Do You NaNo? - Top 10 Reasons to NaNo

No, I'm not a rabid fan of Robin Williams early days on the "Mork and Mindy" TV show, but I do appreciate his comic genius there.

What I am a fan of is National Novel Writing Month known as  NaNoWriMo or NaNo for short. If you're a writer and don't know what it is, it's time to get initiated. It's a one month commitment to write a minimum of  50,000 words of a novel or 1,667 words per day.
Sounds like a daunting task for most, but it can be done. that is, if you are willing to make the commitment. Yes, that terrible "C" word that many seem adverse to doing. But if you want to take your writing to the next level, it is a must do.

And here's the Top 10 Reasons Why...

10. It's a great way to keep with your diet. If you're typing, you can't be eating.

9. You can use your need to write as a reason to have the Thanksgiving meal done at someone else's  house, because you are too busy.

8. You'll have uber finger muscles after all that typing.

7. If you type via voice command, you'll improve your diction dramatically to what's typed isn't gibberish.

6. You won't have time to watch those annoying political ads and vote tally rehashes since you're writing.

5. Someone else will have to walk the dog during the bad weather, you've got to focus on your writing.

4. Who's got time for housecleaning? You're writing.

3. You realize the value of an outline to keep a story going and the need to veer off to side stories as needed.

2. You discover you can write fast.

 And the top reason overall...

1. You will have a first draft of your novel!

Ready to take your writing commitment to the next level, here's the link to get you started...

http://nanowrimo.org/how-it-works

Are You Ready to Power-Up Your Writing?

“Image courtesy of National Novel Writing Month.”

National Novel Writing Month Powers Up with Half a Million Writers

In its 15th year, National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) expects a historic 500,000 writers to join the largest writing event in the world. The challenge? To write 50,000 words of a novel in the 30 days of November. Half a million people on all seven continents (including one very chilly writer at Antarctica's McMurdo Station) will set aside the time to write their stories this November.

Through the Young Writers Program, NaNoWriMo will also provide free resources and curriculum to more than 80,000 students and educators in 2,000 classrooms around the world. Additionally, 692 volunteer Municipal Liaisons will host write-ins and events in 500 regions around the world.

NaNoWriMo is an unbeatable way to write the first draft of a novel because it’s such a powerful antidote to that horrible foe of creativity: self-doubt,” said Grant Faulkner, Executive Director. “NaNoWriMo is a rollicking conversation about all aspects of writing, and an invitation to dare to do what seems impossible. As many NaNoWriMo writers have discovered, the best way to learn to write a novel is by simply plunging in to write a novel.”

NaNoWriMo 2013: New and Powered Up NaNoWriMo version 2013 boots up as an 8 bit adventure that encourages writers to "Power Up Your Story. Power Up Your Voice." This year's art comes courtesy of Jake Fleming, co-founder of Piasa Games. NaNoWriMo 2013 also offers a newly designed website. "We've redesigned our site to be more intuitive for both new and experienced users: it will guide them through the entire NaNoWriMo journey from start to finish. We've also integrated a responsive layout for phones and tablets, so writers can be inspired anywhere,” says Chris Angotti, Director of Programs.

The 2013 Published Author Line Up

An incredible line up of authors will support writers participating in NaNoWriMo with letters full of wisdom and encouragement. These Pep Talkers includes James Patterson,Lev Grossman, and Rainbow Rowell, who wrote the first draft of her criticallyacclaimed YA novel,Fangirl, during NaNoWriMo 2012.

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NaNoWriMo 2013 will also have five published authors take over its Twitter account as NaNoWriMo Coaches, answering questions and cheering on participants as they write, including Jason Hough, author of the New York Times bestseller The Darwin Elevator, first drafted during NaNoWriMo.

Expanded Programs

For the first time, Come Write In, a program that offers free resources and support to literacy related spaces, will expand beyond libraries and bookstores. Three hundred and ninety spaces, including cafes and community centers (and even an American style pizza restaurant in Japan),

will become local beacons for creative writing through NaNoWriMo

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Debbie Millman, president of the design division at Sterling Brands, returns to run "30 Covers, 30 Days", which challenges designers to create a book cover for a participant's novel in progress in 24 hours. A celebration of the collaboration between design and writing, this program will inspire authors and provide prints for an Art of NaNoWriMo event in winter 2014.

National Novel Writing Month is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that believes stories matter. Through our programs, including the Young Writers Program, the Come Write In program, and Camp NaNoWriMo, we work hard to empower and encourage vibrant creativity around the world.

 

To learn more and to sign up go to http://nanowrimo.org/about. You will be glad you did.

Writing with a Goal and Getting Results: Author Intervewie with Kelly Loy Gilbert

Lots of people complain that they can't find the time to write, yet you decided to participate in the NaNoWriMo Challenge. How did you cope with the writing schedule to keep on track?  
I didn't sleep much!  I think I averaged 4 hours a night for a few months there.  I also had a good amount of writing time, and it actually took more like three months for a first (and very rough) draft--so I'm in awe of NaNoWriMo participants who can actually get it done in a month.   

Ultimately, though, I think the quality of time is just as important as the quantity of time you can devote to your writing.  There's the writing I do when I'm actually writing, and there's the 'writing' when I'm actually disappearing into wormholes on Wikipedia and calling it research.

Mentally writing is key, too: I think about my characters and my stories when I'm exercising, when I'm grocery shopping, when I'm on my way to work. So, so much of writing happens off the page.

Do you currently have a daily goal for writing?
I don't have a daily goal for word count, mostly because I find it to be so erratic--some days I can write ten thousand words I'm happy with, and other days I can write a sentence, delete it, and repeat for hours on end.  And, in the end, whenever I set deadlines for myself, I look back later and wonder why I got so attached to that particular timeline.

In the article you wrote for the NaNo blog you said you sent your first draft to your agent after the month. How did you manage to have an agent already?
I'd signed with Adriann Ranta, of Wolf Literary, for another novel.  At the time I signed with her, that novel was complete, and I was just beginning to work on City on a Hill. We connected the old-fashioned way: a query letter in her slush pile. 

What do you think made your query stand out in the slush pile?

I was querying a character-driven literary fiction novel, which is tough to write a query for because a plot synopsis is going to feel flat.  I went through what felt like endless iterations of the query letter, because I wanted the characters' personalities and a sense of lyrical writing (the book is about a musician) to shine through.  

 

Having interned at a literary agency in another life, I know that a lot of queries coming into the slush pile are automatic rejects--unprofessional, querying for something the agent doesn't represent, etc.--and I think just following guidelines and querying for a book that's been edited and ready to submit puts you several steps ahead of most.

The agency site on their guides for submission states... "To submit a project, please send a query letter along with a 50-page writing sample. " Did you do that? 

I did send the 50-page sample with my query--I love when agents ask for sample pages, because writing a query is such a different skill than writing a manuscript, and I'd always rather read a story itself than a description of it!  

How long did it take to get that response of we'd like to represent you?

I sent my query and sample to Adriann's slush pile and heard back three weeks later.  At the time Adriann requested the rest of the manuscript.  I was also beginning to work through some revisions suggestions from another agent, so I sent what I had and, once Adriann had read it, we discussed revisions over the phone.  

 

After that, I spent about two months revising and then sent that one off, and a month later Adriann made a formal offer of representation.  From there, I had about a week to make a decision--I had a few other offers, and while I always thought that would be a great position to be in, it was actually kind of agonizing! But I felt extremely confident in Adriann and Wolf Literary, and so I (very excitedly!) accepted Adriann's offer.  All told, it was three to four months from query to contract.

The book you wrote for that challenge was City on a Hill. How many re-writes did you do from that original rough draft to its being approved for publication?
I wrote one very, very rough draft, tore it apart completely and built it back up in a way that made it all but unrecognizable to anyone but me, and then did one more (much less intense) revision.   

When we write it’s easy to fall in love with our own stories. Then the book is critiqued and edited. How did your ego fare during the editing process?
That's so true: I always fall in love with a story while I'm writing, and then as soon as I've sent it off to someone to read I panic and think how much is wrong with it.  

The thing that's been the most useful to me is to remember that a reader can tell you her reactions, and, because no one else is inside the story the way you are, it's your job as the writer to evaluate what that means.  If I hear specific advice about how to fix something, I often step back and try to think of it more as the reader telling me there's a hole somewhere, or something isn't holding together, and what does that mean in terms of the whole story, and what are ways I can work with it?

How did you go about finding a publisher? How many sources did you/your agent pitch?
My fantastic agent did all the pitching to publishers, and having been through querying myself, I can only imagine the kind of effort that goes into the process.  The book found a home in its first round out on submission, which was thrilling.  I've heard it's typical for an agent to pitch to around 8-12 editors per round, and if I remember right our first round fell into that range.

Your novel will be published by Disney-Hyperion in Spring/Summer 2014. Why do you think it was a fit for that publisher?
Funny, I ask myself that same question ALL THE TIME.  (It still kind of feels too good to be true.)  My agent deserves a ton of credit for knowing it would be a good fit.  When I spoke to my editor, one thing she mentioned resonating with her was the universal experience of questioning your parents--what they've taught you, what you always believed about them, where that leaves you. 

Now that the book is being published, what do you wish you had known sooner about the process?

I wish I'd had a more accurate of idea of the way time works in publishing--I think I could have saved a lot of mental energy that way.  To a writer waiting on an email, three days might feel like an eternity, but several weeks might feel really fast to an overbooked editor.  

I also had all these arbitrary deadlines for myself along the way (I must have a draft finished within x months, I must have an agent by the time I'm x years old) that really didn't matter at all, and I might have been easier on myself if I'd just accepted that things happen on their own timeline, and in the end that's perfectly fine.

What is the best advice you’ve been given about writing that you would like to pass along?
I had a fantastic mentor, Nona Caspers, who always advised writers to "lift up what's strong and in motion"––in other words, when writing and revising, to focus on the moments in a story where something was really happening and to continually push themselves deeper into those places.  Your stories go a lot further that way; there's only so far you can go when you're just focusing on getting rid of bad parts. A competent manuscript is one thing, but it takes more than just criticism to make it into something that's living and gripping and transcendent.

What other works do you have in the process? Would you like to share the details?
I'm working on another novel, and it's slowly (and I do mean slowly) starting to take shape.  I just finished up a section from one of my main character's life in high school, when she began writing to a prisoner in secret, and right now my two main characters are at a Bible College in California in the seventies.  
Sounds like an interesting story! If you would like to contact Kelly to learn more about her writing or buy her books, here's how you can do that...
Her blog                   Twitter              Book Preview

This Year Make the Commitment to Write! Author Interview with Gayle Brandeis

In November I took on the challenge to write the first draft of my novel. Now comes the next challenge of refining it until I'm confident to submit it to agents and publishers. This is only one of the many writing goals I have for this year. I will also continue to write children's stories and inspirational pieces. What are your writing goals? To encourage you to put those words on paper, I'm revisiting the NaNo concept of writing - to write daily! Today I will be interviewing a published author who has done NaNo twice to jumpstart her writing. Read on to find out what she has to say...

 

Why did you decide to participate in the NaNoWriMo challenge?

My first book, Fruitflesh: Seeds of Inspiration for Women Who Write had just been published in 2002, and while I was on my book tour, I found out that my novel manuscript, The Book of Dead Birds, had won the Bellwether Prize for Fiction in Support of a Literature of Social Change and would be published the following year. The judges were my favorite writers: Barbara Kingsolver, who created the prize, Toni Morrison and Maxine Hong Kingston. I saw (and still see) all of them as writing goddesses, and could barely believe they had read my work, much less given it their blessing.

This was the most exciting and affirming experience for me as a writer--I doubt I’ll ever top it--but it also gave me writer’s block for the first time in my life; I felt a new weight of expectation upon me, and it froze my creative process. I decided to do NaNoWriMo because I figured that if I wrote that quickly, I wouldn’t have time to worry about whether what I was writing was worthy of my favorite authors’ praise. 

How did you feel after you completed the month? What did you learn about writing as part of this challenge?

I felt liberated; I felt as if my creative self had been returned to me (plus I loved reconnecting with my characters from The Book of Dead Birds and seeing what they had been up to; writing the sequel felt like a month long family reunion). That month taught me the value of writing a quick and dirty first draft; I realized it’s easier to make something beautiful out of rough material than out of thin air. 

Did you complete the first draft in that 30 days or was there more to do? How many re-writes did you do from that original rough draft?

I completed a draft of The Book of Live Wires that month, but didn’t revise it until almost 10 years later, when I decided to bring it out as an e-book in 2011. I took probably three months to revise it; after setting it aside for so many years, I was surprised at how assured that first draft felt--I guess I had poured a lot of pent up writer energy into it.

As a published author you did NaNo again and wrote the book, Self-Storage. How did you go about finding a publisher?

At that point, I was already a published author and already had an agent (at the time, the wonderful Arielle Eckstut, at the James Levine Literary Agency). The published version of Self Storage is very different from what I wrote during that NaNoWriMo month--I revised it many times over about a year before my agent sent it out. We were really lucky; the book sold to the first editor my agent pitched it to, which is not too common an experience. 

You’ve been published under six imprints, but now your current book is self-published as an eBook. Why the change?

I decided to bring the eBook out last year as an experiment, with my agent’s blessing; the publishing world is changing so rapidly, and I thought it would be good to know how to take the process into my own hands. It felt safe to do this with The Book of Live Wires; because I wrote it so long ago, I was able to detach myself from any outcome--I knew if the eBook wasn’t a success, I wouldn’t be devastated the way I would be with a book I was still fiercely attached to. I learned a lot through the experience, and while I plan to continue to publish traditionally (if publishers will continue to have me, of course) it’s good to know that I understand the process should I wish to try it again.

Tell me about your latest book. What would my readers find the most interesting part about it?

It’s hard to know what I should consider my latest book--I suppose that would be The Book of Live Wires, even though it’s a decade old; I hope your readers would be interested in the fact that my main character is having his grandmother’s journals translated from Russian, Yiddish and French (her story alternates with his) and the translator ends up bringing a lot of chaos into his world. Be sure to look for the guest appearances of dancers Isadora Duncan and Josephine Baker--they’re not named in the grandmother’s journals, but if you know anything about these historic firebrands, you’ll be able to recognize them. I also want to mention that you don't have to have read The Book of Dead Birds to read and enjoy The Book of Live Wires.

What do you know now about writing that you wished you had known sooner?

Publishing is great, but its pleasures are fleeting; the writing process itself offers the deepest and most sustainable satisfaction.

What is the best advice you’ve been given about writing or that you’ve learned that you would like to pass along?

Write the things that scare you--it’s the biggest lesson I took from my MFA program (I graduated from Antioch University in 2001 and teach there now) and resonates even more now. I’m currently working on a memoir about my mom’s suicide, and it’s the hardest and most important thing I’ve ever written. I taught a seminar on Brave Writing a couple of days ago at the Antioch residency (we teach what we need to learn, right?) and asked the class to write “I am scared to write about” and then see where this took them. I am still vibrating from the writing that they all shared--it was an honor to bear witness to such powerful stories, and it reminded me that when we write from our darkest places, we can bring them into light, and create deep human connection in the process.

Do you consider yourself to be a writer? Then put those words to paper! Take the risk and write. You will feel a sense of accomplishment when your story is complete.

If you’d like to learn more about Gayle and her writing, you can find her at www.gaylebrandeis.com

Congrats To All NaNoWriMo Champions!

Now that NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) is over I feel relieved because I did it! I proved to myself that I could sit down and write an average of 1600+ words a day. I did the required 50,000 words, but my book is not finished. Most books past middle grade stories don’t end in that many words. It’s more like 70,000 to 90,000 words which means it’s moving forward to becoming a true a novel. To celebrate the month of writing, and focus on the next step, I thought I would call on someone who not only completed the challenge but also got the book published for continued encouragement for my fellow writers. Here’s Donna Gephart's take on what she learned from participating in NaNoWriMo…

In 2009, desperate to emerge from my slump and write my third book, I discovered NaNoWriMo and signed up. Two days before the November 1st start, I brainstormed ideas for two hours. At one hour and fifty-nine minutes, I scribbled these words: Olivia Bean, Trivia Queen.

The day before NaNoWriMo, I realized Olivia Bean was a trivia nut and wanted to get on the TV quiz show Jeopardy!

Armed with trivia books and autobiographies of former Jeopardy! champs and lots of internet articles about Kids Week contestants, I plunged ahead. Each day in November, I struggled to figure out Olivia’s external and internal struggles and get them on the page in an exciting, coherent way.

To keep myself accountable, I blogged about the experience daily. This included my word counts and a fun trivia question. (Nothing like public humiliation to keep you on track with your writing goals!) My first blog post is here. 

Despite a mid-month trip to California to attend our nephew’s bar mitzvah, I finished Olivia Bean, Trivia Queen in 29 days. My agent likes me to point out that revisions took months. They did.

Olivia sold in February of 2010 to Delacorte Press/Random House and went on to receive excellent reviews, including a starred Kirkus review. I was thrilled when Jeopardy! champ Ken Jennings told me his son loved the book, and Ken wrote a blurb for the back cover. I’ve even received fan mail from kids who were actually on Kids Week on Jeopardy!

All that from a novel I wrote in less than a month.

So, here are 6-1/2 things I learned about writing a novel in a month . . .

1. Hard work is good medicine. Not writing, false starts and "wasted" days made me feel crazy. Working hard every day on this novel made me feel decidedly less crazy.



2. Know when to say "No" but also when to say "Yes." Writing should be your priority over watching TV, diddling around on Facebook and organizing your Chia pet collection. But family, friends and your health trump writing

3. Don't beat yourself up over unproductive days. Your brain might be doing important behind-the-scenes work. My "unproductive" days were often followed by fat page counts.



4. Don't forge ahead blindly. NaNoWriMo suggests you keep writing and not go back over what you've already written. Not me. I needed to go back down my writing trail sometimes to make sure I hadn't diverged from the path I'd created. The important thing to remember is don't linger too long on those back pages; forge ahead!

5. You can accomplish pretty lofty goals one day (page) at a time. What's your lofty goal?

6. A person can write a salable novel in a month. There is a list of writers who sold their NaNoWriMo novels, including Sara Gruen who wrote Water for Elephants, which landed on the New York Times Bestseller list. I was determined not just to write a novel in a month, but to make it to that list of writers who sold their NaNoWriMo novels.

6 1/2. Say thank you. NaNoWriMo came at the exact time I needed to sit down, shut up and write my next novel. What a valuable tool. I've sent them a donation. 

So, don't give up! Keep at it! And if you do decided to step back and actually breathe this month, don't worry. There's always next November.

Donna Gephart is working on her next novel. It’s taken a little longer than a month to develop. Ahem, three years. But she’s almost done. To learn more about Donna’s books and presentations and view a funny singing hamster video, visit http://www.donnagephart.com.

 

Getting Through NaNoWriMo with Author Teryl Cartwright

If you are one of my regular followers, you know that I am taking up the challenge to write a complete novel in rough draft this month as part of  NaNoWriMo. For encouragement in this task, for myself and other NaNo writers, I will be adding a couple of interviews this month with past participants who not only completed their novels, but got them published as well.  My first interview is with Teryl Cartwright, who's prior writing career included publishing children’s curriculum and news articles. That changed once she took on the writing challenge. Please read on to find encouragement to put those words to the page. 

Why did you decide to participate in the NaNoWriMo challenge?

The first year I decided to participate I did so because a friend wanted a writing buddy.  Ten years later and I still think how crazy I am to try this each year and expect to get done.  But each year I do make it.  I participate each year because for once life is on hold for something I want to do.  I make the time to write one book a year--in November.  It is one of the busiest months for me and that's why it works--I have to tell a story and this is my chance.  And getting two out of ten NaNos published isn't bad either.

How did you prepare?

I prepare for Nano by having a story idea, usually a title, a brief idea of what is going to happen and if at all possible the end, because it is really important to me to have the story end right.

How did you cope with the writing schedule to keep on track? 

To keep on track, I try to write around the same times (more than one) each day and I have a goal of about two thousand words to start.  Sometimes if I get behind, I try to add a day or two with three thousand and each night I think about what is going to happen next in the story before I go to bed so that in the morning I can be inspired with ideas for how to do that next chapter.  

If I am getting to the end of the story and have lots of words left to make the word count, then and only then will I allow myself to go back to the story and add details, extra scenery or dialogue to stretch it.  I also sometimes read a little history to give me ideas of what else I could add.

How did you feel after you completed the month?

Exhausted.  Yes, happy, but weary!

The book you wrote for that challenge was, A Sensible Match which has now been published. How many re-writes did you do from that original rough draft?

A Sensible Match was my first published Nano book and I'm lucky enough to have a second Nano book published as well, the sequel, Courting Constance.  I had to do several rewrites of A Sensible Match and the publisher, Dawn Carrington, had me do a rewrite of the first three chapters and re-submit them just to get accepted.  I am grateful for that second chance.  When I submitted Courting Constance I didn't have as many rewrites, but they were still very involved since I have some bad writing habits such as "head hopping" to watch out for when I write.

Could you give my readers a short synopsis of your books?

A Sensible Match is a fun "how to lose a guy in ten days" in Regency England romance.  Abby's parents have tried to play matchmaker, but she doesn't want to marry a guy she's never met, especially the new vicar.  Her parents will be upset if she turns him down so she tries to get him not to propose.  What she doesn't know is that he's less than thrilled with marrying some shy girl he's never met--until she shows she's more than he expected .

Courting Constance is the very funny look at "how to win a guy in ten days" in Regency England.  Constance decides to win back her former fiance by courting him as a not so secret admirer.  What she doesn't know is that he is in pursuit of her too, but only to break her heart as she once broke his.

How did you go about finding a publisher?

Of course I used Writer's Market which isn't as good as it used to be, but also I used some writing magazines.  I would say this was a trial and error method, reading some books to see what kinds were close to mine but I could pitch as slightly different.

How many sources did you pitch? Did you pitch any agents?

I tried a few publishers for different stories, but Vinspire has been good enough to be my publisher.  I pitched about six or seven agents, yet this didn't work for me.  I also went to Hollywood to pitch several stories as movies at the Great American Pitchfest.  This helped me do a better job writing pitches even if I didn't succeed in my face to face meetings.

 How did you hear about your current publisher?

Vinspire was only about two years old when I pitched my first book to them.  I think that helped.

From the time you sent in your manuscript, how long was it before you got any feedback? 

Vinspire was great because I heard back in a few months each time.  I had only had to submit the first three chapters and the synopsis and then was asked to submit the whole manuscript.  Of course, the first time I had to rewrite those chapters with single character point of view, but after I had the chance to submit the whole book with the same editorial changes I was blessed to get my foot in the door.

What do you know now about writing that you wished you had known sooner?

I wish I'd have known that finishing a book wasn't the end, there's editing, there's marketing, there's taking care of its life on the shelf.  I also wish I'd have finished and submitted more books sooner so that I'd be a better writer now.  If you have a passion, don't put it off on "someday."  The stories are not the same when you finally get around to the hasty notes you saved for later.

What is the best advice you’ve been given about writing that you would like to pass along? 

Write what you know and what you love.  Put yourself in the book and see this as a gift to be able to share.  Research is your friend and will teach you discipline as well as what to look for.

Also, I am fortunate enough to be taking my online master's in Critical and Creative Thinking at UMass Boston right now. If you get a chance, take the Creativity class from them--it was meant for teachers, but is awesome for writers!

Thank you for your time and inspiration. If you would like to learn more about Teryl's writing, here's the link to do that

www.terylcartwright.com

Can You Write a First Draft of a Novel in 30 Days?

Next month is National Novel Writing Month or shortened it is known as NaNoWriMo. This is  when writers are challenged to roll out a first draft of a 50,000 word novel in a single month. This year I am going to attempt to do this so I can finally write my romance novel. I started it years ago and still have some hand-written notes but lost the computer copy due to technology changes. To get me ready for this writing challenge,  I asked for tips from a fellow writer & blogger, Esther Smith, who completed the task last year. Read on for her tips to make it a successful month!

If you need to write 50,000 words that means about 2,000 words daily. How long does that take?

I would say for the average writer it would take 2-3 hours to finish their word count, but that doesn't factor in procrastination or the amount of time they may have to write. Many participants who are busy make up for lost time on the weekends. But honestly I think it really depends on the writer, and the type of day they are having.

On my very best days I can write 1000 words an hour while on the worst days I find getting anything done at all is like pulling teeth. It can take you one sitting or several to get your daily word count done. But again it all depends on the individual. There are a few participants that have actually finished the 50k within the first week.

Tell me about your experience?

I participated last year and won, also did Camp June (made it halfway) and sort of July (failed because of being too busy), also I plan on doing it this November and maybe "win" again.

What is "Camp June"?
Camp June is just an extension of  Nanowrimo. It's a fairly new addition, I believe by only a couple years. It's simply alternative months (being June and August) to November where you can take on the same challenge. Some participants consider it a warm up, or can even be a trial run for those who may be weary of the challenge. It's the same in many ways but is smaller in scale and has a camp theme. Participants are placed into "cabins" with others, which acts like a writing buddy group.

How did you prepare?

What worked for me was preparing a loose outline, having the basics of the story (plot points etc). Then I split it into 5 parts (just what worked out for mine you could do however many you want) and determined roughly how many words I would want/need in each part. That helped a lot because it gave me an idea of where I needed to be if one part wasn't quite as long as I wanted.

How were you able to keep on track to write consistently for 30 days?
To be honest it wasn't easy. I just made it a priority in my everyday life. At the beginning it was deceptively simple, but once the new-project-sparkle wore off it was a real grind. I mean you have really good days but you also have really bad ones. I found the best way to get it done was to do half the word count in the morning and the other half at night and make it a habit. But it's different for everyone.

If as you suggest you keep up with other bloggers on the writing isn't that a distraction to your time to write?
I'm guessing you're referring to what I said about the Nanowrimo website. The forums and community can be a dangerous distraction if you allow it but it can also be really rewarding with the right amount of self control. If you are struggling you can find others struggling, you can ask for help with stubborn plots, give critiques. It's basically a haven for participants.

I would also encourage having a "writing buddy" which is a fellow participant that you talk to throughout the month.  It helps to have someone you can compete with. If your buddy has a higher word count it's a really good motivator, and they are someone you can directly turn to at problem points in your own story. You can get a buddy by finding the writing buddy topic in the forums, and posting a bit about yourself, your genre this month, and interests.

What are your tips for the actual month of writing?

• Tell people you are participating, fair warning for them, and accountability for yourself
• Write 2000 words a day when possible, this helps put you ahead so when you have days you are too busy or burned-out you can relax without falling behind
• Find a writing buddy, whether from this site or from the NaNo site. It makes a world of difference to work out problems, and be encouraged by someone
• Do your best not to edit. I sort of break this rule myself from time to time, but it's too easy to fall into a destructive cycle of editing. The best thing you can do is write and at the end of the day reread/edit as you need to. But after that day don't look at it apart from reference.
• Week 1 is the easiest since your idea is still fresh and new. Around week 2 or 3 expect to want to quit, you are going to hate everything you've written. You will be uninspired. It can be an emotional roller coaster. This is when doing the extra 400 words a day pays off. You should have long enough to get back on your feet before falling behind.
• Don't be hard on yourself. When you are pumping out that many words a day the majority of it will be crap. If you want to succeed you sort of have to accept that this is just a Draft Zero, getting down the words before doing any of the real work.
• Lastly if you don't meet the goal don't worry about it. It's crazy to write that much in a month anyway.(lol) Just do what you can in your schedule and enjoy every minute of it.

What did you do with the writing after you completed the contest?

After the event I took a small break then finished off the draft. It's currently still in rewrites as I've been working on other projects but I do plan to market it when it's finished. I think every future participant should know that what comes out of this event is actually a draft zero that is very messy, with plot holes, missing characters, and shifts in tone. So rewrites are a must. The value of NaNo is really just getting your story down on paper.

Thanks for your insights! Are you ready for the challenge? Here's the link so you can sign up

Writing Under a Deadline, Interview with Traci Bonney

If you've ever seen the words NaNoWriMo and wonder what they mean, let me explain it to you. It stands for the National Novel Writing Month. The goal is to write a 50,000-word novel (or more) in a 30 day period with only an outline in hand and research notes done. It doesn't have to be polished, just completed and verified by a word count which needs to be done on the NaNo site. 

This concept started with just a few friends signing on, but it's grown tremendously over the years. The count for participants in 2010 was 200,530 who had written 2,872,682,109 words. There were 37,479 writers who achieved the 50,000-word goal. No details yet for this past year's numbers. If you ever needed a motivation to start that novel, begin putting your outline together. My chat today is with a writer who completed this task twice. 

What made you want to do NaNo the first time?
Years ago, I worked for newspapers. I knew I could write on deadline; in fact, I tend to do better with a definite time limit. Also, I had tried unsuccessfully to do a 30-day novel a couple of years earlier. I couldn’t leave the challenge unmet.

Why did you decide to try it for a second run?
After the first success (completing a novel in 18 days) I knew I could do it again, and I wanted to write a sequel to the first year’s novel. The second time, it took me most of the month and the words didn’t flow as easily, but I did finish the book.

This writing challenge is always in November. How do you find time to write in November?
I approach it the same way I approach reading a book; I let it take over my day for a few hours at a time. It helps to get ahead on the word count early in the month, too; that way you have a cushion built up if you have to skip a few days later because of holidays or other life events.

It's what around 1,800 words a day? How long does that take you to write?
Actually, it averages out to 1,667 words a day, although I try to write at least 2,000 a day during NaNo to get ahead. If the ideas are flowing, I can knock out the daily requirement in an hour or so.

How did you stay focused to write when the words wouldn't come?
I found that if the words didn’t come easily, it was usually time for a break. By that, I mean a stretch/bathroom break, a kitchen run for a cup of hot tea, a quick stroll around to work out the kinks in the legs and back, or a break in the writing.

I tend to write to the end of a scene or chapter before stopping, so if things weren’t flowing well, I’d push through to that ending point, then stop and do something else for a while. Brainstorming and research breaks also helped; sometimes thinking up a plot twist or introducing a new character was what I needed to get the words going again.

How do you not edit as you write or go back and re-edit what’s been done in that time?
It’s not easy. I’ve always corrected my mistakes as I went and I don’t even try to resist that habit. However, I don’t let myself read what I’m writing; otherwise I’d spend all my time trying to perfect it.

There is one exception: At the beginning of each new writing session, I’d re-read the last few paragraphs of my previous day’s work just to retrieve my train of thought. I occasionally changed a word or two, but I didn’t do any major editing. That’s one of the tenets of NaNoWriMo: silence your inner editor for 30 days and just write.

Each time you wrote a different book? What became of each of those?
I did. They are the first two novels of what will most likely become a trilogy or series. I enjoyed writing them so much I can’t imagine just letting them die in my hard drive.

Tell me about the book that is being published. Give me a short synopsis? What inspired you to write this book? Is this a genre that you read a lot or not?
The novel is Chantal’s Call, a contemporary story with a dash of mystery and romance and a strong theme of redemption. Chantal Atherton reluctantly returns to her Mississippi hometown when her father suffers a heart attack and asks her to come home and help at the bank he runs. Shortly after returning, she finds herself embroiled in a drama involving a corpse in the kudzu (an invasive vine that covers anything in its path), a cult that has ensnared her younger sister, and a handsome young deputy.

The story was born in my Sunday school class. I was teaching a series on Christianity, cults and other religions, and I found myself thinking, “We live in the ‘Bible Belt,’ yet there’s so much we don’t know about this stuff. “ The murder mystery angle came in one day not long after that when I started wondering what would happen if someone dumped a body in a kudzu patch. Kudzu (“the vine that ate the South”) grows up to 18 inches in a day during the summer, so it wouldn’t take it long to completely cover a corpse. That “what if?” gave rise to the book’s prologue.


For years, I thought I would be a science fiction or fantasy writer; those were my preferred reading genres so I was sure they would be my best writing genres. When I started writing longer fiction, though, every story I began hit a dead end at some point – until I wrote Chantal’s Call. It’s the first novel-length story I’ve been able to write to completion. Back in high school if anyone had told me I’d be writing contemporary fiction with a Christian world view, I’d have laughed at them. Now, I have plans for three more books in the Atherton Women series and ideas for two stand-alone novels (Jersey Girls and The Story Keeper).

Ironically, once I started writing contemporary fiction, the fantasy stories came easier. Both of my NaNo novels are comic fantasy stories.

Where are you in the publishing process? What has surprised (good/bad) you about the publishing process?
I’m not as far along as I’d like to be. I need to finish editing and create a cover, pick a publisher, and format and upload the book. I’m planning to self publish it in both e-book and POD (print on demand) hard copy formats.

What is your weakest point in writing?
Editing isn’t easy for me. I can do the small edits – proofreading and adjusting words here and there – but making major changes is something I don’t like to do. It comes from my journalism training; we had to write our articles quickly, make them accurate and attention getting, and send them to the printer to be set on the page. We didn’t have time for prolonged editing. As a result, I tend to think what I’ve written is good as it is.

How do you plan to promote your book? What advice have you been given about marketing the book?
I’ve been promoting it on my writing blog Tracings and my Facebook page. I’m planning to eventually create a Twitter account and promote it that way as well. I’ll probably buy a domain name and build a website at some point in the near future too. Those methods seem to be the most recommended ones for online promotion.

Who is your publishing source? How did you come to work with them? What is some of the best editorial advice you've been given?
I don’t have a publishing source yet, but both Amazon and Barnes & Noble offer free e-publishing options, so I’m considering uploading Chantal’s Call and my other books to both platforms.

As for editorial advice, the best I’ve been given is to read my work as though I didn’t write it. It’s never easy for writers to distance themselves emotionally from their stories, but to edit effectively, you have to be able to read objectively.

Tracings – www.tracibonney.wordpress.com
If you would like to take on the challenge to write a book in a month, here's the link to the NaNo web page.