HAPPY NEW YEAR

In case you’re wondering, no, I haven’t completely lost it.  To me, Fall always feels like the writer’s new year. 

Picture it: you’re sitting at your computer or laptop, all snuggled up in your comfy sweater and  nestled into your favorite writing spot. A crisp breeze floats in through your window, carrying the scent of cut grass and turning leaves. You sip hot coffee or tea from your very best mug and begin outlining your shiny new NaNo project – Ahhhhhhh! It’s heaven, yes?

There is just something about this time of year that gets me in the right frame of mind for writing, whether it’s tackling that old story that just wouldn’t come together last Spring, or that sparkly new idea that’s been stalking my thoughts all Summer. Perhaps I’m romanticizing it, but how can *ALL THE IDEAS* not happen when you’re sitting on the porch in the perfectly cool air, notebook and pen in hand, scribbling out notes and drinking a decadent glass of merlot or shiraz? Just thinking about it makes my fingers itch to clack, clack, clack on the keyboard! 

I’ll be back at a project that I’m in love with but needed some time away from in order to put things into better perspective. And I don’t know if it’s the new season or not, but I’m uber excited to dive back into it.

So happy writer’s new year, everyone. May the words flow, may your characters come to life, and may your plotting be full of awesome. Huzzah!

Winning NaNo (even when you fail)

For the first time in many years, I participated in NaNoWriMo, and in doing so I learned a little something. 

Let me start by saying that I had stayed away from NaNo in years past because every time I tried to reach my 50K word goal, I failed. And even though I knew that 50K in a month was a giant task, (and one year my town lost power for eleven days after a major Halloween snowstorm) it stung to not meet the goals I had set for myself, especially when so many others seemed to cruise right through to the end. 

I didn’t just fail. I felt like a failure.

 

Even though I didn’t really think about it in these terms, feeling like a failure is what kept me from trying NaNo again. And thus, I broke up with NaNo in a very it’s not you, it’s me fashion.

Fast forward a few years to NaNo 2014. I’m about 20K into a new WIP that I’m pretty excited about, and I decide that I want to give NaNo another try. Maybe it would be just the thing I needed to finish that all important first draft so I could start fresh with revisions in 2015. 

Of course, the first thing I do is tell my CPs. Apparently, the stars were aligned just right that day as I found out that all of us intended to participate this year. Yippee!! We all vowed to support and cheer for each other. We talked about our goals and how we planned on accomplishing them. This had me super excited and shot my motivation bar up to 11. 

Next, I made a plan.  I knew myself much better than I did during NaNo’s past, and so I came up with a plan that would give me the best possible chance to win. Monday through Friday, I was going to go to bed at 7:00 pm and wake up at 4:00 am every morning. That would give me two hours to write before I had to get ready for The Day Job. 

It was going to be AWESOME.

And awesome it was. For a time. However, November is a notoriously busy month for my family. As November flew by, I fell behind.  And behind. Aaaaand behind. That old familiar feeling crept it’s way into my consciousness. Despite my best efforts, I’m failing. Then, I’m a failure.

However, this year, a bigger part of my brain squashed that train of thinking immediately. Maybe I won’t write 50K new words, but I HAD written new words. Quite a few of them actually, and I was damn proud of those words. I also realized that not meeting a goal in a certain time frame was NOT synonymous with failure. It’s not even close. NaNo (as well as most other things) is not about winning or losing, or judging your achievement by another person’s progress. 

When I used a different perspective to consider what I had accomplished -- I  wrote way more in November than I had any other month in 2014 – then in reality, I kicked NaNo’s a$$. I was a word producing machine! My NaNo 2014 was a major success. 50K or not, I could feel good about what I'd done and look forward to doing it again next year. 

Thinking this way is motivating instead of discouraging and demoralizing. If you don’t try, you can never succeed, so never beat yourself up for trying. 

So, I guess the point to my story is this – be proud of what you’ve done, not what you haven’t yet accomplished. Give yourself credit for trying. Learn from your experiences and, in the end, do the best you can and allow yourself to feel good about it. 

 

 

Tackling that Revision

Happy Monday!

We are in DECEMBER! I'll give you a minute to freak out about that.

We've also reached the end of NaNoWriMo. If you won: GOLD STAR FOR YOU. If you participated, but didn't quite reach 50k: GOLD STAR FOR YOU. Because you got words on the page. And even if it wasn't 50k words, it's more than you had on October 31st. That's something to be darn proud of.

Now, if you DID reach 50k, or even reached the end of your novel, you're solid, right? Eh. Maybe. Maybe not. It kind of irks me when people scream DON'T YOU DARE THINK YOU'RE FINISHED. More than likely, you're not. Generally speaking, first drafts are for getting the words out. Revision is turning those words into what you dreamed they would be.

In December 2013, I started what would become my biggest revision project yet (helloooo, my precious PLAY ON). And while it was most definitely hard work, I ended up with a book that I am so very proud of. I'm no expert, but I do have a few tips on how to tackle a major revision.

Be open to change.

This is the number one step. If you’re not ready to change anything, then you’re probably not ready to revise. Finishing your draft is awesome! But revision is where the magic happens. If you don’t think you need to change anything in your first draft, I suggest letting your manuscript sit for at least a week or so--heck, come back to that baby after the holidays, if need-be. When you return with fresh eyes, you may be surprised at the things you find.

Know what needs to be done.

When I get notes from my CPs/agent/editor, the first thing I do is make a list of each issue that needs addressing. This way, I can check them off as I go.

Make an attack plan.

This is where outlining comes in handy. It doesn’t have to be some long, drawn-out, 10-page outline. Simply jotting down main plot points can be super helpful. The point here is that you need to know where you're going.

Have a support system. And chocolate. And pie.

There may be tears. And that's okay. This writing stuff gets tough. Sometimes, you just need someone else to tell you that you CAN do this, even if you don't believe it yourself. Trust me.

Embrace the "mental health days."

We’re not robots. We have brains and bodies that need rest. Burnout is a real thing that sucks. I, for one, love my mental health days. If you need a night of Netflix and brownies, go for it. Your MS will wait for you.

Be patient with yourself.

Again, it's tough. And the first round of revisions may not be "it." You may need two rounds. Three. Seven. But once you're holding a manuscript that's everything you'd hoped it would be, all the work is so, so worth it.

Finding balance during NaNoWriMo

Ode to Jack Kerouac by Oliver Hammond via Flickr

Are you participating in NaNoWriMo? If so, you might have changed your schedule for the month, or are trying to squeeze writing in whenever you can. Whether you're a planner and have organized a spread sheet for everyone around you so that they're aware of your writing time, or you wake up early or go to bed late, you're noticing that NaNo isn't easy.

I came into NaNo with a plan that provides balance to my busy life as a wife and mother to 3 kids under 10, and setting enough time aside to get my 50K novel done in 30 days.

Four days a week, I set aside the daytime to spend it with family and friends and do most of my writing at night after everyone goes to bed. The other three days, I take my 4-year-old to Mother's Day Out for a couple hours and come home to write, write, write, and do laundry, clean, go grocery shopping, etc.

The reason I came up with this plan is because I wanted something I knew I could stick to. I didn't want to get halfway into Novemeber and quit because everyone around me was complaining that I'm ignoring them. This plan gives me time to write and time to spend with people so I don't get crazy. ;)

It was important to me to make time to do things I enjoy like eating lunch with a friend, watch a movie, or to veg on the couch with my hubs to watch the latest and greatest The Walking Dead after the kids go to bed. Without this time planned out, my relationships and mental attitude would suffer.

So, while we're writing and trying our darnedest to meet our word count for the day, let's also think of ways to find balance, even if that means playing catch up later. Spend some time with people you love most or take a day off to refill the creativity tank. :)

Best of luck to all the people NaNoing this month!! We can do this!! You can find me on NaNo as DiDiBo and on Twitter here.