Some NaNoWriMo lessons

Marcie wrote to me this morning, moaning that her NaNoWriMo novel is so BAD.  And this is my response: 

My advice:  give the author a break. This is the first draft of her first full-length short novel. Everybody is writing crap right now. 300,000 people are writing badly. Did you know that?  It is Nov 21st and this will be over by December.

What I have learned is that it takes great control to stay on top of the word count. I have to pretty much write every day. I cannot sew, knit, cook or socialize too much. I cannot read either, for fear that I will be negatively influenced. My weekend at Yosemite was a writing disaster. I have also learned that my evil twin is always trying to discourage me. Perhaps we share that twin. "This is crap" "why do you bother" "You're too old to ever have any success at this" yadda yadda yadda.

It is amazing: my family has accepted that when I am standing at my dresser with the Oxford dictionary under my laptop, I AM WORKING. They peek in the door and then tiptoe off. Last night, when I got home from the event, AT MIDNIGHT, I was putting things away, and I set up my laptop in its place on the dresser. Nora wandered in the room and looked horrified, "You aren't going to write NOW, are you??" she asked.

Wrap-up following the Night of Writing Dangerously

Anita, Katie, Noel and I sallied forth to San Francisco tonight to attend The Night of Writing Dangerously. 250 NaNoWriMo writers raised $250 apiece to attend this fundraiser for the Office of Letters and Light. This group supports writing programs for kids, and this fundraiser is an opportunity for some NaNoWriMo-ers to have some fun. 

Marcie was unable to attend, being in Toronto and all, but we saved a seat for her. Just in case.

Oh. My. God. We wrote so incredibly dangerously, you wouldn't believe it. It was pretty darned fun, and I actually got some writing done. The food was good, and the drinks were strong. I asked dear husband to drive me to BART, and he agreed to pick me up when it was over, so I indulged a little bit. His little joke was, "oh, so you might have two, eh?" and in fact that's what I did - I drank two Cosmonoveltons.

Someone in the room had a manual typewriter, which pecked away through the evening.

I finally got my word count back up into the 'you will finish in November' realm, but as hard as I tried, Katie was always 1000 words in front of me. I'll never catch up.

So now I am at 33,370 words, and we (the writing group) have been having conversations about "the novel".  The standard novel is 100,000 - 150,000 words, so the NaNoWriMo goal is just a little short. Longer than a novella, but not a full-length modern novel. It's a quandary. I am approaching this truly as a lousy first draft [expletive deleted], so there is potential for enlarging the work. However, in the meantime, I'm at the 66% mark, and Jane Smiley taught us that the turning point of the novel is at 75%. Oh my, it's coming up pretty quickly. And then, as Noel says, it is followed by the denouement. She uses big words.

And I think that I have lots and lots of experience writing beginnings, but practically no experience -  Well, actually no experience - writing endings.

Tonight, I asked Anita, "What advice would you give me about endings?" and she was disarmingly modest. First she disclaimed any major experience in the area, and then said, "don't try to wrap up all the ends, and tell us what's going to happen over the next 20 years." She also said, "I usually have an ending in mind, and then there comes a point where I have to write towards that ending.

My response, "oh no! I'm going to have to come up with an ending!" and then she talked about distressing endings, where things don't work out for the protagonist(s), and I began to panic. "OH no!" I said. "Do you mean it might not work out for my characters? There might not be a happy ending?"  I had assumed there would be a happy ending. But here we are, with 4500 words before the turning point, and then I will want to come up with an ending around 12500 words later. Yikes!

Any suggestions for the neophyte?  It makes me want to go read some writing books.

NaNoWriMo Day 19 - belated

You are the only people I could tell this to who would understand. I just reached 30,035 words, which I understand was yesterday's target, but perhaps you will understand my euphoria when I explain that I had to write 2,363 words TODAY to get to this point.

This, after running/sauntering in the Davis Turkey Trot (as did Katie, the bunny writer).  I have been standing here at my dresser for several hours now. [sigh]

So I am only one day behind at this point and the night is young. Well, I had to get up at 5:30 this morning to trot the darned turkey race, so the night is starting to feel old to me.

But I have broken the 30,000 word barrier and I am mighty pleased with myself. 30K words and a 5K run, all in one day. Whew!

NaNoWriMo Day 17 update

Today, the husband started calling NaNoWriMo (are you sitting down?) NoWanWriNoMo - or something like that. Cracked me up.  It's also a bit of a tongue twister.

Today, I was at my wits end, trying to think through the next stages of the novel, and I pulled out a stack of 3 x 5 cards, because you know, I have 3 x 5 cards EVERYWHERE, and I started jotting down ideas on the cards, and then suddenly [trumpets blare] A most incredible plot twist wrote itself on a card!! I think Noel would say "woot" at this point.

See y'all tomorrow night. If I get lost, I'll call for help so turn your darned phones on.

NaNoWriMo Day 15

You people are mighty quiet. Marcie sends me amusing textmessages every now and then, but I am suspecting that I have fallen into an alternative world where I think I have writing friends but they never write back...

So here's the good news: I am back on track. I passed the 25,000 word mark today. Melanie has made it past the drawbridge, has found a mute child, and now she is trekking across California with TWO children, and they survived the wildfire.

The dog has yet to appear.

The bad news is this: I have passed the 25,000 word mark, but something has [sob!] gone dreadfully wrong with the NaNoWriMo stats. It knows what my word count is, but it will not increment the "words written today" nor the graph. No matter how many words I type, it stays at 606 words for today - and trust me, I wrote close to 4,000 words (yes, my brain is hurting from the exercise)  and I really really really wanted to see the little bar reach the 25,000 mark and it just sulks at 21,637. There is nothing worse than a sulking bar graph. [sigh]

I have caught up, and therefore I am happy. I see Katie's word count continues to soar - are you trying to invoke the warrantee on that new laptop before it is even a month old??

And Anita - you are having these great events at DVC and I can't get there for them! Too early in the day! Maybe next week, I'll leave work early and sneak over there. But wait. I don't think you scheduled a write-in next week.

In my last email, I asked about our Friday event.  Any news? when? where? how? we know why, right?

See y'all soon, in words if not in person.

NaNoWriMo Day 14

Wailing, rending of cloth, gnashing of teeth... it must be day 14.

I just want to say that I wrote over 2800 words today and I am STILL behind by over 2000 words. This is that happens when you go on vacation with your friends. Do NOT let this happen to you.    

Update: the dog has not appeared yet. And, I have it on good authority that Marcie has sent all of her characters to a wedding. Oh. My. God. If there's not drama there, the whole thing is hopeless. She says there are some people going who SHOULD NOT meet at this point... In my tale, my two primary characters made it over the drawbridge, and have escaped armed marauders more than once. Several family members are missing. :o) 

I look forward to seeing the California contingent on Friday night. Is that at 7:00? or is there an alternative plan? (or do we have to wait and see what the omniscient NaNoWriMo author has written for us to do now?) 

Imagine we are the characters in a NaNoWriMo novel... The author writes: "let's see, I'm going to put this one on BART twice a day and let her write up a blizzard of words... hmmm... This one's computer is going to break now. And, oh, oh, let's give this one a HUGE cold requiring reams of Kleenex, and that one up in Canada, I'm a gonna fill her with despair. oh yeah and then there's that one that thought that a couple of short stories would be ha ha ha ha omigod I think I have the hiccups - wait until she finds out what I have in store for her. And Sunday, I'll put four of them on a train to the Big City.

See y'all later. ::Sheila

Day 8 of NaNoWri Mo

I should be ashamed - I have been reduced to posting my friends emails as posts in my blog. It's shameful. So here is my response... 

Oddly enough, this standing at the dresser with a laptop on top of the Oxford dictionary is what is working for me. I feel like I have a little 'writing office' here in this corner of the bedroom. Also, my family doesn't seem to be able to find me here.

Wish me luck. I'm off to write Day 8. Please please please let me come up with 1667 words. Oh, the bad news is that after my character started out on a trek across the state, I checked a map and she took the WRONG ROUTE.

Maybe it's time for her to have a meltdown.

The Pallotta Report -- Day 7 of NaNoWriMo

New revelation:  my emails to my writing group are far more interesting than my novel. Thus, they will become part of my blog for the month.

I am worried about you all.  I have heard so little... are you writing so feverishly that you don't have time for your NaNoWriMo friends? Let me say that I think that it is you, my friends, who are helping me through this project. I don't want to embarrass or disappoint any of you and so I write and write. Drivel, I know, but I write anyway.

I am happy to report that I was so diligent today, that the stats finally suggest that I might reach the 50,000 word mark by the end of the month. I thought I would never catch up, and let that be a lesson to us all, especially me. Even one day of not writing... [shaking head sadly].

Also let me report that the dog has not appeared yet, but I suspect that it is on the other side of the drawbridge.  Also, Sadie did NOT break into the drug store, it had already been broken into, and she just took advantage of the situation. .(When I told Nora this fact she looked perplexed, "I thought it was a futuristic novel," she said. and I just shrugged.)

Hope to hear from you all soon. And Katie, you will hurt your fingers typing so many thousands of words in so few days.  :o)

NaNoWriMo: the status report

I know that you are all very anxious to know how my writing is coming along.

I have done something dreadful to my back, and I are trying various positions and drugs to alleviate the symptoms. Yesterday, I took the drug that doesn't do anything for the pain, but causes you to fall asleep at the drop of a hat. Needless to say, the hat dropped, and I didn't write anything at all yesterday, which means that I feel even further behind. I have abandoned that particular drug, and I'm trying another one that allows the patient to accomplish more during the day.

When I woke up this morning, NaNoWriMo reported that at this rate, I would finish my 50,000 words by February 3rd.

One of my challenges is that I am not supposed to sit more than 20 to 30 minutes at a time. This could be just the excuse I need...  But I was creative, and found that my laptop on top of an unabridged dictionary on top of my dresser was exactly the right height to write (oh oh - is that poetry?very bad poetry? "right height to write..."). So I stand at the dresser and type away, and if I can't think of anything to write, I try on some costume jewelry. I have also cleaned out two complete drawers of old clothes. Not that I'm distracted or anything. Also found my bandana collection.

So the good news is that right now, NaNoWriMo says that at this rate, and I'm not sure what that means, I will be done by December 17th. Which means that I might not have to write on CHRISMAS!! 

Ya! Hoo!

And I see that my writing group friendsl are scampering right along - your word counts are rising and I can see your little bunny tails in the distance in front of me.

I have a new technique. If I don't know what is going to happen next, I write about something that happened before I started to write. That usually gets me in the right place to move along in the middle again. If it gets really difficult, I might make my character adopt a dog, and I can tell part of the story from the dog's point of view.

The National Novel Writing Month

National Novel Writing Month is more than a month. It is an event. More than 300,000 people decide that they will write a minimum 50,000 word novel during the month of November.  The festivities begin November 1st. There is a website where you can track your words per day, and the progress of your friends as well.

To achieve our goal, we must write an average of 1,667 words each day for 30 days.

You can follow along too at http://www.nanowrimo.org - be prepared for silliness and hilarity, because only silliness and hilarity will sustain us through 30 days of torment.

More notes from the blue notebook:  

I just came across some quotes from Gotham Writer's Workshop:

• "The fiction writer takes a fragment of reality and examines it from several angles until it starts to make some damn sense."
• "If you want to be a great writer and you have a choice between being brilliant and lazy, or being clueless but motivated, choose the latter."
• "Figure out why you like what you like, then try to utilize some of the techniques that will help you get there."
• "Plot makes fiction coherent by drawing together all teh characters, settings, voice, and everything else around a single, organizing force."
• "Works of fiction are not, and cannot be, about a million things -- they are usually about just one thing. And that thing, the force that draws everything together in a successful piece of fiction, is a single, pressing question.
  

So, you see, some of my noes are more interesting than others. I especially liked #2, and I don't know why I wrote #4 down at all...

Notes from The Writing Workshop Notebook, by Alan Ziegler

I have the ability to obsess about almost anything, and you get TWO GUESSES what I am obsessing about right now...

I found some quotes in my blue notebook from another book: The Writing Workshop Notebook, by Alan Ziegler, and I thought they would be appropriate to share. What I do is I write down stuff that strikes me as I'm reading all these writing books (and let me repeat that if reading about writing were a predictor of writing success, I would be next in line for a best-selling novel...), so here's what I wrote down February 2010:

I think the chapter must have been about journaling and why one should journal. Which I don't, by the way...

• "The very act of memorializing observations, events and imaginings contributes to the skills integral to one's identity and growth as a writer..."
• "Some writers fear their creativity is non-renewable and they may run out of material. But as you create, seeds get dropped along the way for later cultivation."  (translation by S Pallotta: So just write for goodness' sake! Eventually something will come of it!)
• "Your pen or keyboard is the mill, and the whole world is grist. Through writing, you perceive, illuminate, and interpret what goes on internally and externally... You look for material with your eyes and mind's eye and listen with your ears and mind's ear. That's the writer's edge: three eyes and three ears."

The message?  Write, write, write.