"Roundheads and Ramblings"
NaNoWriMo
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Posted on Tuesday, November 01, 2011 9:30 AM
 All over the country this morning, bleary-eyed people dragged themselves out of bed and headed for their computers, intent on producing the next great American novel. Yes, it's NaNoWriMo time again--that thirty-day orgy of word-counts. The goal is to write a 50,000-word novel in thirty days. I haven't seen the figures on how many would-be writers have signed up this year, but i'm guessing, based on previous years and advanced publicity, that there will be well over 200,000 participants. Can you even imagine how many words would be written if all of them finished the challenge? By my count, 10 billion. And how many complete novels? Uh. . . . .that's quite another issue.
I wish everyone well. I've done this exercise four times, now, and while I finished twice, I never produced anything that was publishable without several more months of work on it. But then, that's just my own experience. I've noticed a lot of internet groups who have been doing build-ups to NaNoWriMo by practicing writing in spurts, as well as by plot outlining and character sketching. Technically, such preparation is against the rules, but it will undoubtedly help those who would otherwise spend most of the month hunting for a story.
Maybe this year, someone really will produce the next great American novel. I suspect, however, that the real accomplishment will be elsewhere. Almost everyone I talk to wants to write a book some day. NaNoWriMo is a great way to discover if writing is really for you. Thirty days at the computer, cranking out a minimum of 1667 words every day? If you find you like it, if you start writing more than the minimum, if you find that you are becoming wrapped up in your story, then maybe writing is a career to consider. If all you get out of it is frustration, a pile of undone laundry and dirty dishes, and a rampant case of fanny fatigue, then you'll know that it's time to take up another hobby, like snowshoe hiking or tatting a rug. Either way it will be time well-spent.
I wish all of you the best of luck in your efforts. If things go well, the phone won't ring, the plumbing won't back up, no one will get sick, and you will be hit by waves of inspiration that translate into glowing prose. I'll be rooting for you -- just doing it from the sidelines this year.
If you're still thinking about writing a novel when December comes around, you may find that the third section of my new book, The Second Mouse Gets the Cheese, will be helpful. Chapter nine deals with NaNoWriMo, and you don't want to read it until you're finished with your own participation. Then you can compare your experience with mine.
The next two chapters offer some writing help. Need some tips on planning your story? Bothered by plots, characterization, point of view, or themes? Then chapters ten and eleven are designed for you. Here's the line-up:
9. Choose Quality over Quantity Now It's Finished; Now It's Not True Confessions One More NaNoWriMo Failure
10. Know Where the Story Is Headed Author Goes on Murderous Rampage Killing My Darlings Character Sketches Speed-Date Your Characters Mapping Your Way through Time
11. Clarify Points of View and Themes Does Anyone Have A Program? Whose Story Is This, Anyway? An Irish Puzzlement A Problem in Semantics The Challenge of the Touchy Subject
Later this week, we'll talk about the rest of the book. I don't have a launch date yet, but The Second Mouse Gets the Cheese
will be out in time for the holidays. Remember, if you are interested
in this book, either for yourself or as a gift for the budding writer
in your life, you can pre-order it now at a special introductory price.
Visit the Mouse's website at www.thesecondmousegetsthecheese.org
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Posted on Friday, September 02, 2011 11:23 AM
I've failed again!
The good folks who bring us National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) every November expanded their efforts this year to include two months of summer camp. And even though I had vowed never again to try one of these writing marathons, I was drawn in by the novelties they introduced. Participants were egged on by campfires and roasted marshmallows (who can resist a s'more?), and by the second month, we had cabins and cabinmates to encourage us and keep us plugging away. Bu did it work? Not for me, I'm afraid.
In July, I managed 38,000 words of re-writing the previous year's drivel and turning it into a real shot at my next novel, The Road to Frogmore. I really thought I could knock out all the required 50,000 words, which would have put me halfway home. Then somehow life got in the way. Maybe it was because my inner English teacher kept getting in the way. Try as I might, I cannot just "write without reading what I have written." I have to stop and check the slant of my curly quotes, look up my precise dates and places, and correct every spelling error I see. No the way to meet a deadline, but at least the 38,000 words I had were pretty good.
So on I went into August, with six new cabinmates, who all seemed to be working on fantasy, while I was trying to be historical -- not the best combination. This time, I faltered at the beginning of the month, missing at least 13 straight days of writing anything (other than blog posts, that is.). As my cabinmates began to falter along the trail, I went back to work. But today I woke up realizing that the month was over, and once again, I was way off the mark at slightly over 24,000 words. One person in my cabin actually finished. I came in number three out of seven -- pretty mediocre.
Part of the problem is a new computer with a wireless keyboard and touchpad. They are both just enough smaller than the old ones to cause massive "fat-fingering" when I try to touch-type. I'm starting to get the hang of it now, but I'm still missing the "t" key most of the time, which gives my sentences three or four errors for every ten words. Sigh!
As for the other explanations? I'm just not convinced that speed-writing is a good idea. Just as I find it difficult to outline my entire plot in advance (because my characters keep changing the story on me!), so I need time to vegetate between chapters -- to let the ideas brew and the characters speak. So here's a promise: I WILL NOT DO NANOWRIMO THIS NOVEMBER! Keep me honest, folks. If I waver, remind me that I'm a failure, OK?
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Posted on Thursday, July 07, 2011 9:48 AM
 Yesterday's visit with Helen Hollick was a rousing success. I am grateful to all my regular readers who welcomed her, and to the new visitors who found "Roundheads and Ramblings" for the first time. I hope you'll come back often. By the way, Beth Caudill was the winner of the random drawing for the free copy of Sea Witch. Congratulations, Beth.
Helen will be back later in the summer. I've asked her to stop by sometime in August and talk a bit about the experience of doing a blog tour. This method of reaching out to readers without having to do an actual book tour comes highly recommended. Personally, after doing one traditional book tour, I swore I'd never do another. I'm hoping that Helen's venture into the virtual world will prove more rewarding.
My main objection to book tours? The author spends a great deal of time and money traveling from book store to library to coffee shop, never knowing whether the proprietor will have set up a successful get-together or not. Oh, I had some lovely experiences. One library put on a lavish spread of hors d'oeuvres and attracted a large and attentive audience. I sold a goodly number of books and felt like a celebrity.
But the very next day, I found myself sitting in an empty book store -- one whose owner had forgotten I was coming and had done no publicity at all. It was the day before a holiday weekend in a resort town full of visitors and there was a good local tie to the book. But for three solid hours, not one soul entered the store. The single clerk and I made small talk as long as we could manage, and I ended up buying books from her just to make her feel better. I also absorbed the cost of a three-hour drive to get there and an overnight motel stay, along with meals. I felt like a failure, and the glow from the previous day's library visit faded when I looked at the negative balance in my account book.
So, thanks again, for making Helen feel welcome here. i suspect virtual tours are the way to go.
 In other news, I've completely lost my mind and signed up for NaNoWriMo Summer Camp! I know I swore off ever doing another writing marathon, but the new book, The Road to Frogmore, is clamoring to get itself down in print. I've been re-thinking, revising, re-reading, and reconsidering the plot line ever since I returned from Beaufort in April. It's so easy to procrastinate by doing just one more bit of research!
Anyway, I've been writing sporadically, and I've made my way through some 20,000 words. But now it's time for the big push. I don't intend to be a complete fanatic about the process this time. I'll get as much done as possible. And if I don't make the 50,000 word goal in July, there will be another camp session in August.
This should be a good work period for me. We have no trips planned. No major holidays interrupt the flow of days. And it's too hot to do anything but stay inside in the AC, anyway. Might as well write! I'll keep you posted on my progress. In the meantime, I'll be back tomorrow with some tidbits for Civil War Friday.
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Posted on Wednesday, March 23, 2011 11:41 AM
So how did my 2010 venture into National Novel Writing Month turn out? Well, here's how I viewed it at the beginning of the process:
"The NaNoWriMo process is easier this year. I find I'm better able to just sit down and let the words flow. What's developing on my computer screen is by no means a finished product, but it's going to serve as a great base from which to build a real novel. I won't promise you that "Gideon's Ladies" will write itself in the next month. Truth is, I'll still be reading and researching much of the time. I find it easiest to write dialogue, so I'll be concentrating in creating scenes from various spots in the story. They can always be rearranged and polished later. As I write, I'm getting a feel for the characters, and I find that some of the individuals have begun to speak in their own voices, which is always a delightful turning point. I'm anxious now to find out what they are going to do next, and how they will handle the problems they have set for themselves."
By the end of the month, I sounded exhausted and not quite so sure of what I had managed to accomplish:
"Finished! Yes, that's right! after 27 grueling days (actually 25 work days and 2 days of utter slackerness) I have managed to write the first 50,417 words of my next novel, tentatively entitled "Gideon's Ladies." Was it worth it? Well, sometime after today, I'll realize that it was. The writing phase is always hard, and putting a word counter on every morsel you manage to crank out is a definition of cruelty. But now I know that this story has legs. it can someday become a novel, and when that day comes, I'll be delighted that I spend November 2010 in this effort. For now, however, it's off to start Christmas preparations (and a good stiff drink, too.)"
And now it's true confession time. Although I dutifully sent my "winning" 50,000 words off to CreateSpace -- to take them up on their offer to produce a proof copy of every book that qualified at the end of the month -- I couldn't bear to look at it in the new year. The thin little volume arrived -- some 178 pages in all. But it still looked pitiful. It was full of typos and half-finished pages, with thoughts that started off bravely and went absolutely nowhere.
I began re-reading "Gideon's Ladies" just two days ago, as a direct result of my last blog post. I'm still embarrassed by the number of typos and the layout. Once in a while I have been pleased with a particular turn of phrase, but more often I've cringed. I have, however, learned a bit more about myself and about the writing process. Here are five rules I would now be willing to carve on a stone:
1. Don't start writing until you have some idea of where you're heading. These little chapters utterly fail to provide direction. An impartial reader can not tell who the important characters are, or what the book is all about.
2. Have a timeline. My events are confusingly out of order.
3. Don't confuse "show and tell." My academic background reveals itself all too clearly when I fall into lecture mode. I thought I was writing conversations, but the result all too often sounds like a typical schoolmarm telling a class of students what they must know for the test. I wrote so quickly that I forgot to let my characters show what was going on through their words and actions.
4. Know your characters. Each one needs a distinct personality, recognizable in both their actions and in their speech patterns. If the reader can't tell the characters apart, the author has failed again.
5. Write because you have something important to say. The reader deserves to understand what is important about your story and why you care.
So where do I go from here? I've already made a start by changing my title from "Gideon's Ladies" (too over-used) to The Road to Frogmore. And that title reflects one other decision -- to make Laura Towne and her efforts to establish her own school at Frogmore Plantation the center of my story. My research efforts for the next several weeks will focus on obeying my other new rules. I want to fill out my character sketches, pinpointing those traits that make each character an individual. I need to finish the timeline I have started, so that the events of my story are both logical and historically accurate. Then I can re-arrange and refurbish some of the chapters I have written. Most important, I need to make some decisions about point-of-view and recurring themes.
As for NaNoWriMo, I probably will not be participating in 2011. Speed-writing is a wonderfully useful exercise. It gets the creative juices flowing, and it reveals (make that PAINFULLY reveals) what kind of writer you are. It's a great start for those who question their own ability to write a book. It does not, however, produce a finished product. The sense of accomplishment it touts is basically flawed. There is simply no substitute for the long, hard process of producing a book good enough to justify its readers' time and interest. For me, the warm-ups are now over. It's time to get to work.
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Posted on Saturday, March 19, 2011 9:47 AM
This past week, I received a reminder that April is National Script-Writing Month. Now, I have no intention of becoming involved with that project -- I am not tempted to try my hand at visual media. But the hype leading up to the month did bring back memories of my two attempts at the November exercise in speed-writing. So I thought I might re-cap those two writing adventures for newcomers here, and to remind myself of the struggles it takes to write a good book.
I'm now far enough
away from my first year of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) to look
back on the experience without feeling stressed out. For those of you who are
unfamiliar with this exercise in self-torture, the idea is to write 50,000
words of a novel during the 30 days of November. You are supposed to charge
ahead, not re-reading or making corrections until it's all over. And nobody
seems to take into account the fact that there's a major holiday right there at
the end of the drill. Just plop the turkey in the oven and head back to the
keyboard!
I made it. Actually I
finished two days ahead of schedule, which should have made me feel very good
about myself. But if I'm being honest, I have to admit I was not brave enough
to go back and see what I wrote. Oh, I violated the rules left and right. They
are not designed for an old English teacher who cannot stand to see a spelling
error and let it pass. I also backed up to correct silly details like whether a
period belonged inside or outside a closing quotation mark. So I was pretty
confident that what I produced was in passable English. But did it make sense?
That was a whole different question.
My 50,000 words (50,626 to be exact)
were the finishing chapters of a much longer novel that had been stalled in the
middle. After letting it just sit there for six months, I signed up for NaNOWriMo, which forced me to
jump in and finish the darn thing. I’d been feeling pretty smug ever since I
completed the NaNoWriMo competition. The 50,000+ words I wrote there nicely
finished off my historical novel. I thought all I had left to do was polish it
up a bit. Hah!
For those of you who are new to this blog, I had been working on
the life story of a woman by the name of Nellie Chase, who had an amazing
experience as a Civil War nurse. Her story is compelling. She was a teenage
runaway, the "wife" of a musician who turned out to be "a
drunkard, a liar, a gambler, a forger, and a thief." She escaped from his
degrading lifestyle by signing up as a nurse with a Union regiment and
traveling with them for a year. During that year she faced the usual hardships,
compounded by a vengeful Presbyterian chaplain who thought she was a prostitute
and by challenges to her understanding of what it would mean to put an end to slavery.
For that year, I had
abundant information in the form of letters from the members of the regiment,
all of whom found her interesting enough to talk about at length. But I didn't
know who Nellie really was, or what happened to her after the war. That lack of
information led me to turn her story into a novel, rather than a biography, and
I had great fun creating a life for her before and after the war. NaNoWriMo was perfect for me. I had let my imagination fly and had created an exciting and plausible end to the story. So far so
good!
Then one night I
received an e-mail from someone else who works on the same regiment. He had
found two small tidbits of information about Nellie. One letter suggested that
she was related to a prominent national figure. The other was an obituary that
listed the man she married after the war and told of her heroic death during
the Yellow Fever epidemic.
My "exciting and plaudible" ending was nowhere near as good as the real story. This was definitely a case
of the "truth being stranger than fiction."
It also meant that I had
to discard much of what I wrote in November, as well as segments throughout the
rest of the book. So back to the records I went, armed with a new set of names
and dates to be checked. It's a good thing I enjoy historical research. The
historian in me was excited; the writer, a bit discouraged.
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