IWSG: NaNoWriMo

How is it November already? With a new month comes a new post for the Insecure Writer's Support Group. Learn more about them on their website and Facebook page.

Our hosts this month are PJ Colando, Jean Davis, Lisa Buie Collard, and Diedre Knight.

Here's our question for November: November is National Novel Writing Month. Have you ever participated? If not, why not?

For those who might not be familiar with NaNoWriMo, it's an annual challenge to write 50,000 words of a new work in thirty days. This requires an average of 1,667 words per day. I've participated twice, once in 2007 (when my son was still a baby; I figured it was a good way to kickstart my writing again), and in 2010. Although I hit my writing goal both times, I never finished either novel. For me, writing at that speed doesn't produce quality work. I suppose I could try to find those drafts and revise them, but I have so many other projects that it's unlikely to happen. I currently have three different stories in progress, though one is consuming much more mental space than the other two and therefore devours most of my writing time.

To those who are participating in NaNoWriMo, I wish you luck and offer you this tip: try writing on your phone. Save your work in cloud storage so you can access it anywhere on any device. I write in Word, so I have the Microsoft 365 app on my phone. Although writing on my phone does occasionally introduce extra spaces and odd characters into my work, I can fix those errors when I'm on my laptop. A phone is much more portable than a laptop or even a tablet.

Time to end this blog post and return to my story. If you're participating in NaNoWriMo, feel free to share a description of your work in the comments. 

 

IWSG: National Novel Writing Month

Welcome to November! It's hard to believe another month has come and gone, isn't it? That means it's time for another Insecure Writer's Support Group post. Learn more about the IWSG on their website and Facebook page. Our hosts this month are Diedre Knight, Douglas Thomas Greening, Nick Wilford, and Diane Burton.

Our question for November is about the most famous writing event associated with this month: National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). Have you ever participated? If not, why not?

 

I've done NaNoWriMo at least twice, once in 2007 (when my son was still a baby), and another time a few years later, possibly 2010. I managed to "win" both times by reaching 50,000 words, though neither project was ever completed. While NaNoWriMo definitely stretches my writing muscles, I wasn't satisfied with the quality of my writing. (It might work better for me if I was more of a plotter and had a better sense of what I wanted to put down.) I'm not planning to participate this year for two reasons: I currently have several other projects pending and need to complete them before starting something new (unless I get distracted by an anthology I want to submit work to, even though one of my current projects is for an anthology), and I unfortunately don't have enough daily writing time to make finishing a possibility. (I typically have about half an hour to an hour in the evening, which is barely enough time for me to write 500 words, let alone 1,667.) Good luck to everyone who's participating, though!

How do you feel about NaNoWriMo? Are you participating this year? Feel free to discuss it in the comments.

 

IWSG: Why I Write

We made it to November 2020, everyone. By the time this post goes live, the election will be over, though we may not know yet who the next president will be or what Congress and the Senate will look like. I expect the coming winter to be tough, but hopefully next year we'll have a vaccine for Covid-19 and will be able to start rebuilding. In the meantime, best of luck to everyone participating in National Novel Writing Month! I have one novel to edit and three other projects to write, so I'm not starting anything new this month (I hope). Speaking of writing, let's talk about the Insecure Writer's Support Group. Here are links to their website, Facebook page, and Twitter feed. Our hosts this month are Jemi Fraser, Kim Lajevardi, L.G. Keltner, Tyrean Martinson, and Rachna Chhabria. 

Here's our question for this month: Albert Camus once said, “The purpose of a writer is to keep civilization from destroying itself.” Flannery O’Conner said, “I write to discover what I know.” Authors across time and distance have had many reasons to write. Why do you write what you write? 

I write for lots of reasons. I write to create the types of stories I want to read. I write to explore ideas and work out their implications. I write to make a mark on the world and hopefully nudge it in a better direction. I write to connect to other people. Yes, I would also like to supplement my income with my writing and gain recognition, but I think I would write even if no one else ever read another word I wrote. I write to give myself a sense of purpose and to escape the problems and monotony of everyday life. Writing has helped me cope with the crises of 2020, and I hope my stories have helped other people take their minds off their problems and find some enjoyment.

If you write solely for fame and fortune, you'll most likely be disappointed. You have to commit to writing for personal reasons. No matter how frustrating writing can be at times, I find it sustaining. 

Anyway, enough blogging about writing and back to actual writing/revising. If you'd like to share your reasons for writing, feel free to do so in the comments.

 

IWSG: Weird Google

First of all, good luck to anyone participating in National Novel Writing Month! I've already written over 55,000 words in my current work in progress, Dryad in Doubt, so my goal for this month is to finish it instead of starting something new. And if I don't finish this draft in November, I'll do it in December (or whenever I figure out the third act of this book.)

Anyway, it's time for another Insecure Writer's Support Group post. You can learn more about this group on their website, Facebook page, or Twitter account. You can sign up for their newsletter here.

Our hosts for November are Sadira Stone, Patricia Josephine, Lisa Buie-Collard, Erika Beebe, and C. Lee McKenzie.

Our question this month is, "What's the strangest thing you've ever googled in researching a story?"


I don't remember everything I've looked up over the course of my writing career. Since my current project is about dryads, I've been researching trees, and I blogged recently about some of the extreme trees that will play a part in this book. I've also had to research the main setting: Madison, Wisconsin. Probably one of the strangest things I've looked up for this project are hospices in Madison for a scene location. While I've drawn inspiration from maps and pictures, I changed some details about the location (which I try to keep unspecified) to better fit the story. I've also looked up layouts of local hospitals.

What weird terms are in your Google history? Feel free to share them with us, since Google will probably find a way to profit off them anyway.

Favorite Halloween Books

Happy Halloween! To celebrate, I thought I'd share with you one of my favorite books about the season--or, at least, about witches. It's The Witch Family by Eleanor Estes. It's about two little girls (almost seven) and their adventures with the Witch Family. There's Old Witch, who is head of all the witches yet still subject to banishment by human children; Little Witch Girl; Weeny Witch (a baby witch); Malachi the Spelling Bee, and several other characters who live on the barren glass hill with Old Witch. It's a charming story that I remember from my childhood and rediscovered in Kindle format many years later. Obviously, I'm too old to identify with the girls, and it's not the kind of story my son would have found interesting at seven. It was still fun to reread it.

Do you have any favorite books about Halloween, either from your childhood or more current ones? Feel free to share them in the comments. And if you're starting NaNoWriMo tomorrow, good luck! I'm over 44,000 words into Dryads to Discover, and at the rate I'm writing, I'll be lucky to finish the first draft by the end of the year. Whether you finish your story in November or not, the writing is still worth it.

IWSG: NaNoWriMo and Strong Women in Fiction Giveaway

Welcome to November--and the start of National Novel Writing Month, more commonly known as NaNoWriMo. If you're participating, best of luck to you!

This month's Insecure Writer's Support Group Post is brought to you by co-hosts Tonja Drecker, Diane Burton, MJ FiField, and Rebecca Douglass. Here's our question: Win or not, do you usually finish your NaNo project? Have any of them gone on to be published?

 I've done NaNoWriMo twice, and I "won" both times. However, I didn't finish either project (which means they're still unpublished). I'm more of a pantser than a plotter, so the pressure to write faster than I normally do leads to rambling drafts. I'm reusing some of the ideas from my first NaNoWriMo in my current WIP, and I hope someday to return to Catalyst in the Crucible, my second NaNoWriMo project. As usual, it's a case of too many projects, too little time.

Speaking of little time, I'd holding a limited-time giveaway for the Strong Women in Fiction Giveaway, running now through November 15th. The four heroines of my fantasy Season Avatars series all have different types of powerful magic and are second only to the king of their country in rank. Together, Gwen, Jenna, Ysabel, and Kay can tame Chaos Season, a magical storm that mixes up the seasons. To do this, they need strong minds and wills, as well as other talents. I'm celebrating the recent conclusion of this series by giving away signed paper copies of all five books (Seasons' Beginnings, Scattered Seasons, Chaos Season, Fifth Season, and Summon the Seasons.). You can enter below. I'll add collected e-mails to my mailing list, but you're free to unsubscribe later. U.S. residents only, please. The winner will be selected randomly and will have one week to send me a shipping address after I contact him/her. If not, then I'll choose another winner. Let me know if you have any questions.

Other authors are participating in this giveaway hop, so use the linky below to check out all the prizes.

IWSG: Five Things I Like about Writing

Best of luck to everyone participating in National Novel Writing Month! I'm sitting out this year. I still have to finish editing Fifth Season and upload the final draft to the various distributors and complete the rough draft of Summon the Seasons. Once those tasks are done, I have to plan some publicity for Fifth Season's release, return to (and hopefully finish) some short stories, and pre-plan my next series (urban fantasy, tentatively a trilogy at this point). Add on work, family, and three Star Wars troop this month, and I already have plenty on my plate without adding on NaNoWriMo.

Anyway, it's time for another post for the Insecure Writer's Support Group. The co-hosts for this month are Joylene Nowell Butler, Jen Chandler, Mary Aalgaar,  Lisa Buie Collard, Tamara Narayan, Tyrean Martinson, and Christine Rains. This month, we've been asked to answer the following question: What is your favorite aspect of being a writer?

Rather than sticking with just one, I thought I'd see how many I can come up with. Here's my list:

1. Flow--It may sound odd, but some of my earliest experiences of "flow" (a state of mind in which you're fully immersed in your task) during writing came during history essay exams in high school. However, flow occurs when a high skill level meets a high challenge, so I guess those tests were challenging! Flow is a very rewarding and fulfilling state of mind, though it seems harder to reach these days with constant environmental and social distractions.

2. When plotting works out--When inspiration strikes and I can suddenly see how to connect two different ideas into a single story or when something spontaneously I wrote earlier connects with another part of the plot, it's quite satisifying.

3. Reaching "The End" of a rough draft--Even if I know the story still needs a lot of work, I still feel like I accomplished something.

4. Seeing the Cover/Getting the Proof--These are always exciting moments that bring a story closer to publication.

5. Hearing from Readers--Writing is a form of communication. One of the main reasons I write is to connect with somebody else out there who truly "gets" what I'm trying to say. If a story moves you, let the author know!

What do you like most about writing or being a writer? Feel free to share in the comments below.

Down to the Wire...

Although I didn't sign up for NaNoWriMo this year, I did set myself a personal challenge to finish revising the second draft of Scattered Seasons in November. Last night, around 11:15, I did it. My word count for the month was nowhere near 50,000 words, and I really struggled with this ending, since I changed the plot of this book extensively to match with Seasons' Beginnings. The ending was completely new, and I had trouble blocking out how it should go. But the draft is done and comes in under 75,000 words. Time to take a break from it until next year and switch back to the Catalyst Chronicles universe for a while. I know where Julia's story has to go; I just need to figure out the path to get her there.

Anyway, congratulations to everyone who participated in NaNoWriMo. Even if you didn't finish your book or the word count, just showing up and writing can be a victory. Keep the momentum going!

Science of the Week--10/31/14

Happy Halloween! To all of you who are participating in National Novel Writing Month tomorrow, good luck! I have too many works-in-progress to start a new one for NaNoWriMo this year. I'm working on the final section of Scattered Seasons, the second book in the Season Avatar series, so my modest goal for the month is to finish it. Once that's done, I'll return to the Catalyst Chronicles series for the rest of the year.

Anyway, here are some of the most interesting science news articles I read this week:

Growing a blood vessel in a week

Ebola's evolutionary roots more ancient than previously thought

Newly discovered microbe is key in climate change

Dinosaur noses enhanced smelling and cooled brain

How cells know which way to go

It's better for memory to make mistakes while learning

Cutting power could dramatically boost laser output

Scientists engineer toxin-secreting stem cells to treat brain tumors

Slowing the biological clock to aid pregnancy

Have a good weekend, everyone, and see you Monday!

Sci-Fi Month and Science of the Week, 11/1/13

First of all, for those about to NaNoWriMo (and those who started at 12:01 this morning), good luck! Here's a little inspiration:



I'm in the middle of revising the first novel of the Season Avatars series and drafting the next installment of the Catalyst Chronicles series, so I'm not willing to abandon them to start a third project.

Whether or not you're participating in NaNoWriMo, you can participate in Sci-Fi Month at Rinn Reads. Please see this post for the complete schedule. I'll be posting myself on 11/20 about my favorite books/authors. There are so many to choose from that it will be hard to pick only a few!

Finally, of course, here are some science links for the week:

Warm winters let trees sleep longer

Feeling pleasure at the misfortune of those you envy is biological

New substance effectively combats multi-resistant bacteria

Moral in the morning, but dishonest in the afternoon

Scientists: we can tell how creative you are in just a few words

Even in the dark, brain "sees" its own body's movement

Incurable brain cancer gene is silenced

Natural compound good for 3D printing medical implants

Animal personalities are more like humans than first thought

New stem cells go back further

Quantum reality more whimsical than previously thought

single brain cell can perform computations

Finally, this month's issue of Scientific American has articles about worlds with two suns, why the brain prefers paper (even though I really, really love my Kindle), and a one-stop carbon solution that would store carbon underground while harvesting energy. Check it out!

Enjoy your weekend, and see you Monday with a Blog Ring of Power interview!

Back on the Blog Chain: Not Finishing What You...

It's my turn to pick the topic for this round of the blog chain. Naturally, I have to make it a tough one:

Is there a writing project you've failed to finish? If so, why? Are you planning to return to it at some point? Alternatively, describe a book you started to read but didn't finish and why you didn't finish. You don't have to name the book.

I have a slew of partial short stories that I've abandoned, at least for now. Some of them are several years old, while others are more recent. Probably my biggest reason for abandoning them is plot--or rather, not knowing how to resolve the plot. Some of these stories no longer interest me, but there are a couple that I would like to finish and publish. There's always the possibility that I may take the story idea and rework it into something else, the way I transformed an old short story called "Antidote for a Family Feud" into "Letters to Psyche."

I have to admit I do have some abandoned novels as well. One of them is the final volume in the Season Avatars series. I wrote the first two books when I was trying to traditionally publish them, but I dropped the series when I failed to get anywhere with it and became interested in what's now the Catalyst Chronicles series. Now that I can independently publish the Season Avatars series, I've regained my interest in it. However, since I'm starting with a brand new prequel, and since I've made several changes to the world, I'm going to have to revise what's already been written anyway. So perhaps it wasn't so terrible of me to leave that first draft unfinished. Also unfinished is a NaNoWriMo project I started a few years ago about a pair of shapeshifting sisters. I've discovered NaNoWriMo, although fun, doesn't really work well for me in terms of finishing a story, not just putting 50,000 words down. Again, maybe someday in the future, when I've cleared some of my current projects from my brain, I can return to that story. While there's life, there's hope, right? And hopefully I'll have fewer abandoned projects as my writing career continues.

To follow the rest of the chain, check out what Kate said yesterday, then visit Christine's blog tomorrow.

Back on the Blog Chain: My Next Writing Project

Welcome to the first blog chain of the year! For this round, Katrina wants to learn about our writing projects:

Write about your next writing project. What is the genre? Is is one you've written before or is it a new venture? Do you have it all figured out or is it just a germ of an idea? What did you learn from your latest writing project that will make this one even better?

I currently have a novel and a short story in varying stages of editing/cover design. However, since I already discussed my novel, Twinned Universes, as part of The Next Big Thing meme, I'd like to talk about the next book in the Catalyst Chronicles series, Catalyst in the Crucible. The Catalyst Chronicles series comprises the stories listed below, in chronological order:

Lyon's Legacy (novella, published)
"The Mommy Clone" (short story, just came out on Sunday, more details tomorrow)
Twinned Universes (novel, in line editing/cover design)
Brave New Girl (short novella, partial draft)
Catalyst in the Crucible (novel, partial draft)
A Challenge of Catalysts (A few ideas but not started yet. This story will follow directly from Catalyst in the Crucible)

I consider "The Mommy Clone" and Brave New Girl bonus stories that aren't part of the main plot line but help to develop the characters.

Going back to Katrina's questions, Catalyst in the Crucible is science fiction. It's set several years after Twinned Universes and features some of the same characters. However, they're moving to different settings and interacting with new characters; both the settings and new characters require development. Part of what makes this story so difficult to write is what happens to the main character at the beginning of the story--and I can't say more without giving away spoilers.

I've been working on CitC for a couple of years; in fact, it was my most recent NaNoWriMo project. Although I made it past the 50K mark, I had trouble advancing in the story after that. I have most of the story figured out except for the climax. I also know the overall climax for the series, but I don't know yet how to get there from the end of CitC. I do have some ideas, however.

One thing I am doing differently on this project is writing out world-building ideas, preparing character worksheets, and trying to outline more. I'm normally a pantser, but the world is growing and becoming complicated to the point where I need to put it out on paper. I'm also hoping outlining will help me reduce the number of drafts required to get this story ready for the world.

Anyway, I'm blogging to avoid writing, so I'd better return to Catalyst in the Crucible.

Kate was the first to discuss this topic, and Christine will cover it tomorrow, so be sure to check out their blogs.

Broad Spectrum: The 2012 Broad Universe Fiction Sampler

It's hard to believe we're almost halfway through November, isn't it? If you're participating in NaNoWriMo, how's it going?

As you may know, I'm a member of Broad Universe, an organization dedicated to promoting women writers of fantasy, horror, and science fiction. Recently Broad Universe put out an anthology of novel excerpts and short stories written by several of its members. It's called Broad Spectrum: The 2012 Broad Universe Fiction Sampler. It's available for free on Smashwords and for $0.99 on Amazon.  (My understanding is they do want to make it free on Amazon too, so please go ahead and report the price difference.) I don't know if it's on B&N's website or not.

The author list includes several authors who've been interviewed as part of the Blog Ring of Power, including Karina Fabian, Danielle Ackley-McPhail, and Sue Burke. Although I haven't read the sampler yet, I have read some of the books that were excerpted here, including Silver Moon by Catherine Lundoff and Threaded Through Time by Sarah Ettritch. I enjoyed both of these books, and I hope you'll enjoy the sampler and discover some new authors. Go check it out!

Back on the Blog Chain--Daily Goals and the Writing Journey

Today is Election Day in the U.S., so don't forget to get out and vote!

Now that I've that quasi-obligatory reminder out of the way, let's move on to today's topic. It's my turn to pick the subject for the current Blog Chain. Since it's not just November, but also National Novel Writing Month, I wanted to pick something related to NaNoWriMo that wasn't the usual, "Do you participate in NaNoWriMo? Why or why not?" Here's what I came up with:

During National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), writers attempt to write 50,000 words in 30 days. Do you set daily writing goals for yourself, either a certain word count or time spent on writing? Does this include other writing-related activities, like research, plotting, or revising? Do you focus on reaching the end of the journey (such as finishing your current project), or do you enjoy the writing process along the way?

Since I'm the one who chose this topic, it's ironic that I don't set a daily word count for myself. The reason for that is that I spend much of my time rewriting/revising a story instead of cranking out first draft. In general, my daily goal is to work on my projects for at least an hour, if not longer. (Ideally, I'd love to write all day, but real life has a lot of distractions.) I don't count research as part of this time, but I do include activities like drafting, plotting (whether this be a formal outline or jotting down ideas when I can't figure out what to put next), revising, or even formatting/publishing. I usually plan to work on one particular project during a session, but if my mind gets stuck (as can happen when I'm left with the dregs of the day for my writing time), then I may switch to another project. Sometimes that helps, sometimes it doesn't. All I really ask from a writing session is that I've made some progress, even if it's a page or less.

As for the end of the journey versus the writing trip itself, both are important. While it can be a struggle at time to work out the plot or to include all the emotional and descriptive details that bring a scene to life, it's very gratifying when the pieces do come together. I love the way the story takes on urgency when I approach the end. Finishing is always a reward too; I have my own way of ending a draft (I put in lyrics from "The Book Report" from You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown), and I give myself some other physical reward too.

For more approaches to this topic, please check out Kate's post from yesterday and Christine's post tomorrow.

Halloween Videos and Kindle Update

To celebrate the holiday, here are a couple of seasonal videos. My son was fascinated with Casper the Friendly Ghost for a while; this was one of his favorite episodes (I think he liked the chewing gum part):



And here's the opening to one of my favorite childhood shows:





Last Wednesday, I briefly discussed my new Kindle Paperwhite. Since then, I've had a chance to read on it. Here are my thoughts:

The Good--Adjustable brightness of the background, uniform brightness of background, crisp text, suggesting words to speed up searches in my collections, smaller size is even easier to carry.

The Not-So-Good--For some of my books, I get an error message saying they're registered to another user. I have to delete them and download them from the cloud to regain access. Learning how to navigate via touchy is tricky; sometimes when I want to highlight text, I turn the page or make something else happen. If the text I want to highlight is at the top of the screen, then I end up accessing the main menu instead.

Overall, though, I'd say the Kindle Paperwhite is more treat than trick. Now I just have to figure out what to do with my Kindle Keyboard. Should I sell it or raffle it off when I publish Twinned Universes?

Happy Halloween, everyone, and best of luck to everyone attempting NaNoWriMo tomorrow!

Ten-Word Tuesday: NaNoWriMo Song

Are you halfway there, or just living on a prayer?

Ten-Word Tuesday: NaNoWriMo Progress?

As long as you're writing, it's progress. Keep on going!

Ten-Word Tuesday: For Those About to NaNo...

May the words flow as steadily as caffeine this month!

NaNoWriMo Cheerleader

As I said last week, I have too many other projects to finish first before starting something new, so I'm sitting out of NaNoWriMo this year. That doesn't mean I won't be writing; I'm about 19K into a fantasy novel. I just couldn't wait until November 1st to start it. However, there's so much writing energy going around the blogosphere during November that I hate to be left out of it completely. So I'd like to be a NaNoWriMo Cheerleader--as long as I don't have to wear one of those outfits. (Trust me; that's a bad idea.) I got the idea from Sommer Leigh. She's set up a blog hop where NaNoWriMo participants can sign up to receive notes of encouragement from others. You can sign up at the link. If you'd like me to be on your personal cheerleading squad, please leave a comment below.

Time to work on some cheers...."Write, write, write all night! Sixteen sixty-seven will do it right!"

Um, maybe I should just stick to SF and fantasy....

Ten-Word Tuesday: NaNoWriMo?

Sorry, not this year; I'm busy juggling several unfinished projects.