, if they didn't work up the energy to actually write a novel, they were going to be the ones sending letters to agents and publishers saying that they have an IDEA for a novel, and would the agent like to write it for them and split the profits?

In short, NaNoWriMo does not create stupid, sloppy writers desperate for attention. I doubt it even encourages the stupid, sloppy writers desperate for attention -- those writers were going to talk about their genius novel ideas whether they tried to execute them or not. Maybe trying to write 50,000 words actually humbles some of these would-be novelists, hmm?

Finally, Laura says that "I'm confident those novels [the ones worth reading] would still get written even if NaNoWriMo should vanish from the earth."

I'm not so sure of that.

In October 2005, I first heard about NaNoWriMo. And it woke something for me. I had always had a clear focus on writing in my life... until I graduated college. Somehow, without anyone telling me, I got the idea that writing ended when real life began; I didn't pursue my MFA, therefore I was not going to be a writer as a career, therefore I stopped writing, even though I loved it. NaNoWriMo reminded me that I could write anyway, even if I had another career entirely.

I wrote half a novel in November of that year, and took my sweet time finishing and revising it. I did my industry research. I wrote and revised my query letter. I have since gotten back into the writing classes that I loved as a college student, and I've had a number of short pieces published. I'm not in it for "the glory." (I mean, really, what glory? There's a starving artist stereotype for a reason.) I'm in it for the literature. I was always a reader. NaNoWriMo reminded me that I could also be a writer.

NaNoWriMo reminded me that there IS no perfect "some day," there's only today. It reminded me to write like little kids paint: with joy, and without self-consciousness. It reminded me that there's something I love to do that I should be practicing daily, that I should be learning to do better. It got my first novel written, and the dozen-plus agents who got my query letter and asked to see the full manuscript don't seem to think I wasted their time, even if they eventually said "no." And in August 2012, more than one agent said "yes."  I am delighted to now be represented by Jessica Faust of BookEnds.

So, when that novel finally gets bought by an editor and published, let's see if anyone reads it. Let's see if anyone likes it. Let's see if some "selfless" readers maybe pay $8-24 bucks for it and have a perfectly lovely time as a result... if they enjoy a book that would not exist if not for NaNoWriMo. Let's see if my NaNo efforts -- which may have actually helped me change careers -- were a waste of anyone's time, or if maybe they make me a better mom because I'm not moping around the house, creatively unfulfilled because I forgot how to dive into something with bad financial odds and high emotional reward, just because it makes me happy.

To sum up: NaNoWriMo saved my life. Y'all at Salon can go screw.

Only five more days 'til NaNoWriMo!

National Novel Writing Month. A month of collective insanity and literary exuberance during which time we try to remember:

• You can't edit a blank page.
• Don't get it right, get it written.
• Write so fast, your inner editor can't catch you.

And hey, this year they put off the daylight savings "fall back" until November 6, so NaNoWriMo 2011 is ONE FULL HOUR longer than usual! Use the time wisely, people.

You can find my NaNoWriMo profile here, if you're playing too, and want to be my "writing buddy." You can find my NaNo posts from last year by searching for the NaNoWriMo tag... and here are some of the more substantive ones that I plan to retweet over the course of the next month even if I get no other blogging done:

• Explaining NaNoWriMo
• My first NaNo, and answering some concerns
• NaNo Tool Kit: Shiny
• NaNo Tool Kit: Fortification
• Your NaNoWriMo Report Card
• Writing in the Absence of Inspiration
• "Winning"
• Making NaNo Work For You
• Winning NaNo With Fewer Than 50K Words
• In Which I Tell Salon To Go %^@& Itself

Ask me any questions, and I shall try to answer in the comments.

In which I tell Salon to go %^@& itself.

It's all fun and games until you expect someone else to read it.

Yeah, I know, it's NaNoWriMo and I should be writing a million words a minute, but instead I am here today because I have taken great umbrage at Laura Miller's recent Salon article, Better Yet, DON'T Write That Novel, in which she declares that NaNoWriMo is at best unnecessary, at worst a total waste of time and energy.

She's wrong.

Laura, you admit that the program is "an event geared entirely toward writers", and that you are "someone who doesn't write novels." So, with all due respect, you don't know what the hell you're talking about.

Laura recognizes that "[t]he purpose of NaNoWriMo seems laudable enough..."

Above all, it fosters the habit of writing every single day, the closest thing to a universally prescribed strategy for eventually producing a book. NaNoWriMo spurs aspiring authors to conquer their inner critics and blow past blocks. Only by producing really, really bad first drafts can many writers move on to the practice that results in decent work: revision.

And yet, she feels the need to rain on the parade of everyone who is trying NaNoWriMo by saying that "Nothing about NaNoWriMo suggests that it's likely to produce more novels I'd want to read." (Oh, except for New York Times bestseller Water for Elephants.)

She talks about "the selfless art of reading" as compared to "the narcissistic commerce of writing". She says that "I'm not worried about all the books that won't get written if a hundred thousand people with a nagging but unfulfilled ambition to Be a Writer lack the necessary motivation to get the job done. I see no reason to cheer them on."

I do see a reason to cheer them on.

Look, lady, you said that even if a WriMo -- as some of us call ourselves -- manages to get published, no one will read what we've written. (Oh, except for New York Times bestseller Sara Gruen.) And that's mostly true. The REASON you see people on Twitter complaining about bad and inexperienced writers prematurely submitting their novels for publication is that NO ONE WANTS TO REPRESENT OR PUBLISH THEM. If someone submits a GOOD novel that was written during NaNoWriMo, then the agents and editors don't complain. (Like, for example, the people who repped and published the New York Times bestseller Water for Elephants.) You may bitch about commerce, but the reason capitalism is supposed to work is that little thing called supply and demand, and if no one wants to read these books (no demand), then they won't actually hit the stream of commerce because no one will buy them. The market is not about to be flooded with 100,000 shitty novels, and your precious reader's eyes will not be marred by having to read the contents therein.

Laura says that these writers need no encouragement because,

Writers are, in fact, hellishly persistent; they will go on writing despite overwhelming evidence of public indifference and (in many cases) of their own lack of ability or anything especially interesting to say. Writers have a reputation for being tormented by their lot, probably because they're always moaning so loudly about how hard it is, but it's the readers who are fragile, a truly endangered species.

You're partly right, Laura. SUCCESSFUL writers are hellishly persistent. Plenty of other writers, however, fade away without you ever knowing about it. I don't think the world is harmed by 100,000 badly written first drafts, but I do think the world is a better place when people chase their dreams, if only for one month out of the year. I think 100,000 wanna-be writers who always said "some day" but never gave themselves the permission to try and to make mistakes would be a horrible shame, a waste of spirit that more than balances out the waste of paper you fear. (And by the way, there can be no "selfless" act of reading if we don't "selfishly" write the damn books for you.)

Anyone who actually reads the NaNoWriMo website will see that the people behind the program DO advocate revision: December is National Novel Finishing Month, and March is National Novel Editing Month. The people who write crap novels in November and try to submit them in December? They were going to do it anyway. In fact, if they didn't work up the energy to actually write a novel, they were going to be the ones sending letters to agents and publishers saying that they have an IDEA for a novel, and would the agent like to write it for them and split the profits? In short, NaNoWriMo does not create stupid, sloppy writers desperate for attention. I doubt it even encourages the stupid, sloppy writers desperate for attention -- those writers were going to talk about their genius novel ideas whether they tried to execute them or not. Maybe trying to write 50,000 words actually humbles some of these would-be novelists, hmm?

Finally, Laura says that "I'm confident those novels [the ones worth reading] would still get written even if NaNoWriMo should vanish from the earth."

I'm not so sure of that.

In October 2005, I first heard about NaNoWriMo. And it woke something for me. I had always had a clear focus on writing in my life... until I graduated college. Somehow, without anyone telling me, I got the idea that writing ended when real life began; I didn't pursue my MFA, therefore I was not going to be a writer as a career, therefore I stopped writing, even though I loved it. NaNoWriMo reminded me that I could write anyway, even if I had another career entirely.

I wrote half the novel in November of that year, and took my sweet time finishing and revising it. I did my industry research. I wrote and revised my query letter. I have since gotten back into the writing classes that I loved as a college student, and I've had a number of short pieces published. I'm not in it for "the glory." (I mean, really, what glory? There's a starving artist stereotype for a reason.) I'm in it for the literature. I was always a reader. NaNoWriMo reminded me that I could also be a writer.

NaNoWriMo reminded me that there IS no perfect "some day," there's only today. It reminded me to write like little kids paint: with joy, and without self-consciousness. It reminded me that there's something I love to do that I should be practicing daily, that I should be learning to do better. It got my first novel written, and the dozen-plus agents who got my query letter and asked to see the full manuscript don't seem to think I wasted their time, even if they eventually said "no." (Full disclosure: some said no, some still haven't gotten back to me.)

So, when that novel finally gets published, let's see if anyone reads it. Let's see if anyone likes it. Let's see if some "selfless" readers maybe pay $8-24 bucks for it and have a perfectly lovely time as a result... if they enjoy a book that would not exist if not for NaNoWriMo. Let's see if my NaNo efforts -- which may have actually helped me change careers -- were a waste of anyone's time, or if maybe they make me a better mom because I'm not moping around the house, creatively unfulfilled because I forgot how to dive into something with bad financial odds and high emotional reward, just because it makes me happy.

To sum up: NaNoWriMo saved my life. Y'all at Salon can go screw.

It's the most wonderful time of the year...

That's right. I'm talking about National Novel Writing Month. A month of collective insanity and literary exuberance during which time we try to remember:

• You can't edit a blank page.
• Don't get it right, get it written.
• Write so fast, your inner editor can't catch you.

You can find my NaNoWriMo profile here, if you're playing too, and want to be my "writing buddy." You can find my NaNo posts from last year by searching for the NaNoWriMo tag... and here are some of the more substantive ones that I plan to retweet over the course of the next month even if I get no other blogging done:

• Explaining NaNoWriMo
• My first NaNo, and answering some concerns
• NaNo Tool Kit: Shiny
• NaNo Tool Kit: Fortification
• Your NaNoWriMo Report Card
• Writing in the Absence of Inspiration
• "Winning"
• Making NaNo Work For You
• Winning NaNo With Fewer Than 50K Words

I'll be writing at the coffee shop across the street from Serious Girl's preschool every weekday morning next month. My record in one month is 30K words... let's see if I can top it. Let's see if YOU can top it.

ARE YOU IN?

Winning NaNoWriMo with fewer than 50K words

Fellow WriMos! How did you all do? Did you make it to 50K words?

You did? CONGRATULATIONS! I'm very proud of you. You can now stop reading. This post ain't for you.

Everyone else... you tried but didn't get there, huh? Yeah, me too. I reached a measly 5,751 words, and pretty much stopped work on the NaNo novel before week one was out. So I clearly didn't "win" NaNoWriMo this year. But did I lose? Hell, no. And neither did you.

You are a NaNoWriMo success if ANY of the following apply to you:

• Did you write a single page, paragraph, sentence, or word simply because it was NaNo? Then that means you wrote fiction for no good reason at all except that it made you happy to do so. You're a NaNo success.
• Do you like anything you wrote? Then you're definitely a NaNo success. Take your good stuff, dump the bad, and celebrate! Oh, and then keep writing, to create more good-and-bad (just edit the heck out of it later).
• Did you try anything new just for fun? Did you test out a new genre or otherwise explore a new writing style? First person vs. third person P.O.V.? Present tense or past tense? Did you try a new word processing program or a new pen? You might not have done it if not for NaNo: you are a success.
• Did you build even a single good writing habit? Getting up earlier to write, or squeezing writing into a lunch hour, or just making sure to carry a pencil and paper everywhere to capture inspiration when it strikes? Then you are a NaNo success: keep it up.
• Did you learn anything about yourself and your writing? Did you learn that you need to write slower so that you don't burn out, or that you can write 200 more words per day than you prevously thought you could? Did you learn that you write much better when there's country music playing in the background than rock'n'roll? Then you're a NaNo success.

If you did any of these things, then you embraced the NaNo concept of exuberant imperfection and you are a NaNo success. It's just that simple. NaNo is about making time for writing, just-because. It's about trying new things and pushing yourself. If all you did this month was think more about writing, then you are on your way to prioritizing writing in your life in the way that will make you the happiest writer you can be. If you started out well and life got in the way... well, that happens. At least you tried. And maybe, just maybe, the next time you're bored out of your mind and there's nothing good on television... you'll go type up a little something. Writing happens one word at a time. And it all adds up.

I am a NaNo success because I have 20 pages that I might not have written otherwise... or that I might have taken longer to write. I am a NaNo success because the reason I stopped writing was because I wanted to think long and hard about why I write (and how I write), and in the end I figured out a few things about what's important to me. I am a NaNo success because I thought about writing a novel every day... even if what I ended up doing was edit a short story instead. I am a NaNo success because my 5,751 words make me happy.

Congrats, everyone. Well done. For reals.

Reminder: make NaNoWriMo work for YOU

This morning I see that some of the bloggers I follow are dropping out of NaNoWriMo... some are doing rewrites instead, and some are finding that the high word count obligation is reducing the fun of writing, and they're either quitting NaNoWriMo entirely or simply giving up on the 50K word count goal.

I'm here to say: THIS IS FINE. Rock on with your bad selves.

The goals of NaNoWriMo, to my mind, are as follows:

• Write fast enough that your inner editor can't catch you.

If writing too fast means that your quality drops to the point where NEW inner editors start popping up to block the path ahead, then it's no good! F*ck the 50K goal. Write at a speed that works for you. And, if you have a project that needs editing, then by all means avoid NaNoWriMo like the swine flu. Inner editors aren't always evil, they just need to learn their place and only show up when invited.

• Write more than usual. Lots more.

If writing too many words in a day just ends up burning you out, you're not going to end up writing more, are you? Slow down. If writing too many words in a day starts to feel like work, then you're going to start seeing it as a dreaded chore, and will end up writing less. Slow down. If writing too many words in a day takes away the fun in any way... well, then, seriously, what's the point? Slow down. It's cool, I promise.

• Write in a like-minded community.

You can enjoy the NaNoWriMo forums even if you never write a single word. When else will you have access to more than one hundred thousand writers who are willing to answer each other's questions? Someone on the forums taught me how to make paper. Several people on the forums answered my recent question about what it's like to get a first tattoo. Someone out there may very well have lived the exact experience you are trying to imagine for a character. Go ask 'em about it. It's a research resource that may be greater than Google, and it's available one month a year, and it doesn't require a word count of any size to get in.

• Put up or shut up.

It's all about getting your priorities in order. On the surface, joining NaNoWriMo means shutting off that rerun of The Simpsons and writing something of your own. But in a broader sense, it means no regrets. NaNo assumes that you will regret not trying to write a novel. But if anything about NaNoWriMo is making the writing process less effective or fun for you... well, then, that's going to give you a different set of priorities, isn't it? Maybe you DO need to watch that rerun, if it's the best chance for you to bond with your spouse/partner/kids. Maybe you need to rewrite something old instead of drafting something new. Maybe you need to write slower to fully enjoy the experience and get a "bad first draft" of a high enough quality that you will actually be interested in editing it later.

I burn out if I write much more than 1,000 words a day for an extended period of time. I would not have known that 1K was my upper limit if I hadn't TRIED for 2K/day during NaNoWriMo 2005... but guess what? Now I know. So I will never try to force myself to write more than 1,000 words in a day, even if it is November. If I've got genuine inspiration or a clear sense of story to carry me on, maybe I'll go for it, but I'm not going to push. And so, I joined NaNoWriMo this year knowing that I would not win. At least, not from a word count perspective.

But if I have a clear sense of what my next novel is about in December? Then I will have won the challenge that matters to me.

Don't get worked up about this. Do it your way.

Frank Sinatra, My Way (Royal Festival Hall 1971)

But seriously, I have no idea what I'm doing.

So after a lovely 4K-word start, I only wrote 52 words yesterday. But as I mentioned earlier, and as Justine Larbalestier wisely notes today, word count is not everything. I had some mulling to do over where my story is going. I still have some mulling to do.

And, I think I might use some tricks to help me keep my characters more firmly in my mind... yesterday they were a little too elusive. I think I'll try to figure out their character mottos and maybe also do some internet casting. Maybe I'll try to get some inspiration from a favorite novel.

Maybe I'll log off the dang internet and write.

There's a special NaNoWriMo podcast episode of I Should Be Writing available now... go give it a listen, while I try to finish up the show notes!

Tomorrow: I have some thoughts about the writing class I went to yesterday, and I think I'm going to put out some tough love about critiquing...

ETA:

Sonuvabitch. WTF, Maine? My characters and I are not pleased.

Tuesday Tips & Links

NaNoWriMo tip of the day: every time you sit down to the computer, make sure to open your manuscript before you open your email.

Link of the day: the INTERN gives thoughtful advice on how to tell if your manuscript is fully cooked. Please note that she is revising this month; this is not meant for anyone in the throes of a first draft. Bookmark the page for later use if need be.

Inspirational writing quotes of the day:

The work habit that underlies virtually all writing problems is the tendency to write and edit simultaneously. ~Henriette Anne Klauser

The faster you blurt, the more swiftly you write, the more honest you are. ~Ray Bradbury

Run, rabbits!

"Winning."

When we next meet, it will already be November. For those of you who are doing NaNoWriMo with me, I want you to take a moment to ponder... what does winning mean to you?

Is it precisely what the NaNoWriMo website says: 50K words in 30 days? Or is it more than that? (And, less.)

To me, NaNoWriMo is about put up or shut up. Do you want to be a writer? Then write. Do you want to write a novel? What have you done this very day to make that happen? Or, what did you prioritize instead? Was that the right choice?

Because NaNoWriMo is limited to a single month, it is easier to make sacrifices for our writing because we know it isn't going to be like this forever. We don't think too hard about recording a few t.v. shows, delegating a few household chores, and making a little more room for writing time, because it's a special event. In December, everything can go back to normal.

But what if it didn't? At the end of the month, win or lose, what will you have gained? There is a very distinct possibility that you will find that you were happier writing your novel than you were sitting on the couch watching reruns. Or you'll find out that your partner/kids can cook a meal or two every week without anyone being poisoned. Can you keep that going?

I have never won NaNo, in the strictest sense. I have never made it to 50,000 words without bringing in words that I wrote before November 1. In fact, ~30K words is the most I've ever gotten in one month. But you damn well better believe that I am a winner because of NaNo, because I kept writing, and rewriting, until I had an actual novel. Beginning, middle, and end, no plot holes... a BOOK. I wouldn't have that book if not for NaNo.

Think about the many goals that can be part of your NaNo experience: quieting your inner editor, getting a first draft done, getting a new character written, finding some new internet friends or perhaps even meeting some local Wrimos. If you keep those in your head as prominently as you do the 50K number, then you'll be less likely to give up just because that number seems too far away, and you'll be more likely to recognize that you ARE a winner, just for trying.

Good luck, break a leg, and Happy Halloween!

Writing in the absence of inspiration

In my opinion, one of the most valuable lessons taught by NaNoWriMo is how to write even when you're not inspired or in the mood to write. It's so romantic to think of writing as the result of a spectacular burst of creativity, and it all just flows magically from that seminal idea... but hey, sometimes there are deadlines. Sometimes, it's November. How do you write without the magical, genius, inspiring, motivating idea?

Maybe you take a long walk, and let yourself get bored to clear your brain, and let a new idea come to you. Maybe you take a nap or listen to music that makes you jump around and then start fresh afterwards. Maybe you reread earlier parts of your work-in-progress, looking for a nugget of information that can -- indeed, should! -- be expanded. Maybe you read another book to consider how other authors dealt with similarly thorny plot dilemmas...

Or maybe you Just. Keep. Writing. Sometimes the risk is too high that, if we walk away to "refresh" ourselves, we may never come back. And in November, any writing you do to help move your story forwards does count towards your final word count goal. Go ahead, do a little free association! Maybe indulge in some character development, writing short scenes that you know will never make it into the final draft, but that nevertheless help inform your own sense of the characters, and perhaps help you see the next (plot) encounter these characters will have. Write that backstory or give the character a crazy dream sequence. It all counts towards your 50K, and it gets you into the habit of working through the tough moments.

And don't forget the NaNoWriMo forums! Don't know what your character would do next? Get online and ASK someone! Join a word war, find a writing prompt, let someone else name that character you're currently calling "Bad Guy #2." Or just go moan to a crowd of sympathetic ears who will all encourage you to get back in the saddle. Writing need not be such a lonely endeavor, at least not next month...

Obviously, sometimes a break from writing really is called for, but I think that beginning writers often take too many such breaks, waiting for that romantic AHA! moment where the plot is suddenly laid out before us like a freshly paved highway. Sometimes, you just have to keep plugging away. As Stephen King says, you have to build good habits so that your muse knows when and where to find you when the time is right.

And in November, it's all good. Every dumb word you write gets you one word closer to your NaNo novel. And your odds of writing one good page in the midst of several bad pages are infinitely higher than your odds of finding a good page on your desk when you didn't write at all that day, because you were stuck, or had writer's block, or weren't feeling it.

When inspiration hits, by all means grab it and milk it for all it's worth! I have twice started my NaNo early because I think the spirit of NaNo is to write more, and I wasn't going to let a great idea get away because of a fun-but-artificial start date.

But if inspiration doesn't hit? Keep writing anyway. You will never know what you are capable of creating if you don't keep going over those rough spots.

Essential NaNoWriMo Chart

My friends, I am about to share with you the ultimate program to help you become a noveling machine. We all know that NaNoWriMo is all about the word count. Anyone who has NaNoed before can tell you -- we all know the keyboard shortcuts to the Word Count function in our word processing program of choice, and we have all checked our word count (again!) after writing a single measly sentence. It can become an obsession.

And sadly, this quest for an increased word count can sometimes lead to creative forms of procrastination. A writer may fall short of his daily goal for a few days... before you know it, instead of hitting the keyboard, this anxious soul is tapping at a calculator instead, figuring how many words are left and how many must be written each day from that point on in order to finish on time... or perhaps this writer got a great burst of energy one day and wrote over the daily quota, and is now trying to figure out if s/he can skip a day and still finish ahead of schedule... and of course, there's always the temptation to figure out the percentages: are you 33.3% done or only 29% ... ?

NO MORE! Quit wasting time -- get the NaNoWriMo Report Card spreadsheet and get back to writing! I discovered this program in 2005 -- all you need to enter is your total word count for any day (and, if you like, the amount of time you spent writing), and this insanely awesome spreadsheet will do all the work for you. If you're under your daily word count goal, the number will turn red. If you're over the quota, it will show up in green. Total remaining word count, adjusted words-per-day based on past progress, percent complete, the estimated date of completion, pie charts and line charts, it's all there! Embrace the statistical goodness, and never again waste time calculating your NaNo progress.

Thank you so much to Buster Benson for creating this script and for being willing to share it so freely. You are a rock star.

Click here to download your NaNoWriMo Report Card
(there's a "download now" button towards the bottom of that page, and it make take some time to load -- hey, it's a free site, they want you to read their ads)

Gearing Up For NaNo: Fortification

Main Entry: for·ti·fy
Pronunciation: \ˈfȯr-tə-ˌfī\
Function: verb
Inflected Form(s): for·ti·fied; for·ti·fy·ing
Etymology: Middle English fortifien, from Anglo-French fortifier, from Late Latin fortificare, from Latin fortis strong
Date: 15th century

transitive verb : to make strong: as a : to strengthen and secure (as a town) by forts or batteries b : to give physical strength, courage, or endurance to c : to add mental or moral strength to : encourage d : to add material to for strengthening or enriching

Hunker down, everyone, NaNo is coming.

Yesterday I went to my very first local NaNoWriMo event. I have been a part of NaNo since 2005, but I've never gone to a Boston event because the scheduling was never compatible... I just don't do weekend events as a general rule, because that's family time. (Even before I had my daughter, my husband used to travel a lot, and the weekends were often the only real quality time we had together.) But this weekend the event perfectly coincided with Serious Girl's naptime, and my husband held down the fort -- see how I'm keeping the theme going here? -- while I went to meet the other crazy writers.

Boston Wrimos who attended the first meeting each got a goody bag in exchange for providing a writing prompt on an index card (to be used at the various write-ins* during November as extra inspiration) and standing up and giving a 30-second elevator speech** describing what our NaNo novels are going to be about.

An aside: these speeches were so awesome, I cannot tell you. Even the people who came up and said "I have absolutely no idea yet" managed to be funny about it. How is it possible for so many people to be so creative in such different ways? I love writers. But I digress...

So, the goody bag was filled with many things designed to fortify us Wrimos as we strive to meet our goal:

• A pen and index cards, for when ideas catch us unaware;
• A NaNoWriMo progress chart;
• Candy (in my case, two Tootsie Rolls);
• A writing prompt;
• A word prompt;
• An inspirational writing quote (in my case: I love writing. I love the swirl and swing of words as they tangle with human emotions. -- James Michener);
• A "NaNo buddy" -- one of those little capsules that grows into a sponge animal when you drop it in water;
• Three NaNo-themed stickers for adorning laptops, desktops, or supportive family members/pets; and
• An envelope marked "Break Seal Only In Case of Emergency"... contents unknown, but someone at the meeting said it saved her in 2006.

This is so thoughtful and clever and supportive, and I am so happy that the NaNoWriMo Municipal Liaisons for my area did this. Now, I already carry a pen and small notebook around with me at all times, and I have an Excel spreadsheet program that I use as my NaNo progress chart... but what else does a writer need*** to write, especially when on deadline?

When I was preparing for the bar exams (NY and MA), I ate a steady diet of Pep-O-Mint LifeSavers -- the large, individually-wrapped kind -- and I unwrapped entire bags of these candies so that I could eat them during the exam itself without making rude crinkling noises (we were allowed to bring food so long as it was not noisy or messy). I haven't needed that level of sugar fortification in a while, but I imagine that the massive supplies of hot cocoa mix in my pantry are going to come in handy in November...

I also recommend that Wrimos have the following books handy during the month of November:

• A novel you love, preferably in the genre you're writing. Not something so amazing that it depresses you because you'll never be that good. Something aspirational-yet-achievable. That's why you're writing, right there. To make your readers feel the way this book made you feel.

• A novel that sucks, preferably in the genre you're writing. You can do better than this! Hell, you are doing better than this! And this joker got published! Ha! Keep writing, you'll beat the pants off this book.

What do you need to write, especially for extended periods of time? Caffeine? Sugar? The heat or air conditioning turned extra-high or -low? A little mascot under your computer screen? A video to distract the kids? Tell us your secrets of success!

_____________________________

* Write-in = a meeting in which people get together and try to do nothing but write (ah, peer pressure...)

** Elevator speech = the super-short description every writer should have prepared in the event that s/he someday ends up in an elevator with his or her dream agent, and the agent says, "okay, tell me about your novel before I have to get out at my floor" (DING!)

*** Fine, we don't need anything besides a pen & paper or a computer, but there have to be a bunch of supplies that make writing easier for each of us, right?

Gearing Up for NaNo: Shiny

Once again, I am shamelessly stealing ideas from another blogger. Liana Brooks posted about the concept of SHINY, and I think it is downright genius, and not just because it reminds me of one of my favorite television shows. (Anyone know what I'm talking about? Yeah, you do.)

Shiny in this context refers to an idea, memory, or image that is powerful to you, and therefore has the potential to kickstart your writing when you're starting to falter. These things don't need to be remotely important to anyone else, as long as they evoke something in you. If you write a list of shiny things in October, you have a touchstone of support when you're writing like a fiend in November. A place to go when your dull ideas need a little, well, shine.

I once listened to the voice-over director's commentary to an episode of Sex and The City* where he explains that this one scene between Carrie and Miranda just wasn't working, and they didn't know why, because the script itself seemed good; it just wasn't filming right. And then they realized... Twizzlers. The characters had to be doing something during the dialogue, and the perfect thing was going to be giving the characters those long red whips of candy to futz with while talking. Maybe eating Twizzlers and playing with them while talking with a best friend was on the subconscious "shiny" list for someone on set that day...

I've already linked to Lianna's list, and there's more shiny over at Inkfever. What shines for you?

* Season 3, Episode 9: "Easy Come, Easy Go"

NaNo Roll Call!

Okay, who's doing NaNoWriMo with me? And, if you want to be my writing buddy, would you please let me know here in the comments who you are on the NaNo website? I'm CKHB there as well as here, and I don't mind saying that I get wildly confused when I know someone by one name on a chat room, another name on blogger, and a third name on NaNo. I need help. I need a cheat sheet. Identify yourself in the comments, please!

Anyone still on the fence? Please ask your questions in the comments and give me the chance to try to convince you.

And, do y'all know what you're going to write about yet? I'm working on another "smart chick lit" novel... tell me your genre of choice!

ETA: Remember when I told you guys about Wordle? And I suggested that it might be a good tool for revealing certain habits you have as a writer? Well, check out Nathan Bransford's Wordle of the contest entries: see how big the word "like" is? We used lots of similes in those first paragraphs...

Just talkin' 'bout NaNo...

I did my first NaNoWriMo in 2005. I found out about it in mid-October, and even though I hadn't written fiction (certainly not novel-length fiction) in years, I immediately knew I had to do it. Some primal part of my lizard brain knew I needed to write -- it was simply a given. So, if not now, when? One of NaNo's stated goals is the end of the one day novelist: "one day I'll write a novel." Well, that day is November 1, every year. Fish or cut bait.

I wrote approximately 30,000 words that November. So I didn't "win." But holy cow was that a winning number for me. I wrote thirty thousand words that I would never have written otherwise. And it was a blast. Seriously, the most fun ever. Most of those 30K words made it into the final draft of the novel that is currently being queried to agents. I took way too long to finish what I started in November 2005, but I did get it done. And I will always be grateful to NaNo for getting me jumpstarted.

What about the time commitments? Let's be honest, it is a rare person who can't cut out a little t.v. or a little computer time to make room for writing. Plus, NaNoWriMo is a national event! You can show the website to your friends and family and ask them to help... perhaps by taking on some of your household chores for the month? And there's your writing time, right there.

Also, I was working full-time as a litigation attorney for a big firm the first year I did this. And I later discovered that the lawyer in the office next to me was ALSO doing NaNo that year. We got our billable work done, and we wrote in our "down time": while waiting for senior attorneys to return a document to us with edits, while waiting to confirm that all papers were served or filed correctly, during lunch, during our commutes, and at night after work was finally done. Fine, I didn't have kids then. But I promise you, if you want to do this, you can make the time.

What about quality? Hey, they're called first drafts for a reason. And you can edit crappy writing, but you can't edit a blank page.

And, okay, I only wrote 30K words in 2005 because I became committed to a certain level of quality. I kind of tap out at around 1,000 words a day. After that, the quality of writing drops, and my enthusiam for the activity drops. But if I hadn't been trying for 1,667 words per day, I never would have discovered my ability to write 1,000 words per day. At worst, you'll build some great habits about sitting down every day to write something.

Still not sure? Go visit Lianna Brooks's blog today and let her convince you. It IS worth it.

Got more questions about NaNo in general or my experiences in particular? What's the most you've ever written in a day/week/month/year?

National. Novel. Writing. Month.

Don't get it right, get it written.

One month left, y'all.

NaNoWriMo. That's pronounced nah-no-wry-mo. Not to be confused with the NaNo Rhino:

JOIN US...

Wait. Did I hear some of you say that you've never heard of NaNoWriMo? This must be remedied immediately.

National Novel Writing Month is the invention of Chris Baty. In 1998, Chris and 20 of his friends decided to write a novel -- defined as 50,000 words of fiction -- in one month. Six made it. Somewhere between then and now, the event gathered more people, picked November as their official month (50K words in 30 days), got a nice website complete with forums and fancy profile pages, and last year over 119,000 people signed up, with 21,720 reported winners.

Participants last year wrote a total of more than 1,643,343,993 words. That's one-point-six billion and change. NaNoWriMo is an amazing motivating force, the community on the forums is beyond cool, and there are local groups that meet up in person as well.

Want to learn more? Check our the NaNoWriMo website, in particular the What is NaNoWriMo? page, the How NaNoWriMo Works page, and the FAQ page. There's also a NaNoWriMo Press Release for 2009.

I will be talking about this a lot in the near future. If you've done NaNo before, please tell us about it in the comments. If not, please check out the website, and then come back, and if you post any questions you might have, I will do my very best to answer them. I think NaNo is an amazing thing that all aspiring writers should try (if you're an established writer, you might enjoy it, too, but I think it's especially good for those who are trying to find their voice and writing style), and I would encourage all my readers to give it a go.

Questions? Ask away!

Later this week: my first year of NaNo