Counting down to the end

Here we go. It's the last day of Nano and I'm up early hammering the keyboard.

It feels like deja vu all over again. If I remember correctly - and I think I do - I was doing this yesterday, and the day before...

I'm onto the third book (Oracle 4), which I don't have a hope of finishing today because the first and second took longer than expected. I did write in Canberra, this book is flowing much easier than the other two and my fingers only cramped up a few times. The shoulders, well, I'll treat them to some down time tomorrow - I promise.

I'm not a fan of leaving a book half written, but other obligations, like shifting stuff, finding a place to live and starting the new job is going to put a stop to any concentration or writing for a while. Which is why I'm abusing the poor keyboard. The further into the book, the easier it will be to pick up the threads when I do return to it.

So, enough stuffing around on the 'net, it's time to pound those words out until the keyboard ignites from friction!

It's the potential

We're in the last week of Nano, and most of us struggling to reach the goal.

It's not necessarily the 50K goal,  but the goal we set for ourselves. We're tired, we have other things to do, a month is too long, we are so over it!!

But should you feel that your entire manuscript - be it 10, 20, 30, 40 or 100k words long - is a load of over-dramatic, derivative twaddle, you need something to keep you going, something to encourage you to reach the end.

Well, there is one word to hold on to - no matter that you think all you've written is absolute crap; no matter that the family is pissed at you for spending all your time in another world, another land or another time, with other people, who are probably having sex or a fight to boost the word count; no matter that your work colleagues have given you the gimlet eye because you're verbalising Olde English/Magical/Alien dialogue under your breath - the word you need to remember at this stage of Nano is... potential.

Every first draft has the potential to become so much more.

But you need to write it first. It may be crap. It may be a little confused. It may need a serious rewrite. But the potential is there. What you've written so far is the first impression of an idea, and once out of your head and on the computer/notebook, it has potential. It needs more than the first rush of temper to write it down, it needs flesh on those bones, it needs emotion, soul. That can wait until December, for now the bones are the most important aspect.

November is about the bones, the structure, the basic frame of the work.

So, if you're thinking of throwing in the towel and calling it quits, think of the potential of your manuscript-in-progress; think of the ending you're nearing, and dream of what might be...

Nano done, but not over yet.

A mixed day today, of the good, the bad and ugly.

First, the bad and the ugly: I have a... let's cal it an aversion, to particular eight-legged beasties. I have no idea why I decided that spiders would be a part of this book, let alone giant ones. I think it was a subconscious thing, since they are, not complex, but a simpler organism to clone. (Long story.)

And so it came to pass that I had to do some in depth research on the little beasties. [Insert shudder and a quick glance around the room - just in case.] I doubt I'll ever be comfortable with them, and confrontation therapy is so not happening. But I did the research and that led to...

...the good news. Which is the first book is done. It's come in at 123,000 words, but I know there is some absolute tripe that needs removing and/or rewriting.

The important fact about finishing Nano, or any brilliant idea you might have for a story, is to sit down and write it.

I suspect too many people are concerned about numbers rather than the story. If you're involved in the story, the numbers will create themselves. Write. That's all you need worry about.

Now, I shall wander away from the keyboard with vague thoughts on the book I'll start tomorrow.

100k and more to go

Finally, finally, a 10+k day. Which tells me just how difficult this book has been to write.

When you're struggling, you are struggling all over a book. It has taken fourteen days of toil and struggle and frustration and monumental cursing to reach a day were everything flowed nicely. I don't expect it to last.

Even those who plot will find sections of writing leads to the grinding of the teeth, the look around the house and think it needs cleaning, or the dog needs walking, or something, anything! to take you away from the torture.

It's about here I would suggest a fight, some sexual activity, taking or giving something from/to a character, or even wax lyrical about if you want to succeed at Nano, you need to get your butt into the chair and fingers onto the keyboard, but I'm just too shagged.

I guess the good news is that I've popped over the 100k mark for the book and the bad news is that it isn't finished and the end is nowhere in sight. The worst news is that real life is about to intrude and I doubt I'll get much more writing done. I'm pretty sure that packing up and moving an entire household will take most of my time.

I've done enough for one day and there's another one - day, that is - tomorrow.

No one died today

So I promised my sister I wouldn't kill anyone today.

A difficult task when writing about Marines in combat, complicated by a vast array of ravenous, self-aware little horrors on an alien planet.

However, in not indulging in the high word count of battle, it forced me to think more carefully about the direction of the book rather than writing about wholesale slaughter.

I have found that there is more to this book than I thought. Ideas like 'why' and 'when' and the more intriguing 'consequences', the 'what next' of events.

I shall most definitely get to kill lots of things tomorrow, and that will take me over the 50k mark. And from there, it will be a twisting, writhing journey to the ending I have planned.

Time to end the day, it's been a long one.

The little things

I'm having dongle issues, so I have to rely on dial-up until the new one arrives and it takes an annoying and frustrating amount of time to even log on.

Anyway, I am motoring along with the book - and waiting for the Nano techs to create the word count meter.

I do not plot, so Nano is true pantster writing for me. Sometimes... I hit a road block, which I have currently done. So I've stopped for the day to allow the subconscious to come up with a way through.

It occurs to me that the subconscious is the best tool for completing a task like Nano.

With the rush of the first few days, we manically set fingers to the keyboard and write whatever pops into our head - be it structured by plotting, or free writing - and move on to the next scene. But... our subconscious tells us everything we need to know about the work.

Usually, it is little things, things we don't consider important until much later when we decide we are brilliant. Most of the time, that's absolutely true. We come up with genius phrases, intriguing clues, dynamic characters who start off as total wankers we want to kill.

As we begin the next slog, those 'little things' become important; that wanker of a character suddenly saves the day, or provides an important foil to someone we've created in their place. That genius phrase becomes integral to the overall theme, and that intriguing clue we were so chuffed about... leads absolutely nowhere, but excludes a suspect.

By the end of the first week, a lot of writers have decided, "nah, bored now... oooh, Rage has been released!" And their bright and shiny work remains unfinished. It's a shame. With a little intestinal fortitude and patience, the work could be completed.

There is always time to write. Always. The daily amount of 1667 isn't so much when you're in the depths of action, or conversation or describing an alien world.

The little things we think so unimportant at the beginning are our subconscious giving us the carefully planted clues tocontinue writing and finish the book, even beyond 50,000 words. But it has another name, one that is sometimes derided and disdained as foolish. Pay attention, because it is the reason we write, the reason we go on. It is... the Muse, and one of the most valuable tools in a writer's arsenal.

Done for the day

Stick a fork in me, I'm done for the day.

I didn't stay up late and start Nano at midnight, but I did find myself waking early. So. I've been at the keyboard since about six a.m with a couple of hours off throughout the day for breaks. It's now just gone 7pm, and I suspect the parent wants feeding. I'm also tired.

The total word count is 8260. As soon as the Nano site has a widget organised, I'll post it here for word count updates.

The death toll so far is one marine and one rodent. I expect the toll to rise in the coming days.

Nano Eve

I didn't realise it's been over a week since my last post. Nothing to post about, I guess, although I could have gone on about the refereeing at the Rugby World Cup, Libya or the current furore over Qantas. I decided to keep my opinions to myself.

Anyway... I think I'm ready for Nano. I've got the first scene - which is nice and strong in my mind - and the characters, the scenery, a few villains and the end of the book. I'll find out what happens in between as I write.

What is it about? Well, I can only say it's set on an apparently 'empty' alien world during a galactic war; the combatants soon discover they're not as 'alone' as they thought.

As usual, there's no guarantee it will work, but the back-up plans for sequels are on standby. If it does work, then I'll get on with the rest.

Time to relax before the keyboard abuse.

C'mon, I'll fight'cha!

Mmmm.... conflict; the element that keep readers reading. External or internal, psychological or physical, conflict - and the resolution - is central to any book.

No one wants to read about an ordinary day-in-the-life of the ordinary person on the street; an extraordinary day of an ordinary person, or an ordinary day in an extraordinary person, yes, otherwise, forget it.

Conflict makes the world go around, it gets people talking and thinking. No one but historians are interested in the pre-war talks between the Allies and Hitler. Hitler wanted a fight and he got one on a global scale. We're more interested in things like Dunkirk, the Battle of the Bulge, Midway, Pearl Harbour, D-Day, etc. If Hitler had said, "Yeah, okay. Just give me Sudetenland and we'll call it even." And been happy with it, the war wouldn't have happened (yes, right, someone else might have pull the trigger on the war, but that's not the point). If Napoleon had decided he had no interest in the rest of Europe, he'd be just another emperor of France. If Spain said to Queen Elizabeth, "You're a Protestant? Oh, okay, no big, carry on." What would she be remembered for?

Moving to fiction: Bilbo Baggins finds the Ring, hunts down Gollum and gives it back? Eve Dallas becomes a social worker rather than NYPD's top cop? Henry Jones, Jr, went into medicine rather than archaeology? Luke Skywalker stays on the farm, like his uncle wanted him to? Romeo and Juliet abide by their families wishes? Or my personal favourite, Honor Harrington contacts the peep ship Sirius and then lets them go to call off the invading force from Haven. The list goes on.

If done well, conflict creates the 'oh, shite' moment in the reader. Holly Lisle's Creating Conflict, or The Joys of Boiling Oil may interest you in creating conflict in your story.

But conflict isn't everything, you need strong characters. I can think of a number of books I've tried to read recently where the conflict was great, but the characters moaned, bitched and whined. I did not finish those books. I want strong characters put into awkward or dangerous positions. I want to feel for them, not roll my eyes and tell them to grow a spine. I want triumph over tragedy, justice for heinous crimes committed, vengeance taken after a struggle against the odds. In other words, I want a protagonist that's larger than life and an antagonist who isn't wholly good or bad but can legitimately justify their actions.

The Writers Digest article, How to Raise Your Characters Above the Status-Quo can help you flesh out a stronger character worth rooting for.

But for a quick character conflict, try thinking about your protagonist and what the worst thing you can do to them is. A doctor manipulated into killing a sick patient; a devout priest who is betrayed by his superiors; a politician blackmailed into betraying his principles (yeah, I know, they do it all the time, but...), a cop unable to protect and serve the innocent. There are plenty and the worse you screw up your noble character, the more interesting the conflict.

There are plenty of dilemmas you can toss your character into: ethical, moral, emotional, physical, pick one and run with it. If you keep the conflict in mind, you'll have a stronger story, one that can run the length of a book.

Do you feel it yet? The slight increase in your anxiety levels? That more and more you find yourself catching your bottom lip between your teeth? The slight distraction and gazing off into the distance and wondering? The feeling that time is running out? That October is draining away like water through your fingers?

What's causing it? One word: Nanowrimo.

It feels like it's sneaking up from behind, still lurking in the shadows. The hazy ideas for a 50,000 word book are creeping into the dreamscape, vaguely recalled on waking; characters are still blurred, near formless, but waiting; landscapes as dark and mysterious as the world before sunrise; plots call out in the darkness, then run away, giggling, to hide behind the dreaded writer's block.

Or... maybe that's just me.

November 1 looms, crawling ever closer, unstoppable. In less than 20 days, thousands of people will watch the clock tick over from October to November and begin a month-long outpouring of words. Some, most, will not finish. The bright and shiny ideas will fall victim to excuses as plots fail and characters get bored. People will shrug their shoulders and walk away as newer and shinier things distract them.

But some will finish, bask in the glow of the achievement and then go on to newer and shinier things.

To help peeps in their pursuit of writing that book, Jordan E. Rosenfeld has an article in Writers Digest: 10 Ways to Launch Strong Scenes; or try The devil is in the details an essay by Craig Clevenger on LitReactor.com about description.

I'll scare up more articles closer to the starting line. In the meantime, I need to go and flesh out the Post-Its (TM) I've written. One line per book is great, but, I don't know, I think it needs more than a one line summation. They need...

CONFLICT!!!

It's coming...

October, when a young writer's mind turns to... Nanowrimo.

In less than a month, thousands of writers across the world will lay fingers on the keyboard and deliberately abuse their computer. Characters that have nagged and niggled all year will demand on-page time, will audition for a role in a half-formed story line. Scenery is becoming clearer, clothes and weapons developing nicely. Plots are slowly becoming more solid, with endings waving from a distance.

In less than a month, thousands of writers across the world will lay fingers on the keyboard and deliberatly abuse their native language. Passive sentences will be shrugged off, flowery prose marveled at, end-of-sentence prepositions ignored. Cliches will abound, adjective abuse perpetrated and word counts hedged.

The bottom lip of Grammar Nazis will tremble, eyes will tear up and palsied hands will desperately point out the faults; all to no avail as ambitious writers crush the dessicated remains of style guides in the pursuit of 50,000 golden words...

...until obstacles block progress: A plot that doesn't stand up to 50k, weak characters, lack of committment, no time, can't find a suitable space, something more interestng to do, like... housework, watching the grass grow, painting the garage, golf.

More than ninety percent of those who start will fail to finish, will fail to find time during the day to write 1667 words. For every reason of failure, there are an equal number of reasons for success.

Nano is manic; a rush at the beginning, followed by hard yards and finally a rush to finish. It's frustrating, beguiling, exciting, tiring and temporarily corrupts the space-time continuum. But to reach that 50k mark, and beyond, to finish a book fills a writer with an overwhelming and addictive sense of accomplishment.

What more could you ask of a month-long word fest?

Fritzing

Internet is fritzing, and has been for the last ten days. All the rain we've had sinks into the ground and affects the lines - happens every time we get a lot of the wet stuff. In fact, it's so humid we have a misty morning. Noice.

Not so good for my patience and I usually just say 'to hell with it, I'll blog tomorrow'. And that, probably, has something to do with having a Nano hangover.

The creative well has run dry, also on the fritz - for the moment - not a short story or novel idea in my head. I can't even remember three-quarters of the stuff I wrote for Nano; but I no complain. It's there, written down and backed up, waiting for January.

In the meantime, I'm working my way through the TBR pile and out prezzo shopping. And this afternoon, I'm taking the aged parent to HP. Should be good.

Reward time

I had a nice sleep in after all the early mornings and late nights for Nano. Gentle rain on a tin roof kind of stuff. Fourth day in a row we've had rain, so November went out as it came in, with lots of wet stuff falling from grey skies.

Today, I am taking it easy - well, apart from work - and indulging myself with... Indulgence In Death by J.D. Robb. It's the first on my TBR pile.

I also have chores to do, but they can wait until tomorrow. Although, I think I need to get out into the garden for some judicious weeding; all this rain has made them run rampant. The first zucchini has been plucked and eaten and it was delish, and there are more - somewhere under the broad, spiky leaves. I think there are tomatoes, too...

At the end of Nano, I'm happy with the first and second books of Nano, but the mooze pulled a muscle during the third, somewhere in the middle, but recovered enough for the end. It's not the best stuff I've ever written, but I suspect when I come to do revision, there'll be lots of dumping and 'what was I thinking?', and 'oh, that's crap'. Not a lot of gems in the third book, and it started off so well.

But that's Nano. It's about writing the bare bones of a book, laying the groundwork of the story for examination and expansion later. But you know that - if you've done Nano or written a book outside of November.

The best thing about finishing are the rewards, and I'm now going to indulge...

Over and Done

Go me! I Am Done! Three books, four weeks, 30 days, etc.

Oh, and a package arrived today from Amazon... I know what I'm going to do for the rest of the week.

And then in January, I'll look these books over and start the rewrites, the revisions, the edits; in other words, back to normal programming.

For now, I'm off to play in the kitchen and have myself a celebratory drink. Cheers to all those who tried and succeeded, and to those who tried and didn't quite make it - you made the effort, which is a lot more than can be said for those who criticised or dismissed the project as worthless.

It's not. Its about the words, it's about the social networking, the interaction and improving your talents from last year, or developing them; it's about becoming a better writer.

Congratulations to all who participated.

Last gasps of a marathon

Another rainy day with the addition of wind - the weather, not mine - so I had a pleasant day's writing while catching the NFL football.

Read some Nano-hater stuff and blew a raspberry - some people just don't get it.

So, last day tomorrow. And the last chapter of the book. It could be 5k, it could be more, but it will be done.

For some, tomorrow will be a marathon to midnight, for others, they've finished and doing their happy dance; for me, it's another three books in the bag to sit and rest until revisions, rewrites and edits in January.

Not that I shall be doing nothing in December. I'll take a few days off to let the keyboard cool down, but then, it's back to editing previously written works.

Twelve k. to the end.

It's been raining here, so I wrote quite a bit today.

Some of it is a load of carp, but I think it has solid undertones. I'm slipping into passive sentences and repetitive words, and I think I've managed to mix up a couple of the characters.

But that's okay, that's what re-writes are for and expected this late in the month when the creativity well is at a low ebb.

Tomorrow I'll be aiming at finishing the story and writing an epilogue on Tuesday morning. Then Nano will be over. I'm looking forward to not facing the blank page every morning and thinking on what to write for the day.

For this day, I am done and in a position finish the book and I'm ready for a nice glass of anti-oxidants; that would be the Merlot.

Closing in on the end

Out of internet range yesterday and had a relaxing time of it babysitting a niece and nephew; and enjoyed the break, even as I wrote the minimum and then some.

Writing isn't everything, nor is it the be all and end all. Three days to go. For those short of 50k, it's time to man up and do the rest. Mean of me? Why... no.

Sure, I have an impressive word count, but I worked hard for it. I sat down every single day and wrote. Just like, mmm... less than twenty percent of the people who signed up for Nano.

One thousand, six hundred and sixty-six words, every day for a month. Not such an impossible task. It's not.

If you want to be an author, it's less than what you should be doing, every single day. The majority of people who don't finish find all manner of excuse not to write. Even those who complete the challenge, find a reason not to finish the book, or who see their accomplishment as a book.

But then, Nano is also for those who want to see if they can write 50k. And I'm not disparaging the success of those who complete the challenge.

Unfortunately, some of those writers - for some reason - believe that 50k is a book. It's not. Three quarters of book, but... not a book.

For those who do Nano, December 1 is not the time to have a squealie fan-girl moment about how brilliant they are completing 50,000 words and immediately send it off to a publisher or editor. If you feel the need, STOP!

The last thing these hard workers need is to be deluged by writers who have just finished three quarters of a book and think it's fabulous and ready for publication. It is, at the basic level, a first draft; the bare bones of a book in need of editing and rewriting.

Let your work rest. Enjoy the month of Christmas and all that comes with the season, but let the work rest.

Come January, re-evaluate what you've written and decide whether it's worth sending off. Distance will give you a chance to forget what you've written and you can go back with a fresh, critical eye.

Nano, for some, is seeing whether they have what it takes to write the 50k; for others, it is a genuine attempt at writing a book, testing whether it is what they want to do on a professional level. For the editors and agents, it is three months of hard slog and rejection-slip sending; it is time taken away from true gems.

So. This last weekend, throw the relatives out of the house, determine to finish the book regardless of protests that you're not good enough, it's a waste of time or to get a real job.

This is the greatest challenge: can you or can you not, write a book? Will it be of any great moment to you if you don't finish? Or is it a hobby? Simply something to pass the time? To write 50k words and discard them? What is your choice? To be an author or dismissively write the words and reject Nano as too easy?

Noooooo!!!!

Okay, so much for melodrama...

Losing a day's work is annoying in the extreme. How I managed to end up with two different file names with the same text, I don't know; but it happened. And I backed up, right before opening the file I needed. I think I screwed something up during the construction of the validation file.

I've made notes on what I remember and will have a shot at reconstructing the scenes later, like maybe December.

I'm not looking at this as a disaster, but an opportunity to improve yesterday's writing during the re-write.

Sure, I could weep and wail, protest the injustice of it all and, gnash my teeth, beat my tiny fists on the ground... actually, that sounds tempting... but I won't. I'm a growed up, machure enuff to accept that which I cannot change - the loss of the file. I can, instead, move on and not worry about it until I get back to it.

Bugger it!!

One word after another

Day 24. Not so long to go and I have a need to stop. A thought that no one would blame me this late in the month. I've got the 50k and more, so much more. It's not that important, I've completed the challenge.

I'm tired, my fingers ache and the laptop is warmer than it's supposed to be. I can shut down for a day, can't I? Say I'll write the rest of it later? Like, oh, January.

But, no. If I do that, I'll change the context, it won't flow - and I've done it before; the book read like two different ones.

So, I'll plug away, one word after another, one sentence after another, a paragraph, a page, a scene, a chapter.

And this time next week, I'll be done. Whether this final book is, well... I don't know. But I'll write until it is done. Then I can rest - and catch up with all the chores I've neglected.

Weird. I'm looking forward to it.

1111 posts

Hmm... this is the one thousand, one hundred and one-ty one-th post.

It's also late in the evening, and I'm tired. I have six and a half days to go to finish the book; taking into consideration that writing will probably not be happening while babysitting two small, excitable children; five and a half if I count the afternoons lost to work - which I don't because I can catch up if the story goes well.

And at this stage of the game, it's a very big 'if'. I paused tonight because I'm not entirely sure of what happens next - always a bad place to be.

I guess with a good night's sleep and no football to distract me, I might come up with something nifty. If not...