NaNoWriMo Week 3

Notice my wall is becoming more pink and less orange.

Also I added my cast (just in case my book ever becomes a movie... =] )

WORD COUNT: As of today, Monday November 16, I am up to 14, 475 words.

Goal For This Week: I have to write 2,960 words a day in order to reach 50,000 words by November 30th - that's with taking off on Thanksgiving and the Friday after. If I succeed at this goal, I will reach 32, 235 words by Sunday. Which means I will have to write 17,765 words the final week of November - Again, at 2960 words a day, it is plausible.

Downside: My downside is also an upside... I begin a brand new job tomorrow. My training will, however, demand a full work schedule for the last two weeks of November! But that's OK. I will have to write at night when I come home - that is, if I don't have to study for the test I have to pass at the end of training. But again, I will make time and make it work as best as I can.

NaNo was a way really of making me reach my goal of this 7th draft being ready to go so I can start querying agents Jan 1, 2010. So, not that I am giving myself an out, but I do have December to reach my personal--albeit, not NaNo--goal.

Upside: I learned something HUGE this week.

1. I CAN outline.
2. I love my outline
3. My outline can grow and change as I grow and change. (It's becoming pinker by the day - pink index cards mean polished - another not-a-NaNo-goal)
4. AND... I put a common theory of revision writing to test tonight and lo and behold, IT WORKED!

What's the theory? Some writers believe when you write a brand-new draft, you should never look back at your old draft again.

Sounds scary, right? And a little crazy like reinventing the wheel. BUT... the theory is, all the good stuff from the previous draft will stick with you, all the yucky stuff will be forgotten, and new stuff will emerge.

So, after a little "whine" while trying to merge two old chapters and add new info and yet keep to my short chapter page lengths, I decided to give it a try. I shut down the old draft and just wrote. Seriously, 15 minutes later, I had 1,097 new words, all shiny and sparkly.

Robert Olen Butler - From Where You Dream - you are becoming my new god and bible!!!! It worked, people! It really worked.

A COLOSSAL BREAKTHROUGH!!!

Look, Mommy. A rainbow!
No, it's not a rainbow, darling. It's a writer's hard work.

Yes, that's right, that which you see before you, is my story from beginning, middle, twist, ending, including the rules of my world and its fantasy elements in all its color-coded glory. It's a beauty, isn't she?

This is a HUGE breakthrough for me. Me, who said she was an organic writer. Me, whose taken, ahem, $^@(@ years and I am still writing the darn thing. Me, who had all these holes and thought, well, when I get to that part, I will just know what to do.

BUZZ! No. Wrong answer.

An outline is your friend. Embrace the outline. Love the outline. Beeeee the outline.

Okay, maybe I've gone a little loopy from all this NaNo stuff (which reminds me, I better keep this brief!) But I've done it. I've really done it - an outline in a living, breathing format that can grow and change as my story grows and changes. I love my outline.

I've always wanted to do this, but I never wanted to put tape on my wall or I thought it would look messy or I was afraid of strangers coming in my office and seeing it and wanting to read it. Gasp!

BUZZ! Again, wrong answer.

If you see something in your mind, if that little voice in your head says, I really wish I could display my outline on my wall so I can stare at it from time to time, read my whole story from beginning to end in five minutes... if you hear a voice in your head telling you your creative steps, then you need to listen, folks!

And listen I finally did.

Wanna know my color-code? Pink are my polished chapters. Orange are chapters from a previous draft, yellow are brandy-new chapters and the green and yellow mess to the left... those are the various rules of the various fantasy elements in my story.

TaDAAA!!!!! And there you go, a living breathing outline that I can change in a second flat if need be. Now, I better go stare at it some more and get on to my NaNo word count. THE END, here I come!!!!!

NaNoWriMo Week 2

Goal For This Week: 14,000 words

What I Accomplished Last Week: 7, 664 words and a lot of whining!

Downside: I am not off to a good start. All that NaNo hype and I am behind!!!! I just couldn't get out of my own way this week, nor could I get myself started. Which, is really weird considering, I was SO psyched and ready for NaNo. The truth is, two weeks before NaNo began, I fell into a serious case of the blues - it was the anniversary of my mother's death, I am dealing with some finacial difficulties, I've been looking for a job (like the rest of America) and have not been able to find one (like the rest of America)… Anyway, by the time NaNo actually began, I was a deflated balloon. I've been trying to blow myself up again, but I think I have a slow leak somewhere that needs patching… This week, my goal HAD to shift. I had to find a job. And I did. Huzzah! So, NaNo took a back seat. BUT… I also recognize that I allowed it to take a back seat and did not sacrifice in anyway. I didn't stay up late. I didn't wake up early. I just allowed my time to silently slip away. Bad, bad writer-girl!!!!

Upside: I learned a lot about myself and the length that my negative voice will go at self-sabatage - (it will even make unnecessary gynocologist appointments to avoid writing. Imagine that! A story for another time.) Anyway, the positive is, I'm on to you, negaitve voice, and how you'll stop at nothing to stop me. So, I am constipated in the creative sense. I've had a daily dose of prunes and well, sorry, but I'm waiting for my writing to run… (Ok, I'll stop with the bowel analogy and get on with it.) The true upside is… it's a new week and I can catch up, eventually. And my true goal is not in the word count. It is in reaching those elusive words… THE END!!!

Any Additional Comments:

See ya at the finish line! Now get to work!!!

HEEERRRE... WEEEEE... GOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!

Ready for the ride, the thrill of a challenge, the excitement of a goal??? Well, ready or not, here we go! Today is November 1st, and for many of us that means our lives are no longer how we know them. For this month, we will live, eat, sleep, breathe NaNo.

So, if you are up for the challenge of writing 50,000 words in one month, then you will need a plan. Will you write 1,667 words a day, or do more during the week and less on weekends? If you don't know, then I suggest you figure it out and fast, because all successful NaNo experiences happen with a plan.

For the next month, I will be posting my progress weekly. Notice my NaNoWord-o-meter is back on 0... Throughout the month, hopefully, we will watch it grow until I reach goal of 50,000 or a completed 2.0 draft, whichever comes first!

For those of you who are also NaNo-ing this month, I wish you good luck! And for those of you who are sitting this one out, I say, Bok, Bok, Bok, Bok, Bokkkkk! No, I am only kidding. I would never squawk like a chicken at you... But to all, enjoy the view because sometimes it won't be pretty or for the faint of heart. There might be elation followed by depression, followed by breakthroughs, to plateaus... but no matter the emotion of the week, one thing's for sure, writing is like a roller coaster. So strap down that harness and heeeerrre..... weeeeee..... GOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!

NaNo Nesting

Sugar Maples - one of my favorite trees.

Becky is one of my first blogger friends since 2007. She is also doing NaNo this year and recently blogged about something I didn't realize just might be a NaNo phenomenon. It's called...

NaNo Nesting!

Do you suffer from NaNo Nesting? Becky's desk is just so and she even outlined! (Sorry, Becky... I outed you.) It was last NaNo that I wrote my very first outline as well, always believing previously that I was an "organic writer." Organic shorganic. When you are writing fast, you need an outline. You don't want to turn up to your computer and waste precious moments trying to figure out your MC's next motivational turn. But this is not about outlining or organic writing. This is about NESTING and like Becky, I am beginning to feel the pangs of needing to nest...

On my list of preparation for NaNo is cleaning my house if you can believe that or not. I want to wash my floors, dust, organize, recycle, get rid of clutter, do a very thorough vacuum in those nooks and crannies sometimes forgotten....

It's not just about the outline, it's preparing for a life event. Like I am saying to my family, Look, I'm not really going to be available the whole month of November. You may see my body sitting here in front of my computer, but I will only be a figment of your imagination. The house is clean now - keep it that way!

That's not to say I won't drag the vacuum or scrub a toilet or sink for the entire month of November. Ewwww. That would be gross! And it's not to say that I won't be there to share meals with my family, help with homework, or tuck my kids in, BUT...

NaNo is like preparing for a birth, isn't it? Becky's already named hers. Me, I'm still kicking around a few ideas but nothing rolls off the tongue quite right.

...If only there was a baby naming book for books...

Do you nest before beginning a new book or a new draft? When I finish a draft, I always purge my office before beginning a new draft. But NaNo just seems, well, bigger. And so my purging has extended beyong these four walls.

What about you? Do you NaNo nest?

(I wonder if next year part of my nesting preparation will include making meals ahead of time and freezing them.... Now, that's an idea! NaNo 2010, look out! By then, I will have this down to a science.)

Today I Will...

Today, I was over at Kathy Temean's amazing blog and was touched by inspiration on a day when I really needed a double espresso shot of some. Kathy's the RA for the NJ chapter of SCBWI. We are so lucky, here in NJ, to have her as our fearless leader and awesome cheerleader.

Well, today she was writing about a new book by Jerry and Eileen Spinelli entitled, Today I will. It has inspirational quotes meant to inspire daily writing exercises, ending with a daily promise, Today I will...

I fell in love with the idea of a daily promise.

This made me stop and think. Because so far today, I was wasting it on negative chatter in my head. When I read her blog posting I thought to myself, Now wait a minute! Cut that out! I scolded myself, Would your daily promise be, Today I will beat myself up?

No. Of course it wouldn't. We would never promise ourselves things like that, but I bet there are a few of you out there, like me, who do from time to time, unknowingly, spend the day with the negative voice in your head (No, I am not pschotic). I would even go so far as to say that WE ALL, from time to time, fill our heads with negative chatter and beat ourselves up over things we cannot change - essentially, wasting the day and our time. So, Kathy's blog made me Stop, Drop, and Write my daily promise. (I wonder if you can also write a promise of what you WON'T do).

Here are my promises for today...

• Today I will write new pages to my WIP.
• Today I will meditate.
• Today I will find peace and carry it with me.
• Today I will thank Flo for talking me off that ledge once again.
• And I just have to do a NOT one... Today I will NOT allow negative chatter to fill my head.

Truthfully, you're only supposed to have one Today I Will per day, but once you start... it's like eating potato chips...

What's your daily promise for yourself today?

And while I'm here, I thought I'd remind those of you who might be sleeping under a rock or living in a cave....

ONLY 13 MORE DAYS UNTIL NaNoWriMo!!!!

I am so excited.

My genius husband created this phenomenal Excel spreadsheet for me to keep track of my daily words, total words, percentage done, percentage remaining... It does everything but write the story for me. I think I am going to use NaNo for two things - one for my WIP just to get me to the end - so for that I won't do a 50,000 word challenge because I don't need it. AND either for the revision which I already started OR for a brandy-new story... I can't decide. It's like trying on shoes and making yourself buy only one pair. Impossible!

What's the Point?

OK. So, I am a child of the 60s and being a child of the 60s means that I grew up with flower children and hippies. I heard new songs from the Beatles and the Rolling Stones air on the radio. I wore bell bottoms and blue suede shoes. I had a shag haircut (and later a Dorothy Hamill haircut). I wore moccasins as shoes and I had an Indian fringe suede jacket and....

I know what The Point is.

The Point by Harry Nilsson was my favorite record to listen to when I was a kid. I knew all the words by heart and when I got a dog I felt was mine, truly mine, I named her Arrow. Then they made The Point into a cartoon narrated by none other then Ringo Starr. Oh, happy day!

I wanted to share with you, the wisdom of Rock Man and one of my favorite songs, Think About Your Troubles. Whose the boy's voice, you might wonder? Why that's Bobby from the Brady Bunch, of course!






Now what does this have to do with writing for children? What's my Point? Well, my point is two-fold. First, we authors come from a certain time and place. We grew up a certain way. We had certain experiences. And all of these things add up to our perspective on the world. They add up to our voice as a writer and that voice comes out of our MC's mouth.

This brings me to the second point. Our MCs come from a different time and place. S/He grew up in a different way. S/He had different experiences and therefore has a different perspective on the world.

How do we merge the two? My MC would certainly never have heard of Harry Nilsson's The Point. Many of you probably never have. But it shaped me. What shapes my MC? How do I have her voice and my voice? Well, you can disguise your voice as your MC's voice. That's one way to do it. But I think there's another way, a better way.

I like to have an adult in my story. An adult full of wisdom. And some of that wisdom is my wisdom. I can sound like an adult through this adult character and that is where my perspective can be heard.

It's still my MC's story. It's still her voice. And I need to know her perspective. What music shaped her? What philosophies color her world? What music from her generation will stand the test of time (or not). Pretend your MC is your own child. Let them have their own voice, but see if you can get a brush stroke in there every now and again that's yours.

And hey, whatever you do, no goofin' with the bees.