I’ve been a part of the challenges for several years and I’ve learned some things in the process that I’d like to share with you.

Challenge Yourself

Use NaNo as an opportunity to challenge yourself. You don’t have to adhere to the “50,000 words on a new novel” rule. It’s more of a guideline, than a rule. The point of NaNo is to challenge yourself–stretch beyond what you think you’re capable of.

• If you already have a story started, write 50,000 more words on it in 30 days.
• If you’re writing short stories, instead of novels, write 50,000 cumulative words on a variety of stories in 30 days.
• If your novel is done, edit 50 pages a day on it.
• If you’re submitting, send out 5 queries a day for 30 days.

Think of what you could accomplish under normal circumstances and then double your output for a month. You don’t have to keep it up forever, just for a month. See what kind of a kickstart that gives to your writing.

First Draft Freedom

NaNo requires fast writing. For many writers, 50,000 words in 30 days is really fast. You don’t have time to edit, to fuss with point of view, to layer your characters. You just write and get it down on paper.

As a writer who gets stuck in perfectionism, NaNo is a refreshing change for me. I can’t fuss over the first chapter for six months, getting the words just right. Instead, I have to throw something on to the page and keep going.

Now, mind you, I’m not deliberately throwing garbage on to the page and calling it my novel. No, I’m writing the story the best I can without self-editing during the process. Forward motion is my goal. I’ve come across several writers who feel that writing the first draft is necessary for you to figure out what story you’re actually telling. Then in the second draft (and subsequent ones), you shape the story to that vision. Since I know the story will change (possibly radically), then getting my first draft perfect isn’t necessary. It’s kind of useless, even, since I’m going to change it. So write fast and get to the end of your first draft so you know your story.

Help, My Plot Has Fallen and It Can’t Get Up!

One of my favorite “tools” I learned from NaNo is the plot ninjas.

Let’s pretend that you’re writing along on your novel and you start to realize that your characters have been sitting in a kitchen, sipping tea and chatting for the last 30 pages. Drinking tea in a kitchen is the kiss of death for a novel. Where’s the tension? Where’s the conflict? You need to get those characters moving and reacting to something.

Suddenly there’s a knock at the back door. Your main character answers the door and discovers ninjas who immediately start attacking him!

Now there’s tension and conflict in your story. Nobody stands passively by while ninjas are attacking.

Ninjas may not fit your genre, but you can adapt the plot ninja idea to other types of stories.

• If you’re writing a mystery, someone totally unexpected is murdered.
• In a romance, another man (or woman) shows up and claims to be married to your main character.
• In a scifi story, aliens attack or a nanite plague breaks out.
• In a crossover novel, the secret spouse of your main character’s love interest is murdered by aliens wielding nanites.

The only criteria for using plot ninjas in your story is that the ninja event be something unexpected and startling. Something that your characters must react to. Then they’re no longer in the kitchen drinking tea.

I’ve learned other things from participating in NaNo, but these are three biggies–enjoy the challenge, write freely in my first draft, and use plot ninjas to shake things up when my story has stalled.

What things have you learned from NaNoWriMo?

I’ll be participating in NaNo again this year. If you’d like to follow my progress, add me as a Writing Buddy.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

     Yup, that’s me!

     Sure, I sit down and plot the basics out for each story before I get started. Otherwise I would be all over the place and nothing would make sense by the time my hero and heroine hooked up. Okay, so chaotic dating and unknown variables are how romance works in real life but not in romance books. What person’s life is plotted in real life and actually sticks to that plan and ends up happily-ever-after? Nobody that I know of.

     Well, maybe Princess Diana, but we all know how that ended.

     Anyway…

     In the beginning, I draw up an outline to plot the general skeleton of my story – that’s about all the plotting that is involved. The rest is by the seat-of-my-pants. Literally. I never know what direction things are going to take and by the middle of the book, things have usually strayed so far off the original plan that it becomes a different story. And to make things really interesting, I may reach the middle of one book and actually throw the guts of another story into the mix. Believe me, I have lots of other stories waiting on the shelf to be written so their material is fair game for use in current plots.

     I’m not so different from most of my other writer friends. We all have our personal styles of writing and study habits, but the bare bones of it is that we come up with an idea, we do a little – or a lot – of research, we have an idea of the direction we want the story to take, and then we start writing. Some of us map out the plot, some of us just store the idea in our heads and revise it as we go along. Whatever works.

     Okay, confession time.

     Maybe I am a little obsessive.

     I have to plan things in life. I’m not real good about activities that are spontaneous, which goes against my issues with commitment. I don’t like to be tied down with certain responsibilities and expectations, but I am a very responsible person. It just has to be my idea and on my schedule.

     Wacky, huh?

     If I were to look at other areas in my life, maybe I’d find some clues. When I go shopping I tend to park in the same general area – I always thought it was because it would be easier to find my car but maybe it’s some sort of a commitment. Have I plotted my actions ahead of time?

     Hmm.

     What about other areas of my life?

     On work days, I get up at the same time every morning, after hitting the snooze exactly six times. It takes me the same time to get ready for work, the exact routine every morning, and I’m out the door the same time every morning.

     Yikes! That sounds committed!

     I clock in at work the same time, tackle the same projects each day, and clock out at the same time each day. My lunch hour is exactly noon to one o’clock.

     Listed under the word “plot” in my thesaurus are such words as conspiracy, design, development, machination, plan, scheme, stratagem, diagram, graph, outline, and contrivance. In that same thesaurus under “spontaneous” (“pantzer” isn’t listed) are such words as automatic, casual, impulsive, instinctive, involuntary, unconscious, and unintentional.

     This makes plotters seem like soldiers and pessimists, rigid and controlled, dedicated - nothing wrong with that. Pantzers are more optimistic and free spirited, flexible and intuitive – nothing wrong with that either.

     I stick with my original assessment: plotting involves commitment, pantzing involves refusing to give in to commitment.

     Now, what have I decided to call myself?

     Where so I fall in the scheme of things?

     That’s easy, I am a writer who plots by the seat of my pants! How’s that for commitment!

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

It’s not like I haven’t wanted to write short stories; I’ve had some great ideas that fit better into the short arena than as novels or even novellas. But my brain can’t wrap itself around the technical process… As far as I can tell, it requires a tremendous amount of skill to convey character, setting, and plot in just a few thousand words. Apparently I’m not that talented.

Most of the time, my ineptitude in short form isn’t a problem, as I have plenty to write about in long form to keep my brain busy. But right now, the thing that is demanding to be produced is a short story. And when I say “demanding” I mean, my brain won’t ponder my current novel, or anything else. Just this story.

So shut up and write it, right?

My writer muscle is locked in a concrete padded cell. I’m overwhelmed and scared and convinced this is an impossible task. But I’ve got my pencil out and I’m using the eraser end to chip away at the concrete.

My very first question: How do I get the emotional back story in when I haven‘t got 85000 words to scatter it through? And my second: How do I make the reader understand the complicated, morally-questionable premise that’s on the table, and the resulting decision, when I don’t get to spend at least a few pages laying the groundwork? I pretty much need to jump in to the emotional action here, but somehow find a way to drag the reader up to speed – if not empathetic, at least sympathetic – right out of the gate.

I can’t figure out how to do that.

So, anyone have any tips for a new short story writer dipping a toe into the big pond?

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

I’m knee-deep in the fleshing out of my latest humorous women’s fiction piece, tentatively entitled “Gemma.” I’m really digging where the story is going. The book idea came from a great opening scene that I’ve had forever, it just took a couple of years for the scene to tell me what it wanted to be when it grew into a novel. I know what Gemma’s arc needs to be, and I have other characters talking in my head telling me how they plan to contribute to her growth in both supportive and not-so-supportive ways. (*Note to self: Next month’s blog post to be about the challenges of starting with characters rather than story.)

Interestingly (to me), the more I work on this idea, the more I find that parts of my actual, real, often boring and sometimes comical life are making their way into the story. Of course there are autobiographical elements in nearly any work of fiction, even if they’re minor, like a character’s tendency to use a certain expression. But this time I’m taking big bits of Sara and assigning them to Gemma.

Starting right in the title, in fact. Gemma = Gretchen Elizabeth Mary Mueller Arnold (although her name was actually Mary Miller Arnold Mueller). That’s my mother and my grandmother’s initials, conveniently arranged. There’s a reason for that: my mother hid from life, and my grandmother chased life, and Gemma is the story of a woman’s progress from meekness to boldness.

There are more tangible connections. My grandmother makes an appearance in the story, setting into motion the external conflict. There are “Sara” details: during the two years my mother and I were on our own, we pretty much lived on breakfast. Since that was one of the happier times of my life, breakfast is something I hold dear and turn to during times of stress, and I pay homage to my love of all things breakfast by collecting waffle irons. Gemma, I’ve decided, also collects waffle irons, and there will be a scene with her having breakfast with her mother as a small child. I also have an unfortunate tendency to have funny but somewhat ego-bruising public calamities – ask me how I broke my leg in 9 places, or just last week ended up sandwiched between the treads of my staircase and a 300 pound sofa – and I’m assigning that talent to Gemma, as well.

In many ways, Gemma may be my James Frey novel, although I think there’ll actually be more truth in mine than there was in his. (My root canals have involved lots and lots of pain meds.)

As all this became more concrete in my mind, I began to wonder: how comfortable are you as writers really putting yourself in your stories? Could you put an emotionally raw personal experience on paper for the world to see, if you knew they might discover it was based on fact? What are you personal boundaries?

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

                The first thing I got was the knowledge that I have some great writing friends. They’re supportive and knowledgeable and ready to jump in with an answer to some unexpected research questions or a plotting problem or to offer up a heartfelt yet simple “You CAN do it!”

                The second thing I learned was that I can, when motivated, write very quickly. If I always wrote as much and as fast as I wrote during timed sprints, I could have a book done in weeks. Which would be great, if my plots were ever cohesive the first time around. And that leads us to discovered item #3:

                The plot of my current WIP was MIA. I had a good grasp of my character, a potential premise, but absolutely nothing happened to her. She had experiences. Lovely, uplifting, life-affirming experiences. All great things, but not the things required to make a book. At least not a book anyone but my grandmother (who is passed, unfortunately) would find gripping. Come to think of it, even she would tell me it was crap and to figure out how to make it a proper book.

                So, in my Nano experience, I wrote a lot of scenes (23,000 words worth!) and in the process realized more than anything I was getting to know my character rather than actually putting steps into place. I’m not the least bit unhappy about it. Now I know what Gemma’s story is, and now I know what needs to happen in the other 75,000 words I need to write (and then cut, cut, cut and add, add, add).  

                The point is, Nano may have been intended to get a book out in 30 days, but I think you can consider yourself a winner if your novel benefits from the experience, 50,000 words or not. Building writing relationships, learning about your own writing capabilities, and finding the core of your story are as important as getting those words on paper (or in my case, screen).

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Rachel Caine mentions her musical muse, Joe Bonamassa, in both.  Taking it a step further, Barnes & Noble cashes in with a display of CDs next to Stephenie Meyer’s books.  Nothing wrong with that, everyone profits, author, musician, bookseller and the fans.  Two forms of entertainment helping each other out.  Hollywood has been doing it for years, with music soundtracks and book to screenplay or vise versa.

The topic of this post maybe music, but writing is the focus of our blog, so back to the writing aspect.

The first short story I sold is based on a song.  At the time I didn’t think twice about it, who am I to question where the ideas come from?  I just played Shilo by Neil Diamond over and over, letting the story magically appear on the screen.  There were a lot of raised brows when I explained where it came from, no one got the correlation.  Not that I could blame them, the story doesn’t resemble the song in anyway.  It wasn’t supposed too, it’s Mr. Diamond’s song.  The story was something I pictured.  For those who ask where ideas come from this is a prime example.

I don’t feel the reader of any manuscript truly understands the meaning behind the words or where they come from.  I don’t even pretend to know what an author was thinking at the time.  When a writer explains what ignites an idea leading to a story, there’s a moment of oh, I can see that or that’s not what I thought it meant.  Once the words are on the page they are left up to the interpretation of the reader, how they feel about it, what it sparks in their imagination.  Just like listening to Shilo sparked mine.

At the time of that story, I didn’t think about how what I listened to affected my writing.  You don’t always notice environment–where you write, when you write, everything around you, all things that impact what and how you write–when you’re deep into a story.  The longer I’ve been doing this the more I pay attention.  Listening to something slow and weepy conveys depression and pain.  Classical makes me want to write epic fantasy.  Listening to country or southern fried rock can give my characters an easygoing attitude, at least on the surface.  Toss in hard rock and you probably will get some anger or violence.  I gravitate to certain artists or songs, each defining character, place or mood.

Look at your own music habits.  Is music one of your muses, or do you prefer silence or the sounds of nature?  Does it help you with characterization, motivation, inspiration, perspiration?  Does a certain song ignite a bonfire that can only be put out by becoming a story?

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

At the time of said offense, I was struggling with plot twists and points it showed me that never would have come up otherwise. Yes, it annoyed me and I took it out on the poor defenseless program instead of where it belonged. Me! I felt like a complete moron for not seeing these things on my own.

Dramatica works from the writer’s perspective instead of that of the audience, look at this article by Chris Huntley to understand the why and how.

Dramatica lingo can be a little intimidating. When I first started using it, I was frustrated, mumbling about it being a waste of money. I guess I thought I was brilliant enough not to RTFM (read the f’n manual) as my adorable hubby so kindly puts it. It takes time to master, but there is help. I don’t mean the silly help files that come with every program. They give you explanations, theory, definitions and stories to compare as well as the online community. All very helpful.

There are neat little toys such as the Character List. Say bye-bye to all those index cards cluttering up your desk or getting lost, the info is all right there in your computer. You can insert pictures of how you visualize your character, a description, role in the story, gender…you get the picture.

Then there’s the Brainstorming tools. You spin the wheel and it randomly picks a storyform that matches the choices you’ve already made. The Character Generator gives you new characters to play with including name, gender and character elements or you can modify existing characters.

I use it as a safety net, to keep me on track, but it also serves another purpose, it makes you THINK! Do you have the answers to Dramatica’s Twelve Essential Questions for your story? Would you have even thought to ask them?

I took a moment and applied Dramatica Theory to some of the books I’ve read. Suddenly it made sense. My Main Character didn’t have to be the Protagonist (although she is) and the Impact Character didn’t have to be the Antagonist (which he is not) allowing me to see beyond the basic plot. You know, all those pesky subplots that heighten the experience.

I could continue with my biased opinion, but you should judge for yourself. Give the demo a whirl and tell me where I’m wrong or heaven forbid agree with me.

No, Dramatica is not going to write the book for you. What it can do is take a barely alive story and make it better. Better. Stronger. Faster. Ladies and gentlemen, you can rebuild your story…you have the technology!

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

In my quest for organization, I’ve tested three programs, all in the $45-$80 range. I did not try Dramatica. As Amy, another Saturday Writer, so eloquently put it, “for the price you’d think it’d write the book for you.”

First up is Black Obelisks’sLiquid Story Binder XE. We try to pretend we don’t care about looks, but let’s make like John Edwards and tell the truth: we do. This is not a visually appealing program. In fact, whenever I open it, I feel a sense of dread because the page is so stark and demanding and cold it’s worse than starting a new file in Word. I don’t know how to explain it, but it makes me feel stupid and unworthy, that screen. Desperate to make it do something, anything, so I don’t feel so bad, I click on one of the pull-down menu options (Library, Files, Create, Open, Planners, Associations, Listings, Playlists, Workspaces, Shortcuts, Tools, Display, Preferences, About, aaaaaaahhhhhhggggggggggg! It’s just too much!). Under each menu option, there are at least a dozen more options. For example, under “Create” I can create a New Chapter, New Note, New Outline, New Checklist, New Builder, New Timeline, New Sequence, New Dossier, New Storyboard, New Image, New Song, New Gallery, New Playlist, New Recording or New Shortcut. Honestly, after muddling through all that I’m too tired to write. I want help, not a nervous breakdown. And what’s the difference between a Sequence, a Storyboard and a Timeline, I ask you? Even at the bargain price of $45.95, this isn’t the one for me.

Next up is Write Way. I like this program. It’s okay to look at… a bit on the Plain Jane side visually (and lord knows there needs to be a place for us Plain Janes of the world), but it’s well organized and not brain-scrambling in its complexity. It has many of the features I found helpful in the third program, with the added benefit of being able to write directly in it (you’d think that would be a core function of any of these programs but alas, it is not). This is a program for organizing your actual text more than designing a complete novel. One of the most helpful features is that you can store your book by scene, within chapters, within acts. This is great because if you decide to move a whole chunk around, you don’t have to retype, or cut and paste. You just drag it where you want it and et voila, it’s done. There are some cool printing features, too; you can choose Draft, Galley or Manuscript. The character charts are nice, again a bit plain to look at but plain has its place in the world. There’s a storyboard function but I haven’t quite figured out – so far it won’t play the way I like to play but I have hope. There’s a research area where you can store images, URLs, text, etc. Handy. Now, the good news is, this is the least expensive of the programs at $39 for the basic version. The bad news is that to get Outline, Storyboard, Synopsis, Research Folders, Future Book Idea Folders, the Galley print option and the ability to import your work from a word processor, you have to bump up to the Pro version which is the most expensive of all at $79.

Lastly we have Anthemion’s Writers’ Café, an attractive little program that can be had for under $50. Writers’ Café is attractive to look at. You wouldn’t think that was a big deal, really, but after working in Liquid Story Binder, you realize like size, it matters. At the main screen of the program, you have a number of tabs to pick from: Scraps (notes, photos, whatever); Storylines (visual and verbal storyboards that you can drag around, organize by plot line, color by character or scene type); Journal (doh); Notebook (a place you can type, but not like a word processor, unfortunately); Cookies (which are cute little quotes about writing and creativity – there’s a lot of cute going on in Writers’ Café); and Bookshelf, which is “help” plus the basics of writing, 101. There are templates for tracking character information. You can see your Storyboard in outline form. You can print it in manuscript form – but only the bits that appear in the Storyboard. Writers’ Café’s biggest flaw is a huge one, in my opinion: There’s nowhere to store your manuscript. It’s strictly a plotting and organizational tool. If it had but that one piece, I’d consider it as close to perfect as this sort of software can come.

Now if I can find software that’ll keep my butt in my chair and temporarily lock me out of any other program connecting me to the outside world (DSW is having a sale? I’ll just take a quick peek! I have got to unsubscribe from Harvey’s Horse Hut before I get one more hay sale email…)

Sara Ennis

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.