NaNoRuhRoh

Hi. I'm Seleste and I'm a NaNoWriMo addict.

(Hello, Seleste...)

It's November and that means a lot of you are probably writing your little heart out, chasing that elusive 50k. And sometimes, it can seem more elusive than others. One of my dear friends crossed 23,000 words today and her manuscript seems to be flowing out of her like water.

Then there's me at *cough* 13,861.

You read that right. I'm almost 3 days behind.

And I call myself a professional too.

But you know what? It's okay. Even though I'm 99% sure I'll have edits on a different book hitting my inbox sometime this week (which will lose me at least another day), I know I can make up the lost time. Why? Because I won't let myself not make it up.

One of the things I've learned about being a writer is you have to be good under pressure, because even if you are always solid about getting shit done on time or early, sometimes the world conspires against you. When that happens and deadlines loom, you can either buckle under the pressure or you can bust ass a little harder.

One of the things I've learned about myself since becoming an author is I don't like being told I can't do something. I can't possibly make up 3-5 days worth of writing when NaNo is close to half over and I have edits coming? HA! Sit back and watch me!

It's a good trait to have in this business. And it's a really good attitude to have during NaNoWriMo.

You can finish. I don't care if you haven't started yet. Sure, 3k days are tough, but they're totally doable if you really want it. Don't quit because you're behind. Relish in the challenge to make up those words and days. Then bust ass and make it happen.

In the end, if you don't finish your 50k, the only one you have to disappoint is yourself. Do you really want to do that?

(Also, a note: please remember not to send your NaNo novel to any editors or agents right after you finish. Let it sit for a while. Then edit the crap out of it, because no one wants to see your unedited crap...especially not editors and agents.)

I'm Thankful for NaNoWriMo

I know, you're sick to death of NaNo posts, but hey, November's almost over.

Truth is, Thanksgiving is like my least favorite holiday. Not only are we celebrating (in ways we don't with Columbus Day and other questionable holidays) taking a country from it's native people, but we're doing it through gluttony. And not even vast quantities of food I love. Nope. Traditional Thanksgiving meals? That' like torture for me.

And I know the argument. Thanksgiving is really about giving thanks. Uh huh. So is Tuesday and every other freaking day that ends in "Y". You see, I don't believe in saving all my thanks for Turkey Day or even for November. I believe in being thankful every day. So, here I am, scheduled to post the day before Thanksgiving, and I know in my heart everyone wants a Thanksgiving post.

So here it is. It is November and I am thankful for NaNoWriMo.

Because of NaNo, I wrote the first novel I ever finished. Because of NaNo, I learned to turn off my internal editor (and that vodka is very helpful with that. Because of NaNo, I wrote the first book I ever sold. Because of NaNo I learned more about myself as a writer than any other single thing. And this year, because of NaNo, I'm learning that when the going gets tough (and believe me, it feels like November was designed to break me this year), you have two choices: crumble or get tough right back.

For someone who hates sports as much as I do (and I do--severely), one would think the idea of losing wouldn't bother me. But I'm staring down the last five days of NaNo with nearly 18,000 words to go. Not impossible by a long shot, but damn... And, that's as a NaNo Rebel who project hopped. Believe me, if I pull this off, I am taking my winner badge.

But even if I don't, I'll still be thankful. Because to that end, NaNo will have taught me that it's okay to fail. It's not like I'm in charge of keeping the world spinning. If I fail, we don't all die. Hell, I won't even die. I'll get up December 1 and the world will have kept turning, and I'll still be part of it. I'll smile and realize that I'm still an author. I still have the world's best job and two of the best kids anywhere. I have a fantastic family and great friends and a pretty fucking good life. I'll dust off my pajama bottoms and get back to work.

Because, like being thankful, I don't save my writing for November. It's for days that end in Y. And the ability for that to be true is one more thing I'm very thankful for.

NaNo Junior

Ti's the season for a lot of posting about NaNaWriMo. I know by week three (it is week three isn’t it?) everyone had probably heard enough to decide if it’s for them or, you know, just for the crazy people. But there is one little aspect of the event that is not really represented in the slog of chanting and keyboard throwing. 

Probably because it’s not really something we can participate in. 

When I had kiddos mmhh phmm years ago, I feared my November noveling frenzy was about to take a major hit. It did at first. I tossed off a book with a baby on one arm, but it was hard. I almost whiffed it that year, for certain. Then my kids got a little older. They weren't exactly writing yet, but they could lift a crayon, right?

I clicked on that YWP button that hides so merrily in plain sight on the NaNo homepage. Wow. There’s, like, a whole other site in there! You may think, who cares? I don’t have or plan to have children, and really, what kind of Sesame Street noveling are they doing over there anyway. She said crayon. I’m outta here.

 

Stick with me for just a second. I promise  I’m not trying to recruit you to mommy-hood.  Unless you want….oh never mind.

I want to share what happened with my son, and how I think it can benefit literacy, storytelling and pretty much everything we do as adult authors too.

So, thinking it would assist me with my own noveling freedom, I signed my pre-K son up for YWP (young writer’s program) and we were off. The first year, he couldn't read or write. Wait, wait…I know. He could make his letters, and we set our own word count goals in YWP land. He made a very sketchy alphabet book and we were off.

The second year he learned to read. He wrote over 500 words. Still sketchy, but kinda cool. My daughter did the alphabet that year. My friend’s kiddo dictated to her and she typed it down. Rules are wiggly in YWP because OMG it’s not about winning. Also, I have lots of friends with kids. Mommy’s you know travel in herds. They all tried something different, but they all got the same result.

Kids who were rabid about story.

If we do the math that’s, kids who are rabid about story extrapolated to the highest power equals ADULTS who are….you get it.

This year my son is eight. He reads well, writes beautiful letters and plays a lot of video games. I was worried about the video game thing. I mean, when we get serious, I suspect games are the direct competitor of reading. He picked a thousand words to shoot for this year. He’s also a little autistic, and like, I showed him the graphs and number bars and stats because I’m evil and know how his motivation works.

“Can I put in my words mom!!!”

His story has plot this year. It has characters with dialogue. It has action and boss battles (cause you just can’t purge that gamer completely) and it has a hat made out of watermelons. SO much awesome.

It’s entertaining, and not just to me. Best of all, we are one furious noveling family.  Also, the YWP site is pretty. It has a dare machine. Some days, I’m tempted to use it. They also give out classroom kits and loaner computers and do a lot of great things for future readers.

All around win.

NaNoWriMo

Ready, get set, write!

(I'm taking a break from the Norse mythology postings to discuss current events)

What? You haven't started writing yet? YOU'RE ALREADY BEHIND!!!

Yeah, I'm in a weird mood. I'm thrilled it's November, partially because of NaNoWriMo, and partially because for us Americans, we get Thanksgiving. I also get to celebrate my husband's birthday.

I wasn't too sure about NaNoWriMo this year, because I've got a lot of stuff going on. A lot. As in, my first ever trial this Monday (and I only heard about it from my boss last week). Panic! But, on the other hand, my husband is abandoning me for a week, so I'll have plenty of time to crank out 50,000 words while he's gone, right? Right?

I may have to quit my job to make it happen :)  Not that I needed an excuse...

So, hands up. Who's doing NaNo this month?

I think I'm going to write a chick lit thriller. Weird combo? That's what NaNoWriMo is for. Writing that crazy stuff that may never see the light of day... or may be the next bestseller. It's all fun :)

Alright, everybody *claps hands* Back to work. You need your 1,667 words today!

Why NaNoWriMo Is Making Me Sad

November is just over two weeks away, and along with turkey and Christmas decorations comes my favorite November activity: National Novel Writing Month. For those not already in the know, NaNoWriMo is an annual event in which a bunch (I'm not looking up numbers) of people each try to write 50,000 words in a month. For most published authors this is not a big deal as we write at that speed whenever we draft.

But... I might not manage it this year. (Sadz.)

To all the people who haven't won NaNo in the past and are sitting there, scowling at me, let me share a little background. I participated in my first NaNo in 2007 and won for a very shelved, dust gathering manuscript called Avalon's Return. It took me the rest of the year to finish that damn book, but I wrote 50,000 words in November (and no, it wasn't ridiculously long, I had just burned myself out).

Then 2008 came along and I did it again. In fact, I never stopped doing it. NaNo came to be my training ground for learning how to work to a deadline (personal or otherwise). I learned how to pace myself and plot enough to keep me sane but not so much that writing lost its sense of adventure. From 2007 through November 2012, I never lost NaNo. And that included as things that came with being a published author got in the way (edits/promo/submissions). I made a point of busting ass and hitting that goal.

Until this year.

It's the second half of October and I have nothing on my plot board for NaNo. Granted, I want to write Kiss of Eternity so I know the basics of what has to happen: war, sex, bloodshed, sex, mayhem, probably more sex, and tying everything up (not sex related exactly...then again it might be). But I don't have any of the details plotted out or balanced.

So why not hop on that right now? (Because I'm writing a blog post, duh...) Because I'm neck deep in edits on two books. Granted, both are novellas, but it's still edits on two books which means I won't have much, if any advance planning time (and I still need to re-read the other books in the series so I don't screw things up).

"Okay, okay," you say, "but you managed before. Now that you have six years of this under your belt, it shouldn't be a problem."

Maybe, and I hope and pray you're right, but... I might have failed to mention that I am looking at edits on a minimum of two other books (both novels this time) coming in November. And maybe further edits on the one I'm finishing up today. And maybe edits on another novella. All told, I could have edits coming in on up to four projects next month. *thud*

Which translates to NaNo potentially being a huge fail for me this year. And as awesome as it is to have All The Work pouring in (and it is, I'm not trying to be all poor-me here), I'm still melancholy that this might be the year that NaNo becomes--in essence--something I used to do.

Last month, when I was in the midst of another month of mad edits, I posted a Facebook update about all the projects I was working on. Another author (who liked the status) posted something immediately after about wishing she could just cough up books (that's paraphrasing, I'm not looking up an exact quote for multiple reasons). Pretty sure she meant it to make herself feel better (as many of her friends then raved about quality over quantity and whatnot), but it just made me sad for her that she doesn't get it.

There are all kinds of authors in the world (and even more kinds of writers). In the new digital marketplace, if you want to make a living off writing (and aren't naive enough to expect to be the next JK Rowling...or made a deal with the devil like some others) you have to bust ass. You have to build a backlist and make writing a J-O-B. One book a year doesn't cut it anymore. Much less the whole one-book-every-half-decade some of the old-school authors are trying.

There's a saying about (paraphrasing again) authors are always writing: they are either thinking about writing, taking notes about writing, planning to write, fixing their writing, or actually, you know, writing. This is true (and quite frankly, I'm getting twitchy at the moment about how long I've been working on this blog post instead of the edits), but if an author spends more time on the first three things than on the last two, they will never be prolific. That's just reality. To be prolific, you have to put the words on the paper and then fix them. And you have to have the commitment and drive to do so.

Which is why I'm still attempting NaNo this year, even though I will have far too many characters fighting for attention in my brain. It's not in me to shrink away from the challenge. Because I am that author who works in the mines long enough to cough up books. And I'll continue to do it until I can't anymore.

So hold on, November is going to be a bumpy ride!

Temporary Insanity

I am shirking my duty a little bit this week. I'll be at Norwescon this weekend and my pre-con schedule is fairly frantic. So, I'm revitalizing and updating a post I did on my blog a whole lot of years ago. In honor of April becoming the new Camp Nanowrimo month and my continued, somewhat insane, participation.

Temporary Insanity

Too many years ago my good friend came to me, brimming with excitement over something she’d discovered. I poured the coffee, and she poured forth a tale so unbelievable that I feared for her sanity. It goes something like this: “Let’s write a 50 thousand word novel in thirty days.”

Imagine my horror. As I tried not to choke on my cookie, she waved a slim, tattered copy of a book in my face and beamed at me. Her chatter faded into the background, but I caught a few words, mainly “50,000” stuck out—and “one month.”  As the book flew back and forth I managed to catch the blurred title: No Plot, No Problem. Well, it sounded innocuous enough.

Still, I was a classic story-starter-and-never-finisher. This idea she was on about, this “finishing” disturbed me. I broke out in a sweat. Deadlines, frankly, gave me the heebie geebies. My comfort zone lay somewhere between: think a lot about it and never actually write it, and write like mad for a week and then get distracted by something shiny and change projects.

I guffawed in the face of her excitement. However, she can be relentless at times. Eventually, I caved and agreed to read the book, but I had no intentions of lending credence to this preposterous concept. Enter: No Plot? No Problem.

I began to read the book, shaking my head in disbelief. I chuckled. I gasped. I caught myself thinking, “maybe.” I came to my senses and kept reading. The book is written in quite the seductive manner. It’s ingenious; it’s hilarious. I thought--this just might be possible. Who said that?

 By the time I’d read the entire thing, I was game. I mean, it was only May and the ludicrous event didn’t even begin until November. I had plenty of time to come up with a reason to back out. Then the oddest thing happened. I got excited. I found myself pacing the floor and watching the calendar. Would November never get here? In early October, the website woke from it’s annual silence, and the message boards burst to life. The anticipation of thousands of authors waiting for Nano to start is infectious. I thought, I’m really going to do this. 

And just like that, I wrote 50,000 words in a month. Many, many times. Was it a torturous, insane, caffeine filled, blur of temporary insanity? Oh yes. What a ride.

Addendum: One week ago the same, nutty friend asked me to write a story in a weekend with her. Because I never learn, I mocked her again, waffled and then relented. In less than three days I churned out a 17K story that I'm pretty tickled with. Perhaps, I should start listening to her. 

But I probably won't. 

Come join us for campnanowrimo.org if you get the urge. 

Thanks,

Frances

NaNo Then Versus Now

by: Seleste deLaney

I did my first NaNoWriMo in 2007 (aka--very pre-published). I started with a bang, finished with a whimper, then took the next 10+ months to finish the draft. NaNo 2008 (still pre-published) was more of a slow and steady thing. Finished, won, completed the draft in December (I did eventually sell this one as well, under my other pen-name). NaNo 2009 (still pre-published) was like chewing off body parts to finish. I loved the idea, hated the manuscript, but I won anyway. Shelved the manuscript for a few months, then completely re-wrote it and sold it in early 2010. (It was Badlands, for those who care about such things.)

I went into NaNo 2010 as a published author, but at the time I only had one short story (Of Course I Try) out. I had a couple other holidays shorts coming in December and Badlands in February, but I wasn't on deadlines and didn't have a ton of things going. (Badlands was done on my end, and the others were short enough that edits weren't killer.) This year, my NaNoNovel soared and finished up pretty quickly. Granted, I took a year to tweak it and sub it, but that's when Kiss of Death happened.

By NaNo 2011, I had a backlist, I'd won a couple little awards. I was starting to think I was a big deal. So I took that year to write a book that I loved but I knew might be unpublishable because of the plot. (I've let it sit for a year, but I do plan to go back to it and look again.) But once again, I wasn't on deadlines. Everything was easy.

Now, in 2012, I feel like I'm finally doing NaNo as a published author. The lead up to November involved releases in August and September. I have another holiday short coming out in December. And I had a submission due in the middle of November... that I didn't have drafted until the end of October. Uh... this is when the panic-heavy music should be cued. Because of all that, I barely had an outline for Kiss of Life when November 1 hit.

I do not advise doing NaNo this way (published or not)--especially when dealing with a sequel. However, I digress...

I wrote on Kiss of Life for the first week of November and really floundered. I mean hard-core, thought I was going to drown in the suckitude. Then the second week, I took the book I finished in October and spent a week revising it. Once it was subbed, I looked at Kiss of Life and actually groaned. I'd had such a hard time staying on target the first week, the I couldn't fathom how I was possibly going to catch up from missing a week.

Then I remembered how last year Skyla abandoned her first NaNo project half-way through the month and started another one...and finished it. And it hit me--that's how a real author behaves. Writing is our passion, but it's also our job. We get up, dust off our whiny pants, and do the job. So, I sucked in a deep breath, choked on my fear, and remembered that I love these characters and their story. As of 8pm on Tuesday, I have just over 9,000 words left to write to win NaNo. I'll get at least 2,000 of those before I go to bed, hopefully more. That means unless something horrible happens, I'll win NaNo. By the skin of my teeth, but I still did it (or will).

It's weird how I have a bunch of contracts for books sitting in the filing cabinet next to me, but this makes me feel like a real author. The pressure, the deadlines, more than one of them... and busting ass to make sure they happen.

Am I certain this version of Kiss of Life is worth the time I put in? Nope. But that's what I have my awesome beta reader, Janelle, for. She's volunteered to look at the early draft and kick me if I'm way off-base. That means come December 1, I'm sending her what I have and taking a much-needed (and recently ordered) break. Said break doesn't mean I won't be writing, but I'm going to write something for me for a week or so while I wait on Janelle's feedback. Because that's the other thing this year's NaNoWriMo has taught me--that sometimes an author has to write what they want rather than what they should.

Because that, my friends, is what makes it fun and magical and keeps me coming back for more. It's time to re-discover the magic, if only for a little while.

Then it's back to work, because I have the best damn job in the whole world. <3

No plot? Kind of a problem

Uh, these words count for NaNoWriMo, yes?  Thought so.

So the theory behind NaNoWriMo is that it's a motivation to get you writing. There's even a book called "No Plot? No Problem!" But I have been working away on my novel and I don't really  have a plot. And it's kind of starting to be a problem.

I should probably disclose at this point in time that I've never actually read the "No Plot? No Problem!" book and therefore have no idea whether or not this relates to my post.  :) I've never let a little thing like lack of knowledge stand in my way of talking about something.

I've reached the midway point for NaNoWriMo, so I am actually on track to finish, which is good. But I'm struggling more and more everyday because I'm just not sure what the book is about. I've got a couple characters and a great setup for a situation, but once I put them in the situation I'm struggling with where to go from here. I mean, I can resolve the situation, but then the book would be over and I'd have to write The End about 12,000 times to finish NaNoWriMo.

I hope it won't come down to that, but at this point my brilliant idea is seeming more like a brilliant novella idea than a full blown novel.

So that's what I'm struggling with. How's it going for you guys?  We're supposed to be about halfway through now... are you keeping up?

I was actually ahead for a bit, which was tremendously exciting, so I promptly got sick to celebrate and wasted my lead. I should really re-think that approach.

Happy Friday, everyone!
Skye

NaNo: No whining--Just get 'er done

With NaNo starting, there’s a great wail of “OMG WHAT IF I CAN’T DO THIS?!” rising from the trenches. I mean, seriously.

You have work, kids, a spouse, a dog—none of those things are going to magically disappear just because you’ve set this goal for yourself. Writing would be so much easier if we could just hide away for the time it took to bust out a first draft. Guess what? Life isn’t like that. Life knows EXACTLY what you’re trying to accomplish and has no problems kicking you in the teeth to add something special to everything you’re juggling.

 At some point during this month, there will come a point where you just want to wring your hands at the heavens and scream, “I can’t do this! Why did I think I can do this? I’m a sad, sad excuse for a writer. WOE!” And there will be much gnashing of the teeth and tears.

Want to know a secret? The writers who finish their books are the ones who shove that little bitch of a voice in a box and light it on fire. Doubts go with the territory. No matter how many books you write, you’re always going to have that harpy in the back of your mind saying, “You can’t do this! Think of all the cupcakes you could be making right now if you weren’t slaving away over your computer! CUPCAKES, DAMN YOU!”

What’s the point of this rambling post? DO NOT QUIT. No, it’s not easy. If it was, everyone would do it. But you make it a priority, sit down and get those 1,600-odd words a day, and you can do this. So get ‘er done, darlings!

It's My Life

by Seleste deLaney

So, I'm taking a writing class right now... sort of.

You see, I signed up for it at the last minute in order to try to finish up a draft I was working on and revise it and get it to beta prior to NaNoWriMo. Mission accomplished! Woot! Thing is, I was left with about five days between sending it off and NaNo starting.

This was actually perfect (in my mind) since I'd just received a manuscript from my new crit partner. I had five days to turn that around and get whatever pre-NaNo plotting I was going to do finished before November 1 (oh, and take care of edits on my holiday short, but that was easy-peasy). Everything was going fine--is going fine, actually--and then the instructor sent a note basically saying not getting pages was unacceptable during the course.

Um...

Now, I don't know you about you as a writer, but I get hard-core burned out if it's all-my-words-all-the-time. I know for a fact if I'd picked up one of my other works-in-progress last week when I sent off the manuscript I'd just spent several weeks of blood, sweat and tears on, I would have been worthless for NaNo. As it is, I had to reset my brain from funny contemporary romance to urban fantasy which is no small feat for me. Flipping a switch literally from one day to the next can't happen for me.

I do realize the instructor probably wasn't talking to me specifically and the email was more directed to people who were making excuses about not getting pages. (When I finished revisions, I announced that I was taking the next five days to plot for NaNo and didn't even mention the critique-read.) However, it really stuck in my craw.

People paid for this class. I mean, I get that people pay for boot-camp exercise classes too (and suffer the requisite beat-downs if they slack off), but for some people this class is asking them to go from being page-a-day writers to being 20-page-a-day writers. That's a huge jump and it's a commitment that not everyone might be ready for when they sign up. They've heard it's a good class, so they pay their money and then O.O

As for myself, I knew what I was signing up for, even last minute. I just didn't expect there to not be things such as you-finished-the-draft-take-a-celebration-day or whatever. Maybe if I'd started the class with a brand new manuscript, I'd look at it differently, but I didn't. I finished what needed finishing and got the words plus revisions done quicker than I thought. If I was still in college, I would have totally taken the extra time for something else, even if it meant pretending I was still working on the original project.

This shouldn't be any different.

Yes, I know the instructor wants the class to be successful for everyone. Problem is it will never be successful for everyone by her definitions. Some people will never be 20-page-a-day writers. Some will only be able to maintain that while taking the class and never find the momentum again. Then there will likely be a few whose writerly lives are completely changed by what they learned.

But even if they only learned that this particular process doesn't work for them, the class was still a success because they learned something not only about their writing habits but about themselves. So, I'm going to continue to take today for my crit partner and my plotting (and my house cleaning since we have company coming this weekend that was already on the schedule before this class even hit my radar) because that's what I need to do for me both as an author and a person.

Then when midnight hits, I'm going to start writing again. I'm going to do my best to bust out my 20-pages-a-day for the rest of class. Know why? Because if I can pull it off, it means I win NaNo by the end of class. Also, if I can keep up the momentum, I can finish the draft by Thanksgiving without breaking a sweat. For me, that's well worth taking a non-instructor-endorsed breather right now. For me, that will mean the class was a complete and total success.