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  • Everyday I’m Nano-ing

    One thing I’ve learned in all of my years doing Nanowrimo is that it’s important to touch your story every single day, even if it’s only 100 words. Some days you’ll have 100 words, some days you’ll have 10,000 words. The big word count days make up for the small word count days, and by the end of the month, it all comes out in the wash.

    This month, it’s been a challenge to get to my story every day. I know National Novel Writing Month is all about making the time in your already hectic life to write a novel. This year I’m finding it more difficult to make that time.

    I also have yet to write anything I am really excited about this month. It’s tough to make myself face the novel in those pockets of downtime where I could be writing when I’m not feeling confident about it.

    But it’s still early in the month. I know I have plenty of time to catch up, and to figure out how to balance writing with the rest of the chaos of my schedule. And I know my novel will pick up. I like my idea, and I already have an affection for my protagonist. It’s just taking a lot more prep work to write than any year previous. I’m starting to wonder if I shouldn’t have gone with an easier idea this year.

    I’m having a blast as ML and hanging out with my fellow Wrimos, though!

    Hopefully next week I’ll have a more encouraging progress report for you.

    Until next Tuesday,

    Everyday I’m Nano-ing

    /dances

  • Slow and Steady Wins the Race

    Dear NaNo:

    I’m still coming for you.

    I know we’re only four days into this hateful, little blood sport, but I’m happy to report that Team Jenkins is still alive and on target. This does not bode well for you. 

    Last year, I was behind after day one. I was disheartened and running scared because I knew there was almost no chance that I’d make up that word count. Even though I tried to remain upbeat and confident, there was a big part of me that never really expected to cross the finish line. So when the defeat finally came, it wasn’t a total surprise.

    The sting of the loss, though . . . that hurt more than I’d anticipated. And I have you to thank for that savory piece of misery.         

    Well, my frenemy, I hope you enjoyed it while it lasted. Because this year you are f*#ked.

    I’m at the keyboard every day. The outline of where I’m going is a little vague, the roadmap is kind of faded, but I push on anyway. And the words are always there.

    I have no idea where they’re coming from, but they’re there. So I write them down. And after a while, they slowly add up.

    Just to reiterate: this does not bode well for you.

    I am going to enjoy kicking your ass. 

    So in closing, my dear NaNo, I know I haven’t jumped out of the gate with an impressive 10,000 or 15,000 word count, but guess what? Slow and steady wins the race. I just have to keep stringing these words together, line by line and day by day, until eventually you fall.

    And then you can suck on the misery for a while.

    Your friend,

    Me

  • Off like a herd of turtles in a pot of glue.

    As my girlfriend will tell you, I am pokey. My son is pokey. When you want to go anywhere, it always takes us a bit to get going. My dad used to say, “And we are off like a herd of turtles in a pot of glue.”

    That is how I feel about NaNoWriMo this year. Last year, I came out of the gates swinging, knocking off three or four thousand words a day like a machine. But, of course, last year I didn’t have grad school. Last night, essays by Aristotle, Leo Tolstoy, and John Hosper. Today, a defense of James Joyce’s “The Dead” as a fantastic work of art. Tomorrow, Alice Munro’s “Love of a Good Woman,” read, study, and analyze.

    When am I supposed to write again? And of course, I have my son full-time, rather than half-time like last year.

    As of writing this, I am sitting at 4800 words. I am hoping that by the time this post goes live, I will be over 6000. Far off last year’s pace, but pretty good, considering all I have going on.

    It has been going well. I started with nothing more than a cool name for a book, “Heaven’s Edge.” Since then, it has evolved to be a hardboiled dystopian story starring a private investigator that is a throwback to Dashiell Hammet, Raymond Chandler, and Mickey Spillane.  First-person narration Lots of witty sarcasm. Short sentences. Set in a futuristic dome perched above a smog-blanketed Earth.

    It has taken me a bit to isolate the voice from my usual style, but I think it has a chance to be a lot of fun. I don’t have any sort of plan. Bad things will happen to lots of people, and we will see who is left standing.

    Hopefully, in the end, I will be left standing with a finished novel. So far, my morale is intact, even with feeling like there aren’t enough hours in the day.

  • NaNoWriMo Standings – Week 1

    For the month of November, instead of posing our Cafe writers a question about writing or their writing lives, we’re covering National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). The only thing our writers are asked to turn in from here on out is daily missives (short, short entries) about their progress.

    Every Saturday, we’re offering up a scorecard of sorts, asking our writers to submit their current word count and a favorite line from their work. So, as of Friday night, here are our standings:

    R.L. Naquin (8,018 words)

    We wandered through Tent City, checking in on a snoring chupacabra, two gargoyles playing a weird sort of poker with sardines, and a merman stretched out in a puddle of moonlight by the pool, apparently working on his moon tan.

    Christie Holland (6,209 words) — Municipal Liaison

    Jason Arnett (5,445 words)

    Kevin Wohler (4,988 words)

    Worse yet, the Fracture still existed — a mile-wide tear in reality. The chaotic energy churning from it like a dark aurora borealis suggested that the event that had leveled the city in 1985 could happen again any day. Maybe tomorrow.

    Jack Campbell, Jr. (4,800 words)

    Jessi Levine (4,793 words)

    Larry Jenkins (3,776 words)

    He mumbled a few of the words, like maybe his lips and tongue weren’t exactly working in concert anymore, but it was close enough for me to understand what he was saying.

    I’m fairly fluent in shit faced.

    Sara Lundberg (3,514 words) — Municipal Liaison

    Ashley M. Poland (2,892 words)

    Ted Boone (2,666 words)

    The girl reached out and touched the side of Gray’s face again, this time gently. “What I’m telling you,” she whispered, “is that this is going to hurt.”

    Aspen Junge (2,475 words)

  • Comfy? Or Crazy? (Or Both?)

    Comfy or Crazy?As with every NaNo, what I plan to write before November 1st and what actually occurs during the month is often quite different. I’ve got a synopsis/plan/set-of-notes that you can read if you’re interested in my story idea details. It’s a live document, so it’ll change as I progress through November.

    Rather than rehash the synopsis, I thought I’d talk about the underlying concepts that inspired this year’s story. Every year I start chewing on some “Big Idea” or two, and those big ideas often lead me to a plot, or a cast of characters, or both. (more…)

  • Stick With What Works

    NaNoWriMo Sidebar
    GAZE UPON THE FAILURE

    Okay, that title is completely a lie — but after taking a genre risk over the summer, I wanted to get back to something I feel relatively comfortable writing: hello, sci-fi.

    My first NaNoWriMo victory was a sci-fi story. In the years previous I had tried out early-20s ennui, romance, mystery, and urban fantasy. And my results were:

    • Ennui (2005): I wrote about 1500 words on day one before I got bored with myself.
    • Urban Fantasy (2006): This was my best failure, at around 27,000 words. It was a vampire story set in Alaska; there were underground facilities and hierarchies and if I ever find those notes, I might take a stab at it again. But I eventually lost the plot, and when we had some family issues, the novel died. (Edit: I just found out that I apparently still have these files. Three of them.)
    • WTF? (2007): I don’t even remember this novel; I just found the file and discovered my years/genres were off. I at least know I wrote it, because I can hear myself in the words. I’m about to go read this. (I think it may have been a thriller/body horror? There are clearly scientists, orphanages, and conspiracies. I had just turned 21 in 2007 — I drank a lot. I blame that for this lack of memory.) (more…)

  • Abandon All Hope (of a ‘regular’ life)

    Those of you in the know will get this. There will be shuttles this year, too. Photo from Wikimedia.

    Ah, it’s November. That means that I’m writing. This year it’s another novel, just as ambitious as the last one and in fact a kind of sequel to last year’s.

    Those are the plans.

     

    The best laid schemes of mice and men
    Go often awry,
    And leave us nothing but grief and pain,
    For promised joy!

    -Robert Burns, “To a Mouse, on turning up in her nest with a plough”. 1785

     

    Which means it’s up in the air at the time I’m writing this. (It’s not quite Halloween yet in my timestream.) (more…)

  • Nano to the Wrimo

    Every year Nanowrimo is an adventure—that is, it’s miserable, uncomfortable, undignified, and I’ll get utterly lost at least once a day. I am comforted by two harsh realities: that I am going to explore new ground, and that the end result will be gloriously awful.

    But, like a good camping trip, if you don’t come out of it with twigs in your hair and half a hillside worth of mud down your pants, you’re not doing it right.

    This year I want to try a paranormal urban fantasy caper. I am inspired by my friend Rachel’s publisher, Carina Press. Looking at their back catalog, I realized that this is where fanfic writers go when they grow up. Want to publish a M/M erotic vampire/werewolf fantasy—in space? If it’s any good, Carina Press will give it a shot. Just, you know, slap a fresh coat of paint on that Farscape/Firefly crossover before submitting it [0]. (more…)

  • The Un-NaNo Solution

    By the time this gets posted, National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) will have begun. But not for me.

    Last year was my second attempt at NaNoWriMo. After failing the first year, I met 2011 with determination and attacked NaNo with gusto. I took a full week off of work at the start. I hit it hard. And by November 30th I had 50,000 words.

    They weren’t great words. In fact, I had written several scenes by the seat of my pants, unsure where they would fit within the structure of the novel. I had sub-plots that died out. I had characters who remained under-developed. And when I looked back on my story, I realized that several things were happening TO my main character, not BECAUSE of her.

    I wanted to start editing my mess of a zero draft, but first there was Christmas, then one thing, then another. The year flew by. The next thing I knew, my friends were talking about NaNoWriMo again.

    (more…)

  • On the November Wing

    Ah, NaNo. That magical time of the year when for 30 days, I’m pretty much checked out on anything other than typing. A lot. Chances are if I’m not typing, I’m off being ill. One November, I had the worst case of strep throat I’ve ever had – also the only case of strep throat I’ve ever had! Another, I didn’t personally get sick, but my beloved red tabby had his second case of feline cystitis – I spent the last week of November in and out of the vet office with him. The winner, of course, was the November where I spent half of NaNo with half of my face paralyzed thanks to a bout of Bell’s Palsy. In the end, that’s neither here nor there – sadly, Bell’s Palsy did not end up playing a part in my novel.

    I spend all year, starting with December 1st, thinking about what I will write for the following November. To be fair, that’s not the right way to go about it – I should think about what I’m writing tomorrow, but NaNo is exciting. I feel like my best ideas are saved for NaNo every year, and I’m hoping this year will be no different. (more…)