Rise to the challenge

This morning, bright and early (despite it being my day off work) I'm up and moving.  Trying to wake up some and am jumping into the page.  Part of why I'm here, I guess.  Anyway, I popped over to the NaNoWriMo website this morning and found a pep talk.  I know some of you will have read it, and others won't read any of your messages over there unless they're personal.  In any case, today I read it and this was worth noting:

I got up every morning before work (the alarm was set for 4:30) and wrote two pages before I went into the warehouse. And then, when I arrived at work at 7:00 to punch the time clock, I received my daily so-you-want-to-be-a-writer pep talk from a coworker.

Let's call him Bob. (Even though his real name is Gary).

Bob wanted to be a writer, too. But he wasn't writing. Every morning we had the same exchange.

Bob: "How did the writing go?"

Me: "Fine."

Bob: "How many pages did you write?"

Me: "Two."

Bob: "Do you think Dickens wrote two pages a day?"

Me: "I don't know how many pages Dickens wrote a day."

Bob: "Yeah, well let me tell you something, you're no Dickens. So what's Plan B, babe? What's Plan B for when the writing doesn't work out?"

For this question, I had no answer.

I turned my back on Bob, pulse pounding, fists clenched, and climbed the stairs to the third floor and started picking books.

When the alarm went off at 4:30 the next morning, I thought about Bob and that is part of the reason I got out of bed.

It is a truly excellent to have someone to believe in you and your ability to write.

But I think it is just as helpful to have people who don't believe in you, people who mock you, people who doubt you, people who enrage you. Fortunately, there is never a shortage of this type of person in the world.

So as you enter this month of writing, write for yourself. Write for the story. And write, also, for all of the people who doubt you. Write for all of those people who are not brave enough to try to do this grand and wondrous thing themselves. Let them motivate you.

In other words, do it for Bob!

Your friend in writing,  

Kate DiCamillo

You have a Bob in your life.  I know I do.  I have plenty.  People who look at me like I have three heads when I say "this is my day job, I write too."

Now, I'm a little different from Kate, here, because I am not sure I will ever be full time with the writing.  I might try for it in the future if things line up, I suppose, but my day job provides nice steady income, insurance, and distraction with PAID people-watching time.  That is pretty sweet.  And I'm able to keep myself part time, working while my kids are in school.  So that's also pretty sweet.

I have writing time if I get up early, after work before kids get out of school, and in the afternoon/evening while they do homework and after bedtime.  Right now, my goal is to write SOMETHING every day.  Maybe I should set a two page goal.  I know when I set a goal for myself and I don't reach it, I make myself angry.  Because I'm absolutely capable of that goal I set.

NaNo, for example.  This year, like last, I'm not allowing myself to be UNDER the daily goal at all.  I try and write ahead so if a day is busy (like yesterday), I don't have to stress myself out too much to meet it.  I'm close for yesterday's goal, so I will write ahead today.

Anyway, Bob, you suck.  But you also make us strive to do better.  To do more.  So, thank you, Bob.  I like a challenge.  ;)

So!  What spurs you on more?  Positive reinforcement, or a nay-sayers?  Have you grown your thick writer skin yet?  ;)

(Don't really feel all that more awake, and I bet my rambling kinda shows that...  time to set the coffee maker.)

You need the bones.

I told my daughter something last night and thought I'd pass it along.

She commented that she keeps changing tenses.  First of all, the fact she understands tenses and that she shouldn't be changing them is amazing.  The kid is 9.

But anyway, she is concerned because she is doing it and was grabbing an eraser to fix it, since she's hand writing it.  I told her not to worry about it now.  Just write.  She looked at me funny like, how was she supposed to ignore problems like that now!?  It's distracting!

Well, yes, it is, but during NaNo, you don't delete.  You press on.  Fix it later.  Write it now.  Get it out.  Get it on paper.  Fix it later.

She still looked confused so I told her:

You need the bones.  First you need the part that makes the story strong.  Beginning, middle, end.  Get that out.  The rest is just fluff.

The meat is the characters and how strong and real they are, how good the details are and how real you can make the whole thing.

The skin is the spelling, what we often see first, but really it's just window dressing.

What you're worrying about is hair and make up.  You need the bones first.  You can doll it up later.

She chuckled, and continued on, and put that eraser down.  Good girl.

You can do this.

Repeat it to yourself if you worry.  If you are staring at the blank screen, waiting to figure out what words come next.  If you can't think of that perfect word you need just now.

If you worry, know you are not alone.  Everyone worries.  That it won't be good enough.  That you won't finish.  That you'll get sick or distracted or stranded on a desert island with nothing more to write with than a stick and the sand.

It will never be good enough if you don't start it.  Or if you just let it go half way through.  You will never be able to make it good enough if you don't finish your first draft and move on to editing.  Here's a little trade secret:  No matter how good you feel your first draft is?  It's crap.  It honestly doesn't matter who you are.  Your first draft is crap.  You make the book in the editing.

You will never know if you can finish in the 1 month time frame if you don't try.  And hey, if you don't finish the first draft in that frame...  you can finish it after!  :)  Also...  if you don't manage to meet the official word count (50,000 words seems really big at first!!), just think of it this way.  You did a lot, in a short amount of time.  And that's something.  :)

If you plan a little in advance to get a few hundred words ahead every day, and you get sick?  You're covered.  If you get distracted, unplug.  Do a word sprint.  Turn on music and don't let yourself stop writing until an entire album is done.  You are in control of this.  You control yourself.  You control your word count.  You don't have to let the words rule YOU.

Now, that desert island thing?  Sucks to be you.  Hope you have flares.  ;)

How to Plan your Novel... beginner tips!

You want to write something.  You've tried flying by the seat of your pants before, and it works in its own way, but you keep hearing people tell you to PLAN and PLOT ahead of time.  But it's hard to know where to start if you've never done it before!

Some of this you've probably done already.  Some of it you may have thought about doing but didn't do it or didn't know how to go about doing it...  so here is my really simplistic view on it all.  I figure we all need somewhere to start, and this can work from short stories to novels to epic trilogies.  Heck, you could plan out a whole trilogy, plot-wise, before writing it!  Wouldn't you be awesome with your interwoven plot themes and all that?  Yeah you would!!!

OK, so here we go!

First off, figure out who your main character is, and anyone else who is important to them.  If you don't know, off the bat, who the "bad guy"(antagonist) is, that's OK!  It will come to you.


Write it down.  Names.  How do they look?  How old?  Interests?  Dislikes?  Pet peeves?  How do they dress?  How do they act?  What kinds of people are they friends with?


Do this for every person you create.  If you come up with a new person in the middle of your book, when it's a natural stopping point, take a minute to write them one of these character sketches too.


Where does your story take place?  If it is a fictional world entirely, are there any rules you need to tell us about?  Magic,  (how does it work?) creatures (tell yourself about them!), space-time continuum stuff needs to be explained, at least to yourself.  YOU need to know the rules so the audience knows there ARE rules.  This is easier to do if you make them up ahead of time!  Really!


Once you're done with your character and world sketches, get started on your outline.  This doesn't have to be a big drawn out thing up front.  Start small.


Figure out the basics:  Beginning, middle, end.  Write down the big points.  Then expand on it.


What happens in the beginning, maybe 3 points you want to hit on. 
What happens in the middle, maybe 3 points you want to hit on.
What happens in the end, maybe 3 more points. 


Then go in and add transition points. What happens between beginning and middle to GET you to the middle? Middle to end?


It doesn't have to be super long or drawn out, but basics. Start slow for your outline and grow it from there.


You are allowed to change your mind, of course.  And you're allowed to bend the rules or the order, etc, but this will help you along if you get stuck while you're writing.  You get stuck?  You look at your outline.  What comes next?  Write toward it.  


Just try it! See how it works for you!