Saturday Writers

I am a NaNo Failure this year. Yep, I didn’t complete 50,000 words on my novel. I topped out at just over 12,000.

The reason I failed this year (after winning several years in the past) is because I had too many other projects of higher priority already going on in November.

I knew this when I started and still chose to sign up for NaNo. I was temporarily optimistic and somehow thought I would get it all done. I didn’t.

The smarter thing to do would have been to NOT sign up for another commitment. Not until I was actually ready to devote time to my novel. Because this novel deserves to be my number 1 priority. As does your novel.

Sure, you can write a novel in among a dozen other activities in your life, but it is hard. Hard to split your attention among so many priorities and hard to give your novel the attention it deserves.

My New Plan

I still plan to write my novel, but obviously it won’t be done in November. Instead, I’m going to borrow a page from Holly Lisle’s strategy book. She’s been writing a novel, a book of her heart, amid her other deadlines at the rate of 250-500 words a day. That’s only 1-2 pages. She’s deliberately taking it slow for a couple of reasons.

1. She has several other projects going on, including other book deadlines, so she can’t devote a solid block of time to getting this one special novel written.

2. She wants to demonstrate that you can complete a novel at a slow, steady pace. 250 words a day does add up to a novel over the long run.

Slow and Steady Wins the Race

So that’s what I’m going to do. Set myself to writing 250 words a day on this novel. Even with so many other projects going on in my life, I can manage to write 250 words. If I already know what I’m going to write, that’s about 10 minutes of writing.

I can manage 10 minutes of writing each day. And so can you.

Care to join me?

We spend every Thanksgiving with my in-laws and I’m asked to bring turkey cookies.  No, they aren’t made with turkey, just decadent butter cookies shaped that way.  The mother-in-law claims it’s because the nephews ask for them.  In truth, it’s the adults I see nibbling at them throughout the day, especially my mother-in-law’s sister.  Last year she came clean, saying she looks forward to them, her guilty pleasure.

As I rolled out the dough, it got me thinking.  These cookies and fantasy have a lot in common.  Like the mother-in-law and the cookies, most people assume fantasy is just for kids.  Not all fantasy books are for children and adults can enjoy even those that are.  I’ll admit to loving many books geared toward young adult and juvenile.

I know being a geek is cool now days, but when I was younger reading fantasy or scifi pretty much torched your social life.  Trekkies and Tolkien fans were looked upon as a social caste all their own.  Even the lower echelons of high school society looked down on the readers of scifi and fantasy.  Funny thing is many of those same bashers had fired a laser or yielded a sword of power.  Like my mother-in-law’s sister and the cookies, those books were their guilty pleasure.

Both scifi and fantasy have become more mainstream over the years.  It’s okay to carry one around in your pocket or read them in public.  I have to say some of this acceptance is due to another bastard genre, romance.  Romance comes in many flavors.  It has introduced things like the paranormal or futuristic to readers who would have never picked them up otherwise.

If you look closely you will find touches of the fantastic in many genres.  You probably just didn’t recognize it at the time.  From scientific discoveries and futuristic settings to myth and lore, all veiled in the literary or mainstream.

As an example how many of you have read a book where the main character, a dead little girl tells her story?  To me this book borders on the fantastic but is shelved in mainstream.  What about all you Stephen King lovers?  Anne Rice?  Alice Hoffman?  How about Heather Graham or Nora Roberts?

Browse the shelves of your local library or bookstore.  It’s no longer contained, caged in one section.  Instead it’s spreading, giving readers what they want and need.  From a trip into the farthest reaches of the galaxy to sexy monsters and super heroes, an escape from reality even if it is just for three hundred pages.

Some will continue to hide these books behind paper bag covers or the guise of another genre, never admitting their trips to these other worlds.  But that’s okay.  Sometimes we need to keep things to ourselves, making it special.  A sweet escape from reality, our guilty pleasure.

This Thanksgiving I’m thankful for all the authors who have made my not-so-guilty pleasure possible.

November is a month of thanks for me. Not because it’s the month of Thanksgiving but because of everything happening this month. I am participating in NaNoWriMo again this year. I am managing to stay close to where I should be on my word count. I am writing my first western romance and enjoying the story. My reward for finishing NaNoWriMo this year will be buying and reading books by one of my favorite authors, Lori Wilde. She has two new books out, Zero Control Harlequin Blaze and The Sweethearts’ Knitting Club Avon. I can’t wait to read them but not until after I finish NaNoWriMo.

I’m thankful for being able to spend a Saturday writing and doing research with my friends from Saturday Writers. We made a trip to Woodward Iowa to visit the library where one of the women in the group works. We did some writing, playing in the stacks of books and taking pictures. We also did some research on my western but that’s another topic I might cover some day. Somehow I think stud fees for bulls belong in an entirely different blog.

I’m thankful for another writers group I belong to, Two River Romance Authors. They are not only a group of writers who have the same goals and aspirations I do but they are also a group of friends. We spent a retreat weekend together writing. We reserved a hotel suite from Friday to Sunday, brought food, drinks and whatever we needed to write. We set up our laptops, put on our headphones, set the timer for 20 minutes at a time and wrote. Taking breaks between each twenty minute writing session to clear our heads or run ideas past each other, we helped our stories continue to flow. Some of us brought magazines and books to do research on stories or to get ideas for new ones. It was a great weekend and I managed to write 5,000 words towards my NaNoWriMo total. Watch for these authors to be published in the next year, Emma Robuck, Jordyn Meryl, Malynda McCarrick, Annette J. Freeman, C. Deanne Rowe, Hannah Harris and of course, adding more to bookstore shelves, our President Maggie Rivers.

One more thing I have to be thankful for is I found out this week I am going to be a Great Aunt. My niece Brigette and her husband Rey are going to have a baby. It will be the first child for the couple and also the first grandchild for my sister, Becky. Congratulations.

I wish everyone a wonderful Thanksgiving filled with love, family and friends.

I get asked a lot – what do you write? And I hedge. Okay, so technically my genre is romance, but there are so many different categories of romance it’s hard to pigeon hole myself into any one specific area. So I don’t say romance. People look at you like you’re a freak if you say you write romance – and don’t even get me started on the list of stupid questions you get regarding  your subject matter and research materials.

I started out writing – what I called – contemporary. That is your normal every day story about boy meeting girl in modern days, struggling to get together through all the trials and tribulations of life, then living happily ever after.

I got bored with that real fast.

Then I decided I wanted to write romantic suspense. Boy meets girl, antagonist tries to kill girl, boy saves girl, they live happily ever after.

Okay, so there were only so many ways I could come up with a believable conflict in a contemporary setting to write romantic suspense. I kept writing about stalkers or old abusive relationships.

I got bored.

So what did I do next? I threw some ghosts into the mix. Hey, ghosts can be fun, right? You can’t pin down a ghost. Ghosts can be from the present or they can be from hundreds of years ago. A plethora of ghosts adds interest, depth and texture to the picture! Okay now this was getting exciting! And it can be funny if you have some ornery, bored ghosts in the story.

How fun! So then I told people I write paranormal romance. So I wrote one.

Okay, that was my ghost story. I can’t write about ghosts again. I’m bored.

What do I do now?

How about stick with paranormal but choose another avenue.

Now I’m writing about mystics. I’m not sure if it will be witches or psychics. That’s the beauty of revisions. I don’t have to decide right away, my story will evolve as I write it.  This has a lot of room to be creative,  as long as the details are believable - and it gives me the excuse to research! I love to research.

So for now, when asked, I will say I write paranormal…if I’m asked today…

What I’ll say tomorrow…who knows? I still need to explore a little before settling in to a niche. But for now, I’ll just enjoy the ride.

November has been dubbed National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) by Chris Baty, a writer from San Francisco. For 11 years, he’s sponsored an event for writers, challenging them to write a novel (50,000 words) during the month of November. Thousands of writers have taken him up on the challenge and participated through the NaNoWriMo website.

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.

It’s my turn at the wheel of the Saturday Writers bus.  Which way do I go?  Left?  Right?  Straight ahead?  How about I back it up and try again, on second thought let’s just go around the block.  Everyone who knows me knows I have a lousy sense of direction.  I could get lost in my own house.  I damn sure get lost every time I venture out unless I have a set plan, street address and landmarks to follow.

So why is I don’t use this same strategy with my writing?  Wouldn’t it be easier than cruising the tangled web of my mind?  There are signs pointing in all directions, but some point me down the wrong route.  Interesting and fun places not always pertinent to this story, but some deserve a revisited in the future.

I pause to ask characters directions, big mistake.  Sometimes it’s like having too many backseat drivers, all wanting to go in different directions.  Other times it’s like having someone as clueless as myself guiding me.  You can never tell if they really don’t know or if they are just unwilling to share.

Why don’t I just ask my SW buddies?  Hmm, good question.  Probably because they are all busy with their own projects, but most likely because I don’t know how to put into words what I need help with.  Whoa, back up the bus.  A writer who doesn’t know how to put her needs and thoughts into words, that’s a scary thought.

It’s true.  I’m a lousy communicator when it comes to things involving me.  Maybe it’s the whole asking for help thing.  I rarely do it and when I do you know I’m in big trouble.

I’m not afraid that they won’t like what I wrote.  Not every story or genre is for everyone and I’m cool with that.  I’m not afraid they will find mistakes, there are plenty of them and I’d rather they were pointed out before I hand it over to the professionals.

What I don’t need is someone trying to wrestle the wheel away from me; this is MY twisted little journey.  I don’t need someone telling me what I’ve done is wrong no ifs, ands or buts about it.  I don’t need or want someone to write it for me.  That’s my job.  Its bad enough I’ve got characters playing backseat driver.  I’m easily confuzzled and too many people telling me what to do just overloads the system.

In the end I’m the only one who can ‘tell’ this story. I just need to learn to ask for directions when needed, but keep my hands tightly on the wheel.

This question crossed my mind recently when a friend asked me what I had been doing since we saw each other last.  I hesitated a minute before I said well, I finished my first book and I am working on my second.  I’ve learned when those words leave my mouth I am going to get the reaction of surprise accompanied by the string of questions “You what?  You wrote a book?  I didn’t know you were a writer.  Is it published?  When can I read it?  Will you autograph my copy?  Am I in it?”  Usually these questions come without the person taking a breath or giving you a chance to answer.  If I don’t have to time for a thirty minute explanation I usually skip sharing the information of writing a book and just say nothing. 

I have completed my first manuscript and I am working on my second.  My third story idea is running circles around all the daily thoughts in my head like what’s for dinner, did I put the dog’s back in, my report is due today at work.  No matter how hard to try to keep focused on daily activities my characters keeping talking to me trying to tell me what to put down on paper.    So does this mean I can call myself a writer?  I haven’t published anything.  I haven’t submitted anything to a contest, an agent or a publisher.  Do all the classes and workshops I have attended give me the privilege of calling myself a writer or when I first put a letter and word down on a piece of paper did that give me the right?  If that’s the case then everyone I know can say they are a writer.

When I’m in the safety of my own office I feel secure in referring to myself as a writer.  The words flow onto the paper without effort.   I can read them back and make sense of what I have written.  At this point I would be willing to bet any agent would be proud to represent me and any publisher would be more than happy to publish my work.   It’s a given.  Take me out of this environment and put me in, for instance, a critique group and the story changes.  The other people are gracious and kind and most of the changes they suggest are good ones.  I take the ones I like and leave the rest even though they haunt me when I go back over the part of my story.  Should I change it?  Should I leave it alone?  What if they were right?  We are all writers.  Do I know more than they do or have they taken more classes and workshops than me?  Do they own more reference books than me and have they read them all?  There is always that if. 

I guess until I have published my first book there will always be a question whether I can say I’m a writer and I’ll hesitate every time someone asks me what I have been doing lately.

     At my day job I am known as the resident tree-hugger. I started the recycling program for our office – separating paper from etc. items – and preach at everybody when I walk by their cubicles and notice recyclable plastics thrown on their garbage cans. They see me coming and you see the fear in their eyes when they realize that pop can is in their garbage can and they’ve been busted. The wrath of Earth Momma is upon them!

     The environment is very important to me. Anyone who knows me is aware of that. I’ve tried every natural program I can – from eating organic, wearing organic, going vegetarian (but that’s a whole different story), or herbal supplements – and can finally say that I have settled into a compromise with the environment. I do what I can but no longer expect to save the world all by myself. Too much pressure.

     Another environment very important to me is my immediate one…the space I live in which supports my creative endeavors. That particular environment is currently in a state of chaotic flux and by direct proximity it has thrown my creative energies into chaotic flux right along with it. Where I stand in my writing projects right now is what I call creatively constipated. I’m stuck. No creative energy flowing. This, then, stresses me. I need to nurture my creative outlets! I need my environment back!

     I mentioned in my last blog that I am working on creating a designated studio / office / study / den…..whatever it might be called. I have dedicated every spare minute to measuring (hey, that high school and college math really is put to use!), cutting, sanding, priming, painting (3 coats, no less), and assembling floor to ceiling bookshelves in my spare bedroom to turn it into the office of my dreams! I toss and turn at night dreaming of my new space, I even find myself getting up in the middle of the night to walk myself in there and just assess my progress. Yes! It’s getting there. I am real close. I plan to assemble the final wall of shelving this Friday and plan to celebrate big!

     I have painted the walls a smoky gray, the 1920’s woodwork is painted bright white, and I stripped and refinished the original wood floors. The 3 walls of white-painted bookshelves are the final step to completion. I have goosebumps just thinking about the many hours I plan to spend writing in there. I have done all the work myself, suffered many aching joints and muscles over the past month working on it, and learned a lot about myself in the process. The main lesson being that if a person wants something bad enough, they can make it happen through lots of blood, sweat, and tears (and pain) but that effort will be worth it.

     No effort toward your goals is wasted, every effort is valuable. Just don’t lose sight of your goals or get half way there and run out of steam. Believe me! Quitting is not an option! If you keep your end goal in sight, the rewards are what dreams are made of!

Twice a month I have dinner (well, usually breakfast, since we meet at Perkins) with a friend of mine, also a writer.  Barb is one of the most prolific writers I know. She’s got a 7 book series going, plus three or four stand alone titles, and she never ever seems to run out of ideas. Her plots are also some of the most complex – but honest and well-written – I’ve ever come across. I don’t know how she comes up with these mental mazes; they floor me every time she shares one. But as she explains it, she has an idea, it’s buried in a nasty mess of yarn, and like a cat, her mind plays with it and plays with it until it’s all unwoven and she can see the warm fuzzy sweater hidden inside.

Lucky me, I’ve now been invited to be catlike and play in the yarn, too. She’ll throw out a “this is what (she/he/character) told me. I love it but don’t get it. Help me figure out what he/she means!” and then we sit and ponder possible meanings to a scene that came fully formed to her. These scenes are amazing little nuggets of writer gold, and all! she has to do is figure out what comes before, what comes after, and who the heck the characters who have thrust themselves into the open are. Nothing major.

So, every other Monday night we sit together over pancakes and pie and ‘what if’ and ‘could this be it?’ and ‘that won’t work because’ for three or more hours. [Our server has become so familiar with us he knows to come for our orders with a pot of coffee, disappear til food is ready, take our plates once they’re empty, and return an hour later to see if we’re ready for pie. He’s well-trained.]

While I might be considered a second brain in that I contribute plot points and tidbits to Barb’s stories, Barb is very tangibly ‘co-writing’ Gemma with me. She’s agreed to take on the role of ‘Gram’ and in that character’s voice is surprising and delighting me with diary entries that I then get to write against. It’s a blast, and it’s inspiring and it’s intriguing because she comes up with things I would never come up with, but that are awesome for the story. And she’s got the voice DOWN. This woman is exactly what she is supposed to be: a feisty, independent, charming woman who has lived her life her own way and isn’t settling for anything less than what she wants and deserves.

The cool thing about this whole sharing process is that we both get to see something from another perspective, something we would not see otherwise. I don’t write drama and Barb doesn’t write humor, so we’re both out of our natural comfort zones, and that’s quite possibly why it works. We are seeing things with clear, open eyes, untainted by presumptions or what we already known in our own heads or books we’ve read in our own genres. This is a huge benefit, to both of us, I believe. It’s literally like having a second brain without the expensive upkeep and maintenance.

Someday I may ask my second brain to do a guest blog post and share how she comes up with her crazy, twisted, awesome plots. Or how she manages to juggle a full-time pressure-filled office job and still produce the pages she does. She’s got lots to share.

But not yet… for now, I want more Gram stories!

Published authors get hit with the worst criticism at times. Everybody has an opinion and is happy to spread it all over the Internet. So what do you do, as a writer, when you receive a negative or downright slamming review of your book?

Some writers suggest you ignore the negative ones. That idea has a certain amount of merit. Why dwell on the bad? Not everyone in the world is going to like you and not everyone will like your book, so just ignore it and let it go.

Above all, experienced writers will tell you not to respond to a negative review. You won’t be able to change the reviewer’s mind and you’ll just come across as defensive and possibly as attacking the reviewer. Not to mention, opening yourself to more criticism based on your response.

That seems like wise advice to follow. But recently I came across an author who chose to ignore that advice and the results were incredible.

Smart Bitches, Trashy Books is a site that posts reviews on romance books. They aren’t timid in their reviews–oh no, they tell you exactly what they think of a book, good or bad. One of the books recently reviewed was Pregnesia by Carla Cassidy.

Okay, I see the confused look – Pregnesia is a coined term stemming from “pregnant amnesiac”. Yes, the heroine in the story is… a pregnant amnesiac. (I’m sure Carla’s publisher stuck her with that title, though which person at Harlequin thought that was a great marketing title is a gigantic and confounding mystery.)

The review is typical SBTB–it pulls no punches in its list of 26 reasons why Pregnesia is the best book in the history of pregnant amnesiac romance books. Yes, you see the tongue-in-cheek comments coming, don’t you. The review is hilarious. It pokes fun at various aspects of the novel–unbelievable characters, plot holes and other general ridiculous happenings.

So far… a typical negative review. Funny, but negative. As the author I’d be embarrassed and probably angry to read such a review. We put our hearts into our books–who can stand to see them ridiculed?

Conventional writer wisdom says that Carla should have just ignored the review. But she didn’t. And her response to the review was the absolute BEST author response in the history of writing.

10 Reasons I love this review and other musings by the author of Pregnesia

1. Any publicity is better than no publicity
2. My original title was Pregnesia-The Story of A Pregnant Princess with Amnesia Who Lusts For An Ex-Navy Seal Turned Sheik Cowboy. Unfortunately, it was too long.
3. Any publicity is better than no publicity
4. I was working out my issues about being kidnapped by a blood-thirsty cult who might think I was eight months pregnant.
5. Any publicity is better than no publicity
6. I was hoping you’d tell me about the big plot hole. It’s been bothering me for months!
7. Any publicity is better than no publicity
8. Stay tuned for my next blockbuster – Virgin Bride With Secret Babies Wants A Cop who Rides The Range
9. Reading the Review Made me think of comfort food. Thanks for giving me a reason to eat a box of Twinkies, four cupcakes and a box of macaroni and cheese. And it’s not even noon – and now I will have to watch out for those evil cult members who might lust after my pseudo-pregnant body!
10. Thanks for reminding me you gotta take the good with the bad and I hope readers will check out my next book, Five Minutes to Marriage and my OCT release from Signet – Up Close and Personal. Hey, I should be able to get a little self-promo from all this!

Carla Cassidy

Is that not the best?? Carla responded with grace and humor that exactly matched the tone of the review. I don’t think I could respond so well to a negative review. I’m in awe of her.

And the best part of the entire thing was how the blog readers responded to her classy, awesome comment. 32 readers left comments that they had bought the book, were going to buy the book or were going to buy ALL of Carla’s books because of the great review and her incredible response to it. Is there any better publicity for a writer or easier marketing plan than to answer critical reviews with a sense of humor? How long would it take you to hand-sell 32 books? Carla did it in just a few minutes.

Note to all writers out there: If you can’t ignore negative reviews, take a lesson from Carla and make your response fun and light-hearted. The reward in reader loyalty and free publicity is more than worth it.

And go check out the review of Pregnesia and then buy the book!