Thank goodness NaNoWriMo is over for 2009… for most of us. I know there are some out there still madly pounding away at their keyboards hoping to get to 50K before midnight. I know because I’ve done it myself, once or twice. But most of us have walked away already secure in the knowledge that if we can write 50,000 words on a novel in less than thirty days, we can do almost anything.

I still can’t do calculus or trigonometry and I’m not all that great at chemistry though I did take and pass an organic chemistry class in college. No matter… I can WRITE and that’s what makes me happy.

My novel this year is about a Bigfoot named Oja. Oja is a lovable but challenging character because I perceive her as having a huge brain capacity with special gifts we humans don’t have, therefore it was hard to describe her perceptions and to imagine her abilities. Nevertheless, the story took form and she became a fascinating personality to explore. I’m still not done with it… but I’m fairly close to the end.

My future novels will be written with a whole lot more pre-planning. I recently purchased the Snowflake Pro software and am using it to develop another novel, one I wrote back in 2002, but never revised. This novel, The Alyssa Project, was one I wrote without the help of NaNoWriMo. It is a YA story of about 58,000 words. I’ve changed a lot as a writer since 2002 and that means I’ve got a lot of work to do in bringing the manuscript up to my new standards.

During November I also purchased the Write or Die Desktop Edition … a great ten dollar investment. It made me write without thinking too much about which way the plot was going, and that brought up some great ideas for the story. I recommend it highly!

Inspiration hit today when I suddenly had to write a lens titled Christmas on a Tight Budget. The ideas kept coming and I finished the project in just a few hours. I’m sure there won’t be a lot of sales from the lens - after all, it is speaking to people with little money - but if anything does get sold it will benefit my favorite charity, Covenant House. This charity helps get homeless teenagers off the streets.

A lot of the teenagers helped by Covenant House were released from foster care with no family and no place to go. I recently made another lens, Drugging Foster Children, which included videos of teenagers telling about how they’d been given multiple psychotropic drugs while in state custody. In one video a teenager stated that when his brother had his eighteenth birthday his foster parent woke him up in the middle of the night, just past midnight, and told him he was eighteen and to get out. This boy didn’t even know his real family. He was sent to the streets. Covenant House helps children in this predicament every day.

Many families are low on funds now, with the recession taking jobs and homes. We need to remember that there are many ways to celebrate Christmas, and that money is not the reason for the season.

Is it hard to write one hundred words? I think most of us wouldn’t have any trouble with that. One hundred words - that’s an easy task.

What does one hundred words look like?

Here’s a snippet from my work in progress. It has exactly one hundred words:

That was easy to write. It took me all of one or two minutes to put that into my manuscript.

The funny thing is, my daily goal of 2500 words is the same as writing one hundred words twenty-five times.

What’s so hard about that?

Nothing.

A NaNoWriMo novel is created simply by writing one hundred words five thousand times.

Can you do that? There’s nothing hard about it… it is just repetitive and time consuming.

Let your imagination flow; let it take you places you’ve never gone before.

I’ve never hiked in the Colorado mountains before - but did so today with Oja and Ken. We’re having a lot of fun. I’d better get back to it. I have to write one hundred words thirteen more times before I can go to sleep.

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Get Ready for NaNoWriMo (if you haven’t already)

A lot has been written about how difficult and tedious writing can be. But what of love? If you sit in your chair thinking negative thoughts about how hard it is to get any words on the page, is that going to be better than actually enjoying your writing process?

We all know the fast writers on the NaNoWriMo site are a bit obsessive - but I’ll bet they also love their characters and get joy out of bringing their stories to the page. I find that when I get emotionally involved with my characters the story goes deeper and has richer description and philosophical underpinnings.

A bit of character love resolves flat-character syndrome. After all, if you approach the page in boredom and/or fear, that will probably carry over into the story. However if you sit before the computer and feel some genuine joy and excitement about the writing of your novel, that too will be reflected in the pages of your manuscript.

If you’re not feeling the love, try this. Sit in front of your opened manuscript page and say this affirmation ten times: “I love my characters and they love me because I give them life.” Ten times…. and then check to see if your attitude has changed. If it hasn’t changed sufficiently, say this ten times: “I love writing this novel and bringing life and excitement into my characters.”

If you still think you’re unhappy with your writing progress, just write anyway. You may find that subconsciously your attitude made a subtle shift and that you’re happier than you think.

LindaJM’s NaNoWriMo Profile
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Get Ready for NaNoWriMo (if you haven’t already)

If you don’t have a goal you can’t reach for it. I’m sure most of you have decided to write a certain number of words daily. If not, you might want to give that a try.

Are you reaching your goals? Do you have what it takes? Sometimes other things in life interfere with a goal-maker’s resolve. If you need sleep so you can get up for work or school in the morning, then that must be your priority. So be it. We cannot let novel writing interfere with reality.

Still, we’ve got that 50,000-word goal to think about during NaNoWriMo…

Cut that into bite sized pieces and it isn’t so hard to reach. So how many days can you definitely devote to writing this month? Days with only one available hour count, though ideally three or four hours would be preferable.

If you can write on at least twenty-five days this month, you’re in luck. 50K divided by 25 equals 2000 words daily MINIMUM. Promise yourself at least that many before you hang it up for the day.

If you have only fifteen days to write this month, let’s hope you’ve got more than one hour on each of those days. 50K divided by 15 equals 3333.33 words daily. Do not settle for less, or you’re in danger (BIG danger) of falling behind.

Every year there are NaNoWriMo participants that wait until the last few days of the month, then R-U-S-H to finish. Do you want to be one of them? I certainly don’t so I pace myself with a daily goal. I like writing 2500 words daily. Sometimes it is really hard for me to reach that goal, but other days I’ll speed ahead with 5000 or more words. Still, the goal is to reach the MINIMUM for the day and under no circumstances to stop writing and fall asleep before that minimum number of words is reached.

With a goal of 2500 words daily I can finish this novel in just twenty days! (Usually it takes less.)

YOU can do that! It just takes that magical word, DETERMINATION. Hug that word. That word is your friend.

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Get Ready for NaNoWriMo (if you haven’t already)

So, did you think it was going to be easy? I expect by now you’ve had time to sit down at your keyboard and type out a few lines. Go-getters are already 10,000 words into this. Many others have made it to 2000 words. Others are self-flagellating and wondering why it is so hard to reach even 200 words!

Welcome to NaNoWriMo! This is a place where the veils all come off. If you thought being a writer would be easy, you may already be seeing some of the problems involved, and why that word, determination, is so important! I won’t insult ditch diggers by saying writing is hard work, but I will say it is very challenging!

If you’re already confused about where your novel is going, whether it is any good, or if you’ve got any chance at all to finish, please review yesterday’s post about things to do to prepare for NaNoWriMo and also, take a look at this: Get Ready for NaNoWriMo. You might get some cool ideas that will help you write a little bit more, with direction and enthusiasm!

When the veils of illusion are removed you can see exactly what needs to be improved regarding your approach to this writing project. Perhaps by now you realize that you need a smidgen of a plot. You could do what I did - I sat down and wrote a paragraph for each of the next ten chapters. Next I discussed this with my very imaginative significant other. He came up with some good ideas for me, and nixed some of my ideas as “too controversial.” What came out of this brainstorming session was a clear idea of where the plot is going, and how to enhance it in ways that may eventually make some movie producer sit up and take note. (Or even better, take contract in hand!)

Another thing you might be noticing is that keeping up the momentum of writing isn’t easy for all of us. Some of us write in spurts and need frequent breaks. If you find your mental energy lagging, get up, walk around, refill your coffee mug, and if possible, get some exercise.

Are you already feeling like quitting? You might get a lot of mileage from the Word Wars, Prompts, and Sprints section of the NaNoWriMo forum. Usually I leave that section of the site for later in the project, around 30,000 words, when I’m really dragging… but many of you might appreciate word wars earlier in the game. If you’re having any trouble getting started or keeping up, please try this. I really truly hate to see people quit, and this is something that really helps.

Okay, enough for today. I’m sure by tomorrow I’ll be inspired with more to write about, but for now, we’re all anxious to get back to our novels to write, write, write. Right?

LindaJM’s NaNoWriMo Profile
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Get Ready for NaNoWriMo (if you haven’t already)

I’m not going to take time to write one of those ‘Night Before Christmas’ parodies — no, I’m way too busy today wondering if I’m really ready to start writing that novel tonight. Do I know my character well enough? Do I have adequate plot points to inspire me throughout the month?

The answer to both those questions, for me, is no. I could use another month to get ready — but time’s up. NaNoWriMo starts tonight at midnight and so at that point I’ll be sitting at my computer writing the first tentative words of my main character’s story. I have the rest of today to work on last-minute readiness issues. With that happy thought in mind I’ll produce a list of things to do, the day before NaNo.

1) Location. Write a description of the location(s) of the novel. My novel will take place in a forest for the most part. A visit to a botany or wildlife website could help put more words together for descriptions of things my main character may be dealing with during the course of the novel.

2) Character development. Can there ever be too much character development? What is your character’s goal in life? What things / issues / people prevent him from reaching that goal? And if your character doesn’t reach that goal, what will be the consequence? What are your character’s greatest assets and flaws? What does he dream about? What is he afraid of? Does he have a secret? What is it? Finally, make a list of ten things your character hates, and ten he loves. Have a detailed description of each character’s appearance.

3) Theme. Can you write in one sentence exactly what your novel is about?

4) Plot. Do you have any idea what will happen during the course of your novel? I’ll be honest — as of right now I know where my novel starts and where it ends, and have only a few sketchy ideas about places my main character will be during her journey through the pages of my manuscript. Today I’ll sit down and build a road map — because how can she get there if I don’t know where she’s going? I will create a series of scenes for each chapter. I acknowledge that the novel is very likely to take on a life of its own — and give it permission to do so — in fact, I hope it will, and soon! But for those nights when I need to beat out 2500-5000 words and my imagination is drained and I have no idea what to write about — well… those plot points are going to come in mighty handy!

A lot of people in the world aren’t aware of NaNoWriMo and don’t realize the significance of the last day of October. They call this day “Halloween.” I guess I’m one of the lucky ones — I live far enough from town that no kids will show up at my door. I have no need or desire to dress up, participate, or party.

The path is clear. NaNoWriMo is finally here!

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Get Ready for NaNoWriMo (if you haven’t already)

For those who would like to know how I made it through eight NaNoWriMos successfully, I have this bit of advice. What worked for me DETERMINATION. If you have the desire to write a novel in November, you have to be really, really sure you want it.

You will set aside enough time each day or night to write a good sized chunk of your novel. The first year I did this, I was determined to write 2500 words every evening. I knew I’d be distracted by one out-of-town trip early in the month. Also at that time I had young children still at home, and what’s more distracting than that? So I figured if I totally blew it and couldn’t get my work done some days, this would at least give me more than the daily minimum of 1667 words. As it turned out, though I did have to take one day off, I finished the novel in only seventeen days. You know how I did that? DETERMINATION.

This fierce quality, also known as WILL-POWER, is the hard outer-covering of an intense need to succeed. If you are one of those that needs to write a novel, I’m sure you won’t have any problem drumming up enough DETERMINATION to make that happen. You and many others will meet in the winner’s forum shouting out about your success and celebrating with your writerly joy.

If you are one of those who is slowing down, doubting your ability to go on, first examine your motivation. Why do you want to write a novel? How important is it to you? Whose idea was it, anyway? How much will it embarrass you to say, “I failed”? I suppose not everyone is meant to write a novel. Not everyone can do it every year. Not everyone really wants to. Either buckle down and pack on some DETERMINATION or instead, write a list of twenty things you learned by attempting NaNoWriMo this year, and post it to your blog.

Those with DETERMINATION: Buddy up to your characters, and write on!

LindaJM’s NaNoWriMo Profile
NaNoWriMo Notations
Get Ready for NaNoWriMo (if you haven’t already)

Now that I have two hours daily for writing - not counting the hour I spend writing morning pages - I’d like to clarify how these two precious hours can best be used.

1. Revision - I have so much of this to do! Those of you who have been reading my blog for a while may know I’ve written ten novels, most of which have never been revised. If I was to revise one chapter daily for the next year - I might eventually have some novels worth publishing. In my dream world I’ll be able to hire an editor to help me with this project. Meanwhile, looks like I’m still my own editor and I should get to work!

2. Submissions - right now I have only one novel that I feel is revised sufficiently enough to submit - and that is The Scribe of Irohila, the first book in my Antediluvian Adventures.

3. Critiques - I belong to two writing groups. Silverweb is a small critique group for writers of middle grade and young adult novels. I get a lot of help there so I need to reciprocate as much as possible. We have two published authors in the group: Beverly Stowe McClure, author of Rebel in Blue Jeans and other YA novels, and Daniel Chase, co-writer of a book-length memoir, Lost in the Fog. My second writing group consists of twenty novelists over age fifty who met on the NaNoWriMo message boards in November 2007. I trade critiques with some of these angels as well.

4. Reviewing and Adding To My Writer’s Notebook - What good is a writer’s notebook if you never read it? I occasionally glance through mine to refresh my memory about all the good ideas I’ve stored there over the course of many months. And while I’m there, I often add notes. One of these days I’m going to start another notebook because this one is nearly full. That day is coming soon.

5. Planning New Novels - When I start a novel, I like to have a good idea of where it is going. I like to know the beginning, the end, and some worthy plot points. I’ve tried writing novels without these and honestly, I think plotting is better, though I don’t get too detailed because I love to have room for my imagination to roam while I’m writing.

6. Characterization Work - My strategy for novel writing includes a deep knowledge of my characters. I’ve found a method of characterization I love — I use Martha Alderson’s method which I learned from a video of one of her workshops: Blockbuster Plots Writers Workshop.

7. Adding to My Chapbook - I’ll bet you didn’t know I’ve got a chapbook in progress. I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned it in this blog before. The chapbook is being written for people living in the river valley I live in, or for those who used to live here, who still want to read about it. The chapbook will contain a couple of short stories or poems featuring characters from some of my novels… which I hope will intrigue my friends and neighbors enough that they’ll want to buy my novels once they’re published. The novels I’ll feature here all have some relation to this area. Anyhow, you can expect a variety of Klamath River Valley stories, poems, and articles in this.

8. Writing Practice - I’m constantly writing about the value of writing practice sessions. I write some of my best flash fiction this way. Great hobby!

9. Digitizing My Songs and Poems - Back in the day, I wrote lots of poetry, and evenually became a song writer. Most of this work is still on paper. I need to collect it in a digital file, and think of some way to publish it.

10. Writing a New Novel - This is always the challenge, isn’t it? For the last year I’ve been very hesitant about writing more new material since I have so many novels in need of revision. Nevertheless, I couldn’t stop myself. I have two young adult novels in progress.

One thing I’ve learned about schedules during the last week — they MUST be flexible! My schedule, however well intended, wasn’t practicable. Not that I’m giving up on it. Oh no . . . I plan to continue with this attempt at fixing my life. In fact, there were some positive results. But perfection is impossible so flexibility is a necessity.

This past week I took a lot of scheduled morning walks… which was a great way to start the day. I enjoyed coming home and getting right into watering the garden before making breakfast. I did good at writing the three morning pages every day but that takes me so long I’m often late to get to the computer at 10am for blogging. Sometimes I felt I was ‘running late’ most of the day.

Making that morning routine more difficult, Bob started a new prospecting project that involved having me drop him off at the river most mornings. The reason is that we noticed a truck parked downstream from us that had been vandalized recently — rocks thrown through the windows. We don’t want that to happen to our car so it can’t sit there all day while he’s working. Of course driving back and forth to his prospecting place wasn’t part of my schedule. I told myself that I must be flexible — that too rigid an attachment to the schedule wouldn’t work for either of us. While there I enjoyed watching him kayak across the river each morning, and managed to take photos of wildflowers while I was waiting around. The flower in the photograph above is St. Johns Wort - the well-known herbal depression remedy.

One day he wanted me to go out of town with him. Around here, going out of town means a two hour drive each way, minimum, unless we go over the hill to Oregon (summers only) which takes only an hour. Any direction we head out, it is time consuming. Out of town trips are not in my schedule. Again, flexibility is needed to work around the unexpected needs of life.

On Sunday he wanted me to go swimming with him! Swimming isn’t in my schedule either! More flexibility needed! However I managed to take my Alphasmart Neo to write about the swimming hole we were at. Now that’s double-dipping!

Now I’m about to revise my new schedule for the first time. I will definitely allocate more time to writing. It seems strange that I gave it only one hour. I need more than that to be effective at revising my novels. When I start a revision, I like to complete one chapter daily. It doesn’t make sense for me to do any less. Customarily I speed up at the end of the novel and revise two or three chapters each day. That’s because toward the end I get excited about reading and the revision work comes easier.

As to what works well, concerning the schedule… I found it took stress off my relationship with Bob because (1) He can see I’ve devoted my computer time to real work; (2) He can see when my breaks will be and has adjusted to using the computer when I’m not using it; and (3) He knows I’ll take time off during the day to do ‘real world’ things around the house and garden.

My challenge now is to revise the schedule so it allows more time for writing and flexibility. I know if I stick to the plan more things will get done. Efficiency is my goal.