Post NaNo: New goals and congratulations

Today is December 1st.

Yesterday, at 3:35 pm, I crossed the finish line for NaNo WriMo, at 50,024 words.

It was an exhausting, grueling, trying month, but I'm SO glad that I did it. I know this particular WIP would've taken me twice as long if I hadn't NaNoed the first half of it. My plot meandered, my characters did crazy, nonsensical things or nothing at all, and I couldn't count the times I wanted to go back and erase that page or paragraph or chapter of horrid prose that would've made Shakespeare roll in his grave. But erasing even one word would set my precious word quota back, the one I had clawed and cajoled and wrestled to get it this far. You can't look back, in NaNo. You must keep moving forward.

So. If you are among the few stubborn, stalwart, never-say-die people who crossed the NaNo finish line, congratulations! I salute you.

If you didn't quite make it, congratulations! I salute you, too! You tried something most would put off, or would've seen as impossible. You wrote. Whether you wrote 100 words or 49,999, you still put fingers to keyboard and words in front of the other. That is something to be proud of.

But its not over, yet. For me, my novel isn't quite done. I still have another 30,000 words to go. For my fellow NaNoers, that 50,000 word novel isn't done yet, either. Now comes the clean-up, where you go back and fix your plot holes, snip those loose threads, and try to get it looking its best. If you're aiming to get that story published, you have a lot of work to do. Firstly, consider padding your novel with another 20,000--30,000 words. I know *GASP*, that's a lot of words, but 50k is a VERY short novel, and most publishers prefer something a little longer. You can do it--you already have a beginning and an ending. And you wrote 50,000 words in a month; this should be cake.

















Or, if you don't see how your novel can be salvaged, write another one. Yup, just like that. You already know you can do it. That's the most valuable thing NaNo can teach you; you've already written a book. You can do it again.

For those who didn't finish, keep going! What's stopping you? NaNo is a tool, a motivational device to get you started, but you don't need it to finish. You've already begun your story. Completing it is just a matter of putting words in front of each other, little by little, until you're done.

Finish your novel. You don't need NaNo to do it. =)

Julie

My Pro-NaNoWriMo rant

All righty, so I am aware that there are those who do not like NaNo. And, to a certain extent, I can agree with them. NaNo is not for everyone. We all have our writing habits, and for some people, NaNo is far too crazy/frantic/sloppy/ect. I'm not here to argue with them.

I WILL say what I like about NaNo, and why it works for me.

1.NaNo makes you write crap. Some have said NaNo encourages sloppy writing, that it focuses more on word count then making your words pretty. And my response to that is: it absolutely does. Who here writes perfect prose their first time around? I know I certainly don't. That's what the rough draft is FOR, just getting the words down. As Stephen King and Ernest Hemmingway and Anne Lammott have all said: the first draft of anything is crap.

For me, my inner editor is constantly trying to make me write perfectly the first go-around. And when I listen to it, my writing slows to a crawl. NaNo frees me from the inner critic and lets me just write whatever comes to mind. And you know what? If the writing is crappy (as it almost always is) that's OKAY. I don't want to focus on pretty prose the first time around; I just want to get the skeleton down so I have something to work on later. First draft=crap. So, write joyfully, and don't worry that your words aren't perfect. You can always fix a bad page, but you can't fix a blank one.


2. NaNo gives you a deadline. I know everyone can finish a novel if they really, really want to. That doesn't mean its not hard. Having clear goals certainly helps me stay on top of things. I know that I have to write 1,667 words everyday to meet my goal of 50,000 words in a month. It keeps the pressure on to keep going. Before I was published, I wrote when I felt like it, when the mood struck, when I got "inspiration." And you know how long it took me to complete my first book? 5 years. Then, I signed up for NaNo, and suddenly discovered I could write an entire book in 2 months! THAT was a revelation. Now, when my contract says I have this many months to write, polish, and send a book to my publisher, I say: no problem.


3. NaNo encourages you to try something impossible. A novel in 30 days? Crazy talk! Before NaNo, even published, well-established authors would mock such a ridiculous concept. Even now, people will sneer at NaNo authors, stating that a book written in 30 days is certainly crap. That its just a bunch of words thrown together, with no plot, no style, and it CERTAINLY would never get published. To that, I say: you know this YA book called The Iron King? That was a NaNo project. So it can happen. That's not to say it will, and I HIGHLY discourage sending off your unpolished NaNo project to weary editors at the start of December. They will be receiving a flood of NaNo books already, still in the "crap" stage. You want your manuscript to stand out from the river of unpolished sludge. 50,000 words on paper does not a novel make.

Instead, NaNo encourages you to write, for the sheer joy of it. Don't worry about getting it perfect or published or penning a literary masterpiece. Just write. At the end of the month, you'll have written a novel. In 30 days. Who can say that, really? Let the Naysayers nay. You've finished a book. You've done what others only talked about. Be proud. You are now a writer.


Again, I'm not saying NaNo is for everyone, or everyone has to love it. But for those of us who DO love it (including yours truly), don't let anyone discourage you. Write joyfully, write everyday, and I will still see you at the finish line.

Julie

NaNoWrimo word count (day 2): 3,558

Teaser Tuesday, NaNo, and giveaway winners

Welcome to November 2nd.

How's your NaNo count going?

So far, so good. We shall see what it looks like after today. In other news, I also have a winner for the ghostly Grimalkin rock. I had so much fun reading through all the costume suggestions. Some of them had me rolling on the floor. But it looks like the general consensus is: Ash is too serious to dress up and Puck would go as Ash so he could annoy him, LOL!

Anyway, I decided to let random.org decide the winner, because I couldn't pick just one favorite. And the winner is:

Marciewood(at)aol(dot)com

Congrats, Marcie! I'll be emailing you soon to send you your prizes. :)


Anyway, onto today's teaser. It seems a couple ARCs of Iron Queen are already in the wild, which means that the teasers will be drawing to a close soon. With that in mind, please enjoy today's teaser, and a certain someone's possessive streak.


***

“Hey, princess.”

“Hey,” I whispered, as Ash slipped his arms around my waist from behind, drawing me close. I could feel his glare aimed at Puck over my head, a silent, protective gesture that spoke louder than any words. Mine. Back off.


***


Now, I'm off to NaNo! Good luck, fellow NaNoers; another 1667 words await. :)

Ready, set....NaNo!

Yup, its that time of year again.

NaNo Wrimo is upon us once more.

Even as I type this, I'm checking the NaNoWriMo official site, which is being ridiculously slow tonight, probably as hundreds (thousands?) of NaNoers are doing the exact same thing.

If you are one of these brave (insane) souls, kudos to you! Its comforting to know, as we gear up for the most frantic, stressful, neurotic month of the year (Christmas doesn't even come close) that there are thousands of writers going through the exact same thing. So, as the 1st of November looms ever closer, let's promise ourselves these things...

We will write everyday, through rain and sleet and falling snow, through TV shows and outings and parties and people who want you to socialize. By now, you should have warned any family, friends, boyfriends, girlfriends, relatives, and spouses that they will probably not see you until December.





















We will not let our inner editor tell us our writing is crap. (Its 50k words in 30 days, its SUPPOSED to be crap.) This also goes for going back and "fixing things." Do not worry about fixing things; that will be December's project.


We will not fall behind.

If we do fall behind, we will soldier on and not give up.

We will not let the siren song of email, twitter, facebook, myspace, blogs, ect ect ect distract us from churning out our words. This also goes for phones, friends, children, pets, spouses, ect.


















At the end of the month, we will have written a 50,000 word mess of a story, with dangling plot threads, nonsensical scenes, holes you could drive a semi through, and so many mistakes our English teachers would scream, but we will have written a complete NOVEL. And we won't worry about the mess; we can always clean it up later.

So, my fellow NaNoers...on this last night of October, as the costumed children return from their candy begging, let us eat a good meal, get a good night's sleep, and say farewell to our loved ones.

For tomorrow, we NaNo.

I'll see you at the finish line.

Run Neo, the NaNo has you.

You know NaNo Wrimo has you when:

-You're sick as a dog and you wish your head would explode already, but you still try to get to the computer to bash out your word quota. This does not go well.

-But you still try, because you know taking a ONE DAY break will make you fall behind. 1700 words behind. That's 1700 words you'll have to tack onto the next day's quota, for a massive total of 3400 words.

-You have a small heart attack.

-You try to sleep, but have nightmares about missing deadlines and not being able to deliver the book on time to your publisher, becuase you skipped ONE DAY.

-You feel your laptop has betrayed you because it doesn't have a way you can talk and have it type. From bed. Heavily medicated.

-You seriously consider training your cat to type for you.

***

Agg. Going back to bed, now. Just typing this amount of words is making my eyeballs scream. Tomorrow I must start again. I must type 3400 words tomorrow to keep up with the life-consuming monster called NaNo Wrimo.

Or teach my cat to write it for me.














Then again ...

Cover blues can be cured with sniper rifles

NaNo Wrimo and Borderlands continue to consume my life.

If I haven't been seen anywhere lately, it is because of these two things. Mornings and afternoons are dedicated to bashing out 1700 words to keep up with my NaNo quota, which is gradually sucking out my brain like a hungry illithid. (Random D&D lore, there. I do not apologize.)


















Evenings are spend traversing the planet of Pandora with my hubby, shooting bandits, scags, and colonies of spider-ants. Partly, this is to give my overworked brain a rest: nothing more relaxing than sniping a bad guy from 100 yards and watching his head explode. But mostly it is just fun.











Still no word on my Final final cover, and the delay is making me a bit jumpy. We're less than three months to the release date and I still don't have a cover I can show the world, yet. Argh! I envy the authors whose books come out in like, June, and they have a shiny cover they can post on their site. Sigh. Oh well, nothing I can do but leave it in the hands of the publishing world.

I'll be back soon, I hope. Come December, my third book will be DONE, and I will celebrate by hibernating until 2010. For now, though, its back to 1700 words and sniping spider-ants.

10k and counting

Woo!

I have broken the 10k mark on NaNo!

Only 40,000 more words to go!

Go me.

That is all.

Julie

Teaser Tuesday

Hey everyone. NaNo is going well for me; I've been able to get over 1700 words done a day, which is a little over the required wordage to complete the challenge on time. So, since I have a little leeway, I thought I'd terrify you with an Iron King teaser this week. Warning: its kinda creepy! Easily frightened people should look away now. :)

I'm serious.

You've been warned ...


Ethan stood there, his face blue and wrinkled, his lips pulled into a rictus grin. In one hand, he clutched a butcher knife. Blood spattered his hands and face.

"Mommy slipped," he whispered, and plunged the knife into my leg.

Happy Halloween!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!















And a huge thank you to everyone who participated in A Very Faery Interview. I had a lot of fun, and I hope everyone enjoyed it as much as I did. Taking a haitus from interviews for now, but hopefully I can start them again sometime in the future.

In other news, tomorrow is the first official day of NaNo Wrimo. If, like me, you have signed up for this month long fiasco, let me start by saying AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

No, bad writer! I meant to say, WE CAN DO IT! It can be done. This is my second NaNo and I have proof that a book can be written in a mere 30 days. Let me throw an even more encouraging thought out there: The book that I wrote for my last NaNo Wrimo went on to be published. So, who knows what you might do this November? And just think, by this time NEXT month, you will have a finished book.

That said, the number of blog posts might dwindle dramatically in the next 30 days, as every drop of creative juice in my brain will be sucked out by NaNo. At the end of the day, I might not have the creative energy to write a greeting card. So if I'm a bit MIA next month, just wait until November is done and I promise I'll be back.

That's it for me! By this time tomorrow I'll be NaNoing. Good luck to everyone out there, and have a safe and happy Halloween.

Julie

NaNo Wrimo and unicorns

Well, I did it. I signed up for NaNo this November. I don't know why this fills me with a looming sense of dread; I did NaNo a couple years back and got a published book out of it, so that alone should tell me I might be onto something. I suppose its because I went all official and signed up on NaNo's official website. The other time I just picked the month of September and did my own personal little NaNo month, where the only ones who knew were my agent and husband. Being an official participant is so much more ... official. I'm being pressured to perform by thousands of other Wrimos who are writing their novels and doing so much better than me, ahhhhhhh!

I know, I know. It shouldn't be any different than before. Perhaps its the amount of NaNo talk on Twitter thats getting me all aflutter. Perhaps I should stop playing around online and just focus on my writing. Perhaps I shouldn't listen to the Twitter talk and lock myself away in a safe isolated bubble until Christmas.

And perhaps unicorns will burst in my door, wave their magic horns, and complete my novel for me.