Tag Archives: nano

Technique, Writing Life

Why NaNoWriMo is and is NOT what it’s all about

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Remember last week, when I was all, “I only have 7000 words left! I can do it!”

Note to self: Never. Never. Say. That.

This is when you catch the stomach flu on November 29.

Fortunately, the bug ran its course quickly, and I refrained from typing out the incoherent lists of disgusting food that I never eat that in my delirium I thought would be a good way to reach my Nano goal. (Uhhh??) Once I was well enough to sit up and wrap my brain around the story I’d barely touched for a week, I did what every author has to do:

I put down one word after another. One sentence after another. One paragraph after another.

Until, at about 5 PM on Saturday, I hit that magical 50,000.

nano2013-Winner-Facebook-Profile

But in the end, the number? It doesn’t matter. What matters is that I have 50,000 words toward a new book. And that’s awesome.

Know what else is awesome? 25,000 words toward a new book. 10,000 words toward a new book. 500 words toward a new book. Whether it takes you a week, a month, a year—writing a book?

It’s incredibly awesome.

Sometimes, when you do something over and over, when you get fast and proficient at it, you forget how remarkable it might be to normal people. This will be my 11th finished novel. Four of the last five novels were written in under a month (if I finish this one by the 13th, that is). I’m an author; writing books is what I do—but that doesn’t make it any less awesome. Awe-inspiring.

So whether you “won” Nano or not, if you got new words in November, congratulations!

And whether you “won” Nano or not, you probably have work still to do. Whether that’s stringing together the words and sentences to form your story or making those words and sentences shine, NaNo is just the beginning!

What’s on your writing plate this month?

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Technique

8 ways to rev those writing engines to win Nano!

Remember how I’m excited for Nano? Yeah, I am. Sometimes I forget, too. It’s okay.

I’m a fairly fast writer, but I’m also the mom to four small children. My husband is great and super supportive, but with a full-time job, he can’t exactly run the household for me. And then family came into town, two of my kids got sick, the baby stopped sleeping . . . I’ve got a lot on my plate, so I try to maximize my writing time.

In honor of week three of Nano, here are . . .

My best productivity tips!

Brain dump & planning your day

Sometimes I’m juggling so much in my brain—the to-do list, the next scene I’ll be writing, the menu, the groceries, that cool title idea—that I have a hard time speaking, let alone writing. I keep a running list of things I want or need to do in a little notebook, just to get them off my brain.

At the start of the week, I make up a grid for the rest of the week, divided by day and time period (morning, afternoon & evening). I write in any appointments, then I slot in tasks and to-dos from my brain dump list.

And of course, I put writing on my list.

Write first.

My best writing days are almost always the ones where I get up bright and early and pound out half a chapter before breakfast. Not only does it give me a jump start on my word count, but it also sets me in a writing mindset for the day, even if I have to leave it for a couple hours to get stuff done.

Most of all? It feels good to accomplish something first thing!

Plan.

Just like I plan out my week, I like to plan out my novels. I plan on a large scale, using pen and paper. I brainstorm ideas for scenes, then use a planning roadmap from Save the Cat and Story Engineering to help arrange them in a good order (which I give away as a freebie for joining my email list, if you’re interested).

Go for the triangle.

If you really want to maximize your writing time, you’ve got to read 2k to 10k: Writing Faster, Writing Better, and Writing More of What You Love (and it’s 99¢—what have you got to lose?).

Author Rachel Aaron outlines the analytical process she used to take her daily output from 2,000 words to 10,000 words on a consistent basis. One of her most important breakthroughs was realizing that when she put together three sides of a triangle, she could write amazingly fast. She goes into far more detail in her (short, read in a day) book, but the three factors that helped her were:

  • Planning out the scene she’s about to write
  • Writing at the time of day and for the length of time she’d found to be most productive (not by feeling or guesswork but cold, hard data)
  • Getting excited to write the scene

The few extra minutes of prep can make a huge difference!

Eat, sleep and shower.

Not taking care of yourself during Nano (or any other fast writing time) is a surefire way to burn out, hate life and resent writing. Just don’t do it.

Boost your brain’s creative powers.

If you’ve got a routine to get into your creative place, do it! I used to use Minesweeper . . . until I was playing more than writing. There are some other things you can do to help boost your brain’s creativity:

  • I’m serious about the eating and sleeping. Your brain needs nutrients and rest.
  • Physical exercise. Increases your blood oxygen levels and gives you a boost of the happy hormones.
  • Menial housework. Dusting, vacuuming, dishes—anything monotonous that lets your mind wander through your plot problems.
  • Showers. Keeps you clean and gives you a chance to sort through your subconscious. A waterproof notepad might help, too.
  • Naps and notebooks. Many people have really great bursts of inspiration as they enter a dream state while falling asleep. I keep my brain dump notebook by my bed to take notes. I’ve also heard of creative people who’d purposefully lay with a pencil, notepad or even a spoon in their hand, so as they relaxed while falling asleep, they’d drop the item and startle themselves awake, so they could use that great idea they were sure to have.

(More on making your brain more creative coming soon! But . . . after NaNo.)

Sprint.

Whether you find a writing buddy in person or online, timed racing is one of my favorite ways to rack up the words. I’ve found that an in-person sprint is more effective. (For example, last year I got 1200-1300 in 20 minutes at a live event, and in a typical 30 minute Twitter sprint, I’ll get 600-1200.)

Swing for the fences

Once upon a time, I thought 2000 words a day was pretty impressive. Then I came upon Candace Havens’s Fast Draft method, and Rachel Aaron’s book (mentioned above), and tried to push myself, and I found I could do 5000 words a day—a week day, with the kids home and guiding homework and making dinner and even keeping up with the laundry (something I can’t seem to do half the time anyway!).

Then, a couple months ago, I decided to re-up my challenge level and shot for 10,000 words on a regular day. I almost made it, too, but I ended up doing 8000 words two days in a row. The next day, it took me all day to write the last 2000 words in the novella. It’s all about how you frame your goals!

I started Nano on the 14th and got all the way to 43,000 words by the 23rd. Then everything went crazy, and I’ve only gotten 700 words this week. But I can do this—and so can you! Let’s catch up!

What do you think? How do you up those word counts?

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Technique

Recapture your NaNoWriMo mojo

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I’ve finally jumped into NaNoWriMo! Since I didn’t start until the 14th, I’ve got a lot of catching up to do. I hit 15,000 words Saturday and hope to keep chugging along this week. (And I’ll also be sharing my favorite Nano productivity tips!)

nano-2013-Participant-Vertical-BannerI hope you’re a bit farther along in your goals—in fact, maybe you’re starting to hit the 30k slump. Here are a few quick ways to recharge and reconnect with your WIP.

Write anything. When you’re really not sure what comes next, even writing the most boring, mundane scene might inspire something much better!

If you liked it, then you should’ve put a pin on it. As long as you don’t get sucked into the gaping maw of dessert recipes on Pinterest (it’s so . . . beautiful!), putting together an inspiration pinboard can help you when you make it, and when you look back in a few days.

I’ve slowly been collecting pins for my Nano project for a while, but here’s a sneak peek:
sad3pinboard

(This is about using a pinboard for your own inspiration. Pinterest is also good for author marketing, but that’s a little different.)

Sing. Sing a song. (Or just listen.). I typically have a set “writing” playlist with a mix of classic rock and movie soundtracks, but I add songs to it based on the scene or the book I’m writing.

Daydream about your cover. Okay, I’ve been known to use this to procrastinate, but I have fun making up mock covers for my books. (And for obvious reasons, I hire a professional to do mine.) But if you can take 10-20 minutes to capture the vision of your book in visual form, why not?

Make your own book trailer. Grab four or five photos and a two- to three-sentence summary of your book and make a cool-looking trailer in just a few minutes. That’s sure to help inspire you!

Reconnect on a story-level. If your problem runs a bit deeper than fatigue, take a few minutes to assess and reconnect with your WIP. Your characters will thank you for it when you don’t kill them all off in a terrible plane crash because you’re grouchy.

Take a day off. I know, it’s sacrilege to propose such a thing in Nano, especially if you’re falling behind (or starting late), but sometimes this really helps. I take every Sunday off and though sometimes it’s hard to stop when the fire is going, it always makes me even more ready to go on Monday morning. Plus, tons of my plot problems work themselves out while I’m away.

I also took a day off after my launch. I was going to plunge right in the very next day, but I wasn’t confident yet. Although I really wanted to start November 1, by November 13, the doubts had set in. I’m pushing through and not worrying about all the stuff I know is missing, because I can layer in all that later. In fact, it almost feels good, knowing exactly what I’ll need to do to fix this. You know, some of it.

You don’t have to hate writing, life and everything to make it through Nano alive!

What do you think? How do you recapture your NaNo mojo when your motivation is flagging?

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Works

The novel I (might?) let go

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This entry is part 10 of 13 in the series All my novels

I still have a few slots left on my blog tour for Spy for a Spy, running 7-12 November 2013! Come sign up!

I am surrounded by young adult authors. That is, authors writing for young adults. Like, surrounded. Where I live, on the Internet—to find another author writing to an adult audience is actually a challenge most of the time. Plus, I know (ish) a lot of very, very successful YA authors—awesome agents, big book deals, best sellers. So I get lots and lots of chances to think about whether YA is for me.

The answer is usually no, not really.

Except for this one time.

The book stats

Title: Slash and Burn. Maybe Scorched Earth. Maybe that will be the sequel.
Genre: YA post-apocalyptic (Not dystopian. There is a difference.)
Inspiration: A very vivid dream, inspired by the TV show Falling Skies, shortly before Nano 2012. As in, like, weeks.
Writing dates: November 1 – 20, 2012.
Length: 69,265 words.
Back cover copy: The war for Earth is over. But the battle’s just begun.

In a depopulated post-apocalyptic California, 17-year-old Adrienne Lucas has finally found some semblance of normalcy in a collective farm led by her father. Then newcomers arrive, promising a return to the comforts from Before. Adrienne’s father represents the voice of reason against the newcomers’ siren song—until they silence him forever.

Adrienne’s devastating loss is compounded when she discovers the man she’s loved for years, the man who saw her father as practically his own, the man who lives in her home as part of her family is also the man who betrayed her father and sentenced him to death.

Now Adrienne will destroy them all. Starting with him.

Or, in video form:

Don’t see anything? Click through to view the trailer!

What I learned from this book

Well, obviously, I learned that I can write YA. It was nice to take a “break” from the strong voice of I, Spy, with a different voice. Interestingly, it was still in first person, present tense, and still had plenty of humor, but it was a very different tone. I hadn’t written anything remotely speculative in over a decade, so it was kind of fun to go back to that. And of course my husband is big on emergency preparedness, so it was fun to use him as a consultant.

But probably the most important/interesting thing I learned from this book was letting go. A week or two after I finished it, I opened it up again to export from my trial version of Scrivener, and . . . I just didn’t really “feel” my novel. It was a rough first draft, of course, but something was (and still is) missing for me, especially the passion and the drive to go back to it.

Funnily enough, I’d kind of forgotten about that over the last year and just came across my posts about that as I was trying to track down my final word count. I slotted the book into my production schedule down the road, but . . . we’ll see. It’s a cool story, but as I realized (quoting Natalie Whipple): “this business is too hard to waste effort on something you don’t 150% love.”

What do you think? How do you rekindle passion for an old project?

COVER IMAGES: Girl: Self-portrait by Kelsey; Fire by Marion Doss;
Blood drips: Pooling Blood by Joleene Naylor; all via CC

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Writing Life

And we’re off! Scheduling your way to Nano success!

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NaNoWriMo can be a pretty crazy time—crazier if you don’t plan ahead. No matter when you do it, doubling or even tripling your work time isn’t easy, at least not if you’d like your life to, you know, not fall apart.

Planning in advance is one key to making it through Nano without alienating everyone around you. Plotting your book, of course, helps, since you don’t have to stop to ponder where your story is going next and how you’ll get there.

But there’s another kind of planning that can make or break your Nano productivity: your schedule. For me, I went through and wrote down everything that I needed to do in a day to keep the rest of my life from falling apart (and if my life falls apart, my four kids’ and my husband’s lives most likely will, too, and that’s not fair to them, no matter what month it is). We’re talking meals, face time with my kids, and the bare minimum housekeeping tasks. I also wrote out some things I need to do weekly and monthly, and a few one-off tasks I need to finish (Christmas shopping for our Christmas-at-Thanksgiving celebration).

I assigned a time for the daily and weekly housekeeping tasks—and I found I had a surprising amount of time left for writing once my schedule was in place—and if I follow the schedule, not only does it afford me more writing time, but my house actually runs better and can even be cleaner than it normally is!

But now I have to be careful not to squander that work time. My friend Kathleen Brebes won Nano 2010 in thirteen days and she had some tips on scheduling for success:

A big helper to finishing my novel in thirteen days was that I had made a pact with myself not sign on to the internet until my daily writing was complete; I didn’t even check AI stats [our writing group] or Nano stats until my daily writing was finished. But, I did keep up with my daily housework schedule and DayMinder Agenda. However, the second week of Nano, I didn’t walk or lift weights; I only stretched daily. And, I made sure not to neglect my spiritual and familial commitments.

from A Succor for Writing . . . by Kathleen Brebes: Succor: My First NaNoWriMo.

Now, if a first-time Wrimo can hit the goal in 13 days—and still make time to keep her house running smoothly—I hope we can all get inspiration from that.

What do you do to keep on your writing schedule this month? What do you let slip—and what can’t you let slip?

Photo by Dru Bloomfield

Originally from Nano 2011 & 2012

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Technique

Michelle Davidson Argyle’s Secret Sauce: Why Wasn’t I Getting Any Better?

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by Michelle Davidson Argyle

michelledargyleWhen I started writing again after a five-year break, it was like riding a bike. I jumped in headfirst, but I was soon thrown off balance. Everything was a bit wobbly, and it took me a full year to get to a place where I was riding straight without fear of breaking my neck. The last thing I wanted to do was make a fool of myself, so I worked on one project until I realized I wasn’t going to get far if I didn’t start working on something different. Let’s say I couldn’t see the forest for the trees.

Of course, this leads into the biggest change I made in my writing—altering the way I think about writing. You see, when I started writing again, I picked up the first book I ever wrote and started rewriting it. I kept writing and rewriting, over and over and over. My belief was that the more you work on a novel, the better it will get and the better writer you’ll be. But I was frustrated that nothing I did would make the book what I wanted it to be. I was working so hard. Why wasn’t I getting any better? That’s when November rolled around and I heard about National Novel Writing Month. Intrigued, I thought, why not?

I have to admit, doing NaNo was really difficult for me. All I wanted at the time was to get my first novel published. I wanted to query like all my friends were doing. I wanted to be a good enough writer to move forward to the next step. Little did I know that the ‘next step’ was to throw out that first novel and move on. Luckily, NaNo kept me so busy that it forced me to do just that. I fell in love with another book and didn’t go back to that first novel for a long time.

I think one of the biggest things I’ve learned as a writer is to recognize that gut-feeling when a book needs to be set aside. It could only come with getting obsessed enough with a project that it was hindering me, and then forcing myself to try something new. If it hadn’t been for NaNo, who knows where I would be right now. That first novel finally did get published (in fact, it’s my most successful novel so far, in terms of sales), but it was published only after I learned a lot more about writing by completing other novels first.

If I have any advice for writers, it’s to listen to your instincts. If you’ve been working on one project so long you can hardly see straight, you’d probably better make yourself put it away for a long time, or even forever. In my opinion, writers should write, not tinker like I did for so long. I’ve found that the more novels I complete, the more I learn and the better I get. The longer I spend on one novel doesn’t seem to get me nearly as far. I am not expanding my mind to different ways of thinking, different characters, different viewpoints, and different ways of experimenting with structure and telling a story. For me, at least, only new projects have been able to do that.

I think what helped me the most when it comes to getting a book published to write more and more. I’m still growing as a writer because of this, and I think most new writers are smart if they learn when to move on and work on something new.

Special thanks to Jordan McCollum for inviting me here today!

About the Author
Michelle Davidson Argyle is a mother, artist, and writer who lives in the Rocky Mountains with her sword-wielding husband and energetic daughter. She writes contemporary Young Adult and New Adult fiction (and other genres when she feels like it).

Michelle’s latest release is Pieces, sequel to her YA novel The Breakaway. Two years after watching her kidnappers go to prison, Naomi Jensen is still in love with one of them. Jesse will be released in a few years, and Naomi knows college is the perfect distraction while she waits. But when her new friend Finn makes her question what is right and what is wrong, she begins to wonder if Jesse is the one for her … until she discovers he’s out on parole. Naomi must sort through her confusion to figure out where love and freedom truly lie-in Finn, who has no connections to her past, or Jesse, who has just asked her to run away with him.

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News & Contests

Achieving your goals on autopilot

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I set goals all the time—and I’ve found the easiest way to achieve my goals is on autopilot.

I’ve posted this a couple times before, but I would be remiss if I let the season of New Year’s Resolutions pass without highlighting my favorite goal-achieving techniques!

“Autopilot” doesn’t mean coasting through the month, or setting absurdly low goals so I can achieve them, though. It means scheduling for me. I kind of beasted Nano 2011, and—especially the first week—I managed to do this without the world falling down around the ears. I’m the mom, of course, and I set the pace of the household. I do most of the housework. So how did I write 5000-6000 words a day (hours and hours of work) without running out of meals and clean underwear for the family?

Planning.

I was already used to one very useful phone alarm: a 15 minute warning to the time we need leave for school. So I decided to expand on that and use the phone alarm to remind me to do laundry (and switch it, fold it, and hand it off to the kids to put away), work with the kids to empty the dishwasher, read with the kids, start dinner and go to bed on time.

Dinners were also planned: I took the calendar for the month and planned out our meals (actually, when I did this for 2012, I planned for the rest of the year because I found so many great recipes—you can see the online ones on my Pinterest). Last year, I focused on quick meals, slow cooker meals, meals I’ve squirreled away in the freezer, and family favorites. Themed nights were also big helps: Meatless Monday, Favorites Fridays, etc. It took a couple hours to write it out, but then for the rest of the month, meal planning was handled and I could just look at the calendar to make out my shopping list.

Even blog posts (on four blogs!) were planned the month in advance. Topics and dates went on the calendar. I made up post drafts for each of those days with the topics all ready to go. I stockpiled topics and full posts. On weekends, I filled in the remaining posts and scheduled them to go.

It actually went really well—until I finished my novel. And then I let a lot of it fall apart. But all that advanced planning helped me to maintain a good routine, be productive and run the house better than I usually did.

So how can that apply to other goals?

Schedule them now.

If you want to write 1000, 2000 or 5000 words a day, pick a time and put it in your schedule. (Doing it at the same time each day can help, too.) Unplug from the Internet. Schedule a time with the fewest kids distractions around. I’ve used a handy browser plugin that would block certain time-wasting websites during certain times of the day—another helper.

5000 words a day was my goal during Nano 2011. I broke it into chunks and assigned each chunk a time: 1500 in the morning, 1500 in the afternoon and 2000 in the evening. This year, my words-a-day goal is a more manageable 2000 when drafting (3000 for playing catch-up right now), but I’m still chunking that down.

This works for other goals, too. If you want to read a certain number of books next year, start collecting recommendations. Figure out whether you prefer reading on an eReader/mobile device (if you have one) or paper book. I like library books since they come with built-in deadlines—and, oh yeah, they’re free. Then figure out how long you can take per book (on average).

If you’re trying to research a project, make a list of resources, get them and give yourself a timeline to read them.

If you want to lose weight, schedule your exercise sessions with yourself. Make up healthy meal plans in advance. Buy and prepare healthy snacks.

We all know that goals should to be broken down into steps to be achievable. But what it really comes down to is to just do it, to quote Nike. Little reminders and baby steps help me.

What does it take to help you just do it?

Photo by Kent Wein

Originally posted in January 2012

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Technique, Works

What’s in a name?

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Although the very first draft is “done,” I haven’t totally settled on a working title for my Nano novel. I’ve got two titles in mind. I’m using one because I like it better, but I kind of feel like the other one suits the book better.

The two candidates? Slash and Burn and Scorched Earth.

About the book

A quick synopsis of the premise:

The war for Earth is over. But the battle’s just begun.

In a depopulated post-apocalyptic California, 17-year-old Adrienne Lucas has finally found some semblance of normalcy in a collective farm led by her father. Then newcomers arrive, promising a return to the comforts from Before. Adrienne’s father represents the voice of reason against the newcomers’ siren song—until they silence him forever.

Adrienne’s devastating loss is compounded when she discovers the man she’s loved for years, the man who saw her father as practically his own, the man who lives in her home as part of her family is also the man who betrayed her father and sentenced him to death.

Now Adrienne will destroy them all. Starting with him.

Or, in video form:

Don’t see anything? Click through to view the trailer!

You can read a little more about the project here.

What the titles mean to me

I was discussing this with a wise writing friend (who will GO PLACES), Wendy Swore, at a retreat last month. She asked a very incisive question: What do the titles mean to you?

Naturally, my interpretations of both of the titles have a lot to do with the origins of the phrases, but there’s a lot more to the psychological processes drawing me to them.

Scorched Earth refers to a war-making policy of attacking civilians and burning down everything in your path. Sherman’s March to the Sea is often used as an example (and I’m Southern, though not Georgian).

But I think the reason why this popped into my mind was a blog post I read earlier this year that stuck with me. Nathan Bransford very candidly discussed the implications of divorce in the Internet era, and he mentioned his ex-wife had pursued a “scorched Earth” policy in social media, deleting her Facebook account and blog and starting over. While he avoids rancor in his post, the image stood out in my mind.

To me, “scorched earth” brings to mind images of leaving a wide, blackened swath in your wake.

Slash and Burn has some similar connotations, of course. It denotes a agricultural technique for clearing land: slashing and burning the existing underbrush. (Sounds kinda dangerous.) The agricultural angle is kind of nice, since the main characters live on a collective farm.

“Slash and burn” is a little more proactive, in a way. You’re not just burning as part of total war, a reaction to your enemy. You have a purpose, a goal, and you’re taking the initiative. In reality, it isn’t as violent as it sounds, and the blackened swath here becomes the fertile fields of future growth. But it leaves the same image of destruction, which is very appropriate for the novel. Or, at least, I want it to be and hope it will be after revisions 😉 .

The covers!

I made up a book cover this year, because I love looking at my mock covers for a little burst of inspiration. As always, it’s a very rough draft, but here’s the idea:

Come vote!

What do you think? Which title attracts your attention more?

What images and connotations do these titles bring to mind for you? Come share your thoughts!

Photo credit—Burning Fields IV by Gary Scott
COVER IMAGES: Girl: Self-portrait by Kelsey; Fire by Marion Doss;
Blood drips: Pooling Blood by Joleene Naylor; all via CC

Is your writing any good? Join my writers' email group to find out how you can get a free edit & skill assessment!