Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Where Nano Left Me

It is the Last day of NaNoWriMo.  Several of my writing friends cleared their 50,000 word goals last week, some intend on squeaking out the last couple of hundred words today.  Me . . .  I am about 10,000 words shy.  Could I pound out those words today? Probably.  Would they be of any use to my current projects?  Probably Not. So I will let my count stay at 41,596 and be happy with my progress.

That's not to say that the time I dedicated each day to NaNo wasn't productive.  In this month alone, I have finished a YA Sci-fi manuscript, completely edited a YA Contemporary, and used my spare writing time to explore three new YA ideas. So where did NaNo leave me . . .  re-reading the first two, rough chapters of each new idea, polishing them up, and making the tough decision of which WIP to focus on next.

To all of you participating in NaNo, a huge congrats to those who have completed the challenge and sending lots of encouragement to those hoping to crank out the last few words today.




Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Back To My First Love -- Historical Fiction

I am taking a little side road away from my normal YA reading list to return to an old love of mine -- historical fiction.  As a Catholic School lifer, I had the story of Jean d'Arc and the 100 years war hammered into my brain at a young age, so I went in with a vague idea of what to expect.  I'm glad I did. Without a solid foundation of who this girl was, I think I would've found this book hard to follow.  

The Maid is gritty and realistic, bringing the reader through all the brutality of the 100 years war.  The language is crude but well used, and the battle scenes are vivid and raw.  It is true, hard-core historical fiction.  Be forewarned . . .  those looking for romantic settings and white knights should seek their reading pleasure elsewhere.  The book is as compelling and perplexing as the Joan d'Arc herself, and although fiction, it was clearly well researched and historically accurate.  All and all, I have to say it was the perfect book for me to rediscover my passion for truly historical fiction.

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Ass in the Chair

Let me start this post by saying I am a fully-committed NaNo Writer.  I love meeitng 20-30 of my fellow cohorts twice a week at Starbucks to hack out some words.  I love hearing about their WIP's, watching them flesh out characters, and cheering them on when they hit a wall.  What I don't get is Word Wars.

I understand that NaNo is about turning off your inner editor and letting  the words pour forth.  The goal -- less editing more writing.  But see, editing my work as I go is an ingrained process for me, one that allows me to turn out a half-way decent first draft free of hideous grammar mistakes and massive plot inconsistencies.  So setting a time clock for 30 minutes and seeing how many words I can spew out seems counterproductive to me.  Sure, I can easily hammer out a crappy, 2000 word,  mistake-riddled paragraph in thirty minutes.  Problem is, I then need to spend the next three hours editing, deleting, and salvaging what I can (which BTW, was exactly 283 words of 1867 last night!) See . . . counterproductive.

So rather then partake in Word War exercises with my local NaNo group, I have decided to employ the same philosophy to NaNo as I do my everyday writingIt is nothing cryptic or insanely complicated.  It doesn't involve massive amounts of re-organization or turning off my inner editor.  It is a rather simple concept I refer to as  Ass in the Chair!

On an average day, in any given month, I write 2,000-3,000 words.   On a good day, when the muse is cooperating, it can take me sixty minutes.  On less inspiring days, it can take me hours, a lot a coffee, and a fair amount of cursing.  But at the end of the day, no matter what muse or demon I am fighting, the writing gets done (and edited as I go!)

So tell me, what is your NaNo process and how does it differ from your everyday writing life?  

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

From Nightmare to Manuscript

My blog post about the myths of co-authoring spurred a lot of great questions, so I have decided to make this a weekly segment.  I thought I would start off with the one questions I get asked most often:

"Is one of you responsible for physically writing, while the other comes up with idea?"

As most of you know,  I write both YA Contemporary and Speculative Fiction.  My contemporary pieces are written all by my lonesome; my Sci-fi/ Speculative Fiction pieces, however, are co-authored.  So this is how it works, up to this point anyhow . . .

I'm usually neck deep in some edgy YA Contemporary WIP, my emotions running high, my mind trying to sort through the hundred and one threads I want to add.  I go to bed, my body exhausted, my mind on full throttle. Inevitably I have a dream . . . or more accurately a nightmare.  You know, the kind that has you sitting up in bed, sweating, with the not so eloquent WTF thought running through your head.

Unable to get back to sleep, I get up, pace the floor and stare at the clock, waiting for the "socially acceptable" time to call Lindsay to approach.  Somewhere around 6am I call her, babble on about the insanely twisted dream, and beg her not to run screaming away from me and my dark ideas.  We hash it out, take my dream from the first chapter through to the end, and then get cranking. Start to finish, nightmare to manuscript -- about six weeks.

So these plots, these decrepit corners of hell to which we regulate our characters are truly a joint effort.  Both of us muddle through every chapter, every paragraph, every damn word until we have something worthy of shooting off to our critique partners.





Tuesday, November 1, 2011

November 1st -- You Know What That Means?


NaNoWriMo is upon us.   "Thirty days and thirty nights of literary Abandon."  I got an idea, a fully charged laptop, and a massive supply of coffee. If that doesn't keep me writing, there is always the obscene amount of Halloween candy my kids collected.

How about you guys -- any of you taking the NaNo challenge this year? If so, what's your plan of attack -- write furiously whenever or wherever you can until you reach your goal?  Partake in write-ins so that you have dedicated time to put pen to paper?  Or are you like me -- do you have the whole damn story planned out in your head, was just waiting for the clock to strike midnight so you could get started?