Should You Participate in @NaNoWriMo 2016? 3 Questions You May Be Asking:

Trying to write 50,000 words in 30 days is a little crazy, and it's more than a little intimidating. And yet all over the world, on November 1st, people will start doing just that. What about you? Are you considering trying this challenge for the first or tenth (or whichever) time?

If you're not sure, here are three questions you may be asking—and better yet, answers to all three!

1. Should I participate in NaNoWriMo?
• Yes. Pretty much, if you're asking yourself if you should try this, the answer is yes. Regardless of if you write 2,000 words total or reach 50,000 in the first two weeks, NaNoWriMo is transformative, whether you treat it as a personal challenge or your goal is to become an author.
  
  This is the marathon of writing—some do it to prove they can, and some do it because writing is their passion, but whatever your reason, the experience (even if you don't "win") will impact your life, in a great way.
2. But it starts tomorrow. Isn't it too late for this year?
• No! Unlike running a marathon, you don't have to prepare and train for NaNoWriMo. Some people do, spending the first ten months of each year planning their stories, but many people—including me!—just start typing and see where it takes them.
  
  
  If you give yourself the freedom to write, even with no idea of where you want the story to go, you might just discover an incredible world and wonderful characters who've been waiting for you to create them. If you decide to participate at the last minute with no idea where you're going, you're not alone. Join the many pantsers who write just that way, and see what you can create!
3. I have a bazillion life commitments in November, and there's no way I can hit 50,000 words. Is it even worth it to try?
• Finishing NaNoWriMo brings with it a sense of accomplishment, absolutely, and looking back at the sometimes grueling month with 50,000 brand new words is incredibly exhilarating. But at its core, NaNoWriMo is more about making the time and commitment to write than it is about your word count. Is it less of an accomplishment to run a 10K than a full marathon? I suppose if you're an Olympic runner, the answer might be yes, but for us mere mortals—definitely not. So does it not count if you write 20,000 or even 10,000 words in November rather than reaching 50,000? Absolutely not! And really, for many of those hesitant to try, the question isn't 20,000 or 50,000. It's 20,000 or none. And 20,000 is infinitely more than none.
  
  So while life absolutely gets in the way, and only you can decide if attempting NaNoWriMo will make you committed to your writing or so stressed jumping off a bridge sounds like a good idea*, don't let the fear of not "winning" prevent you from participating.
  
  Whether you write 10,000 words or 150,000 (yep, a NaNo writer in my region bangs out about that much each November, making the rest of us feel woefully inadequate), the reminder to prioritize your writing, to give yourself permission to carve out time for it amid all those other responsibilities, will still be worth it.
• *If attempting to squeeze NaNoWriMo into your life will make you so stressed that you'd rather jump off a bridge or something similar, please take November to carve out some time to relax and do something to restore your sanity instead. Read a book, go have drinks with some friends, go for a hike, get a massage—make time for you!

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*Bonus* Now that you know why you should participate,
check out my 9 Tips for NaNoWriMo!

How @NaNoWriMo Made Me an Author

In 2012, I was struggling to find my footing. I had moved back to California after a very disappointing work experience in France that left me deflated in every way possible. I was working, but it certainly wasn’t a dream job, and I was still figuring out how to rebuild a life somewhere I hadn’t lived since high school.

Discouraged after my Bachelor’s in Creative Writing (for many reasons, which I won’t get into here), I hadn’t written in a long while. I had heard about NaNoWriMo previously, but I’d never thought to add it to my whirlwind schedule, nor had I thought a novel was something I could write—not since a failed attempt, also in high school.

But there I was, back where I had been the last time I’d considered it possible—at least geographically. Someone mentioned NaNoWriMo to me around the same time that an idea for a story cropped up and wouldn’t let me go. Plus, to be honest, I needed a way to meet people since working from home isn’t exactly a social activity.

So, I made an account on the NaNoWriMo site, joined my regional group, and was promptly overwhelmed by the list of write-ins and the activity on the forums. And yet somehow at midnight November 1st 2012, I started writing.

TGIO: Another NaNo (Almost) Ends

So here we are in the final hours of another NaNoWriMo. Was your month a success?

Before you answer, check out this post about defining and understanding failure.

I haven't yet reached 50,000 words (though there's still a little time). That's a big number, even at the end of this month—and usually, it's nowhere near a finished adult novel.

But I have made quite a bit of progress on novel #4, temporarily named L&S. This story is in a new world, unrelated to my previous stories, but it's been knocking around in my mind for years. Years, because the topics and characters are very complicated and truly intimidating to write. It will likely take many revisions to even start getting the deeper themes across, if I ever succeed at that.

Suffice it to say, it will likely be a long time before this draft becomes anything readable, but that isn't the focus of NaNo—the first step is. Drafting. And I have a good chunk of a first draft done.

So that's much of my November in a nutshell. How about you??

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Friendly reminder: The final #PitMad of the year is happening December 4th, aka this Friday. There are new rules, so be sure to check them out here!

All About Perspective: Failure's Role in Success

Last week, Suzanne van Rooyen wrote a post about why not winning NaNoWriMo doesn't really count as failing, which just so happens to tie in perfectly with the post I had planned for today. Great minds?

Failure is such a dirty word for most of us. We're taught from childhood that success is binary: either you succeed (e.g., get an A) or you fail (e.g. get an F). But like many ideas to which we're exposed in basic form as children, the adult reality is much more complicated. And as we move beyond a child-like, simple view of the world, it is the people who start to see the bigger picture who have the greater chance of ultimately succeeding.

Let's be clear: it is absolutely possible to fail. If your goal is to write every day for thirty days, and you only write for twenty of them, you failed in that goal. The question is, does the road stop there? Was that goal the be-all and end-all, or were you actually aiming to do something more? For instance: making time for your writing. If you did that 20 out of 30 days (an arbitrary number, since we're in the midst of NaNo!), then have you really failed?

It's easy to be discouraged by the small failures when we're only considering the small picture, like on the left side of the image above. But as that graphic has simplified on the right side, keeping your eye on the real prize can help shift those failures into perspective. Consider someone training for a marathon. On any given day, maybe s/he runs a mile less than the day's training goal. The goal set for that day was not achieved, so therefore that is a "failure." But if the runner still completes the marathon a month later, do those occasional failures matter?

Any time we stretch ourselves, any time we aim for something and set a real, big-picture goal, small failures become inevitable. The trick is zooming out and evaluating each step in light of the real goal, rather than getting discouraged by the interim road blocks. Failing today does not have to mean Failing (with a capital F in case you missed that). Nor do the small failures make you a failure. More likely, they mean you're trying something difficult. Making a couple wrong turns along the way is simply inevitable.

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And speaking of wrong turns, my first novel, Mending Heartstrings, took a meandering detour that could easily be considered disastrous. In the perspective of the industry as a whole, and of many professionals in that industry, currently that book is a failure. This is heartbreaking.

But what it really means is that it needs to find a different path. And the first step on that new path has led to a breathtaking sight—the gorgeous new cover! Christa over at Paper & Sage did a fantastic job transforming a wonderful photo by my friend Jillian into a cover I absolutely love. I can't put into words (yes, I see the irony) how excited I am for the reveal!

Want to be among the first to see the new cover? Use the form below to sign up for the reveal on January 11, 2016!

And please consider sharing the signup link: http://goo.gl/forms/QkFoS8CZTP. (Click here to tweet!)

Thank you for your continued support as I wind my way on this publishing journey!

Welcome to NaNoWriMo!

It is officially National Novel Writing Month! Have you started your story? How is your writing going?

I've had a few very different discussions about writing in general and during NaNoWriMo specifically lately—with writers who question their ability to write at all, to those scared of the stories inside them, to those who (at least for now) have it all under control. And every single one of them started a new story November 1st.

For a whole host of reasons, NaNoWriMo can be intimidating or terrifying. Sometimes, we're simply scared that our stories aren't worth the effort. Sometimes we must confront our guilt for the sacrifices we make in other areas to make our writing a priority, if only for  a month. If you're feeling that way, or you'd just like to listen to a great talk on the topic, please check out the video below. (Special shout out to Jennifer for showing me this video!)

And if you don't want to watch the whole video, just remember this:

"It's OK, it's great, it's important to make your creative self a priority."

It's not too late to join the challenge that is NaNoWriMo! Learn more and join in on the craziness at NaNoWriMo.org.

3 Questions You Might Be Asking About NaNoWriMo

As I wrote last week in a guest post (you should definitely check out) about how National Novel Writing Month helped me become an author:

"National Novel Writing Month is a personal challenge. It’s terrifying and difficult. And in my experience, very rarely is it as exhilarating as other people say. It means sacrificing sleep and sometimes personal relationships (which do recover!), and it’s definitely a battle—not to give up when you don’t meet a word count goal, to push through inevitable bouts of writer’s block, to make those necessary sacrifices. To reach 50,000 words. 

... [But] NaNoWriMo 2012 started me on the path to becoming what I am today: a published author. Most importantly, it proved that this crazy, unthinkable, incredibly intimidating thing—writing 50,000 words but also writing a novel—was something I could do. 

Now when I hesitate, when I struggle, when I feel stuck and hopeless in the middle of a draft, I get to look back and rely on the fact that it’s something I’ve already done."

Trying to write 50,000 words in 30 days is a little crazy, and it's more than a little intimidating. And yet all over the world, on November 1st, people will start doing just that. What about you? Are you considering trying this challenge for the first or tenth (or whichever) time?

If you're not sure, here are three questions you may be asking—and better yet, answers to all three!

1. Should I participate in NaNoWriMo?
• Yes. Pretty much, if you're asking yourself if you should try this, the answer is yes. Regardless of if you write 2,000 words total or reach 50,000 in the first two weeks, NaNoWriMo is transformative, whether you treat it as a personal challenge or your goal is to become an author.
  
  This is the marathon of writing—some do it to prove they can, and some do it because writing is their passion, but whatever your reason, the experience (even if you don't "win") will impact your life, in a great way.
2. But it starts this weekend. Isn't it too late for this year?
• No! Unlike running a marathon, you don't have to prepare and train for NaNoWriMo. Some people do, spending the first ten months of each year planning their stories, but many people—including me!—just start typing and see where it takes them.
  
  
  If you give yourself the freedom to write, even with no idea of where you want the story to go, you might just discover an incredible world and wonderful characters who've been waiting for you to create them. If you decide to participate at the last minute with no idea where you're going, you're not alone. Join the many pantsers who write just that way, and see what you can create!
3. I have a bazillion life commitments in November, and there's no way I can hit 50,000 words. Is it even worth it to try?
• Finishing NaNoWriMo brings with it a sense of accomplishment, absolutely, and looking back at the sometimes grueling month with 50,000 brand new words is incredibly exhilarating. But at its core, NaNoWriMo is more about making the time and commitment to write than it is about your word count. Is it less of an accomplishment to run a 10K than a full marathon? I suppose if you're an Olympic runner, the answer might be yes, but for us mere mortals—definitely not. So does it not count if you write 20,000 or even 10,000 words in November rather than reaching 50,000? Absolutely not! And really, for many of those hesitant to try, the question isn't 20,000 or 50,000. It's 20,000 or none. And 20,000 is infinitely more than none.
  
  So while life absolutely gets in the way, and only you can decide if attempting NaNoWriMo will make you committed to your writing or so stressed jumping off a bridge sounds like a good idea*, don't let the fear of not "winning" prevent you from participating.
  
  Whether you write 10,000 words or 150,000 (yep, a NaNo writer in my region bangs out about that much each November, making the rest of us feel woefully inadequate), the reminder to prioritize your writing, to give yourself permission to carve out time for it amid all those other responsibilities, will still be worth it.
• *If attempting to squeeze NaNoWriMo into your life will make you so stressed that you'd rather jump off a bridge or something similar, please take November to carve out some time to relax and do something to restore your sanity instead. Read a book, go have drinks with some friends, go for a hike, get a massage—make time for you!

---

*Bonus* Now that you know why you should participate,
check out my 9 Tips for NaNoWriMo!

Camp NaNoWriMo

Last month, to focus my attempt at diving back into Fallen, I set myself a personal goal of 10,000 words. It's an astonishingly low goal, considering that Mending Heartstrings and G&H both started with 50,000-word months (during NaNoWriMo), but with my days averaging 200 words, it was a stretch. And unfortunately, I didn't reach it. I did, however, write about 7570 new words, which on its own is about double what I had before. 

Having a tangible goal, even one that is relatively low, creates a marker against which to measure success, with clear signposts along the way. Keeping it reasonably matched both with my pace and foreseeable life commitments prevents the results from being depressing, even when I don't quite make it.  To be fair, in March my goal was to make some amount of progress.

This month, I decided to participate in Camp NaNoWriMo, although really there isn't much difference between that and setting my own goal — except an additional way to track my progress. Officially, I've set my goal at the minimum of 10,000 words. Because I'll be out of town (and probably not writing) for over a week this month, my real goal is actually about 5,000 words (our little secret!). So I'm quite excited that this past weekend, I managed to write over 1,300 words!

The good news about NaNoWriMo programs is it's never too late to join, whether you're looking to revise your work, finish a WIP, or stick to the traditional route & write something new. Even if your April won't include writing, maybe taking a moment to think about entirely reasonable (or perhaps stretch) goals will help you focus your efforts this month, and lead to that wonderful sense of accomplishment when the month comes to a close. 

And if you're seeking that sense of community that Camp NaNo provides, share your goals in the comments so we can all cheer you on!

After NaNo

Somehow, in the midst of NaNo and the desire to have made it through that crazy, 30-day challenge, we (or at least I) forget that coming out the other side leaves us in December.  Unfortunately, this is just a fact of life – another year is coming to a close.  Still, in these last few weeks of 2013, much can be accomplished.  

Then again, much already has.  Despite my struggle this year, I did manage to reach 50,000 words in my latest book, with about 25 minutes to spare.  In the world of NaNoWriMo, that alone marks me as a "winner," though of course there is a lot of work yet to be done in this book (and I actually still have to edit my previous one).

That being said, I am not yet (maybe not ever?) going to offer any reflections on NaNo's powers, mostly because all I want to do after the craziness of the last month is sleep.  However, much is happening this week!

First, tomorrow is #GivingTuesday, which is an initiative started to encourage people to take time to support community and nonprofit efforts.  While I think lending your support behind any responsible cause is wonderful, I'm taking this opportunity to remind you about Scripting Change, and the easy way to help – buy their book, Seeing Past Sickness! (Click on the cover image in the side bar for a list of places to buy.)  There are 2 of my pieces in this collection, but I do think it is a wonderful, worthwhile cause that could genuinely benefit from your support – which will directly benefit those in need!

Also this week, the Flash! Friday anniversary bash: 5 days to write a flash fiction story, based on the photo prompt, for honest-to-goodness prizes, including publication!  Stories must be 350 words exactly, and I hope to participate myself, but more importantly, encourage you to do the same! Let's see what happens.

9 Tips for #NaNoWriMo

So, I'll be honest, the title for this post preceded the post itself. In writing it, I had no idea whether I'll make it to 9 tips, but it seemed like a fun number to go with, so when I reached 9, I stopped.  Please feel free to contribute your own tips in the comments!

• Tip #1: Get some sleep!
• Okay, granted, I'm sorely lacking in this department lately, which is probably the reason this is my first tip. At the same time, NaNo word count goals will either keep you up late or have you setting an extra early alarm, so it's a good idea to rest up before November starts.  It's also important to take advantage of days when your writing miraculously flow from your fingers, both to get ahead on your word count and to rest up for bouts of writer's block.
• Tip #2: Get involved in your region
• Many writers are solitary creatures, true, but networking is important, both for encouragement along the NaNo path and in the future, when we try to break into the publishing world.  So make sure to look up your region and attend at least one write-in (virtual or not).
If none are scheduled at convenient times for you, offer to organize one yourself! All that means is that you choose a time & place, commit to being there for a couple hours, and get some writing done, surrounded by some other local writers trying this crazy thing.

Kicking Off Camp

It's July 1st, which means Camp NaNoWriMo has officially begun!

This spinoff of November's original National Novel Writing Month takes place exclusively online, with participants – campers – grouped into virtual cabins.  It also allows for more flexibility in your writing experience, as participants can set their own goals for the month (as opposed to November's standard 50,000 words).  For some, that may be writing 10,000 words, and for others it may be 100,000 or more.

It's not too late to sign up!  Log in with your NaNoWriMo credentials, or create a new account, and get writing!

Don't You Dare Revise!

Some of the most popular advice floating around for those interested in attempting the NaNoWriMo challenge is: "Turn off your inner editor!" —closely followed by: "Don't revise until after NaNo." At some point during the month, there also comes a warning: the novel you'll have written through this process will need to be completely rewritten, possibly many times. 

• For instance, Jody Casella—a successful NaNo winner and soon-to-be-published author—writes on her blog: 

"Doing NaNo will kill (or at the very least, muffle) that pesky internal editor voice that streams along in your head as you write, telling you that what you write is crappy and stupid and pointless. You don't have time for that voice during NaNo. If you want to finish, you are going to have to keep writing those crappy words. NaNo is about quantity not quality. Repeat that after me: quantity not quality. Write it on a sign and tape it to your computer screen. No, you are not writing the word Bluh over and over, but some days it will feel like it. Whatever. Keep writing anyway –"

I have seen many variations of this admonishment, and I haven't seen any contradictions.  People in my writing group swear by this process: "Don't even think about revising until you have the first draft down!" they advise. Hopefully, such an approach works for them—maybe it even works for the vast majority of writers and specifically of NaNoWriMo winners.  But I didn't do that.