10k as in 10,000 words, of course, nothing to do with kilometers or running, lol. I’ve been on track all week with my Nanowrimo work, though busy enough that it is all I can do to write an average, more or less, of 1,667 words per day. Which, to be honest, is the only way I can succeed with Nanowrimo: I just aim to stay on par every day for wherever the website (nanowrimo.org) says I should be by that day. Today, they say the “path to success” would be 10,002. Not to brag, but I’m at 10,181.
Much of what I’ve written feels like it may need to be cut or completely revised if I were ever to want to share this story with someone else. But I learn so much as I move forward. I come to understand more about the setting, characters, and situation, things I just don’t know until I try to write this story.
In other news, we had our first snow this week, just a strange steady snowfall that melted when it hit the ground, though it dusted some of the treetops, briefly. Still, I felt a burst of joy that I associate with snow days, when the world that was chugging along in one direction suddenly hits the brakes, and there is time to breathe and snuggle up with a story.
And I took this photo at a local grocery because it made me grin.
I know what you’re thinking. Two days in a row doesn’t really sound like a lot. But it must be a lot because I got a badge on the nanowrimo website. And really, one of the deepest yet somehow also most obvious insights I’ve ever had is that daily effort, even the most minor teeniest tiniest effort, is probably the most powerful. This kind of work is certainly more meaningful to me than anything that I power through in one sitting. For me, at least, whatever I complete in one long session (writing any kind of report, for example), tends to lose meaning after awhile. I start to just go through the motions. There are exceptions, of course. But overall, small and steady daily effort FTW.
A few notes on today’s session:
I was in a much better mood, partly because I had more sleep, I felt better than yesterday, and I have more time to write on Tuesdays.
I actually did have to stop writing before I reached my word-count goal for the day because I needed to make some decisions about the setting for this scene. It led me to sketch out the location (and I use the word sketch very loosely here), which in turn led me to get more ideas for world-building, etcetera. So even though that added maybe 45 minutes to my writing time but no fresh words to my word count, it was super rewarding. I also engaged in some light research on the web that was fun and generative.
As I write, my previous efforts to edit/revise my completed novels have made me conscious of elements in this first chapter that will need to change. I mean, some of what is happening here, at the start of the book, is just slow. It’s important to me, to my protagonist, and to my story, but when I revise, I will have to find a way to crank up the pressure, maybe move some conflicts upfront so the protagonist has to deal with that while absorbing this slower unfolding of tension that is occurring now.
I’m hoping this realization is a helpful one for me. I want to believe that I can make that fix later on. I also just don’t know how else to make sense of this novel but to write it out, find out what might happen, then revise it later to make a reader want to read it, too.
To my fellow writers, whatever you are working on this week, write on!
Just thought I’d post a little shout here to say that despite having a super tired Monday today, I managed to write 1690 words for my first day of Nanowrimo (the goal is to average around 1667 per day, so check!). I’ve had better results on other Nanowrimo months. Usually day one is one of the easiest. But I was dragging today, so it was harder, and there were definitely some passages that made me think, yep, gonna have to cut or deeply revise that part someday. But even a not-so-great writing session has its great moments where I start to learn more about what might happen. Oh, and I just realized, I didn’t wind up using the writing prompt that I chose for today (which was this: Write about an unusual pet). I already figured out what I would do, and I realized that the pet might play an important role later in the story in some way. That’s always so cool, when I realize that something that I added as a kind of embellishment or description or to provide color can later become important to the story.
So not only did I get started, but also I have an idea ready to develop when I return tomorrow. And maybe I’ll catch up on some sleep, too, and be raring to go for Day Two.
Best wishes to anyone else nanowrimo-ing this month.
So Nanowrimo (aka National Novel Writing Month) launches tomorrow, and I am ready.
Reading those words, you might not hear the doubtful tone in my voice. But I am more ready than I was at the start of October, and progress is always something to celebrate.
So far, I’ve fleshed out notes on the gist of this novel, by which I mean one core problem that will drive the plot.
I spent some time jotting notes and ideas about the setting, which went from non-existent (even though I knew it would be critical to the problem of this novel) to details that will serve as a resource to me in writing the story.
I didn’t have to take notes on my protagonist because this novel is part of a series, so I just reflected on her possible internal and external motivators at this point. I then reviewed past world-building notes and identified existing characters who could be part of this novel. Some of them have been a bit flat, so this novel gives me a chance to develop them further. I also identified at least one new central character. Because these novels draw on mystery tropes, I have identified a few possible antagonists to serve as red herrings along the way.
Just fleshing out those notes helped me identify a much-needed subplot that will run parallel to the main plot. I love the way such ideas emerge in the process of asking myself who is in the story and pondering what they want.
I chose Katytastic’s grid available on this part of Nanowrimo’s NanoPrep site https://nanowrimo.org/nano-prep-101#week3 to give myself general goals for about 27 scenes (conveniently close to the number of days in November). I don’t enjoy plotting within a spreadsheet, so I transferred the categories to MindNode, one of several graphic organizer apps that help me feel more playful about brainstorming but that I somehow never use enough to know how to make the most of them. I did figure out this time how to add stickers so I placed little doodle images with several scenes to try to capture the feeling of the scene. I did not write a lot for each scene, especially for the later scenes because I suspect I will be learning more about what is going on as I write out these scenes. I mostly identified key players for the scenes, possible goals, and settings.
I think I read some wise person’s advice about it being helpful for writers to get a clear sense of direction when they write. I think that makes sense, and I suspect that what I have done so far doesn’t fall into that category. It is true that sometimes during the course of a Nanowrimo I fast draft a scene early in the month with specific actions that later in the month I pretend didn’t happen because I can see how they didn’t work.
So there are aspects of the pursuit of 50,000 words in one month that don’t quite fit with Serious Writing. As I thought about it, I realized that Nanowrimo feels a bit like a game for me. Can I dream up the novel with just a few ideas? It’s a bit like a game I recall from long ago called, Name that tune, when you had to bet you could name a song with as few notes played as possible, i.e. I can name that tune in five notes. So I’m challenging myself to “create that novel” with as few notes as possible. I may discover mid-month (or sooner) that I need more plans, so I will have to stop and take more notes and make more decisions, including, as I mentioned, possibly revisiting/changing something I’d already drafted. It may take more time, but I just love being surprised by what I am writing.
So this year I realize that I do this for fun as much as anything else. Which, if I’m honest, has become the best reason to write, especially as I learn more and more about the publishing industry. It’s not that it’s impossible to write for your career, one way or another. But if you want the act of writing to be rewarding in the deeper sense of the word, just write for fun (or for joy or for personal transformation or to tell a story you need to tell).
As I dug into this commitment to pursue the joy of writing, I remembered how much I loved writing exercises with writing prompts. Again, it’s a kind of play or puzzle to see what arises in the moment. So the last stage of my NanoPrep was to identify three of my favorite sources of writing prompts (and I’ve barely scratched the surface with all three books): Everyday Creative Writing: Panning for Gold in the Kitchen Sink by Michael C. Smith and Suzanne Greenberg, The 3 A.M. Epiphany: Uncommon Writing Exercises that Transform your Fiction by Brian Kiteley, and Naming the World and Other Exercises for the Creative Writer, edited by Bret Anthony Johnston. Each day, I will pick one at random… or eventually pick one, in case I keep rejecting whatever I pick at random, and let that be what kicks off my drafting session for the day.
I saw a tweet by Erin Morgenstern that sums up my take on Nanowrimo:
The only thing I would add is to clarify that “messy” drafts are accomplishments. As far as I’m concerned, that’s what we mean when we talk about drafting a novel. Revising a novel, that’s for later. (And of course, some people clean up the draft as they put it on paper, so you do you—I’m just saying that calling Nanowrimo a time for messy drafts is not a criticism.)
So to anyone else joining in the games and messes tomorrow, best wishes!
Earlier this year, I posted some thoughts on Trampoline, the first in a related set of books by Robert Gipe. I recently finished the second book Weedeater, and I’d like to share a few thoughts again. This won’t be a review or plot summary, so if you want to know more about the book, check out the publisher’s site: https://www.ohioswallow.com/book/Weedeater
Dawn, the narrator of the first novel, takes turn narrating this time with a new character nicknamed Weedeater. I was glad at first to pick up Dawn’s story again, but that started to be a reason for me to postpone finishing this book. Though Trampoline by no means paints an optimistic portrait of the hardships faced in this Kentucky community, there were at least some flickers of hope that Dawn would find a path forward. Those flickers were extinguished in this novel, some quickly, some slowly. There was still a thread of humor and an appreciative eye for the land and the people that makes these books well worth the time, but I had to let go of some of my unrealistic expectations in order to finish reading.
The character of Weedeater was a gift, though. I am not sure I know how to describe him well. He is in some ways pathetic, bearing lasting physical and emotional wounds, in some ways comical, at least due to some of the situations he lands himself in and the reactions he discloses to the reader. He’s also lovable and appealing, even if he could be seen as the type who blends into the shadows of everyday life. I especially like how honest he is in his assessment of others and himself. He seems to me both broken and wholly innocent.
By the end of this second book, I feel so protective of these people, ravaged by addictions to coal and OxyContin, and it occurs to me these industries are what fund Senators Paul and McConnell, two politicians who work so very hard to do nothing for the people they are supposed to represent.
There are many zigs and zags in this book, major and minor events that echo the lack of control over their lives many of the characters experience. The scene that stands out the most for me is when Weedeater spends a day working in the coal mine, and Gipe helps us peek at a past and present almost unimaginable, one almost unbearable to experience.
As I neared the end of the book, it occurred to me that many parts could just as easily work as a poem. That may give you the wrong impression. Some novels are full of heavy prose, and that’s not the way this feels. It has its pragmatic moments, and a gritty humor balanced with a relentless sense of loss. But it was moving to hear the poetry singing underneath the story.
It’s that time of year again. No, not fall, though that is my favorite season. No, not Halloween, though that’s fun, too. Nope, I’m talking about National Novel Writing Month, nicknamed Nanowrimo because why not.
Just a quick definition for the uninitiated: Nanowrimo comes across as a contest, but everyone can win, and winning is defined as writing 50,000 words or more in one month. There are “prizes” to celebrate reaching the goal, such as a certificate you can print out, and free trials or discounts for writing-adjacent products. You can choose to pursue the old school goal, which is to write a novel from scratch (planning is allowed) or you can go rogue and use the month to revise or update or write short pieces everyday. Most importantly, you get to chart your progress on the website to watch as you get closer and closer to the goal of 50,000 words.
I sometimes choose to blog about my progress during November, and I like to see if any fellow bloggers are trying it, too. It’s just fun to cheer each other on. Last year, I wound up becoming shy about posting on my blog about Nanowrimo because it felt insensitive to talk about this endeavor when I knew many were struggling with pandemic-related challenges. I also am aware that some writers, and I usually assume they are better writers than I am, find Nanowrimo frustrating because it’s just fast drafting, an approach to composing that might not work for them, and frankly, doesn’t result in a high quality novel by December 1.
Recently, though, I was thinking about how over the years (and I’ve “won” Nanowrimo nine times), I often approach the month of November feeling a bit of burnout from work or whatever, yet I am always in the best mood during November. While I regret that for some writers Nanowrimo is a source of guilt or some feeling of inadequacy based on the (inaccurate!!!) idea that so-called real writers can write novels in a month (lol), I want to explain that participating in Nanowrimo simply makes me happy. It reduces rather than increases stress for me.
I think it might be helpful to explain why. Again, this is for me. This is not so much an attempt to convince everyone that they should try Nanowrimo—it’s not a good fit for everyone, and for some writers, it might be counterproductive and/or a complete waste of time. I mostly want to explain why this works for me and why it is not a waste of time for me. Nanowrimo has helped me get writing done, including fleshing out full novels, that had been rarer for me before my first Nanowrimo. But I also always must thoroughly revise everything I’ve written during Nanowrimo, so the main benefit is the idea that it can help to write every day, and you don’t have to set arbitrary word count goals to get that result and you don’t have to sign up for Nanowrimo in order to write daily, either.
So really, for me, what makes Nanowrimo such a morale booster is that unlike the rest of the year, I don’t have to wonder, “what should I work on now?” Or “What is my top priority?” There are many aspects of writing that require a lot of gritting of teeth, such as some types of revising or what feels like endless problem-solving to figure out what isn’t working in a scene, not to mention my least favorite, publication and marketing endeavors. In November, I already know the answer to the question of what should I do: Work on the novel! I need to generate an average of 1667 words per day so that I can be on track to reach 50,000 words total by November 30. The words should be fresh writing on a novel, but that doesn’t mean they have to be perfect or keepers, so I can be playful about my approach. I can work for an hour or so to get in my words all at once, or I can grab a few minutes here or there to write parts of it throughout the day.
It’s fun. It’s writing without self-flagellation. Just get it done. Be creative. Be playful.
During the month, the daily effort means the novel is my main focus, so it starts to percolate in my brain even when I’m not writing. I get ideas when I take showers or go for a walk. I’m more open to the possibilities for this one specific goal. The focus on just this one novel, rather than the Everything that I normally need to consider, lightens the load on me so much, and I get to feel productive and creative for the entire month. I must be productive and creative because the bar graph on the website says I am, right? Ha.
There are easy writing days and there are hard ones, yet the challenge is, for me, just enough that I can usually push through as long as nothing extremely stressful is going on in the rest of my life. (A certain amount of stress and distractions are always going to be there, but some Novembers are better than others.)
So anyway, this is my apology and explanation about why I love Nanowrimo so much, and why I might mention it now and then in blog posts ahead. Whether this is your writing goal or something different, write on, my friends.
I know I’m stating the obvious, but it’s been an odd couple of years. More than a couple, to be honest.
I am trying to lean on empathy and compassion, always better choices than anger (and its central source: grief). So I am not going to blame anyone who has chosen to purchase the snake oil medicine (I reserve sharp condemnation for its salespeople).
But I have to give myself a moment to vent about what is so baffling.
If ten years ago, I told you that we would face a pandemic that would kill one in every 500 American and cause severe illness and in some cases long term disability in countless others, this is what you would say: Gosh, I hope they come up with a vaccine for it.
Oh, you say, that’s great. Of course, I understand that there might be a few people hesitant at first to try the vaccine. They might need to wait a few months to see how it goes. They might need to see what happens to people who get the vaccine.
Yes, that’s fair. Some people know they are unusually sensitive to drugs and just need to see what happens with widespread use. I mean, I went and got a vaccine the earliest I could because I did not like my odds with Covid19, but I guess I can understand wanting to wait a month or two as long as you go to great length to avoid contact with others until you get vaccinated.
Well, a more infectious variant arose that does cause some of them to get a little sick. In statistically rare cases, worse.
Those are pretty impressive results in the face of a new variant. Did that cause people to question the vaccine?
Well… the trouble is, there are people now who simply won’t trust any vaccine. Not because of anything that’s actually happened but, well, I’m not sure I can explain why not.
That could be a problem. I mean, any vaccine? Weren’t vaccines what we would count on to solve this challenge? I mean, look at polio.
Yes, it is baffling.
Is it the cost?
Well, in the U.S., everyone can get a Covid19 vaccine for free, actually.
Wow!
But if you get sick of Covid19, that can bankrupt you if you don’t have the right insurance.
Yikes. That should make it easy for them…
I’m going to stop you there. No, instead anti-vaxxers are taking horse dewormer.
What? And ewww.
Yes, instead of a free vaccine with a success rate in the billions (which are numbers, to be honest, beyond what I can comprehend), they are taking something that makes them sick and has no credible evidence of helping with the disease. At most, there are people who say maybe it helped them.
Um, you say, I’m all for personal stories and the insights they provide to inspire more extensive research, but couldn’t I get better for lots of different reasons? I mean, I could decide that sitting in the sun is what healed me?
Yes, yes, you could.
That wouldn’t mean it’s true, even if you like me better than the people who are telling you about the vaccine.
Nope.
But… but… but…
I told you this baffles me.
Well, is there anything else they can do other than take the vaccine?
They can wear a mask.
Is it a heavy mask? Is it expensive? Is it harmful in any way?
Nope.
Just a mask? Like a surgical mask? Like the kind that has been around and been helpful for centuries? You don’t have to swallow anything? You don’t have to deal with any side effects, just wear an additional garment of clothing?
Yep.
Does it actually help?
Yep. (See below)
Do they do it? I bet they especially want their children to wear one. And to make sure everyone who comes near their children wears one.
Since I often spend time thinking and talking about time management, I’ve pondered what makes some tasks difficult. Maybe it’s me, but it helps to consider why a specific goal is difficult for me. That is, if I articulate/recognize what makes something hard to do or hard to start, I often make more progress than if I just plow ahead (or spin in perpetual procrastination).
Some tasks are difficult simply because they take a long time to complete. There are no shortcuts. You just have to put in hour after hour after hour. Once I know that, the obstacle can be overcome because I either realize a) I don’t have time to do this, so I change plans or b) I have to put in time each day until some distant moment arrives and I will be done. What is amazing is that I really have reached the end of fairly massive projects just through day-to-day effort, including some super short sessions on hectic days.
Sometimes a task is difficult because some necessary bit of information is not available to me. That is, I don’t really know what I’m doing, and the truth is that’s more often than I realize. Lol. And sigh. But if I can figure out what I don’t know, I can then assess if a) I can learn/gather that information, b) I can muddle forward and eventually improve, or c) this is a dead end and I should seek some other version of this goal that is achievable. Though this is not a romanticized you-can-do-anything-Cama! way of thinking, it works pretty well for me. It sometimes means I have to change my goals or change my approach or extend my personal deadlines. But that seems wiser than always being stuck in place, unable to move forward because I didn’t assess the situation further.
Another way I’ve found tasks difficult that is harder to address, and that’s when the task creates anxiety for me for some reason. Often, the above steps help me manage anxiety because I have thought through the situation, but not always. Some tasks carry risks of embarrassment and/or failure and/or something worse. A few strategies that sometimes (but not always) help are to stop to recognize how I feel and then try to make sense of why I feel that way. What am I afraid of? Do I have any control of the risks I am facing? Can I plan ahead of what to do if things go wrong? (I am a habitual planner—you may have noticed this already. But I assure you I plan time to be spontaneous once a week 😉 ). Other strategies that can help is to treat an anxiety-producing task as a game or creative outlet. I love to embrace a sense of play whenever possible. And of course, all the strategies that help me manage stress can help with this stress too (exercise, sleep, time with friends/family, laughter, volunteer work, art, dance, music, etcetera).
And in any of these cases, I always need to know at least a few answers, or answers-in-progress, to this question—why does this task matter to me?
I recently skimmed through an old copy of Writer’s Market, where a section described blogging as best when the posts are short. It occurs to me that I don’t always approach my own blog posts that way, yet as a reader, I am rather grateful when one of my WordPress buddies posts something short because I rarely have a lot of time to read blog posts.
It feels like a good goal to explore what is possible with shorter posts, and I wonder if I would post more often if I didn’t conceive of the post as a form of essay.
How short is short, I wonder? Should I stop now? (Yes, you say. Nice try, I reply.)
I wanted to add this thought that came to me. Shorter posts make me think of what happens on Twitter or Facebook, sometimes called micro-blogs. Those spaces feel to me like highways, constantly in motion with the benefits of speed as well as the dangers. This WordPress blog feels more like a pasture. Quiet, almost peaceful. There is less to see unless I take time to notice what’s around me, to be open to what the day brings.
This book about aliens wearing fuzzy orange hats compares well with your favorite book, which turns out to be LittleWomen, and I’m going to get back to you on exactly how this is the right fit.
My protagonist is indeed grappling with a life or death decision that will keep you up at night and cause you to wonder if anything is real anymore. You will need intense therapy after you read this book. No, no, I mean it, there is no way that this book is just an entertaining story with a few subtle and not-so-subtle themes. No one wants to read that any more, do they? They want to be scarred for life by the act of reading, or so your mswishlist led me to believe and I am here for it.
My novel is exactly 75,000 words long, the perfect length, I know, and that was made possible once I added the word “very” 10,000 times. I never realized how very helpful that word could be. Because I am a creative (which turns out to be a noun now, and I am fine with that), I also added the word “so” a few thousand times too.
I would tell you my favorite books except that talking about favorite books is a bit like telling someone my favorite music, and there is nothing that sparks disdain more than finding out someone likes the wrong kind of music. Let’s leave it at this—I love to read and write, and some of what I read are books.
This book will be so easy to sell because the truth is that I don’t even need any help selling it. I am just writing this query for the fun of it. No, wait, how about this—I am doing it to give back to the publishing community out of gratitude for the many books I have loved over the years, and now that I’ve written that sentence I admit there is some truth to that.
Of course, everything I’ve written so far is completely true or at least is similar to things that have sometimes been true.
With warm regards and possibly a plate of chocolate chip cookies,
reader. writer. 