My Goals

Today I thought I would revisit the goals and deadlines I have set out for myself.  This isn't a new topic by any means.  I've discussed my goals on here more times than I care to count.  Unfortunately, I have yet to be able to actually finish a goal.  Somehow I always end up behind on every deadline I set for myself.

I've always wondered why I could do nano so well, but my own goals seem to be pushed to the wayside and never seems to happen.

It could be because nano is a deadline that's been set out by another person.  Rather than just the arbitrary goals I come up with in my head.  I have something that tells me how far I am to my goal, something that reminds me how long I have to complete the goal.  It's something I can't change, because it's not a goal that I came up with.

So, I've come up with some more goals for myself, and I'm hoping that I won't flake out on them like I normally do.  I'm going to really try hard not to.

The Goals:

Finish editing to chapter 20 of Pandora by Friday August 17th.  This dead line has obviously already passed, and sadly I have no accomplished it yet.  I'm working on chapter 14 right now, so I'm actually not even close.  Which means that I'm going to have to push back all of my deadlines for Pandora.  I'm going to have a tentative goal of finishing the second draft by the end of September, and ready for submissions by the end of January.

Finish planning Aliens Stole My Socks by the end of August.  I'm actually on track for this one.  I've broken it down into steps, and set goals for those steps.  The next part I'm working on is a point by point outline for it.  After which will come character bibles (of which I have about six or seven) and then a full plot.  I think I can keep on track for this one.  I kind of need to, because I have two more books to plan out before the beginning of November, and I only have two more months to do it.

Which brings me to my next two goals, which I'm going to lump together.  Finish the planning for the last two novels I will be writing in November. I'm giving each novel (one about a world were air is a valuable commodity, and the other about a Phoenix.) a single month.


At this point I'm not sure if I'll be able to get it all done.  I hope I can, but I definitely can't guarantee it.  There's a lot of work to do.  Each of the novels I'm writing in November is a new project, which means that new worlds need to be explored.  I can't put them off too long.  I'd have to start planning each new novel on the first day of each month.

Plus, I really can't put off Pandora, because there's no reason to continue writing new projects if I never get my work out there.  I actually need to finish a book, all the way through to a final draft.  I can't just sit on it anymore.  I want people to read my work, which means that I need to send it out into the world.  I can't continue to constantly work on new projects.

So I'm going to commit myself to these goals.  I may not make them all, but I'm going to damn well try my best.  If I don't succeed, at least I'll know that I did everything I could.

Productivity. Who Knew?

Have you ever had one of those weeks where things just seem to get done, and you're never quite sure how you managed it?

That's my month so far.  I mean, I've written three short stories (all of which have made their way into my Shiny New Idea book for future series...) I've managed to make blog posts every single time that I needed to make one (even when they are late.)  I've gotten my critiques done early both weeks. (I'm already done the one that I need for Monday.  I'm never done this early!) and I've actually started editing Pandora.  I did chapter 5 for critique group, but have finished chapter 6, rewritten chapter 7 and have looked over chapter 8, which will probably be actually started tomorrow.  I've also managed to finish the planning of one of the novels I will be writing in November.

Normally I have a hard time getting motivated to do these kinds of things.  It isn't unusual to see me rushing to finish my critiques Sunday night when I realized that they weren't done yet.  Or for me to submit sub par chapters because I didn't spend nearly enough time on them.  I should probably apologize to my critique group for that, actually...

Anyway, the point of it is, I'm somehow motivated this month, though I really don't know why.  It could be because I was already planning on editing this month, but wasn't able to because my beta readers have unfortunately not gotten back to me yet.  Or it could be because I know that I'll be writing again next month, and I won't have time to get caught up on all of these things once I start doing that.

Honestly, I don't know, and I'm not sure I actually care.  I know, I know.  If I know what's keeping me motivated, I might actually figure out a way to keep myself motivated for the rest of the year.  I'm just afraid that if I figure it out, the magic might wear out.  (Don't laugh!  It's possible...) What then?  How do I go about figuring out yet another way to motivate myself?

Just to explain how weird it is, let me put this into perspective for you.  I bought two new books yesterday.  One by my favourite author Kelley Armstrong.  I've barely touched it.  I only read on the bus on the way to and from work.  Normally I would have had that book done by now.  Trust me.

Or, let's talk about the editing.  Normally it's a struggle to just get through a single chapter.  To force myself to sit down and read it over then put in the edits.  You all know this.  All you have to do is look at my very last blog post where I talked about the fact that I was back to editing.  When I finished rewriting chapter 7, all I could think about what what I  needed to do to fix chapter 8, and actually wanted to look through it right then and there.  I had to do a critique first, but I've also finished going through it.

Does that put it into perspective for you?  I don't know where it's coming from, but it makes me happy. I'm glad to be motivated.  To get all of this done and not have to worry about it so much.  I'm already freaking out too much over The Commons, so having other things to work on while waiting for the much anticipated beta reader feedback has been really helpful.

So, I've decided not to look this gift horse in the mouth.  I'm going to continue being productive for as long as I can.  I want to get as much done this month as I possibly can before heading into an extremely busy month in August.  (Last year I didn't complete the August session of camp nano, so I'm hoping to do much better this year.)

Do you ever have problems with motivation?  How do you get past it?

***I'm currently collecting donations for OLL (Office of Letters and Light) who hosts NaNoWriMo every year.  My goal is $500 and I've already hit 60% of that.  I need your help to complete my goal, however.  Help me raise money for the organization that single-handedly helped me to figure out jthat I'm a writer.***

Edit? Do I Have To?

As I'm sure many of you know, I have a very detailed process on how I do my planning.  I brainstorm, and make character bibles.  I compile cast lists and make floor plans for most of my settings.  I have entire plots set out before I even consider started chapter 1.  It's just the way I write.  A lot of people think of a new project and jump in, losing themselves in the story.  While I've tried this before, I prefer getting my revelations about the book before I start.  That doesn't mean that everything goes according to plan when I'm writing, but I think it definitely helps.  I don't generally have to go back and make huge corrections to anything.

This works for me.  I love this routine.  In fact, planning is probably my favourite part of the writing process.  I also enjoy the writing, of course, but I think I actually prefer the planning part to the writing part.

Editing, though, is another matter altogether.  I'm sure I've mentioned it enough here for everyone to know that I hate the entire thing.  I hate having to go back over work that I've already done to make sure that it's right.  I hate having to acknowledge how bad a scene I thoroughly enjoyed writing is.  I prefer to live in a fantasy world, thinking that my first drafts are fantastic.  That no one has ever written a first draft as good as mine.

Unfortunately for me, I don't really have a choice in this one.  As a writer who hopes to be published, editing is essential to my chosen career.  So I sit down and force myself to do the editing.  I've even tried to not complain about it so much, because I really do need to suck it up.

The problem, though, is that I don't have a routine for editing.  I print the book off, and I just read through it.  That's it.  There's nothing there that keeps me interested in what I'm doing.  I don't have a way to get myself through it, like my planning.  I didn't always like planning, but I do now that I have a way I like to do it.  Maybe that's what I need to do with editing.

I just don't know how to start that routine.  I need to figure out a way to start going through my work without hating what I wrote.  Or maybe without questioning every single decision I made.  Anything to make it so that I no longer feel like I'm just redoing work I've already done.  To stop myself from banging my head against a wall.

Right now I'm sure I'm missing things that I could be fixing on the first run through, because I go through it so quickly.  I don't want to stop and think about it, I just want to get it polished before I get completely frustrated or bored with the process.

So far I haven't come up with anything, unfortunately.  I am, however, planning a trip to the bookstore in coming days, and I may just find myself buying a book or two on how to edit.  And if anyone has any tips of their own they want to share, I would love to hear them.

Before the year is out I'm going to find a way to edit that doesn't make me hate the entire process.  I just hope it's sooner rather than later...

***I'm currently collecting donations for OLL (Office of Letters and Light).  The organization that first conceived of NaNoWriMo and runs it every year.  I've personally donated $300, but I'm hoping to make it to $500 and would love some help with my goal.  The link is on the left side bar.  I'm trying to come up with something for incentive, but have yet to think of a good reward.  I would love to hear from you on what you think I could do.***

A Planner's Worst Nightmare

As I told you all a couple of weeks ago, I decided that I was going to write a novel without creating a plot for it, just to see how it went.  I started that novel last week.  All I had when I started it was: A basic idea that finally spoke to me after hours of flipping through my idea book; the name of the main character; and A title for the book.

First of all, I have to say, I'm sure I've posted more blog posts than I can count about how much control my characters have over the story. (Once again, I would like to clarify that I don't, in any way, blame my characters for the product that comes out in the end, just what information they didn't give me.  I will always take responsibility for my novels, good or bad.)  When I'm pantsing, though, that control goes far beyond anything I'm comfortable with.

In the past I've had characters randomly show up, but now it's like an epidemic.  Characters are popping up all over the place in this novel.  It started with a pink haired vampire, who didn't even get named.  Moved on to a tiny black haired four year old who creeped the hell out of me.  Throw into the mix a 'trusted' friend that her mother pointed out to her that I just don't like, and we've got ourselves what feels a little like an uncontrollable crowd of characters.

None of these characters ever do what I say.  Just when I think I'm getting the hang of them, they go and do something that I would have never expected.  Including the creepy girl getting friends.  Her mother's jaw may have dropped when she hugged, but I swear my surprise was worse.  I nearly stopped typing and I was in the middle of a mongering session.

The worse part of it all is that I have no idea what's going to happen.  I'm literally taking it chapter by chapter.  I have these vague ideas of what could happen, but that certainly doesn't mean that I do everything I think of.  Hell, my character went to the park where I planned to have her attacked by...well...someone, and instead she sat down and had a discussion with her best friend's kid about making friends.  I mean, talk about not following a plot, these characters refuse to conform to any ideas I have in mind for them.

I was sure I knew the end of my story, and I really do.  Well, the basic idea of it, anyway, however I'm coming to think that the person who causes the end of the book isn't correct at all.  I was wrong on all counts.

Add to that the fact that I have a character who's supposed to be a major player in the novel barely making an appearance, and I feel like this novel is a mess.

I know what you're thinking.  That it's probably not as bad as I'm making it out to be, and to be truthful, it's probably not.  I'm just to certain things when I'm writing.  One of them is that I know my character.  They don't usually surprise me (too much) because I have a really good idea about who they are and how they would react to situations.

I also know exactly where my story ends and how my characters are going to get through it.  IN this novel I keep finding myself in situations that I didn't expect, and therefore couldn't have thought through before hand.

It's scary, and it feels wrong.  I love writing it, though.  Even with all the strange surprises, and the way the characters basically tell me how it is (and by tell me, I mean, I type the words then gape at them as I realize what my character just did.)

After all of that, though, I have to say, I don't regret this decision.  I keep looking at the book and thinking that it's not actually too bad, though why that shocks me so much is completely beyond me.  I still wonder where it's going and what the point of this novel is, but I think that's kind of fun.  Don't get me wrong, I don't want to give up on my planning.  I actually really enjoy the work I put into a novel before I start writing it, but this series (if this first book turns out to be good enough for me to even consider continuing it) will always be written without a plot.  I don't think I could force these characters into a plot now if I tried.

Now let's see if I can continue to write the novel and not get stuck at the 25k mark, as so many writers around me seem to do.  Wish me luck!

A Pantsing Experiment

Well, here it is, a week into camp nano, and rather than feeling like I wasn't going to get through it (as I did last year) I'm actually doing really well.  A  lot of this probably has something to do with a certain wordmongering friend that has been challenging me to keep my word counts up.  But another part of this is the fact that everyone is actually doing camp nano, rather than last year when it fell a little flat.

Of course, because I was basing my success this year on how I did last year (I won the July round of camp nano, but only int he last weekend when I sprinted across the finish line by writing 25k words...) it's come to my attention that I simply don't have enough story left to finish out the month.

Sure, I suppose I could stretch it out.  Write less words each day so that I don't type out that very last sentence until the last day of camp nano, but where's the fun in that?  To know I can do it and purposely slow down just so that I'm not bored for the rest of the month?  That really isn't me, something I learned my very first nano when I hit the 50k mark halfway through and decided that I couldn't stop the journey just because I'd run out of material.

Naturally, when I realized that I was about to run into the same situation (I project that this book will be completely written no later than Friday, and that's only if I take more days off like I did today) I started to worry about what I was going to do for the rest of the month.

Anyone that knows me will tell you that I think of Nano as a journey.  It's not just about getting the words on the page.  It's a self challenge.  The only person who's going to end up disappointed in the end if you don't finish, is yourself.  Of course, where you consider 'finished' is another story entirely.  Going out to the write ins and meeting other authors who are struggling with the same issues as you is another part of this journey.  As is all the ups and downs your characters give you.

To this day I have never heard a person say 'My nano novel went exactly the way I planned' because no matter how much time you put into plotting something is always going to come up in the middle of a word war that throws you for a loop and has you furiously trying to figure out where that little twist is going to fit into the rest of the story.

Even if my word count is done early, stopping when it's over, to me, is a little like ordering the wrong meal at a restaurant.  It's food, and it's good.  It will satisfy the hunger that brought you to that restaurant, but at the end of the meal, there's always something missing.  That little extra something that you know you would have gotten if you'd just ordered that other meal you had been contemplating.

Nano runs for a month, and I think the experience should be a month long.

So this month, I've decided to do a little experiment.  I'm going to try pantsing a novel.  That's right, you heard me (or read me?).  The queen of planning is going to grab a story by the horns and give it a whirl.  I even have the idea picked out (one that I've looked at before and dismissed as not catching my attention suddenly jumped off the page today and shouted out an idea that makes it so much more interesting than it was before).

Wish me luck!  As soon as I finish Pandora a new novel will be written, and I don't know what's going to happen.  As a good friend told me, it's time to jump off the cliff with my eyes closed.  No seeing where I'm going, no aiming for the soft bushes.  It's time I landed in the wild roses and got skewered by thousands of tiny thorns.

Off To Camp We Go

First I would like to apologize.  I didn't manage to get a single blog post up last week.  I'm supposed to do two a week and failed utterly.  I'm going to blame it on my lack of computer the week before and therefore the overwhelming need to get caught up on my planning goals.  I needed to have a plot done by end of day Thursday, and I just barely managed it (finishing it at 11:52)

Anyway, onto the real point of this post.  Camp Nano.

In November every year (since I started in 2010) I do something called NaNoWriMo.  For any of you that don't know, nano was started by a non-profit organization by the name of OLL (Office of Letters and Light).  Their main goal is to encourage amateur writers to get those books done.  The entire idea behind it (and I'm paraphrasing here) is: You can edit crap, you can't edit nothing.  Yes, I use that phrase all the time, no I didn't actually hear it from the website.

Basically it just means, you need to get that first draft written no matter what.  Don't make excuses, don't put it off, get it done.  Because until you have that rough draft in your hand, you're never going to become the writer you want to be.  It's basically the first step.

Nano has done great things for me.  In 2010 I started off thinking there was no way I was going to reach the goal (which, in case you were wondering, is 50k words in a month) and ended up with three times the amount I needed.  It was crazy.  I discovered so much about myself that month.  That I'm actually quite competitive (I spent the entire month staring at a chart swearing that I was going to surpass that first place person).  That there are, in fact, other people out there like me (before that point it had been a while since I had met anyone who truly understood me).  And, of course, the most important thing of all, that I am a writer.

Why am I telling you all of this?  Well, last year OLL came out with another program (NaNoWriMo isn't the only program they have.  Next year I'm going to try Script Frenzy with some friends as well.  I'm pretty excited.)

They called it Camp NaNoWriMo.  Basically it's just Nano, but in the summer.  You have the same goal as in November, 50k words in a month, but the format is slightly different.  First, all of the pep talks that arrive in your mailbox is camp themed, as is the site itself.  Second, rather than forums and grouping us into our districts, we're assigned cabin mates.  Five other people who are going through the exact same things as you, just trying to survive the month.

Last year, unfortunately, we weren't given a whole lot of notice.  It was about a week before July first that they said 'Hey, by the way, we'll be doing camp this year.'  and nanoers, as a collective, kind of gaped at them like they were trying to tell a joke that simply wasn't funny.

They weren't joking, however, and I was talked into the endeavour by a fellow nanoer.

July I managed to hit my goal (just barely.  I wrote about 25k of it in the last weekend.  It was crazy).  August, I didn't even come close, barely scratching 17k before giving up.  Even the novel I was working on ended up getting scrapped with a barely there plot (they pulled a Lord of the Rings and walked a lot) and characters whose motivations were murky (not to mention the twins who kept switching ages on me...)  With that short of notice, the MLs didn't even have time to consider setting up additional write ins.

It was a tough two months.  On one hand I was glad that OLL decided to set up nano in other months as well (really, once a year just isn't enough) on the other with how badly I did, I almost felt like I shouldn't have even bothered.

This year, of course, we had much more notice (not to mention the fact that the two sessions of Camp are a month apart, running June and August this year).  I wasn't originally planning on doing either session, but a friend of mine won't be able to join us in August, and I wanted to nano with her.  So I wrote up a plot (okay, I started the novel in April and didn't have time to finish it, so that's what I'm working on.)

The title of this book is Pandora.  It's about a female assassin who happens to be a werewolf.  I've never written a character like her before, and I'm finding her to be so much fun.  I love the things she says, and the replies she gets from the people in her life.

So far, at three days in, I'm sitting at 27337 words (54774 words for the novel, as I had already started it) and I'm not even close to regretting the decision to participate.  And doing this session certainly doesn't mean that I'm not going to do the other ones.  By the end of 2012 I fully intend to have one novel out to agents, and five novels written.

I only hope that I'll actually get to sleep in December.

Happy camping to all my fellow nanoers!  I hope your muse smiles on you fondly this month.  May your word counts soar, and your plot remain strong.  Good luck!

Beware The Writer

Being a writer has some perks, but in the long run, most people would look at being a writer as not such a great thing.  After all, we talk to voices in our heads.  We're often kept up at night because ideas are occurring to us. We often find ourselves procrastinating until the last possible moment, so plans are cancelled while we're frantically writing/editing/ripping our manuscripts to shreds.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying being a writer is a bad thing, in fact, I love it, but a lot of people just don't see the perks.

First of all, we can claim creative license.  What does that mean?  It means that, should we get upset or annoyed over a situation or with a person, there is always the possibility that the annoyance will be worked out with writing.  (This could include things like characters being created who look or act remarkably like the person whose annoying us and killed off.  Or situations that we were recently in being put in a book and the outcome being completely different.)  It's a great way to work off the stress or annoyance without taking it out on other people.  Personally, I think this is a great advantage to being a writer.  If I start to stress, I write about it.  That way it's not all building up inside.

Then there's the fact that we can get completely lost in these worlds that we've created.  Have a two hour trip to the hair dresser planned?  No problem!  Writers can spend that time thinking about a scene they've been having issues with.  Of course, I for one, tend to like to write down what I'm trying to think about, but if I need to I can work with just imagining it.  I've worked through more than one issue in my scenes during a time when I couldn't pull out anything to work on it.  Sometimes it even helps to get to sleep, cause you can tell yourself stories.  Don't even get me started on what you can make up for your kids once you have them.

The excuse 'I had an idea and had to write it down' can get you out of all sorts of conversations that you're not enjoying.  Now, I've yet to use this one myself, but I have actually had to go write down an idea before, so I'm sure that when it does happen, I'll be able to pull it off.  Getting bored during a conversation?  Act all excited and tell them an idea just occurred to you and disappear.  They might think you're a little strange, but they'll forgive you.  After all, you're a writer!  You're creating a novel!  It must have been a really important idea.

Have you ever been out and about and noticed signs hanging on businesses doors?  Have you ever noticed when the grammar/spelling/anything is wrong with it?  Writers do.  It's like our eye is immediately drawn to the mistake.  Now, this can be annoying for us, because it bugs us that they got it wrong and still put it up.  (Then again, some of us don't edit our blog posts...)  On the other hand, writers can feel superior when they read those signs because they would never make such an obvious mistake!  More than one good eye roll has occurred thanks to this little superpower.

Finally (and this is my favourite) is creativity.  Not to be confused with creative license.  Creativity is something we can use in everyday life.  On all sorts of things.  Decorating a room.  Setting a fancy table.  Coming up with solutions to problems.  All of these things take creativity and vision that writers have.  That they need in order to write their books.  Of course, this can also be used when plotting the murders of the people that annoy you when writing about it doesn't work.  It's the writers who come up with the truly creative deaths.

Remember all of these things the next time you're talking to a writer.  If they suddenly disappear, it could be that your conversation isn't quite what you thought it was.  If they seem distracted, they could be thinking about their latest project.  And, if they're starting to get annoyed, they could be thinking about putting you in a scene (or, just planning your death).  You never quite know what's going on in the mind of the writer.

What We Need

I recently started thinking about all the little things I (and so many other writers) do in order to get through our projects.  (For the record I am, in fact, writing a blog post to avoid rewriting a chapter.  I know.  Shocker)  So, I thought I would share with you everything that I do.

Let's start right from the beginning.  My planning.  Just like everything else, I find I'm not able to do this just sitting in silence.  I've come to the conclusion that I just like to be surrounded by things that other people have created.  Shows that actors have acted in.  Songs sung by singers.  Anything that proves I'm not the only on in the world trying to be creative.  Or maybe just trying to get some of their creativity to seep into me.

For the brainstorming portion of my planning, I tend to throw on some show.  Whatever I'm trying to catch up on.  This may sound distracting to you.  I assure you, it is.  However, I am also taking in all the twists and turns that writers who have made it are throwing into the shows.  It give me ideas.  Sometimes it tells me exactly what I don't want to do, but that's usually better than what I had.  Occasionally this means that I get to watch that show twice because I got so caught up in my planning I literally lost track of what was going on in the show.  More often than not, though, I do tend to find myself dismayed by how little I got done.  Still, it works for me (usually) and I do come out with a much better story than I started with.

Actually plotting is completely different from brainstorming.  At this point I have to completely immerse myself in the story line.  Which means that watching other shows only distracts me from the plot I need to put together.  I get the two confused, or just completely ignore my own plot because, let's face it, I suffer from a severe case of theywritesomuchbetterthanido-itis.  This also means that I turn to another form of creativity.  Songs.  I have a playlist on my itunes.  (It's actually a work in progress.  I currently have 264 songs in the playlist, but that number is constantly changing.  Either I buy something new, or I delete something that just isn't working when I'm writing.)  While I'm plotting I usually throw on some music in the background and get that plot done.

Writing is a lot like plotting for me.  I need to fall into the story.  Be so surrounded by it that I'm never quite sure if this world is real, or if the story I'm writing is.  Of course, writing requires more of my attention because I have to actually pay attention to things like spelling and grammar (though I quite often fail on those even when I am paying attention).  When I'm writing I turn the music up a bit louder and throw the headphones in.  That way I'm not distracted by anything around me.  I barely hear people knocking on my door.  It keeps me focused, and helps me to make it through the writing.

Editing, my least favourite part of the writing game, is different than all the rest.  I have what I like to affectionately call my 'editing movie'.  Currently it's Star Trek.  I know that some people think that I'm productive while it's on because some consider it to be not a good movie, but the truth is actually the opposite.  I actually love the movie.  I've seen it so many times I can practically quote the entire thing (and I may have even done so on occasion before.  Don't judge me.)  That's how I can put it on and pretty much tune it out.  I can read the story or make the changes, because I'm not afraid of missing part of the story line.  I know it well enough that I can glance up for a second and know exactly what's happening.  Having a movie playing in the background seems to engage my mind just enough that I can get over the annoyed feeling of having to just sit and do one thing at a time.  I'm hoping that I'll get some more editing movies in the future, but right now I don't have enough time to watch a movie enough to get to that point.

I would say that most writers have their little routines.  Maybe not quite as strange as mine, but I know for a fact that I'm not the only one that listens to music as I write.  Some, of course, can't fathom listening to music.  I've had more than one person ask me if it distracts me.  Honestly, I don't really hear the music I'm listening to when I'm writing.  I use it to drown out the other distractions.  But every writer is different.

My plotting process

Today I thought I would share with you my process to writing a book.  This came about thanks to my last blog post, when I talked about how I'm an extensive planner.  It also came about because the only other thing I want to remotely talk about is basically me complaining, and I figure you all have heard enough of that.  So, planning it is.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, I'm sure.  I actually spend longer planning a novel than I do on the writing.    During nano especially.  I will plan a novel for an entire month, then write it in ten days.

My planning process is when I get to know my characters.  When I figure out the story.  When I discover all of those things that some authors don't discover until they're well into their novel.

First I start with some brainstorming.  This may seem like an obvious step to you, but it's really not.  In fact, when I was in high school I can actually remember losing marks because I refused to do any of the brainstorming.  I thought it was dumb.  My ideas just came to me as a wrote, and there was nothing wrong with that.  Now I love brainstorming.  I find out so much stuff just by writing down whatever I might be currently thinking about in regards to that novel.  Thoughts occur to me just as I'm writing random things down.  I brainstorm a good 40% of the month that I tend to spend on planning.  That's because brainstorming is a great time to get to know the characters a little better, find out some back story.  It's also a great time to rough out a quick sketch of what the plot might actually look like.  For anyone who hasn't planned before but wants to start, if you do nothing else, brainstorm.  It will get you so much further than you thought possible.

Also during the brainstorming process is when I do any research that needs to be done.  On the novel I'm currently working on, that took me to all sorts of places.  Curling and how to play it (which came about largely to me being distracted by a curling game, even though I've never cared about it before.  Then a tiny voice in the back of my head piped in that she loved it...thanks Jayne...) Also I did some research on werewolf lore.  Not that I really stuck to any of it.  When it comes to supernatural elements, I tend to take some creative liberties.  I picked the things I liked from everything I read and stuck it in.  I may have also done research on other kinds of supernatural beings, even though none of that comes into play in the first book.

Sometime near the end of the brainstorming (usually when I've come to a point where I'm starting to feel like I need to name some of these characters that are starting to pile up, or even just keep track of them a little bit) I start a cast list.  This doesn't necessarily mean these are my 'main characters'.  In fact, I generally have far more background characters than anything else.  On my current cast list, in fact, more than half are characters that are: 1) Already dead, but I needed to know their names.  2) Don't appear until book 2 or 3. 3) Were in somebody's past and may eventually resurface, but for now all that matters is the role they played before.  I pretty much write down every character who has the potential of even being mentioned in the book.  I find it easier to keep track of them that way.

Next come the character bibles.  Although I do love the character bibles because of the insight they bring me into the character, sometimes I find it hard to get through this step.  I find reasons to not do some, and I end up doing far less than I probably should.  Character bibles, though, are very helpful in things like giving my characters an appearance, and keeping it consistent throughout the entire novel.  Also it helps to clearly plan out the motivations of my characters, so that when I get to creating an actual plot, they're not acting completely different than they should be.  I usually print these off and keep them in a folder with any maps or floor plans I've created (with help from the amazingly talented Eric Satchwill).  I generally end up referring back to this folder many times in the writing process, so once I actually get through them, I never regret it.

Finally come the time for me to write my plot.  I use the writing software Scrivener, and I adore it.  Using that program I'm able to set up a different folder for each chapter, and even add multiple scenes to each folder.  (When I'm done writing I can then compile the project, and it all shows up within one document...it's pretty fantastic).  While Scrivener can also help you with all of you planning, including the brainstorming, I've only ever used it for the plot portion.  Still, I love that I can go into the each chapter and write what each scene is about.  I never write huge amounts because, let's face it, the story is probably going to change somewhat before I get there.  But I do write something in every single scene before I start the novel itself.

Well, there you have it.  After all of that a month has generally gone by, and I'm getting ready to actually write the novel.  I have a good idea of what's going on, and I'm not worried that I'm going to get halfway through and have to make some story changing decision that isn't going to go over well.  (I may also be massively indecisive...)

Now, I'm not saying that everyone should plan the exact same way as me.  Everyone plans differently, I totally get that.  I'm not even saying that everyone should plan their novel.  I totally get that everyone approaches their books differently.  This is just what I need to do in order to feel comfortable and familiar enough with the story and characters in order to write the novel.  Like I said before, if you take anything from this, I'm hoping it's the brainstorming section.  I sincerely believe that brainstorming can improve your story more than you would think possible.

Hello Procrastination...We Meet Again

I love planning new novels.  I think I might like the planning stages more than anything else.  I love figuring out the characters and their history.  How those histories will make them interact together.  Where the story is going.  Why things are going to happen the way they do.  And even how the hell I'm going to make the things that need to happen work when all of a sudden I realize that my character actually might not do that very important plot point.

Figuring out those characters and plots is something that I love to do.  I talk excitedly about it to anyone who will listen, even though half of them aren't writers, and therefore couldn't care less about what I'm saying.  In fact, I've had more than one person give me that look. The look that tells me they think I might actually be a little crazy.  (Other writers will know this look.  It seems to be a hazard of the job.)

Some parts of it, though, can be a little hard to get through.  For example, the character bibles.

Now these aren't something that every writer out there does.  In fact, most of the writers I know don't do them.  I find them really helpful when I'm writing, because I can glance at them quickly if I forget an important fact about one of my characters (like their hair or eye colour)

Honestly, I don't use much of the rest of the bible during the writing process, but I find the rest of it really helpful before I start writing.  The bibles help me to truly get a grasp of each of my characters.  I figure out their motivations.  Their goals.  Their quirks.  And, most importantly (at least to me) their history.

The only problem is that I figure out their story, and then I don't want to actually put it into words on the page.  (Yeah, I know, I'm a writer.  That's exactly what I want to do with my life.)  I think it's just that these are scenes and information about the character that I don't get to actually write.  They all happen before my story took place.  So while I have all these ideas about their history, and love the insights these histories give me into my characters, I find myself a little disconnected with them.  I didn't take part in any of the decisions they made.  It's frustrating.

So, instead of continuing with the bible and forcing myself to get through those histories that I love but don't want to write, I do other things to keep myself busy.  Things like watching television shows that I 'need' to get caught up on.  Or writing a blog post (even though I am, technically, supposed to post one today.  I told myself I would at least finish the bible I'm working on.  I didn't...)

Procrastination is an old friend of mine.  I perfected it in school, and we haven't grown apart at all since I graduated.  In fact, since deciding that I want to become a writer, we've become even closer than we've ever been.  We're like those annoying best friends you see on the street, giggling and laughing like the world is a joke.  The ones who buy the necklaces that break apart just so they can show the world how close they are.  How there's nothing in the world that can come between them.  Because their friendship is just that strong.

I think I proved my point.

Shiny New Ideas Take 2

Lately I've been getting a lot of Shiny New Ideas coming through.  Thankfully I've got a book specifically devoted to that very thing, but that's not the point. The point is, I don't have time to be working on shiny new ideas.

I'm currently in the middle of planning (soon to be writing) one book, editing another book, and even have a few collaborations in the mix.  Shiny new ideas aren't going to be worked on until, at the very earliest, during the June session of camp nano (something that I wasn't actually planning on doing, but may end up participating in.  Still thinking about it.  I'll need to get a little bit closer to the date before I really know if I can or not.)

So why are they coming to me now?  Why not when I'm in the middle of my editing and welcome the distraction?  (Yeah, yeah, I know.  I shouldn't be welcoming a distraction when I'm editing.  I'm working on it, I swear.  I just...don't like editing...)

An answer was suggested to me yesterday: The reason Shiny New Ideas present themselves when I'm planning or writing is because I'm being creative.  Those gears are already turning while I'm trying to figure out the novel or write the scene, so those new ideas occur to me because I'm open to them already.

Unfortunately this means that, even for that quick second, I'm distracted by this new idea instead of concentrating on the book I need to pay attention to.  Distraction tends to mean that I'm pulled out of the world, and I can sometimes have a hard time getting back into it.  Focusing on the characters that I need to focus on, rather than the tantalizing story that the new voices bring with it.  (Yes, I'm aware how crazy that makes me sound.  You don't need to tell me.  I've come to accept my craziness as a part of who I am.)

If only there was some way to ignore these thoughts while I'm brainstorming, but still be able to remember them when I'm not and have time to get them down.  I wish it worked like that, unfortunately muses and characters seem to work on the same idea: When we start talking, you had better jump, or we're going to shut up for a good long time and leave you annoyed and frustrated.

For now, though, I suppose I'll just have to grin and bear it.  After all, I've been museless before and it just isn't any fun. (is there such a thing as an editing muse?  If so, can someone tell mine that she's/he's been seriously slacking?  They've used all of their vacation time, and they need to get back so I can actually get past the first draft of a book!  Thanks.)  For years I thought that I didn't have a muse at all, so now that she's talking to me, I find myself unwilling to risk angering her enough that she goes on vacation again.

I suppose I should stop ranting now, though.  After all, Shiny New Ideas, even untimely ones, are better than having no ideas at all, which I know that some writers have a problem with.  I just have to learn how to keep my attention focused on one thing for long enough to actually finish it.  At this point I keep starting series, then scrapping it before I even get to the second book, which means that so far my characters haven't gotten an ending.  I'm hoping The Commons is the one that's going to keep my attention for longer.  Finger's crossed!

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?

The Learning Curl

Did you know that Canada won the first ever World Curling Championship?  According to wikipedia this competition was held in Falkirk and Edinburgh in 1959.  In curling there's a team member called the 'Skip'.  Essentially the skip is the leader of the team.  They're the ones that plan out the strategies and tell the team how they need to play that round.  They wear two different shoes while they play.  One that has a grip, that they generally use to push off from the 'hack' when delivering a stone.  The other has no grip, which they use to slide on the ice during the delivery, or to slide down the ice while sweeping.

Why am I telling you all of this?  Well, I thought I would share all the knowledge I'm acquiring for my current novel.

You see, I happened to see a curling game last Saturday.  Not in person, or anything, it was just on tv.  The thing is, though, I've never been remotely interesting in curling.  I've heard it mentioned before, and I had the vaguest idea what they did during the game, but it wasn't something I cared about.  Or ever even had an interest in watching.  So why was I so very captivated by this game?

I let it slide, though, thinking that it was just a one time thing.  I cared only because it was on, and once it was out of sight it was out of mind.  Which was generally true.

Except that I kept seeing games everywhere I went.  This probably had a lot to do with the tournament of hearts being in full swing, but every time I saw it, I wanted to stop and watch.  It hit me when I was sitting in Denny's trying to pay to the conversation, and was instead being distracted by the curling game that was being shown on the tv: it was my character that was making me care about it.

My character (a female werewolf assassin, in case you were wondering) is, apparently, a curler.  She's one of those people I was watching going out on the ice and throwing stones.  Not professionally, of course.  But she definitely does this on her off time.

For me, that meant one thing: research.  I'll admit, I'm not a huge fan or research.  In fact, if I could avoid it altogether, I will, and I have in the past.  I write fantasy novels for the simple reason that the entire world comes from my head.  In other words, no research needed!

Now I'm stuck finding out more about a sport that I never cared about before (though after this is done, I might care just a little bit more) all so I can accurately depict a hobby that my character enjoys.

In the meantime, though, I thought that you all might enjoy it if I shared what I had learned so far about the not so well known sport.  Like the fact that the team with the last throw has what's called the 'hammer'.  It's an advantage in the game, making it easier for that team to score points.  If the other team manages to get points instead, that's called a steal.

Oh, the things we do for our characters.  I suppose I should consider myself lucky for not having researched anything that will have some unknown section of the government thinking I'm a terrorist or the like...yet...

What have you learned about for the sake of your characters?

Ick

I had a blog post all planned out for today.  I was actually looking forward to writing it, but something happened that completely changed what I wanted to talk about.

Most of you probably don't know this, but I don't get sick very often, and even when I do I actually find it hard to make myself call in sick to work.  It's dumb, but I feel bad when I don't go into work, because all I can think about are the people at work being busy and I'm just laying in bed.  It's horrible.  Anyway, the point of the matter is, I'm sick.

Let me tell you about me trying to plan a novel while I'm sick.

I talk to my characters in order to figure out what's going on in the books I"m writing.  Yes, I know, this makes me sound crazy.  Nevertheless, this is the way I do things.  Normally 'talking' to them consists of them showing me scenes or pictures that I interpret.  Very rarely they actually speak.  When I'm sick, though, that connection is a little like trying to watch television back in the rabbit ears days.  If that's not bad enough, it's also when it was snowing outside, so the reception is terrible.  The sound is gone, and even the pictures are fuzzy.

It's frustrating to say the least, and I'm pretty sure that even my characters are starting to feel it at this point.  My poor Jayne Pheare is in complete distress, because I've been promising her that I would be seriously planning her story starting this week, but nothing that she's trying to tell me is actually getting through.  (Though I did finally figure out her assassin name last night, thanks to Eric.)

Needless to say, it makes planning a novel rather impossible.  I can sit with that notebook open in front of me for hours, and have Jayne yelling at the top of her lungs in the back of my head, and I still can't figure anything out.

This, of course, leaves me with a bit of a problem.  As I said in my last post, my goal for having the first draft of Pandora written is the end of March.  That means it needs to be ready to deliver into the hands of my critique group (at least the first chapter) by the second day of April.

How am I supposed to do that when I can't even plan right now?  Planning takes much longer for me than the actual writing does, so right about now I'm actually beginning to freak out.  Being sick was not in the plan!  In fact, now is pretty much the worst time for me to be sick.  I need this stupid cold to go away so that I can get back to the important things.  Like writing down everything my character's trying to tell me about her story.

I suppose the best I can do it try and get better as fast as I possibly can so that I can have as much time as possible to get the planning done.  I just hope that this one ill timed sickness doesn't completely set me back, because I plan to have The Commons in the hands of beta readers by the end of April, and querying it no later than the beginning of June.

Good luck to me.

Time To Prioritize

I have never been someone that can have just one project going at a time.  I get bored with it and start wondering off to do other things, such as reading or catching up on tv shows. (The fact that I do these things even when I have multiple projects on the go is completely besides the point...)

Anyway, I currently have about 6 projects on the go, each at a different stage of the writing/editing process.  I have my Dangerous Waters, a fantasy novel that I wrote last year and didn't look at for a few months until we started critique group.  I've also written the second novel, Changing Tides but as I haven't finished the edits on the first one, you can bet that I haven't even so much as glanced at the second one.  Considering how many chapters I'm having to rewrite, or just add altogether, I'm actually a little afraid to find out how bad the second one is.

I have The Commons, a YA dystopian that is set in a world where more than three quarters of the population was wiped out in the fourth world war.  The remaining people have separated into two societies.  The Commons and The Techs.  This novel is the one that I finished and thought 'I'm going to get this published.'  I have absolute confidence in it and can't wait to test the waters and see what agents and publishers think of it.  I currently have it going through critique group.

Wolf's Blood is an urban fantasy that I started writing with a friend some time last year.  Unfortunately, we're both quite busy, so we've only managed to write a whole 5 chapters, but as we're still talking to each other I'm counting it as a success.

Since November I've had this idea for a book bouncing around in my head.  It's about a werewolf assassin, and her name is Jayne Pheare (That's her real name, don't know her assassin name yet.)  The book itself is, unfortunately, untitled.  I have lots of work to do on it, as I'm still in the planning stages for this novel (including working out a brand new city for it with the help of my dear friend Eric) I'm very excited for this novel, but I just haven't had time to sit down and really connect with Jayne.  (I have to say, she's being very patient.  She only got annoyed that one time when I pulled out a brand new character and started paying attention to her...)

I also have two more collaborations in the works, but both are untitled and in the planning stages with only the bare bones placed, and not even nailed down yet.

This past week, though, I've had some time to think about these projects, and the priority I've been giving each.  (This 'time' has been while at work, or travelling back and forth between different social engagements...not actual time that I had to sit down and plan or edit.  Trust me, that's what I would have been doing if it was.)

Much as I love Dangerous Waters, lately I've been finding it harder and harder to concentrate on it.  In fact, on more than one occasion, I've actually considered shelving it indefinitely.  That there was just too much work that needed to be done on it to conceivably finish the series, and it's time to move onto greener pastures.  I don't actually want to do that, though.  I love the series, and I do think that it has some serious potential.  But I've been so frustrated with it, I can no longer see the potential, all I see is a pile of crap that needs be thrown out.

In order to keep myself from doing that very thing, I decided that it's time to re-prioritize my writing projects.  Instead of throwing two full manuscripts in the trash and walking away, I've decided that they should be shelved only for a little while.  This will (hopefully) give me enough of a break from the project to clear my head and allow me to see what needs to be done without wanting to bang my head on a desk.  Repeatedly.

Unfortunately, this leaves me with nothing to be working on so I can send out some queries, come May.  In order to fill that, I've decided to pull The Commons from the critique group.  This book is one that I'm actually quite excited about.  I can see it on the shelves for sale, and I want it to get it out there.  I'm hopeful that this is the right move, and I can't wait to finish editing the rest of the novel so I can start working on those queries.

That, of course, leaves me with an opening on what I'm sending into critique group.  So I've decided that for the next month or so I'm going to have a strong focus on my Jayne Pheare book.  (I can get a first draft written in about 10 days, but I have to have it completely plotted out, which takes quite a bit of work.)

As for my collaborations, those will stay the same.  I can't just sit down and work on them all day, so I will do what I can when I can, as I have been doing thus far.  I just hope that my next chapter for Wolf's Blood doesn't take me 4 months again...

Now I just need to get my critiques done so I can get on top of this planning.  The goal is to have Jayne Pheare written in full by the end of march so I can get started on some serious edits for The Commons.  Let's hope this works, because this is the Epic Year of Querying, and I need to start getting some work out to agents and publishers!

The Life of the Planner

Hello, and welcome to this weeks edition of When Your Characters Hate You or Why Don't You Ever Do What I Want You To?

In today's show we're going to discuss characters that like to veer of the well trodden path. The one that you mapped out for them with a highlighter, explained the dangers of the other paths, even put some obstacles on them so they didn't even want to go that way. The path you paved in gold and lined in signs telling your characters this is the way you should go. I've planned it. If you go this way, we wont have a problem. And they still go the wrong way.

If you're anything like me, you have a multitude of issues with your characters ranging from (but not limited to) them letting you think they're doing one thing in a novel, and doing something entirely different, minor characters forcing their way into a major plot line, characters eloping with each other, and love interests dying before they have a chance to become love interests.

The worst part about any of this is the nice lovely plan you had all ready to go. The plot that you spent longer working out than you'll spend writing the novel itself (or is that just me??). The one that you're sure your characters will actually stick to this time, only to have them completely veer off track, leaving you scrambling to try and fix the plot so that you're not fitting scenes in that don't make sense.

In the end, of course, you're left with a bit of a mess. Half of your novel sticks to your plot, the other goes in whatever direction your characters decided they wanted to take. You have to edit all the things that no longer make sense, even though when you were working on the plot you were snickering about how clever you were to put that in. And you have to figure out what your characters will be pissed at you for taking out and make sure to leave it in (unless your goal is to actually anger your characters, cause then you should definitely take them out...though I don't actually recommend this plan of action.)

If you've ever had any of these problems, rest assured. Things will turn out for the best. Because, once you get that mess of a novel in your hand and read it through (after taking a couple of weeks off so that you aren't tempted to just chuck it all, or kill off all of your characters) you'll realize that all of those things that pulled the characters off of the golden path actually makes the novel that much better.

Because, no matter how much you plan, you still have to do what's best for your characters. You have to take into account what they want. Not that you didn't when you were plotting, it's just that the characters evolve as you write them, and suddenly what they wanted before isn't anywhere near what would make them happy after a few chapters.

Don't be alarmed when your characters start to take on a life of their own. It just means that your doing your job as a writer. Those characters that take over are the ones that are going to feel real on the page. They're going to be who your audience falls in love with, and they're going to be the ones that you'll mourn when you have to kill them off, or finish the novel/series.

That concludes our program for the evening. Stay tuned next week when we discuss worlds and how they suddenly became much more complex then you originally intended.

Time to Play a Little Catch Up

So today I got to play a little catch up. Before any of you say anything, yes I am aware that I hit the 50k last week, but I can promise you that I still have a long way to go to hit my goal. And, I realize that I put myself in this position, but I'm just saying, the higher your goal, the easier it is to fall behind. And the harder it is to catch up.

Today I ended up writing 15k (something I hadn't wanted to do, since when I did that the first day, my wrists were killing afterward) and, yes I did get caught up. But I also had to spend the entire writing. As much as I love writing, I also happen to enjoy my days off, so I had been hoping to be caught up before today.

So, now I'm caught up to my goal, and tomorrow I get to go back to work.

Now, I'm not saying that I don't like my job. I do. It's probably one of the best jobs I've ever held. It has it's downfalls, for one it's customer service, and we all know that not all customers are actually all that smart. But for the most part, I enjoy going to work. I love the people I work with, and it's definitely a step up from my last job.

The problem is, now that I've caught up, I'm looking at tomorrow and wondering, am I going to get everything done tomorrow? Or is it going to be another day where I end up just a few words shy of my goal. A few words that I can't quite make up the next day and end up getting further away from my goal. And on my next day off is it going to be another day of trying to get my word count back up to were it's supposed to be?

And then all those other things I want to do, like maybe keep up with at least a couple of shows during November, or finishing the plot for my third novel, which I may in fact need before the month is up, or maybe, just maybe, getting to sit down and read a book that someone else wrote. Am I going to be able to do any of that? Because if I fall behind again, it's doubtful.

So right about now, even after the successful day I had, all I can think about is whether or not I really should have decided to up my goal to 10k a day (effectively 300k) rather than the 200 I had originally settle on. Is this going to be worth it in the end, or am I just going to have crap sitting in front of me and two wrists that refuse to stop hurting?

This is, I suppose, my version of the second week slump. Many people start to taper off right around now. The high of starting the month begins to wear off, and life begins to intrude, and they start to wonder what exactly did they sign up for.

What did I sign up for? And why was I so crazy as to think I could do it?

With a renewed hope to hit my goal, and two tired wrists, I've decided that I'm going to do it if it kills me. Because when I'm done writing this month, and I get my novels printed out, I know that I'm going to look at them and think that this was something I will never regret. Three finished novels. In one month. Not many people can claim that. That makes it worth it. Right?

Character Love is Such a Fickle Thing...

I'm just over the halfway mark in my novel, and I'm starting to come to the conclusion that I was completely wrong when I was doing my planning. I was under the mistaken belief that I would know who I liked and who I didn't when I was writing this thing.

Boy was I wrong. First and foremost, on of my characters, who I knew I would like, somewhat, but would also think was a jackass, is completely opening up to one of my other characters, and I love him so much! In fact, I think that his fiancee, who I originally thought I'd like and maybe even feel sorry for, even if she is a bit stupid, is a complete idiot. I find her annoying, and more than once I've had the urge to give her a nice smack across the face (even if I have to get one of my other characters to do it for me.

And if that's not bad enough, my main story line is making me cringe, and I'm finding myself leaning more toward the subplot. Why? Please, someone tell me why!

I've come to a very important conclusion this nano. I've decided that the reason this is happening (and I've suspected this for a long time to come) is that no matter what I do to get to know my characters before I put that figurative pen to paper, it's absolutely impossible to get to know your characters until you've actually put them in situations and written about them.

Take, for example, the prince that's sole purpose in my novel is to illicit jealousy from another character. He was supposed to be loveable so that a character fell for him to invoke said jealousy. Instead he comes off more like a playboy, or a used car salesman.. And, I was worried because I thought that she would so not fall for that kind of person. I was wrong. I would have never guessed that from the way they came across in my character bibiles, but there you have it.

Remember, nano is all about getting the words on the page, and not worrying about making it perfect. But don't underestimate your characters. No matter how much thought you put into them, they never quite listen to what you tell them, and you always end up with more than enough surprises.

I Can't Read My Character's Minds

So.  Here we are.  9 days before the beginning of NaNoWriMo, and I'm steadily working on the plot for the final novel I'm planning out.  And this is where I hit a snag in my plans.  See, I figure I might just have enough time to finish all my plots, do some edits on a previous novel and the last critique I need to do before we break for the already busy November.  Apparently my characters had other ideas.

I was at the end of the brainstorming phase and just about to launch into character bibles (which is, let's face it, my least favorite part of plotting) when one of my characters finally decided to speak up.  You see, I thought I knew what her part in the novel was.  Where she was going, who she was going to be with.  Simple and easy.

Really, I blame myself.  I should have known that something was up.  My characters are never simple and easy.

Not only is she no longer doing anything that I originally thought she was doing, now she's also going to be with new characters.  Characters I hadn't planned on introducing in this novel (if ever).  Characters that are part of a new race that, while they're in this novel, I hadn't thought I needed to really dive into until later in the series when they become much more a part of the plot.

So now, instead of being nearly done (which I really was happy about.  I mean, 9 days!) I've got to figure out an entire race of people, including what they look like and their history, and will most likely be adding 2-5 more character bibles to the list I already have.  A list that I already thought was pretty long.

And that character?  The one that so kindly dumped all of this work into my lap at the last minute?  She's blinking at me innocently as if I should have known what she was planning this entire time.  As if I could read her mind.

As the person who created this particular character, I suppose I shouldn't be all that surprised that she thinks this.  After all, if I created her, why don't I know every step she's taking?  While I will, eventually, be writing out every word she says and every move she makes, her thoughts aren't necessarily open to me.

Characters, you see, take on a life of their own.  Each one of them thinks that they could write your book better than you.  And they're more than willing to go behind your back and do whatever they want.  It doesn't matter to them that they just messed up your entire plot, or that they weren't supposed to do that until book 5.  They simply don't care.

I'm not going to let this get to me, however.  I know what I have to do to get to the bottom of this before Nano begins.  (Aside from giving up on the idea of getting sleep...) I'm going to teach them that I'm the one in charge!  That I'm the writer and I  made them, and I can kill them off if I want to.  Then, when their laughter subsides, I'm going to give into what they want and do the extra work they want because, as any writer will tell you, the characters are the ones running the show.

I think I need to learn how to read their minds...

23 Days and Counting

I feel like the year has sped past us, leaving nothing  more than a blur to prove it happened.  Now here we are in October, November looming over us tauntingly as we admit that we aren't anywhere near being ready for the epic race that is nanowrimo.

For those who don't know, nanowrimo is National Novel Writing Month.  One month devoted to the development of writers.  The goal is to write 50k in the month of November.  Which means that October is the month of figuring out what the hell you're going to write and maybe even getting down a plot.  For pantsers, October is for casually wondering what they're going to write before flipping a coin.

Last year was my first experience with nano.  I remember October being a month of nerves where I constantly changed my mind on whether or not I was actually going to attempt what I, at the time, thought was the impossible.  It wasn't until the middle of the month when I finally firmly made up my mind and started telling people (so I couldn't back out of it at the last minute).  I wrote a plot for the 50k novel I wasn't at all certain I would actually finish, and on November 1st, I dived in.

Here's the thing about nano.  It's a fantastic experience, no matter how you choose to get through the month of insanity.  Even going it alone will have you learning something about yourself I'm sure you didn't know before.  But if you decide to join with the community, go out to the write ins and start doing word wars, you can do more than you ever thought you could.

Last November I was given an affectionate nickname that has survived to this day.  (I'll give you a hint...it's the name of this blog)  That's right.  Epic Robot.  And I gained it because last year, when I was absolutely certain that I wouldn't even finish my original 50k, I ended the month with over 150k words written.

I learned something about myself last November.  More than one thing, in fact.  I learned, first, that I'm way more competitive than I thought.  I also learned that the nano community (especially the one here in Calgary, lead by the amazing Xanateria and Naiya Azurewater) is one of the most supportive and encouraging communities out there.  And, last, I learned that I'm a writer.

You see, before last November, I had written, but never much.  And I was under the rather mistaken impression that I couldn't finish a novel to save my life.  That writing wasn't a viable option for what I wanted to do with my life.  That I had to get over that fantasy.  But November and nano helped me to realize just how wrong I was about that.

Since last November I have written 2 novels (as well as started one that got scrapped half way through.  Just because I know I can finish novels now, doesn't mean that all of my ideas should be made into novels.) and I've just recently joined a critique group.  2012 will be the epic year of queries and trying to find an agent, and I firmly believe that one day I will be published.

Maybe you're sitting at home right now thinking that nano isn't something you could possibly do.  You can't write 50 thousand words in a month!  And what are you going to write anyway?  No.  Nanowrimo is just not for you.  Take it from me.  It is.  Whether you cross the finish line, or not you'll learn something.  About yourself, about your writing and about the people around you.  And I can almost guarantee you that it's not an experience that you'll forget about in a couple of years.

All I can say is I've been there.  Scared and sure I'd never finish.  But don't let your fear keep you from doing something that could literally change your life.  Take the leap.  You never know where you might land.