The Confabulator Cafe

Tag: NaNoWriMo

  • Tuesday Blues

    I don’t know what it is, but there is something about Tuesdays that are hell on my wordcount. Last week, if you recall, I only managed to write 139 words. This week I pulled in a much more respectable 439. So by this logic next Tuesday I’ll write 739 words.

    I’m still ahead on my word count, but only by a day and a half. That’s a bit scary.

    It’s also pretty impressive because in the past week I had two days where I did not write a single word on my novel and another two days where I was behind on my word count.

    It wasn’t week two blues if you were wondering. Nope, I planned to be ahead so I could take off time to celebrate my birthday. (In case you were wondering, my loving family purchased me amazing blankets and sheets… in addition to books). Now that my birthday high has settled down, it’s time to get back to writing. And I did. I pulled two three thousand word days in a row.

    But yesterday I just wasn’t feeling it.

    Hopefully today I will write more. I need to remember to take my computer with me to work. If nothing else, I need to develop an outline for where I’m going with this novel from here on out. Maybe start thinking about an ending.

    I’m over halfway done guys. And that’s both amazing and terrifying.

  • NaNoWriMo Week 2: Keep it Rolling

    I am a panster. I say that often, and I say it with pride. Most of my literary heroes, such as Bradbury and King, are pantsers. I write from the seat of my pants, and often I have no idea where it will take me. This year breaks with my past process because my NaNoWriMo novella is inspired by a short story that I had already written. I withdrew it from an anthology short-list in order to take a chance expanding the narrative into a longer work.

    I have a short outline, created from the sequence of the story, with a few bullet points added in for scenes I felt I would need to write in. In reality, I have yet to use it. I’ve discovered new things about my character and the things that happened to them. I have yet to feel lost or confused or frustrated. The writing is going well, yet in large bursting chunks. I don’t think I have written a word outside of the sanctioned write-ins.

    There are just too many things to do. Last week I read The Turn of the Screw, analyzed Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train, read the 1818 text of Frankenstein, and began a unit on Bram Stoker’s Dracula. This week will involve an essay on ambiguity in The Turn of the Screw, reading Dracula, and various discussions involving both. If your eyes have glazed over, trust me, I am with you. I also worked three evenings this week, in addition to my normal day-job schedule, and submitted a third-person bio for a short story titled “Flute of the Dead,” which will be appearing in Bete Noire Magazine very soon. Yet, the hardest part has been shutting off my narrative for Mama’s Little Boy while working on my literary criticism. When I am working on a piece, it sneaks into my head at weird, random times, which can be distracting when trying to closely read other works of Gothic fiction.

    That being said, I’m not too far behind the 50,000 pace, and am in good shape for my targeted 25,000. Most importantly, I am enjoying the writing, and have never gone to the keyboard with any sense of dread, outside of the normal dread that comes with being a working horror writer, anyway. I’ve been having a lot of fun. It’s been good to see so many friends and so much interest from the Lawrence community. A special thanks should be made to the Lawrence Public Library and the Lawrence Journal World, both of which have brought us a lot of good exposure this year.

    It’s been a good month so far. I can’t want to see what the next week brings.

    NaNoWriMo Progress: 12,608 words.

  • NaNoWriMo #6 part two

    2013-Participant-Square-ButtonI was supposed to post this yesterday but things conspired to help me forget. Nothing bad, though, just life which gets in the way of everything that needs to be done, right?

    At the beginning of this I set a daily word count goal of 2000 per day and as an average I’ve hit that. However there’ve been a couple of days when I didn’t make that mark. Luckily there’ve been several days when I far exceeded that mark and thus I’m at 21,767 words in nine days. Not too shabby, eh?

    Yesterday, instead of posting here as I was supposed to, I wrote over 3100 words which made up for one day where I only wrote 1300 and one day I wrote 1700 plus a little extra. At the end of the day I checked my progress this year versus the last couple of years and I’m on pace, or just a little behind, where I’ve been. The conclusion I came to is that when I’m in NaNoWriMo, blasting away at the story that will eventually be shaped by revision, rewrite and rethinking into a novel, I’m pretty consistent.

    So that’s the process part of where I’m at this year. How about the story? I can hear one of you ask. (more…)

  • Slogfest

    Slogfest (or: 13,470 Words Written, Each One a Challenge)

    Sometimes inspiration just isn’t there. Anyone who pursues a creative project knows that some days (heck, MOST days) the inspiration to create is completely missing from the equation. And even when we’re inspired, we’re not necessarily motivated. That’s where I am so far this year.

    I have an interesting idea for my story this year. Good, overarching concepts, interesting twists and turns for my characters, some fantastic new settings, some “big idea” high-falutin’ philosophical themes to tackle, and more. But forcing myself to write every day is just that: forcing myself to write my required daily words.

    I have some valid excuses, perhaps more than any other NaNoWriMo in the past. For those that don’t know, this year I am:

    • getting divorced
    • still cohabitating (peacefully, but still) with my soon-to-be-ex.
    • trying to sell our house
    • prepping a brand new course for spring
    • writing a sequel to my favorite, most marketable manuscript

    So, no pressure. No stress. Right?

    😉

    Look, I’m not complaining. Really, I’m not. The words are coming. Often at 11:30pm each night, just under the wire. But they are coming. And they’re not bad. They’re not brilliant, but the bones of the story are forming up nicely. I’ve made some interesting discoveries, introduced some twists even I didn’t see coming. I’m having fun.

    But it’s a forced fun. Which is…odd. Like having ice cream shoved into your mouth: you like it, even though you didn’t put it there.

    Okay, that wasn’t a good analogy. You see what I mean by not being inspired/motivated? Yeah, there we go.

    I’m hoping for a better post for next week. Maybe the light bulb will go off! Maybe the rocket will be lit, and off I’ll go! But even if not, I promise I’ll have between 37,000 words written when next I post.

    That’s NaNoWriMo. Good, bad…whatever.

  • Yesterday’s NaNo Word Count Was What?

    I only wrote 139 words yesterday.

    We’re starting day six of NaNo, and contrary to what you believe, I’m not panicking. I’m actually doing really well. “But Amanda,” you might say, “you only wrote 139 words yesterday.” Don’t worry, I hear the confusion and the worry in your imagined voices… and I thank you for it. However, don’t worry about my word count.

    I’m doing just fine. This week is hectic for me. I have deadlines and karaoke and three days of nothing but my birthday. So I planned for it. I spent the whole weekend with my fingers flying across the keyboard. To stay on track, I don’t have to write another word on my novel until Sunday.

    That isn’t how you do NaNo though. (Well, everyone can do it differently, really). You do NaNo one day at a time. The point is to learn how to bang out some words every day of the week. So I’m going to. My word counts may just be a bit lackluster. (more…)

  • Attack of the NaNo Machines

    November is a pretty special time in our household. November means NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). This month, I will see a lot of friends, and spend a lot of time working on the first draft of a new novel.

    This year will be a little interesting. I am a dedicated pantser. I don’t go into most projects with any sort of plan. I have a concept and generally an opening line, but that is about it. This year, I’ve decided to expand a previous short story.

    I wrote “Mama’s Little Boy” based on a news report I read about a guy who kept his dead mother in the attic. He didn’t tell anyone she died because he wanted to keep collecting her social security check. It was one of those cases where real life was just as twisted anything I could come up with on my own.

    I was pretty happy with the short story, overall, but several people mentioned in a writing workshop that they wanted to know more about the story. I decided to expand the original short story into a novella. The interesting part about this is that by using my original short story as source material, I am basically using an outline, which is a first for me outside of screenwriting, and makes me more than a little nervous.

    I’ve expanded the story significantly, and changed toe structure of the story. So far, I am a little over 6,000 words in, and I am relatively happy with it. By the end of the month, hopefully I will have a serviceable first draft that will amount to something after the re-writes. Given that I am still working on my Master’s degree this November, my plan is to end with a novella of around 25,000 words.

    After graduation, I am going to get some of these novels re-written and see what happens. First, however, I need to finish this draft of Mama’s Little Boy, and make it through this November with both an original novella and an A in my classes.

    NaNoWriMo Progress: 6338 words and counting.

  • NaNoWriMo 2013 Excerpt from The Demon Within

    NaNoWriMo has come once again and many of us at the Café, myself included, are already busily typing away trying to get to that coveted 50,000 word goal. Sadly, the frenzied pace of full-time job, word counts, and daily living leaves me little time for actual, coherent writing, so instead I’ll treat you to weekly postings from the trenches. Please note that “treat” here is a subjective term. This is pure, unedited and unfiltered writing here folks. I can’t be held liable for damages caused to your psyche or personal property due to reading this material.

    I’m writing five, 10k-word short stories this year for NaNo. This excerpt is from The Demon Within (working title), about a barbarian bred for fighting demonic hoards who gets exiled for being tainted by one.

    (more…)

  • Value Proposition

    Here’s why NaNoWriMo is so important to me: today I did not feel like writing.

    That’s not an unusual day. In fact, out of the 365 days in a year, I’d say that ~300 are days that I do not feel like writing. And out of those ~300 days, at least half (and probably a lot more) are days where I don’t write, because I don’t feel like writing.

    But during November? The fact that I don’t feel like writing doesn’t matter.

    I’m going to write today. I’m writing right now. I’ve finished 1,000 of my requisite 2,000 words/day (I’m a minor overachiever this year), and after I finish posting this brief entry to Confabulator, I will go back to complete the other 1,000 words.

    Do I want to? Nope. Still not at all in the mood. I’d rather be doing something else.

    But NaNoWriMo gives me freedom.

    I know, it probably seems like it’s the exact reverse, right? Freedom would be allowing myself to choose: write or don’t write. Right?

    Wrong.

    Freedom, in this case, is rising above something small–like reluctance, or self-loathing, or ennui, or a bad day, or a silly distraction–to focus upon something that is much more important. Something that will enrich my life in the long term. Something that will make me proud, and provide a sense of accomplishment. Something that I’ve always wanted, but never gotten, until NaNoWriMo set me free.

    This year, like the last eight years of my life, I’ll write a novel. Despite myself, I’ll achieve that goal, one more time.

    And it will be glorious.

    NaNoWriMo is like a personal trainer, forcing you to battle past hurdles that seem insurmountable, so that you can become stronger, leaner, faster. And, afterwards, you’re given an entirely different perspective on the hurdles that were preventing you from succeeding in the first place, and you can recognize how trivial and silly they were in the first place.

    NaNoWriMo lifts me to a higher place. It forces me to prioritize one goal above all others, and pursue that goal relentlessly until I achieve it.

    That’s why NaNoWriMo is important.

  • NaNoWriMo #6 part one

    2013-Participant-Square-Button[Looks around.]

    Um, hi. It’s nice to be back. Been a while. How are you all doing?

    So yesterday I started my sixth NaNoWriMo story in six years. I’ve won every year I’ve played but twice I didn’t actually ‘finish’ the novels I was writing. The first one (my third novel) just kind of petered out because I was pantsing too much, had no idea where it was going to go or how it would get there. I’ve thought about it often ever since because I love the story (it’s a first contact tale) and the characters. I’ll get back to it eventually.

    The other NaNovel I didn’t finish was the one from last year. At 56,000 words I gave up. There were too many issues with it and I was focused on the book from the previous year (my fourth if you’re trying to keep track). That story was so good and the feedback that came back was excellent and I spent time editing it and polishing and revising and re-writing and everything one is supposed to do to a novel. This year it’s spent time out on submission (where it currently is) and I’m collecting rejections.

    Last year’s book was a sequel to that one. It’s also the story I’m re-writing from page one this year. I changed the POV and added some really sinister villains and figured out HOW to tell the story that I wanted to tell. It simply took me longer than I thought because I wasn’t totally finished with the first one in the series. (Well, I’m not sure it’s a series yet. As of this writing it’s a book with one sequel. We’ll see.) Anyway.

    Because of circumstances, I didn’t get to start writing until Friday evening November 1st. And it was a bit of a struggle. Normally I’m a morning writer so that probably contributed but I think it was really just nerves. Once I got past the first thousand words things seemed to go better. Today (Saturday) I knocked out 2600+ words really quickly and most of them were all right, a few were really good and some will definitely be edited out.

    But the point is that the flow came back. And it came back strong, like a Colorado river in springtime. Lots of whitewater. This year will be different for me because I’m going to have to spend more time writing in the evenings rather than the morning because of my job. I’m okay with that but I’m hoping it’s not going to be a real struggle. I suspect not because I’ve got a lot of practice writing. Once upon a time I could tell you how many words I’ve written but not any more. It’s gotta be near a million, but I don’t know.

    As I write this, I’m anxious to get back to writing on the novel (it’s called The Silent Well if I didn’t mention that earlier) and I’m hoping to get another 500 or 1,000 words down before I go to bed. So I’m going to sign off here to eat some dinner and try to dig back in.

  • Embrace it!

    Lately I’ve been feeling the blahs. Fat. Inactive. Creatively null and void. Like I’m in a holding pattern.

    All of which means one thing: It is time to break out of my comfort zone [0].

    I’ve got several things I can do. I can go back to Contra dancing. I have a carpentry project planned, for which I have no appropriate tools or workspace. I’ll be taking my annual pilgrimage to Oklahoma City in a few weeks. As the weather gets warmer, I want to spend more time hiking through the woods or exploring some of the regional rail-trails on my bike.

    But for now, this minute, what I can do is start re-reading last year’s Nano novel.

    I had a plan last November [1]. I was going to take December off, let the novel chill a little, and look at it with fresh eyes January 1. Armed with a fresh cube of sticky notes, I would ruthlessly carve away the kruft until I had revealed What Exactly My Novel Was All About [2].

    Meanwhile I had some time to kill and did so by marathoning all fourteen of Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files novels, plus the short stories. They say that Facebook is depressing because you’re comparing your gag reel to everybody else’s award winning performances. After reading Butcher, my own little urban fantasy looked like something the cat was trying to bury. Instead of a month of revisions, I quit after 20 minutes [3].

    I always advise new Wrimos to “embrace the suck,” because the zero draft of anything always sucks. Well, it’s time to eat my own dog food, because digging the diamond out of this dung heap is going to really, really… well, the metaphor rather speaks for itself.

    Embrace the suck, Aspen! You love the suck! And if I keep saying that, will it be true?

    [0] But I don’t want to leave my comfort zone! It’s so nice and comfortable!
    [1] You know what they say about plans and contact with the enemy….
    [2] And then rewrite the whole thing from scratch.
    [3] See prev. footnote re: Plans.