April intentions

It's hard to think about April with its post-thaw mud, tender green tree buds and the unspoken promise of light jacket weather when each morning I open the blinds each wondering how many inches of snow will be on my car today. But it appears that many people already are. Maybe it's just, you know, planning ahead on their parts. I hear some people have been known to do that though I can't say I ever plan much beyond that night's dinner if I can help it. Or maybe it's that we all desperately need something to look forward to in order to get through this bleak time of year. Whatever the case, there are some interesting writerly things coming your way this spring.

• Angry Robot is throwing open its doors to unagented novel queries for two weeks in late April. They did this last year and signed three new authors. They're only interested in epic fantasy and YA sf/f. More information is on their website.

• April is also the month of Script Frenzy, NaNoWriMo's dramatically inclined little cousin.

• And there's already talk going on about the A to Z blogging challenge -- and yep, it's held in April too.

Of these three, I'll probably only get involved in the A to Z challenge. I tried it last year and it went well ... for a while. But since people and their online chatter have me thinking about it ahead of time this year, I've started generating a list of topics (and, gasp, even a theme!) and hope to succeed in making all 26 posts this time around.

NaNoWriMo: Lying

I'm a big fat lying liar who lies: Turns out there are times in you're life when you really are too busy for Nano.

I'm cheering you all on!!! and I plan to start my own solitary nano in mid December!

NaNoWriMo: Dangerous Decisions

I've made what may amount to a dangerous NaNoWriMo decision: the three day writing week.

I have a semi-traditional schedule in that I work 40 hours or more per week, but I work most of that over just four days (with occasional exceptions). This means that I spend a chunk of the week wearing myself thin, then a chunk being cranky, and a third chunk recovering from the wear and crankiness. The end result is that I've decided to write my NaNoWriMo novel over only the three days each week when I am in my non-work-for-paycheck recovery mode.

Or, in lay terms, I've not yet started writing.

This could be brilliant -- a clear cut separation between work and play that doesn't muddy the waters or attempt to spread out the pain.  Or it could be a death knell -- an insurmountable task to write 50,000 words in fourteen days instead of thirty days. (Isn't it nifty how Thanksgiving added in all those non-working days for me? Nifty nifty nif -- yeah, I really should think of a different word but can't.)

How's progress?

NaNoWriMo: Good Intentions

I begin this NaNoWriMo with very good intentions. I want to win! I'm crazy busy, but I'm not going to pull one of those well I'll try but if I don't make it, no body should be surprised deals. No, I want to attempt greatness, not hedge my bets!

Because there is no try, only do or do not.

I know some people love the NaNoWriMo website and its forums; I find them like the aisles of Sam's Club -- large, packed, and overwhelming. So I won't be there this month. "Busy" means drawing the line somewhere. Problem is, forums serve two purposes: chatting, talking, nerosing, bragging, freaking out and asking questions of complete strangers and establising a group that shares their word counts.

Having someone (or many someones) who are waiting for my word count to be announced and cheer me on when it's good and kick me in the pants when it's bad is a very useful tool. To that end, I will be posting semi-regular NaNoWriMo updates.  These will be their own posts, separate from the posts with more content; these posts will also feature the above icon. They'll just be my word count and perhaps a few lines on how the writing's been going or what my mood is now. I will not be posting parts of my novel as I write it because eek gad! posting my shitty first draft online?! on the internet?! when everyone knows that the internet is forever?! no no no. I will not. Not in a box, not with a fox.

But I will gladly update the world on my word count progress.

If you'll be embarking on this venture (particularly if you're embarking on writing a novel now because you know that life will never get less busy) and you'll be posting similar updates on your blog, leave me a comment with your blog address and I'll add you to the blog roll on the right hand side titled CRAZY NANOWRIMO-ERS WITH BLOG UPDATES.

Sleep deprivation and other forms of insanity

Work has left me feeling stressed out and crazy. So it goes. Of course my work schedule and job descriptions don't add to the sanity or the number of hours I sleep per night. So in the midst of all this, I have decided to do NaNoWriMo. Because the exact thing that stressed out, sleep deprived, overly busy people who feel they have no time for themselves should do is write the shitty 50,000 word first draft of a novel in 30 days.

Yep. Exactly what the doctor ordered.

... that or a restful, restorative weekend at a spa ... but it was definitely one of the two.

There's the saying that if you want something done, ask a busy person to do it. So my NaNoWriMo declaration should read something like a love letter to myself.

Dear busy-self, I love you and I know you've been feeling down, so I'd like you to do this extra task for me. It'll make us both feel good, accomplished, proud. What's 50,000 words between friends, after all? You're the only person I can count on to do this. And if you can have it to me by or before November 30 that would be great. kthxbye.

Logic says that I shouldn't attempt this. However, NaNo-logic says this is the perfect time to write a novel. Right, smack-dab in the middle of your hectic life. If you don't write your novel now, when will you? Does life ever get less busy?

And -- the thing that really made my decision for me -- I miss writing.

I've been so focused on work (the kind with the paycheck) that I haven't been writing lately. Occasionally I muster enough energy and focus to think  about writing, but no new words land on the page. I'm starting to understand why some of my faculty write like crazy over the summer months -- because they're too busy being faculty and parents and responsible citizens during the school year. While I have the luxury of not having a toddler, I don't know if I have the luxury of waiting; their jobs are much more secure than mine. Writing the novel is the most important step in getting the novel published, so if I want to fulfill that dream of mine -- the one where I see my name on a book cover -- then I need to get words on the page. I need to write my shitty first draft.

(See Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird for what a shitty first draft is and why you should want one.)

Are you talking yourself into or out of it this fall?

Sent home from camp

Camp NaNoWriMo has sent me home early, with a note to my mother explaining that my inability to partake in the spirit of the Na-No-Wri-Mo way has left them with no alternative but to suggest I spend the remainder of camp someplace else.

I sort of knew this going in.  And yet I slathered on sunscreen, doused myself in bug spray, and headed for the trail with just an umbrella and a sandwich -- not exactly survival rations, or for that matter, something one can sleep under.

Better luck in August?  We'll see.

But what I did see of interest today is that Original Recipe NaNoWriMo starts in only 97 days!  Oh my!  Less than three months . . . where did the year go?

Come November I'll be working two, possibly three jobs.  So I feel that the time is now -- or, erm, the time is August -- to attempt a novel marathon, if I plan to attempt one at all this year.  One of my goals is a finished novel draft by the end of the year -- and I'll take that draft whatever way I can get it.  Hopefully Camp won't send me home with measles on my second attempt.

Summer Camp

Camp starts today! (I almost forgot!) But this other camp of mine starts in two weeks ... so I'm kind of stuck preparing for the later while trying to do the former.

Yes, that's right, I've thrown my hat into the Camp NaNoWriMo ring. I have half a bad idea -- also known as the lifeblood of a good NaNo month -- so I'm going for it. Going to the Odyssey alumni week halfway through the month may mean that I don't "win" by hitting 50k in July, but ya know what, I'll be better for what I have written.

Who else is going for it (and have you hit your 1,613 daily word quota yet)?

Camp NaNoWriMo

NaNoWriMo, yes that NaNoWriMo, is starting a summer camp. July and August 2011 will feature the first ever Camp NaNoWriMo competitions. It's like NaNo ... but in the summer. And with limited promotion and hopefully a smaller participant pool. I say hopefully because the Office of Light and Letters (the people who do all the logistics) are redoing their website(s) during that time, providing a scaled down Camp NaNo in July and ideally a fully functional Camp NaNo in August. And they're overhauling the main NaNoWriMo site at the same time. That's a lot of hoping and doing.

The actual Camp NaNo site isn't up yet as I'm writing this post.  But it is supposed to appear sometime in the latter half of June.

I have heard a few people around the internet who are all OMG!MOAR!NaNo!NOAW! But as for me . . . I don't know.  Also I have a stretch of downtime that doesn't align with the calendar-month style of NaNo, from mid-June to mid-July.

Any takers?  Anyone packing up for Camp Anawanna NaNoWriMo?

December's first showing

NaNoFail: 14,157 / 50,000 words

Of course, this isn't all that surprising.  Especially as I altered my personal goal for the month to 20,000 words before Thanksgiving.  But if you consider what my semester has been like ... In September and October I barely wrote anything; I was just desperately trying to keep up with the flow of work and keep my sanity.  Oh and occasionally do the dishes ... so these14,000+ new words is a big step in the right direction.

Right direction: writing consistently
Right direction: achieving crazy output of new and edited fiction

BTW it's snowing here.  It's been snowing all day.  I woke up at 9:00 am and the snow had already started clinging to the grass through you could see the green-brown through the snow.  The flakes have been small but constant all day.  By late afternoon they'd gotten a bit plumper.  The roof of the building across the way is covered.  The cars have thin but even blankets over them, and it's showing no signs of stopping anytime soon.  I don't anticipate getting snowed in--it's not the right kind of snow for that--but for the first snowfall of the year, it's a very respectable showing.

When I went out at a little before 5:00 pm, I thought I would make the twenty minute trip the library and back before heading over to a reception.  It took me an hour and fifteen minutes to creep along.  At that point there was about 2" that had fallen over the course of the day.

Oh lake effect snow.

NaNo Check In

It's been just over a week--how are you doing on your NaNoWriMo novelling endeavors?

Me? I'm ... not so good.  As of last night, an "on-track" person should have 13,334 words written.  I have about 4,000.

My NaNo veteran friends say that it's not a NaNo*fail until the last days and hours of the month--a rally is always possible.  And, as someone who wrote 15K in the last three days of November 2009, I have to agree with them.

NaNo Nested

245 / 50,000

Congratulations to @llison, Michael, ElizabethTwist, Zoe, Sam and everyone else who's doing NaNoWriMo or some variation thereof! The journey has begun!

I spent the weekend nesting like a pregnant woman. Not nesting for a baby, nesting for a novel. I cleaned, washed sheets, vacuumed. I went shopping. Made several trips to the grocery store. And then, most notably, this weekend I cooked. I now have meals for a week in my fridge and about seven TV dinner options chilling in my freezer.

With the domestic things taken care off -- I even put my clothes away after I washed them! -- there should be nothing distracting me this week while I write.  Nothing but school, teaching, grading, lesson planning, and the great unknown which is my novel.  Nothing much at all in the face of the toilet having been cleaned.

Do you NaNo?

It's that time of year again. October's ending, around here the leaves that were so pretty are now in big piles on the lawn, Halloween is practically upon us, Thanksgiving and Christmas just around the corner. That's right: it's NaNoWriMo season.

National Novel Writing Month kicks off it's 12th year in just under four days.

theNathanBransford has been running a NaNo Boot Camp over on his blog all this week. The idea of a NaNo Bootcamp amuses me because NaNo is a bit like bootcamp itself.

You up for it this year?

I'm gonna do it. Not "try," there is only "do" or "do not." I'm crazy busy which, supposedly, is the best way to make it work. No mooning over your novel, your indecision, bemoaning your character's lack of fully developed backstory appropriate goals. Just buy that character some insta-goals and get a move on, you've got words to write.

Vacation Isn't Vacation

The holidays means a chance to get together with old friends. Because people come home to their family houses for Christmas I am getting a chance to see people whom I went to high school with. The two revelations: that work no longer ends because we are on vacation, and that we talk about our pets like they're our children.

Yes, we sat around for hours discussing the cute and strange behaviors of our animals. Even the eating and/or pooping habits. Yep. Hours.

We've all gotten animals in the past year or so and we all brought them home for the holidays. My friends were even more hardcore than me and flew the animals home with them. That's dedication. I'm not certain I'd do that. Well ... I wouldn't be allowed because it's only one pet per passenger and I would have to choose between the cats, but that's neither here nor there.

We are all young pet-parents. The question becomes how much longer will we chat about pets before one or all of us becomes real parents and we chat for hours and hours about that. Kinda scary.

During this afternoon one of my friends kept checking her Blackberry. Even when on vacation she's at work. My friend who is in grad school kept thinking of all the research she's supposed to be doing during break. Vacation is no longer vacation. Then again, we are realizing that there is no longer "a good time" for anything in our lives. There is no longer a time when things will "lighten up." And therefore I think I've convinced both of them to do a NaNoWriMo writing challenge this coming January!

They both have novels they want to write and without hope of a "good time" to write it they know they might as well write it now. There is absolutely no time like the present.

I've changed my counter over on the sidebar from NaNoWriMo (a memoir project) over to January Novel Progress (fiction) because there is no time like the present to attempt really big goals ... and by "the present" I mean "after the holidays." For me it means there's no time like the time you're an unemployed grad student to write big wonderful novels. Seriously.

NaNoWriMo Day 29: Success

[51,000+ / 50,000]

The novel ... I mean memoir-ish ... trek is over. The slogging through is done. I sort of "found" 10k of writing I'd misplaced and, instead of slaving over that last 10,000 words, just plugged it in to my word count. It almost feels like cheating, yet it's precisely what I'm supposed to be doing.

Not entirely certain what I'll be doing next. Wrapping up obligations as both student and teacher, I presume. Yet I find myself more interested in what my next large scale writing project will be. I have several contenders. As always, there are projects that have been placed on hold and the new ones that have come wrapping and tapping while NaNo-ing and now beg, with fresh, dewy faces, to be taken care of now. We shall see.

NaNoWriMo Day 28: "On Track"

[37,373 / 50,000 and still counting]

From the NaNoWriMo website:

Every year, several people write 50,000 words in three days and win.

Every year, hundreds of people write 25,000 words in three days and win.

Every year, thousands of people write 15,000 words in three days and win.

If you're still writing, you're still on track.

You can do it.

Chris

According to Chris Baty, I'm on track. I'm also among thousands of people.

NaNoWriMo Day: 27

[35,170 / 50,000]

Yesterday, Thanksgiving, I had two goals: write 4000 words and grade 16 papers. I ended up writing 6023 words and grading eight papers.

Hey, win some lose some.

Today festivities ensue but hopefully I can get some paper grading done. If I can do 5000 words a day Saturday through Monday I'll make my 50,000 word goal and win my first in-November NaNoWriMo competition.

Unfortunately, on the way to the forum, a funny thing happened: I found another story. I didn't want to find another story but all of a sudden there he is, looking up at me like a stray kitten that wants to be taken home and loved.

NaNoWriMo Day 24

[27,466 / 50,000]

That word count is nowhere near where it needs to be. So much for my early success. I'd like to make some comment about how week three "always" breaks me but the truth is that this is only the second time I've gotten to week three. The good news is that it's usually week two that breaks me so the odds are in my favor that I'll finish given these slim statistics.

I switched from novel to memoir early on in the month. The part of the memoir I'm at now is difficult to tackle. Things that I feel really strongly about either just are and therefore should not be described or reasoned, or I over describe them and get melodramatic. Essentially, I'm whining more about writing this next bit than I'm actually writing.

I've done only 1200 words in the past four days.

My next step is to go back into the middle and write more about that because I didn't get to cover all the stuff I wanted to. Then I will come back and tackle this difficult matter and hack small pieces off of it as I go.

I've already traveled back home for Thanksgiving and the cats are happily ensconced in the "kitty gym," better known as my father's house. They're having lots of fun running up and down the stairs, discovering toys they hid under furniture the last time they were here, and playing the piano when we're not watching them.

The Night of Writing Dangerously

NaNoWriMo Day 21: Somewhere between an "eep!" and a "sigh"

From the Kristin Cashore NaNoWriMo Peptalk:

So, now that you've been writing for a few weeks, here's my question. Have you started to realize what you've gotten yourself into? Is the realization accompanied by a creeping sense of panic?

Yes. Yes Kristin, it has.

Read the whole pep talk here.

Resurfacing

[26,023 / 50,000]

I resurface this week just in time for the Project Runway Season 6 Finale. These are the important things in life. However the important things dissapoint when, for the first time in six seasons, I really dislike the winning designer.

They say that there are over 100,000 aps for the iPhone. That's kinda scary. How are you supposed to find the one that will help you?

Essentially, my response to everything is "I'm workin on it."

I have about 26,000 words on my NaNoNovel. This means I've broken the halfway point today! Although, if you'll look at the calendar, you'll notice that we're about four days past the halfway point of the month.

I have the week of Thanksgiving "off." This means that I will grade papers, read proposals, proofread the next issue of Third Coast, grade more essays and catch up on my NaNoProject, go to two Thanksgivings and work Black Friday in my aunt's shop. No sweat, right?