Which time? Writing prompt for all and stress relief for National Novel Writer's Month participants.

I got to thinking today, after watching NBC's Dracula, about time periods, historical figures, and buildings, landscapes and so on. There are so many time periods and places I wish I could be a fly on the wall of. I wish I could have seen Queen Elizabeth I and England during her reign or Queen Victoria during hers. I would like to have seen the kind of lives some of my ancestors lived, how they made ends meet, where they came from, what their views were. I wish I could have seen certain places of the world before time and war had crumbled them.

So I posed a question to all of my friends on Facebook, mostly because I am curious, but also because as I was writing it, I thought perhaps this would be a good time to convert the question into a writing prompt. I left it open for those who just want to give short answers and for those who want to take a break from Nano and write something short and easy. So here's the question or rather questions:

What time period/place do you wish could visit, if it were possible for you to go?
What would you most like to see and what would you like to do while there?
Who would you like to meet in person if there is or was someone you'd like to meet?

And to add another element to the questions, first write this as if you couldn't do anything to change history, because if you did, it would disrupt everything. Then, write it as if it wouldn't matter if you changed history, if you could change history, but remember there are consequences to every action. How do you think your changing things will shape the future?

NaNoWriMo Time!

It's that time again!  National Novel's Writer Month, or NaNoWriMo, is here.  It starts midnight tonight.  I know that several members of this blog are going to be taking part this year and I thought we could do a mid month check up to see how everyone is doing and how far along they are to their 50 thousand word goals.  To kick it off, I'm going to stay up and start writing in the wee first hours of November and see if I can get a good five hundred in before I crash for the night.  My goal is to work on new material for my Death Man novel as well as get a start on a new novel that can work as my workshop pieces for the upcoming winter residency where I will be starting my third semester with Pine Manor College's Solstice MFA in Creative Writing.

A word of advise from me for all those out there attempting this wonderful and exciting task: make time.  Steal minutes wherever you can.  Even if you just have fifteen minutes between things and you think you have enough quiet or concentration to pump out a few paragraphs, then do it.  Every little word counts.  A book is nothing but chapters and chapters are made of pages and pages are made of paragraphs and those paragraphs are made of sentences and that's where words come in.  They are the foundation of everything in literature.  Keep the words coming and don't stop to edit (or at least don't stop for too long).  Best of luck to my fellow NaNoWriMo participants.  Ready, set, write!

Camp National Novel Writer's Month.

It's that time again! Nanowrimo is doing another Camp Nanowrimo for the month of July. I have already signed up and am excited to get started. It's strange, I kind of want to start ahead of time but that wouldn't really count toward the word count for the month of July. Besides, I still have to get all my notes in order so I can attack July with a fury! Rawr!

So, who is going to join me? 

A Conundrum of Sorts

What do you do when you have a really good idea, one that has been constantly jumping to the forefront of your mind whenever you sit down to write, but you have already written something similar?

This is what I am going through right now. The first book I wrote for NaNoWriMo was a post apocalyptic/population reducing novel with supernatural elements - vampires, fae, were-critters. When I wrote it, the story took on a life of its own. I had something else in mind, but the characters decided to do their own thing. However, the original idea I had is roaring at me. The finished book is the first in a series, because I have a ton of characters and have written half of the second book.

So the question is this: Do I write the original idea? Would it be weird if I wrote another post apocalyptic series that has similar elements to the one I have already done, or should I forget it? The original idea was darker than what I eventually wrote, and honestly, I think I took the easy road for that book since it was my first foray into NaNoWriMo. But that story is good. It's finished and there are so many possibilities for future books.

I am going to give my original idea a whirl. I am going to attempt to do the July session of Camp NaNo and flush out the idea and not let the characters run rampant as they usually do. I want to see where this idea takes me. I believe that this will be a good exercise for me; to write something close to what I have done already, but make it different.

So, what would you do? Would you scrap the original idea, or the one that took its place? Would you do what I am going to attempt and see where that idea could have taken you?

It's a conundrum. Really one that only the author can decide. 

Progress Report for Skoora

I'm over the halfway mark on my first semester in the Solstice MFA program.  I have about ten books left to read (I'm behind, unfortunately) and I have five craft analyses under my belt, one pedagogical response finished, three cover letters, one artists statement, and somewhere in the neighborhood of fifty pages toward my novel.  There are more pages than that, but those are incomplete scenes and chunks of notes.  On the whole I have to say that distance learning with a mentor has really worked well for me.  It was new and I was unsure at the beginning but I enjoy the back and forth of the cover letter and have found Steve Huff's comments to be incredibly helpful.  His critiques are honest but not rude.  He doesn't skirt around issues and, when necessary, he offers reasons behind his assessments.  It's been a wonderful journey so far and I'm a little sad that I only have two more packets to exchange with him.  That being said, I need to get my rear in gear because I want to share brand new writing with him on this next packet as well as really start putting into practice the things that he's touched upon in his responses to my packets.

One thing that we discussed is narrative authority.  I tend to write 'somehow' and 'perhaps' when writing in observant third person and not writing directly from the characters experience.  This makes it sound as if I, the god-like narrator, does not know how or why something happens.  The character does not know these things, but the narrator definitely does.  This is something I definitely want to work on because a vast majority of the stories I want to write will depend greatly upon the credibility of the observer narrator.

This month is a Camp NaNoWriMo month and I am signed up with a 20,000 word goal.  Usually I try and crank out the 50K but since the majority of what I am writing right now is coming to me slowly and with much revision and polishing, I figured a smaller goal would be less stressful and much more feasible.  I'm curious about my fellow contributors: are any of you participating in NaNoWriMo this month and if so what kind of projects are you undertaking?  I am working on my dystopian novel as well as a few short stories that may be lead ins to future novel projects.  

© Amanda LaFantasie (Skoora) 2013

STOP! NaNoWriMo Time!

     So many people I know are pulling their hair out already, and I have to wonder why. For those of you that are not a member of the self torture club known as NaNoWriMo, let me explain. The goal is to write at least 50,000 words in a month. No, it can't be the same word 50,000 times. The purpose of this month of writing abandon is to make yourself write. To turn off the inner editor and get the words out on paper, or in most cases, the hard drive. You can write whatever you want: fiction, short stories, non fiction, exceedingly long poems.

     Many of my friends sign up to do this year after year. For me, this is my fifth year, and I have won every year. I have never had a problem with just sitting with the laptop and letting my fingers tell a story. I have a rough idea and I let it take me where it wants to go. So why are my friends having so much trouble?

     I think one of the problems people have is the anticipation for the game to start. They have their notebook or flashcards filled to the brim with ideas and characters and amazing plot lines. They get 5,000 words or so in and BAM. Roadblock. And they don't know how to back up and go another direction.

     I admit that I get stuck occasionally. I write myself into a corner and have to stop and wonder what I just did. And sometimes that happens at 3 in the morning. So I hit "enter" a few times and get going again. I go with another character or a situation. I keep moving forward with the story, even if I now have to take the dirt road with all the bumps and dips. I'll still get to point "B," I've just decided to take the scenic route.

     The point is to not get discouraged and throw in the towel. There are 30 days in the month. Plenty of time to get back on track. And don't let the word count of others bother you. If you can only manage 2,000 words a day, you're still above the daily average. I am a person who writes at a fast pace and finish with my 50,000 words pretty early in the month. But I still keep going along with the story. I can't leave my little babies hanging. And if I can help others that are struggling, all the better.

     Just keep going and don't get discouraged. Before you know it you will cross the finish line and will have a goofy grin on your face. And then you will sleep soundly, knowing that you did something that not many people can do. You will have created something that came from your own imagination, your own experiences, and your own knowledge. And that is something to be very proud of.

The Adventure of NaNoWriMo

And isn't it an adventure? Every year I try Nanowrimo I learn a little something different, about myself as a writer and about my writing style. I learn what I like. What I dislike. I learn more about craft. More about where I want to go. More about myself in general, but the most important lesson - at least in my opinion - that I've learned is, don't force it.  I've noticed a lot of people having trouble with Nanowrimo this year.  I've watched as they've struggled to write a novel, to find a topic, a genre, a style. Wanting to play with new styles, tenses, etc (myself included). I've also noticed that this struggle and desire to find something new has been holding them (again myself included) back from their ultimate goal. So in the spirit of Nanowrimo and a pep talk, I have advice for all my nanowing friends and cohorts, and myself included. Please take it with a grain of salt, and feel free to share your own ideas and advice, or even disagree with me entirely.

Don't force your novel. Don't try and push yourself into a genre that only causes you frustration. Just go with it. I know from experience I write best when working with others. Co-writing has been the key to getting thousands of pages of story out for me and my friends.  I have been taking advantage of this technique in nano, and less than five days in I am well over a quarter of the way there. I also have learned that just writing as the words come to me is key to success. The most words I've ever gotten was when I was in the mood and just feeling what I was writing. I wasn't caring about rather I was going to get published or rather others enjoyed it. I wasn't caring that it wasn't going the way I'd originally planned, but rather had taken wings and gone in it's own direction. Those are my best pages I've ever written.

Write what you like. This may seem counter intuitive, or even counter productive to the statement I just made, but really its not. Here is what I mean. You enjoy something, be it romance, be it literary fiction, horror, or just plain smut. Well then if you're struggling for words, write what you enjoy. The phrase, "Don't fix what's not broken," seems to fit in very well here.  If you enjoy writing something, are confident in writing something, why fix it? You can always learn from what you already know and expound and expand upon that knowledge with new knowledge. Right?

I myself was going to write in a third person, present tense story for the November challenge. That was my goal for Nanowrimo. It was a goal at which I have failed utterly, and for which I will continue to fail. I am comfortable with first person, past, or third person, past. I find I am fairly talented with those as well.  So that is what I'll write.  I wanted to challenge myself, but in that desire I ended up hindering myself, so I quickly gave up. And the words have been flowing naturally since. I haven't felt drained, I haven't felt angry or impatient. Letting my writing come naturally has been allowing me the most satisfaction as a writer.

I know some authors feel shame for not being able to get out of their comfort zone, but most, if not all of us are still aspiring authors.  But I will gander to say, there is no shame in writing what we know. We are still building on our craft, still learning as we go. In fact, Nanowrimo is a challenge to help us do just that. So in the spirit of a pep talk, just have fun! I know that's what I'm doing, and even when I'm frustrated and not getting words out as quickly as I would like, enjoying what I'm writing is helping me. If you are one of those who is able to take something new and reign it in by the horns, FANTASTIC! That is marvelous.  And you should keep doing that, but I think one of the dangers - a trap that many of us fall into - is thinking that we need/have to do something that is outside of our comfort zone or even skill sect, and in the end that just causes anger and frustration.  If Nanowrimo, or writing is not enjoyable, then why are we doing it in the first place!

So now I ask for your responses. Many of you were going to leave your comfort zones and try something new as a writer. How is that going for you? Are you finding success in your endeavors or did you take the same path I did, returning to what I know and enjoy. Are you using a combination of the two? Did you go into a whole different realm entirely? What have you been doing to counteract the stress of writing so many words? And what advice do you have for other's who are participating in Nanowrimo?

To leave off, I think my greatest piece of advice is, have fun, because if you aren't having fun, then what's the point?

~Beth