National Novel Writing Month of Craziness

As a writer, whether or not you're participating in NaNoWriMo, it's a good idea to write every day. I loved what James Patterson had to say in his pep talk... "Most professional writers keep this kind of pace all year round. Holidays, birthdays, vacations—you name it, we’re writing. The trick is making writing into a daily habit. Same time. Same place. Same hot beverage of choice. Every. Single. Day. Again. And. Again." ~ James Patterson

You can read his entire pep talk here. 

If writing is what you love, what you want to do for a living, then writing daily is the key. So set a goal and then DO IT.  

My goal this November is to write 100,000 words. Yeah, I'm doing double the NaNo. 

What about you? What are your writing goals?

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RaShelle Workman is the international bestselling author of the Dead Roses series ("Sleeping Roses," book 1 in the series, has been translated into Turkish and is NOW available wherever Turkish books are sold), the Immortal Essence series, the Blood and Snow series, the Cindy Chronicles, and Touching Melody (A Forever First Novel). She's sold over three hundred thousand copies of her novels worldwide in the past year, including Japan, Canada, and Europe. You can find RaShelle all over the web, but the best place to start is on her blog: rashelleworkman.com.

Nano Time Travel

So it has been two years since I completed my first Nano novel and it has gone on to become my best seller and put me on the map as an Indie Author. That's right.. UnEnchanted was my Nano of 2010. I was looking through my blog and decided that I would take you through a few Nano posts and inspirations that I did two years ago to encourage you for the future. So are we ready for a Time Traveling Nano adventure back to 2010? I can't guarantee, you'll learn a whole lot, but it will be fun!

Present 

2012

2011

2010

Nov 1st, 2010- I don't have a clue what to write for Nano! Everyone else has started and I'm floundering. I almost decide to give up and just start writing something, but I can't. I have to feel inspired to write! I tell myself if I can't write anything that I really want to write, then I won't force myself to do Nano.

Nov 6th, 2010- Browsing through Flickr and deviantart still looking for inspiration for a new project. Happened across this picture. Ooh, me likey! So I bookmarked it and continued looking for something else.

Nov 7th, 2010- Doing a plot exercise with my husband, feeling kind of bummed that I'm late for Nano and I still didn't have a solid idea of a new book. I remembered the picture from the day before and wrote out a quick synopsis of the book on a green 3x5 card. It was coming together. I was going to do a red riding hood story!

Nov 9th, 2010- I announce my new idea on my blog. (uh oh, now i'm committed and have to write it)

Nov 10th-12th, 2010-  Going insane trying to put together a plot outline for my novel.

Nov 13th 2010- I actually pen the first words into my nano novel.."Today, I saved Brody Carmichael's life." Phew okay the first sentence was done...now what!?! I started almost 2 weeks late!!! I'm officially 21, 653 words behind if you count my first sentence.

Nov 19th, 2010- Feeling like I may not accomplish my goal. Every waking moment I was bombarded with 2 year olds or my husband asking, at the time really dumb questions. Which in fact they weren't but they seemed that way. (See below cartoon)

Nov 25th, 2010- Thanksgiving! I have become extremely antisocial. Everyone in my family knows of my crazy goal to finish this novel. So I say hello to the family, pass off my twins to the happy to help grandparents. Stuff my face with turkey and all the fix-ins and retreat to the guest room to type! Who knew holiday's would come with free babysitting! (I was extremely grateful and they knew it)

Nov 29th, 2010- I'm actually having nightmares! So I try and tell myself hey, since I started late I can finish it Dec 13th....right. I latched onto the below Nano cartoon because it was kind of how I was feeling with my novel. I had decided right then, that I was going to make all of my Unfortunate Fairy Tale series have an ending with a twist. I knew then that my readers would either hate the ending or love it. So I developed my Unfortunate Formula for writing my Fairy Tales. Because not all Fairy Tales have happily ever afters.

Nov 30th, 2010- I finished 50,000 words. I completed the Nano goal, but my novel wasn't finished yet. (The following is from my blog post about UnEnchanted after 50,000 words)

"I did complete the task of 50,024 words in a month. But again I started 13 days late, so I was cramming. I was typing on Thanksgiving, in between visiting family members and late at night every night. I was even typing almost up until the midnight cut off point. Once I reached my goal of a few words of 50,000. I saved and uploaded it and shut my computer off. I didn't touch my novel for one whole week. I still can't touch it. I look at it and my skin crawls with dread at the thought of picking it up and feeling my fingers automatically curl back with intense dislike. Don't get me wrong, the story is good and I love where i'm going with it and I'm glad that the contest push made me start it. It's my fingers....they are protesting the abuse i put them through with typing. I'm find myself typing this blog very slow as if i'm stretching my fingers before a run along the keyboard path." 

Can you tell I hated it??? But what happened next?

Dec 15th, 2010- I get permission from the photographer for rights to the above red riding hood photo. YES!!!! I have my book and I have a cover!  UnEnchanted still had edits to go through.

June 1, 2011- I begin querying UnEnchanted, to some interest but generally the same answer. Fairy tales are overdone and they aren't big.

November  2011- I didn't do Nano because I was packing and moving to Oregon.

Dec 31st, 2011- I uploaded UnEnchanted on a whim because I was tired of getting rejections and now all of these tv shows were coming out and stealing my thunder. What do you know! They like my book and It became a huge success.

So all in all, it was a bumpy ride, lots of fear, anxiety, doubt, but in the end I did it. Even if you haven't started Nano yet, you still can. It's not to late, I started almost two weeks late with my project and I did it. So go for it! Look for inspiration, make plot cards, pull character profiles etc and get a candy jar of inspiration. Notice, I forgot to put my coffee in the picture!

Here is a picture of what my desk looks like right before Nano or actually any big project. Do you recognize anything?

So as I always say. Keep on Dreaming. Keep on Writing.

Chanda Hahn is the author of the popular Unfortunate Fairy Tale Series which includes UnEnchanted and Fairest which have topped the ebook charts in 5 countries. She also has a passion for writing YA epic fantasy. She's been a children's librarian, children's pastor and costume mascot. She lives in the beautiful but rainy northwest that is Portland Oregon with her husband and twin children.

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Speed Writing That NanoWrimo Novel

Nano (National Novel Writing Month) from November 1st-30th. It’s the writing frenzy where you kick out a large number of words to hopefully finish a novel in record time. Many people start the challenge and end up with a sizable number of pages by the end. Some are inspired to start writing for the first time. Others are inspired to finish something for the first time. Some, like me, find that writing at breakneck speed produces a lower quality of work that doesn’t reflect what is normally produced when writing within your own timing. Truth is, my natural timing is four months from start to finish. I tried to increase my speed and did it without much trouble. It increased by 3 weeks, and for me, that cooking time for a novel fits just right.

There are ways to make speed writing more effective. The overall goal, is to produce more in a shorter period of time. If you keep this up, who knows, speed writing may become a habit.

Prepare for it

When you set out to write a novel in a short period of time, outlining is your friend. Take a week to write a detailed outline of the story. It will help to work out most of the kinks before you even sit down to write. Create character profiles of the main characters and review outline before the start of your writing marathon.

Plan it

If you are going to focus on spitting out as many words as possible a day, then plan it. Block out your writing time for the month. Figure out when you are most productive. Is it in the morning, at night or midday? Make a rule – no sleep unless you have kicked out a minimum of a certain amount of words. Make sure you schedule extra time for working out of corners or temporary writer’s blocks. Make your schedule somewhat flexible so that you don’t get burned out and give up.

Write it

With a printout of your outline next to you and a bullet list of your character profile – start the race. Follow your outline. If you want to go rogue, go ahead, write until the roadblock. If you reach a road block – write anything, take some time off to think on it, then re-work your outline and get back to it. Whatever you do – don’t stop writing. Remember, you will always have to edit it.

Don’t look back

Whatever you do, don’t read over what you’ve written until you are finished. That is an easy way to get distracted. Remember, you’ll have to edit the thing many times before your piece of art is perfected. Just write forward, don’t make corrections, don’t read over it, just push forward and write.

Introducing LM Preston, new Indelibles.
by LM Preston, www.phenomenalonepress.com

A new Indelibles member and author of Middle Grade and Young Adult books. Vice President of Mid Atlantic Book Publishers Association, Co-Chair of Maryland Writers Conference 2012, YA Lit Chat Moderator and co-owner of Phenomenal One Press.

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