So, I've been busy trying to get this novel written. My character has been doing all sorts of things she's not supposed to be doing, and completely messing with the end of this novel...we're going to have to sit down and have a talk, her and I.
Anyway, I'm sitting here waiting for the next round of wordmongering to start, and I realized that I needed to post something today. Of course, having not realized this before hand, I have exactly nothing by way of a topic to talk about, so I thought I would just post a short (very extremely short) update for all of you.
I have written a total of 66k words so far in the month, and should be finishing Pandora sometime tomorrow (after which I will be working on a single chapter that I owe a collaboration partner, then onto the pantsing novel, that I'm actually quite nervous about.)
While this isn't anywhere near my finishing on day five during nano in November, I'm quite pleased with how quickly I've gotten this writing done, as last year was a bit of a mess (I barely finished in July, and didn't come close to finishing in August)
I also wanted to give you all a heads up that sometimes soon I should be posting a review/author interview for a series of books that I've recently read.
Anyway, that's about all I have for you today. I promise I'll get something better up Wednesday or Thursday. For now, I've got to go figure out the end of this novel, since my character obviously didn't like the one I came up with.
Showing posts with label wordmongering. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wordmongering. Show all posts
Sunday, June 10, 2012
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Being Productive
Normally I procrastinate so much that I don't get much done. Especially when I'm editing. I find it so hard to make myself actually want to start fixing and changing my story. You all know exactly how much I love editing, of course, and I am very good at making sure I do everything but the editing that I'm supposed to be doing.
In a conversation with a friend this week (one B. A. Matthews) I started expressing my frustration with the fact that I'm really not getting anywhere with my stories. That was when I realized something. I can't be frustrated with not going anywhere, because the reason I'm not is because of all the procrastinating I've been doing. It's not my manuscript's fault that I'm looking everywhere but at it. It's not my characters' fault when they're constantly shouting at me about what they want to happen in the next book, or the one after that. I can't write those stories, though, not when I'm not even done the first book.
No, there's only one person at fault in this whole scenario, and it's me.
I've been getting frustrated with myself. I claim to want to write for a living. To want to be a published author who is taken seriously and has a following, but how can I do that when I'm playing useless games on facebook instead of editing or writing? How can I say that I want fans, when I can't guarantee that I'll be able to focus enough on the story in front of me to get it past the first draft?
So I'm making a new promise tonight. I've done this before, I know. I've committed myself to my writing more times than I can really count, but I'm still going to do it again, and I'm hoping to actually stick with it.
My first promise: I am going to stop complaining about editing. Especially on my blog. I'm sure you're all as tired to hear it as I am to type it out. Because, let's face it, complaining about editing is really just another way to avoid doing it. And that's just a vicious cycle that I'll never be rid of if I let myself continue down that road.
My second promise: Get my manuscript out to beta readers by May 15th. I currently have 2 beta readers anxiously awaiting (at least in my head) the arrival of my manuscript. Having an actual due date, rather than an arbitrary goal, I'm hoping that I can actually do it. I'm also still looking for a third beta reader. If anyone's interested, please let me know.
My third promise: I'm going to go out of my way to try and find someway to like editing. It may never work, but I'm certainly going to try. I don't want to spend my entire life hating this part of writing, so I just have to look for that part of it that I like and latch onto it.
I'm hoping that I can keep these promises for longer than I've kept most of my previous ones (for the record, I have stuck with getting my blog posts up, but none of my editing/writing promises have been stuck to.)
Now it's time for me to start putting these promises into action.
In a conversation with a friend this week (one B. A. Matthews) I started expressing my frustration with the fact that I'm really not getting anywhere with my stories. That was when I realized something. I can't be frustrated with not going anywhere, because the reason I'm not is because of all the procrastinating I've been doing. It's not my manuscript's fault that I'm looking everywhere but at it. It's not my characters' fault when they're constantly shouting at me about what they want to happen in the next book, or the one after that. I can't write those stories, though, not when I'm not even done the first book.
No, there's only one person at fault in this whole scenario, and it's me.
I've been getting frustrated with myself. I claim to want to write for a living. To want to be a published author who is taken seriously and has a following, but how can I do that when I'm playing useless games on facebook instead of editing or writing? How can I say that I want fans, when I can't guarantee that I'll be able to focus enough on the story in front of me to get it past the first draft?
So I'm making a new promise tonight. I've done this before, I know. I've committed myself to my writing more times than I can really count, but I'm still going to do it again, and I'm hoping to actually stick with it.
My first promise: I am going to stop complaining about editing. Especially on my blog. I'm sure you're all as tired to hear it as I am to type it out. Because, let's face it, complaining about editing is really just another way to avoid doing it. And that's just a vicious cycle that I'll never be rid of if I let myself continue down that road.
My second promise: Get my manuscript out to beta readers by May 15th. I currently have 2 beta readers anxiously awaiting (at least in my head) the arrival of my manuscript. Having an actual due date, rather than an arbitrary goal, I'm hoping that I can actually do it. I'm also still looking for a third beta reader. If anyone's interested, please let me know.
My third promise: I'm going to go out of my way to try and find someway to like editing. It may never work, but I'm certainly going to try. I don't want to spend my entire life hating this part of writing, so I just have to look for that part of it that I like and latch onto it.
I'm hoping that I can keep these promises for longer than I've kept most of my previous ones (for the record, I have stuck with getting my blog posts up, but none of my editing/writing promises have been stuck to.)
Now it's time for me to start putting these promises into action.
Thursday, March 22, 2012
A Fresh Start
Well, the race is on. Again. It's time for me to start writing a novel. One that I've told myself I'll try and get out in the same amount of time it took me to write a novel during November. In case you're wondering, that means that I need to write this novel in only ten days. I'm not entirely sure I can actually do it, but that's got more to do with the fact that I'm not putting my life on hold for this book like I do in November. I have plans with friends, I haven't stopped going to critique group, and I don't know if I'll even have time to write ten thousand words a day.
But now that I've decided to do it, and even promised the character that it would be done by April, I can't back out. First of all, if I did, I would end up with a character yelling at me and not giving me any rest until I actually wrote it. Second, I would be disappointed because I wouldn't have that novel I need to submit to my critique group so I can get my current novel ready for beta readers then for submission.
The worst part is that I have everything planned out. And when I say everything, trust me, I mean EVERYTHING. I have character bibles for each of my main to more important background characters. Each bible consists not only of what they look like, but also their personality, their goals in the book, the motivations, what makes obtaining their goals difficult, any growth they have in the book, what their role is and any back history I've come up with for them. (In case you're wondering, these characters have some of the strongest and most details character histories that I've ever written...) I have pages and pages of brainstorming, as well as two pages devoted entirely to a cast list, naming every character that could possibly come up in the book. And, finally, I have an entire plot written out (not too detailed, because I'd spend the entire time writing frustrated. My characters don't really like to stick to the plan...) in my scrivener file.
The writing should be the easy part with all of that planning out of the way. Especially since I don't have to make any actual decisions while I'm writing (which is good as I'm kind of indecisive...) I should be able to just sit down and write it, after all, my characters are even talking to me, and I can see some of the scenes in my head! Scenes that I desperately want to write.
So what's holding me back?
Chapter one. It's as simple as that. When I wrote the plot I made it very vague, and I hadn't really decided on anything, up to and including what the guy did to deserve being killed. I didn't even know what he looked like or did for a living. I didn't have a single clue as to how my main character was going to approach him, never mind kill him. Both of these things were very important as my character is actually an assassin and was being hired to kill the guy.
When I sat down to write, I found myself staring at a blank page certain I had a fantastic idea, but having no idea how I was going to start it. Where this first chapter, that introduces the character, but not really the story, was going to go. My mind blanked. So I got desperate and wrote the first thing that came to mind. In first person as I had planned.
Turns out the first thing I think of isn't always the right thing. Or even good. After 1200 words I was getting increasingly frustrated and realizing that if I continued to write like that the book that I've been looking forward to writing for so long was going to go the way of all the other books I've written so far: directly into that dusty old folder in the back of my computer. That's the last thing I want.
So I did the only thing I could do. The thing that nearly made me cry, as those were the only words written on the novel and I was supposed to write 10,000 words. I deleted them and started over.
While it was a hard thing to do, it was the best thing. I changed to third person, which I find much easier to write in. (Originally I thought I should do first because so many other books like the one I'm writing are written in first. When I first started writing I actually wrote in first and never thought I'd be able to change to third. I was wrong...)
Now I'm only 450 words into the first chapter (a far cry from my 10k goal...) but they're far better than the original 1200 I had been working with. I'm looking forward to writing the scene, and I'm once again hopeful that I can write something other than crap.
Sometimes you really do have to give yourself a fresh start, whether you're at 1200 or 65,000 words. Just make sure that you need to give up on it before you do. You'll kick yourself if you start all over again just to realize that what you had already written had potential.
Well, time for me to get back to writing...hopefully I can hit that elusive 10k soon. I've gotta get this book written!
But now that I've decided to do it, and even promised the character that it would be done by April, I can't back out. First of all, if I did, I would end up with a character yelling at me and not giving me any rest until I actually wrote it. Second, I would be disappointed because I wouldn't have that novel I need to submit to my critique group so I can get my current novel ready for beta readers then for submission.
The worst part is that I have everything planned out. And when I say everything, trust me, I mean EVERYTHING. I have character bibles for each of my main to more important background characters. Each bible consists not only of what they look like, but also their personality, their goals in the book, the motivations, what makes obtaining their goals difficult, any growth they have in the book, what their role is and any back history I've come up with for them. (In case you're wondering, these characters have some of the strongest and most details character histories that I've ever written...) I have pages and pages of brainstorming, as well as two pages devoted entirely to a cast list, naming every character that could possibly come up in the book. And, finally, I have an entire plot written out (not too detailed, because I'd spend the entire time writing frustrated. My characters don't really like to stick to the plan...) in my scrivener file.
The writing should be the easy part with all of that planning out of the way. Especially since I don't have to make any actual decisions while I'm writing (which is good as I'm kind of indecisive...) I should be able to just sit down and write it, after all, my characters are even talking to me, and I can see some of the scenes in my head! Scenes that I desperately want to write.
So what's holding me back?
Chapter one. It's as simple as that. When I wrote the plot I made it very vague, and I hadn't really decided on anything, up to and including what the guy did to deserve being killed. I didn't even know what he looked like or did for a living. I didn't have a single clue as to how my main character was going to approach him, never mind kill him. Both of these things were very important as my character is actually an assassin and was being hired to kill the guy.
When I sat down to write, I found myself staring at a blank page certain I had a fantastic idea, but having no idea how I was going to start it. Where this first chapter, that introduces the character, but not really the story, was going to go. My mind blanked. So I got desperate and wrote the first thing that came to mind. In first person as I had planned.
Turns out the first thing I think of isn't always the right thing. Or even good. After 1200 words I was getting increasingly frustrated and realizing that if I continued to write like that the book that I've been looking forward to writing for so long was going to go the way of all the other books I've written so far: directly into that dusty old folder in the back of my computer. That's the last thing I want.
So I did the only thing I could do. The thing that nearly made me cry, as those were the only words written on the novel and I was supposed to write 10,000 words. I deleted them and started over.
While it was a hard thing to do, it was the best thing. I changed to third person, which I find much easier to write in. (Originally I thought I should do first because so many other books like the one I'm writing are written in first. When I first started writing I actually wrote in first and never thought I'd be able to change to third. I was wrong...)
Now I'm only 450 words into the first chapter (a far cry from my 10k goal...) but they're far better than the original 1200 I had been working with. I'm looking forward to writing the scene, and I'm once again hopeful that I can write something other than crap.
Sometimes you really do have to give yourself a fresh start, whether you're at 1200 or 65,000 words. Just make sure that you need to give up on it before you do. You'll kick yourself if you start all over again just to realize that what you had already written had potential.
Well, time for me to get back to writing...hopefully I can hit that elusive 10k soon. I've gotta get this book written!
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Writing Together
In my last post I told you all about wordmongering, a fantastic hashtag that created a writing community on twitter. And that's what I want to talk about today again. A writing community.
Most people think that writing is a solitary activity. For the most part, they're right. The actual act of sitting down and writing is something you have to do alone. You can be in a group of people, which I actually find quite helpful, but the writing itself is a solitary thing.
I find, though, that at times the writing can be more of a group activity than most people would think. Without the writing community (more like a friend, but one that I wouldn't have met without a writing community) Monday would have been a very frustrating night for me.
I am currently in the middle of planning a novel that I'm hoping to have finished the first draft of by the end of the month. The book has one of the largest casts I've worked with, and one of the characters decided that Monday was the night he was finally going to start talking to me. Unfortunately it was like he didn't realize just how loud it is in my head. You may have noticed that I'm working on a few projects. The characters from all of those books are always trying to get my attention.
Well, he managed to get my attention with a single stray thought. That single thought managed to get me thinking about the different possibilities that could happen with this character. Was he going to betray the main character? Because that was the stray thought that managed to grab my attention.
Except that betraying her wasn't really in his character. He may be an assassin, but I really didn't see him killing the girl that he trained as, basically, his replacement. No matter how much I thought about it, though, whatever he was trying to tell me just wasn't getting through. It was like we were on a call and all I could hear was static with a few words breaking through. Then it suddenly felt like I lost the call altogether.
So I decided that I had to get some perspective. That's where a good writing community really starts to come in handy. With the help of some of my friends, who are also writers, I managed to figure out that the thought he was giving me wasn't at all what I originally thought it was. I'm not going to post the solution I came up with, because I wouldn't want to ruin the surprise. After all, this book is going to end up getting published, and you're all going to buy and read it, right?
Through talking it out I managed to figure out a whole subplot, a twist, that I had no idea was there. If they hadn't been there, I'm pretty sure I would have never figured it out. Something would have always felt wrong, and most likely, my character would have stopped talking to me altogether. Which is not something that I like to have happen.
Do you have a writing community that can help you work through the problems in your stories? Or do you go it alone, a true lone wolf?
Most people think that writing is a solitary activity. For the most part, they're right. The actual act of sitting down and writing is something you have to do alone. You can be in a group of people, which I actually find quite helpful, but the writing itself is a solitary thing.
I find, though, that at times the writing can be more of a group activity than most people would think. Without the writing community (more like a friend, but one that I wouldn't have met without a writing community) Monday would have been a very frustrating night for me.
I am currently in the middle of planning a novel that I'm hoping to have finished the first draft of by the end of the month. The book has one of the largest casts I've worked with, and one of the characters decided that Monday was the night he was finally going to start talking to me. Unfortunately it was like he didn't realize just how loud it is in my head. You may have noticed that I'm working on a few projects. The characters from all of those books are always trying to get my attention.
Well, he managed to get my attention with a single stray thought. That single thought managed to get me thinking about the different possibilities that could happen with this character. Was he going to betray the main character? Because that was the stray thought that managed to grab my attention.
Except that betraying her wasn't really in his character. He may be an assassin, but I really didn't see him killing the girl that he trained as, basically, his replacement. No matter how much I thought about it, though, whatever he was trying to tell me just wasn't getting through. It was like we were on a call and all I could hear was static with a few words breaking through. Then it suddenly felt like I lost the call altogether.
So I decided that I had to get some perspective. That's where a good writing community really starts to come in handy. With the help of some of my friends, who are also writers, I managed to figure out that the thought he was giving me wasn't at all what I originally thought it was. I'm not going to post the solution I came up with, because I wouldn't want to ruin the surprise. After all, this book is going to end up getting published, and you're all going to buy and read it, right?
Through talking it out I managed to figure out a whole subplot, a twist, that I had no idea was there. If they hadn't been there, I'm pretty sure I would have never figured it out. Something would have always felt wrong, and most likely, my character would have stopped talking to me altogether. Which is not something that I like to have happen.
Do you have a writing community that can help you work through the problems in your stories? Or do you go it alone, a true lone wolf?
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Anniversary of a Monger
As many of you know (and as I often preach) if you're looking for a writing community, you don't have to look any further than twitter. If you know the right hashtags, you can find the greatest people willing to push you forward and not let you give up on whatever novel you're currently working on. I find almost nothing as helpful as this community when I'm trying to get through my work. Especially editing. While I may not get it all done, I get far more done thanks to the support of those people.
Wordmongering is the first of these hashtags that I ever used. Unlike the generic writing hashtag, this group has a specific goal. You write from the top of the hour to the half hour then compare word counts.
Some of you may wonder what's so fantastic about that. As someone who thrives on competition, I can tell you, it's amazing. Through wordmongering I have managed to get my average words up to about 2000 in every half hour (during november I was actually beating that number, but I'm far more motivated during november than any other month of the year)
I've met amazing people there. People who have offered to beta read for me, though that book was sadly shelved. I've met people who have forced me to type faster and faster in the hopes of catching up to them. (My nickname may be robot, but there are still others out there who can get more words crammed into that half hour span than me.)
This hashtag (along with its counter editmongering, which I really should be paying more attention to right now as I'm in the middle of editing a novel) was born just over a year ago. It was started by one Moni-Marie Vincent. Of all of the people in the hashtag, she's the most supportive. More often than not you can see her in there writing furiously, (or editing, of course). Even if she's not working on anything, she's in there cheering on everyone else.
Wordmongering is what kept me writing after my first nano. It was a home I found that made sure I was writing everyday. It kept me from giving up on the dream I've developed where I get published. If there was one hashtag that I would want every writer who might have issues with motivation, or concentration, to have, it would be Wordmongering.
Editmongering, on the other hand, is held between the half hour mark and the hour mark. Officially, anyway. I've found that more often than not people just hang out there while they're editing. It's a lot harder to log how much editing you've done, so this way you can still hang out with some fantastic writers while doing what you have to in order to get your novel in shape.
I should warn you, editmongering tends to have more people complaining, but I'm of the firm belief that editing requires complaining. No one can cheerfully tear their own writing apart then put it back together, can they? Well, I can't, anyway. So maybe it's just me.
Anyway, while I don't have any amazing stories for editmonging, I'm actually pretty sure that has a lot to do with the fact that I don't use this hashtag nearly as much as I should. Because I am really good at procrastinating on editing. In fact, if I have any excuse to not edit, I will definitely use it.
I wanted to say happy anniversary to Wordmongering and Editmongering. I can't tell you how much you have helped me to accomplish. Thank you for everything you've done!
Wordmongering is the first of these hashtags that I ever used. Unlike the generic writing hashtag, this group has a specific goal. You write from the top of the hour to the half hour then compare word counts.
Some of you may wonder what's so fantastic about that. As someone who thrives on competition, I can tell you, it's amazing. Through wordmongering I have managed to get my average words up to about 2000 in every half hour (during november I was actually beating that number, but I'm far more motivated during november than any other month of the year)
I've met amazing people there. People who have offered to beta read for me, though that book was sadly shelved. I've met people who have forced me to type faster and faster in the hopes of catching up to them. (My nickname may be robot, but there are still others out there who can get more words crammed into that half hour span than me.)
This hashtag (along with its counter editmongering, which I really should be paying more attention to right now as I'm in the middle of editing a novel) was born just over a year ago. It was started by one Moni-Marie Vincent. Of all of the people in the hashtag, she's the most supportive. More often than not you can see her in there writing furiously, (or editing, of course). Even if she's not working on anything, she's in there cheering on everyone else.
Wordmongering is what kept me writing after my first nano. It was a home I found that made sure I was writing everyday. It kept me from giving up on the dream I've developed where I get published. If there was one hashtag that I would want every writer who might have issues with motivation, or concentration, to have, it would be Wordmongering.
Editmongering, on the other hand, is held between the half hour mark and the hour mark. Officially, anyway. I've found that more often than not people just hang out there while they're editing. It's a lot harder to log how much editing you've done, so this way you can still hang out with some fantastic writers while doing what you have to in order to get your novel in shape.
I should warn you, editmongering tends to have more people complaining, but I'm of the firm belief that editing requires complaining. No one can cheerfully tear their own writing apart then put it back together, can they? Well, I can't, anyway. So maybe it's just me.
Anyway, while I don't have any amazing stories for editmonging, I'm actually pretty sure that has a lot to do with the fact that I don't use this hashtag nearly as much as I should. Because I am really good at procrastinating on editing. In fact, if I have any excuse to not edit, I will definitely use it.
I wanted to say happy anniversary to Wordmongering and Editmongering. I can't tell you how much you have helped me to accomplish. Thank you for everything you've done!
Saturday, November 5, 2011
Turn That Frown Into Words
Yesterday I was given a piece of bad news that brought my day completely down. Most of the time I'm a fairly happy person, but when something like that happens, I get all frustrated, and suddenly any motivation that I may have had (say, a friend who tells me that they're going to beat me this year) disappears.
When I got home yesterday I stared at my computer for a half hour before I realized that writing wasn't going to happen, as least not right away. Because, I knew that if the words started to flow, the frustration would go into it. Meaning that one of my characters (important characters that still have a lot of storyline to finish) would probably end up getting the brunt of it, and I wouldn't be surprised if they were killed. As that wasn't something I wanted to do, I thought maybe I needed a bit of a pick me up.
I'm rather ahead in my nanoing attempts this year, so I thought it would be alright to watch an episode of one of my favorite shows. The first episode, actually. And as hoped, it pulled me out of my dark mood and got me laughing. By the time it was over, I was starting to fell more like myself, and less like that scary person in the corner who looks like their about to explode if you so much as look at them.
Before I got started on writing, however, I decided to get some food, only to discover that the one thing I was looking forward to was out of the one item they should never be out of. While normally I might brush this off and move on with my day, that dark mood from earlier seemed to find this weakness encouraging and it quickly took hold again.
How did I pull myself out of it? I did the very thing I should have done right from the beginning. I launched myself into a word war. (And not just any word war. An hour long word war!) Pretty soon my mind had cleared, and I had managed to bury that dark mood.
No matter how we look at it, as writers, our sanctuary is the page. We may complain bitterly about our characters, and sometimes even have a block that we just can't seem to get over, but at the end of the day, if we need to have it out, it's in words. We let our emotions play out on the page.
Now I know better, of course. The next time a dark mood descends (though I'm hoping it's not for a while) I'm going to pull out the old laptop and let the words fly. I might get a few strange looks, but hey, it's who I am. And I've learned recently that we can't be happy unless we are true to ourselves.
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Disappearing Acts
On the first day of nano, I pulled a disappearing act. I had no idea that I had magical powers, but there you have it. One minute there, the next 'poof' I was gone. I did reappear eventually, but it certainly wasn't across a crowded theatre to loud applause as people wondered how I had managed that.
Perhaps I should explain. I was hanging out online between wordmongering rounds, and one of my friends happened to show up on msn, and so, I started a conversation with him. Yep. You read that right. I was the one who actually started this particular conversation. And I said hi and asked him how he was doing, only to realize that I was about to miss the start of the next round, and I disappeared.
Now, this might not have been so bad, except that, by the time I had gotten to the end of that round, I had completely forgotten that I was talking to him. I was too caught up in my characters, and the fact that a few very minor characters who were supposed to appear in only one scene were trying to force their way into a more prominent position in my novel.
When I finally remembered that I had started a conversation, it had been four hours. Four! I've never felt so bad in my life. I apologized, profusely, and we managed to get over it, but it made me think about all of those people out there who couldn't care less about nano, other than the fact that they lose their loved ones to it everyday.
One of my friends, who's married to a Wrimo, actually calls himself a nano widow. Pathetic, I know. He's just digging for sympathy.
The fact of it is, though, we really do ignore the people in our lives during November. When people ask me to do things, I find myself wondering if I'll be able to hit my word count for the day before we go out, or if I should just be cautious and get some extra words written the day before. And even when we're out, I'm not fully there. My mind is trying to work out the next scene, or chapter.
While I don't expect us all to drop our pencils and start paying attention to people today (hello, we're only 3 days into November! It's never going to happen..) We just need to remember to give our friends and loved ones a little extra attention in December to make up for it. Or maybe just an extra gift under the Christmas tree to show that we appreciate how patient they are. Because without the support of our loved ones, none of us would be able to finish the insanity that is Nano.
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
And The Race Is On...
It's the first day of NaNoWriMo, so naturally I'm doing a blog post. This post comes courtesy of BA Matthews, who so very kindly challenged me to write a blog post everyday this month. Everyday. While I'm trying to hit my 200k goal. Yep. You're right, I probably am crazy. The problem is, I find it so very hard to not accept those writing challenges. So here we go.
Day 1:
I am currently sitting at 7981/200,000 words. This means I've hit my target for the day, but it doesn't mean that I'm going to stop. (I'm not sure I know what the meaning of the word 'stop' actually is) Instead I'm going to continue utilizing the amazing wordmongering hashtag on twitter and get the word count up to at least 10k.
For those of you that are looking at this, shaking your head and thinking 'I could never do that', let me tell you something. Every writer is different. Not just in what genre they write, or their particular brand of word choice, or even in how they choose to break up their novel. Every writer also writes at different speeds.
To get to my speed, I actually turn off every other mental process (aside from those keeping me alive, of course) and just let the words flow. Although I hit the backspace button more than I probably should (damn typos...I just can't leave them alone!) I don't rethink any sentence...unless I don't know where I was trying to go with it. Then I might start it over again.
Some people, of course, can't quite get their inner editor to shut up. I know people who will agonize over every word in a sentence, and end with much lower word counts than mine. Does that mean that I'm the better writer? Definitely not! More than likely it's my work that's going to need to undergo heavy surgery when all is said and done just to make it passable, and their novel that is much more presentable, even as a first draft.
Sometimes I almost wish I was like those people, because then, maybe, I wouldn't have to spend so long editing. I hate editing with a passion, and anything I can do to avoid it is good for me. But I don't write like that.
In the end, just like singers, writers have to be true to themselves too. Yes, we can adapt and change our writing styles, taking into account other writing styles that we may have seen, or learned about, but in the end, we can't be anyone other than who we are. If that means we write slower because we hate putting a terrible sentence on the page than so be it! If that means that we can't even hear the music blaring in our ears because we're so shut down while we're writing, so be it!
Be you, and your story will turn out exactly the way you want it. Good luck! I can't wait to see the wrimos start to cross that finish line! Nano the 13th is going to be Epic!
Day 1:
I am currently sitting at 7981/200,000 words. This means I've hit my target for the day, but it doesn't mean that I'm going to stop. (I'm not sure I know what the meaning of the word 'stop' actually is) Instead I'm going to continue utilizing the amazing wordmongering hashtag on twitter and get the word count up to at least 10k.
For those of you that are looking at this, shaking your head and thinking 'I could never do that', let me tell you something. Every writer is different. Not just in what genre they write, or their particular brand of word choice, or even in how they choose to break up their novel. Every writer also writes at different speeds.
To get to my speed, I actually turn off every other mental process (aside from those keeping me alive, of course) and just let the words flow. Although I hit the backspace button more than I probably should (damn typos...I just can't leave them alone!) I don't rethink any sentence...unless I don't know where I was trying to go with it. Then I might start it over again.
Some people, of course, can't quite get their inner editor to shut up. I know people who will agonize over every word in a sentence, and end with much lower word counts than mine. Does that mean that I'm the better writer? Definitely not! More than likely it's my work that's going to need to undergo heavy surgery when all is said and done just to make it passable, and their novel that is much more presentable, even as a first draft.
Sometimes I almost wish I was like those people, because then, maybe, I wouldn't have to spend so long editing. I hate editing with a passion, and anything I can do to avoid it is good for me. But I don't write like that.
In the end, just like singers, writers have to be true to themselves too. Yes, we can adapt and change our writing styles, taking into account other writing styles that we may have seen, or learned about, but in the end, we can't be anyone other than who we are. If that means we write slower because we hate putting a terrible sentence on the page than so be it! If that means that we can't even hear the music blaring in our ears because we're so shut down while we're writing, so be it!
Be you, and your story will turn out exactly the way you want it. Good luck! I can't wait to see the wrimos start to cross that finish line! Nano the 13th is going to be Epic!
Friday, May 20, 2011
My Muse and Inspiration
I don't know about you, but I often find that I have a heard time sitting down to write. I do everything I feel like I need to do in order to set up a good writing atmosphere. I turn on music. I turn off the TV. I leave twitter running, which might be a bad thing, but I have to stay connected. At least, that's what I tell myself. Then I open up scrivener (my current word processor of choice)...and stare blankly at the screen.
Oh, I write. At least a little bit. I'll get some words down that I will glare at because they're not doing exactly as I want them to do. Usually I get frustrated after about half an hour where I've written maybe a couple hundred words and I start playing a game to distract myself. I tell myself it's to give myself time to think. This is, of course, a lie. I am doing anything and everything in my power to not be writing right at that minute.
Even time deadlines do nothing for me. I've tried write or die. I really have. While it does pull more words out of me in a shorter time period, I can't quite force myself to continue writing afterward. In fact, I think, I should do another session, and instead start watching a show or even reading, telling myself that I'm ahead and that thousand words I just wrote was good enough for the day.
There is something you should know about me. Something I never knew about myself until November. In fact, before November I actually believed the exact opposite of myself. I thrive on competition. And by thrive, I mean THRIVE.
In the same half hour that I would sit and get maybe 800 words staring blankly at my screen, by simply adding another person writing with me, I get 1800 words. It's sad, but it's the truth.
Just so you know, I don't sit in front of my computer thinking 'I have to beat the rest of them!' actually, I really don't know what I think about while I'm #wordmongering. It's as if my mind just clears and pours out the words that it refuses to give up without that competition.
Maybe it's my muse. She is the most unreliable muse I've ever met. Not that I've met a lot of muses. This is just what I've heard. She takes off at the most inopportune of times. In fact for years she wasn't anything more than a voice in the back of my head that whispered maybe a couple days a year. Now that I've found a way to keep her yelling, how can I stop?
#wordmongering has jumped my word count for my current novel to over 50k since May 1st. Competition keeps me engaged with my characters. Keeps me wanting to know more about the plot and how everything is going to turn out. It makes me brainstorm so that I'm never without something to work on. It makes me research. Yep. Research. Rather ironic considering the fact that I decided to write a fantasy novel for the very specific reason that I can make up everything I'm writing. And now I'm planning on spending Saturday in the library with a pile of books about 12th century weaponry and war strategies.
My point to all of this? I found my inspiration. The one thing that keeps us, as writers, moving forward. As strange as competition for inspiration may sound, it works for me. And it working is really all that matters. As a writer, my sole objective is to keep writing. Whether or not I ever get published has nothing to do with it. As long as my muse thrives on competition (and my #wordmongering tweeps continue to provide that competition) I will write. And that's all that really matters.
Oh, I write. At least a little bit. I'll get some words down that I will glare at because they're not doing exactly as I want them to do. Usually I get frustrated after about half an hour where I've written maybe a couple hundred words and I start playing a game to distract myself. I tell myself it's to give myself time to think. This is, of course, a lie. I am doing anything and everything in my power to not be writing right at that minute.
Even time deadlines do nothing for me. I've tried write or die. I really have. While it does pull more words out of me in a shorter time period, I can't quite force myself to continue writing afterward. In fact, I think, I should do another session, and instead start watching a show or even reading, telling myself that I'm ahead and that thousand words I just wrote was good enough for the day.
There is something you should know about me. Something I never knew about myself until November. In fact, before November I actually believed the exact opposite of myself. I thrive on competition. And by thrive, I mean THRIVE.
In the same half hour that I would sit and get maybe 800 words staring blankly at my screen, by simply adding another person writing with me, I get 1800 words. It's sad, but it's the truth.
Just so you know, I don't sit in front of my computer thinking 'I have to beat the rest of them!' actually, I really don't know what I think about while I'm #wordmongering. It's as if my mind just clears and pours out the words that it refuses to give up without that competition.
Maybe it's my muse. She is the most unreliable muse I've ever met. Not that I've met a lot of muses. This is just what I've heard. She takes off at the most inopportune of times. In fact for years she wasn't anything more than a voice in the back of my head that whispered maybe a couple days a year. Now that I've found a way to keep her yelling, how can I stop?
#wordmongering has jumped my word count for my current novel to over 50k since May 1st. Competition keeps me engaged with my characters. Keeps me wanting to know more about the plot and how everything is going to turn out. It makes me brainstorm so that I'm never without something to work on. It makes me research. Yep. Research. Rather ironic considering the fact that I decided to write a fantasy novel for the very specific reason that I can make up everything I'm writing. And now I'm planning on spending Saturday in the library with a pile of books about 12th century weaponry and war strategies.
My point to all of this? I found my inspiration. The one thing that keeps us, as writers, moving forward. As strange as competition for inspiration may sound, it works for me. And it working is really all that matters. As a writer, my sole objective is to keep writing. Whether or not I ever get published has nothing to do with it. As long as my muse thrives on competition (and my #wordmongering tweeps continue to provide that competition) I will write. And that's all that really matters.
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Brainstorming, Plots and Word Mongering
Remember English class in High School? When your teacher would give you an assignment of writing a short story and caution you to hand in your Brainstorming because you would lose marks if you didn't? I do. I remember because I never handed in my brainstorming. This would probably have something to do with the fact that I never did my brainstorming. Just sat down and wrote, then handed it in. I'd get it back every single time with red words scrawled across about how next time I needed to hand in my brainstorming. I didn't care. I hated doing it. I though it was a waste of my time.
I LOVE brainstorming. I do it all the time. Right now, in fact, I have no less than three notebooks on my desk with brainstorming from three different projects scrawled inside. Why am I telling you this? So that you can understand that as I'm writing my newest novel, I have come to realize that writing, like anything else you do, is a learning process.
I'm not certain why I always thought that writers knew exactly what they were doing the first time they put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard, as it may be) but I did. I was so certain of this, in fact, that before November I never let myself finish anything I started simply because I assumed it was utter crap. (Don't get me wrong, it was utter crap. I recently had the utter horror...uh...absolute pleasure...of reading a story I wrote about five years ago. Let's just say I'm sorry that anyone ever read it...)
I also found I was getting stuck on decision. (I should tell you, I'm actually quite indecisive. It took me about two months to make up my mind to start a blog. Why? Who knows. But here we are.)
Anyway, my point is that I have discovered the answer to both of these walls that I had built up in my head. Just as I learned how important brainstorming can be (especially when a character I did not plan shows up in my books and somehow ends up being important, but I don't know why), I've learned how to get over these other hurdles.
Plotting, something I barely gave any thought to before, has now become what I spend a lot of time doing now. Each of my books is meticulously planned out before I start writing. (I'd like to point out that I say meticulous, but what I mean is, I think I know what's going to happen and then I actually write it and it all goes to hell...just saying, but don't expect your characters or your stories to go exactly to plan. It wont.) I do this so that I don't have to stop in the middle of my writing groove to make a vital decision that I should have known about before I started writing.
And word mongering. Aah, word mongering (For all you twitterites out there, that's the hashtag #wordmongering) A fantastic group of people that get together via twitter every hour on the hour to write as much as we can for half an hour than compare word counts. It's fantastic.
For those of you that worry about us turning writing into a competition, let me reassure you now. While we are competitive, it is a friend competition. While we compare and one person may get bragging rights, the point is to support each other, not knock each other down. Also, some of us...not saying who...just some of us apparently respond to competition. Don't knock it 'till you try it!
Word mongering allows me to turn off my brain (not too far off, I am still writing after all. Just enough to make my inner editor shut up) enough to get the words on the page. And, despite my one time belief of first drafts being perfect, I have come to embrace the very idea behind NaNoWriMo: You can edit crap. You can't edit nothing. Getting those words on the page is the first step. You can fix your mistakes later.
Happy Brainstorming.
I LOVE brainstorming. I do it all the time. Right now, in fact, I have no less than three notebooks on my desk with brainstorming from three different projects scrawled inside. Why am I telling you this? So that you can understand that as I'm writing my newest novel, I have come to realize that writing, like anything else you do, is a learning process.
I'm not certain why I always thought that writers knew exactly what they were doing the first time they put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard, as it may be) but I did. I was so certain of this, in fact, that before November I never let myself finish anything I started simply because I assumed it was utter crap. (Don't get me wrong, it was utter crap. I recently had the utter horror...uh...absolute pleasure...of reading a story I wrote about five years ago. Let's just say I'm sorry that anyone ever read it...)
I also found I was getting stuck on decision. (I should tell you, I'm actually quite indecisive. It took me about two months to make up my mind to start a blog. Why? Who knows. But here we are.)
Anyway, my point is that I have discovered the answer to both of these walls that I had built up in my head. Just as I learned how important brainstorming can be (especially when a character I did not plan shows up in my books and somehow ends up being important, but I don't know why), I've learned how to get over these other hurdles.
Plotting, something I barely gave any thought to before, has now become what I spend a lot of time doing now. Each of my books is meticulously planned out before I start writing. (I'd like to point out that I say meticulous, but what I mean is, I think I know what's going to happen and then I actually write it and it all goes to hell...just saying, but don't expect your characters or your stories to go exactly to plan. It wont.) I do this so that I don't have to stop in the middle of my writing groove to make a vital decision that I should have known about before I started writing.
And word mongering. Aah, word mongering (For all you twitterites out there, that's the hashtag #wordmongering) A fantastic group of people that get together via twitter every hour on the hour to write as much as we can for half an hour than compare word counts. It's fantastic.
For those of you that worry about us turning writing into a competition, let me reassure you now. While we are competitive, it is a friend competition. While we compare and one person may get bragging rights, the point is to support each other, not knock each other down. Also, some of us...not saying who...just some of us apparently respond to competition. Don't knock it 'till you try it!
Word mongering allows me to turn off my brain (not too far off, I am still writing after all. Just enough to make my inner editor shut up) enough to get the words on the page. And, despite my one time belief of first drafts being perfect, I have come to embrace the very idea behind NaNoWriMo: You can edit crap. You can't edit nothing. Getting those words on the page is the first step. You can fix your mistakes later.
Happy Brainstorming.
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