NANO: A kick in the pants?

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Original Posting Nov. 12, 2014

Here you go! Try one of these:

1. Stress: Christmas! Dilemma: a land developer offers your law firm lucrative business in exchange for your influence with a friend, a politician. Do you accept? Event: hijacked!
2. Stress: Your laundry turns pink.  Dilemma: Your Elderly mother-in-law can no longer manage alone in her house and doesn't like nursing homes. Do you take her in? Event: fire.
3. Stress: death of a spouse. Dilemma: your son has missed the age deadline for kindergarten by two weeks. You feel the child is ready. Do you misrepresent his age? Event: Police stop.
4. Problem: Jail term. Dilemma: returning home from the supermarket, you discover your child has taken a $.50 chocolate bar. Do you return and see that it's paid for? Event: Gypsies in the neighborhood.
5. Problem: educational difficulties. Dilemma: a friend has designs on a colleague of yours who is married. He asks you to introduce them. Do you? Event: blackmail.
6. Stress: change in residence. Dilemma: the country has been attacked by an aggressive foreign power. Do you volunteer to fight? Event: Are the mushrooms you just ate poisonous or not?

Feel free to only use a piece of one of these. And you can rewrite or twist things as you like. Still, something here might just kick your scene into life, right?

Keep those words coming!

TECH: Geek Points? YES!

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Original Posting Nov. 14, 2014

Over on Facebook, Wen Spencer, a published author, is busily relaxing by writing a series of snippets from a possible book. The Black Wolves of Boston. These are rough draft, pantser-style, straight from the author's fingers, and will probably be revised heavily before turning into a book. But it is certainly fun to read along!

You can find the beginning of the tale over here

https://www.facebook.com/wen.spencer/posts/700537503370547

and more recent segments at https://www.facebook.com/wen.spencer/

Along the way, she is also posting various pieces about the writing process. One of those is over here

https://www.facebook.com/wen.spencer/posts/720404568050507

The part that really resonated for me was this one:

"Why? Because every story has geek points for a writer. WHY WE WRITE THIS STORY. Novels are long, horrible things to do even when you love the subject. The only way to get to an end is to remember, over and over again, your geek point. Decker and Joshua are my geek points. I WANT them together."

Hah! That's the thing. Geek points! What's the really important thing that I like about this story? What is going to make me come back to it, to keep going when it isn't working, what do I really enjoy about this story?

Add that to your list of preparation ideas! Sure, identify characters, problems, scenes, settings, all that stuff. But also identify the geek points -- what do I enjoy about this story?

And write!

NANO: 15 days and counting?

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Original Posting Nov. 15, 2014

Whoops. I've spent most of my day blowing my nose, which has kind of distracted me. But... It's day 15 of Nanowrimo! Halfway there. So... 25,000 words? More or less?

More importantly, it's a good time to look at what you may have noticed about your own production habits. You may have decided that the outline and other prep really didn't mean much, and struck off into the wilds of seat-of-the-pants (aka discovery) writing, just following the thoughts and characters and urges as they turn up. Or maybe you've noticed that you really like the prepared scenes and outlines, and find the making it up part hard? You might have noticed that when you start the work session with a bit of brainstorming and focusing, it runs better than just diving in... Or perhaps free writing really lights your fire?

Think about the characters, the events and scenes, the settings, all that stuff. How does it work for you? One story at a time, or do you find yourself writing two or more and switching off?

Take a look at your own process, the work habits and places that seem problematical. Then buckle yourself back in, there are 15 more days of Nanowrimo to go! With the rapids of Thanksgiving holidays for some of us, which may hinder things (what? You're going to ignore turkey, family, and football for writing?) or may give you some extra time to put into turning out those words.

Anyway, keep going. Just 15 more days, and you have already shown you can do that, right? So let the words flow.

Write?

TECH: Techniques of the Selling Writer (part 9)

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Original Posting Nov. 16, 2014

Chapter nine has the title "Selling your stories." Swain starts out with another one sentence thought provoker, "A story is merchandise that goes hunting for a buyer."

But... As Swain points out, this is going to be a very, very short chapter. Swain recommends three steps:

1. Study your markets.
2. Get your manuscripts in the mail.
3. Keep them there.

That's it. He does have a short note about agents. As he remarks, agents are for successful businesses. Do you have such a business? If you want to, read Paul R. Reynolds The Writer and His Markets.

And that really is it!

One more chapter to go.

NANO: 20 Days! Hold that thought...

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Original Posting Nov. 20, 2014

Okay! 20 days into Nanowrimo this year. So two-thirds of the month, right? Roughly...

50,000/30 is 1,666? Times 20 is 33,333? (Thank science for calculators! And yes, I do know how to do it with paper and pencil, but a calculator or spreadsheet sure can be helpful.) Or, if you've been aiming at 2000 words a day, you might be hitting 40,000 or more? Somewhere in that vicinity, anyway?

CONGRATULATIONS! That's a pile of words!

Have you noticed yourself doing anything different? For example, I've taken to carrying around a small memo pad again. See, I was coming up with stray thoughts here and there, and yes, I could dig out my iPod touch and write myself a note, but somehow... I didn't do it. Which for me leads to later remembering that I had a thought, but usually I cannot remember what it was. So, the little memo pad is riding in my shirt pocket again. Somehow pencil and paper just work better for me. Not that I have had a great number of extra thoughts since I started carrying the pad again...

Oh, I've also started doing little writing blitzes. Instead of spending a lot of effort scribbling things down, rearranging them, and so forth, just stop and do 10 minutes, 20 minutes, a half hour of free writing. Collect several bits and pieces, and who knows, you might have something worth putting together later. Anyway, that kind of let the words flow and see where it goes approach seems to be useful. Of course, part of this is reading over the shoulder of Wen Spencer on Facebook, where she is happily writing swatches of a story that might be.

So, where were we? Oh yes, two thirds of the way through nanowrimo, and counting. Words piling up, and it's tempting to go back and get out the weedwhacker and start trimming, but... keep writing! Don't look back, the words might be multiplying in the shade! And you don't want to know what is happening back there, really.

Here a word, there a word, everywhere a word word?

Write on!