Tag Archives: nano

Technique

Nano motivation: reconnecting with your WIP

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This entry is part 10 of 16 in the series NaNoWriMo success and inspiration

I’m sure that at least some of us took off a little time last week to enjoy time with our families. Even during NaNoWriMo, it’s okay—important, possibly even vital—to step away from the computer and connect with reality and the strangers living in your house for a while. It gives us perspective on people—and our work. Not only do we need more material for writing ;), but we all need some human connection at least sometimes. Plus, time away from our writing gives us time to think, brainstorm, and recover. (I take every Sunday off.)

But now it’s time to get back to work. If you’re thinking ahead, you can leave yourself notes for the next scenes—but sometimes I can’t make sense of or find inspiration from my cryptic notes. Over at Write It Sideways a few weeks ago, they had a great article on 6 Ways to Reconnect with Your Work-In-Progress. Most of them apply more to a work you’ve been away from longer—and have more than three days to finish. (By the way, you have three days left, including today.)

So, to adapt their suggestions to a Nano novel:

  1. Read the last chapter or two you’ve written: I know the Nano site advises not to read back and plunge ahead, but when you’re totally lost, it’s time to take stock of where you were going.
  2. Reread your outline: tell me you have one. (I do, but the entire first half went pretty far astray from the plan. Okay, and the second half did, too. Um… But hey, I’m totally on-cue for the ending from my outline: “Big, big set piece. Major battle. Looks like villain gets away. Slay the dragon twice, roll out the big guns, and come away victorious, rich, less emotionally scarred, and in love.” Yep. That.)
  3. Make sure it’s not a story issue: sometimes we have a hard time writing because there’s something wrong with the structure of your story or your characters, but our subconscious hadn’t clued in our conscious mind yet. Make sure that’s not what’s holding you up.
  4. Recalculating…: If your story or your outline has gone astray, look again at the milestones you originally wanted to hit, like the third plot point or the finale. If you really just want to finish, you could even just squeeze the last 5000 words out of those scenes, and fix it all later. Isn’t that the point of Nano?
  5. Brainstorm: just out of ideas? Try a brainstorming session like this one described at DIY MFA. Come up with as many ideas as you can. You’re sure to come up with some stinkers, some less useful ones, and some out there ones—but all you need is one or two good ones to get moving again!
  6. Tap into your inspiration: whether you turn to an image pinboard, a playlist, or a cover—or you can do any of those now!—or you just look back at the things that gave you the ideas that convinced you to write this story, tapping into your inspiration again is a great way to get the creative juices flowing again.

Meanwhile, I’m thinking about pulling out an older novel in December to try to fix, and I’ll probably use several of these tips and the original six to get back into the right mindset for this book.

How do you reconnect with a story after a break?

Photo by Samuel M. Livingston

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Technique

Nano motivation: Write or Die by Dr Wicked

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This entry is part 11 of 16 in the series NaNoWriMo success and inspiration

Twitter can be great for sprinting with a writing friend. But sometimes, I just don’t feel up to publicly admitting my word counts, and other times I just can’t turn off the distractions.

When I just have to power through some words to hit my goal and the rabbit hole of the Internet keeps sucking me in, I turn to Write or Die by Dr Wicked. (I think the name pretty much illustrates the concept, eh?)

“Dr. Wicked” offers an online version and a $10 desktop version of his Write or Die app. The concept is pretty simple: it’s a text box and a timer. You can program it with a time goal or a word count goal, and then you get typing. You can also get it for the iPad for $9.99. To use the web app, go to the site, click on the Web App tab in the sidebar and enter your goal.

If you stop for too long (the exact length of time depends on what “level” of punishment you pick), the screen background turns pink, then red—and then an annoying sound begins to play (a crying baby, “Mm Bop” by Hanson—seriously). I’ve heard that in the strictest mode, if you stop too long it starts erasing your words.

It’s kind of a last resort when my mind is on the fritz, but looking at my outline to figure out where I’m going and forcing myself to get those words down is the kick in the pants I need.

The only drawback: the online version has to be formatted when you put it into your manuscript. Here’s how I do it. Since I’m writing on the Internet, I skip lines between paragraphs. I paste the words into Notepad, and make sure Word Wrap is turned off. Then it’s easy to take out the extra returns (and insert tabs if you’re putting those in). Then I paste into Word and Find and Replace the quotes (just use the plain quotes in your Find and Replace box; it turns them into Smart Quotes automatically) and apostrophes, and if you used em dashes (convert two hyphens to —). And voila! It’s pretty again!

What do you think? How do you force yourself to get the words out when your brain wants to wind down?

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Technique

Nano motivation: Twitter

This entry is part 8 of 16 in the series NaNoWriMo success and inspiration

Despite its reputation as a time wasting distraction, Twitter can be a great help for productivity during NaNoWriMo. This particular tool can be a double edged sword: it’s easy to get drawn into the time-suck that is Twitter, but if you’re careful about how you use it, Twitter can be a big help.

Twitter can be a great place to find little bits of encouragement, but my favorite use for Twitter during Nano is finding sprint partners—and better yet, partners for word wars!

About 20 minutes seems to be a good length for a sprint, and the faster your sprint partners, the faster you seem to go. At my writers’ retreat earlier this month, I had periods where I’d struggle to get a couple hundred words written in an hour or two—and then with a twenty minute sprint, I’d pound out almost 1300 (almost: 1299). I didn’t win, but I didn’t care! That was a heck of a lot better than I’d done in the last hour! The sense of accomplishment from pounding those words out makes it all worthwhile.

Since most of us don’t live with twenty writer friends full time, finding sprint partners can be a challenge, unless you turn to a place like Twitter.

If you’re worried about using writing as a competition, note that I actually really hate competition and the feeling of competitiveness. It’s a rush, but for me it’s not a good one: usually. But when I’m sprinting with someone—especially someone whom I know can write a LOT faster than me—it pushes me to go faster, and gives me a productivity boost that’s pretty hard to beat. And yes, it’s just plain fun.

(Side note: my friend Karen Hoover also has a great site called Sprint Writers’ Central with an open chat for anyone who wants to sprint or race in word count.)

Do you sprint? How do you find partners?

Twitter image by Marcos Xotoko

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Technique

NaNo organization: Evernote

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This entry is part 9 of 16 in the series NaNoWriMo success and inspiration

The Internet is a fabulous thing. I do a lot of my research for my books on the Internet, from looking at historical sources to contemporary locations to costumes to fact checking and even some plot ideas. I used bookmarks for years to try to keep track of these disparate sources, but frankly it was too hard to find what I needed in my notes, especially when I only had one or two sentences that I really needed from a long article.

And then I found Evernote. It’s a website where you can store all kinds of information: pictures, text, whole websites. It can also “clip” these notes from your desktop, or, via a smartphone app, your photos, etc. You can not only tag the notes you add, but also group your “notes” by topics, separated into “notebooks.” Probably the best part is that you can search your notes to find just what you’re looking for I *think* there are other good programs that can do this, but this is the only one I’ve used, and I like it.

So what’s this got to do with NaNo? When you’re writing as fast as you can, and you need to stop to look something up, or to find something you know you looked up when you were plotting on or around October 23, or to remember that one really cool idea you had from that weird news article that would be perfect right here, instead of trying to dig through your bookmarks or search your web history, you just go to your account, and either search your notes, or look through the notebook for this book, and you’re set!

I also like this because I’ve used it to save research on ideas I might write later—much later. Like this NaNo, I’m writing an idea that I’ve been thinking about for probably two years. Some of my notes on the pseudohistory I’m unapologetically using were clipped in July 2010. I was worried I wouldn’t be able to remember a lot of the things I’d need when I was starting my research, until I saw the name of the notebook on Evernote. Voila! Lots of cool facts that I wouldn’t have to hunt down again!

How do you keep track of your research so you can find it when you need it?

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Technique, Publishing

NaNo inspiration: covers

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This entry is part 8 of 16 in the series NaNoWriMo success and inspiration

Once upon a time, I was anti-mock covers. I thought it was a little weird to put up a fake book cover on your site for a book you’re drafting or trying to sell. Then I wrote up my projects page, and it looked . . . bare. So I made up some passable mock covers (some obviously more time consuming than others).

Usually, I’ve waited until I was done or nearly so to make these. But since October was a “planning” month for NaNo, and I was only doing 50,000 other things, I spent a day making the “ideal” version of the cover:

Not 100% perfect (or, you know, licensed), but pretty dang good. Just looking at it gets me excited to write!

Obviously you don’t want to take off a day in the middle of NaNo to play around with a graphics program to make a cover no one else might ever see—but in about 20 minutes, you can throw together something that can inspire you.

Seriously, I tried it. I used a picture I pinned of one character, and Googled screencaps from a movie the other character was in (screencaps found here). Then I turned to Flickr for pictures of a rune stone (by Paul W. Locke). Some Magic Wand tool, cut/paste, resize, color balance, and add text, and voila! I put together a crude version of the above.

Inspiration in twenty minutes? That’s a bargain.

How do you find inspiration quickly?

Photo credits: Maggie Lawson by unknown (via listal), Garrett Hedlund from TRON: Legacy (found here), Viking coin by Ancient Art, Kensington runestone monument by Paul W. Locke

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Technique

NaNo inspiration: music

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This entry is part 7 of 16 in the series NaNoWriMo success and inspiration

Images are one great way to recapture some of the initial inspiration behind your story, and music is another. It does more than just soothe the savage beast! (Which is a misquote anyway.)

Music is a great way to get yourself in the mood to write a specific scene. I know, I know, that sounds like I mean you should be listening to “Let’s Get It On” when you’re writing love scenes. That’s not quite what I mean (but if that works for you, great)—or, rather, it’s not just what I mean. There are songs about other things, you know. Sort of.

For a long time, my favorite music for just about anything was classical. Still, when I need to be creative on demand, I’ll pop in my James Galway (flute) album (Serenade). This is a big help still because I often have trouble writing to music with words without singing along. Okay, I have trouble grocery shopping to music with words without singing along. Audibly. (I’m just lucky my kids aren’t old enough to be embarrassed. Tired of listening, yes. Embarrassed, not yet.)

But sometimes, I have a perfect popular song or soundtrack I listen to on repeat while writing. I wrote a novel with a bunch of oblique references in the text to current songs—but it was set in 1974. So I listened to those songs on repeat. In another novel, I wrote a car chase chapter listening to “Life in the Fast Lane” on repeat. (No endorsement for the content or even musical quality. I just like it.) A song with a driving beat is a great for a high-tension scene—or for a high-tension writer.

Need music without words? I hear you, and I’ve found something that I love: movie soundtracks. Think of a movie in your genre that you like, and pull up the soundtrack for it. The various songs are already designed to be the backdrop to the different types of scenes you might be writing.

You might already have a good site for listening to music, or maybe you actually spring for your tracks on iTunes or Amazon, but if not, I’ve found Grooveshark is pretty nice for individual songs and playlists. I’m still devoted to Pandora for building a radio station around a song or two (yes even with the ads).

So what’s in my playlist this time around? “Immigrant Song” by Led Zeppelin and the soundtrack to Indiana Jones. Also, Queen. They have nothing to do with my story. I just like them. I’ve really shattered your illusions of me now, haven’t I? John Williams, Eagles, Zeppelin and Queen, and yes, I’m under 30. You just don’t know what to make of me, do you?

What songs do you write to?

Photo by Colleen Lane and unknown

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Technique

NaNo “Pinspiration”

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This entry is part 6 of 16 in the series NaNoWriMo success and inspiration

It’s week three (almostish). Tomorrow the halfway point, and you might be starting to lose steam. This week, we’re looking at things we can do in about 20 minutes to help remind us why we started this story, and fall in love with it all over again.

One recommendation I’ve seen several places is to make yourself a collage of images that speak to you about this book. Several people say that you can look at these collages for inspiration when you find your writing lagging. I love seeing these collage posts on friends’ blogs, but today I’m talking about a different way to do this.

Have you heard of Pinterest? It’s a website where you can virtually “pin” (save) any image or video that inspires you. It also shares these pins with your friends and displays them all organized into separate “boards.” It’s pretty fun. I use it a lot for my craft blog, but every once in a while, I use it for writing.

Now, my friends’ collages are a little more abstract, it seems, but this is my interpretation: some images of character inspirations and major plot elements (okay, and at least one character quirk) in my WIP:

(I edited out the pictures from my last couple projects, but the pins are still in there if you follow the link.)

You need an invite to sign up, but if you’d like one, just contact me and I’ll pass one along. (I think you also need either a Twitter account or a Facebook account to register at Pinterest.)

How do you make collages for your WIPs? Or do you?

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Technique

Nano: Moving forward

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This entry is part 5 of 16 in the series NaNoWriMo success and inspiration

I’m at a point in my novel where I know on a high level what I want to come next (characters D & K turn to O for help, character X will actually turn out to be good, etc.), but I have no idea to get from where I am to there.

As I was preparing for this series, I saw a great post on tips for marathon writing by Kaye Dacus. I just might have to put one of her tips to use today:

. Write Something . . . Anything

When you sit down for that scheduled writing time and you stare at that flashing cursor waiting for the words to come, and they don’t, DO NOT walk away from it and give yourself the excuse that you’ll just double-up on words tomorrow. Why do you think I’ve ended up writing the bulk of two of the last three novels I’ve finished in two weeks or less?

When I was writing what would become my first completed manuscript a little less than ten years ago, I got to a point at which (being a seat of the pants writer with no synopsis, only a vague story idea) I had no idea where my story was going. But I wanted to write. I needed to write. So since I’d just gone to the grocery store that evening after work, I wrote one of my characters doing the same thing. I had him get his basket. I had him pick out produce. I got him through the store all the way to the frozen-food section—where, surprisingly, he ran into another character; and, all of a sudden, I had a scene that moved the story forward again.

It sounds mundane and like bad writing (and it’s probably something you’d end up cutting most of in a revision), but not only are you working at that creative pump, you can also learn more about your character by doing something like that.

(Kaye has more great tips in her post!)

What do you think? What do you do to “prime the pump”?

Photo by Polycart

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