Hello Aliens. Please, Steal My Socks. (Day 8)

Last night I started on the next novel I had planned out for this November (I didn't get very far, but that's another blog post). Because today is the first day I get to concentrate solely on this novel, I thought I would tell you guys all about it, and where the idea came from.

In 2010 I took part in my first every NaNoWriMo, and it was a success! With 150k words under my belt, I was feeling on top of the world when I walked in to the TGIO party. I had my three novels tucked away in my bag, and I sat down with some new friends I had just made that month.

Giddy with success, and excited about what was to come afterwards, we started talking about the next NaNo.

We came up with all sorts of ideas for books, but the one that stuck with me (The one that I claimed I was going to write the next year) was an idea about a book that explained how one socks inevitably goes missing in the dryer. I said that, obviously, aliens ate the socks, and that needed to be a book.

Obviously I didn't write that book in 2011. First of all, I had forgotten about it, second, I just didn't find it plausible to actually become a book.

This year, though, when I sat down to pick out the ideas I was going to use for NaNo, that idea stuck out to me. I stared at it for a while, wondering what I could possibly do with a story like that, rejected the very thought that it could be turned in to a novel, and then finally gave in and sat down to start planning.

What I ended up with was no where near to the idea I had originally started with (which does tend to happen with most of my story ideas, honestly.)

My main character is a ten year old by the name of Tommy Thompson (yes, it did take me a while to think of the name, and yes I did pick it because of how memorable it is). In the very first chapter his world is changed forever when he finds an alien stealing a sock out of the dryer.

The alien tries to kidnap him, but when Tommy evades him, he goes after Tommy's half-sister instead. He trieds to tell his mom, but she doesnt believe him. When his friend Felicia says they need to go after Emily themselves.

The story follows them as they go on an adventure up to the mother ship, find countless other kids the aliens have stolen to bring to their home planet and serve them and begin searching for the little sister Tommy never thought he wanted.

As you may have noticed, it's a Middle Grade novel. I've never written anything like it before, and I am a little worried about having such a young main character. I think I've already made some mistakes with word choice, but that's editable. Plus, I started the story in third, but I really do think I need to change it to first.

Other than that, though, I'm excited to see what comes of this idea that I jokingly called a novel two years ago. Who knows, this could be the novel that puts me on the map as an author!

Do you have any story ideas that you're not sure would work as a novel? What are you currently writing about?

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Daily Word Count: 4,722

Total Word Count: 75,600

The Interference (Day 3)

Today is the third day of nano and the first official write in of the season! (I never count the kick off...not sure why. Could have something to do with the utter lack of sleep)

I should be excited. Hell, I should be ecstatic! There should be some jumping off of the walls going on, huge grins, and barely contained energy that has the rest of the world looking at me like I've just been let out of the loony bin.

Somehow, though, the day has fallen flat.

Why? Well, the answer to that is simple. You see, I'm working. My day job (For those of you counting, yes I am planning doing 320,000 words while working a full time job, but rest assured, I have taken the last two weeks of November off. Both for the trip to San Francisco and to take some of the pressure off...last year, though, there was no vacation...just saying.)

I work at a registry. That means that I spend my day doing things like handing out licenses, renewing registrations and listening to people bitch to me about the speeding ticket they got for doing ONLY 115 on deerfoot. It's not exactly the most inspiring of atmospheres. In fact, it's the opposite of inspiring.

To make matters worse, I got to stare at the clock and see that everyone was already at the write in while I was ordering people birth certificates and trying to explain why you can't just switch over your Indian License to an Alberta one, because there are rules and laws and policies in place that prevent me from doing it.

All in all, I'm losing a little of the nano spirit as I sit at my desk listening to the issues everyone is having today. All I want to do is be at home (or better yet, the library) writing away. Working to hit my 11k that is my goal for the day.

Unfortunately, the day job is something that I need to do in order to survive. As I'm not yet published, my writing doesn't support me, and I need to pay the bills somehow.

So, in order to help ourselves feel just a little better, my friend and I have decided to throw our own little write in (it's just going to be the two of us). Neither of us could attend today's event due to work, so we'll head down to our usual Denny's and write up a storm all by ourselves.

Here's hoping I can hit my goal!!

Have you attended any of your regions events this year?

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Daily Word Count: 7,151

Total Word Count: 34,834

All The Words!! (Day 1)

So today I woke up late (I was out at the midnight kick off until about two in the morning)  and I had, of course, a goal for the day.  I wanted to hit 15,000 words by the end of the day to start out NaNoWriMo right.  I have a plan to make it to 320,000 words this month (despite all the different things I have planned.)

Now, this may sound like a lot.  Trust me, it does to me too.  In fact after the kickoff here in Calgary, I may have had a small panic attack where I might have wondered if I was going to be able to finish.

So, now it's the end of the day and I have my first word count.  Today I managed to write 16,195 words.  Which is more than my goal for the day, and I'm super excited.

Now I'm thinking that I can actually do this.  Yes, yes, I know, I've done it before.  Last year I wrote 300,000 words and now I'm only adding on an additional 20,000 words, so why was i worried?

Maybe it was because of all the other plans I have for the month.  Maybe it was because I had only written 4k words (even if it was only the first night, in fact the first few hours).  Or maybe it's just because I do have random moments of doubt no matter how long I've been doing things like this.

The why doesn't really matter.  What matters is that I'm going to do it.  I'm going to get my word count.  I just have to buckle down and do it.  And not get distracted by all the shows I'm dying to watch.

Anyway, it's a short post today, cause I have to get this up in the next couple of minutes, but I do have to say, no matter what your goal this year, you can do it!!

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Daily Word Count: 16,195

Total Word count: 16,195

The Epic Month of Posts

I thought I would begin this post by telling you all the story of Nano 2011. For me, of course.  I'm sure there were a million story's during nano 2011.  Anyway, this is my story of Nano 2011.

It was my second year of Nano, and my first year had gone relatively well.  (Okay, so I tripled the goal for the month...at the time I had absolutely no idea that I was even capable of such a thing.  Who knew.)  Anyway, as it was my second year and had managed to get so many words, I decided I was going to up that goal.  Just by a little bit, and I decided to set it at 200k words.

So, I was on about day three, and I had already written 30k words.  I was ahead of the game, and pretty happy with my progress thus far.  Then I started talking to one of my nano friends online.  She had decided that her goal that year was to beat me, and she already had 20k.

I'm told that this was the point where I overreacted.  I disagree.  I think what I did was perfectly rational, but I suppose I have to concede to the majority.

At this point, she was only 10k behind me, and I might be just slightly competitive, so I decided right then and there that 10k a day wasn't so bad, and I could keep that up for the entire month and write 300k.

I did it.  The girl who got me to raise my goal, she didn't even make the original 200k.  But it was a great month, and it's going to be something that I'm repeating this year.

So why am I telling you this now when nano hasn't even started?  Because of what else I did during Nano 2011 that will also be happening this year.

A friend of mine (not the same girl that managed to get me to write 300k words...) told me about a week before Nano started that she was going to write a blog post a day during the month of November.  I scoffed at her and told her she was crazy (I had only written about five blog posts total at this point).  Then I decided I was going to join her.

I didn't quite make it.  I ended up missing two days, and not all of it was good (more than a couple days was nothing more than 'here's my word count, I'm going to bed) but it was what really got this blog started.  It was because of those 30 days that I even considered getting the posts on a schedule of sorts.

Of course, last years we didn't have any rules.  This year we have a couple:

1) The post must be up on your site before midnight in whatever time zone you happen to be in.

2) All blog posts must be a minimum of 50 words to be considered a post (yes, this is short, but we might just up this count next year.)

This year we're also inviting other people to join us in our blogging efforts.  I'm keeping a list of all those involved on the sidebar on my site, and B. A. Matthews is doing the same.  So you can follow anyone whose going to be posting a blog a day and see who actually manages it.

Or you can sign up for it yourself, either by commenting on this post, contacting me via twitter (@DanniM86) or talking to B. A. Matthews.

We would also appreciate anyone who would like to spread the word.  I'm calling it the Epic Month of Posts, but feel free to come up with your own names for it.

I'm excited for this year (as I've upped my goal to 320k of my own free will, rather than being goaded in to it), and I can't wait to see the posts that come out of it.  I hope that we get a few of you to join, because it's going to be great!

Is It July Already?

During nano I always find that time moves rather strangely for me. 

First the month starts slowly.  The first and second seem to have all the time in the world as I race ahead of the game, eager to shape the chart that I want to see at the end of the month.  I'm always surprised at how slow the month is going, because if the entire month goes by that slow, then I'll never have to worry about finishing my story.

In the middle of the month, just like the rest of the nano people, I lose my momentum, and the hours drag.  I see the time there, and I just know that if I could actually write something that didn't sound like it was coming out of the mouth of a two year old, I could get so much done.  Instead I just sit there, forcing out the worst words I'm sure I've ever written, and hope for it to be over.

The end of the month goes by so quickly that I'm never quite sure what happened.  In November this resulted in me having a crisis.  I had ten days left, and one more novel to write.  Despite the fact that I had done that very thing twice in the month already, I freaked out and decided that it was too much.  I couldn't do it.  Then I type furiously and hit my goal before that final buzzer sounds (or the time flips over to midnight of the first) and I get to relax.

One the first of the month, it always hits me.  Nano is over, and I now have so many more words.  I'm always a little amazed to see that stack of papers that prove I wrote a novel (or three) in a month.

In the first Camp Nano, I barely hit the 50k mark.  Even though that was really all I was aiming for, I was a little disappointed with myself.  I know I can do so much more, and I had to write furiously to even hit that goal.  Rather than feeling like I normally do with nano, I instead felt like I could have done better, and headed into another round instantly, determined to not lose sight of my goal.

In August I did even worse.  I believe I topped out at 17k, then gave up (both on the story and on the month of Camp Nano.)  Time slipped by slowly, taunting me with my inability to finish the novel, and I eventually decided that maybe Camp Nano just wasn't for me.  Maybe I just worked better in November, and why was I even trying to write in the summer.  I never intended to join Camp this year.  I was going to spend the time editing and querying, then plan for November.

It was a friend of mine that changed my mind.  She's pregnant and going to have three little ones at home this November, so she decided to do the camps instead of Nano, because she just won't have time.  Originally I still said no, but then I changed my mind (I've never been one to turn down a challenge.)  So I launched into June determined to write 75k and finish the novel I started in April and never finished.

Much to my surprise, I felt June starting to move into the same routine November does.  With the quick beginning, struggling middle and panicky end.  I didn't write furiously for the last week, though.  Technical issues aided me in deciding that I'd written enough and I was far too busy over the last week to attempt another 50k.

However, today I can't help but sit here and think about the fact that I wrote 125k last month.  I had been afraid I wouldn't finish the 50k, and then I went and wrote another 75 on top of it.  I started a novel I hadn't even known was going to exist, and I can't wait to finish it in August.  Camp Nano took me by surprise this year.  I certainly didn't write as much as I normally do in November, but considering how much I struggled last year, my final word count impressed me.

Today is the day to stop and take a breath.  Look around and realize that we only have a month to get our lives back in order before another round of Camp Nano starts.  In only 30 days it will be time to dive into new worlds, introduce ourselves to new characters, and prove to the world, once again, that we are writers!

The Journey Continues

Well, it's not two thirds of the way through the July session of Camp Nano 2012.  At the beginning of the month many people took up the challenge to write fifty thousand words, willing to put aside their daily lives in an effort to accomplish this feat.  Each of them was excited, nervous and determined to accomplish this seemingly impossible goal that they set out for themselves.

I, personally, love the idea of Camp Nano.  It gives us months other than November where we have the excuse to cast off the obligations of every day life and focus on our writing.  Unfortunately, as it's only the second year that OLL has offered Camp Nano, it still isn't nearly as popular as the much loved original November session of NaNoWriMo.  It's not quite the all out affair November is.

As a result, many of those determined writers have suddenly realized that they don't have enough time left in the month to finish those stories.  I believe that even now those who have fallen behind have the time to complete their novels, but another disease has spread throughout many of those brave writers.  Loss of motivation.

While I've heard that the second week is always the hardest to get through, I'm starting to feel like maybe the third week has it's own hardships.  People are finishing their novels and not feeling the need to continue on.  So those writers that aren't done lose a little bit of that support and excitement that has kept them going for this long.

Our novels are getting to the point where we've lost all hope of them being good, but we're still pushing through them, repeating to ourselves the mantra that we've developed by taking these crazy journeys through the landscapes of the worlds we've created.  'You can edit crap, you can't edit nothing.'

Now is the time when we need to band together.  For those of us that are ahead, it's up to us to encourage those that are behind.  For those that are behind, it's up to you to use that encouragement and find that lost motivation.  Because, even though writing is a solitary activity, Camp Nano brings us together as a community to push us through the hardest part of writing: getting through that first draft.

While I'm ahead for the month, I was hoping to do a lot more.  I'm only about 30k into my current novel, which means I need another 70k to finish it.  Like many others, though, I seem to have been contracted the loss of motivation.  Mine, of course, could potentially be because I finished what I thought I would at the beginning of the month.  I started a second book for the fun of it, but with no plan I appear to be stalling out.  The competition I'd managed to find at the beginning has disappeared.  Now I find myself listless.  Unwilling to continue writing knowing that I've already finished what I set out to accomplish.

I know I'm going to have to push through this feeling.  Just sit down and get writing.  I can do it.  I've done it before, and I'll probably do it again.

In the mean time, I intend to support any of my fellow campers who are behind but still want to finish.  I believe that every writer has this fifty thousand words in them, and I hope to see every one of them cross the finish line.

Until then, though, I have some writing to do of my own.  Good luck, fellow writers!  I hope to see you at the finish line.  Breathless, tired and ready to give up, but triumphant and ready to continue on the journey that Camp Nano has put us all on.

A Short Visit

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.

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!

Teaming Up

My multiple projects have been the subject of a couple of my posts now, and it seems that this one is going to be no different.  Probably because I'm starting to feel a little overwhelmed by how much work I've managed to create for myself.  The fact that I actually want to add more projects to that list is really not the point.  The point is that despite how much I have on the go, I have yet to get anything completed.

I'm not the only one with this problem.  A friend of mine on twitter recently commented on a post a made.  It was a random one about having to finish my critiques before going away for the weekend.  She asked if I could look over some of her work, and I happily agreed (because I'm not nearly busy enough, I need to add a couple of more things to my schedule).  She told me that she wasn't close enough to being finished right at that moment, but she would be eventually.

The conversation went on in that direction for a while until she said something about another twitter friend telling her she needed to actually finish a project.  Pick one thing and actually focus on it.  It was so close to my own situation where I just keep project hopping, and never really settling in to get one done, that I couldn't help but tell her I had the same problem.

Of course, us being the writers we are, this realization that we had the same problem when it came to our writing quickly escalated into us have Wonder Twin-Multitaskers Powers.  Don't ask, it was late.

Anyway, while this may seem like nothing more than a random conversation, it was a lot more than that because of what came out of it: accountability.

I don't exactly have a great track record when it comes to being accountable to myself.  I tend to let myself off the hook more often than not, and that leads to things like entire weekends being spent getting caught up on TV shows as opposed to writing the book I was already 40,000 words behind on (no...that book is still not finished.  I no longer have and ETA on that, but I'm hoping eventually, as I have some serious plans for that series.)

Anyway, the point is, it was obviously not working.  Finishing a project isn't the same as doing something like nano.  There I have a chart I have to update daily, I have a word count goal that pretty much everyone in the city whose doing nano knows about.  I have other people working toward that same goal (Yeah, okay, maybe not exactly the same...theirs might be just a bit lower than mine...) that I can compete with to keep myself going.  Right now, though?  Right now I have nothing to keep that motivation.  And if I'm slacking on keeping myself accountable, nothing is ever going to get done.

That's where Moni comes in.  Since she's been having the same problems as me, we've decided to team up.  Create a system where we will be accountable to each other, and with any luck that will be what we need to get our projects moving forward again.

Of course, we haven't started yet.  With travelling over the weekend and critique group, not to mention the fact that we're in different time zones, we've decided to try and get started on Tuesday.  I'm hopeful that this will work.  There's nothing more encouraging than knowing there's another writer out there working on their projects at the same time as you and struggling just as much with the same issues.

Come Tuesday we'll see if we can actually get our projects done.  (I will be working on The Commons and getting it ready to be sent out, even though Pandora isn't done being written yet.  I would love to spend all of my time in Jayne's world, but it's really not fair to characters and plots I've already started.  Only once The Commons is out to beta readers will I allow myself to be pulled back into Pandora. Sorry Jayne.)

I will, however, be doing Camp Nano in June this year.  I don't know yet if I will just be writing the end of Pandora or if I will be writing something new.  I need to see how quickly I can get through my editing.  Either way, though, I'm glad that I found another writer than can hopefully help me through the multitasking cycle of starting a new project without finishing the last.

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!

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!

The Last Day

Today is the last day of nano, and although I have already technically won, my own personal goal was 300k, and I'm not quite there yet. In fact, as of right now, I'm about 7.5k away from it. But that doesn't mean that I get to forget to do another blog post. (I don't know what it is about the end of this month, but not only am I having troubles motivating myself, convincing myself I can, in fact, continue to write at the pace I set for myself at the beginning of the month, but I also seem to be forgetting my blog...)

Anyway, I don't actually have a clear topic for this post, as I am currently writing it between word wars (In the hopes that I can actually hit my 300k). I find it easier to just not have a topic than trying to remember it while writing my story. You understand.

So, on this the last day of nano, I'm finding myself torn. On one hand, I am so happy that I can just sleep tomorrow. (Though, as my ML pointed out, I probably will start editing) but on the other hand, I wish that November was longer. That I could continue to write for hours each day and have an excuse to ignore everything else.

How is it that I can be so conflicted over something like this? I realize that tomorrow I will wake up and be oh so thankful that it is over. That I can watch my shows and not feel guilty that I'm not writing. That I can look forward to each weekend without having to calculate just how much I'll have to write each day just to catch up to my goal.

I may read an entire book tomorrow. Just saying.

Either way, while I will be mourning the loss of this month, and marvel at how quickly it went by, I will still be thankful that I don't have to keep up this pace forever. That I can take a breather. That I can stop being obsessed with a graph, and base my life around it.

Of course, my break will be short. While I wont be picking up this same crazy pace (writing a novel in 10 days?? Yep...craziness) I will be editing. One novel will be going into the ABNA contest in January. Another will need to be edited so I can start querying (which I fully intend to do next year...don't worry...you'll get to hear all about it right here on my blog!! Excited, aren't you?) And the third will be given to my critique group so they can tell me everything that's wrong with it.

I have a full year ahead of me, and I'm hoping to report back next year that it is going well. But that does not mean that I need to lose sleep over it (though really, that's more up to my characters than me) and it does not mean that I have to be attached to my computer for hours on end every day.

Tomorrow I fully intend to take a bit of a computer break. Although I may start planning for next year's nano ^.~

Getting Overwhelmed

It's the twelve hour write in today, which means that I have absolutely no time to think of and plan out a blog post. So I'm going to just wing it like a usually do. Here goes:

When November first started, if I fell a little behind, I remember thinking it would be fine because there was still so much month left. I didn't have to worry about a few thousand words, I could make them up that weekend, or on my next day off. It would be fine.

Now, though, it's so close to the end of the month, and thinking about how much writing I still have to do in order to get to the goal I set for myself, I'm starting to feel overwhelmed. It doesn't seem to matter to my brain that I have already written two entire books in ten days each. It keeps trying to tell me that this is just not going to work. That there simply is not enough time left to get everything done.

So today I am telling my brain 'Shut up Brain!' and getting on with my day. Mostly because it's twelve hour, and do I really have time to have that argument with my brain? No. No I don't. But also because I have to write 15k today, and if my brain keeps telling me that I can't do it, I won't do it.

Here are the facts. I have had 5 15k days so far this month. So what's one or two more? I have 2 completed novels printed out and waiting for me to start editing them. (One will be used during critique group. The other is set aside for NaNoEdMo in March). I am almost half way through a third novel which is the sequel to the novel I started editing before nano and will continue to edit afterward, hopefully fast enough to get it into ABNA.

One more fun little fact for you: I AM going to hit my 300k goal. I AM going to allow myself to buy the nano messenger bag I've been eyeing since they put it up. I AM going to start looking for an agent next year because writing IS what I am going to do with my life.

I am not going to let my brain dictate to me anymore. I am good enough to be an author. I have written almost 6 novels now, and I will not let that go to waste. They will not all end up in the dusty folder in the back of my computer never to be seen from again. I refuse!

The End.

Challenge Accepted

At the beginning of the month I was challenged by a friend of mine to write a blog post every day of the month. And this is on top of my goal of 300, 000 words written for NaNoWriMo. I, being someone who has a hard time refusing such challenges, of course said yes.

Earlier in the month, that friend managed to miss a day. And, I’ll admit, I might have been a little petty in my taunting of her. After all, she was the one to issue the challenge, and she was the one who had missed a day. I was having a great time, making fun of her for missing that day.

Well, last night I forgot to post a blog. I can give you my excuses (I had been trying to get some writing done and had gotten really frustrated and tired, so I gave up and decided to give myself a bit of a day off. I figured I could catch up later and I ended up watching some tv shows and just going to bed.) but the fact of it is, I missed a day.

I actually went to bed, it was just after midnight, snuggled under the covers, and my eyes flew open as I realized that I had never posted anything…it was a saddening moment. If you had been there, you would have cried. I swear it.

So now I’m am blogless on the 23^rd, and I keep staring at my blog thinking ‘I’m only going to have 29 posts for November’ and there’s really nothing I can do about that. Except make two blog posts in one day, and I think that might be cheating. In fact, it is cheating, and who would be happy with that? Not me…

I’m expecting much taunting and teasing when I see her on Saturday, and I will accept nothing less. After all, we’ve both missed a day now. Neither of us can claim to have won this challenge. Perhaps it’s one we’ll try again next year. And if it is, I know that I’ll end the month with that perfect number 30 showing beside November.

What I do know is that I’ve already run out of topics to post about. Hence this post about a missed post. Who knows what I’ll write about tomorrow! Though it may involve monkeys…

Anyway, I am officially recommitting myself to this challenge. As of today I will not miss another day this month. That number will not fall below 29!

Next years New Years Resolution: Stop accepting insane challenges.

A Whole New World

Yesterday I had to find a way to dive into a new world. I finished my second novel on Sunday, and those characters were still talking to me. Pointing out that, once again, my epilogue didn't follow the path I had laid out for it. Telling me what they thought should happen at the beginning of the next book and generally making a nuisance of themselves.

This is what typically happens when I finish a novel. My characters give me absolute gold...but only once I'm done. And I tend to spend at least a couple of hours writing things down and already seeing the next novel coming to life in my head. (For anyone who doesn't know me, I should probably explain. I can't quite figure out how to write a stand alone book. I've tried, but my plots are always so much bigger than that...)

Unfortunately, because my plans for this month were so high, I no longer have time to just sit and write down all of these things my characters are telling me. In fact, when I finish one novel, I need to move onto the next without giving myself much time at all to wrap up the last one.

What ends up happening is that I stare at the blank first page of the new novel for ever, while the other characters continue talking to me, and try to get the new characters to open up and start talking. It's a frustrating process, as I tend to write a lot less than I should, and a lot slower, because the new characters aren't yet asserting themselves and becoming a priority.

I know that I'll probably be back into it by tonight. Though I still have a few pictures from the last book running through my head, I'm also starting to think of the new book and the events that are coming up (some of them I'm really excited for, as this book is actually a sequel, and I've been wanting some of these events to happen for quite a while now.) In the meantime, though, I find myself falling a little further behind everyday, and getting headaches from the clashing characters and worlds.

The worst part is I have yet to adapt to the voice of this novel, and I keep throwing in things from the last. Thankfully I'll be able to catch those things when I eventually get to the editing phase (I'll probably put it off as long as possible...) Still, I would really like to get back into this world that I once knew so well.

With any luck tonight I'll be able to pull myself back in and not get too much farther behind. But, even if I can't catch up with my goal, that's alright, because I already have far more words than I had before the month started, and really, that's what nano is all about.

Here We Go Again

So here we are again. Only a few short thousand words away from finishing my second novel of the month, and I'm starting to get exhausted, and yet exhilarated all at once. Never in my life did I ever think that I would actually finish three novels in a single month, and yet here we are, 20 days in and two novels done!

I have mixed feelings as I always do. First, I don't want to leave these characters. They're starting to really open up to me, and I'm starting to get the impression that there's even more going on in this world than even I was aware if, including one good guy that's really a bad guy, and one love interest who has currently set his sights on the wrong girl. Neither or which are something that I like to turn my back on, but as I don't have a sequel to this planned out and I do have a different novel planned out, I think we all know which one I'm going to do.

Before we go any further, I'd like to mention that yes, I am a freak of nature, yes I have been told that, and yes people have pointed to my nano chart and called it a mutant. Moving on.

The problem is that as my characters start to open up it's harder and harder to tear myself away from them. I want to continue their story to find out what else is going to happen. And whose going to end up together, because at this point I really don't know if it's who I originally thought would. Just like a reader who isn't satisfied with reading one book in a series, I find myself wanting to write more and more.

But I know I have to force myself out of that world for a while. For one thing, if I stay there too long I'm going to get sick of it, and then I wont want to write the entire series. For another, I have other things I need to focus on, much as I may not want to. I have other novels that I have started, and other series that are begging me for my attention. Besides, if I stay buried in the world for too long someone might report me as missing, and that would be really embarrassing when the police showed up at my house and found me frantically writing at my computer long after November ended. Just saying.

So despite how much I want to stick with it, I have to finish off these last few chapters and move on. I have to give these characters a chance to take a break. To breath while I work on something else for a while.

They can rest assured, however, as there's no way I'm not coming back to it. Not with all of these little twists that even I didn't predict.

The Pens In Our Lives

So, I have a pen. It's one of those ones that hang on a cord around your neck so that you have it with you everywhere you go. I got it from winning a word war at one of the NaNoWriMo events in my region. Usually the stuff in the box is just little random things that no one would ever buy for themselves, but when you get to pick it out of a box as a prize seems fantastically awesome.

Anyway, I picked the pen out of the box because I thought, hey, I like pens. Why not. Besides, it looked like it might work better than any of the other pens I had decided to grab out of the box for that very reason, and it's actually kind of cute. The best part is that it has black ink, which is my favorite kind.

Turns out the pen may very well be the best thing that's every happened to me. I know you're out there laughing because I'm gushing about a pen. Well let me tell you. It has yet to fail me. I use it to track my word count (because yes, I am just that organized) and every time I need it, there it is. Around my neck. Ready to go.

It doesn't care that in those fifteen minutes when I usually write a thousand words I only wrote eight hundred. It doesn't care that I'm, technically, almost 20k behind my goal. The pen is nonjudgmental, and I like that.

Now you're all wondering just how crazy nano has made me, as I'm rambling on about a pen. Of course, this post could be about a pen that I chose to write about because I've run out of topics thanks to a challenge I received wherein I have to write a blog post a day, but I like to think it's more than that. I like to think that this pen has helped me in my writing endeavours.

It's stuck by my side loyally, not even complaining when I accidentally left it at home, though it really did have the right to. It tirelessly does everything I ask of it, and it understands that I have to somewhat ignore it in favour of my keyboard during November.

How many relationships like that do you have in your life? Yeah. That's what I thought.

So, I decided to take this moment to dedicate a blog to the pens in all of our lives. Those that stand by us even when we hate ourselves and everything we've ever written. Those that allow us to be grumpy to them because our characters are giving us a hard time. Those that have supper on the table every night when you've got yourself tied to your computer chair in an effort to get those words done.

We could all use a few more pens in our lives...

Is It Hot In Here? Cause My Motivation Evaporated...

So, remember how I said that my motivation is competition? Don't worry, I didn't lie to you. If there is competition, I'm willing to up my word count. I'm willing to spend hours at my desk, causing back aches and wrist weakness, just so that I keep that number one spot and don't let anyone pass me. And if someone starts to get close, you can bet that my next day off is going to be spent trying to get as many words as I can so that I'm not worried about them passing me while I'm at work.

Unfortunately, there's a rather nasty side effect. When people start dropping further and further behind me, and I no long have someone telling me that they're going to beat me no matter what it takes, all of that motivation suddenly evaporates. Like it wasn't even there. Suddenly I”m negotiating with myself. Telling myself that I increased my original goal, so if I don't hit my new goal it'll be fine. I don't really need to catch up. I can come in 10k behind. It will all be alright!

And yet, no matter how many of those conversations I have with myself (I swear I don't answer myself back...okay...maybe I do...) I can't quite convince myself that I wont fee disappointed at the end of the month when I'm not sitting at 300k. Because I know I will. I know that I'll think I could have done better. Especially since nothing really has come up. No emergencies that have dragged me kicking and screaming (or just a little too willing) from my keyboard. Not even an unexpected day at work. Instead, I'm just not quite as willing to stay up late to get the word count. Or to give up my shows so I have more time to write.

I need the motivation back. I need people to come on the chat and outright challenge me to a word duel (I'll even take a handicap, I swear.) I need to get that excitement and drive back so that I can finish this nano with a bang, rather than limp across the midnight finish line unable to hold my word count up as what I wanted to do.

Or maybe I just need to stop watching the shows that distract me from my characters, and bury myself in their world. Put myself in their shoes and let that drive me for a while. It works for other writers, why not me? I can change my motivation!

In the mean time, though, I think I'll continue to hang around the chat until someone comes along to word war with. Then I'll start writing.

Halfway to Salvation

Here we are, November 15^th, and we're halfway through this crazy journey we call NaNoWriMo. In the first week we found ourselves excited and wanting nothing more than to write those words. Determined that this year we were going to write that amazing book that was going to get published with the first draft. We went to all of the write ins, laughed with other writers, explained what we were writing, commenting on how great it was going to be in the end, and were generally hopeful and certain that we were going to win.

The second week is the onset of the second week slump. On a rather abrupt shift from the first week, this one was dotted with our own self doubt, threatening to give up on multiple occasions, and the general acceptance that this isn't the best novel in the world. While we still laughed at write ins, when asked what we're writing, the answer usually falls between 'YA' and leaving it at that and 'absolute crap.' This is nearly always answered with a remark from a fellow writer about how you can't expect perfection on the first try, and that you have to just keep going. You can edit it later. Usually a smile and nod was given when this is said while in our minds we're wondering how we're supposed to keep going when we hate our main character, there's no plot and you're not entirely certain that your villain is a villain.

Yesterday marked the beginning of the third week, and with the halfway point hitting, we are finally pulling out of that slump and accepting the advice that was given to us then. We're pushing past the block that had us telling ourselves that we are possibly the worst writer in existence and what made us think that we could actually do this? While we accept that we probably wont get the first draft published – or even allow anyone to read it – we're not quite so certain that we will never be published. In fact, we might even be starting to plan what we're going to do when it comes time to start editing.

Today many regions will be having midway bashes. Parties that (at least in our region) don't actually include any writing. This can be great, or it can be bad. For example, I'm behind for my goal and wishing I could just go home and get some writing done. At the same time, though, I'm so excited to go and see people (or meet people for the first time) that I'm willing to give myself the pass...even though it means that I will be writing non stop over the weekend.

At the bash, we'll probably talk about all the fun stuff, like the fact that week four is quickly approached, which is filled with frantic writing, as everyone is still trying to catch up from the second week slump and the mutterings of more than one writer swearing that they're so not going to finish, and how does anybody manage to get this done every year?

While I can certainly understand wanting to just keep writing, and not being willing to go out (I've become a hermit. I'm just lucky my boyfriend is also a wrimo and understands when I veto the movie and suggest we just get together and write...) I also have to express that taking time off is just as important as writing. Go to that party and commiserate with other writers fighting the same problems that you're having. Discuss those plots that you just can't figure out and listen to the suggestions other people give you, because they could have a fresh take that will completely inspire you.

Enjoy yourself. Don't think that you have to suffer because your writing, or doing nano. Because while it is about getting those words on the page, it's also about having some fun. You've got to have fun while you're writing. Don't get overwhelmed and let yourself relax once and a while. Your writing will be all the better for it.

Live And In Person

Today I went to a write in for NaNoWriMo. That means that a bunch of people in our region got together to get some writing done.

The first time I went to one, I was so nervous. I remember changing my mind about going multiple times until I finally decided I was going to do it no matter what. Then when I got there I was super shy, hung out at my table (which they had to set up when I got there because there was no more room left) and then we did a word war. Which I, of course, thought was fantastic, until they started going around giving word counts and I realized that I had a word count that was about double what everyone else was giving and I had to frantically recount just to make sure I wasn't lying.

I hadn't gotten it wrong, of course, hence how I ended up with my current nickname. But at the time, I was a nervous wreck, certain I was going to do something wrong.

I learned something useful that day. A few things, really. First (and most important) you can't 'do something wrong' at a write in. Well, you can, but only if you do it on purpose. Second, write ins help out a lot.

Not only did that one write in add competition to the whole concept of writing, but it also helped me to realize just how many people were out there writing. How many people gave up their Novembers to the insanity that is Nano. And it also made me realize that, yes, there are other people like me out there. People who have characters talking to them, and for the first time, I really fit in.

Now I go to every single write in. The ones during November, the ones during the rest of the year, because I belong now. I've found a place for myself, and I couldn't be more ecstatic. Not all write ins are productive, of course. Some are more for the purpose of catching up with other people that you have met in your journeys. But I find that even when I'm at one of these write ins where more talking than actual writing happens, it's helpful. To hear everyone's word counts, or see someone running up to that bell to ring it. I love it all, and it motivates me to write more than anything else in the world (aside from competition, of course...) It doesn't really matter, because it's those write ins that keep me going throughout the month.

Today happened to be a very productive write in. This was thanks, in large part, to a longer time frame. (Because of previous issues we had to change the venue, and in order to get tables, we had to get there early. Then the new venue gave us a room, instead of tables and we didn't, but we had already decided to go, so it ended up being 5 hours long.) But it was also thanks to the mass amount of word wars that we did.

Normally we're at a restaurant, and people are ordering food, and there's a lot of table hopping. Today felt more like we were getting down to business. We did word war after word war, and I don't think there is a single person who went today (who joined in the wars) that went home thinking about how unproductive they had been.

And the greatest part was all the new faces. People who have never been to write ins before came out in full force, and I couldn't help but remember my first write in, and hope that theirs was just as good as mine.

If you don't go to write ins in your region, trust me, they're worth it. They're filled with crazy writers who all complain about their characters and give you quirky nicknames. They're awesome. And they will push you forward, even when you're struggling or behind. And maybe, just maybe, you'll push someone else too, and realize that nano isn't just about getting those words down. It's about the community around you. Put yourself out there. You wont regret it.