The Librarian Writer

Yeah, so I didn't "win" NaNoWriMo this year. I didn't write 50,000 words in 30 days. But ... Around the middle of November (at about 20,000 words), I realized that my historical fiction needed more research before I could effectively do any more writing. I knew some stuff about the time and people I was writing about, but not enough of the right stuff. I could have bullshit my way through 30,000 more words, but would be the point of that? That would mean so much more work rewriting later on. So thanks, NaNoWriMo, for getting me started, but I spent the rest of the month doing research. And I'm a nerd, so doing research is fun. I still highly recommend NaNoWriMo for people who need a kick in the pants to start or finish a project. Maybe next year I'll use NaNoWriMo to finish this novel. Stay tuned ...

It's been a few years, but I'm giving NaNoWriMo another go. I've participated twice in the past and finished once. I'm hoping to go the distance on NaNo #3. What I like about NaNoWriMo is the quick and dirty deadline that's randomly imposed. 50,000 words. 30 days. That's it. You either do it or you don't. And even if I don't, I've started. And that's HUGE. I'm working on a historical fiction I've been thinking about for years. I've previously envisioned it as a play and a screenplay. I've done a fair amount of research. I even outlined it as a screenplay. But I've never started it. On November 1, I finally did. And this is why I do NaNoWriMo. Even if I don't finish. I've started. And that's HUGE.

I know, I know. Last post I'm so cocky that I'll finish NaNoWriMo this year, even if it means I have to write 20,000 words in four days. But as I was working on my NaNo manuscript, I realized something important. I wasn't having fun. Yeah, there are times when NaNoWriMo is as much fun as pulling a scab off, but it's still its own kind of masochistic fun. The reason I'm not having fun is because my heart isn't into it. Last year, NaNoWriMo was exactly the kick in the pants I needed to write the YA novel kicking around in my brain. Trouble is, I'm still revising last year's manuscript. It's close to being done. Real close. So now's not the time to leave it at the party while I go off with the new manuscript. Not cool, man. Not cool at all. And all I did with the new manuscript was tell it how great the old manuscript was. The new MC wasn't happy with that. She wants to speak with her voice, not some other MC's. She wants her story, not some...

Maybe the end of October was a bad time to start screwing around with Twitter (I'm @YAWriterNews). Because now in November I find myself fiddling around with Twitter and tweets and whatnot instead cranking out those words. But this is why I'm not worried (yet!): 1. I can write fast. Last year I cranked out around 5,000 words a day for the last 4 days of NaNoWriMo. While I don't recommend this for everyone, and I don't particularly want to repeat that feat, I can thank years of working in television production for the ability to write fast. Good is another thing. Good will come later. 2. I'm not afraid to rewrite (remember, good comes later). So I let myself go. "Dare to be stupid" was a great piece of writing advice I once read from Sue Grafton. And if there's any place to get stupid it's NaNoWriMo. This is not the time for self-editing. Good will come later. 3. I recognize that what I'm writing for NaNoWriMo is unpublishable. There's been ...

So I took a hiatus there for awhile. Spent some time rewriting a screenplay. Got some fabulous feedback on the YA novel. And now it's November again. Which means ... NaNoWriMo! I'm working on the fifth rewrite of the YA novel from last year's NaNo-extravaganza (which will be referred to from now on as YA1), but I decided to plow ahead and start on a new YA novel (which will referred to as YA2). It's an idea that I've been kicking around for awhile and I'm pretty excited about it. Although I have no idea what's going to happen. That's part of the excitement. There are some cons to working on YA2 while revising YA1. Mixing voice and tone is the biggie. My character in YA2 is younger, but more jaded. I also was going to write YA2 in third person, but it came out as first person. Probably because YA1 is first person and that's what I've gotten used to. This will probably mean a huge tense rewrite in the future. (Has Word developed an Tense Change fun...

I'm on draft 4 of the NaNoWriMo novel. Still some big stuff to go, but I've been looking at some of little things, too. Like the words that totally creep into my writing without me even noticing. But actually not the first couple of times I've revised. Draft 4, yeah, they're pretty much popping up a lot and now I just really want to get rid of them. Did you notice the stop words in the above paragraph? There are at least half of dozen sprinkled in. Stop words are one of concepts I learned in library school. These are words so common they don't rate on a search (such as "the" or "a"). And as a writer, they're the words I don't even realize I've written. But stop words in fiction are like bits of gravel that choke the flow of the story. Since I'm writing YA, there is a fair amount of "I totally couldn't understand" or "I just want to be left alone" because many of these stop words are specific to a t...

It hardly seems like it's been three months since I was cranking out 5,000 words a day to finish NaNoWriMo on time. But now I have a little more perspective about my novel and the pros and cons of writing a first draft during NaNoWriMo. First of all, I knew there was a lot of junk in the novel. The needless lists and random song lyrics are all part of the NaNoWriMo ethos. Get that word count up by all means necessary. And in revision mode, that's an easy fix. Just delete. Done. No damage to the actual story. And all the "something something to be filled in later"s were another easy fix. Now I've been able to go back and do the time-consuming research that I skipped over during that crazy month of November. Much of what I skipped over were little personalization touches, the kind that can consume me because I need to get it just right. I knew that in an important scene, one of characters was wearing a band t-shirt. But which band? That can says tons about the...

Yep, it's all over and I survived. Barely. Words written: 50,062 Last word written: exist NaNoWriMo pushed me harder than I thought possible. Of course, much of what I wrote was garbage: unnecessary he said s or she said s, frequently accompanied with an adverb; kind of s and sort of s aplenty; and I did succumb to the lure of adding song lyrics. Several times. But I did NOT use the pre-existing pages I had in the the word count, so I'd still like to pat myself on the back. If not for a job well done, then at least done. Sort of. I'm about 15 pages from finishing up a rough draft. And that's something that should get a happy dance. The novel is a rambling mess, but I have a clear idea now of the story arc and the characters' voices. Those 15 pages should be a cakewalk. I know I shouldn't lose the momentum, but I'm kind of, sort of sick of the whole thing, she said defensively. So I'm giving myself a little break from the novel. For how long? I don't ...

NaNoWriMo Lesson 1: Deadlines are good I've always found it easier to write when I have a hard and fast deadline looming over me. I'm not saying that I write any better, but I'm much less likely to procrastinate by playing Bejeweled or watching Amazing Wedding Cakes if I know I have to get pages done. NaNoWriMo has been an excellent kick in the pants for me. Although I'm about 10,000 words behind the pace, I've got about 135 really crappy pages so far. That's about 120 pages more than I had at the beginning of November. Will I make the magic 50,000 words by the end of November? Doesn't matter. I'm on a trajectory right now that will have me completing my first draft sooner rather than later. NaNoWriMo Lesson 2: Encouragement is better I've been posting my word count as my Facebook status each day. The encouragement from friends on good days and bad days (and there have a few zero word count days) has really kept me motivated. Having your own cheerin...

I first heard about NaNoWriMo a couple of years ago. Since I was in graduate school, it was simply out of the question for me to commit to writing a novel (even a crappy one) in a month. But now I'm footloose and fancy-free (aka unemployed), so I'll be giving NaNoWriMo a go. Just what is NaNoWriMo? Glad you asked. It's short for National Novel Writing Month , a wacky idea started by a group of writers to kick start their writing mojo. The goal is to write 50,000 words during the month of November. Since word count was a concern of mine (see last blog entry), NaNoWriMo will give me the impetus I need to get out the vomit draft of my YA novel. I'm a huge believer in the power of the vomit draft. Getting that novel out isn't pretty and it usually stinks, too. But it's done. And then its time to clean up. NaNoWriMo costs nothing to participate and there is really only one rule. You gotta start from scratch. No reworking old drafts, no finishing works-in-progress. Oo...