Lesson Learned

What happens when you force your story to be something it isn't? What happens when you force yourself to write a genre you're not confident in? You spend three weeks trying to figure out how to edit your book, that's what.

My first, first draft of Colonel Fitzwilliam was primarily a spy novel, with romance thrown in. Halfway through November, I realized I wanted to write more romance, so I split it 50/50. Part of the struggle in editing has been to find where I made that change and how to create one unified book out of all the bits and bobs I've got written. The other struggle is that... well, honestly, I hate the spy parts.


The first assignment on my outline is to write a one-sentence summary of the story. That sentence then serves as a mission statement for the book. Any time you wonder if a scene belongs,  you can measure it up to the summary--does it support the mission of the book? If not, chuck it. I puzzled over the summary for about five minutes, wondering how on earth I could fit both the spy story and the romance into twenty five words or less.

That's when I realized I was going about this from the wrong angle. If I'm not that great at writing spy scenes, and I wanted to write more of the relationship between Georgiana and Richard, then maybe... maybe it didn't have to be a spy novel. Maybe it could be historical romance instead.

I still need to get Richard's spy mission figured out, at least in broad strokes, so I can allude to it throughout the book. However, this is not Lord of the Rings and I am not J. R. R. Tolkien. It's okay if I don't know the last thousand years of Fitzwilliam family history before I begin writing. Historical fiction requires a depth of understanding of the period, not of the characters' back stories. (If that analogy makes no sense to you, well, now you know what goes on in my head.)

I'm still working on the rest of the outline, but it should be much easier now that I know what genre I'm writing.

Identity Crisis

Not me, my book. Yes, I'm still struggling with Colonel Fitzwilliam's story. However, I think I finally figured out why.

I have a very precise method I follow when writing. After I get a new idea, I spend about a month fleshing it out in a very detailed outline. I'm talking scene by scene, who will be there, what important props are used--the works. Then I write the draft in a month of madness known as NaNoWriMo. I take December off and let the draft sit, then I come back to it and begin editing.

I didn't follow that pattern this time around, and I'm paying for it. As has been pointed out, I was a bit busy in the weeks leading up to NaNo this year, so I didn't take the time to outline. I spent the first three days of November trying to shove all the ideas I had about my story into a haphazard storyboard, but that shoddy piece of work fell about around the 10th. I sort of managed to figure out what I wanted to do then and restructured my story... but thanks to the lack of direction at the start, I have several dangling plot lines that no longer belong, and no real awareness of what should stay and what should be cut or moved to a different part of the timeline.

It's time for me to go back to the drawing board. This morning, I'll pull out my trusty copy of Book in a Month and follow that step-by-step outline. I won't skip worksheets, I won't leave anything undone. I have to figure out what my story is before I can figure out how to fix it.

I think I've known from the start that this is what I needed to do. I tried to find other ways to fix the problem, because this is going to take quite a bit of time. I hope to finish the outline by the end of this week, and then I'll need another three weeks or so to go through and move things around. I really don't think this book is going to be ready to publish in September like I wanted, and that disappoints me.

However, it's more important to end up with a book I can be proud of than to end exactly on time. I do hope I can manage to get it published before November though, because I seriously never want to do that craziness again.

Wish me luck!

Celebrate!!

Today is one of my favorite days of the year. No, it's not my birthday, or Christmas. (Um, hopefully you knew that already.)

Today is December 1, which means NaNoWriMo is officially done for another year! I love this event, I do, but it is also exhausting, both mentally and physically. I work far too many late, late nights trying to reach my word count, cheer on my region, and oh yeah! This year I added publishing a novel into the mix.

Side note: I will never again publish in November. There are 11 other months of the year when I can release books. It is simply insane to add all that extra work into an already packed month.

However! I am also excited because despite everything else vying for my attention, I am a NaNoWriMo Winner!! I'm thinking of buying the tshirt, which I've never done in the past. This year... I think I deserve it.

So, friends, I ask you: How did November treat you? If you were writing, did you reach 50K? And finally, what is your favorite day of the year?

(Oh, and also... after I wrote this blog post yesterday, I got a fantastic package in the mail. Two copies of my book, in paperback!! There will be more on this tomorrow over at Indiejane.org.)


His Good Opinion can be purchased from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Smashwords, Amazon UK, Amazon DE, and Amazon FR.

NaNoWriMo: That Dream Within a Dream...

This month we’ve looked at The Princess Bride as an analogy for writing and NaNo. We learned not to listen to our Inner Fred Savage, to keep the faith even when it seems like our plot and our love for noveling has been killed by the Dread Pirate Roberts, to climb to the top of the Cliffs of Insanity, and to turn those random plot devices into Something Big.

Now, when I started doing these Princess Bride talks, I’m sure many of you wondered when I’d get to the Impressive Clergyman. I’ve purposely been keeping you in suspense, but now it’s time. After all… Novels are what bring us together today... That blessed arrangement, that dream with a dream.

Whether you wrote 50,000 words or 5,000 words, you have touched that dream. You took something that was inside of you and chose to share it with others. You stretched yourself, reaching for more than you thought you were capable of. The most amazing thing about National Novel Writing Month is not the novel you’ve written, but what it has done to your concept of possible versus impossible. You are capable of Big Things—we all are.

If your word count is somewhere in the 30s or even the 20s and you’ve already written this year off, think about this for a minute. 30,000 words in four weeks? That’s pretty incredible. Who’s to say you can’t push on and do another 20K in four days? People do it every year. Stretch yourself some more. You might reach 50K, you might not. Either way, you still will have written more than you thought possible 24 hours ago.

To do this, you might try taking a piece of advice from Prince Humperdink: Skip to the end. If you’re like many writers, you’ve discovered that your novel will take more than 50,000 words to tell. You’re probably somewhere in the middle section and you haven’t gotten to “the good stuff” yet. So skip to the end. Write a few paragraphs to sketch out what happens in the middle if you want (it does help the word count…), and then go straight to your climax. Draw out those awesome scenes as much as you want. Milk them for every word they have.

I have one more piece of advice for you: Love your novel. Love the whole experience. This is what matters in the end. And when December comes and another NaNoWriMo ends, we’ll all be able to say one thing: There were five months in the course of my life that I have labeled the most amazing, the most insane. This one surpassed them all.

PS: If you haven't heard, my 2008 NaNo novel, his Good Opinion, is now available for sale!

Thanksgiving

Today is Thanksgiving. It's a tendency in the blogging world to take off major holidays (as blog traffic drops significantly, and... well, we'd like a day off too). However, as I thought about it this week, I realized I have so much to be thankful for, there's truly no excuse for me not to post.

1. I am thankful for my family. They gave me the love of books that has brought me to where I am today, and to a person, every one of them has loved me and believed in me in a way I know is rare and precious.
2. I am thankful for Chris Baty and National Novel Writing Month for giving me the years of practice it takes to become successful at anything.
3. I am thankful to all the people who've read my fanfiction over the years. Thanks to you, I wasn't nearly as nervous when I published my first book. 
4. I'm thankful for the amazing team of beta readers and editors who helped me improve His Good Opinion this year: Jessica, Kaydee, Mom, Rebecca, Haley, Jaymi, and Carissa. 
5. I'm thankful to Jess (again) for all the formatting help she gave over the last two weeks--right in the middle of moving and doing NaNoWriMo. 
6. I'm thankful for the amazing cover, designed for me by Ed Melendez.
7. I'm thankful for the tremendous amounts of help Jennifer Becton has offered as I traversed the unknown waters of self-publishing for the first time.

And I am so very thankful to everyone who has purchased His Good Opinion in the last week. It's an absolute thrill to know my book is in the hands of readers. You have made my dream come true--thank you so very much.

His Good Opinion can be purchased from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Smashwords, Amazon UK, Amazon DE, and Amazon FR. 

NaNoWriMo: Hello, My Name Is Inigo Montoya

You killed my father. Prepare to die.

Of all the quotable lines in The Princess Bride, this one is perhaps the most iconic. With the exception of one character (whom we will get to next week), no one in the movie is more associated with a single line than Inigo. It is absolutely central to his character—the whole story of his father’s death and his subsequent quest for revenge has shaped his life.

How does this apply to noveling? Well, the line comes up for the first time fairly early in the story. Westley has made it to the top of the Cliffs of Insanity and Inigo offers him the chance to rest before they duel. While they rest, he asks, rather off-handedly, if Westley has six fingers on his right hand. When it’s established that he doesn’t, he proceeds to tell the story.

At this point, it could just be a nice story. However, a few scenes later Westley and Buttercup come out of the Fire Swamp right into the waiting arms of Prince Humperdink and Count Rugen. After Buttercup has been taken away, Westley notices Count Rugen—“You have six fingers on your right hand. Someone’s been looking for you.” Hmmm… now it’s been mentioned twice, and might actually play a role in the plot.

We learn quite a bit in the next few scenes about how twisted Count Rugen is, and then it’s time for Fezzik to locate Inigo. Once again, the subject of the six-fingered man comes up—at which point Inigo promptly passes out. He sobers up, and he and Fezzik go on a quest to find Westley. You see? The thought of finding the six-fingered man is enough to shake him out of his drunken stupor and finally do the one thing he was meant to do.

I could go on and on here, because really this is the strongest sub-plot in the entire film. By the time we get to that pivotal scene where he’s been stabbed several times by Rugen, we understand that this is no mere throwaway line. “Hello! My name is Inigo Montoya! You killed my father. Prepare to die.”

We are entering Week Four of NaNoWriMo. Right now, most of our stories are somewhere around the Miracle Max scene—build up to the climax—and hopefully, we will all reach our own duel scenes in the next seven days. If you’re stuck for words or don’t know what to do with your plot, look back at what you wrote in the first week (not to edit!!) and find some random line or action that you can turn into this kind of scene. You may find that you’ve unconsciously built one in. Good for you! Take that thematic hint and develop it into a fantastic crescendo of plotty and wordy goodness.

If you don't have one already, that's why I told you to look back at your early chapters. Without looking at the grammar or spelling, skim for something that sparks an idea for this kind of scene. Don’t worry about including extra references to it throughout your story. You can go back and add those later. For now, just concentrate on that climactic duel and boost that word count!

Next week: Marriage. Marriage is what brings us together today...

PS: If you haven't heard, my 2008 NaNo novel His Good Opinion is now available for sale!

NaNoWriMo: The Cliffs of INSANITY!!!

This is where you are right now. Like Westley, you have been tenacious in your quest. You have not given up on the thought of holding your own complete novel in your hands at the end of the month. You have sailed across eel-infested waters to claim it, and now you find one more hurdle ahead of you. However, you shall not be daunted, and thanks to all the typing you’ve been doing, you definitely have strong arms.

If you are Westley in this scenario, then Week Three is the Cliffs of Insanity. It is bracketed by the two most important word counts with the exception of 50,000: 25,000 and 35,000. That 10K climb is one of the most important in your entire NaNo experience. 25,000 is obviously the halfway mark. There’s something really cool about being able to say you’re halfway to the finish line. This milestone should come for everyone at some point this week.

The second is even more important. Westley couldn’t just grab hold of the rope at the bottom of the cliff and say, “All right, I’m done now. Toss Buttercup down to me and we’ll be on our way.” No! He had to take the rope in hand and start climbing the cliff. When Vizzini cut the rope, he had to cling to the sheer rock face with his bare hands and continue to pull himself up.

Even though 25K is halfway, 35K is the top of the cliff. That’s where you start to feel like you’re on the downward slide toward home. Taking Westley as our inspiration, once he was at the top of the cliff, everything else was pretty easy. He had to fight a duel, but he won handily. Vizzini? Simple! Iocane power will take care of him!! And then he had Buttercup and all that work was worth it.

If your week is comparable to the Cliffs of Insanity, your story’s week is like the Fire Swamp. “Unless I’m wrong, and I’m never wrong, they’re headed dead into the Fire Swamp.”

Your Inner Fred Savage is probably moaning a little at the thought. The Fire Swamp? We’ll never survive!! Smack it down with Westley’s chipper quote: “Nonsense. You’re only saying that because no one ever has.”

Week Three is one of the most awesome weeks for your story. This is when things start to happen. The characters you thought were pointless will suddenly step on a flame spurt, fall into the lightning sand, and be attacked by ROUSes. In other words, your story will start to develop… a PLOT! PLOT, you say? I don’t believe they exist. Oh, but you will my friend—you will. Just wait to see what week three brings to you. There’s a lot of craziness, and I’m not saying you’ll want to build a summer home there, but the trees are actually quite lovely.

So prepare yourself gang—Week Three is here.

Next week: Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya…

NaNoWriMo: Murdered By Pirates Is Good

During Week One, everything in your novel seemed perfect, almost idyllic. Your novel, and to a broader degree the act of novelling, became your “true love.” Perhaps a part of you wondered, as Buttercup does, if this fragile new relationship can withstand what life throws at it. The only answer you received was, “This is true love—do you think this happens every day?”

But one morning this week, you will wake up and find that your perfect novelling world is gone, your excitement killed by the Dread Pirate Roberts of Week Two. Your main character hates you… your plot is non-existent… that sub-plot you thought would wrap up everything neatly in chapter six creates more problems than it solves… and so on and so forth.

You’re also starting to realize the time commitment it takes to write a novel. There are stacks of dirty dishes in your kitchen and piles of laundry in your room. Your family has forgotten what you look like when your eyes aren’t glued to the monitor.

At this point, it would be tempting to echo Buttercup and say, “I will never write again.” Just as she wanted to close herself off from feeling this kind of pain ever again, you would like to avoid this deep feeling that you have let yourself down or lost one of your lifelong dreams. Here’s this week’s secret: Every single Wrimo I know has felt this way. It is normal and natural. The only question is what you will do with this feeling.

Because she vowed to never love again, Buttercup allowed herself to be betrothed to the Prince, betraying her true love. The first question Westley asked Buttercup when he revealed himself to her was, “Why didn’t you wait for me?”

“Well… I thought you were dead.”

His answer was simple: “Death cannot stop true love. All it can do is delay it for a while.”

You and your novel have true love. Will you give that up, simply because your enthusiasm has been murdered by pirates?

Next week: The Cliffs of Insanity and The Fire Swamp

NaNoWriMo Starts Today!

On Tuesdays in November, I'll be running  series of NaNoWriMo pep talks.

I was re-watching one of my favorite movies a while back, and suddenly I realized that NaNoWriMo is like The Princess Bride—both are adventures narrated by one very excited participant (you) and derided by one very snide bystander (your Internal Editor).

During the first week of NaNo, you will have all the energy and enthusiasm of the Grandfather. You’ve got a book to offer, and nothing could be better. The Grandson is your Internal Editor, constantly questioning and doubting that your story will be any good. Right from the start, the Grandson is unconvinced of the story’s appeal. “Are there any sports in it?” he asks.

How many of us have heard that little voice asking if we actually have a plot? Was our answer as good as the Grandfather’s? “Are you kidding? Fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, true love, miracles…” (Sounds a lot like a NaNo Bingo card, doesn’t it? And whose story doesn’t include a few of those elements? I can personally check off fighting, torture, revenge, escapes, true love, and miracles.)

If you watch The Princess Bride, you learn that the secret to telling a good story lies in ignoring the heckler. He’s barely into his story when the Grandson interrupts: “Hold it, hold it! Are you trying to trick me? Where’s the sports? Is this a kissing book?”

Does the Grandfather put the book down and say, “You’re right, I’m sorry… What was I thinking, imagining I could tell an interesting story? I’ll just go on home now, and you can get back to your game.” No! He tells the kid to sit still and wait! There’s good stuff coming, and he knows it.

Here’s the secret I want you to learn this week. Your Internal Editor does not know your whole story. All it knows is the part you’ve already told, and we all know that the first chapter, or even the first third a book doesn’t show the whole picture. When that little voice starts whining at you, wondering if this is ‘a kissing book,” tell it to be patient. The good stuff is yet to come.

Next Week: The Dread Pirate Roberts

NaNoWriMo: Tips and Tricks

After, "How much should I plan?" the second most common question I get is, "How do you do it?" Writing 50,000 words in 30 days is, after all, not an every day (or every month) accomplishment for most of us. Those who are lucky enough to write full time might tell a different story, but the average Wrimo also holds either a full time job or is a full time student. Adding a novel on top of that can be daunting.

Here's the first thing to remember: You are not writing 50,000 words in one day. The daily total to stay on track is 1,667 words. That comes out to about 5-6 pages, depending on font. On a normal day, it takes me about an hour of actually writing (read: not looking at the internet) to finish the day's word count. Most of us can carve one hour out of our day to dedicate to writing.

That brings me to the second tip: Turn off your internet. You can do this in a variety of ways. On my old PC, I would actually switch the wi-fi receptor off. Now that I'm using Scrivener on my Mac, I've fallen in love with full-screen mode. It blocks everything out, including those applications down in the dock that always call out for my attention. If you need to do research, set a timer and look for the one piece of information you need before you get back to writing. Do not get sucked into the Wiki Trail!

One more thing. Writing a novel in a month means write, don't edit.  Chris Baty, the founder of NaNoWriMo, puts it like this. "Make no mistake, you will be writing a lot of crap." There is no way you can write 50,000 words in 30 days and have every one be perfect. Oh, there will be some passages that just sing... but an equal amount that just suck. Do not edit! There will be time for that in December and beyond. The point of NaNoWriMo is that until you actually get the rough draft down, there is nothing to edit.

So there you have it. Of course, if you check the website, there's a whole forum devoted to little cheats you can use to reach 50K. I admit to using a few, like the no contractions rules (though since my novel is historical, I have an excuse), but here I wanted to give you some advice on how you could honestly reach 50,000 words.

One more thing: If you haven't checked in with your local region, I highly recommend it. There's nothing like meeting up with a few other crazies like-minded individuals to keep you going throughout the month.

Good luck!

Pre-NaNoWriMo: There's No Wrong Way

As a long time NaNo participant and Municipal Liaison, there is one question I am asked more than any other: How should I prepare?

The answer is much more vague and postmodern than most people expect or wish. Do the kind of preparation that works for you. Just like eating a Reese's, there is no wrong way.

I personally plan every big detail of the story. I like to know exactly what's going to happen, I know this conversation I'm writing will have great significance in four or five chapters. I like to know why my characters are this way. If I try to write without a detailed plan, I crash and burn.

There are people who are the exact opposite. They use something--an image, one scene, a song--as a launchpad, and then they just push off on November 1 and write their entire novel. I have no idea how they do it. I'm a little in awe of them, to be honest.

So, those are the two major ways to prepare. If you think you might be a planner and you're looking for a bit more detail, I wrote a series  on building a novel this summer. It covers the 3 Cs of plot: Plot = Conflict that forces your Character to Change.

However you go approach NaNoWriMo, have fun, and good luck!

Why I Do NaNoWriMo

I have participated in National Novel Writing Month every year since 2003. For the uninitiated, NaNoWriMo is a crazy attempt to write a 50,000 word novel in thirty days. There are no judges; there are no prizes; it is the biggest un-contest of them all.


So why bother? Why spend thirty days slaving over something no one will see but myself?


I believe the self-challenge is the key to NaNo's success. We all have things in life we would like to do, but oftentimes they remain empty dreams. NaNoWriMo comes with an international audience. People from around the world watch to see if you actually complete your novel. At the same time, you watch them and cheer them on. It is, in fact, the world's largest accountability group.


I wrote my first stories when I was in elementary school. With the encouragement of my middle school English teacher, I started an historical romance series. It was then I decided I wanted to be a novelist when I grew up. However, I approached this as if it were some kind of airy, theoretical future. I wrote fun stories for my friends, and, when pressed, I claimed these were practice for my "real writing."


NaNoWriMo taught me to take my writing seriously. When I told people I was going to write a 50,000 word novel in thirty days, all of a sudden I had a deadline. The theoretical future was now.


I won that first year. Even though the 50,000 words became 24,000 upon editing, I still look back on it as the turning point in my career as a writer. Since then I have had three false starts and written four more novels. Three years ago, I wrote the start of His Good Opinion, and you all know what that led to.


This year will be my ninth NaNoWriMo, and it will also be a first: it will be the first year that I attempt to do publish one book while writing another. I know, I know. If 50,000 words this crazy then surely adding anything to that is insane.  Why am I doing this to myself? That's just how the timing worked out--at least, that's what I tell people. However, there is another secret part of me which simply wants to see if I can. And that, my friends, is what National Novel Writing Month is all about.


PS: Come find me on NaNoWriMo.org!

Enjoying the Ride

Fall is finally here. This is my absolute favorite time of the year: everything I love most is packed into the space of about four months, starting with October and the changing leaves.

However, last week Jessica did a blog post on countdowns, and I realized exactly how much I've got going on this fall.

• Finish my final edits for His Good Opinion and send it to an editor
• Assimilate those edits and send it to a proofer
• Assimilate the proofs and format the book for sale
• November is NaNoWriMo--I'll be writing my next novel, focusing on Colonel Fitzwilliam
• I'm one of Vancouver's Municipal Liaisons for NaNo, so I'm busy planning events right now.
• Launch my book

And that doesn't even take things like the holidays and my birthday (Feb. 2) into account. When Jess said Christmas was 100 days away, I did panic for just a minute. 

Then I realized something: These are all good things! I love being an ML, even with all the extra work that goes along with it. (This year, I'm also mentoring new MLs... another thing, but it'll be fun.) I can't imagine a November without NaNoWriMo, so even though it might be crazy to write one book while publishing my first, I'm going to do it anyway. And of course, all the various bits of the publishing process will be time-consuming, but HELLO! By the end of November, I will be able to hold my book in my hands! 

So I'm going to take the advice I gave Jess. "Pretend it's a ride at Disneyland. The ride operator has buckled you in, and you just have to sit back and enjoy." 

Are you hanging on to your hats, friends? 'Cause this here is the wildest ride in the wilderness.

Build Your Own Austenesque Novel: The Hard Part

Week 1: Set-up

Week 2: Conflict

Week 3: Character

Week 4: Change

So, we've all decided what kind of Austenesque novel would work for us. We've talked about the 3 Cs of plot: Conflict that forces your Character to Change. By now, you should have a basic story idea in mind.

What next?

If you're a plotter like me, you'll spend the next few weeks playing around the idea, figuring out exactly how your story will happen. You might check out books like Book in a Month, which help you flesh out your ideas. 

If you're a pantser like some other writers I know, you'll let the idea sit in the back of your mind, and somehow (in a method that is as mythical as magic to me), your plot will spring up from the ether. You might be helped by No Plot? No Problem! 

But even a fully developed outline isn't a book. Eventually, you have to sit down and write. That's where National Novel Writing Month comes in.

National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo.org,) is a crazy challenge to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. This will be my tenth year participating, and my fourth year leading my local region. As November approaches, I'll be blogging occasionally about NaNo and all the ways it can help a writer.

For you, the biggest help it offers is a deadline. You've got a story idea, now you have a time offered to write it. When the new season starts in October, I will post a thread for Austenesque authors, likely in the historical fiction forum. Be sure to check back here and on IndieJane.org, as I'll definitely be posting the link as soon as it's up.

Oh, and if you're wondering--yes, I will be writing my Col. Fitzwilliam story this year during NaNo. His Good Opinion was my 2008 NaNo novel, and I'll be publishing it this November. November and NaNo play a large part in my life as a writer.

Happy noveling, my Austenesque friends.

Writing By Ear

I've mentioned my RSI a few times now. In 2008 and 2009, NaNoWriMo left me in agony for the month of December. Last year I was able to continue with no problem, despite logging my highest word count ever. What made the difference? Dragon NaturallySpeaking.

For those unfamiliar with the name, Dragon is speech recognition software. Instead of using the keyboard to input the story, I talk into a microphone. Dragon transcribes my words onto the screen as I watch, with remarkable accuracy. It took about a week to learn to think out loud--writing is oftentimes a very kinetic process, and you do lose that with this software.

Since November, I've been able to use Dragon for another important part of the writing process. I've blogged a few times about revisions and my multiple, color coded, hand-written drafts. Once I go over a chapter in both purple and pink ink, it's often so different from the original that typing the edits would be too much for my wrist. Instead, I dictate the new chapter back into the computer.

Here's the other benefit I gain from this: I get to hear my story out loud. Words sound different when spoken. It's a simple fact, but one we often don't really think of. Dialogue that looks perfectly natural on the page may sound trite or overly sentimental. By giving myself a chance to listen to my story, I catch places that need a little extra help.

Speech recognition software isn't for everyone, but I do encourage you to read your story out loud. Ask a friend to listen with you--you already know when your story is supposed to be funny or sentimental. Gauge their reactions and adjust your story accordingly.

Good luck!