NaNoWriMo Editing Reminder

Remember November? I know, it seems like forever ago. But if you won NaNoWriMo, then you have some winner goodies to take advantage of, including several options for ways to publish your novel! But you shouldn't publish until you've edited, and that can take a really long time.

A lot of people - like me - finish NaNoWriMo and think, "Okay, now I can focus on the holiday season. Oh now it's January, I can start some new project for the new year. And February has rolled around now; I can get back to normal as far as housework and my job and things like that are concerned." Well, if you go on like that, you'll never edit, you'll miss the deadline to publish for free or discounted price (depending on which winner goodies you take advantage of) and before you know it, it's November again and you're starting all over!

We had a few snow days this week, and I did a very tiny bit of editing on my 2013 NaNoWriMo (because I think it has better foundations than my 2014 NaNoWriMo and I'd prefer to publish the 2013 one). Not as much as I should have, or had time to do, but I did something.

So this is a reminder to anyone who wants to edit their NaNoWriMo novel: DO IT! Even a little bit a day is more than nothing, and once you get your momentum up and you're several chapters in, it will get a lot easier.

Procrastination Station

Writer's block... if you haven't gotten it in the past two weeks of writing, you probably will soon. And I'm not trying to jinx you or anything... it's just something that happens. One way to help combat it and end it more quickly is to distract yourself for a while. (You just have to be careful to write more than you procrastinate.)

A lot of regions have Procrastination Stations on their websites, with fun distractions to get your mind working on something else for a little while. Sometimes they're the types of things that can jumpstart your writing, and sometimes they're just the kind of things that get your mind doing something else so it can relax from thinking about your novel.

This post is my own recommendations for Procrastination Station activities. I keep a bookmark folder in Chrome of some of my favorites. That way, I don't see the links while I'm working (I always have Chrome open while I write, in case I need to do a little quick Google research, look up a new character name, make sure I'm using a word correctly by checking the dictionary, playing music from Pandora or Spotify, and obviously to keep the NaNoWriMo dashboard up so I can update my word count every time I take a break) but they're right there when I need them.

Inspiration-Type Procrastinations

Word of the Day (dictionary.com)

The word of the day feature on Dictionary.com can be entertaining, informative, and sometimes inspire you to try to use it in your novel. Lots of websites have a "word of the day" tool.

Word Clouds (Wordle)

Use Wordle to make a word cloud out of what you've written so far. It's fun - but also helpful - to see which words you're overusing, or not using enough.

NaNoWriMo Region Website

My region (Hampton Roads) has a cute little Procrastination Station section on their website. It has little games (hangman, word matching, etc.) that don't take up much time, but can get your brain moving in a different direction.

Procrastination-Type Procrastinations

Jigsaw puzzles (Jigzone)

I've always been a fan of Jigzone for a customized time-waster. Since you can change the cut of the puzzle, you can set it to an easier mode to waste five minutes, or a harder mode to waste twenty.

Sudoku / Samurai Sudoku

I got bored with regular sudoku years ago... but I love Samurai Sudoku (five sudoku puzzles stuck together). Like with the jigsaw puzzles, you can choose from different difficulty levels to decide how much time you want to spend on it.

I've also discovered that, this year, when I'm on a computer with two monitors, I play Hearthstone on one monitor and have my novel and Chrome (with my writing tools open) open on the other. If I get out one or two sentences while I wait for my opponent to play their turn, I can get out at least 100 words per game. It's not the most productive I could be, but it's like mini-sprints... I challenge myself to write the next sentence before it's my turn again.

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What are your favorite writing procrastinations? Share them with us in the comments!

Write or Die

As we near the middle of the month, we start to feel the pressure of our word counts.  Some of us are ahead (congrats!), some of us are behind (you can catch up, don't worry!) and some of us are just right on track (great planning!).

Wherever you are, sometimes you just need a little motivation to get some work done.  Which, is why I submit to you:

WRITE OR DIE!!

Write or die is an especially great program if you are behind.  It's free, if you just use it on the internets, but you can buy the full version for just $20, and you put in the amount of time that you would like to work and then you can put in the level of intensity that you want to work at.  At it's lowest setting it will just flash some colors at you.  At the next level, it will make some unsavory noises, and at it's top level, Kamikaze, if you sit dormant for too long, Write or Die will start deleting the words you have written.

Write or Die has done some upgrades since the last time that I've written about them.  There are now REWARDS for writing.  You can get pleasant sounds for meeting goals.  Kitten purrs and the like, along with pleasant pictures.  However, there are also unpleasant pictures that appear, like spiders across your screen, motivating you to write and make the pictures disappear.

So if you're struggling, it's definitely something I recommend doing.

Write With the Door... Open?

Stephen King gives excellent writing advice. If you haven't read his book On Writing, I highly recommend it. It's useful and funny. However, this NaNoWriMo, I'm flying in the face of some of his best writing advice:

"Write with the door closed; rewrite with the door open."

What does that mean?

Well, the quote means you should keep your writing to yourself while you're getting the first draft out, because outside influence is more of a hindrance than a help at that stage. And during the editing process, you should allow others in, because of the old adage that two (or more) heads are better than one.

But this year, for NaNoWriMo, I'm making my in-progress novel publicly available at

www.layingrubbernovel.blogspot.com

so you can watch the first draft develop. I'm still writing in Microsoft Word, but at the end of each day, when I'm done writing, I post what I've written that day (with my total word count so far in the title of the post).

It's experimental, it's fun, and you're welcome to go check it out.

The biggest problem I've already run into is that I already know that in about a week or two, I'm going to really want/need to go back and change some stuff in the writing I've already posted. I haven't yet decided how to deal with that, but I think it might be that if I change something in already-posted content, I'll repost with the changes and mark it as a "rewrite" post. It'll confuse the total word count but that's okay.

Favorite Writing Tool

Me (Alex) and my trust NaNoWriMo 2014 notebook

NaNoWriMo makes me feel a little old school, because I pull out a composition notebook around September to start preparing for it. My composition notebooks are my favorite writing tools (with the specific pens I use for this purpose in a very close second place).

I'm a tactile person. Things seem more real to me when I can touch them. I'm also a visual person. It is easier for me to be able to write in margins or doodle or dedicate an entire page to a sketch. I also love the feel of flipping through pages covered in ink writing.

Bonus? This year, the color of my composition notebook kind of matches the idea of my book.

While I do get a little tactile just like Alex during NaNo (I have these great generic super hero notebook that say things like 'Kapow!'), I really love Scrivener.  I have loved it since the first day I finally pony upped the money to pay for it (and by me I mean Alex because she bought it for me for my birthday.)

It let's me divide my book into the most miraculous ways (this NaNo, I'm dividing it by school grade level, and then have it further divided into different parts within the school grades.)  I have a separate section for keeping track of characters and their features and families.  There's a place to keep my research and outlines and anything to do with my story.

I love that Scrivener keeps everything organized in one place.  I don't need four documents, in four separate programs, to keep my characters straight.  It's all in one place and it's an affordable program!  If you win NaNo, it's only $20.  If you don't win NaNo.  It's still only $40.  If you are looking for a great program for writing, pick up Scrivener.

NaNoWriMo Blog for All

NaNo has officially started!

So if you're here, reading this posts, it's either A. because you're not participating in NaNo or B. because you're procrastinating.

Either are likely scenarios around here.  Alex and I, as always, will be participating like we always do (and keeping mildly up to date on here), but mostly, we're going to be encouraging you to head over to a writing blog that I've started for you guys.

www.shorttallgirl.com

While later on, I will be posting my writings, during NaNo the idea is I'm posting digital write-ins, writing sprints, advice days, and just a place for everyone to gather and talk about NaNo.  I'm going to keep word counters to the side of the blog and, right now, it's just Alex and I, but we would LOVE for you to contribute.

If you give us your NaNo user name, we will add it to the counter on the side and we can all compare how we're doing!!!  (good motivation to keep writing, isn't it?)

If there are other writing ideas you have for it, let me know.  I'm really looking for it to be a community writing space, not just during NaNo but past it as well.

Happy Writing!!

Because We Love NaNo around here

It's April, and that means that there are two big events going on:  NaPoWriMo (National Poetry Writing Month) and Camp NaNoWriMo.

Alex, my most wonderful co-blogger, usually participates in both of these events every year, along with NaNoWriMo that we both do.  What is the benefits, you may ask?  I mean, one book a year is enough.

NaPo and Camp NaNo are actually great alternatives to the November NaNo, especially if you want to get a trial run of what NaNo would be like.  Poetry, while I won't say is EASIER to write, it certainly has a less intense word count associated with it.  It lets you write without having to meet a goal other than, "write one poem a day."

Camp NaNoWriMo is the same way.  The different between Camp and the traditional November push, is that Camp lets you pick your own word goal.  That's right, no 50K mark to hit in April (unless, of course, you absolutely want to.)  You could set a 25K goal or a 30K.  Whatever your comfortable with.

So why all the NaNo encouragement?  Well, our author this week, Rainbow Rowell, actually wrote our book this week, Fangirl, during NaNoWriMo.  She even talked about how liberating NaNo was during her pep talk. So it just goes to show that you never know what can come out of NaNo, weather it be during April when you're testing things out, or during the actual month of November.

Review Me Twice - The Petrosian Invitation by T.P. Keating

We always love it when we get the opportunity to review NaNo authors on this blog, and this occasion is no different.  Getting your book out there is hard (as I have discovered from the grand total of two books that I've sold), so we try our best to help out.

Keating has a very good writing style.  She knows exactly the scene that she wants to portray to her readers and how she wants them to see the situation.  While she does have the same problem as my dear co-blogger about knowing when to tone back the vocabulary, she does have a great one and I really appreciate that.

I also loved the relationship between Zoe and Sam.  You could tell they were sisters, even if you hadn't been told by the author.  They had that love/hate relationship that a lot of sisters have.  They help each other even when they don't want to, they gossip about each others lives with each other, whether that be good or bad, and at the end of the day, the genuinely want what's best for the other.

The one, rather glaring, problem that I had with this book was the pacing.  Our main characters fell in love with each other within days, and made life altering decisions within the maybe week time span that the book took place in.  It seemed that everyone in the book had impulsive personalities and that didn't seem weird to anyone.

Overall, not a bad read, and a short one at that.

What is it with vampires and sudden love? Sure, lots of book characters fall in love quickly, but it seems to happen more often when vampires are around.

I agree entirely with Cassy about the vocabulary issue. That's something else I've noticed about vampires, though... if you're writing the type of vampire who has been around for centuries, you tend to allow way more complicated vocabulary (even when it's not coming out of that old soul's mouth). But it's an appropriately-applied vocabulary (as in, our author is not using big words without knowing what they mean or how to use them).

This isn't the kind of book I could reread, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. If I'm paying very close attention to a book, I don't want to reread it, because I don't feel like I missed anything (although I'm sure I did). If you're the kind of reader who sees "vampire romance" and thinks, "Nope, not for me"... you're probably right. The book delivers what it promises, so if that isn't your jam, this book isn't for you. Otherwise, it's worth a read.

Favorite NaNoWriMo Book

We're big fans of NaNoWriMo around here.  And we've read a lot of NaNo books on this blog.  Today, we're going to pick our favorite book written during NaNo.

I have actually liked a lot of the books we've been given from NaNo writers.  (Superceneries had such a great premise and the drawing in The Lesser Evil were done so well!)  However, it's hard to compete with The Night Circus.  It's beautifully written, really pulling you in and assaulting your senses with it's scenes and its characters.  And it's such a NaNo story.  Morgenstern hated The Night Circus when she first started it one NaNo.  It wasn't at all going the direction that she wanted it to, so she dropped her characters into a circus and VOILA!

I like how creative Morgenstern is.  I mean, the settings that she comes up with and all the ideas for the tents, I couldn't even begin to create worlds like that and she does it so naturally.  It's second nature, like she can see it all so clearly in her mind, so when I read it, I can imagine so clearly and crisply.

It's a great book and, if you're going to pick up and inspiring NaNo novel, this should be it.

Ditto! But that's no surprise. For the third time ever, Cassy and I have chosen the same book for a favorite! (The other two were our favorite Harry Potter book and our favorite Christmas story.)

I would love to see the evolution of this book, with each edit as it went from original NaNo to its published form. It would be very heartening in doing my own editing (which is only showing me how the first 1/3 of my book is a lot like the upcoming Ben Stiller movie and the last 1/3 is depressingly similar to the story of United flight 93 on 9/11, which I didn't realize until yesterday).

Morgenstern talks openly and honestly about the NaNoWriMo process, too. It's nice to hear a success story like hers from the metaphorical horse's mouth.

Review Me Twice: Supercenaries by Josh O'Brien

I am easily distracted by typos. It's what makes me a halfway decent editor: if I see incorrect punctuation, spelling, or grammar, or a missing (or extra) word, my mind stutters in reading and tries to make me fix it before moving on. The thing about reading (and reviewing) NaNoWriMo novels is that the average person does not have a professional editor fixing these details before the reader gets a go at it. (But hey, I've found typos in bestsellers, too, so it's not an exclusively NaNo thing.) There were a lot of those in Supercenaries, so I was fairly distracted.

But! (There's always a but.) I really liked the characters. They were introduced well. It was sort of like a laundry list at the beginning (each chapter shows you a new character until we have all of them ready to start interacting) but I liked it. Within each chapter, they were succinctly and descriptively introduced. It wasn't like saying, "This is Joe and his superpower is this and he is currently doing this with his life until joining Supercenaries." Each one is a little different, and is recruited a little differently, and - this is the thing that impresses me - has a slightly different voice. Geographically speaking, I was a little confused, because one character would be quite clearly English, and the next could be from... literally any large city in the world. And so on. But they have distinct voices, even though they aren't in the first person. That's the only way I can describe it.

Josh warned us, before we started reading, that he believed the ending to be a little rushed. This is coming from someone with the same problem (see Cassy's spot-on critique of Epilogue from last year), but I agree. I think it's a NaNoWriMo thing... you hit 50,000 words, and DING! you just finish as quickly as possible, because your goal is met.

All in all, I'd say once it's finished being tweaked and edited, Supercenaries will make for a solid superhero book that fits into the current trend without being swallowed up by it.

I actually really liked Supercenaries.  It was well thought out, and had a good plot to it.  I wasn't thrilled with the way the characters were introduced, but as the book progressed, it was a lot easier to keep track of characters than I had initially anticipated, which is good.  It's very easy to get caught in the trap of having so many characters you can't keep track of them.

I like that O'Brien wasn't afraid to take risks.  There was a lot of things that I didn't expect, but in a good way.  You weren't sure what was going to happen next or who was bad or good or anything.  I was able to figure out (part of) the ending.  But I didn't figure it out until MUCH later in the book (and we all know that I have a predilection for figuring things out before I should), so it was well done.

The only real complaint I had was that things were... TOLD to me a lot.  For example, a character mentioned having back up and then told the reader that "Rhien usually worked that stuff out."  The very next sentence was, "I've already worked that stuff out."  There was a lot of that kind of thing in the book, but I feel like with a good edit, that kind of thing could be fixed.  

The end was rushed.  I think that it could have gone a LOT of awesome places, but that doesn't mean that the ending was bad.  It was interesting and fit well with the rest of the book.

As always, I was happy to have the opportunity to read a NaNo book.

Author Bio - Josh O'Brien

So, NaNoWriMo is over, but it's not forgotten!  This week, we're reviewing a NaNo author, Josh O'Brien.  See below for a short bio about him and an interview!

Josh O'Brien is a 17 year old author from Essex, who enjoys Fantasy and Sci-Fi novels, and is pursuing A-Level degrees in English Language & Literature, Sociology, Philosophy and Politics. With one and a half novels under his belt, he is making headway into a career in writing. He is currently juggling two demanding kittens with driving lessons and the continuation of his second novel, The Houdini Institute.

Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.

Hi, I’m Josh. I’m 17 and I live in Essex. I’ve been writing stories since I was a very young child, and have always had a huge passion for reading and writing. I’ve only written one book so far, but I am around 60,000 words throught the second, thanks to NaNoWriMo 2013! My first is called Supercenaries, and here is a short synopsis.

Supercenaries is a novel which follows a group of people from all around the world, of different ages, races, colours, creeds and professions, who all share one common characteristic. They all have superpowers. From Houdini, the Canadian escape artist with the ability to slip any sort of restraint, to Dr Howard Stadter, an American scientist and professor who can expel bursts of high powered energy from his hands, they all use their powers for different things and live their lives differently. They are brought together by the mysterious Supercenary corporation, a company which works outside of the law, comprised entirely of people with abilities, to act as mercenaries, assassins, thieves, bodyguards and any other possible profession, for money. The corporation is headed by the enigmatic Rhian Blaznickov, a tall, seemingly ageless man with a power that even he does not fully understand. Supercenaries follows the main characters as they join up and train, only to become part of a conspiracy and war taking place within the Corporation. Suddenly people start dying on jobs, being assassinated during their missions, clearly by someone with insider knowledge. From that moment the race is on to find out who the spy is or if there are multiple, and to find out their motives for destroying the Supercenary Corporation.

My second, and the one I am currently working on, is called The Houdini Institute, and is about two students who go to a college for the arcane and the magical, as well as the supernatural.

What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?

My latest book that is out is Supercenaries. The name comes from the two main topics. Super(heroes) and Mercenaries. At first, Supercenaries was simply a working title for a book that I had no ideas for the name of. But once I had finished Supercenaries I had become so attached to the name that letting go of it and changing it was simply not an option. Also, I still had no idea for a better title! The book itself draws inspiration from a lot of media that I am a fan of. Shows like Heroes, Alphas and the like gave me the interest in writing about people with abilities, and the amount of comics and films I have read/watched meant that I’ve always wanted to write about mercenaries. I started Supercenaries with a general idea for the concept, and was immediately taken with it, to the point of getting a whole novel written and edited within 4 months.

Do you have any unusual writing habits?

When I write, I use a website called Writeordie.com with settings enabled which make me write to a certain wordcount, and if I stop writing for more than 5 seconds at a time, then it begins to delete what I have already written. This means I can get 2000 or so words smashed out very quickly, because of the motivation of the possible loss of what I have already written. Then when I reach the wordcount, I take the stuff I have just written and refine it to get a better end result.

I am also a huge fan of writing very late at night/early in the morning. I like being completely focused, so I use Ommwriter which hides everything except what I am writing, and stops me from becoming distracted, and the time I write at means that there is nobody awake to distract or confuse me as I write.

What authors, or books have influenced you?

Oh, so many. Darren Shan firstly, my absolute favourite author (who I was lucky enough to meet and present with a copy of Supercenaries recently) has been a big influence in the way I write, because I try to emulate how easy to read his books are. I am influenced by any book I read however, since I am constantly on the look out for literary devices, small ideas and ways of saying things that I can pinch. For example, I read a book which had a small description of each chapter under the heading, and I completely adored that idea, so I added it into Supercenaries.

What are you working on now?

Currently I am around 60,000 words into The Houdini Institute. This novel, The Houdini Institute, is about a magical school and two students. Mark and Lorna, who go there. One of them is expelled and is forced to undergo five challenges relating to the subjects they have been taught, with no tuition, to ensure they can regain their place. Understandably, this puts strain on their friendship, amplified by the mysterious Prodi. I got just over 14,000 words in and then my computer lost the file. I stupidly hadn’t backed it up at all, so I lost every single bit of work that I had done on it. This was a huge crusher for my motivation and confidence, and so I waited all the time from March until November to restart and write those 14,000 again. Only this time, they brought friends!

What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?

I’m not really very good at self promotion, but I have been emailing review websites for a number of days to try and get some reviews out into the world.

Do you have any advice for new authors?

WRITE!

Seriously, it may seem like obvious advice but I CANNOT stress enough the importance of just writing. Forget editing, forget publishing, forget advertising and sales and marketing and reviews and everything like that and just focus on getting words on paper (or screen). DO NOT EDIT AS YOU GO! If you edit as you go, you will end up spending weeks just writing one chapter for gods sake and you will never ever get a finished novel done. Get the whole book written, then go back and edit. If you have a few friends/teachers (my PE teacher was incredibly helpful with editing) or family who will help, then get them to proofread it, and note down any sort of spelling errors, plot inconsistencies, bits that aren’t obvious and general flaws. Then go back to the start of your novel and read it over. Change any faults, add and remove at your leisure and finally sit back and smile to yourself.

If you're going for Self Publishing, I would recommend using Createspace to print your books, they’re easy to use and lightning quick. Finally, using the Kindle Direct Publishing service on Amazon is super simple and can really boost your sales and exposure.

What is the best advice you have ever heard?

“Just keep writing no matter what. It doesn’t matter if you do well or not well, if you sell 1 copy or 100,000, if people love it or hate it, just KEEP WRITING. Because if you enjoy writing, and you want to do it, then there is nothing stupider than letting something stop you.”

What are you reading now?

I am currently reading Intellectuals and Society by Thomas Sowell, as well as copious amounts of Harry Potter fanfiction (don't judge me) because it's magical and new so I can get a different perspective on magic, in a system that works very differently to the system of the HI.

What’s next for you as a writer?

Next I want to get my second novel done and dusted, then focus on marketing that one. Everything I did with Supercenaries has been a learning experience, and I think that when it comes to my second book I will be much better at every aspect of publishing and writing. Also, I’m learning to drive, which is nice . (Read: Terrifying)

What is your favorite book of all time?

Easily “The Saga of Darren Shan” series. I can’t pick a specific one, but all 12 are incredible.

Thanks so much, Josh!  Stick around for our review of his book, Supercenaries, on Friday.

Want to know more about Josh O'Brien?  Check out his Facebook and his You Tube Channel!

Alex on The End

I am so terrible at ending my stories. If I could, I'd let them go on forever and ever, or end abruptly in the middle. In fact, I'm writing this blog post to avoid coming up with an ending for my NaNoWriMo novel's third story.

Can't I just scrawl "That's all, folks!" across the page and let Porky Pig stammer it to my audience? No, I can't. So I have to do something else.

I've discovered that Planning (as opposed to Pantsing, the NaNoWriMo name for flying by the seat of your pants and writing your novel with no outline or basic plan for where your story is going to go) helps me with this problem. In Epilogue last year, I had no idea where my characters were going to end up, so when I wrote the ending, it caused a lot of inconsistencies. (There's a wall around the city at the end, but earlier, one of the characters said he had walked across several states to get there... if he told the truth, that's a story hole; if he lied, I should have explored that and figured out why he did so.)

This year's novel is split into three separate stories. I think it's easier to end a short story because it gives me less time to trail away from the original plan of the story. I don't get distracted by what the gamer side of me thinks of as side quests, and I drive at the ending the whole time. I Pantsed the first story, Planned the second, and I'm Planning the hell out of the third... but I'm at the end of my outline and can't come up with an acceptable ending.

Unfortunately, I don't have some secret, awesome way to come up with my endings... do you? If so, let's make a deal...

Cassy on The End

Endings are my most favorite part of the story to write.  Mainly because the ending usually comes to be before the beginning does when I write.  I always seem to know where I'm going and where I want to be.

I See had one of my favorite endings.  I won't tell you (you should go read it!) but it was sweet and sad and wonderful all at the same time.

I also like to wrap things up in a neat bow.  I know not everyone is like that, or even enjoys reading that, but I HATE when the ending is to ambiguous.

Are you having trouble with getting through your book?  Write your ending first.  You will know exactly where you're going and what you have to do to end up where your ending is.  It's a great way to kick start the writing process.

How do you handle endings?

Alex on Maintaining Momentum

NaNoWriMo is a really great thing, for so many reasons. One of my favorite great things about it is that you have no excuses. Does it matter that, until the day of Thanksgiving, I'm working every single day this month? Should I put aside my novel in the interest of planning my wedding, finishing a craft swap, or cleaning the apartment? Do I stop writing simply because my shoulder is injured and sitting at the computer for too long hurts? HELL NO. This is NaNoWriMo, so you keep writing, because there are thousands of other people also writing, and you're all in this together.

There are lots of resources to give you advice on how to keep writing and reach your word count for NaNoWriMo. Forums, websites, blogs, pep talk messages from the Office of Letters and Light themselves... But how do I do it? I have two things I always keep in mind while writing.

ONE: Stephen King said in On Writing, "You can approach the act of writing with nervousness, excitement, hopefulness, or despair ... Come to it any way but lightly." Basically, you have to feel something before you can write something. Given that I like to write things where people are confused, scared, or dying, it can be really hard to find a time and place where I am comfortable feeling that way so that I can write that way. But I do it anyway, because it's what drives the story. If I feel like my character, then I can write my character. If I feel like I'm in the plot, I can write the plot.

And TWO: Neil Gaiman's advice to writers starts like this: "How do you do it? You do it. You write. You finish what you write." It's simple advice, but it's the only universal writing advice there is. If you want to write... you just write. He elaborates on the advice here, and I remember him talking about this advice when I saw him speak in Tuscaloosa, AL. He said then, also, that even if what you're writing is crap, at least you got the crap out of your head and onto the page. Now you can move that crap aside and write the next thing in your head, which might also be crap, or it might be brilliant. Just write. And keep writing. And that's what I tell myself, especially during NaNoWriMo. If, on November 30, I read what I've written for the past month, and decide it was just awful, I can at least tell myself that this idea, these characters, these settings and this dialogue are all out now. I've written them, they didn't work out, and I can move on to my next idea. But there's always the chance that, on November 30, I'll read what I've written for the past month, and think, "Hey, this isn't bad." Then I'll edit, and polish, and clean, and then I'll have something I like and want to share with others.

So the brief answer to "how do you keep writing?" for me is "I just do, and with feeling."

Cassy on Maintaining Momentum

Keeping a story going is probably one of the hardest things to do.  You have a few key ideas that you want to hit, but everything in between is completely blank.  And, if you're like Alex and I, you're trying to get through these lulls in thirty days.  Which is really hard to do.

Momentum also depends on the kind of writer you are.  I know Alex is an extreme planner, so I know when she talks about this on Friday, she'll probably tell you how to keep up momentum with all that planning you're doing.  But I'm not a planner when it comes to my writing.  I'm a pantser.  I do everything on the fly as it comes to me.

So how do I keep the story going when I don't always know what it is I'm going to do?  Well, that's easy, by dear Watson.  Since I don't really have a plan, I can put them anywhere.  Do anything.  Create anything.  I put them places that are insane (right now my characters are trying to escape from a cinderblock building that houses thousands of human slaves who do nothing but serve their Dinosaur overlords.)

I kill characters.  I'm not afraid to do it.  In fact, one of my NaNos, I killed half the cast!  Killing people changes the whole game plan, so go ahead.  Kill a character.  I bet you the story will be hoppin.

Bored of your character who is incredibly mundane?  Give them super powers!  Why not?  It will change the entire dynamic of the story, maybe even get you into a genre that you've never written before and that is, after all, the whole point of NaNo.  To be incredibly crazy and creative.

I have found that sticking to a script just doesn't work for me and sometimes, stories require a drastic change.  In fact, they prefer them.  So when you're stuck and don't know how to continue your story, do something that you never thought you'd do in a million years.

Alex on Picking a Title

Names are important, and a book's title is essentially its name. A good title is vital (ha! rhymes) to a book's success. It can't be too complex (John Smith and a Group of His Friends and Acquaintances Go on an Adventure to Rescue His Sister Jane from Evil People and Fight Back Against those Evil People Together) or too simple (Jane, although you could argue that this is a good title). It has to pique the interest of the potential reader in a second and a half, or that reader won't be picking up that book. (The book I described in that long title? I'd call it Sibling Rivalry. But that's just me.)

So far, all of my books have started as a title and a concept that seem to develop simultaneously in my mind. With Epilogue, I thought about beginning at the end, and the title came to mind, and I built the story from there. With Comorbidity, I read the word somewhere, looked up its meaning, and it sounded like a great zombie story. This NaNoWriMo, I'm writing three short stories instead of one long one. I wanted them all to start the same way: filling up the main character's car's gas tank. Think of all the potential a full tank of gas represents! So, naturally, the working title is Full Tank.

A lot of people come up with their titles last, after their stories are written. I like to have a working title, because then I've introduced myself to my book and we're on a first-name basis. If I have to changes its name later, so be it, but the title gives me a feeling for what I wanted the book to be when I started.

Cassy on Picking a Title

As usual, full disclosure on this blog.  I've written a lot of books at this point (six years of doing NaNo.  I didn't actually finish all six books, but I DID hit the 50K writing goal, so it counts.)  The absolutely worst part, my least favorite thing to do, is to pick a title.

How do you sum up an entire book with just a few words?  Some people go with something very metaphorical and some people pick something very important to the story line (IE The Kite Runner.)

"I See" was the only book I ever published and I HATE the name.  I just don't think it really capture what the book is all about.  But I had to think of SOMETHING.  So that's what came out.

I think titles should be equally powerful as they are explanitory.  "I See" doesn't seem to really do either, but last year's novel had a good working title, "Time Thief."  In a story about a girl who time travels, it seemed appropriate.

So, I know we're supposed to be telling you how we go about naming titles, but I'm going to be honest: I don't really have a method.  Sometimes I am STELLAR at coming up with names (Review Me Twice, the actual name for the blog, was actually my idea.  Clearly a winner.)  Sometimes, I'm just a real flop at it.

Alex on Writing the Opening Scene

I think it's very hard to decide definitively on how to open your novel. It's very important, because you're setting the scene for the rest of the story, and you're trying to hook your reader. If you lose their interest on the first page, chances are pretty good that they won't read the rest of the book.

I used to always want to start at the beginning and go straight to the end. I have a hard time keeping track of flashbacks and other methods of non-linear story-telling (not when I'm reading them, but when I'm writing them). That can be really boring. Not only to read, but for me to write, as well.

So I thought, what opening scenes do I like to read? Well, I'm a big fan of being dropped right into the action. I like not knowing exactly what's going on from the beginning. It's great if, in the first sentence, our hero is bleeding profusely, or we're wondering where somebody went, or the protagonist is mid-thought. So that's what I started doing.

But it's still hard to choose where I'm going to drop my reader into the story. One great option is: the end. I think this is really great from a first-person perspective, because you can have your protagonist recall how they got to where they are now. Reserve a couple chapters at the end to resolve the ending (by putting them at the end, I don't mean in the very last scene... I mean close to the last scene).

Or somewhere before the climax of the story is good, too. You have some time to catch up to where they are, but then you follow them in a linear path toward the climax.

But it totally depends on your story, obviously. This year, for NaNoWriMo, I am doing a linear story. But I might finish the story and go back to make it start at the end. Who said you have to write the beginning first?

Cassy on Writing Opening Scenes

Someone, somewhere, told me that your opening scene should be dramatic and catch your reader's attention.  Which is true.  But I guess, in my mind that meant it had to be BIG!  EPIC! CRAZY!!

Ok, so maybe it doesn't, but I still kind of feel that way.  Your opening scene should be powerful.  I remember one of the first novels that I wrote, my opening scene was Avalon burning to the ground and the last of the gargoyles fleeing the scene.

Powerful, right?  Well, it should be.  It's the beginning.

But I've also done some more subdued beginnings.  My book, I see (which you can buy on Amazon!  Please forgive my shameless plug; I have a wedding to pay for.) starts out with the main character's history.  It tells about her childhood, her visions, and then, in the last line, drops the bombshell that she will be going to public school for the very first time.

I think that an opening scene of a book should be confusing enough for you to want to continue reading, but straightforward enough that a reader isn't completely lost.

For example, Scott Westerfeld's Uglies is REALLY good at integrating the slang and making you understand what's happening.  On the opposite end of the, Wuthering Heights, Bronte just threw you into it and gave three characters the same name, and if you couldn't figure it out, well, you just weren't sophisticated enough.

On Thursday, Alex will tell you how she handles her opening scenes!

Cassy On Picking Character Names

Alex and I always like to promote NaNoWriMo every year (ok, so this is only the second year we've been blogging for NaNo, but still.  We've done it every year so far.)  You'll see our word count over on the side so you can keep track with us.  And like my NaNo advice last year, this year Alex and I are both going to chime in with a little writing help.

Every week, we're picking a writing topic, and we'll both tell you how we approach that particular writing challenge.  This week:

Picking Character Names

Usually, when I pick character names, I just pick names that I've liked over the years.  One year, I named a character Natalia (a name that I've used over and over again for everything.  It was my very first screen name.)  I remember one named I picked was Siquea, because I thought it sounded very fantasy (ok, there might have been more to it than that, but it was about ten years ago that I picked out that name.)

Sometimes, I admit it, I'll copy.  I'll hear name different places and I'll remember then and reuse them.  If it's a fairly minor character, I just do something really generic like "Anne" or "Kimberly."

Once in a blue moon, I'll go to Google translate, pick a word that I think applies to the character, and translate it into abut 50 languages until I find one that I like.

There are a million ways to pick a name for your character, just make sure it's something that you can spell.

Don't forget!!  We're giving away a copy of Scrivener this week!  So enter now, enter often. Your one sentence story could win you a copy!!