It's NaNoWriMo eve and I'm busy preparing for the maelstrom to come, so here is a favorite post from last year that will hopefully prove useful to you as we stand on the brink of November...
October is the calm before the NaNoWriMo storm. Having lived in Houston all of my life, I'm no stranger to battening down the hatches. Like clock work, we get together bottled water, canned goods, and other non perishables as each new hurricane season approaches. We go through a laundry list to make sure that if all of a sudden a depression pops up in the gulf, so we won't be up the creek when the masses make a run for the grocery.
In this same fashion, I created a NaNoWriMo survival kit in preparation for a month of writing with literary abandon. Putting everything together before the tempest strikes will save me from wasting time on midnight runs for NaNo necessities. The kit includes (see pic above):
My writing totem - the goat the sings "High On a Hill Was a Lonely Goat Herd" from the sound of musicMy computer - obvious I know. However, I have heard tales of people doing NaNoWriMo by hand.Coffee - preferably with chicoryTea - of the English afternoon persuasionBetty Boop mug - Betty in the painting of the birth of Aphrodite...it's deliciously tacky with a hint of inappropriateness. Whiskey - sometimes coffee just isn't enoughChocolate bacon bar - yes, you read that correctly my friends: CHOCOLATE COVERED BACON!!!! It's a heath bar with bacon pieces substituted for toffee bits.Various frozen dinners, savory bake in oven snacks - one must eat during the month of November without much prep time.Snickers Ice Cream Bars - dessert to top it all off.And last but not least, my furry minions of doom:
the big one told me that on the days I didn't meet my word count goal, he would poop on the carpet. He's a 92 pound Lab/Elephant/German Shepherd mix, so I take that threat very seriously.
What would you add to the survival kit list?
Hey everyone!
I'm taking a brief break from work today to check in and drop a quick post. It's been a terribly long day and it's not over yet. :-/ Like many workdays (and even weekends before today) I'm here at the office at 8:30 pm and it doesn't look like I'm going home any time soon...boo.
On the bright side we are trying to get this beast of a report out of the door so in the next day or two my life should be getting back to normal. Normal being a relative and mostly in accurate term. After all, the word "normal" is nothing more than a setting on a dryer.
Once I'm working less than 18 hours a day without a lunch break...I'll be back to blogging with regularly scheduled posts.
In the mean time, make some word count progress for me! I'll see you all on the flip side!
-Lyla
(Please pardon any miss-spellings, I don't have a spell check on this droid app...)
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Maybe I've been living under a rock, but how did I go this long without discovering that there are podcasts on writing you can download for free. I have found they are a great way to keep my mind sharp on writing while at my desk job or in the car or doing house work. All the things that cannot be avoided and suck time out of my writing schedule.
Some of the ones that I listen to are:
Check one of these out and let me know what you think!
I saw this story on my morning news crawl just moments ago (see the link below). After nearly falling out of my desk chair laughing, the infinite possibilities of how this woman got herself into this situation began scrolling through my mind. It was just too good not to share!
So, for a writing exercise: write 3 very different versions of how this woman got into such a stickey wicket. Going the extra mile: turn your favorite version into a short story.
Naked Woman Rescued From Cliff in California - FoxNews.com I hope everyone is having a fabulous week! I'll see you all on friday with a new Writing Week in Review.
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It's Friday. And I know that is usually a really fabulous thing for all concerned...but...today I'm in the dentist office under anesthesia getting my second round of dental work done. FUN! Nonetheless, I planned ahead and scheduled this post the night before.
So, without further ado, here's the Writing Week in Review!
Happy Writing Weekend Everyone! I'll be back with a new post as soon as I'm fully with the land of the living again.
Writing is something we've been doing for a long time. Longer than the iPad, personal computer, or even paper has been around (clay tablets came before paper if you recall.) Now, I prefer the android OS, but to be completely egalitarian, I'm going to note witch programs are good for the iPad as well. Below you will find some of the best programs out there to aid you in your writing.
- My Writing Spot: This one has some great features like allowing you to email documents from the program, it syncs with it's web version so you can manage your documents from any computer with web access, and it keeps up with your word count among other great things. (good for Droid and iPad. Note: there is both a free version and one with a price)
- AK Notepad: This app is great for jotting down quick notes and ideas before they evaporate from your cranium. It's simple and easy to use. (For Droid)
- Outliner: A great app that allows you an unlimited number of outlines, due dates, and keeps track of status to help you stay organized. As an added bonus the back button always saves the data. This one is more for the front side of your project. (For Droid and iPad)
- Thinking Space: This fierce flow charting app lets you outline in a more colorful way. You will see your ideas laid-out in an organized fashion and make some serious progress. (For Droid)
- ColorNote: Keep your ideas organized through color coding. Set reminders so that you can badger yourself into finding time to write. This app also lets you set passwords if you want to keep your ideas secret until you're ready to unleash your writing greatness on the world. (For Droid)
Although, I still love writing by hand in my notebook from the bottom of my heart. I can't deny that technology sometimes makes life a lot more organized and efficient. Hopefully these tools will help reduce the friction on your writing path and get you to your destination more quickly and easily.
Let me know if you have a favorite app or program that you like to use!
It's another beautiful Friday! Here are some of the writing resources I came across this week:
Barbarians: The Character Meme of 2011Beat Blank Page Syndrome: 10 Tricks to Get Your Writing Started5 Ways to Make Your Novel Unforgettable11 Reasons You Won't Get Published9 Traits of Sympathetic CharactersWhat Makes Readers Care About Your Characters?A Classic Nontextbook on WritingI got some great feedback on my last Writing Week in Review so I'm going to make this a regular Friday blog post.
Let me know if there are topics yous guys are particularly interested in and I'll dedicate a week to links on those as well.
I hope everyone has a fabulous writing filled and productive weekend!
Happy Friday everyone! Here's a collection of the fabulous writing resources I found on the interwebs this past week. Peep through them, and hopefully you will find something that helps your writing this weekend.
Hope everyone has a fabulous weekend!
Do you write what you know? Do you write what you do? How do you fully flesh out something on the page when you don't have any experience in the topic? We're writers so we do our research...google, reading topical articles, talking to people in the know...but it can sometimes come out flatter than the page it's written on.
Nothing comes close to first hand experience. After all how would you describe chocolate if you've never smelled it's aroma, tasted it on your tongue, or felt the way it melts against your cheek. If you have only seen pictures of it there's no way you can get it right.
I was pondering this the other day when I remembered a drama class I took in high school where we covered the topic of method acting. The basic idea is: if you were playing the part of a homeless man, you would live that way for a few days or weeks, if you were playing the part of a nanny, you would borrow some kids to look after for a good period of time, if you were playing a sleep deprived mad man, you would forgo your pillow for a night or two...you get the point. In order to portray a role as purely as possible, they would experience their character's world on an intimate level.
This same concept can be applied to our writing. Immerse yourself in a hobby or dabble in an interest of one of your characters. This may not always be affordable, legal, or sane. In those cases, google might be the best that you can get. But if for example, your MC likes to sew her own clothes, by all means, take a sewing class. It will give you a better understanding of why your MC might like sewing so much and at the same time it will help you broaden your horizons. Never a bad thing.
How would this method be best applied to your characters and story? Feel free to share your ideas below!
Because of this crazy-cold-for-Houston weather our energy provider has been ordered by a high muckity-muck to implement rolling blackouts across the state of Texas. Already this morning we've had three 45-minute outages and I'm estimating that another one is due to arrive at about 12:30ish (CST). Unfortunately we only have about an hour of power in between the outages. That doesn't leave a lot of time for us to get anything done round these parts.
I'm kicking myself for not bring a book with me today (like I often do so I can read on my lunch hour) nor do I have my notebook (so I can write like I often do on my lunch hour)
...grumble...grumble...grumble...
So, I'm off to scrounge up some blank paper so maybe I can get some writing done the next time the lights go out.
Of course it's definitely not as bad as some of you in the northern regions that are snowed in and under. Hopefully everyone is staying warm and safe and getting some writing done!
It's a new year so I thougt it would be a good time to get a new note book for new ideas. There's a lot of "new" happening :). So I've parked myself at a table in my B&N with my new purchases and I'm working on that pesky plot bunny I mentioned in the previous post.
I hope everyone had a fabulous weekend and...here's to a painless Monday! (As painless as Mondays can possibly bee anyway)
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On January 6th I downloaded a new-to-me audio book, The Year of the Flood by Margret Attwood from the Houston Public Library's Digital Catalogue. (Side note: I heart downloading audio books from the library! The files just expire when your time is up so you never have to worry about incurring an late fee. Not that I'm bad about that or anything *cough cough*) I was in the middle of listening to chapter 1 while plugging away at a statistical analysis on water well pumpage for a suburban community, an idea for a new story line hit me like a beer truck.
While most people would be overjoyed to have been pounced on by a plot bunny that excited them this much, I was substantially annoyed.
My inner monologue went something like this, "SERIOUSLY!?!?! I've barely started chipping away at my NaNoWriMo manuscript. WHY IS THIS ACCOSTING ME NOW!?!?!" Well truthfully, I'm annoyed and excited. I really do love this idea for a post-apocalyptic science-fiction story that just manifested from the dark depths of my cerebral cortex. I love it so much it's really difficult not to completly abandon my NaNo novel for a while just so I can flesh out this idea.
While I'm figuring out just what to do with this rogue plot bunny that I'm head over heels for, I wanted to put this situation forth as evidence that reading is just as important to a writer as is the act of writing itself.
Although I love reading with a passion. It's one of the first things to get squeezed out of my schedule when things in life get busy. And as proven by the events above, that can only be to the detriment of my writing life.
P.S. I'm not finished with listening to the book yet, but so far it's really fabulous.
NaNoWriMo 2010 has come to a close. And I have to say that I'm glad it's over. I started off strong right out of the gate getting in just over 2,600 words down on the first day. I stayed ahead of the target word count for the first 10 days or so, then I hit a wall. The idea well had dried up. It was imperative that I kept moving forward so I would write parts and pieces that weren't to my liking, but moved the story line forward. It would get me to a better place where I would pick up the pace when I got to a happier place with my plot. I rode this manic-depressive writing roller coaster for the last two-thirds of the month. There were some very dark and bleak times during the month of November where all hope was lost and I thought I wouldn't make it. In the end, I managed to pull it off by the skin of my teeth.
The result is a 50k word manuscript that needs a lot of TLC.
So where do I go from here? The obvious answer is edit. But, where do I begin?
Before I move forward, my instincts are telling me to take a few steps back. The plan is to first revisit my characters. Some of the less than pleasing parts of the story are a result of not being able to answer the question, "What would this character do next?" Now that I have more time, I'm going to go back and do a more detailed character study for each of my MCs. Getting to know them better will help me work out some of the kinks in the plot. I'm going to do this first, even before going back and re-reading what I've written.
Why? Because if I have a better handle on my characters, as I'm going back over the manuscript, I'll be able to provide more constructive criticism on the story. I'll be able to provide comments like "Have the MC take her dog for a walk first as is her normal routine" rather than "This part really sucks"
If you're at the same point in your writing/editing process, you might find these character sheets helpful:
Tara K. Harper Character WorksheetPamela Dowd Character WorksheetThe Lazy Scholar Character Worksheet
How to pad your word count...
It's day 9 of NaNoWriMo we're almost a third of the way through and all though I'm still typing full steam ahead, I'm looking down the road to the latter parts of the month when I will probably start running out of ideas.
In order to get to 50k as efficiently as possible, consider these methods of word count padding:
- Include lists of items. Is your character going to the grocery store or on a trip? Perhaps one of your characters likes to make a to do list to start off the day.
- Introduce a character that likes to spontaneously break into song.
- Take the time to include a detailed description of the scene. Really get descriptive. Include points on all five of the senses: Sight, Smell, Taste, Touch, and Sound. (Ooooh, Look! A list!)
- Have the character get into a heated back and forth and back and forth argument.
- Add a prologue or an epilogue. Each is good for an extra 1000 words or so!
Keep that word count flowing! :)
What ever you do. DO NOT GO BACK AND READ ANY OF WHAT YOU HAVE WRITTEN UNTIL 12:00:01 AM ON DECEMBER 1ST!!! If you do you might be overwhelmed by a compulsion to edit.
Last night I crossed the 5k mark after finishing a scene with a lot of dialogue in it. I didn't have much of a plan for it other that 3 key elements needed to be covered in the scene, I was totally flying by the seat of my pants (which completely offended my engineering sensibilities). The resulting scene was clunky and awkward and...well...crap. It took all my willpower, and a bit of wine, to accept it for what it was and just keep writing. It is just a rough draft and it can be changed as soon as the calendar flips to December 1.
...Hoping to cross into 7k territory tonight!
How's everyone's current WIP coming along? (both NaNo and non-NaNo alike)
The interwebs is a great place to find lots and lots of tools to help with your writing. So in honor of this completely insane noveling endeavor also known as NaNoWriMo, I've compiled a list of fabulous links with invaluable goodness to aid you on your month long journey (or any other WIP goal you've got going on)
The NaNoWriMo Website (stating the obvious here I know...) Peruse the forums for plot bunnies up for adoption. Can be very helpful when you hit the wall and need fresh ideas.
The NaNoWriMo Report Card - Stay on top of your word count by keeping track of it with this shnazzy excel spreadsheet.
Writing a Si-Fi/Fantasy Novel? Check out these world builder questions. Details lead to more word count!
Fill out a character sheet. Again...details, details, details
Need a more organized and structured way to get to your 50k goal? Try the snowflake method for writing your novel
And the even more extreme write or die for those of you in need of a kick in the writing pants.
I'm off to make some serious word count progress...
...And all through the house not a creature was stirring, not even a plot bunny.
Ok, so that's about as far from the truth as it can get. The bunnies are actually quite restless. The plot line keeps running around and around endlessly in my head and each time it makes another lap it picks up more details. Not unlike dust bunnies skimming around and around on the floor picking up more dust in a snowball effect.
I'm well outlined and ready for tomorrow. My goal is to go well beyond the 1,667 first day word mark and keep going to 5k. A lofty goal...yes, but with as loud as this plot has been screaming in my head to let it out I think I just might be able to make my mark on the first day.
I'll be keeping everyone posted on the progress (watch for a word count widget to appear on the right-hand side of the page). And I'll continue with both NaNo and non-NaNo related posts. Tomorrow or Tuesday I'll be posting my NaNoWriMo online tool kit, my NaNoWriMo Survival Kit, and posts on lessons learned goodness through out the month.
Goodnight and Good Luck Everyone!
My fingertips are tingling in anticipation of NaNo...only one week to go. One thing I do for my WIPs to help me get in the mindset of the story line is to create a "soundtrack." The songs I picked out really capture the spirit of key scenes and characters. In a similar way that people put together a play list for the gym or meditation, Listening to my WIP soundtrack helps me travel to into the fiction and set the mood for my writing.
Even if you're not doing NaNoWriMo (and you know you should) try creating a soundtrack for your current WIP and see where the tunes take your story. You might even find new inspiration along the way.
And now...the NaNoWriMo 2010 Soundtrack:
- Fashion - Lady Gaga
- Warning - Incubus
- Zero - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
- Starlight - Muse
- Castles Made of Sand - Jimmy Hendrix
- Next Year - Foo Fighters
- Runaway Train - Soul Asylum
- It's My Life - Gwen Stefani
- I Will Survive - Cake
- Animal - Neon Trees
- La Vie En Rose - Edith Piaf
Have a listen to the play list
here on Grooveshark. I'd love to hear what you have to think. Be sure to drop me a line in the comments...
And as a little something extra on this post, here's an updated synopsis (Jeff made a good point in the comments on the synopsis debut post...It was missing too much of the main problem.) It was difficult to add onto because I didn't want to give away the whole story. Finding the perfect balance between teaser and summary was hard to do.
The right pair of shoes can change a woman's life forever...That is if she's open to change.
Jacqueline has been riding the corporate conveyor belt since college graduation day. Now seven years into her career at an architecture firm in Houston, pressure from herself and her family has kept her drive a live. She's fought long and hard to achieve what she has, sinking her teeth in and refusing to let go.
An unexpected promotion, taking her back to Paris where she spent her childhood, follows on the heels of her purchasing a pair of sleek red patent leather pumps at an estate sale. These new shoes seem to be her lucky charm. Everything goes smoothly until her first day at the new office where she's low man on the totem pole all over again and she must redouble her efforts and ambition to hold her own in the firm's flagship office. Suddenly the shoes don't look so lucky anymore. They've taken her across the ocean and into a maelstrom.
Tides of change are eating away at her castle made of sand. Jacqueline will have to make some difficult decisions about her career. Is the crucible of mental abuse her new boss has tossed her into worth the pain and anxiety? Or will the disappointment of her family and fear of the uncertain tomorrow be harder to bear?
Jacqueline must decide if she wants to take the pot holes in stride or if she dares to step off the conveyor belt. Either way will she trip and fall in her new shoes?
I don't have a title for it quite yet and I realize that the synopsis sounds somewhat disjointed and choppy. Granted, I haven't written a word of text yet, only an almost finished outline and some character notes. It will be much easier to break down the story into a mouth watering morsel once I have everything down on paper (or... in pixels really.)
