Once Upon a NaNoWriMo

NaNoWriMo

It’s that special time of year when we ask ourselves, “WTF?”

It’s that time when we commit to writing 50,000 words of utter crap in a mere 30 days.

It’s when we kiss our families goodbye on Halloween and hope to see them again sometime after Thanksgiving, when we crawl like literary bears into our NaNoWriMo caves with only pen and paper for sustenance (or a laptop).

But it’s also the time when we enter that “special” world.

Like Fight Club, there’s that “look” people have when enduring NaNoWriMo. The bags under the eyes. The cramped wrists. We nod secretly in the halls of our workplaces or cafes, saying things like “Wrote 1300 last night”, “I hate my heroine, I think I’m gonna kill her off”, “Just hit the major Act II turning point dude”, or “got meth? Just kidding. But not really.”

For when we enter NaNoWriMo, we enter a hallowed arena upon which few dare to tread. A challenging obstacle course full of traps and pitfalls such as go-nowhere plots, impossible-to-escape jails, characters who disappear without warning, and of course the most dreaded monster of all: the “I forgot to backup my work and lost everything.”

But once we surmount these setbacks and push through to the final 50K finish line, we can look back upon ourselves with pride, and for some of us, for the first time in our lives, we can call ourselves, “Novelists.”

GOOD LUCK EVERYBODY!

It’s NaNoWriMo Season!

Yup, it’s already that time of year, for those of us infected with write-a-novel-in-a-month fever. September 1 is the date when I officially log on to NaNoWriMo.org and start planning my next big novel.

Right now I’m in the midst of final edits for my 2009 NaNo novel Steam Palace. I may pick up my 2010 NaNo novel Dead Air and edit that soon.

So what’s the big deal about NaNoWriMo? For me it’s something about the pressure of writing ~1700 words a day no matter what. It gives my writing a sense of urgency, and it also limits my ability to go off on tangents in the story. 1 week for Act 1, 2 for Act 2, and 1 last week for Act 3. No 50,000 words of backstory. Keep to the script as it were.

Now why start planning my novel on September 1? Why not just sit down on November 1 and start writing?
3 main reasons:

1. Characters. Start inventing characters. Now. You don’t have to stick with them. You don’t have to use them. Think about reasons why the reader should care about these characters. Figure out strengths and weaknesses, needs and blind spots. What’s the most important thing in the world to them? What would they rather die than see happen?
2. Setting. Where and when does this take place? What are the special rules of this world? Where are all the special places? If it’s the real world, visit that location. If it’s historical, start your research now. If it’s 2nd World, start drawing maps!
3. Backstory. What’s already happened? How did everyone get where they are now? Heck, create resumes for your characters. What are the defining moments of their lives? What are they proud of? Their regrets? Who are their heroes? Who did they vote for?

The next step is to figure out a general plot. What happens. What must happen. For me I thing of the beginning and ending. What’s the premise?

For last year’s NaNo Dead Air, my premise was something like this:
“Invalid woman solves crimes without ever leaving her bed.”

For Steam Palace it was:
“Girl has to choose between love and power/fame/fortune.”

For Teen Alien (not written for NaNo BUT written in 30 days):
“Girl with extraordinary abilities discovers she’s an alien and must choose between her friends and the aliens who come to claim her.”
—although it was actually simpler than that:
”What if there was a planet populated only by women?”

What-if’s are a great way to imagine story ideas:
What if there’s this secret parallel land of wizards/elves/zombies/Republicans right in our back yard? What if you could secretly inhabit a dog/fly/cat/convict’s body and control them? What if there was a plot to assassinate the pope/president/Queen of England/your boss/Seinfeld and you were the only one who could stop/do it?

Don’t want ‘til the end of October to start imagining this stuff. Imagination starts now!

So what am I going to do for NaNo? I have no clue. I have a couple original story concepts (well, one of which is essentially Tarzan fanfic if you can believe it), a couple of sequel concepts to stuff I’ve already written. Right now I’m leaning towards a sequel to my Mystery novel from last NaNo. I really like the characters and the conflicts that are inherent in their lives.

One way to choose is to consider your options and ask which one you are most passionate about. Don’t think about which one will sell, which one will be “easier”. Find a story you care about so much that you are willing to abandon everything else for one month to write this story. A story you cannot wait to write. Then spend all the time you can between now and November doing character charts, plot outlines, world building, and whatever you can do to prepare yourself.

Or just wing it. Just be prepared to put pen to paper (finger to keyboard/quill to parchment) on November 1, 2011.

I Won Script Frenzy 2011!

The final tally: 107 pages, with a day to spare. I probably wrote on ~20 of those days, since I went to a convention among other things.

Not sure how I feel right now. Definitely glad to have a First Draft. Now I have a real clear roadmap as to what I want this story to be. I don’t have a specific revision plan for it yet, but here are some general steps:

• Let it rest for a few weeks at least.
• Formulate a plan for revision.
• Identify all areas requiring further research.
• Send it to a couple alpha readers (mostly family) for revision ideas.
• Research screenplay format so I can present the best screenplay I can (I kinda winged it).
• Try to acquire more family stories to add more authenticity to it. Sometimes it’s the small details that matter.

Next week I’ll post some analysis of how I felt about screenplay story structure and how well I thought it worked. But for now I just want to sit back and enjoy my accomplishment.

Halfway to a Script

So far, who knows? Hard to believe all the things in my script already: Gambling schemes, train wrecks, spies, hostile insurgents, vicious soldiers, and religious overtones. And I’m only halfway. And since this is the 18th day of Script Frenzy…I’m actually behind.

One thing I’m struggling with is scenes. My whole script is supposed to have ~40 scenes. I think I have ~50 so far. Part of this is how I define scene vs shot. It’s one of those screenwriting things I’ll have to learn. I think the trick is to make each scene do more and have fewer of them. Each scene should be ~3 pages. Revision’s going to be a bitch.

Speaking of religion, I watched a show yesterday that tried to come up with rational, scientific explanations for the Ten Plagues and some aspects of the story of Moses. They provided explanations that derived from a sudden climate change that year, since most of the effects were biological (swarms, disease). Then at the end of a show, a rabbi came on and said (paraphrasing), “does it really matter that any of these things actually happened? The story is what’s important, and the lessons demonstrated therein. Scientific inquiry is all well and good, but it’s not what the story is about. It’s not going to teach you anything.” (For the record I disagree with that assessment because I think any line of legitimate scientific inquiry has merit…in this case it could be a lesson in the dangers of climate change.)

This is what I’m doing with my own story. Does it really matter that I create an accurate accounting of my cousin’s journey? Should I just stick to the facts? Or is the important thing the story, the reasons for the journey and why the outcome is important? If we can look at the Bible as metaphorical rather than literal, then why not any history? A history book tells us the X, Y, and Z’s of who did what to whom. A story tells us why all these things happened and how they impacted the people who lived through those times. (Personally I think the Bible is more a series of stories based on certain events and folklore, but not an actual accounting of real events).

The “story” of my cousin isn’t a list of events and travails. It’s the tale of a man trying to come to grips with his own sense of self, of remaining steadfast to a single goal, to persevere when it looks like all hope is lost (starting in approximately 20 pages from now). So I’m going to create events and characters that clearly demonstrate this commitment.

Lessons from Screenwriting: Act I

Well, it’s been an interesting 8 days so far. I’m a little bit behind, but I’m not concerned. It’s taking a while to really get this screenwriting thing going. It’s such a different medium than literature. Everything is so condensed, so every line is critical. Here’s what I’ve learned so far:

1. Screenwriting, like pimpin’, ain’t easy. There’s no convenient inner dialog, there’s almost no description, yet it requires the same emotional content as any writing. I’ve realized there’s something I call “embodied debate” where a character’s inner conflict must somehow be demonstrated with external action or dialog. It must be given voice. I have to create situations that demonstrate the internal struggle and the stakes, even if those situations never happened.
2. Show, don’t tell x 1000. I suppose a narrator could blab, or like Star Wars, a long bunch of words could introduce the scene: In 1911, a young man sets foot on America, and over the next 9 years, blah blah blah. Then in 1920, he receives a letter. Open scene.
   Meh. But, for instance, how do I reveal the content of the letter without just throwing it up on the screen? In a novel I could just include it. Here ya go. (Not to mention the fact that the letter was written in Yiddish).
3. Backstory? We don’t need no stinkin’ Backstory! Sure, I can throw dates up on the screen, do the whole “10 Years Ago in the Old Country” bit. Maybe I will upon revision. But I’m throwing it in like a drive-by shooting. Here a sentence, there an argument over the past. But it’s impossible to include an explanation of who the characters are, what their relationships are, what they do for a living, etc. It just needs to come out in the dialog.
4. Nothing goes to plan. I spent a month thinking about all the scenes I could write. I looked at screenwriting books that screamed that I needed 40 scenes divided into fifteen major “beats”. Whatevs. Did I ever mention that I’m a natural pantser? Within the first couple days I threw out all the cards. Why? Because the story was boring, just a dude filling out paperwork and dealing with red tape. There was no emotional content, just a sense of vague frustration. This is a guy who has to go up against hostile forces and bad weather, not to mention backstabbing traitorous “friends.” Red tape bedamned! This is not a police procedural, it’s a gutsy drama. It’s not important how he gets the passport, what’s important is that he’s woefully unprepared for the  journey. So show that.
5. Unlosing my religion. I’m not a religious person. The last time I went to a service outside a wedding or funeral was a 9/11 memorial service. I barely give a thought to the holidays. I don’t feel that my MC is particularly religious. But while doing the research for this story, I revisited Judaism, subjects and events that I hadn’t thought about since before my Bar Mitzvah when I was 13. Many of the major events of the story coincide with major Jewish holidays. While perhaps a coincidence, I can’t ignore this low-hanging fruit. So my MC may have a crisis of faith along with everything else that’s going on. It feels cheesy, but I can’t help but think that he’s going to experience an affirmation of his faith.

So what happened is that a couple days ago I was stuck; the story was going nowhere. I made a decision to just throw out about 8 pages and rewrite—something you’re technically not supposed to do during Script Frenzy. Whatevs. If the story isn’t working, do what you need to do to get it on track.

Another thing I did was to make a decision about the style of the story. I know this isn’t “my” story. It’s the story of a cousin (2x removed) of mine. But the thing is, I have my own style. I write how I write. I’ve written SF, Steampunk, Mystery, Spy Thrillers, etc., but they all have a similar feel. I realized that I have to write how I write. I have to write stories in the way that I enjoy, that motivate me. I needed to make this my story. My style, my pace, my types of conflicts. Once I made that decision, the pages suddenly started to flow. Characters crept out of the woodwork into importance. It may not be true to the “story”, but it’s true to me.

So on to Act II. Wish me luck!

Script Frenzy!

Yes, like Yahoo! the name includes a bang (!).

Script Frenzy! is a month-long excursion into the art of writing a screenplay. It’s sponsored by the same folks who bring us NaNoWriMo, but the goal is to write 100 pages of script in 30 days. Easy? Hard? Who knows, I’ve never written a script.

For me, script writing has some key differences from novel writing. The first is length and scope. A script’s story is more compact. Much of the “story” is told through the camera. The length is equivalent to a 20,000 word story. Second, the POV is obviously 3rd cinematic, told only through dialog and action, therefore a character’s thoughts and motivations must be shown. Third, unlike telling a reader about concepts and themes, you’re giving a director and actors specific directions. And lastly, since the actual number of words in a script is so small, every single word must count. Every scene must have a purpose, every character must contribute and be essential.

So wish me luck as I work towards that elusive 100 pages!
Click on the image above to “friend” me if you’re doing Script Frenzy too!

NaNoWriMo 2010 Post-Mortem

For this year’s NaNoWriMo, I decided to go a different route. Instead of continuing Steam Palace, I decided to use a concept that I had been toying with for years. I wanted to focus on the story of this brilliant detective who’s completely incapacitated, but it turned into something more akin to my first couple NaNo stories, the 30 Days series. More action than mystery, more plot than characters.
First, the facts:
Final Title: Dead Air: An Archie Magnuson Mystery
56,937 words, my lowest output in 4 NaNo’s, but still a “winner.”
Actual days writing: 25
2,200 words/day, compared to something like 3,200 words/day last year
47 “Scenes”
My goal was lower this year. I was aiming for 60K, so I timed my book accordingly. My 80K first draft last year swelled to 120K by the time I finished 3 revisions. So using the same math, my 56K book may wind up around 84K, not a bad size.
But overall, I’m just not satisfied. I think I know some of the main issues that I fought against this year: Note that most of this stuff I was aware of while I was writing, but I just turned off that damned inner editor and went with it.

• Not enough time spent planning/plotting. By the time I hit Act IV (of five), I was really lost. Usually this is the most fun part of the book to write, but for me it was a death march. I just plodded forward, forcing events instead of letting them happen.
• Not taking it seriously. Last year I knew I was writing a novel to publish. This year I was “experimenting” with a new genre. I don’t really think I loved writing Mystery. It’s a lot of work, a lot of detail, and pantsing this kind of thing just doesn’t work. I think I can make this work, but not under these constraints.
• Falling in love with my characters. I have a tendency to fall in love with certain types of characters (mostly female) and then they start to take over the story because I just want to write about them and give them larger roles than they probably deserve.
• Lack of Villainy. This problem plagues me. My villains just aren’t bad enough. Yeah he’s a bastard but he doesn’t really do that much bad stuff. I want to create someone the reader wants to throttle, not just be annoyed with.
• Distractions. Going to a 3-day con in the middle of NaNo was a bad idea (for NaNo…made a few industry contacts for Steam Palace, might post about it). Also, you know what really sucks? Getting sick. I picked up some kind of crud at the con and I’ve been sick ever since. It’s incredibly hard to write when you just want to go back to bed.
• Why? That’s really basic. I never really answered this. Why did anyone do anything they did aside from me wanting them to? What were their motivations? Backstories? And why should the reader care about any of it?
• Telling. Well, I’d been in full edit mode for a year, so switching back is hard. It took almost 3 days to just drop the editorial voice inside my head and just write. The problem with this is that so much crap comes out that it’s almost not worth it. Out of all the issues listed above, this is the one that really kills me. This is why if I do a revision, it will be a complete rewrite, just like I did with Steam Palace. Not a single line will remain. And it will take me longer than 25 days.

I’m not sure going forward that NaNoWriMo is the best way to draft a novel. Especially this year when I couldn’t devote as much time as I’d like to plotting and even writing it. But I guess so far I’ve only highlighted the negatives, so here are some positive things:

• I won! ‘Nuff said. Gimme my damn badge!
• I have a full draft of a new novel in a new genre.
• I took a risk. I’m not sure it will pay off in this case, but it’s something.
• Many good characters/potentially good characters.
• A couple interesting plot twists
• Potentially compelling conflicts.
• Lots of series potential. It only takes one book to sell a series.

So I guess I’m giving myself a mixed grade this year. So what will I do from here? Probably shelve it. I could also do a quick 1-2 week edit and throw it up on some sites to get feedback. But right now I really need to work on selling Steam Palace. I also have a few deadlines for conference submissions.
I hope everyone had a good NaNoWriMo, see you next year!

My NaNoWriMo 2010 Cover

Part of the fun of NaNoWriMo is imagining what your cover would like like. Heck, what’s the title of your story? I’ve gone through a few variations so far such as “The Bed Detective” and “Big Woman Detective”. There’s a phrase that keeps coming up in my story. “Dead Air.” I ran it through Lulu’s Title Scorer and it earned a whopping 77% likelihood of being a best-seller. (Steam Palace ranked like 33%. D’ooh!).

After today I’m taking a brief hiatus from NaNo to participate in SteamCon. I really hope I have a couple minutes of downtime to write maybe a couple hundred words here and there, but I’m not planning on it. I’m at 39K today and I’ll be well over 40K by lunch. Then on Monday it’s the race to the finish, my goal being 60-65K.
Now, without further ado, let me present the cover of my NaNoWriMo 2010 book Dead Air:

I’m hoping that looks a bit ominous and not serene. I played with the image to wash out the colors even more and make it really drab. The image had absolutely nothing to do with the story but it’s more about the mood.

NaNoWriMo 2010 Halfway Report

Well, so far, so good. I’m sitting here at the halfway point of with 32K words, my target being ~60K words. Unfortunately, my four “days off” are coming soon. I’m going to be at Steamcon Fri, Sat, and Sunday this week, and next week I traditionally take T-day off (but make up for it on Black Friday in an all-day writing spree). My pace is well under last year, especially considering that my wife wrecked her car last November and I lost a lot of time due to that…and I still finished 5 days early. This year my target is lower, and I’ve been working on a couple other things.
So storywise, it’s interesting. I’m writing a completely contemporary mystery, no Sci-Fi, no secret agents, just everyday people. Okay, there’s a mad scientist. D’ohh! Well, I never worked a good mad scientist into Steam Palace, so I guess some of that rubbed off. But still, it’s not science fiction, I promise.
I’ve stuck fairly well to the storyline. There have been a few characters that I created who I’ve never used, and a few that are creeping out of nowhere to take prominent roles. The plot has more holes than a gun range target, and it’s not all that close to what I started with, but I kind of expected that.
Here’s the thing to remember as you draft. Don’t let your plot run the story. Characters should always drive it. Emotion. Fear. Anger. Love. Week 2 is always the hardest week, because once you’ve introduced the characters and the world, then what? I had in mind a scene where my detective and the damsel in distress are in a car and the car flies off the road into a lake where they almost die. That was my goal. But that was plot. I had to know why they were in that car, why no one else was in it, and where they were going.  (I had a couple of near-drowning scenes in the first draft of Steam Palace that didn’t make it into the second…again when I have ideas I’m determined to use them).
So with that scene in mind, I started creating complications. Intrigue. Questions. Characters who acted unexpectedly. Relationships develop. When I finally hit that critical scene, now the whole rest of the story is unfolding. I now a vision of the final climactic scene, the “reveal” as it were. That scene will be the driving force for the next 2 weeks. That’s the make-or-break part of the book. That’s when my hero will be tested and he’ll know once and for all who his true friends are, and whether he has what it takes to be a true detective.
The other thing was that whenever I got stuck, I just think of another scene to write, something where two characters interact in some way.  I don’t know how, but it just sort of works. This is why you have to just rely on your characters. Give them strong goals and motivations, and let them do their own thing, even if it takes your story somewhere else. That’s the beauty of NaNoWriMo, you never know what you’re going to get.
You’re over the hump, and it’s all downhill from here!

To Climb the NaNoWriMo Mountain

To Climb the NaNoWriMo Mountain

Okay. I know a lot of you are heads-down in the midst of NaNoWriMo. Others have decided to pass. Either way is fine with me. Apparently, it’s not fine with everyone.

Laura Miller, senior “writer” at Salon.com (yeah, I meant the quotes), who admittedly “as someone who doesn’t write novels” has this to say among other things:

…far more money can be made out of people who want to write novels than out of people who want to read them.

…why not direct more attention, more pep talks, more nonprofit booster groups, more benefit galas and more huzzahs to readers? [emphasis mine]

But even if every one of these 30-day novelists prudently slipped his or her manuscript into a drawer, all the time, energy and resources that go into the enterprise strike me as misplaced.

(read it all here)

Okay, first point…writers are poor. They aren’t the world’s greatest demographic. I’m pretty sure writers don’t target other writers for their books. (just critique ;)

Second point…you mean like book tours, speaking engagements, posters in supermarkets, which all generally cost more than the book takes in? Okay, quick fact check. I did a local search on Meetup.com for local writing clubs. It found 43. Now for local reading clubs. 126. Look! 3 times as many results! Hey, let’s check Google. Writing Club: 46M. Book Club: 199M. Also…Google has a whole frickin’ app called “Books.” Where’s the Google writing app? (Oh yeah, Docs…but it’s blank until you write something).

Lastly…“misplaced”?? WTF? Why do anything then? Why plant a garden if it dies in the fall? Why finish a jigsaw puzzle if you just break it up and put it back? Why have kids if they just grow up and have their own families? Why breathe in if you’re going to breathe it out again?

People like Laura Miller don’t “get it.” They don’t have the spark of creativity, so they can’t appreciate it in others. Why build crap? Why write 50,000+ words that you will just throw away? What if Picasso stopped after his first crappy painting? What if Mozart stopped after his first off-key note? Yeah, are all 170,000 participants in NaNoWriMo the next Mark Twain? No. But…yes. They are. They are the seeds of something greater, that when cultivated may grow into a story for the ages. Sure, maybe you wrote 50,000 words of crap, and tossed it away, deleted the file, whatever. But you are not the same person you were before. You’ve changed. You’ve learned. The next 50,000 will be better. The next 50,000 better still.

A couple years ago I spent all my free time training for a summit climb of Mount Rainier. Every weekend was a massive hike. Every day another workout. For 8 months. And then, when all was said and done, I didn’t make it all the way to the top due to altitude sickness. Was all that time wasted? Was the money I spent on gear and training and the expedition misplaced? What do I have to show for it? Well…I have nothing. BUT. I climbed to 11,000 feet. That’s 11,000 feet more than most people have ever climbed. Will my NaNoWriMo novels ever be published? Or will they fall short? Am I just wasting my time, pretending that I am something I’m not? Are we all just wasting our time?

Here’s the thing. No one writes because they are forced to. People write because they’re driven to write, to say the things that no one else can. Here’s one last thing Laura Miller said, and it’s something you should all think about:

Frankly, there are already more than enough novels out there

Maybe. But there’s a problem. You see, there’s one book missing. One book that really connects with you on a personal level, one book that changes things, one book that tells the perfect story.

Yours. And you’re the only one who can write it.

Now get writing!

See my Red Dress Guest Post!

See my Red Dress Guest Post!

I have a guest post up on the red dress club!
Everything you need to know about NaNoWriMo!

Go check it out!

“the red dress club” is a site for women writers…which I am not but I kinda know the hostess a little bit (okay she’s my sister). But it’s an awesome site. Check it out!

NaNoWriMo ‘10 Starts in 1 Week!

NaNoWriMo ‘10 Starts in 1 Week!

And I got nothing. Well, I do have something. But I don’t yet have a plot. I have a bunch of characters, I have a crime or two, I have a couple scene ideas. But beyond that…nothing. Last year at this time I was sitting around just trying to think of anything I was missing. This time around I’m grasping for straws.

Okay, enough of the weak metaphors. There’s no reason to panic. At heart I’m a pantser, so no big deal. Sure, I’ve never written a Mystery before. And now that I’m doing it, I’m finding it incredibly complicated. Clues, evidence, leads, motives, means, it all has to be non-obvious and obvious at the same time. Every line of the story has to be about the Mystery. But I have all these great ideas about scenes that have nothing to do with solving the crime(s). And not many about pursuing the bad guys.

I’ve been reading James Frey’s How to Write a Damn Good Mystery. It’s helpful and daunting at the same time. Frey is a proponent of a “Five Act” structure dealing with the phases of solving crimes. Here it is for those who are interested:

1. Accepting the Mission. The Hero/Detective is made aware of the crime and thinks about working it.
2. Tests up to Ordeal. The Hero/Detective starts investigating, finding allies and enemies, and eventually is faces with a Crisis.
3. Solves the Crime. After passing the Ordeal, the Hero/Detective figures out “whodunit” and goes after them, trying to prove it.
4. Trapping the Criminal. The Hero/Detective faces the Criminal and finds a way to expose and/or defeat him.
5. Standard Dénouement. The Hero/Detective lives happily ever after and the Criminal doesn’t.

Well, I kinda have a little bit of Acts I and II laid out. The rest is completely up in the air. I have ~6 days 12 hours to figure it out. Also, according to Frey, there this kind of “Act 0” which is the story of the villain, the crime, the victim, and everything that happens outside of the scope of the book. “The plot behind the plot” is what I think he calls it. What I have so far is 4 actual murders, 2 attempted murders, and some other crimes as well. Woot!

So, how is your NaNoWriMo planning going?

NaNoWriMo for New Writers

Every November for the past 11 years, hundreds of thousands of writers huddle around their laptops and notepads with a singular goal in mind—write fifty thousand words in thirty days…specifically from 12am Nov. 1 to 12pm Nov. 30. Can it be done? Yes.

The “idea” behind NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) is that many aspiring writers talk about writing, think about it, but never actually complete a novel. The challenge is to actually complete a novel in one month. Here’s how it works: you sit down and write 1667 words a day, more if you can. That’s about 7 pages of published text every day. Once November is over, you will have a shiny new manuscript to brag about, and you will join the ranks of those with first drafts of their novels.

Here’s why this works. By forcing yourself to write every day, and write a lot every day, you must be creative. The sheer tension of the exercise translates into your text. Your characters usually face deadlines as well. You must throw them into danger and find quirky ways to extricate them. Your life and your characters’ lives become intertwined, and you start living in both worlds at once. This is total immersion into the world of your novel, where the ideas flow out as fast as you can think them up. You don’t have time to ponder proper grammar or punctuation, let alone metaphor or point-of-view.

Now let’s be serious for a moment. Most of the stuff you will come up with will be crap (whether you write your first draft during NaNoWriMo or not). Characters will show up and disappear. Threads will be left hanging. Scenes will be as empty as a Christmas store in May. Your villains will be as hollow as a later Schwarzenegger movie. Don’t worry about it. Your magical First Draft is simply a milestone on your way to a publishable masterpiece. Consider it as a detailed outline, subject to edits and revisions. The point is that you now have something you can work with, the first step in creating something bigger. You’ve written a novel, and no one can take that away from you!

Despite the fact that NaNoWriMo starts Nov. 1, I highly suggest starting earlier—not writing, of course, but plotting, planning, thinking about characters and conflicts, the general gist of the story, settings, world-building, etc. The more you have ready-to-go before Nov. 1, the easier it will be. Character sketches, backstory, maps, descriptions, scene ideas, whatever you think might make it easier.

The Post-NaNoWriMo 2009 Post

This is a lengthy self-analysis of my NaNoWriMo 2009 experience. There may or may not be anything in here of interest because I’m really just doing this for my own benefit to look at the next time I write a draft.
Quick history of Steam Palace (the current working title):

• Monday, Sept 7, I post The Lover’s Journey, my take on the Hero’s Journey from a male romance point of view. I then try to write the female version, but I wind up with a compelling story idea.
• Monday, Sept. 14. I officially put down Dawn’s Rise, and start working on Steam Palace, according to this post.
• Sept. 14-Oct.31. I take my basic outline, expand it to a 10K word outline, a 3000 word character doc, a 2,500 word brainstorming doc, along with a couple ancillary docs about technology, a dictionary, and a to-do list.
• November 1, 12:00 AM. I write the first line of Steam Palace.
• November 25, 8:37 PM, I write The End.

The Facts

• Original Word count goal: 90,000
• Final word count: 79754 (By my count. The NaNoWriMo site counts 80730 but that includes some notes I made to myself in the docs, scene titles, etc.)
• Days Writing: 25
• Total days invested: ~75
• Average words/day: 3,190
• Highest word count day: Nov. 24th, 5597
• Lowest word count day: Nov. 14th, 429 (went car shopping)
• Number of chapters/scenes: 73 (avg. 2.92/day)
• Days sticking strictly to outline: ~5
• Number of main characters who died: 2
• Title Changes during Writing: 3
• Completely impossible inventions: 2+

I Grade My Original Goals

• This is the novel that I will write, edit, and sell as my first novel.
  A This is a great little story which I think people will find entertaining and fun, and I’m definitely not ready to throw it away.
• Keep up the pace.
  B I think I did this pretty well. I kept the action going throughout. In fact, to keep with my word count per Act goal, I cut planned scenes of low importance which helped move things along.
• Interesting use of low/hi tech. Something interesting on every page.
  C I wasn’t able to hit the level of creativity I wanted, and I tended to focus on a few specific inventions. Definitely will be a goal of the re-write.
• Modern anachronism, futuristic retro. Ask What If.
  C I wanted to create Flintstones-like inventions, like cell-phones, GPS, internet etc in a Steampunk setting but it just didn’t happen like I’d hoped.
• Singular character focus on goals.
  A- This I think I did to a fault. My main character stuck to her goals through thick and thin, until about 6 pages from the end of the novel. Other characters did as well.
• Focus on the main theme of the story: A girls quest to find her heart. 
  B Sort of. But the ending wasn’t really about her heart, it’s about discovering that names and titles and labels don’t mean anything, it’s what inside that counts. So it’s not as much about her heart as it is about the hearts of the people around her.
• Slow reveal of backstory, keep the reader guessing.
  B I think I did okay with this. I revealed things throughout the novel. My characters did not appreciate this.

Things I Did Well:

• Outlining
  I would say that my first attempt at decent outline went pretty well. I started with a basic 12-step Hero’s Journey, and used the Snowflake Method to continually flesh it out over the next few weeks. I wound up with different variations of the same chapter, tons of scene ideas I never used, and a real wealth of ideas to draw from.
• X-Act Structure
  I had identified my plot points very early, and I kept them intact throughout all the changes in outline. High points, low points, etc.
• Hero’s Journey
  This proved extremely helpful in figuring out how characters change and grow during the novel. I started the outline as a basic HJ and expanded it from there.
• Character-Driven
  Hopefully I did well with this. I tried to make the characters move the plot and act. From the very first scene, the characters are acting and moving forward. They drive the events.
• Research
  I had a ready-made pile of maps, names, ideas, all ready to go. This cut down the amount of distracting research to do while writing. I even attended a Steampunk Convention to help with my research.
• Conflict
  I tried to create conflict whenever I could. Inner, outer, obstacles, disagreements, etc.
• Continually increased stakes
  She starts out as travelling to visit her aunt—Little Red Riding Hood through the woods stakes. She ends with having to save the lives of her family and the future of her entire country. That’s called Raising The Stakes.
• Cut early and often
  As soon as I reached a certain word count for an area, I started cutting scenes, trimming scenes, and making the action move. Anything remotely boring had to go. I was so paranoid of overshooting my 90K mark that I might have cut too much, coming in under 80K in the end.

Things I Wish Went Gooder

• Staying on target
  The novel followed the outline for about five days than meandered around, only crossing the original outline here and there. I think I over-planned the outline a bit, not allowing enough flexibility. I also didn’t plan enough for the middle.
• Creative inventions
  I liked the things I came up with, but I don’t know how much was truly inventive. Airships, mechanical horses, it all was interesting but didn’t break ground like I’d like. I’ve done well with this before, so it’s just a matter of details and rethinking things.
• Characterization
  Despite my self-props for being character-driven, It’s not there yet. I think to work on backgrounds more. I think I have a number of good characters, but not many great ones. I have a bunch that can be flesh out more. I just need more details. More faults, more history, etc.
• Style
  I wanted to create a turn-of-the-20th century eloquent style. It worked for a few chapters, but I wore out after a while. However, I was surprised at the number of words I came up with that the spell-checker didn’t recognize. I think it was a lot of fun.
• POV
  Who knows. I tried mixing it up a bit between a few characters. But I never achieved that real deep POV that I was shooting for. I just don’t naturally write that way.
• Avoiding “banned” words
  That went out the window very quickly. Adverbs, adjectives, transitive verbs, interjections, all of it. And frankly, I don’t care. I’m beginning to see that I write the way I write, and adhering to “rules” doesn’t really serve me.
• Passive
  Whatever. I was made to write passive sentences.
• Showing vs Telling
  By compressing the outline as much as I did, I tended to start each scene with a description of what happened since the last scene…which probably will be cut or expanded in the re-write. Or maybe it will work.
• Sub-plots
  These didn’t go as well as I’d hoped. Some of them just petered out, some never gained ground, so I’ll review them and see what I need to work on.
• Romance Fail
  This was supposed to be a Romance. It’s not. It’s an adventure with a love sub-plot. Maybe I’m not cut out for Romance. Not that there isn’t a lot of suggestive content, and a love story. But there’s no sex (on-camera as it were), very little kissing, and the girl chooses the wrong guy at the end.
• True Heroism Fail
  I wanted to her to be a true hero, I really did, but she isn’t. Yes, she has a Hero’s Journey. Yes, she transforms. But I feel there’s still something missing, some element of self-sacrifice for the greater good that’s I left on the table. This will be my #1 priority for the re-write.
• Middle Sag
  The dreaded Middle. I kind of avoided the problem by not writing much of it. My Act II is 1/3 of the book, when it should be 1/2. It needs about 15K more words to balance it out. Or alternatively, I could chop down the beginning/end, or move scenes over to the middle. This I think is the main weakness of HJ. 
• Wanted more betrayals, reversals
  I wanted my main characters to be betrayed at some point, to have friends turn against them. It didn’t really happen, but there should be opportunities to introduce this.
• Write-By-Hand Fail
  Well, I don’t mean to say that it was terrible. All it did was make me write slower, and in the end, I saw no improvement in the result. No to mention that when I transcribed it, there were several words I couldn’t decipher. I will not be repeating this experiment. I’ve noveled by keyboard for 20+ years, I don’t think I’m going to change now.

Main Takeaways

• Outlining works up to a point
  If I hadn’t waited until Nov. 1 to start writing, I probably would have cut down the amount of time spent outlining with no loss of quality on the draft. As each chapter went on, I deviated more and more from the outline. After the 1/2 way point the story took over and I stopped consulting the outline at all; the story just wrote itself.
• Hero’s Journey works up to a point
  It works and it doesn’t. It’s a great tool to identify the major phases of the character arc, but it falls flat in areas, especially the middle. Also, each character has his own HJ, and they experience different parts at different times. So the end project is a mish-mash. Heck, one character has literally 3 Resurrections. So I’m learning that it’s a basic guide, but a real story has many more twists and turns in it.
• Pacing is hard
  I want to write and write about every little thing and expound on everything, reveal mounds of backstory, and explain every device, but there’s so little space in the book.
• Progress
  3K/day is sustainable for a first draft, further drafts will probably be 1000K/day range
• Getting the story done is more important than getting the story right
  I wrote an ending for the 1st time in 3 years. I’ve spent so much time working on story beginnings that I’ve neglected the endings. I literally learned more about my characters in the last 10-20 pages than I did in the first 280. When everything was on the line, I found out what was really important to them beyond everything else…and it’s not what I had intended. Do it. Finish whatever you start, even if it’s crap. It’s one thing to plan, it’s another to finish.
• New stories are good
  I should write 2+ stories a year to keep fresh/excited.
• Changing (sub) genres is fun
  I really enjoyed writing in a new genre. Romance, historical, I learned a lot from it. For some reason it got me writing the way I want to write.
• Writing is always surprising
  For instance, first I wanted my FMC to sneak into the ball via a stolen invite. Then I wanted the ball to be a debutante dance. In the final version, she’s in the orchestra, which works out even better. She doesn’t play what the host wants—instant conflict, instant interaction. She’s not even a guest…she’s the help, so he’s more at ease with her.
• My true style comes out, no matter what I write
  I’m not saying everything turns out the same. But somehow, things just sneak in, and even if I wrote a straight Romance, I’m sure it would be full of plot and action.

Next Steps

1. Print Story (in case I never touch it again…it’s free from Create Space).
2. Put on shelf for 4-8 weeks, work on another project (The Immortals).
3. Review story with critical eye, revise outline to match current story.
4. Brainstorm new ideas, conduct additional research.
5. Create new outline, update character sheets.
6. Create initial Query Letter—this will help figure out how to market this piece, and what I can change to make it sell. It’s not intended to be something I send out quite yet.
7. Rewrite story from scratch, but with corrected POV, style, plot, characterization etc.
8. Review, get feedback and critiques, etc
9. Repeat from step 2 until published.

Is anyone still reading? I hope this helped a bit.

NaNoWriMo Week Four Tips

NaNoWriMo Week Four Tips

If you’re still plugging away after 23 days, congratulations! Whether you’re at 10K or 100K words, you’re facing the same age-old question that every writer faces: How do I end this thing?? Get me out of here. Help!!

Well, the secret of the Ending is to “bring it all home.” And yes, I may use a lot of clichés in today’s piece. Your Hero has spent a good portion on his time in the Special World, and now it’s time to return home, back to the Ordinary World where it all started. But of course, the road home is blocked with the biggest obstacles of the whole novel. Your Villains are hell bent on your Hero’s destruction, everything he’s ever known is falling apart, and everything he’s worked for during the entire book is in jeopardy. Everything hangs in the balance, and failure is imminent.

There are two things to focus on: Choice and Transformation. During the final climactic scene, your Hero must make a choice. And the choice is Death. Your character must choose Death over some alternative. Now this sounds extreme, but hear me out. If your character is not willing to risk death to achieve his goals, then the stakes are not high enough. Now, this Death can be metaphorical, but really it all comes down to personal sacrifice. He must lose something to win something. The result of this risk is Transformation. Through this process, your Hero learns something new about himself, about the world, and now has the power to finally defeat the Villain. This is the final lesson, the most important of the Hero’s life.

To tie it all together, go back to the first chapter, the first line, and think about the everyday problems your Hero faced. How has he changed? How does he solve them now? What has he learned from this experience? How do people see him now? Did he achieve his initial goal, or did some larger goal replace it? This is the part of the story where the most important lessons of all are learned. How do you show that the Hero has truly changed? You send him back home, and his former insurmountable problems seem like trivial annoyances which he handles with ease.

So now for my NaNoWriMo Week Four Tips:

• Keep writing! You’re not done yet! GO! GO! GO!
• Raise the Stakes. Not just life-and-death. Not just lose-the-girl-lose-the-job-lose-the-house. We’re talking End of Days level of stakes. If your Hero loses, everyone loses. The World loses. Life as We Know It ends (which it does even if he wins BTW).
• Your Villain has a Fatal Flaw. Pride, overconfidence, a blind spot, a secret love, underlings seeking revenge, an even eviler overlord who won’t tolerate failure, a history of tax evasion, an allergy, a compulsive disorder, and most importantly, unlike your Hero, an inability to adapt and transform, to see the bigger picture, to become bigger than life. He’s stuck in his ways. Use that to your Hero’s advantage.
• Your Hero cannot win unless everyone he cares about wins too. There are no selfish victories. No one will really care that he wins his competition, or that he gets the girl. A good recent example of this is in the animated flick Cars. In the final climactic race, Lightning McQueen loses the race…intentionally. But in losing, he wins everything. Self-respect, friends, the endorsement contract, and most importantly, he gets the girl (love). He risks death, which in this case is his entire racing career, because suddenly something became more important than winning.

And one final thought, courtesy Philip J. Fry from Futurama, to think about in the darkest moments of your novel, when your Hero is on the verge of defeat, and you see no way to rescue him from the hole you’ve dug:

You can't give up hope just because it's hopeless! You have to hope even more, and cover your ears and go, 'blahblahblahblahblahblahblah!'

 

 

Good luck! Next week, my exciting (actually most likely a ponderously dull) post-mortem on this year’s NaNoWriMo experience for me, what worked and what didn’t, and my plans for the re-write.

NaNoWriMo Week Three Tips

NaNoWriMo Week Three Tips

For those doing NaNoWriMo, one of two things has happened: you’ve either forged ahead, or lost interest and motivation. Either way, congratulations for hitting the halfway point! Believe it or not, everything is downhill from here. Why? Here’s what you should have accomplished by now:

• Introduced all the main characters, good and bad, and gotten to know them.
• Figured out things like the Story Question, the main conflict, separated your characters into good guys/bad guys, and made your hero face increasing challenges.
• Included foreshadowing as to what to expect in the second half. We understand the dilemmas facing the Hero, but it still may not be clear how to solve them.

That’s a lot to have accomplished in 15 days! Pat yourself on the back, take a deep breath, because this is when the “real” writing begins. Those of you who have abandoned NaNoWriMo are missing the thrill of the Crisis and Climax, where everything is put on the line, and your main character makes the most wonderful transformation. Now, onto the details.

We’re now into the meat of Act II. Your Hero has a goal, and only one thing stands in the way. The Villain. He must confront the villain, enter their lair, and retrieve something incredibly valuable. This is known as the Crisis, but it isn’t the ultimate Climax of the story. Here is where he’s entered foreign land, learned all the curious rules about it and gathered Allies, now attempts to take on the Villain on the Villain’s home turf. Generally, this is not a good idea, but your Hero must be so committed to the journey that he will face any risk to achieve his goal.

So he’s off to face the Villain, who is kind of “huh?” right now. The Villain is not really focused on some insignificant bug that’s buzzing around. He’s off doing his dastardly deeds, heedless of the consequences. By the end of this week, that all changes. He now will see the Hero as his main threat, so he’ll come after the Hero with everything in his arsenal. Week Three is when you separate the men from the boys, the Heroes from the Wannabe’s. So here is a general outline:

1. The Hero approaches the Villain’s Inner Sanctum. The Villain is safe and secure in his world, not really worried about pesky Heroes showing up. He may have even tried to befriend or recruit the Hero, but it’s becoming clear that they are diametrically opposed on certain key elements.
2. The Hero engages the Villain in a preliminary scuffle. Not an all out war, not a duel to the death. More like a shoving match. There may be lesser cohorts that he does defeat on the way to facing the Villain, but he’s still unprepared for a final showdown.
3. The Hero steals something valuable from the Villain (knowledge, power, influence, allies, money, love, secrets, clues, etc). The Villain has underestimated his foe, but won’t make that mistake again.
4. The Villain is really pissed off and pursues the Hero. “It’s On” as they say. The Hero must flee back to relative safety. He about to be on his way back to his Ordinary World, but everything has changed, and he can’t return until the Enemy is defeated.

So now onto the Tips for Week Three:

• Raise the stakes. Raise the stakes. Raise the stakes. The story’s no longer about finding a hamburger joint. It’s now a life-and-death struggle to find a hamburger joint, and this hairy dude holding your girlfriend hostage.
• The Hero must be willing to face death to confront the Villain. This is a perfect time to kill off a couple characters, to remind the Hero what the ultimate price of failure is. If not actual death, then show those characters fighting the Villain…and losing so badly they abandon the journey. Either way, they’re martyrs who remind the Hero what he’s fighting for.
• The Hero will end the week with everything he needs to defeat the Villain…except for one thing: the ability to defeat his own inner demons. This is the focus of Week Four, so hold off on major transformations.
• A Hero’s allies can not be trusted. They have their own agendas. They are lured by the Villain and may fall prey to their baser needs. The Villain has agents everywhere, ready to snatch away unwary travelers in his kingdom.
• Reward the Hero for his efforts after he faces the Villain. You could call this the “final breather” before the very end of the story, because after this week, it’s a frantic race to the finish.

If you still get stuck, here are some thoughts to keep you going:

• What is the villain’s agenda? How does he react when some usurper dares invade his territory?
• Put more things on the line, more lives in jeopardy, more things the Hero holds dear in the balance.
• Your Hero must cling to his original goals through thick and thin, despite all the evidence that they be on the wrong path. Is saving the world really worth the sacrifice? All he wants is a burger, but now he has to save the world? WTF?? Can’t he just have a burger and call it a day? No, he can’t. Drill that through his head. You’re in Act II buddy, no turning back now.
• There are no easy victories at this point. Everything is earned with a steep price. The Call to Quit is strong here. Both for you as a writer and the Hero. But you both can’t.
• Everything that can go wrong goes wrong. Here. Make it so. Deal with it.
• Don’t give up. I mean you, as the writer. You can get through this rough week where your characters are beat up and flailing against a seemingly invincible enemy. But this week will expose the enemy’s weaknesses, and hopefully illustrate your strengths as a writer. Now you know how to defeat the enemy, and Week Four will be a breeze.

Good luck!

NaNoWriMo Week Two Tips

NaNoWriMo Week Two Tips

Tip Zero: DON’T GIVE UP!

You started out NaNoWriMo with the world’s greatest idea, wrote furiously for a week, and now you find yourself staring at a blank page, unable to fathom a single idea to propel your book forward. If you’ve outlined, that document is now thrown out the window, a hopelessly inane piece of unimaginative tripe. If you’re pantsing, the awful mess of spaghetti prose you’ve laid out has tempted you to throw out everything you’ve written and start anew, or give up entirely. Welcome to the Wonderful World of Week Two.

The other thing that should be happening is that you’ve made the turn into the Special World of Act II. In Act I (see Week One Tips), you introduced your characters, defined their specific issues and goals, and sent them on a fruitless quest to solve and/or avoid these issues. But now it’s time for your characters to stop reacting, and start acting. They must enter a new world of excitement and danger. This Special World is far different than where they started, full of opportunity and challenges. They are now in enemy territory, trying to negotiate their way through unfamiliar terrain. No more sitting around on their keisters, they must act.

Week Two is all about rising challenges. Your characters are now on a mission, and they need to accomplish three things over the next week or so:

1. Acquire the skills needed to tackle the mission.
2. Identify their friends and foes, and gather their friends close (and their enemies closer?). A handy way to achieve this is through the Bar Scene or it’s equivalent, where both allies and enemies gather for refreshment, and secret knowledge is shared.
3. Practice their skills against increasingly difficult opposition.

By the end of the week, they should be approaching the enemy’s hideout, and heading for the main crisis point of the story. Note that isn’t the Final Battle or Climax, this is just their first big encounter with the enemy which occurs about 1/2 to 2/3’s of the way into the book, depending on whose structure you follow. So by this coming weekend, they should be on their way if not actively engaged with the Enemy.

So now for my Tips for Week Two:

1. Keep Writing. Don’t stop. Ever. This is your goal, this is your mission. You must suffer for your craft, as your characters must suffer to achieve their goals. No matter what form of bilge appears in your manuscript, you must persevere.
2. Keep raising the stakes. Everything the character wins must be earned. The risk of failure is growing. The rewards of success are multiplying. We’re not at an extreme yet, but keep upping the tension.
3. Help the character grow by encouraging lesson-learning setbacks. Make sure that your characters are driving the plot, making things happen, and getting into loads of trouble on their quest.
4. Don’t place them in impossible situations. Provide them with the skills to succeed, give them mentors and allies. They will need a certain level of confidence for the Big Fight to come.
5. Goals, goals, goals. No matter how ridiculous the goal, your characters must pursue them with bulldog-like tenacity. Once you focus on goals, then add the obvious converse—Obstacles. Higher walls, deeper moats, darker storms, better enemies.
6. Remember, your Villains have goals and dreams too, and they pursue them with just as much, if not more tenacity than your Heroes. Who wants it more? What does your Hero learn from your Villain about life and desire? What does your Hero learn that the Villain doesn’t?

If you still get stuck, here are some helpful tricks to keep the narrative flowing:

1. What’s the Worst Thing that can happen right now? Flat tire? Roving gang of Zombies? Meteor strike? Swarm of locusts? Make it so.
2. What are your character’s worst fears? Afraid of heights? A failing report card? Snakes? (on a plane?) Getting fired? Make them happen.
3. Reversals. Every scene must contain a Reversal of Fortune, either something really good or really bad, just something unexpected. Hire a maid? She steals your cash. Go out to dinner? Credit card fails. Read the newspaper? Don’t read the obits…you won’t like what’s there.
4. Stop writing for a day and conduct an interview of your character. There are many templates of these online, but just pretend you’re conducting an interview for your blog. Heck, if it helps your word count, have your character answer a phone call from Mom and explain exactly what she’s doing in sub-Saharan Africa chasing infected monkeys while trying to avoid the looming insurrection against the local backwater dictator.
5. When all else fails, kill off a character. Yes, it sounds trite, but it’s a stark reminder to your characters of what the ultimate price of failure is: Death. It may make them reconsider their commitment to action, and rededicate them to the cause.

Good luck, and keep writing! This is definitely the hardest week to get through, but have faith, and keep it up!

NaNoWriMo: Week One Tips

NaNoWriMo: Week One Tips

For those of you doing NaNoWriMo, welcome! Here are some tips for working through Week One, especially for the pantsers among us (writing by the seat of our pants).

You’ve had a day or two with your new novel. You’ve created some characters, a scene or two, and maybe some plot. Week One is all about Character Development, more or less the “Act One” of your novel. You’re introducing your characters, your world, and it’s all interesting and new. Here are some things to keep in mind:

• Show your character in some ordinary situations. Show their goals and dreams, and how they can’t immediately achieve them. Show how they’re miserable failures who really don’t deserve to star in a story. Everything they touch turns to crap. Even Superman blows it with Lois Lane. But don’t overload them right away. Act One is about showing them trying to solve their problems with the same old approaches, which of course doesn’t work. They’re essentially in a rut.
• Conflict is essential at every stage of your novel. To create conflict, you might want to consider Plot Reversals. Nothing your character expects can occur. If they go for a coffee, they don’t have enough money, or the store is closed, or they don’t have the right brand, or the Evil Barista messes up their order. If they are walking the dog, then the dog runs away, or chases a squirrel, or bites another dog, or poops on the neighbor’s lawn right in front of him. Or something can go well, like a feared blind date where the guy or girl is actually nice and attractive. Reversals. Use them.
• Set up the Adventure. Examples: A letter in the mail promising a prize if they do X, Y, and Z. A mysterious message on the answering machine talking about inheritances. A want ad in the paper for an exciting job. A random stranger on the bus who tells them how they lost 70 lbs in 3 days. Define your character’s problem, and then entice them to go out and find a solution.
• What is the problem? Seriously. Why is your character single? Why can’t she excel at work? Why does his brother always outperform him? Why do the Aliens find her so interesting? Why are vampires always hanging around? Why are the Voices so irritating?
• Who does your character listen to for advice? Who can they trust? Is there someone out there to help guide them, someone who may have BTDT in the past? Is there someone out there who will steer them wrong? What skills will they need on their Journey, and who will help them learn these skills?
• What is your character afraid of? Why won’t he run for Congress? Why doesn’t she go out on dates? Why can’t he just assault the enemy’s fortress? Why can’t she just tell her mom the truth for once? What is keeping them trapped in their own miserable lives with their tired circle of friends, and what is it going to take to for them to get moving? They don’t have to get moving, not quite yet, but the more uncomfortable you make it, they more impetus they will have for change.

If you can cover all this in a week, and in 12-25K words, you’re doing great! Just keep putting your character through more and more situations until you find what they really need to get going. Then next week, your character will start actively working on their problems, start encounter resistance and Enemies, and will take the conflict to the next level.

And one last tip: STOP READING BLOGS AND GET WRITING!!

Why I NaNoWriMo

National Novel Writing Month.
The goal: write a 50,000+ word novel in 30 days.
Why do I do it? Why put myself through 30 days of hell? Well, let me tell you a little story. It was 1985. I had just graduated High School. I had already been accepted to college, but I had little to do that summer. I might have had some kind of job, but I don’t really remember. What I do remember is sitting out in the back yard and working on a grand post-apocalyptic story. In longhand (probably the last time I ever wrote a novel longhand).
I worked out mankind’s future history for the next 3000 years. At the time, the Cold War still raged, so I started with an East vs West World War set sometime around…I don’t know…2015 or so (gasp). I also predicted orbital colonies and colonies on the Moon and Mars. I did think that everyone would have these networked computers that would provide them news and information, so I wasn’t all wrong.
Anyways, by the time school arrived, my school work precluded any time for writing. Months passed, and at last I found myself at home on Winter Break with my shiny new Mac 512K. In those days, Macs were the modern equivalent of laptops…a whole computer in one box. Anyways, I decided to finish the story I had started during the summer. But unlike NaNoWriMo, I only had three weeks to write a complete novel. I literally wrote all day, from the time I got up ‘til the time I went to sleep. Then, on the final day before I had to head back, I would print the whole thing out. I repeated this the next two winters, not finding time to do writing during summer break.
I’ve looked back at that writing, and it’s crap in its purest form. But I’ve never forgotten the intense satisfaction I got from the pure creative process. Since that time, I’ve always planned to have a second career as a writer. NaNoWriMo answers the call I have to be a writer. I’ve always worked best under pressure, and watching the word counter move every day is great motivation. I want to recapture those days, except I want to produce writing that’s not pure crap.

NaNoWriMo 2009

So now on to this year’s project. The last two NaNoWriMo’s have been just for fun. I created a fictional blog and wrote the story in real time. It was a blast and I might pick it up again someday. But this year, I want NaNoWriMo to count. I’ve spent the last two months outlining a new book in a new genre (or two) that I think is totally marketable, if I can nail it. So I hereby present to you:

The Battle for New Britannia
    a Steampunk Romance

New England a Monarchy? Pennsylvania populated by Germans? Armies composed of airships and mechanical horses?

All Prudencia Stratton wants is to restore her family’s name by finding a nobleman to marry. When she discovers that her country is on the brink of civil war, she sides with the devious Duke who knows no boundaries on his quest for power. However, when a handsome Sky Captain sweeps her off her feet, a new civil war begins—the battle over Prudencia’s heart.

Okay, I hope that blurb isn’t too sappy. That’s the core conflict of the story, your classic love triangle. But there’s a bajillion subplots and substories and a slew of characters all waiting to be fleshed out. I’ve created an entire new history of North America, where Steam Power is the norm and electricity hasn’t become popular. If you want a longer synopsis, check out my NaNoWriMo Profile (user Iapetus999). You may have already noticed the slow conversion of my blog over to a steam-powered motif.
My goal for November is of course to hit 50,000, but my target word count is 90,000 overall. I won’t be upset if I don’t hit that larger goal by Dec. 1. I know the purpose is to write with “reckless abandon,” but I think that woks best when you don’t really know what the story’s about. In this case, I have it plotted down to individual scenes, but I’m not committing to staying within the outline. We’ll see what happens.
So now a note to my loyal blog followers as to what to expect over the next 30+ days. I’m probably not going to read a lot of blogs. I’m not going to be posting much except NaNoWriMo updates. If your blog post doesn’t contain the word “NaNoWriMo” I probably won’t read it. But if you comment on this blog, I will take the time to check yours out. I’m going to spend my free time on the NaNoWriMo forums which only seem to have life October through November then everyone disappears.
Lastly, if you’re doing NaNoWriMo, comment here and I’ll add you to my NaNoRoll on the side of this blog when I get a chance, so we can compare progress and hopefully motivate each other.
Good luck everyone, Happy Halloween, Happy NaNoWriMo, and see you on Dec. 1st!