NaNoWriMo Success 5 - Why So Serious?

With commitments being made and the expectations rising, I'm seeing grim looks on the faces of my fellow writers. Anything less than victory of NaNoWriMo would be a disaster.

There is a phenomenon in psychology known as “flow.” When we are in the flow state, that is when we are most creative, imaginative, and productive. We lose track of time and of ourselves. It's a good feeling.

I believe that remembering that writing is supposed to be fun is valuable. Cultivating that idea in the way we approach our work, in our responses to challenges, and in how we introduce changes to our perspectives on writing, is not just a “nice to have.” Fun and having a good attitude can help induce the flow state.

Much of our culture induces negative attitudes toward work, and writers in particular drench themselves in mythologies of suffering and hardship. A quick sampling of discussions on the loops shows complaints about contracts and editors and rejection and unsympathetic families and friends. People agonize over blocks and deadlines and manuscripts that refuse to be finished.

Such negative talk hides what a gift being able to write -- and particularly to tell stories -- is. One writer I know used to work construction. His reaction to complaining writers is laughter. Any job that doesn't force you to haul heavy objects across the mud field in the freezing rain isn't too bad, according to him. But anyone who has written an elegant phrase, or discovered a part of themselves in a character, or created a sequence of statements or events that produced strong emotion in a reader or audience knows that the absence of misery is not the main payoff from writing. Writing, at its best, humanizes the writer and the audience and adds a precious dimension to living.

This does not mean that all is well if a writer slaps a smile on his or her face. Writers never fully develop. They always have more to learn. A maxim among novelists is that the last novel does not do much to help you write the next one. We all need to discover and rediscover the elements of our craft. We need time to sharpen our tools as well as to use them.

This blog offers a number of techniques, tools, and approaches that can help increase productivity, which ultimately provides the opportunity to dedicate more time to writing:

• Finding the fun
• Using the timer
• Working with a partner
• Reading aloud
• Keeping a journal 
• Focusing on emotion
• And more

One month is long enough to build a new habit, but it's not long enough to acquire several habits. Growing and developing always takes time. So the final lesson is to give yourself the time. Be patient with yourself and don't expect everything to immediately pay off or to be mastered in a day. Take a piece of what you learn and run with it. And then return to your notes and find something else that's appealing, and see if it will fit into your writing life.

Fun will help you find flow. The joy of writing, more than the (sometimes necessary) grim determination of meeting each deadline and achieving each goal will enrich your life and lead to long-term success. So, yes, take your craft to a higher level and rediscover your commitment during NaNoWriMo. But don't forget to have a great time while you're doing it.

NaNoWriMo Success 4 - Time to Stretch and Warm Up

If you are participating in NaNoWriMo, you are about to step into a writing marathon. It would be a good idea to take the remaining days to stretch your writing muscles and warm up. Here are a few exercises to get you going.

Word count warm up - Whatever your normal word count is, it needs to average 1,667 a day to meet NaNoWriMo goals. If you normally write 200 words a day, you need to edge your output upward by 166 words each day starting tomorrow to be up to speed. Your warm up does not need to be on a work that resembles your NaNoWriMo project (although that would be good). Writing letters to people you know can work. Even automatic writing can help here. What this warm up is about is getting the feel of putting 1,667 words onto the screen each day, along with a sense of how much time you'll need to dedicate to the task.

Idea prodding - Some writers overflow with ideas. Some struggle to get them to emerge. If you are among the latter, don't expect the tap to flow just because you've turned the calendar to November. The simplest thing to try is a brainstorm list. Come up with ten (or twenty) answers to a tangible question. Without searching the Web, what gifts under US$100 might you give to a specific loved one? How would you set a trap to catch someone who is stealing your newspaper from your doorstep? How would you get onto the roof of your bank without using stairs? The first answer may be easy. The last will require you to stretch.

If you want to push yourself, put together a series of actions connected by "therefore" or "but," the South Park advice for creating causation between beats. For example: I was hungry, therefore I went to my refrigerator to find food, but my spouse had eaten everything worth eating, therefore I drove to the deli to buy a sandwich, but I'd left my wallet at home. And so on. Again, try for 10-20 instances. (For 1,667 words, you will need about 8-12 connected things happening.)

Door closing - Practice using your fortress of solitude. Build up to the time you will need to be uninterrupted each day. Build patience. Dodge distractions. Learn how to defend your fortress from needy spouses, demanding children, and garrulous friends.

Practice your ritual - Before writing, I have already had my coffee. I turn on my music. I review my task for the day. I open the file to the right place. I set my timer, and jump in. (I also have an exit ritual that includes writing down my task for the next day.) There is utility to my ritual, but it is okay to include wearing a lucky hat, chanting a mantra, lighting a candle, spinning your swivel chair around three times, or whatever else cues you to get going. If it works, do it. If you don't have a ritual, consider developing one. Habits can be powerful things.

There are other exercises you can try, based on skills you want to build up before NaNoWriMo. Have difficulty with emotion? Try some acting techniques, such as using sense memory. Uncertain about characters? Interview them as if they were guests on your talk show. If they come off as stiff, get them drunk first. Trouble with distractions? Taper them off in the remaining days. (For instance, you might whittle away at time you spend watching TV or reading Twitter posts.)

Thanks to Jennifer Fusco, who asked for exercises in her interview in this blog. Let me know if you find these useful, or let me know if you have your own exercises that help.

Writing Better Endings - Three Posts

You only have one chance to make a lasting impression. The ending of your story must be satisfying and fair (no deus ex machina) or everything that went before can be wasted. Here are three posts that provide tips on finishing what you started with grace, power, and clarity.

• Bigger 4 - Creating Endings That Buzz - Write endings that are connect with readers and reverberate long after they put down your story. (Among nearly 100 entries, this is the most popular I've written for HTWF.)

• Good Endings 1 - The four essentials - A quick primer on what you need to achieve.

• Good Endings 2 - Satisfaction testing - Check to see if you've done the job.

 

 

Bigger 13 - The Right Structure for Nonfiction

A departure today - this entry is explicitly for nonfiction (though, I hope, most others benefit nonfiction writers). I've found that choosing the right structure makes the difference between doing a good job and doing a great job that attracts a large audience. But what are the structures of nonfiction?

Most people can readily call to mind a few ways to organize nonfiction, if asked. We all know some form the essay style, with introductions, topic sentences, and closings. Arguments begin with the second strongest point and end with the most powerful. Those who worked on a school newspaper know about the inverted pyramid.

There are dozens of others, and they can add punch to your work, or make it limp and unconvincing. Here are some to consider:

• Chronology, journal, and narrative nonfiction – Tell what happened in sequence. Blogs often fit in with these. Note that narrative nonfiction often doesn’t fit strictly if the author uses flashbacks and other fiction techniques.
• Dialogue, argument, and thesis – The first is at least as old as Plato. It resembles a discussion committed to paper, but, of course, it is carefully organized to make a point. Arguments do this more directly, without using characters. A thesis usually follows a required structure that makes it more abstract.
• Epistolary style and interviews – A letter to the editor is the most obvious of these. They are purportedly written to someone other than the reader. We just get to look over the addressee's shoulder. Often, actual letters are collected and edited for broad circulation. The best interviews may resemble letters most closely when the interviewer provides comments and responds to answers. Some are more stark, with formula questions, and these may be appropriate if the interviewer does not bring special knowledge or perspectives.
• Review or comment – The subject of the discussion, another work or event, is the distinguishing feature here. That subject may be familiar, or may need to be described in a summary fashion. These works provide informed opinion. The best reviews and comments use the reference to illuminate something important. Many depend upon the voice and personality of the author to attract the reader and hold his or her attention.
• Recipe and how-to – Clear, straightforward, and step-by-step. While there may be some personality involved, it cannot distract from the purpose. Success is giving people the outcome they are looking for. If clever words lead to an inedible pie, you lose.
• Contrast – Sometimes the whole picture – especially of a complex event -- emerges best when more than one perspective is offered. Contrast is often used in morality tales, where clear choices are made and we see the consequences.
• Pyramid and hierarchy of interests – Put what is vital to know first, then the next, and so on. My investment as a reader gets diminishing returns -- by design.
• Reference and FAQ – Just the facts, organized (often alphabetically) so I can most quickly get the information I need or want. It is important that I can get all that I need regarding a topic within a single section (or, at least, get everything but what is clearly pointed to in other sections). This means there is some redundancy in these texts. They are not meant to be read from beginning to end. A dictionary may be the most obvious example.
• Theory and exercises – Think textbooks. The point is explained, and then the opportunity to check and deepen understanding is offered through questions and how-tos.
• Memoir, apology and testimony – These tend to be mostly about the writer, written in the first person. Readers read to learn about them as persons.  Think of a conversation with a good friend about how life is going. The writer may, along with sharing experience, also have a point, wish to justify him or herself, or hope to inspire.
• Observations – These should be objective and thorough. A police or post mortem report. A naturalist’s field observations.
• Case history and cautionary tales – Much of this is like a chronology, but the focus is to tell what happened and bring out the lessons. The reader will want to get enough to emulate success and avoid failure.
• Vision and sales pitch – This is forward-looking. It can be what might be for a society or a company, or simply the joys for a consumer of owning a vacuum cleaner. A premise must be stated, benefits must be detailed, and there must be a call to action.
• Parable, fable and joke – Here the readers usually knows that the work is a composite or an allegory with a definite point. In other words, connection to facts is tenuous, but the reader is in on it. While not factual, a truth is expected. The story should be easily overlaid on the real world, and it should be convincing. Urban legends fit here, but they often are so compelling that they are taken to be factual.

Much of book-length nonfiction today does not fit cleanly into any of the above categories. Writers mix in quotes, artifacts, sidebars, and more to vary the tone and break up the text. Also the impact on readers can be dialed in by changing how formal the work is and/or adding humor (ironic, satirical, biting, or gentle).  Also, the medium makes a difference. Will this be a book? An ebook? A blog? A film? A speech?

Which structure do you choose, and how do you determine the tone? Start by articulating the purpose of the nonfiction work. (I do this for every speech I write.) What does success mean for you (or you client)? Do people need to take action? Advocate? Be able to do something? Avoid or embrace a behavior? Build empathy?

Next, determine who your main audience is. I like to get down to one person, and expand in rewrites as necessary. I find that the ideal reader often has strong opinions about which structures work best. Some people prefer works that are stark and abstract, like scientific papers. Others need to get cozy with the writer (think memoir). Your ideal reader will also guide you toward specific media and preferred tone.

Length makes a difference. Parables and fables are short. Textbooks are long, but broken up into sections. Narrative nonfiction can work at any length.

Completeness of information can dictate your choice. I wanted to write a narrative nonfiction book about a historical character, but primary sources were too scarce. Similarly, arguments feel weak if they have fewer than three points to support them.

Requirements matter. A friend of mine spent two years trying to get approval for a biochemistry dissertation written as narrative nonfiction before she submitted a more standard version.

Your comfort with the form can be decisive, especially when you are on deadline. While it is admirable to develop the ability to use all of the structures, you will probably have real facility in only a few of them.

When in doubt, try more than one approach and compare the results. You may be surprised by how dramatically the impact of your content rises or falls. Imagine a parable presented as a business speech, complete with PowerPoint charts.  Or a Hollywood star’s biography presented as a scientific paper.  Or a recipe book prepared as narrative nonfiction. Any of these would either be disasters or hilarious.

NaNoWriMo Success 3 - What to do next

You have successfully prepared for NaNoWriMo, drafted your 50,000 words, and met your goals. Now what?

• Celebrate and thank people - You have plenty of reason to feel good about yourself. You've done it (and, if you kept to NaNoWriMo's rules, at a blistering pace). Reward yourself so you remember how this feels. Also, take the time to thank all those who nudged you, answered a questions, calmed your nerves, drove the kids to soccer, or missed a party so this could happen. Your mentors, writing buddies, friends, and families deserve your gratitude and a share of your success. Just be sure not to give them the impression that you are now done with writing. They'll need to support you, one way or another, from now on.
• Give it a rest - The work you just did is still humming in your head. Bad parts look good and good parts look bad. Even though you have a thousand ideas for revision (which you can jot down), don't go back and read your manuscript now. Wait a month (Stephen King says six weeks). Mark a date on your calendar to begin revisions.
• But don't lose momentum - Put your manuscript aside, but don't put aside the habits and skills you have acquired. Start something new. Keep writing every day. You don't need to keep up the frenetic pace of NaNoWriMo, but please don't give yourself a vacation. You've invested too much to waste your commitment and development as a writer.
• Consider a post mortem - Look at your experience as a project and consider what worked, what didn't, and what you might do differently in the future. As you do this, don't forget that NaNoWriMo is part stunt. Some of what you did may not become part of your day-in-day-out approach to writing.
• Document your lessons - Since you probably tried new methods and pushed or altered old ones, it is a great time to update your process journal with revisions and additions.
• Rewrite - After you have let your manuscript rest, you can start exploring and reshaping it. Don't be surprised or disappointed if it is different from what you remember. Just get on with the task of making it wonderful.
• Submit - When you manuscript is just the way you want it, share it. This may mean handing it off to trusted readers or submitting it to agents and/or editors, or self publishing.

That's it. Congratulations on finishing your book. And welcome to the world of writers.

Guest Post - What I Learned from doing NaNoWriMo

It is my delight to welcome Rochelle Melander as the second HTWF Guest Blogger. Rochelle is the author of ten books, including the National Novel Writing Month guide—Write-A-Thon: WriteYour Book in 26 Days (and Live to Tell About It). She is also a speaker, and certified professional coach.

Rochelle teaches professionals how to write good books fast, use writing to transform their lives, navigate the publishing world, and get published. For more tips and a complementary download of the first two chapters of Write-A-Thon, visit her online at www.writenowcoach.com

What I Learned from doing NaNoWriMo: Five Tools to Help You Write Faster

By Rochelle Melander

Chris Baty founded National Novel Writing Month in 1999 to give himself and other would-be novelists the one thing he believed stood between them and a finished novel: a deadline. In 2011, more than 250,000 people took the challenge to write 50,000 words in the month of November, and more than 35,000 people accomplished that feat. Wow.

Before I’d ever heard of National Novel Writing Month, I’ve been writing books fast. My husband and I completed our first book in less than six weeks. In 2004, tempted by a sweet paycheck, a friend and I wrote a book together in just 9 days. The whole process—researching, writing and editing—took just two weeks and happened over the Thanksgiving holiday. In 2009, I wrote Write-A-Thon, a book about how to write books fast, in 26 days during National Novel Writing Month.

Over the years (and because of challenges like National Novel Writing Month), I’ve learned a few tricks for writing fast. Here are five of my favorite tools:

1. Write during your peak writing time. According to scientific research, our bodies peak for physical, social, and intellectual tasks at specific times of day. Researchers offer broad suggestions about when we do best at various activities. For example , many of us do well at intellectual tasks during the late morning while we excel at creativity in the evening when we are a bit more tired and open to new ideas. (See "A Peak Time for Everything.") But even scientists admit that peak working times are different for each of us. Track your energy levels for a few weeks and find your optimal writing time. Once you know when you write best, schedule your writing in those time slots and do your other work (yeah, your day job) at other times of the day.

2. Write More. When my children were babies, I used to worry that if they napped in the afternoon, they wouldn’t sleep at night. Not so! The more they slept, the more they slept. It’s the same with writing. The more you write, the more you will be able to write. During National Novel Writing Month and other big projects, I often add a three-page journaling time to my schedule. It gives me a place to dump all of my fears and concerns about writing and life. And, it strengthens my writing muscles so that when I get to my project, I’m already warmed up. And, as you’ll see from the next tip (#3): this journaling time can also help you with your big important project.

3. Never face a blank page. I’ve been working as a professional writer for fifteen years, and still panic at the site of a blank page. When I trained with the National Writing Project, I learned that teachers support fearful students by giving them prewriting exercises—charts and tools to help them sketch out their ideas before they write. At the end of a writing session, decide what you will write about during your next writing session. (If you appreciate having a choice, list more than one topic to choose from.) Create a short list of ideas for the topic. I’ve done this using both computer documents and a regular notebook. Both work just fine. Often, I’ll also use my daily journaling time (see #2 above) to write about what I will write about next. When I arrive at the computer for my next session, I am calm. Between the notes I jotted in the document and my scribbles in my journal, I have plenty to write about!

4. Find a structure that works. Early in my writing career, I heard author Anne Lamott talk about how much she loved writing short essays. For her, that structure fit her writing style and energy level. Over the years, I’ve learned that a clear structure helps me write faster. When I design a book or brainstorm an article, I spend some time thinking about a structure that will help me convey my ideas. For this article I chose to offer five tools. For another article, I might simply present a problem, a story that illustrates the solution, and a final paragraph about what I’ve learned. Spend some time checking out the structures of chapters in your favorite books or how your favorite bloggers structure their posts. Then decide what structures work best for you and your topic. I’m betting you’ll write faster.

5. Boost Your Energy. Most of us depend on coffee or a bit of sugar to boost our energy when we struggle to write. But while coffee and sugar do increase our energy for a short time, they both lead to energy crashes. Thankfully, there are better ways. Researchers have just discovered that looking at photos of cute baby animals can increase our focus and help us to get more writing done. (See "I Can Haz Productivity?") If you’re not into baby animals, try taking a ten-minute walk, eating a healthy snack, or doing something repetitive like washing the dishes or folding clothes. The time away from your computer will give your brain a much-needed break, and you’ll return to the page ready to write!

Your turn: What tools have you used to write faster?

Every Other Friday - Jennifer Fusco Interview

Jennifer Fusco is the Creative and Brand Manager for the General Electric Company, North America, and the author of the Amazon.com bestselling series, Market or Die, marketing books for writers. 

A three-time winner of the Advertising Excellence Award, Jennifer has launched successful national print and digital ad campaigns. 

In her writing life, Ms. Fusco is a member of RWA’s PRO network and serves as the President of the Connecticut Romance Writers. She has completed two urban fantasy romance manuscripts and is a monthly contributor to the Romance Writers of America’s RWR Report.

Tell me about Market or Die. 
Market or Die is a series of books designed for Authors to learn how to market their work. There are three books in the series: Sensible Brand Building Advice for Writers, How to Use the Power of Your Brand, and Integrated Marketing Plans.

What drove you to write Market or Die? Who did you write it for? 
 Initially, it was suggested to me to write a marketing book by Sarah Wendell of Smart Bitches, Trashy Books. She attended my marketing presentation at the Connecticut Fiction Fest writer’s conference and said I had to share my knowledge with others. Market or Die took about a week to write. I wrote it fast because I knew my subject matter. I’d been giving marketing presentations on brand for quite some time.

What were your biggest obstacles? The self-publishing process as a whole. I would have loved to turn over the content to someone else and let them do the formatting, proofreading, cover design, etc. Self-publishing, to me, is a time-suck. And, I’m time constrained as it is. I don’t have any plans to self-publish anything for a while, unless I have to.

What are your productivity tips? As I said, I’m time constrained. I may only have 8 hours to write per week. THAT’S in a seven-day period. But, when I’m not writing I’m constantly thinking about what I will write when I get to the PC. I plan the scene in my head. I know all the major points I want the chapter or scene to hit. I don’t plan it out too rigidly so that I can’t be creative and not be able to go on a “roll” if one strikes. Because I have limited amounts of time, I know how important it is and I’m certain not to waste it.
P.S. – I’m also quite fond of the “bagel” word placement technique.

Do you have any questions for me?
Can you give me some good writing exercises to speed up my time at the computer?

Exercises to build your speed? Sounds like a topic for a future post!