Tag Archives: nano

Technique

NaNo fuel: actual food!

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This entry is part 4 of 16 in the series NaNoWriMo success and inspiration

Food. I like it. I like making it. I like eating it. Jami Gold made me think of this when she asked, “What Food Fuels Your Writing?” And when I’m writing, food can play two very important roles: fuel and incentive.

Yes, incentive. I’m not talking about fasting until you hit your word count. No, two words for you:

Incentive. Chocolate.

I so want to do this, but I don’t know if I have the self-control. But the idea is that for every X number of words/pages/scenes/chapters you rack up, you get an incentive, like a piece of chocolate.

But there’s more to a balanced diet than chocolate. There’s chocolate with peanut butter, chocolate with caramel, chocolate with cookies, chocolate with . . . What? Oh, other foods?

When you’re trying to write as fast as possible, one thing that also helps your life not fall apart: healthy snacks. I’m trying not to gain the “NaNo Nine”—and also not starve my children—so I’m planning to stock up on quick and easy snacks (for me and the kids!). Also, if I don’t have readily-accessible food around, I’m liable not to eat altogether, so emphasis on the quick and easy:

  • Baby carrots (with hummus!)
  • Celery sticks—prepare them in advance—with peanut butter
  • Apple slices with peanut butter or cheese
  • Grapes
  • Cheese sticks
  • Pretzels sticks and crackers (with hummus, peanut butter, cheese—you get the picture)
  • Popcorn (especially air-pop)

That’s just a start, of course, but those are some of my favorites! Preparing them in advance is one of my tricks to keeping my family—and my health—from falling apart while I’m writing like crazy.

I also planned a month of meals in advance that are fast and easy to make that we like—like leftovers I squirreled away in the freezer this year that I never got around to using. Add in breakfast cereal and peanut butter sandwiches, and we’re all set. (Plus twice weekly mini grocery store runs for milk, produce and bread give me guaranteed face time with the kids!)

What fuels—or rewards—your writing? Did you do anything to prepare food-wise for NaNo?

Photo by Brent Miller

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Technique

NaNo success: scheduling

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This entry is part 3 of 16 in the series NaNoWriMo success and inspiration

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—or RIGHT THIS MINUTE if you haven’t already—is one key to making it through Nano without alienating everyone around you. Plotting, 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 three kids’ and my husbands’ 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 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 will it afford me more writing time, but my house will actually run better and possibly 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 last year 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? What do you let slip—and what can’t you let slip?

Photo by Dru Bloomfield

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Technique

A collection of Nano tips!

This entry is part 2 of 16 in the series NaNoWriMo success and inspiration

I don’t think I’ve mention this here, but earlier this year, I was named Education Director for my writers’ group, Authors Incognito. Officially, we have almost 300 members, and many of them have done Nano (and won Nano) multiple times.

As the Education Director, I’m in charge of the monthly newsletter, and for November’s newsletter, our theme was National Novel Writing Month tips. Lots of people—Nano newbies to multiple Nano winners—have shared their favorite tips on productivity, keeping your life in order, and having the best Nano ever. So head on over to check out a great list and links to other great posts!

You are more than welcome to subscribe to or follow the newsletter blog. Each month we feature essays, spotlights, good news, recipes and writing and tech tips. Contributions come from the membership of Authors Incognito, a writers’ support group for past attendees of the LDStorymakers Conference.

Comments are closed here so feel free to comment over there!

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Technique, News & Contests

The Keys to Nano Success (and Halloween Scarefest continues!)

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This entry is part 1 of 16 in the series NaNoWriMo success and inspiration

Happy Halloween! The scary day is upon us! Made all the more scary by two things: the Halloween Scarefest wrapping up (you can add scenes with a character who’s afraid through today!) and what happens tonight at the witching hour:

NATIONAL NOVEL WRITING MONTH BEGINS!

Indeed, the time for Nano has come. And they’ve finally gotten the Writing Buddies feature working—feel free to add me as a buddy. You might be able to find me under the enigmatic name of “JordanMcCollum.”

If you’ve spent October preparing, you’re probably like me, champing at the bit (yes, it’s “champing” and not “chomping”) to get started, and maybe a little amazed you’ve been able to wait this long. You might even be planning to stay up until midnight to get a jump start on the month. (Or head to bed early to get a jump start in the morning.)

But even if you’re not participating in Nano this year, there’s sure to come a time when you have to up your productivity: writing for a deadline, a personal goal, a challenge among friends. We can even strive to make the most of our time and our writing efforts outside of Nano (gasp!).

To help with that, throughout November, I’m planning a series on NaNoWriMo success and inspiration: ways to help you get going and keep going, tips for the best Nano ever, and fun ways to reconnect with what inspired you to write this story in the first place.

What do you think? Are you ready for Nano? What areas of Nano do you need the most help with (other than, you know, actually writing the words)?

Photo by Andrew Skudder

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Technique

Getting your family on board for NaNoWriMo

Don’t forget about this weekend’s Scarefest!

It’s no coincidence NaNoWriMo is associated with utter insanity. For most of us, we have to let something go to get in those hundreds of words per day. And most of us don’t live alone. For NaNo to be a success, it’s best to get your family on board. My friend Danyelle Ferguson has some great tips on prepping your family for NaNoWriMo.

flying fingersIf you haven’t sat down with your significant other, or someone else who might be expecting more from you than you’ll be able to give this month, do it today! Reasonable expectations really help in relationships, even when we’re doing something that might seem just a little unreasonable—like writing a novel in a month.

My favorite ideas are to plan meals in advance and (I’m sure my kids’ favorite!) set up rewards for word count goals—and while we all love incentive chocolate, even better in a month of insane writing is a reward that gets you away from the keyboard and spending time with your family, as Danyelle suggests. Go read her post for more great tips on arranging your schedule and getting your family’s support for you NaNo push!

Photo credit: The Hamster Factor

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Technique, Works

Got characters?

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So we’re getting ready for NaNo. (Well, I am. Some of you are.) Usually I get to know my characters in the process of writing. I see them act and react to get to know them best. Several people in the comments agreed.

But of course with NaNo, we’re not allowed to write Word One on our novel until November 1. How are we supposed to get to know our characters and see them in action before then? So I was thinking about a fun way for all of us to get to know our characters better.

What you have to do:
Email me at jordan at jordanmccollum.com (spelling counts!) with the following information by the end of Wednesday, October 26, 2011.

  • Character’s vitals: name, gender, age, pertinent family info, etc.—as of the start of your novel
  • Types of external/internal conflict your character will face in your novel
  • Maybe a little about your antagonist: what are his/her good qualities? Why doesn’t s/he like your protagonist?
  • Themes of your novel (if you know)
  • A little info about you: would you rather collaborate on a project with a small or larger group? Do you prefer Google Docs or email? What time(s) are you typically online?

And we’ll play a little game. (NOT on the blog, or anywhere else public, don’t worry.)

Photo by Tom Olliver

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Technique

Gearing up for NaNo!

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All right, it’s official: I’m doing NaNo (aka National Novel Writing Month or NaNoWriMo). And I’m spending the month of October preparing. I’ve got my plot outlined, I’m getting to know my characters, I’m researching the facts and the settings, pondering plot points and villains and subplots and schedules (Mine, not the characters’)!

As I’ve worked on all these things, I’ve had to review all my favorite plotting methods and character posts—on others’ blogs, and on my own. So if you’re getting ready for NaNoWriMo, here are some resources on my site that I’ve been thinking about and studying, and I hope they might help you prepare, too.

The plot thickens, my series on plotting, highlights plot structures and methods including the three act structure, Larry Brooks’s story structure, the Snowflake method and the Hero’s Journey (also available as a PDF).

Creating sympathetic characters—while you can edit a great deal of sympathy into your characters, keeping these things in mind as you write can help you get it right the first time.

Character arcs—this was the series I needed most, specifically this post on finding your character’s arc. (Is it awesome or sad when you find the most amazingly helpful resource was written by you two years ago?)

Backstory—figuring out your character’s lifestory, what to leave out, and where to start your story.

And, depending on how you write, you might be able to try out some new techniques with Deep POV or dialogue—or save those for editing.

Are you NaNoing?

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Technique

Share your best productivity tips!

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Even if you’re not doing NaNo (like me), it’s always fun to share tips and techniques that can help us crank out more words in the time we have for writing. If you’re stuck, you can check out my article at Carol’s blog on beating writer’s block, but until then, here are some of my favorite tricks for upping my productivity:

flying fingers#1, first and foremost, most of all: sit down and write. Just do it. Whether you feel like it or not, whether you are inspired or not. I’m not one of those “if you’re ‘really’ a writer you must pound out 8000 words a day even if it’s like drawing blood from a stone using your eyelashes” people, but seriously, if you don’t sit down to write, it won’t get done.

Find out if you have an ideal writing time. This can be the time of day where you face the least disruptions or have the longest block of time to yourself. It may be the time that you get up four hours before everyone else in your house. For me, it’s usually staying up late (though lately my health has been preventing that for the most part. Stupid old health). Try different times of day to see if you have an easier time falling into the rhythm of writing.

Find out if you have an ideal place or medium for writing—in your house, local library, street-side café; with pen and paper, desktop, laptop, typewriter (please no, okay?); music, conversation, television or silence in the background. Experiment—and maybe you’ll also learn to write faster in places or media that aren’t your ideal, too.

Limit distractions—especially the Internet. This is one reason why I like using my laptop—I can push a button and voilà—no Internet. I usually research as I go, and this can be a huge time suck. I like when I realize I’ve spent ten minutes reading about the history of canned green beans when I’m supposed to be looking for train schedules from 80 years ago. Sometimes, you do really need to know the facts before you write a scene, at least to avoid a major rewrite—but not always. Determine if this is one of those times.

tapping pencilFinally, in case you’ve forgotten, I highly recommend plotting in advance. That way, you seldom spend three weeks pondering where your characters will go next and what they’ll do when they get there, and how on earth you’re going to spend 50,000 words getting from plot point 1 to plot point 2. (And also, we have a free PDF guide to plotting or the Plot Thickens blog series to help you out!)

Other things I like to do:

  • Menial activities (Minesweeper or Text Twist, usually) to try to lull my brain into creativity mode. (The challenge is not getting caught up in the games, of course.)
  • Think about my story all the freaking time—plan out scenes and dialogue in the car or the shower or before going to sleep at night (although that one makes it a lot harder to sleep).
  • Wait. I don’t start the first moment the idea comes to me, usually—I wait at least a couple days, sometimes a few weeks. During this time, I can brainstorm. As new scenes and characters and lines come to me, I get more and more excited about the story. When I finally let myself start, I can’t wait to get it all out.
  • Recognize my limitations. When I’m starting to hate the story, hate writing (every day, not just because I’m stuck), hate my characters and hate the real people around me for getting in the way of my career, it’s probably time to scale it back a little. Because, seriously, even if it’s NaNo, is it worth destroying your love (for life, writing and your family) just to get the words out? I’d rather back off than burn out—and make everyone around me resent my career, too.

What are your best productivity tips for upping our daily word count? What’s the most words you’ve ever written in a day/sitting?

Photo credits: tapping pencil—Tom St. George; flying fingers by The Hamster Factor

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