Fortune Cookie Friday: Straight Jackets

Fridays always feel like Chinese food sort of days, and what's takeout without a fortune cookie? Thus, Fridays will bring you tips, tricks, advice, and some riddles that might apply to everything but will turn a light bulb on in your head (or maybe I just like talking like Yoda).



(In honor of NaNo...)

Confucius Say
A Tattoo is permanent proof of temporary insanity.  

And a book, also a fairly permanent thing (a tattoo of the soul?), must be proof long-term insanity.


Take from that what you will.


Happy writing!

Fortune Cookie Friday: Yoda

Fridays always feel like Chinese food sort of days, and what's takeout without a fortune cookie? Thus, Fridays will bring you tips, tricks, advice, and some riddles that might apply to everything but will turn a light bulb on in your head (or maybe I just like talking like Yoda).


(you NaNo-ers have already taken this to heart)

Do or do not, there is no try.

Because some days, I like to be obvious. Put pen to paper, young padawan!

Happy writing!

New for November

What's new for November? Besides NaNo?

I'm keeping you crazy NaNo-ers in mind this fall and starting two new blog series.

The first will kick off your week: Monday Madness. It's not quite as fun as it sounds though (except for me). It's quick grammar, vocab, etc, the simple mistakes I see as an agent (and a concerned English Major who is Facebook friends with non-English Majors).

The second will wrap up your week: Fortune Cookie Friday. This is exactly as fun as it sounds! Words of wisdom brought to you by Confucius, Yoda, and internet Memes! Completely unrelated to writing but we'll make them be relevant to us! (look for the first tomorrow-- words for you, Yoda has)

Wednesday Reads will continue (I know you've missed them) because tons of great books have come out this fall and I'm scrambling to read them all!

And, when the muse descends, I'll grace you all with my own advice and theories of this crazy world we exist in. And I'll answer your questions! If you have anything you want to know about, or ask me in general, please ask in the comments section of this post!

I'll leave you on this first day of NaNo with this:

Be safe this November... don't hurt anyone who interrupts the creative process.

Happy NaNo-ing!

NaNo Debreifing

Remember at the beginning of the month when I asked for a brief description of what you thought you were going to write about? (Do you still have enough brain cells to remember the beginning of the month, when you were so full of hope, energy, and time?) Tell me where your novel ended up! Did you scrap it? Did it turn into something else? Is the plot and characters so awesomely awesome that you have a new one line pitch for me? Also, what you do you plan to do with your NaNo novel now? Going to revise (and revise and revise) before you query it? Or shelf it and get going on another?

Happy writing! (go take a nap!)

'Tis the Season

We're heading into cold weather (some of you have already had it), which brings up images of roaring fires and thick blankets. Tell me, what's your ideal writing and/or reading environment? Personally, I prefer sunshine and a bottle of suntan lotion, but I'm getting pretty partial to a fire and hot tea. Now it's time for snow to seal the deal--as long as the power stays on.

Happy writing!

NaNo Halfway Point

Has anyone given up yet? Haha. Just a few things on the agenda today:

1) BACK UP YOUR FILES. If you haven't already, back up your files. Last year when I did NaNo (the first and only time), I didn't. I had them on a thumb drive because I was worried my computer was about to crash. Instead, the files on the thumb drive got corrupted. I did manage to save the 60K words, but it didn't have punctuation, format, quotation marks, nothing. Needless to say, it was a nightmare to fix, which I finally did a few months later.

2) What's the craziest thing you've done yet this NaNo? Forget your child? Scream EUREKA!! in the middle of the grocery store because you just realized how to overcome a plot hiccup? Go two days without eating? Manage to write 1K words on your grocery list? Start over with a new idea?

3) And just in case you need it:

Happy (safe) writing!

NaNo break

Tap tap tapping away? If it's on your computer and you're actually getting word counts done, stop reading now. If your fingers are tapping your desk and your word count sits at a very tiny number... well read on. It might not help your word count or writer's block, but it's a good use of your time since you're not doing anything else.

(This would be termed a non-helpful blog post. Next week I'll see what I can do about being more inspirational.)

Go to the Google homepage. Type in "do a barrel roll" and press enter.

That is all.

What are your favorite internet time wasters when you're supposed to be typing or brainstorming?

Happy NaNoing!

On your marks... Get set... NaNo!

NaNoWriMo begins today. Did you know?!

Let's have a little fun. Put down your pens... er... minimize your word document...

Do you have a set idea in mind for your NaNo novel? Think you know where it's going? This might work best if you're a panster rather than a plotter, but who knows?

Last year when I did NaNo, my light-hearted, rom-com-esque novel inspired by a friend turned into an emotional, dark journey into the past, and it did not have a happily ever after. Whoops. (and no, I'm not NaNoing this year--too intense for me, and too time consuming)

Tell me, in one or two sentences, what you think your NaNo novel is going to be about. Visit me again at the end of the month and give me another short blurb to see if or how much changed. Do you have any fun NaNo-changling stories from past years?

Happy (as in, don't go insane) writing!

Boo!

Happy Halloween! In the writing world, I truly do consider this a frightening day... because NaNoWriMo starts tomorrow! I won't be participating (one year was enough for me) but I'll be thinking of you all. Blog posts will be shorter next month, filled with fun and games, wisdom, tips, comic strips, etc.

But before we go into a month in which my clients will probably stop talking to me (let me know beforehand if you decide to poof!) and my readers forsake me, let's have some fun with Halloween.

Firstly, check out the agency blog's Authornomics (here) this week, featuring Tex, Editorial Director of Under The Juniper Tree, a dark, literary horror magazine for children's stories and artwork. Find out what makes a great scary story, enter to win a critique with Tex, and find out what he and Marjorie Merle are dressing up as this Halloween! Website here.

Secondly, share some of your favorite sites, topics, pictures, stories, costume, favorite scary book or movie. And tell me what type of Halloween you enjoy: sweet costumes, pumpkin carving, and some Hocus Pocus? Stephen King or slasher flicks, lights off, haunted mansion type of Halloween? Or traditional Day of the Dead festivities?

Myself, I like carving pumpking (mostly so I can toast and eat the seeds), put on a lame costume I've used for several years running, navigate a corn maze, and snuggle down with some good movies; my absolute favorite is the little known but super awesome Monster Squad (shout out if you've seen it).

Lastly, gaze in awe at this:

That is all.

Happy haunting!!

NaNo Round Up

So, my month of being a writer is officially over (whew).  I completed my objective of finished my novel by the end of November.  Approximately 70,000 words (didn't get an official count because it's divided in chapters, I got mad at it, see below, and didn't feel like compiling them), which, starting with 10,000 already, means I wrote about 60,000 words in 30 days.  And I don't think I ever want to do that again.

So, a few things I've learned:

• Back up all your files.  Even if they tell you to back up your files and you scoff and think, "I don't need to back up my files, I won't lose them."  Back them up anyway.  (My files got corrupted, I managed to save them, but now they have no punctuation, quotation marks, or paragraph breaks.)
• Outlining actually helps.  A lot.
• When you have an inability to name characters and you suddenly find yourself with a character that needs a name, use a celebrity's name (Richard Gere made an appearance) or a ridiculous name that you may or may not choose to keep later (Dorcas got a lot of screen time simply because I liked typing it).
• If you're writing historical fiction, research the time period first.
• If your story is set in a particular part of the world you don't know anything about, get a map.  I still don't know where my characters were, they jumped from Maryland, to Virginia, to New York, to Pennsylvania, all within one scene.  (Or maybe they found a machine... nope, not writing Sci Fi, dang)
• Be prepared to eat, dream, talk, think nothing but your story for 30 days.  It becomes an obsession.  I am to plot as Zombies are to brains.
• Tying up loose ends from four or five or six subplots is actually harder than one might think.  I might have forgotten about one.  No wonder Herman Melville just started killing people off in Moby Dick.
• Since NaNo is in November, allow wiggle room to accommodate Thanksgiving, a week of family in town, and a weekend long turkey comma.
• Also allow wiggle room so you can take a week break from writing because you nearly tore your hair out when you almost lost all your files, without falling too far behind in your goal.

As much as I love having accomplished this ginormous task, I'll leave it to the professionals from now on.  You guys and gals have my deepest respect.

Happy writing!

NaNo Half Way Point

Today marks day 15 of NaNoWriMo, of 30 days (nice round number, I think they chose November on purpose).  So let's take a tally.

Are you on track?  Have you finished already?  Given up yet?  Tear any hair out?

As a writer, what have you learned through this process?  (if you've a NaNo survivor of past years, what have you learned before?  Are you still learning things about the writing process each year you participate?)

Any advice for aspiring writers?

What is your favorite part so far? (of the writing process or of your novel)

NaNoWriMo NOPness

Thus ends week 1 of NaNoWriMo.  I've held steady with 3,000 words a day.  I try not to go over because I have other work to attend to.

While writing, I've been keeping in mind the great advice and wisdom of James Scott Bell in Plot and Structure: Techniques and Exercises For Crafting a Plot that Grips Readers From Start to Finish (buy it here).  The great advice and wisdom I'll leave for another post.

Bell has a theory that there are two types of writers in the world.  NOPs and OPs.  A NOP is a "no outline" person.  While a OP is an outline person.  NOPs will sit down at their computer and bust out a novel.  Only later, after they've written a mess of pages, will they sort out what they have, and begin crafting a novel off of that.  An OP will come up with the plot, characters, and scenes before writing.  Methods include treatments, note cards, diagrams, etc.

Personally, the idea of figuring out every nuance of a novel before writing it, sounds more tedious than playing the "Why?" game with a four year old.  I am a NOP.  I always have been a NOP.  In college, writing papers for me included the same skills I'm applying to my novel.  Sit down, bust out a first draft.  If it was a 14 page paper, I'd write a good 8 pages, print them out, and go over them with a pencil, writing new lines and ideas in between the double spaced lines.  There was lots of crossing out and stars and corrections involved.  After doing that same process a good twenty times (and as many trees killed), I'd have a respectable looking 14 page essay.

NaNo crushing a hapless NOP

I don't plan to use the exact method on my projected 60,000 word novel.  But the first draft is akin to brain splatter on page.  I do have a few OP tendencies.  And I've had to adopt a few to get me through this first week of NaNo.  I started the novel with a very good idea where it was going to go, and two or three plot points (none of which I've come across yet).  I had a character fully formed in my mind (helps when you are writing about your best friend, saved me a lot of time), and the idea of what journey she was going on.  After writing my 3,000 words each day, I spend the rest of the day and night (ahem, working) thinking about what to do next.  So by the time I sit down the next day, I have a plan.  A rough plan.  Not exactly a blueprint.  The characters have minds of their own, and the story simply comes to life under my fingers.

The OP has lost his way

For me, writing a novel has become... well, I can use the sailing metaphor (haven't seen that in a while).  In sailing, the shortest distance between two points is a zigzag line.  You get there eventually, and every tack is filled with its own short little action (when in a race, also filled with potential to lose or crash into other boats, or bouys as the case may be).  Way more exciting than zooming on through with a seventy foot yacht.

So tell me, what are you?  NOP?  OP?  NOP with a little OP?  OP with a little NOP?  Sail boat or yacht or dingy or cruise ship?

Happy writing!

NaNoWriMo Part 2

The month of November will work a little differently on my blog, since I'll be trying my hand at writing a novel this month.  Wednesday Reads will continue (I have written them all in advance--go me!).  Once or twice a week I will report what I have found and (when I procrastinate) tips from the real writers.

So, to put it in writing, my GOAL for November: to finish my WIP.  I started it a few months ago, a project for a good friend of mine who is ill, but I hit a dead end about chapter 4.  So, starting there, I'll continue.  I have a semi-projected idea of where the novel is going, so I'll write and write and write until I can't write anymore.  Hopefully I have 50,000 words in me.  If the novel ends after only 30,000, I'll feel accomplished.  But it's been sitting on the back burner for long enough, it's time to take it out and finish it.

My secondary goal is to get more into the mindset of the writer.  I feel like most agents and editors out there are also writers.  I don't have an ultimate goal of being published one day (I like the behind the scenes work), but I would like to know, first hand, how the writing process works.  In actuality, this will be my second novel, the first I cranked out during a boring month of classes in college (never, ever, ever to see the light of day).  That was me dabbing.  This will be me writing.  With the serious writer's face.  And fancy hat.

In preparation, I read Plot and Structure: Techniques and exercises for crafting a plot that grips readers from start to finish by James Scott Bell.  It certainly isn't the last writing book I'll read in my career.  How else can I know how to tell you (my hypothetical client) how to improve your ms?  Haha. 

The nerves set in...

So, here I go my dear readers (and real life writers).  I'll torture myself for a month as you do every day.  Now I just have to figure out how to juggle my agent training and being a writer for a full month.  The writer hat must sit on the shelf while I agent, and the editor/agent/super critical critic hat will sit on the shelf while I'm writing.  Good thing I didn't go to clown school.  The juggling thing is hard!

So, writers, start your engines.  On Monday we disappear from the world!

Happy writing!

NaNoWriMo

I first heard this term a few years ago in college.  It sounded like some made up word, I had no idea what it meant, and assumed it was an anime thing, since friends who liked anime were talking about it.  Then last year, I heard some "serious" people talking about it.  Finally, a few months ago, I gave up the pretense that I knew what they were talking about and asked.

National Novel Writing Month.  It's a month where writers set a goal and write as much as they can.  Ah, that's why lots of my friends disappeared during November during college.  Smart, by the way, having a writing month end only two weeks (in some cases one) before final exams.  Glad I hadn't known more about it earlier.

So today, we are a week away from November.  In honor, I decided to learn more about it.

Writer Musings has a great post about what it take to meet the 50,000 word goal (which I didn't know was the goal until reading this post).  To write 50,000 words in 30 days:

"That's 1600 words per day, including weekends and (American) Thanksgiving. If you can't do weekends, then you have 22 days, and need to write 2275 words per day. If you can't write on those two days for Thanksgiving, then you have 20 days, and need to write 2500 words per day."

A few months ago I was inspired to start writing.  I managed 3,000 words in I think 3 or 4 hours.  I thought, ok, I'll do it again the next day.  Didn't happen.  Sitting down and writing nearly 2,000 words a day seems impossible to me.  Crazy!!!

The experts have some good advice.  Nathan Bransford tells you what you need to have in place before the month even begins.  You need to know what you are going to write.  Why waste two or three days staring at your computer screen with no idea where to start?

Fuel Your Writing gives a brief background and insight into this hectic month.  "NaNoWriMo has grown, from a 21-person book party in 1999, to hosting over 165,000 participants just a decade later."  That's how it started?  Awesome.  Oh, the powers of the internet.

So, tell me dear readers, about your experiences with NaNoWriMo, and any advice.  For, this year, I will be participating in NaNoWriMo (more on that later this week).

Happy writing!