Some bloggers take a hiatus in the month of NaNoWriMo (www.nanowrimo.org) in order to focus all their writing to their current project. Trying to reach the 50,000 word mark by November 31st is tough with the tug of responsible to one’s blog. So here are a few tips:
Keep the blog entries short and sweet. As a blogger, you want to avoid lengthy posts anyway unless the topic is engaging.
Start your blog ideas list now. Don’t wait until November when you’ll be stressed and weary. Start now with a list of blog topics you want to write about.I like to use Google Notebook to keep my list right there on my toolbar.
Start a link day. This is where, instead of a written blog, you share links you already have for sites you’d like to share. For instance, my homeschooling blog, I would share the craft and educational sites I have at least once a week.
Consider vlogging. A vlog is video blog. Record yourself instead of writing.
Share the experience. Many writers consider joining the NaNoWriMo but don’t know the experience. Share, briefly, the day to day experience of writing 1700 or more words a day. (I learned how I can manage writing that much just for blogs alone on some days).
Start a series of blog entries based on a theme. For instance, share recipes, poems, snippets of your writing, photos, video, and other aspects of your life. Just remember your audience and not post anything you might regret later.
You’ll find the ideas will come and quite often writing in your blog/journal offers a break from the main project.
A number of members in our writing group mentioned today that they are embroiled in the drama of their own stories to consider taking on a new project for the National Novel Writing Month. They agreed the grueling 1700 word count a day- or the 50,000 words within 30 days- was worthwhile goal, but couldn’t justify pulling themselves away from current stories.
I suggest they join unofficially.
The concept is the same, however; write 50,000 new words but they can stick with their own work. Most have hopes to exceed 100,000 or so anyway, so why not? They could gain the same benefits as official participants in the NaNoWriMo while joining in encouraging their fellow writers in their own goal setting madness.
So we worked out the follow plan for November for those unable to join the NaNoWriMo;
You must write 50,000 words. For official participants, you need to write your new project and start on November 1st. For everyone else, you start the feverish writing on the same date, but you can stick with the same project, providing the words are new.
You need to encourage your fellow writers- both the official participants as well as non-official participants. This includes the much needed ‘atta boy/girl’ phrases, the nudges to keep writing, and the promises of a party at the end of the month to celebrate.
See? Pretty basic, and anyone can join. I’ll even make some graphics to everyone who finishes November 31st so they can post on their blogs and web sites.
What do you think? Do you want to join?
November is National Novel Writing Month, otherwise known as NaNoWriMo. This auspicious contest began in 1999 by Chris Baty with the challenge of 50,000 in thirty days. Two years ago, I dared to partake in the challenge and this year decided to once more take up the pen (or rather the keyboard) and crank out 50,000+ words by November 30th.
The rules are simple: You can’t start writing until November 1st, and it must be something you haven’t worked on before. No partial or unfinished works can be used. You can work on character biographies, plot planning, and prepare to start writing, but the actual nitty gritty of novel writing can’t begin until the start of NaNoWriMo.
Why join? I asked this myself the first time. I can’t speak for other writers, but for myself, I wanted to push myself to write more and to face a deadline. I wanted to hone writing speed and volume against skill and creativity. To be honest, I didn’t think I was going to finish. Cranking out 1,700 words a day was grueling. Writing wasn’t as enjoyable when I forced myself, either. Weaving a story with flair, pouring myself into the work, served only to produce page after page of very jagged writing. But I did it. I finished 50,000 words and then some, joining the 15% of the total number of participates that finish.
What did I win? Well I can say I completed the contest. Oh and I got a graphic to post on my site.
See? I wasn’t real pleased with the garish yellow, red, and black coloring. The following year they had a nifty powder blue. I’m curious what the colors will be this year…
Some of my fellow writing group members are also participating, where everyone will be nudging, prodding, and enabling one another to the end.
I’m already signed up. Are you willing to take up the challenge?
Some tips:
- When you start writing, ignore your inner editor and write with passion. You’ll edit later.
- Write regularly, whether daily or just weekends. Daily will help spread out the work.
- Work through the setbacks. I knew a woman who found her laptop crashed 20,000 words into the contest. She still managed to finis though she never showed me what she ended up with.
- Announce to friends and family you’re joining the NaNoWriMo and need their full support. Not only does this enable them to nag you to finish, you’re pressured to complete in time.
- Just write.
It never ceases to astound and amaze me what I can find the Internet, so I figured I’d share what I picked up along the way:
How to Start Writing When You Don’t Feel Like It- This blogger shares some great tips on writing when you’re not in the mood. The site itself has tons of tips you can read through as well.
A Quick Five-Step Guide to Revising and Editing- Editing is not my favorite part of the writing process, but its necessary. This blog entry shares some finer points on this chores.
85 Resources for Fiction Writing- Yes, 85 very cool sites, programs, and tips for writing. Take care before you click the link- you’ll be reading for hours.
The Evil Overlord Devises a Plot- This made me laugh, but then it made me think of the villians of my story. They should be 3-dimensional too, so consider the quality of your bad-guy and een the hero.
The Synopsis- What is is, what it isn’t, and how to write it- This article has some cool tips in regards to the synopsis. Summarizing your novel can prove a difficult chore. This can help you narrow things down a bit. Check out the other links too.
I was telling a fellow writer the other day some drama I experienced in my teen years when my family endured a harrowing experience of being stalked. Like some B-movie, the guy would call and threaten to kill us, to blow up our house, or vehicles would be vandalized under the cloak of night. I remember once my sister finished some laundry in the cellar, only to find the guy right outside the house, watching her. I never realized the potential of a thriller story until my fellow writer mentioned it to me. “Your stories are gold!”
I think he has a good point there. What better way to write than from experience, especially if you came out the other side a stronger or wiser person? Even the little stories I shared with our group about my childhood often brought laughter, so comedy writing might be in my future as well.
My point is that each writer offers a wellspring of ideas straight from their life. Don’t be shy about spinning tales out of your past, even embellishing a little to add to the drama.
Rod Serling of the Twilight Zone fame wrote his stories from dreams, his life in the military, and his boxing days. A real pet raven named Grip inspired Edgar Allen Poe’s The Raven. Edith Warton wrote her stories based on first hand experience with the well to do lifestyle of a woman of station.
So consider your own life, the personal dramas you lived through, and tell the tale to others. Who knows? Maybe a grand novel will come of it.
I’m finding more often than not that writing regularly is the single most important marketing tool for any blog. Updating regularly enables your blog to post to readers, links to the search engines, and enables readers more keywords to find you. (Don’t forget to tag your blog entries).This coming weekend the writer’s group meets with the topic of blogging. Naturally not all members are interested in the subject. I think they don’t understand what blogging is about, let alone the valuable marketing blogging provides for many writers. Its also wonderful for keeping abreast of skills such as typing or coming up with ideas.
There are professional bloggers, who add regular entries on various subjects for web sites. You’d be surprise to find the demand is there. As a webmaster, I can honestly tell you how important current information written in an entertaining if not eloquent style brings in more visitors.
I will post more on this subject, after this next weekend to keep you posted on new discoveries in this genre.
Our last meeting in our writer’s group brought some interesting questions and answers from the myriad of would-be authors. Some are stay at home mothers, who need to squeeze in the time to sketch plots and weave words amid the chaos of child rearing. Naptimes and bedtimes became necessary to get any time to write.
Others admitted to writing in chunks of time. One mentioned how she writes chapter upon chapter on the weekends, where the weekday rush of work and kids preventing much of anything except the occasional email. Another found endless amounts of time as he’s retired.
I think most importantly, a writer needs to write when, where, and even how the best time and place. Its an individual thing; often changing so you must evolve as you go.
Some tips we shared:
Make writing routine. Write as regularly as you can, where this is daily or weekly.
Make your writing a priority. Ask your spouse to help or another family member to give you a break. Learn to say no to frivolous demands on your time.
Find the time for writing anywhere. Keep a notebook to jot down notes at lunch, or sitting in a waiting room. Keep a voice recorder and talk out your plot and dialog, then transcribe later.
Join a writer’s group to share ideas and get emotional support. This works well if the group provides the commodarie of writers. Not all groups establish that, so you’ll have to explore or even form your own group to find it.
I joined Helium based on the many lists online suggesting that writers try their skill at publishing (and earning money) through the site. I soon discovered how much I really hated the site.
My biggest complaint is they own the copyrights once you publish. You can’t move, remove, delete, or do anything with your own articles once you’ve pressed that publish button. If, and only if, you get rated by readers above other similar articles, can you earn money. I soon found my articles falling down the list, bumped by off-topic articles that even have spelling errors! How do they get bumped up the list? Marketing, mostly.
In the two years of joining, I earned a whopping .33 cents. I admit that I don’t market the articles there, and I certainly didn’t write prolifically there either. Too often writers for these type of web sites short change themselves, when they could earn a better income through periodicals and magazines.
A few writers claim they make money via Helium.com. I don’t see how unless they’re prolific and throw themselves out there on the social sites. Too often the very authors that say to write for Helium.com and other sites do not provide how you earn money or that for a serious writer, its more of a waste of time.
Anyone who debates this opinion, by all means, leave comments and let me know your own experiences. I’d like to know.
For the past few weeks, I’ve discovered the wonderful world of portable applications. This means programs that fit on a Flash Drive (also referred to as thumb drive). You can run then from these handy portable drives, and I found a number of them particularly helpful for the would-be author.
Before downloading applications, however, please take note at the size of your flash drive. They can be as small as 256 megabytes, or can be as much as 16 gigabytes. Also bear in mind that whatever files and programs you have on the flash drive also takes up space.
Portable Apps Suite- this one is only 1.3 megabytes installed and helps handling the programs while also providing the basic of programs. You don’t need to use this. In fact, some Flash drives come with their own program that runs automatically, but its an interface that makes using portable applications less confusing.
Mozilla Firefox- I really like the Firefox browser. More importantly, I appreciate how my bookmarks and add on programs work along with it. This is the portable version of the browser, so any computer you use, you’re taking along your book marks, add ons, and other features you enjoy.
Mozilla Thunderbird- This email program works similar to Microsoft’s Outlook. I don’t use it only because I prefer using the web based email services.
Mozilla Sunbird – This calendar program can help organize your day/weeks/months easily, and you can download an addon that synchronizes your Google calendar. Again, I don’t really use this program only because my calendar is online.
ClamWin portable- Take along your own anti-virus scanner.
Pidgin portable- I found this portable messenger program integrates with a number of other messenger programs such as AIM and Yahoo messneger, however you don’t have the bells-and-whistles those programs provide. It includes text and smilies.
Sumatra PDF portable- Similar to Adobe Reader, enabling you to read PDF forms. Its very trim and fast to load, but offers no extras.
KeePass portable- This programs helps you keep track and store passwords.
Sudoku portable- I’m not a huge Sudoku fan, but this is a game you can load on your flash drive for passing the time.
Mines portable- Another game you already have through Windows.
CoolPlayer portable- This portable music player works very much like Windows Media. You can create playlists, sort your files of music, and includes Internet streaming.
PNotes portable- This programs works like ’stickies’ or post it notes to include reminders and other lists you want to add.
OpenOffice portable- This provides a featured OpenOffice portable suite that includes Writer. The word processor works well with WordPerfect and Microsoft Word documents, can create PDF documents (sorry, no editing), and integrates with the rest of the suite which includes Draw, Calc (a spreadsheet), Impress (a presentation program), and Base (a database program).
Should you have a smaller flash drive, and have no room for the OpenOffice, you can opt to use Abiword which is a streamlined, bare-bones word processor that works with MS Word and Mac OSX documents.
As an organizer to a writer’s group, we have a number of would-be authors share their work for the review of their peers. We’re no expert by any sense of the word, but we all love reading. I compiled a few tips I thought might help writers who want their work critiqued to keep in mind that will help them gain a good experience.
Your first step is to recognize who you are allowing to read your work. Make sure they understand the genre, and perhaps bears some experience with providing reviews. Someone who hates romance might not be the best choice to read your manuscript- if that is your genre.
Brace for honesty. Most people give feedback to not hurt another’s feelings. This is both good and bad. Good that they’re considerate of your feelings but bad if they can’t provide you honest review to help you improve your manuscript. Ask for the honesty. If you are fortunate to receive such feedback, see the following tips.
Don’t take a critique personally. Even if someone says you’re writing is horrible should not halt your writing. It simply means you have room for improvement. If you’re serious about publishing some day, then prepare for rejection. Grow a thicker skin, and recognize that it doesn’t reflect to you as a person. Bad writing improves with practice.
Ask for specifics to what you’re looking for in a critique. For instance, some authors want to know if the story is boring or too far fetched. Are the characters believable? Does the story catch your attention? Do you want to read more?
Don’t take everything said to heart. Even reviewers can be wrong. It’’s a good idea to have more than reviewer, but if they agree on a specific change, and you can’t see changing the story, then don’t make the change. Its your story.
A few more quick tips to consider also helps a reviewer read your story:
Keep chapters relatively short. Lengthy chapters, or even paragraphs, are exhausting to read and deter anyone from wanting to go further. Break it up a bit into scenes or changes of point of view.
Add your email, name, page numbers, and title to the documents. Some authors add a copyright, by simply adding the small copyright symbol. (c) Adding this information keeps all the pages in order, and if someone reads more than one author, having your name available on every sheets helps with organizing manuscripts. (I read a couple a week sometimes).
With these tips, having your manuscript open for review becomes relatively painless.
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