National Novel Writing Month? Do You?

Here comes November! In writer's circles this is known as National Novel Writing Month where you pump out 50,000 words to make a book.  I've done it before and, although November can be a busy month as it starts the holiday season, it's possible.

The NANOWRIMO site lets you sign up and find fellow NANO-ers to write with and support each other. I've never used that site, but I see some regions where a lot of people signed up. They go to coffee houses and gather in groups to pump out their 50,000 words. Sounds like fun?

My daughter, a food blogger, likes to write in coffee houses. I'm not sure. I've always written better in a cave. A desk in the corner with the door shut. I find coffee houses noisy and distracting.

Then we have the virtual facebook NANOWRIMO which is part of the regular NANO but maybe less organized with  more easy online access. (Others have set up pages too. NANO world on facebook. )

I'm in the middle of a major edit for my latest WIP and really want to get it done. Would I be a NANO cheater if I just finished that work for NANO? It's a lot longer than 50,000 so it's still a lot of work. A fellow writer isn't sure that qualifies. Now I sit on the edge of writing something totally new or finishing the WIP and I'm not sure which way to go.

So, do you NANO? Are you ready for the challenge?

The Zen of Writing Spaces

Stephen King once said, "Write with the door closed, edit with the door open."

Hemingway-Key West

Closing that door is probably the best advice we'll every get. Closing out distractions is definitely the way to get more words on the page. So how do we create that perfect writing space?

First it has to have a door. Something to close and lock out the world. If we're going to go into our other worlds, we need that cone of silence, that way to make the room a place of escape.

Next up: a desk. Something large enough to share the laptop and notes. But not so big or grand as we sit around thinking about it. The desk should be comfortable and fit your style.

A chair that is cozy enough to sustain long periods of sitting and writing. We don't want to be thinking about our ass as we sit for hours plowing through that awesome chapter of the next best seller.

Stephen King's Writing Space

A bookcase is always helpful. Most writers have stacks of books for reference. And we need somewhere to cram all those versions of our WIP.

So, those are the necessities. In my dream room I'm gonna need:

•  Dog beds, because Gracie & Cupcake are always with me. 
• A bulletin board. I like to pin notes/timelines up so I can keep track and refresh my memory when writing. 
• A window. I need the feeling of space around me. Windows help if the room is smallish. 
• I need to place my back to the wall. Weird, I know, but I work best that way. 

 This was my writing room but a shift in family dynamics took it away. I made that funky desk myself and wrote very well (I hope) when I sat at it.  I'm now working on finding a new space.

What's in your Writer's Space? 

Writing & Reviews & Lord Tennyson

Any writer who has a book out there might sooner or later get a bad review. Its almost unavoidable. 

In a moment of boredom, I Googled my name and found a review from a site in the UK. It was like a stab in the heart. The reviewer said my book, Soul Mates,  was about "animal abuse." In real life I've rescued and fostered hundreds of dogs. My two dogs are rescues. One from a puppy mill in Missouri and one from a hoarding situation. I've seen what animal abuse can do and that was not the point of my story. So this reviewer might have just ripped out my broken heart and stomped on it. The person didn't even finish the book, just made a judgement in the first few chapters. My first reaction was wanting to write to her and explain a few things. Like what she thought was happening wasn't the main point of the story. She didn't give it a chance, she didn't wait for the hero to come in and save the day. It was so opposite of what she thought it was about. I just wanted to reach out and talk to this reviewer. 

I held back. I didn't want to react with emotion. I wanted time to think about it. 

After a few days a light bulb went off over my head. 

>Ping< 

Another thought came to me. I made that reviewer feel things. Whatever she read made her ...angry? emotional? care?  

Soul Mates on Amazon

After that I realized maybe her review wasn't so bad. It showed me that my writing reached her. Of course, I believe if she finished the book her review might have been much different, but now I'm okay with the knowledge I reached her and made her care. 

The first review I got for that book;

"I cried, I laughed and I cried again. Being an animal lover and having four Chihuahuas myself, some parts were a bit tough for me but thank goodness those were brief. I couldn't put the book down until I finished it. Definitely a great read." ~Amazon Review

No matter how many things we toss out into the world, not everyone is going to like it, not everyone will give it a fair chance. We just need to move on and keep writing. Focus on the positive. Send a prayer and healing energy to the people who send negativity. 

Once in a golden hour
I cast to earth a seed.
Up there came a flower,
The people said, a weed.

To and fro they went
Thro' my garden bower,
And muttering discontent
Cursed me and my flower.

Then it grew so tall
It wore a crown of light,But thieves from o'er the wall
Stole the seed by night.

Sow'd it far and wide
By every town and tower,
Till all the people cried,
'Splendid is the flower! '

Read my little fable:
He that runs may read.
Most can raise the flowers now,
For all have got the seed.

And some are pretty enough,
And some are poor indeed;
And now again the people
Call it but a weed. 

~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

Turbulent Life & Time to Write

I wish I had stairs to do this! 

When life gets crazy--writing gets hard. 
Lots going on right now at home and at work so I'm struggling again with carving out time to write. Some days I come home from work and my brain is fried. I just want to veg-out and if I do pick up my laptop, it's usually for surfing art on Pinterest.  Some really awesome artists post there and after writing, painting is my next love. 

At work I've been designing artwork/lettering for company trucks and doing some copy writing. Although I started there as a receptionist, my job has morphed into much more and I'm having a great time. However, a busy day at work can be draining.  When my brain is mush, I'm not sure I can give my manuscript my best. 

Just did a major home improvement, which sent dust everywhere and drove me crazy. Now it's done so the house doesn't seem to be such a wreck any more. As a former stay-at-home-mom, I still feel like the house is my job and if it's a mess, that's all I think about. 

Am I making excuses??? Hmmmm....could be. Everything is an excuse when you don't write. I just have to figure out which excuses are valid and which are my anchors of procrastination. 

Back to the wall-best way to write. 

Did I mention my desk? Due to the shuffling we did in the house, my desk is now up against a wall. My desk use to be set out from the wall so I could slip behind it and my back would be to the wall. I know this might sound weird but when I write, if someone comes up behind me it startles me big time. I nearly jump out of the chair. So I'm thinking of moving it, I just don't know where. 

Where are you Edgar? 

And I can't find my Edgar Allan Poe action figure since moving my desk. 


The excuses are mounting....

How's your writing going? What are your usual excuses?  

Scary Research When You're a Writer

Do all writers research? Does it ever scare you? 

Normal days research;

• How long will a walk in freezer stay cold if the electricity goes out. 
• How do you ventilate a bomb shelter
• How long does it take to dance-walk five miles
• List of Federal prisons in Virginia
• Amount of a prison sentence for armed robbery
• Types of guns police use
• How many tanks of air do you need to stay underwater for two days
• Effects of staying underwater for two days
• Look up stencil for putting peacock feathers on my car

Those were just a few from last week. Except the last one. I think I want to put vinyl peacock feathers in bright colors on the hood of my car cause the paint has some pits in it. :)

In my current WIP I needed a toxic substance. Not just any toxic substance but one that I can fictionally mutate. Weird, I know. So I start to research and let me tell you...there's some really scary stuff out there! Makes me wish I wrote erotica. I'll bet those authors have fun with research. 

So what's the strangest stuff you've ever researched? 

Writers, Slacking, & Motivation

Confession: I'm a slacker.

My writing habits have tanked in the last few months. Two separate manuscripts sit on my desk right now and I haven't touched them in...weeks. (Insert sad face here) I don't know what pushed me away from my desk or why I'm ignoring projects that I love, but it's time to bring the  hammer down. I'm bringing back the basic writer rules.

1. 1. Ass in Chair. The simplest of writer rules and the hardest one to follow. I know if I just walk into the little office on the side of my house I'll write. Getting there is where most writers fail. 
2. Turn off the Distractions. No facebook, twitter, TV, or phone. Another super simple rule. A writer needs a cave. A place to shut out the world. Stephen King once said he wrote in the laundry room of his trailer when he first started out. If he can go into a laundry room, I can go to my cave, too. 
3. Just write. Good or bad, as long as the writer is writing, amazing things can happen. Believe it. 
4. Be religious about your writing time. Carve out those hours and don't let anything interfere with it. It's a job. Go to it. 
5.  Seek other writers. Visiting their blogs, reading articles about writing, and going to writing groups keep a writer motivated. Being with your people centers a you, encourages you and can bring you back to productivity. 

So those are my writer rules. For the next eight hours I have to go to the day job, but tonight I go to my cave. 

Write on, my friends, protect your writing time and get your ass in the chair. That's my plan. 

How to Edit and Stay Friends

If people know you write, there are times someone you know will ask you to look at their work. It's happened to me many times. A few pages here and there are no problem. One guy asked me to look at his work and the next time I saw him he handed me his 500 page rough draft. I never agreed to read his book. He asked me if I would look at some of his work. "Some" must have meant a whole book.  I did half of it. In giving it back to him I told him he was repeating the same tell and show issue in every scene. To start showing what was going on in the story would go a long way in giving the reader a better visual of what was happening. He was upset I didn't finish it and asked how  he was going to know where the other problems were. Hey! You got a 250 page free edit, go read the notes!
I understand his need for feed back but where do we draw the line? If I'm doing it as a favor, do I need to give a page count?

Now I edit on Fiverr. I've met some very good writers and a few who need help. Friend or stranger, here are a few things I keep in mind when editing.

1. Say something nice. Start with positive comments. This could be about the story premise, characters, or overall theme of the story.

2. Let your comments be constructive. If they don't know how to write dialog, offer examples of good dialog or link them to a site that covers it.

3. When correcting punctuation, tell them why. When listing three things put a comma before the word "and."  John likes meat, potatoes, and beer.

4. Catch the typos and flag them, but let the writer make the change.

5. Give them an overall synopsis that covers the good and explains the issues. "You have an excellent voice, but I'm seeing a lot of places where you tell more than show."

Just changing their writing or telling the person they're wrong won't help them grow as a writer. Give a clear and concise explanation of the things you flag in their story. Link to grammar or story structure sites will help to explain your comments. Every writer has a voice that is uniquely their's and an editor should respect it.

Write on, my friends...I'll see you in the pages.