Book cover memory lane

These are some of my favorite Nanowrimo covers. (I'm feeling reminiscent rather than exhausted because I didn't actually do Nanowrimo for the first time in several years.) But still, it's nice to think about those manuscripts of yesteryear. Here are some of our covers:

This was from 2009. Honestly, I had more fun doing the covers than anything else.

A cover for a friend, but she ended up doing something else.

Hubby's cover. He did a World War II novel (of course) for Nano.

Probably my favorite creation, although my daughter ended up wanting to do her own instead. (I didn't really mind. She was spreading her own wings.)

One of my daughters' covers.

Cover for 2010. Not terribly exciting, but I thought it worked, considering I was churning out 1667 word per day and not getting enough sleep. 

The novel I never write. Never. Year after year I consider it and never do it.

My serious sci-fi middle grade novel. Someday this one will have a real cover made by someone else.

Nanowrimo day 7: on the front lines

Nanowrimo day 7 is almost at an end. At this point, we are almost one fourth of the way through the month, and, hopefully, that far through our 50k word goal. Personally, I hit some snags this weekend. Besides housing and feeding ten teenagers (in addition to my own) and a couple of chaperones at my house this weekend, I had to catch up with grading and life in general. I wouldn't have missed a bit of it, but I did have to sacrifice a little of the word quota buffer I'd built up because I was so tired. 

As a result, I am 700 words behind my absolute minimum for today and 2800 words behind my aggressive goal. 

How about you? Where are you in your Nanowrimo journey? 

Nanowrimo day 3

It's day three of the writing event of the year (at least for me) which is known as Nanowrimo.

Here's my take on it right now: I already feel like quitting. (Not that I would, you understand. I'll make it to the 50k unless something bizarre happens.) And it's not that I'm discouraged. Mostly it's just that I'm lazy. I'm tired because I've been taking from sleep time to keep my word quota going, but that won't last much longer. At some point, I'll have to get a decent night's sleep.

So forgive me if this is short. I'm over 3400 words and am hoping to add another 2k to it today.

Happy writing.

It's time for PiBoIdMo in November

As if there wasn't enough going on in November, I just wanted to remind you that it's also PiBoIdMo (Picture Book Idea Month). That means that you come up with a picture book idea every single day of the month of November. It's a lot easier than Nanowrimo, and it's absolutely FUN! Stop by Tara Lazar's blog to get the lowdown and sign up. (Here's extra incentive: there will be prizes!)

Nanowrimo, where did you come from?

Nanowrimo (National Novel Writing Month) is the brainchild of Chris Baty. Thanks to him, hundreds of thousands of writers all over the world throw themselves into the abyss of plot, setting, and character for the month of November. Thanksgiving is hardly a thought in the flurry of typing an average of 1666 2/3 words per day in order to finish the entire 50,000 by midnight of the 30th.

If you haven't done this before, you should. It's a wild ride.

The first Nanowrimo didn't take place in November, but in July of 1999. It was a group of 21 friends who got together and churned out inspired fiction (or other stuff) for the fun of it. There were no rules of any kind. Six of them finished. They all celebrated.

Over the years, word of Nanowrimo spread like wildfire. Authors committed to being part of it faster than the volunteers could keep up with it's stunning growth. By the second year they had become international, much to Chris Baty's surprise. By 2001, year three, there were over 5000 participants, and the web site they had set up couldn't cover the volume.

Each year has brought new challenges to the volunteer staff. They have had to ask for donations (Nanowrimo is not for profit) to cover the costs of the materials and system that supports the writing for the year. Still, only a tiny number of participants actually donate to cover costs. To really bring home how it's evolved, you just have to look at the numbers. Last year, the twelfth year of Nanowrimo, 200,500 writers from all over the world were part of it. Of that number, over 37,000 finished their novels by the 30th. Over the years, a few have even revised their works and found publishing houses for them. Wow.

This year I challenge you to take up the torch and carry it through to the end of Nanowrimo. In the words of Walt Disney, "It's kind of fun to do the impossible." It may be look impossible on this side, but it really isn't (except in your own mind). With a support team of over 200,000 other writers worldwide, some of whom are in your own neighborhood, you have a better chance of fulfilling your dream to write a novel during Nanowrimo than you would on your own. Now is the time to write your story.

To help prepare, I suggest that you register on the Nanowrimo site to receive pep-talks from the Nano people over the next couple of months. Also, you can follow our blog as we give you a blow-by-blow account of our own Nanowrimo preparation. (I'm thinking about doing a day by day post of my own Nanowrimo progress during the month of November.) It isn't going to be easy, I admit, but you can do this.

Please leave a comment and tell me if the idea of writing a novel in a month intrigues you. Are you considering doing it?

Can you prepare for Nanowrimo? (68 days and counting)

Some say yes. Some say no.

I'm inclined to agree with them.

To the uninitiated, Nanowrimo is National Novel Writing Month. During Nanowrimo, which takes place in November, writers all over the world sign up on the Nanowrimo site and write a 50,000 word novel in one month. Yes, that's 50,000 words, start to finish. 30 days. For the fastidious among us, it means that you have to daily produce 1666 and two-thirds words every day in order to finish by midnight on November 30th. Each day you get the fun of uploading your word count and seeing what you're friends are doing. If you're the competitive type, this is an excellent opportunity to get the lead out and write like the wind.

Now that you know what the insanity of Nanowrimo is, you might be wondering how you can prepare for this monumental yearly event. Here are some tips that will help you get ready.

1. Involve your friends, family, and students. (Misery loves company.)
2. Make a list of people for whom you can offer to do unpleasant and/or embarrassing tasks as penance for not finishing your daily word count. (This is excellent motivation to finish those 1666 2/3 daily words, because no one likes to lose face.)
3. Make an outline or 3x5 scene cards to help you keep going with creative ideas when you feel like your brain has turned to sludge (usually in the second week).
4. Make up your mind that even if you can't remember the names of the characters you introduced somewhere in chapter 7 and you have forgotten the original plot, you will keep typing.
5. Come to grips ahead of time with the fact that it will be a piece of garbage when you're through, but it will be your piece of garbage, and that makes it wonderful!

If you're not the type who looks to the future, I have good news. You can sit down and punch out your word count every day without doing a single thing to prepare beforehand.

There, don't you feel better?

Truly, Nanowrimo is the best of both worlds.

Seven gifts from Nanowrimo

1. I can write even when I don't feel like writing (which is most of the time)

The truth is, for most of Nanowrimo, I didn't feel like writing my Nanonovel quota of words each day. Even though I normally write every day, whether it's on articles for Examiner.com, curriculum for church, picture books, or novels, focusing my attention on one project and keeping up with it for an entire month containing a major holiday was hard. Most days I just didn't feel like doing it. Had I the choice, I would have bopped between projects like I usually do, and I wouldn't have completed my rough draft in a month.

2. Small snippets of time are valuable

I did better on the days where I took advantage of small pieces of time early in the day so I didn't have much to do at the end of the day rather than the days where I wrote late and fell into bed exhausted.

3. It's better for me to write early in the day rather than wait until the end of the day

The days it was easiest to write were the ones where I put in a few hundred words earlier in the day. I think this was partially because it got my mind turned in the direction of the novel, so my mind could work on it while I was doing other things, and also because it made me feel like I had gotten ahead. I felt motivated and rather than overwhelmed. Normally I'm a late night writer, because that's when our house is quiet and I can work uninterrupted. I'm hoping to revise this.

4. It's easier to write when I'm not tired

This was a grueling month. Not only did we have Thanksgiving, but we had a conference at church for which I was responsible to find staffing for my department. I was away more in the evenings than I normally would be, and trying to achieve my word quota on days that were literally jammed with necessary activities from beginning to end made it almost impossible to find enough time to write unless I took it out of sleep time, and you always pay for that the following day.

But even on those late nights with early mornings the next day, it was easier to write if I did it early, because I knew by afternoon and evening I'd be running on fumes and walking around in a fog.

5. Support groups are very helpful

I'm not quite done with my Nanonovel, but I'm getting close to the finish line, and I'm only behind by 632 words right now. Last year I had completed it by this time, so even though I'm not way behind, I didn't get it done as quickly. I had virtually no support group at all, and only did one writing contest with a friend instead of several through the month. Friday night I wanted to give the whole thing up in the worst way, but instead I sat down and knocked out 2000 words, chipping away at the loss I took during the conference last week. Why was it easier last year? I had more external support.

6. You can always do more than you think you can

I am reminded of Bree in C.S. Lewis's The Horse and His Boy. In case you haven't read the book, Bree was one of the two talking horses escaping with two children to Narnia. He had lived in slavery so long he had lost the ability to force himself to tap into his inner strength, but he wasn't aware of it. He needed external motivation to truly do his best, and he wasn't able to do that until he had a lion on his tail. Then he turned on speed that he didn't know he possessed and made it to safety. Nanowrimo will be the lion on your tail if you'll let it. If it wasn't for Nano this year, I'd have given up on this book long ago.

7. Being overwhelmed is a state of mind rather than a state of being

Occasionally I run into people who tell me they can't fulfill their obligations because they are so overwhelmed by life in general or a specific problem. They are sure that letting one thing go will make them feel less overwhelmed, and then life will be good again. I'm sure when they do this, they probably do feel a measure of relief for a time, but only for a time.

Yes, be careful about becoming overcommitted. You have to consider your family and your self when you get involved in anything. But once you've given your word, see it through. You can do more than you think you can, and it's usually not the way of integrity to try to get out of what you said you would do. Why can you compare two people with similar schedules and find one is overwhelmed and the other is not? It is not because of the schedule. It is because of the state of mind of the person.

That's it for now. In advance I'm going to ask you to forgive the typos in this post. One of the gifts of Nanowrimo is not careful proofreading! (Later on Monday: I can't believe I used "tale" instead of "tail." I have corrected the mistake.)

Nanoreflections: The power of Nanowrimo

There is great benefit in Nanowrimo. Its charm (or curse) is that it forces you to do all the right things that help you become a better writer. In case you're feeling like quitting already, let's review.

1. Nanowrimo forces you to keep going rather than to give in to writer's block.

Writers love to throw their hands up and proclaim they're stuck by writer's block. It's a great reason not to write for awhile. The only bad thing is, it's a bunch of baloney. You rarely see accountants who say, "Honey, I just can't go to work today because I have accountant's block." Here's another one. "I couldn't hammer a nail if I tried today; I have carpenter's block." No, let's face it. If you're stuck, write something until you aren't. Get over it. Professional writers don't give in. Nanowrimo won't let you, either.

2. Nanowrimo causes you to continually produce.

Like it or not, tomorrow will dawn bright and early, with a new word quota to be filled. You have to do it or fulfill one of the unpleasant bets you made with your neighbor or spouse in order to keep you motivated this month. It's not going to go away. You just have to keep on doing it.

3. Nanowrimo causes you to write intensely

This is a good one. Intense writing is where the fire is. You can tone it back later, but now is the time to duct tape your inner editor's mouth shut and type your heart out. Since you're driven to get your word quota out, it's necessary to plunge ahead rather than wonder if you should have used word choice A or word choice B.

So I hope you're enjoying Nanowrimo. If you don't like what you've written, you're in good company. It's happening to virtually every writer who is with you this month. Just understand that it's a common symptom of writing and keep on.

See you next week.

Music and writing

I have been listening to some new music - new to me, that is. I think it opens up a new part of my brain. I certainly hope so. Hopefully, a little vacation time also helps. Because I'm going to need every bit of that new brain to get back on track with my NANOWRIMO novel! Or maybe I should take inspiration from the places I've visited here in St. Augustine, the oldest town in the United States:



Piracy certainly would be a departure...

Maybe I better get back to that music. Josh Groban has just appeared on my music radar. He has a lovely tenor voice and sings a convincing love song, "You Raise Me Up." A little romance with some inspiration would certainly be a welcome diversion in the story I'm working on. Ah, romance. Always an interesting path to take.

There, I have just gotten myself back into the place I need to be to write.