It Approaches... aka NaNoWriMo

That is right. After a long silence I'm going to talk about the first thing that comes to mind and right now, with it being already October 8th, the thing I'm focused on is getting ready for NaNoWriMo.

Yep, I'm doing it again this year. Last year was one of my not successful years but I don't have any qualms or regrets about taking part in it or any of the camp ones where I didn't write much. Even not making it to 50k (or in camp whatever goal was chosen) is still an accomplishment if something gets written.

Whether to prepare ahead of time or not is going to be a personal decision. It did help me the first year that I succeeded in getting 50,000 words. However, since then I have both prepped novels and written ones with no prep. Either way can go well and the end result tends to vary on the novel. Some are easier to write than others. I'm prepping this year but not as ahead of schedule as I've been in the past but still making progress. Although I'm finding I don't know much about this story yet. We'll see if that's the case when writing time comes too. Either way, I'll be writing.

One thing I need to work on as we get closer to November is going to be a schedule. I have a lot going on in general, plus will be gone for 6 whole days as my stepsister is getting married and I'm driving out to attend the wedding plus spending a day with family in a different state. I won't have much writing time at all from the 3rd through the 6th. So, I won't be trying to get 50k in 10 days or less this year. In fact, my normal beginning push and end of month slow down will need to be reversed. I will have work at least 5 days a week and the hours will either be closing or middle of day shifts, but not sure at this time. Plus, I have the gym though I will be running a little less by then since after the 10k the goal is just to maintain until spring, when I start training for the half marathon. The last few months, I have struggled to keep up with things, like blogging, and am slowly working on  regaining my ground. Hope to keep it forward so that by 2016, things run smoother.

I do have some suggestions, however, when it comes to November's writing and the results of the excursion. I could talk a lot about tips for during and before NaNoWriMo but we'll keep it to a few things for now.


A couple of things I don't recommend during and after NaNoWriMo:

1. Sending out to publishers or agents right after November ends, or with that novel a few months later. While it's exciting to have a novel written, there is much left to be done and the first is to take a little time away from the story. Plus, many agents and editors are closed to submission over the holidays.

2. Publishing right after November or a mere few months later. I'm not against self publishing and if that's what you want to do then great. However, I do recommend taking a little time between drafts and doing more than one draft of the story before putting it out for the waiting audience. Unless that is your already established protocol of doing very fast drafts and putting it out there where you have a readership that supports such, I just don't recommend it.

3. Fretting over word count often. I have seen a few spend almost more time worrying about how behind they've gotten than actually writing. Don't put too much into panic or talking about how you should be writing. Or posting too much in forums when you have 10,000 words to catch up on. Plus, even if you only write 5,000 for the whole month (I might have made close to that my very first attempt), it's still more than you had October 31. Whether you take a month or three years to finish a novel, doesn't matter. Just write.

4. Ignoring everything for the sake of the novel. Perspective and balance are still good to have during November. Sure, the house can be a little messier and meals take less labor, but it's also not good to completely ignore everyone or skip out on responsibilities just for the sake of getting to 50,000 words. Write, yes, but don't ignore the rest of your life entirely.


Those are just some general pointers. I know not everyone is a fan of the national novel writing month with the quick writing and rough draft results. For me, it works and helps me focus on a single story for exactly one month. Now I'm going to get back to preparing for it and write a few scenes/stories on the side because I multi-task and over commit.

Writing Every Day Revisited

Topic Re-Write: also known as, me revisiting the concept of writing every day


In fact, the first blog post I ever wrote for this blog, back on May 1, 2009, was about the concept of writing every day. The blog post is here: http://dawnembers.blogspot.com/2009/05/every-day.html. And really, I wasn't a fan back then. Though also at that point, 2008 was my first and only success at getting 50,000 words in a month and it was the longest thing I'd written. I hadn't finished much else and I still wrote poetry. So yeah. And I only did a few attempts at picture books that week cause I'm not really a children's book writer.

I talked again about the topic, more with questioning it in August of 2009. http://dawnembers.blogspot.com/2009/08/write-every-day.html  And in that one I was less into the idea of writing every day even more. But that was also the last time I really focused on the topic, so all the way back in 2009.

We're in 2014 now. After almost 5 years, has my opinion changed? Some.

I still don't think it's necessary to write every single day of the year. It's okay to take breaks and it's okay to have other priorities. I still think that treating writing as a job is a good idea, but it can be a part time job or even a full time job, but even with full time jobs people take days off. And I still agree that what you need to do is find out what works best for you. However, I am now more capable of writing almost every day.

What has changed? Well, I've spent 2009-now often writing. Back then, the longest thing I'd written was 50,000 words of a struggled romance/erotica attempt. I had written a number of little scenes and poems but not much in the way of long fiction. Now, my longest draft is at around 170,000 words (it's almost done, really, I promise) and I've gotten at least 3 novel first drafts done, rewritten a novel and tackled editing. Been a long 5 years (someone remind me to do a 5 year reflection post for May 1) which didn't always include writing. I had months where I wrote not much at all, but it all adds up over time whether it's 250 words a day consistently or binges of 5k a day and some with 0.

Last year, I started the year saying I wanted to see how much I wrote in a year and that lasted a couple weeks max. This year, I'm trying again but I have a different approach. Thanks to a friend who had access to a shared spreadsheet, I have an easier way to keep track on google docs, so every day I write, I add my total words for that day onto the spreadsheet and it adds it all up. It's not the excitement of the "magic spreadsheet" as discussed on I Should Be Writing because there are no levels or points but there are colors. And more words mean different shades so that is kind of fun.

This month, I've written at least 250 words every day and plan to for the whole month. Even if it's just 250 on some days that is okay. I started part way in January with the spreadsheet and have gotten to almost 40,000 words for the year already. Off to a good start and while I won't write every single day of the year (already missed a couple in January), I will write very many days. And some months, it just might be every day.


How often do you write?
Do you keep track? If so, how?

November Approaches

I know we are still in the beginning of October what with it being the 7th and all, but before we know it November will be here. It's one of my favorite times of year: National Novel Writing Month. I've already started preparing 4 novels using the NaNoWriMo Prep Challenge held on Writing.Com but of those 4, only plan to write 1 novel. But it's nice to have outlines and character sketches for other novels prepared ahead of time in case I decide to take March or something to write another novel first draft.

Though I find some of the usual lessons a bit more difficult for one of the novels because this year I'm doing the rough draft of book 2 in a series. Right now book 1 is with a couple of readers and in 2014 I will be sending query letters to agents, so now feels like a good time to give the second book a first draft. I know some say not to write book 2 until book 1 is sold, but I figure it won't matter too much if things get changed because this is a rough draft. Book 1 took a major rewrite and an edit that resembled a rewrite to make it to where it is, so it's not unreasonable to expect a rewrite in the future for book 2, but it's easier to go from rough draft to a presentable product than from a blank page.

So, I can't wait for NaNoWriMo once again. Though this year, with work and the novel I'm working on, I think I will have a more reasonable word count. My hope is to get 75,000 words done, so have the whole first draft done. That would be a great feat considering book 1 first draft was 23,000 words. It's not at 65,000 after rewriting and editing (which somehow the edit made it longer...). If I can make book 2 be long enough in the first draft, that would be great. I don't need 165,000 words written in November this year and I'm okay with that.

I should go work on prep. Today I'm working on background stories to the plot.


Are you excited for NaNoWriMo?
How do you prepare?

N is for NaNoWriMo

I have spoken about this even before but not during April, so figured this year I'd do that for N. It's a big deal and counts as two N's since it's during November. For those that don't know what I mean: November is National Novel Writing Month, where people spend the whole month trying to write 50,000 words of a novel in that month.

Some people don't like the event, which is fine. It's not for everyone. And it's not for perfect drafts. It's a rough rough first draft that gets written in 30 days or less. The goal of the month isn't to publish a book any time soon really. The entire purpose, if you read the web site (http://www.nanowrimo.org/), is to get people to write. So many say they would like to write a novel some day, and NaNoWriMo gives the time to get that novel out. Sure, it's a very rough draft but accomplishing that finished first draft is a great first step in this process.

I have quite the history when it comes to NaNoWriMo.

1st attempt = 2006
Wrote only a couple thousand words and gave up part way through the month. I'd never written anything more than short stories at this point.

2007 = YA novel attempt
Made it to a grand ol' 14,000 words during November. Then again when I got around to finishing the first draft it was only 23,000 words long so it wouldn't have made the 50,000 words for the challenge.

1st success = 2008
 Made it to 50,000 words of a novel on a romance/erotica. Never expected to write anything that was either romance or erotic and yet it worked out. I haven't rewritten that one at this point, it may say a trunk novel as it was a good experience but not something I see workable for now.

2010 = after year break, attempting again.
50,000 words in 15 days on an epic fantasy novel. Quit after making it to the goal of the challenge. The first draft still isn't finished. I want to finish it some day though.

2011 = attempted 2 novels
Wrote a total of 125,000 words between the two novels. One was a bit over 99,000 (a romance erotica) and the other was a bit under 25,000 words (young adult). And it felt so crazy and yet was fun. The romance novel was longer than planned and the first draft is done but needs rewritten. The young adult one isn't even half way done yet and I hope to finish the first draft some day.

2012 = crazy
Yeah, I didn't expect this time to go as well. I figured my one novel (it was one novel at the start) was going to be maybe 90,000 words long. And I didn't have the greatest history with young adult stories, though I did well with the epic fantasy. However, I ended up writing 165,000 words in November last year. I couldn't believe it either, while starting a new job. It was insane. And crazy part, novel isn't done yet. I just have the ending to write though. When I rewrite this one, I'm separating it into 2 books, and need to worldbuild first.


So, if you can't tell. I love NaNoWriMo because it helps me get that pesky first draft written. And I don't ever just throw them out right after that draft is done. It takes me years to get a novel ready. In fact, I'm currently editing the book from 2007. The second draft was 50k and with this edit, it will be over 60k and that makes me happy.

Will I take part in NaNoWriMo in November? Yeah. It would take a lot for me to not take part. As for what I will write, that I don't know yet. I will try to decide in September or October.


Ever take part in NaNoWriMo?
Will you this year?

December Approacheth

With December around the corner, Saturday, and that marking the end of the epic 2012 National Novel Writing Month, I feel now is a good time to post what December will bring for me. I may post this on both blogs (so sorry if you follow both and try to see the new content only to find you read the same thing twice). This year has been a pretty epic year for me with nanowrimo because the novel I thought was one book turned out to be 2 so the end word count is going to be over 150k by the time I have the very rough first draft done. And most of it will have been written in November. Crazy sounding, I know.

So, after such a large word count and spending so long on the one novel, what happens next for me? The answer is a resounding: Edit!

*pauses for dramatic effect* or is it affect, bah, either, it's nanowrimo still and I don't care which is right. ;-) lol

Okay, now you can breathe a heavy sigh of relief. When I say edit, I don't mean I'm going to be editing the novel I may or may have not finished yet from NaNoWriMo 2012. In fact, I'm not even editing/rewriting the novels from 2011 or 2010 NaNoWriMo.

Nope, I'm going to edit a novel I started writing during NaNoWriMo 2007 since I've rewritten it before. Okay, that one might be a rewrite as opposed to an edit because I need to change it from present tense to past tense, but bleh, I'm calling it an edit because I'm not changing content really. I'm just changing from "he sees the new boy" to "he saw the new boy". Same stuff minor, time consuming change.

I'm also going to edit the novel I write 65k of during March in 2010. It hasn't had a heavy rewrite as the other one because the novel ended up at 90k and the main content I'm happy with enough that I'm going to not change much in what happens, just work on polishing it. I will be focusing on things like showing instead of telling (I am really bad at this), taking out some of the passive voice, and fixing minor details (like changing one of the minor character's names because I have a Michael and a Mitchel, tsk).

So, in an unofficial sense, December will be my novel editing month because the only reason I let myself start another new novel (I still have like 5 I'm in the middle of writing) was that all first drafts would be put aside as soon as November ended so I could devote time to editing.

I have to admit, I'm a bit nervous about this edit because it's a new stage for me. Even though I have been working on writing for about 7 years, I've edited for newspaper and for a small publisher, I have never done a full edit on one of my own novels. I've editing some scenes and short stories, edited chapters to submit for critique to a group, but I have not done a novel edit. Course, it took a while to get a novel that was not only rewritten but ready for edits and I kept starting new ones but that's besides the point. This marks a new stage because ideally, as soon as I'm done with edits I will have something I can have a reader check out. I won't send it to agents right away even though my dad thinks I'm stalling with this edit (*waves hi in case family members see this post*) but I will be a big step closer. A giant step even. Because soon as I've worked out the edits, had readers check it out, then do another pass after a minor break where I can work on finishing one of those already started novels, then I can try to submit to agents.

My goal is to have the query sent out some time in 2013, so I have my work cut out for me. I figure, if I can write 150k in a month of hectic mess, I can managed to spend a few months getting the edits on more prepared novels. And to be honest, I need a timeline. So, hmm... What the heck. I turn 29 near the end of August. Sounds like a good goal, 9 months from now in fact.

Now I have a timeline and a goal. I want to have at least one of the mutant novels ready to send out queries by my birthday. And now you all know and I will have to work hard to follow through on my goals. Yay for incentive!

So, that is my plan. And yes, I promise to also try and post a few times a month at least, because I do have more to say on writing and on my writing, so there will be more blog posts in the near future. And there will be book reviews done too because my new plan also includes putting together a weekly schedule and I'm putting in reading time on the list. I need to read and I shall, along with writing and editing. So much to do, I can't wait to start.

What are your plans for December 1st?
How did November go?