11.12.13

An auspicious date on the calendar, and a decent writing day for me. I had to flip my day, do business in the morning and write this afternoon, so I'm not done, ergo, no word count just yet. But I wanted to direct you to this blog by Kris Rush on NaNoWriMo. She makes a lot of excellent points about the month-long novel extravaganza.

Professional writers view NaNo with a healthy dose of skepticism. Mainly because we do this every month, so there's this rather snobbish view toward a bunch of writers suddenly dedicated themselves to the craft for a single month and calling themselves authors. I don't buy into that crap, by the way. Yes, I do write at least 25K a month, more like 40-50K, but that doesn't make me more of a writer than the NaNo folk. It just means I've been blessed enough to do this full time. Sometimes, established authors forget how things were in the beginning.

Also, there are a wad of submissions that go out on December 1. Yes, there have been books written during NaNo that get published - 14 was my first, I can testify that it does happen. But more often than not, they don't, for several reasons:

1. 50,000 words does not a novel make. (I made this mistake, remember, before I knew anything about the industry, so don't think I'm picking on you.) Most commercial novels are between 70-100,000 words, and at least 400-500 manuscript pages in 12 point font. So by "winning" NaNo, you've only laid down half to three-quarters of what you need to be on par with the rest of the industry.

2. Writing is only half of the game. REVISING is where the real writing is done. Shooting off a manic manuscript that you haven't taken several weeks to edit, edit, edit some more, get reads from friends, revise again, is foolhardy. You only get one chance to make a first impression.

3. A million submissions on December 1 overload the agents, their readers, and their assistants, so a lot of good work can fall through the cracks.

4. We now have the very simple, expediant method to get our work into the hands of readers, self-pubbing. Please, don't do it right away. Give yourself the time to revise and get some good solid editing from a great editor before you put your masterpiece up for sale.

So. With all that in mind, when you finish, and accept your congratulations and adulations, take a day, celebrate, then get your butt back in the chair and make a real novel out of your story.

Sweet dreams!

11.11.13

1500 today, dragging each word kicking and screaming from the mental rock as if they were diamonds. The story is starting to take on a life of its own, which can be frightening and liberating. Not sure which, yet.

This morning, I read an essay by Dani Shapiro called Habit. I felt a number of mental tumblers click into place for me. At its most basic, here's the takeaway: writing is your job and you need to treat it as such. You show up even when you don't feel like it because it pays the mortgage.

But her essay was more than that for me. 

I'm often asked how I write, how I can do it day after day, how this whole creativity thing works. Well, it has definite similarities to any job: you get up, you check your to do list, you do your work, take a lunch, work some more. Except writers do this in their pajamas, get paid for staring into space for hours on end, and can never turn the office off, since it resides in our brain.

Still, it's good for writers to think of their art in terms of an actual job. If you go to an office, you wouldn't take time off during the day to vacuum, do laundry, make extended phone calls to besties, text, read, watch TV, etc. So why are you doing that to your writer day?

I'm as guilty of this as anyone, trust me. Add in Facebook, and Twitter (today I couldn't seem to get off of it, which, to be honest, was rather a fun change of pace) and all the other distractions (minion necklace, anyone?) and I see how sometimes, some days, I don't treat my job with the care and respect it deserves.

I'm going to start looking at modified bankers hours for writing, and work from that perspective for a while. I've been approaching my day for a very long time as -- so long as I get X (1000) words done a day, I'm fine. I'm wondering if perhaps I should try a more disciplined path -- work from x - x o'clock and see what happens. I started this earlier in the month, planning to knock off at 3:30 in order to handle other things. It's going well, but I'm ready to take it a step further. We'll see how that goes. 

Happy Veteran's Day to all those amazing men and women who sacrifice themselves to keep us safe and free!

Sweet dreams! 

11.8.13

Well. After yesterday's day of brilliance, today was the day of diddly-squat. I tried to work but nothing would come, tried to read but couldn't stay focused, and ended up watching Vampire Diaries and playing with the bouncy mouse and saying prayers to the muse to not forsake me. 

Yeah. It goes like this sometimes, especially in the beginning, even more especially when you're about to hit a milestone. The slightest thing can derail the soap bubble thoughts that make up the nascent work. All you can do is take notes, let your mind go where it may, meditate and have faith that tomorrow, things will be better.

The kittens have colds, which concerned me enough to take them to see the vet, so that burned a few hours. Sick kittens are, I assume, similar to sick kids -- in turns snuggly, bored and intensely playful. These two being the snuggle bunnies that they are, there was quite a few sweet kitten achoos in my neck.  But the vet said they look good, prescribed some lysine to help bolster their immune systems, and we're back home, preparing for our first bath tomorrow. Egads!

Sweet dreams, and may tomorrow be more productive than today!

11.7.13

Whoo-hoo, 4K today!  That's a good jumpstart on catching up on NaNoWriMo. Now I'm only 7K behind. Tomorrow I'll go at it again - a group of us who are doing NaNo together did a writing sprint day, shooting for 10K words today. It is more fun when you have accountability and cheerleading, for sure.

I've done 10K days several times before, and it is an absolute blast. Once you've written 10K in a day, you feel a bit like a slacker when you only lay down 1K. I feel a bit like a slacker today too, truth be told, because I really wanted to slam dunk this one. But I wasn't able to prepare quite how I liked, and I am taking rather hefty muscle relaxants for the old trick back, and there are MINIONS underfoot (and on lap, shoulder, chest, chair, pillow, windowsill -- wash, rinse repeat) so I guess I'll cut myself some slack. 

And I have an outline for this book - or the bones of one. Here's the problem with outlining. You have a general idea of where the story goes: the high points, the main plot, the villains. But that only covers the top line. There's still a huge amount of work in between the stated variables that needs to build, one scene at a time, one character at a time. I never know everything about my characters until I start writing them, allowing them to come to life as I get to know them, sort of like the reader does, if I've done my job properly.

Which is why I hate outlining, because I have to force the story in certain directions instead of just letting it do its thing.  So 10K days are good for filling in the gaps, so to speak, by turning off the internal editor and just going for it. You can't edit a blank page, right?

The minions are learning how to jump, which has been very amusing. Jordan has a new nickname - Air Jordan, because she can spring into the air three, four feet high, and jump up on beds and chairs with ease. Jameson is smaller than her sister, and has a harder time, so she had several false starts trying to get into my lap today. But she got it, in the end. I've allowed them out into the upstairs, so hopefully by the weekend it will be time to let them conquer the whole house.  

Sweet kitten-breath dreams!

11.6.13

I'm sad to see my parents head home, we had a great time hanging out and playing with the kittens.

The kittens miss my parents too. My dad is such a natural with babies - you can tell this man raised three kids simply by the way he picks them up by the scruff and tucks them into the crook of his arm. They recognize the voice of authority and settle right down. 

Jameson has really taken a shine to Randy, too. She loves stretching out in his arms. Jordan is coming out of her shell more and more, it's so fun to see them really blossom. 

 Back is still all kinds of screwed up - Daddy pointed out I'm walking like the letter S. Makes me think of Sesame Street - JT Ellison brought to you today by the Letter S! If it's not better tomorrow I may have to get it looked at. Ugh.

Going for 10K tomorrow with my chicks, we'll see how that goes. 

Sweet dreams!