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If you are reading this and participating in NaNoWriMo, shame on you. Quit procrastinating and get your 1667 words in. Come back when you’re finished.
With the stroke of midnight, NaNoWriMo has arrived. The local Salt Lake region had a virtual kick-off last night. At 11:30 they gathered in a chat room and hung out until the official start, at which point those late nighters got started. Not me. I was in bed energizing for a decent start this morning.
The NaNo site offers support and encouragement along with some planned events, including write-ins. This is when reclusive writers join other solitary writers in a central location, laptops in hand, and ignore each other and write. There are different locations throughout the valley, but they will occur every Saturday at either the City Library or City Creek Harmon’s store from 2-5pm. Checking the NaNoWriMo site would be the best way to know when and where write-ins near you will occur. I’ve never attended the write-in sessions. Think I’ll give it a try this year.
The Salt Lake region also plans a Half-Way Write-In and Party on Nov. 14. The write-in will occur at the South Jordan Library and the party happens at The Pie near by. They also have scheduled a Last Chance Write-In for Nov. 30.
This blog’s Scott Rhoades offered NaNoWriMo tips on Carol Lynch Williams’ blog, Throwing Up Words. (He also had some advice on Wednesday here for people who can’t participate but still want to get the most out of writing this month.) Scott suggests following a daily routine in which you write at the same time. Whatever works best for you - early morning, late a night, an hour lunch break. You should minimize distractions during the time. Ignoring email notifications and texts are hard. Ignoring the kids is impossible. Family obligations can’t be put off for 30 days, but if you can get your family to leave you alone during your set writing time, then you can resume your normal role with them afterward. Scott also advises to take breaks. That could mean write for an hour, rest for five minutes repeat. Again, find something that works for you.
The only other thing I can add would be to know what you’re going to accomplish before you sit down at the computer. Spend the first five minutes of your day jotting a quick description of the scene you hope to write. Those five minutes will be returned in greater productivity.
Other than that, the rest is up to you. Good luck to all.
(This article also posted at http://writetimeluck.blogspot.com)
Okay. I’ve been on Facebook for a week now and can’t say much has happened.
It could be my fault. I haven’t added much since setting it up. Posting writerly things would be a start.
I did have contact from several long lost friends. I clicked on some of them to see what they’re doing with their lives. I’ve learned FB can be a big time-suck.
Scott Rhoades commented and said social media is trending toward generating more discussion than blogs. He says that people wanting to know more about you as an author are more likely to seek you out on Facebook.
One author that effectively uses social media is John Green. I recently heard about this guy on the WIFYR blog. Becca Birkin was talking about an author who knows how to “speak teenager.” I have consumed several of his books hoping to develop an ear for that jargon.
John Green is an outstanding author which probably pushes his “likes” up to 1.3 million. (Beats my 31). His The Fault In Our Stars is coming out as a movie this summer. Besides his talent, what also is impressive about him is his use of social media. For TFIOS as well as Looking for Alaska, he uses this technology to answer readers’ questions about things in the books. He has a FB page, Tumblr and Twitter accounts, his own website, and a YouTube video channel he created with his brother.
So, what is a poor unpublished writer to do? I guess go out and write a book that people would want to inquire about. Write like John Green. And quit frittering away valuable writing time on Facebook.
And… WIFYR is still accepting writers wanting to lift their craft. Go to WIFYR.com.
(This article also posted at http://writetimeluck.blogspot.com)
By Julie Daines
This year, I'm sharing some awesome Haiku. Most of these were written by my friends for a competition, and I'm posting them without permission, so oops.
Anyway, here are some great Haiku poems about books:
Swan Song (Haiku by T.J. Reed)
Young girl, heart of gold
Devil roaming happily
Will the world end?
Keturah and Lord Death (Haiku by Michelle Ratto)
death permeates all
life and love in the village
and forces a choice
The Hunger Games (Haiku by Christine Tyler)
Thanks for the burnt bread
If you kiss me you get soup
I'd like to frost you
To Kill A Mockingbird (Haiku by Scott Rhoades)
Fearing boogieman
two finches learn tolerance
among injustice
Pride and Prejudice (Haiku by Taffy Lovell)
Rich men want a wife
It's a universal law
Mother's want the match
The Hobbit (Haiku by Scott Rhoades)
He's number thirteen
with some dwarves and a wizard
What's in his pocket?
Where the Wild Things Are (Haiku by Rachel Taylor)
They held Max up high
"And now let the wild rumpus begin"
They all roared out loud.
The Body Finder (Haiku by Taffy Lovell)
I hear the echoes
From the missing and the dead
And the one who killed
Have you got a book Haiku you'd like to share? Leave it in the comments.
I’m still working on a story I began in November. Most people called it quits on November 30, but for me I’m still on NaNoWriMo, about day 120.
Writing in NaNo style is kind of fun. The goal is to slap down a story rough draft in thirty days. You just write. You send the internal editor out of the room and just write. I’ve had a problem shutting that guy up so ignoring him was a joy of NaNo.
My normal style is to obsess over every little sentence. I can’t move on to chapter two until chapter one is perfect. It was so freeing in November to let the story just flow, with a note here or there on how to fix it during the next draft. My problem was I didn’t have it roughed out in my head so at times I wrote aimlessly, going around in circles. But when I had direction, it was liberating to lay the story down in a quick fashion.
Now I am trying to finish that first draft, the first 50,00 words for NaNo and again, I fall back into old habits of obsession over perfection. My critique group pointed out the problem and said to return to NaNo style. I’ve done that, but internal editor man still manages to pop up, even though I’ve told him to leave me alone.
A couple inspirational posts have appeared on this blog. Julie Daines commented that the first chapter can never be perfected until the entire story is complete. That makes a lot of sense. You need a beginning and it can have direction. But there’s no need to fixate on it when it’s going to change anyway to accommodate the path it takes.
Scott Rhoades had a great post last week with his truth about first drafts. “Books don't escape the mind fully fledged and ready to fly,” he said. That brilliant idea in your head can look so flawed in the first draft. No matter how ugly that first attempt is, the writer must persevere and tell the story, then come back and make the repairs.
Scott offered a quote from Terry Pratchett that echoed what my critique group said. "The first draft is just you telling yourself the story." I like that little line and it has carried me all week long. You may have a general idea of the plot and the characters who live it, but you really don’t know the story for sure until you tell it to yourself.
So I’m telling myself a story. Maybe one of these days I’ll finish my NaNo project.
Last week Scott Rhoades mentioned its importance. Cheryl Klein calls it the soul of the novel. Agents and publishers are looking for fresh ones. But what is this nebulous thing called voice?
Simply put, voice is the individual style of the author. It is what makes her writing unique. It conveys the author's attitude, personality, and character.
Author’s voice is different than finding the voice of your character. Some talk of sitting in a school cafeteria or eavesdropping at the mall in order to discern the voice of a teen. This discussion concerns author’s unique style.
Rachelle Gardner, agent for Books & Such Literary Agency, says voice is “about your originality and having the courage to express it.” Gardner says “your writer’s voice is the expression of YOU on the page.” She goes on to say that, as consumers of stories in books and on screen, we may unwittingly regurgitate characters or stories we’ve heard. Writers must strive to be original.Voice is somehow allowing the uniqueness of ourselves come out on the page. It is that simple. It is that complex.
How does one do that? Voice is not something you can study or learn. It is something you have to find, that develops. It grows and matures with your writing. Most agree that to develop you voice you have to write. And write and write.
I wanted to understand it so I set out to examine voice. It seems the more I examined it, the less I know.
I was in a workshop with author Martine Leavitt (and I haven't shut up about it since) but anyway, I learned A LOT!
She said something like this: first you have your get it out draft, then you have your pre-first draft, THEN you have your first draft.
I agree.