NaNoWriMo Winner?

The month of crazy (aka NaNoWriMo) is over. I took the challenge at the beginning of November thinking I had no chance of reaching the 50,000 word finish line, but I had a lot of other goals in mind. I wanted to get a good start to my novel, I wanted to learn to turn the inner critic off long enough to pound out a few thousand words, I wanted to get in the habit of writing a lot daily, and I wanted to remember how to have fun with my writing again, having spent the last year or so editing more than writing.

I had a blast writing this past month. My storyline took off in directions I hadn't considered at the start; ditto for complications that arose. I learned to write at the computer (I've always written long-hand before--but no time with this challenge) which increased my writing speed, and I fully practiced what I preach about squeezing writing in every spare moment. And the only way I could even come close to hitting the word count was to completely ignore the inner critic/editor and just let loose.

So I hit my goals--I was a NaNo winner in my books long before my word count was validated by the evil NaNo computer (evil because it knocked 500 words off my original, barely over the finish line submission), but I was still stupidly happy to reach the word-count goal as well. What can I say? I'm a competitive person and I find it hard to leave a challenge unfinished.

The problem is that by the end of it all, I was focused strictly on the word count, and that had never been what it was about. I wasn't even having fun anymore. I was stressed and half-panicked that time was running out and I was 500 words short (courtesy of the evil NaNo computer). James over at Men With Pens puts the whole thing into perspective with his post Did You Reach Your NaNoWriMo goal?

So . . . would I do it again? Probably not. I plan to take what I learned from this experience and carry it through my writing from here on in. Am I glad I did it this time? Absolutely.

Quick Tips: Find and Edit

Find and Replace is a handy little feature in Word, one that comes in especially handy when you decide to change a character's name halfway through a novel. It's also one of my favourite editing tools, because I can use it to eliminate unnecessary adverbs, remove at least a dozen or two usages of the word "just," and find out whether somebody is right and I really do start too many sentences with the word "And." And yes, I probably do.

You'll find the Find feature on the right-hand side of the Home tab in Word 2007. Click on it, type in the word you're looking for, and click on "Find Next" if you'd like to go through each instance. You probably knew that already.

Try this though: Click on Find and then type a word. Let's use "just," because, unfortunately, it's one of my bad habits. Now click on Reading Highlight and then Highlight All. Yup, there's the bad news. Word highlighted 193 instances of the word "just" in the 44,008 words in my NaNoWriMo piece. And no, I'm  not deleting any of them yet. That would be editing, which I am not doing until at least December, plus it would lower my word count by 193. Time is short. Instead I might throw in a few more "justs" just (oops) to get my count higher.

Want to see how many times you've started a sentence with "and?" Click on Find, and then type in "And"--with the upper-case A. Now click on More, and tick the Match Case box. Click on Reading Highlight and Highlight All . . . 133 sentences for me. Wow.

You can also use the feature to find out how many "ly" adverbs you've used in a piece. Type in "ly" into the Find box. Or you can use it to find any other overly used word--really, very, etc. to see if you have a bad habit to worry about. One or two instances is probably no big deal. 747 . . . Time for some serious editing.

Now you can hit the Find Next button and decide on a case-by-case basis if you are going to keep the over-used word, of if you can use a stronger word instead.

Links Tent: Editing

My apologies for being missing in action over the last couple weeks. I'd tell you that it was due to the fact that the other rings in my life took up my time and left with me none for posting blogs, but I hate excuses and refuse to make them. Instead, I'll tell you I had sick kids, a sick me, a move to complete and NaNoWriMo to catch up on (and, yes, I'm still behind but finishing it is still a possibility).

Louise DeSalvo sums up my logic about not giving you these excuses (ahem) in her guest post on Christina Baker Kline's A Writing Life blog: Why Having Kids is No Excuse. I think this should be required reading for any writer who can't find time to write.

Chuck at the Guide to Literary Agents Blog shares these 7 Reasons Agents Stop Reading Your Chapters. These include some big picture problems that you'll want to take care of.

A. Victoria Mixon has some more big picture advice for you in her post Developmental Editing. She writes a developmental editing letter for an imaginary client, Xavier, who is actually a composite of several real clients and offers suggestions about theme, backstory and characters.

Writing Forward presents 10 Helpful Editing Tips that will work whether you are writing fiction or non-fiction, a novel or a business letter.

C. Patrick Schulz focuses on the pesky adverb in his post: Tips on Eliminating Unnecessarily Overused Adverbs. You know you're not supposed to use them!

Finally, Janet Reid, Literary Agent has some sure-fire, undisputable advice for How to get no more rejections, EVER!

NaNoWriMo Success

Yes, it's only Day 10 and yes, I am a day behind in my word count for NaNoWriMo, but I am ready to declare it a personal success. Already. My goals, when I started this little project, were to have fun, get in the habit of writing a lot (of fiction) every day, and make some progress on my novel.

What can I say? I am having a B-L-A-S-T writing. Who knew that turning off the inner critic would be so much fun? It's like the grown-ups have left the kids at home alone for the first time. (For that matter, who knew I was capable of turning off my inner critic? Certainly not anyone who knows me!) And who knew it would result in so many words appearing on my screen?

Ask me again in December, when I'm trying to pull this pile of--I mean, when I'm rewriting those words into something that my inner critic can live with, and I might not be so excited. But for right now, I'm enjoying the ride.

If you've signed on for NaNoWriMo, are you having as much fun with it as I am? If you haven't signed up, try turning off that critic/editor for a while, and play with fiction again.

Quick Tip: Write from Beginning to End

There are four types of writers, I think.

1. Dash Drafter dashes off a first draft of a novel in 30 days (You knew there'd be a NaNoWriMo reference in here, didn't you?), checks it over for typos, and considers it done. It's painful to read.
   
2. E.D. Itor is at the other end of the spectrum. This one writes the first scene in 30 days, stopping and rewriting till every freaking word is absolutely perfect. It's painful to watch.
   
3. Author Interruptus never makes it to the finish line. Maybe he starts off like Dash but runs out of steam, or edits himself to death and never makes it past the first scene.
4. The fourth writer, we'll call the Published Author, and that's who we all aspire to be. This author is part Dash and Part E.D. Itor--he gets to the finish line, but then realizes the work has only begun.

I was inspired a couple years ago by a blog post I read on Murderati, written by Tess Gerritsen. A smart person would have bookmarked that post; unfortunately, I did not and now I can't find it despite my strong Google skills. She wrote about how she writes: from beginning to end, no matter what changes in the storyline. If she decided to change a character's name, she made a note of it and moved on. If she decided to get rid of a character, she made a note of it and moved on. When she edited her first draft, then she worried about all those pesky details.

I'm using her technique to get to the finish line of NaNoWriMo. I'm hoping that with my natural E.D. Itor tendencies, I'll eventually be able to chisel a finished novel out of the process.

Joely Sue Burhart has some other great tips for hitting the NaNoWriMo finish line--and, of course, like Tess Gerritsen's method of writing, these tips can help you get to the end of your novel whether you're doing NaNoWriMo or not.

So what type of writer are you?

Links Tent--NaNoWriMo Style

What every NaNoWriMo writer needs: ideas and inspiration sprinkled with some good writing tips.

Are you short on ideas to get started or keep moving? Heather Wright's Needles and Yarns blog has a collection of writing starters to get you going.

Is it inspiration you're lacking? Find the magic and power of yet on Finding Your Voice.

Need something a little more substantive? Writing Forward brings you Creative Writing Tips from Around the Blogosphere.

Happy NaNoWriMo!

On the weekend, under the effects of a  sugar rush of Hallowe'en proportions, I signed up for NaNoWriMo, aka Crazy Writer Month. The official goal is to write a 50,000-word novel in 30 days, or approximately 1667 words per day for a month.

I don't have time to write 1667 words a day. There is no way I can find time to write that many extra words every day, but an impossible goal has never stopped me from trying--or even succeeding.

So why am I doing it? I've been really focused on the non-fiction side of my writing life for a while now--queries, articles, editing other people's writing--and I thought this would help me take the plunge into the novel I've been kicking around in the back of my head. I'm hoping to shut off the inner critic for 30 days and just write...and write...and write...and at the end of it all, I will have a pretty good start to my novel, and a well-developed habit of writing a lot every day.

There's no finding time to write, especially not a novel which doesn't provide an immediate (or even a likely) cash payout. It's all about making time to write. And so it's easy for the love of writing to get buried in the to-do lists that fill our lives. NaNoWriMo is, for me, an opportunity to dig my love of writing out from under the pile of laundry, dust it off, and put it to good use again.