Tag: NaNoWriMo

Loving and Nurturing my Story

I’m struggling to get back into writing. No, I’m writing poetry and short/flash fiction pretty well. I’m having trouble getting back into editing Gaia’s Hands.

Gaia’s Hands is my problem child, as I have said before. What do you do with a problem child?

My friend Les, who we memorialized last weekend, would say we love and nurture our problem children.

So, how do I love and nurture the story? I need to go back to the characters, because without them the story would not exist. I probably need to converse with them again, to get back into the game. 

The editing will be my project for NaNo, so I have time to get back into it. 

Time to nurture my problem child.

Rebel Rebel

I’ve decided to be a rebel for NaNoWriMo.

What that means is that the participant does anything but write a novel in those 30 days*. I have two books I’m editing, the problem child Gaia’s Hands (which may be a novella by the time I’m done with it) and Whose Hearts are Mountains when I get it back from my dev editor. 

It feels odd not writing a new novel, but it’s not the best use of my time. I need to get this backlog dealt with and ready for possibilities. When these are done, I will have five completed novels (or four and a novella): Whose Hearts are Mountains, Apocalypse, Voyageurs, Prodigies, Gaia’s Hands. (There’s one more novel, Reclaiming the Balance, but I despair over that particular one, and there’s Gods’ Seeds, the one I’m not finishing for NaNo.

It’s time for me to edit. It’s time for me to write shorter items and try to get those published (I have one short story and one flash item published so far, Flourish and Becky Home-Ecky.) It’s time for me to try something else for NaNo.

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* The way one counts progress when editing in NaNo is 1 hour = 1000 words. Which is about right, except when I get really stuck.

What am I going to do for NaNo?


Someone visited me from Nepal yesterday. Hello!

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NaNoWrimo starts a month from now (November first). In Nano, one must write a 50,000 page novel, or realistically, the first part of a novel, as novels generally run twice that length. The organization prefers it’s a new novel instead of adding to a novel you have because it’s easier to write from scratch.

I was all ready to submit Gods’ Seeds as the novel I was going to write, but then I opened it up to find out that I’d already written 21k of it. This was the novel I started for NaNo and quit when Trump got elected President. It wouldn’t be a cheat to work on Gods’ Seeds as long as I didn’t count those 21k words, but it would be harder to get back into.

I could start a new novel. Not sure what that would be yet. 

Or I could be a rebel, which would be writing anything but a novel. This way I might be able to edit/develop Gaia’s Hands, which I’m editing and at the same time wondering what I can add back. Or I could write more short stories that fit in the Archetype universe, or …

I don’t know what to do. I’m committed to write, because I’m hosting a NaNo write-in space at the Game Cafe. If you have any ideas, let me know!



One week down on NaNo …

At the end of the first week of NaNo, I’ve written 16,000 words or an average of 2000 words a day, split halfway between Becoming Kringle and Whose Hearts are Mountains. I’ll be honest — writing lately has been challenging, with a lot of self-doubt after working with one of the publishing editors I tried. This week has been vindicating.

(A hint from case management class to editors of various types: You have to talk about the strengths as well as the failures of a client’s work, not for flattery or reassurance, but to remind the client that the manuscript is worth the work being put into it.)
I’ve finished Whose Hearts are Mountains — by “finished”, I mean “written a very rough draft that has plot holes you could probably drive a truck through, and desperately needs an edit or two.” I remember when I arrogantly thought my drafts weren’t rough and so I sent them out. Writing has been a humbling exercise.
From here on out, all of my words are going to Becoming Kringle. I think this will be more of a challenge, in fact a huge challenge, because I have the barest of outlines to go by.  On the other hand, with yesterday’s snow, it’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas.

Day 7 NaNo — one week of writing

I’ve finished 14,000 words so far (2000 words average; I like to round things up) and I’m still going. If I have any NaNo readers out there, how are you doing? Post in comments.

I’m nearing the finish line with Whose Hearts are Mountains, which as you recall is a book I started 30 years ago while sleeping through a kidney infection. The thought that it might be done (not done-done, because it needs a fierce edit or two) floors me.

Then it will be back to Becoming Kringle for the rest of my words. I am going to try to stick to the NaNo credo: Write first edit later.

Day 6 NaNo — still chugging

I can’t wait to write again today.

This is what NaNo does to people, I hear — somehow writing without self-censoring (which is necessary to get 1,667 words a day in) — makes your connection to your words and your characters and your plots flow. 
By the end of this, I should have Whose Hearts are Mountains’ rough draft finished, and probably 30,000 words on Becoming Kringle, which I will finish in December as the bells jingle along. 
Off to write. Sorry this is so short, but maybe I’ll drop an excerpt of Whose Hearts are Mountains tomorrow.
Oh, yes — up to 12,000 words as of this morning. 

More NaNo –Day 4

I’ve been doing something different this year for NaNo — I’m not trying to push myself too hard, because I’m afraid I will burn out. I’m writing 1667 words a day, which is the minimum it takes to win NaNo in 30 days. (Ok, I might write more today because it’s only noon but…)

My favorite searches so far on Google: tall slim male body measurements, cool summer seasonal color palette, cool summer seasonal color palette reds, silver grey, cool winter color palette, bright winter, fops, Father Christmas.

I continue pretty much flying by the seat of my pants, and frankly, it’s fun!

Day 1 Summary NaNoWriMo: Time for Pantsing

I wrote my first 2000 words yesterday, flying my way through the first chapter. The good news is that the writing was easy. The bad news is that, if i go through my outline at this rate, I will be done in 16,000 words, which is 34,000 words short of a win.

It might be time to start pantsing.

To explain (and review for my longer-time readers), there are three modes of writing:

  • Planning, which means writing with a meticulous outline; 
  • Pantsing, which means flying by the seat of your pants;
  • Plantsing, which is somewhere in-between.
I think I’ve said in these pages before that I’m a plantser, which for me means having an outline with enough leeway to fill in the blanks. But it’s not working this time — perhaps I didn’t put in enough of an outline, or I wasn’t as sure about the action. So I will be pantsing a bit.
What encourages me is that the more I write, the more the layers of the characters reveal themselves to me. These characters need to be complex, because the story will demand that my characters grow and develop — and become the spirit of Christmas.

First 100 words of Becoming Kringle

Sunshine Walton wondered what kind of mess she’d gotten herself into.

She sat in a dimly lit, sparsely furnished office. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the flash of red neon against the dark outside through broken shutters. And Santa Claus sat across from her, behind a battered desk.

“My name is Jack Moore,” the avuncular man said, shaking her hand with a twinkle in his eye. “But folks call me Santa Jack.”

“Really,” Sunshine murmured, kicking herself mentally at the veiled sarcasm of her words. Not appropriate for a job interview.

Santa Jack, her prospective employer, merely raised his eyebrows and chuckled.