Write A Novel In A Month #NaNoWriMo

By Kristy McCaffrey

If you’ve been on Facebook or Twitter, then you might have seen posts about National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo. During the month of November writers from around the world collectively put their butts in the chair and pound out a novel. There’s a website where you can register your project, track your daily word count, and interact with your friends and colleagues who are also participating. To win NaNo, you must write 50,000 words by November 30. If you’re a writer, you know how tough this can be. And if you’re a reader, you might wonder what all the fuss is about.

I’ve successfully completed two previous NaNo’s—the first was for my western romance THE BLACKBIRD (2014), and the second was my romantic suspense novel about great white sharks titled DEEP BLUE (2016).

How does NaNo benefit a writer? It forces the internal editor to take a vacation. Believe me, this is far harder than it sounds, and is probably the biggest battleground an author will face in trying to complete NaNo. The internal editor not only encompasses good sentence structure and proper grammar, he/she also wants fully-fleshed characters right out of the gate, will insist on researching the name of the road in that western town in 1877 before allowing any more forward movement in the story, and wants to investigate every Irish surname for a secondary character who only appears in one scene. The internal editor can be the harshest of critics, and many a writer has succumbed to crippling self-doubt as a result.

But if an author has already published several novels, he/she must have found a way to work with this ridiculously overbearing boss, right? Excuse me while I laugh hysterically. Okay, I’m back. The short answer is, no. But all is not lost, and that’s where NaNo helps writers to shine. It forces us to push past the persnickety side-commentator and get the story down. NaNo is all about the first draft—those random and sometimes illogical beginnings of our stories. As a reader, all you’ve ever seen is the spiffed up final version of a project, so it’s hard to understand that it didn’t always look that way. Most first drafts would shock the spit right out of you. Just kidding. They’re not that horrifying, but they can be quite the hot mess.

To write 50,000 words in one month (and November only has 30 days), a writer must punch out 1,667 words per day. I usually round up to 2,000, because life doesn’t stop for me to write, so there will be days when I don’t hit that goal. Since my novels tend to be 75-85K in length, writing 50K won’t be the entire book. This leads to the most important advice I can offer about NaNo—make sure you get to THE END. This means that some scenes will be skipped, heavy description and backstory will be lightly touched upon, and character development will be invariably sketchy. But this is a good thing. Getting to the end offers insights that can’t be found any other way, and it will make the first revision pass much more fruitful.

One quirk I’ve learned during NaNo is that my scenes end up out of order. Since I know this about myself, I don’t spend too much time in my transitions from one incident to the next, because I’ll likely be moving them around later. I simply try to find the interior energy of a scene and expound on that as best I can. Then I move on. You can’t dilly-dally during NaNo.

And while it’s true I’ll be forced to discard large chunks of my preciously speed-written prose during the refining stages of the manuscript, it’s never wasted. I almost always learn something from the misstep, either about my characters or a plot direction that wasn’t going to work. I’ve also had delightful surprises. I didn’t find the great white shark star of my suspense book until the very end of the first draft. Her name was Bonnie, and when she arrived she changed the whole tone of the story. That’s why it’s important to get to the end. Once I knew about her, it was clear how I needed to lay the groundwork for her presence earlier in the book, and it completely informed the direction of my revisions.

This year, I’m unofficially participating and I won’t lie, it’s stressful. Some days I just can’t figure out what should happen next, and my mind’s innate tendency to wander off—online Christmas shopping! Let’s do that!—must be held in rigorous check. The manuscript (ANCIENT WINDS, the third book in my suspense series) is unfolding in a choppy and somewhat haphazard way, and it’s downright maddening. But … I’m finding those little gems along the way. (I have a fabulous scene in the Amazonian jungle with my hero and heroine and an anaconda that quite surprised me.) And this is because NaNo doesn’t let up; it forces you to write something. Anything. It inspires innovation.

So, if you’re a writer and haven’t given NaNo a try, consider it. You might astonish yourself. And if you’re a reader, have sympathy for those participating. We won’t be grumpy lunatics for long.

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Getting The Train To The Station by Becky Lower

I love to find analogies in everyday life to use in comparison to my writing—both crafting a story and my career in general. So, as I was sitting in my car, watching a train zip by the other day, it occurred to me that writing a novel is very much like linking the cars of a train togeth

er. The analogy may be a bit out there, but since a lot of you are train lovers, I thought I’d share it with you.

You start with an idea—the engine. Then, you add cars to the engine—bits of backstory, introduction of characters and plot points. The big rail yard where all these cars get hooked together is your outline. Each scene becomes another car on the train. Sometimes, the scenes have a lot of graffiti on them, and need to be cleaned up or scrapped altogether. You may need to unhook them and rehook them together in a different order. If you pay attention to any train, you’ll see that cars of a similar nature are interrupted every so often with one containing hazardous material. Those are the dark moments of your story, and need to be evenly spaced out.

If you find yourself heading down the wrong track, you’ll need to readjust your direction and get your story back on the right rails. Eventually, you’ll wrap the story and your train up by putting a caboose on it with either a bang-up ending or an epilogue. What’s left to do? Oh, yes, make sure it follows the correct path to its end point–a publishing house or becoming an independent publisher, whichever track you decide to take, and that you publicly announce its arrival when it’s finally published.

Then, there’s the analogy of a train to a writing career. Watch a train when it begins to leave the railyard. It starts out very slow, as your first book gets released. You hope you can sell a copy or two to someone other than family and friends. When you get your first review from someone you don’t know, the engine begins to gather speed. As you begin to appear on other author’s blogs, and develop deep friendships with these people, your world starts to whiz by. With the second and third book, your rhythm picks up and you gain more readers, and appear on more blogs, maybe even get some national exposure. With a lot of hard work and persistence, your career takes off, and you’re headed down the track full speed ahead, with all the guard rails down and people are sitting in their cars watching you race along.

In both cases—both with a story and a career—there’s an awful lot of hard work, creativity, attention to detail, and some luck involved in getting the train strung together and eventually, to the station. Fortunately, with all the different tracks springing up in the publishing world, it’s a bit easier to get that train into the depot. The trick is now to have a crowd waiting when you get there.

THE BIG QUESTIONS?

Post (c) Doris McCraw
writing as Angela Raines

As I continue on the journey of growing as a writer that began this summer, I am ending this series with 'The Big Questions'. 

What you may ask are the big questions? No, they are not, is this any good, can I get this published or will people like this? No, these are the big questions you can or may want to ask as you are writing.

I give credit to James E. Ryan, Dean of Harvard's Graduate School of Education, for these questions. He proposed that they are life's essential questions. I've appropriated them for use as I write scenes, chapters and ultimately the story. The questions are: Wait, what? I wonder (why, if)?, Couldn't we at least?, and What truly matters?. He has an addition question but it doesn't really apply for my purpose.

When I sit down to write another scene, I stop and ask "wait, what?" This allows me to focus in on what it is I'm trying to achieve by writing and including this piece in the story. If my hero wants to kiss the heroine, I will pause before I start and ask the questions. Wait, what: does he really want to kiss her, and what will be her response, or their response to each other?

Next I will ask, I wonder if things will go smoothly or I wonder why the two are in this situation. Will the kiss go smoothly, and why did things have to happen this way. Perhaps additional information is needed to inform what is happening.

Perhaps the scene could use an answer to the question, couldn't we at least let them be happy for a moment or maybe I need to create additional conflict from either the two of them or outside influences. Maybe he has had a bad experience and doesn't want to complicate their relationship. Maybe she is shy and although wants the kiss is afraid she will do it all wrong. 

Ultimately the final question is, what truly matters in the upcoming scene? Is it an end scene? Is it a catalyst scene? Do they come to some realization that makes the kiss the most important thing?

I don't always use every question, but do try. I have found it helps to focus me on what I'm trying to accomplish with the story. What is my overall purpose in telling this particular story? Why are these characters doing what they are doing? I do use 'wait, what' almost consistently when either writing a scene, re-writing/editing or when I'm pondering another project. Asking the question allows me to pause and understand my purpose for putting the proverbial pen to paper.

I've used the romance genre here, but these questions work for any type of writing. When you set down to write the non-fiction piece, or the mystery, stop and ask these questions. Wait, what is my purpose. I wonder if I should tell the story this way or another way. Couldn't I try it, see if it works. And of course, what truly matters about this work.

Hopefully, some of the ideas I've shared in this post and the other two, And Action, Badge of Pain, will help you as you travel the road of author who tells stories that matter to you and your readers.

If anyone wishes, to read Mr. Ryan's book, it is called "Wait, What?, and Life's Other Essential Questions" published by Harper One.


Doris Gardner-McCraw -Author, Speaker, Historian,
specializing in Colorado and Women's History

Angela Raines - author: Where Love & History Meet

For a list of Angela Raines Books: Here 

Photo and Poem: Click Here 

Angela Raines FaceBook: Click Here

BADGE OF PAIN

by Doris McCraw (c)

You may wonder about the title of this post. I chose Badge of Pain or What Drives Our Character as the focus for this month. 

As some of you know, I come from the performing arts. I have spent years honing characters that playwrights created. I even spent six plus years teaching others the craft. The one thing an actor does is find out what makes their character 'bleed'. Not just the simple, 'mom didn't like me so...', but the deep down root of everything. It ain't always easy, but once you find it, the character you're playing comes alive. One acting coach whose concepts I've used to some degree when I am writing and performing is Ivana Chubbuck . For those who would like to hear her, here it a link to a video on her process. https://youtu.be/XOVPMV5wgv4  Or you can read her book, "The Power of the Actor".

I've also been working through Donald Maass's book "The Emotional Craft of Fiction". He also asked you to go deeper. Not just the obvious,  but take it down to the lowest level. If you start with anger, go deeper. What would be next? Frustration, embarrassment, fear, hurt. 

Characters have that one thing that keeps them from achieving their goal. Not just the outer world of conflict, but the inner world of pain. In my first novella, my main characters had pain that kept them from loving each other. It was the 'badge' they carried like a shield to keep them from taking the step to happiness. 

Each character, if you look deep enough, carries that load, and it weighs heavy on them. At the same time, to let go means they become vulnerable, they can get hurt. They would be trading a known pain for the possibility of another pain. We all do it ourselves to some degree.

So as we take our character's journey when writing, here are some tips.

1. Slow down and let yourself and readers get to know your character. Sometimes you need to take the time to really put the important scene out there, to take the time to highlight important details and actions. Not every scene, but the important ones that the reader can relate to.

2. Use body language, not just facial expressions, to convey what is going on with your character. If they are getting ready to tell someone the truth of their pain, what would they do? Would they pace, look out the window, avoid eye contact, turn their back?

3. Create tension, tease your reader, use words that draw the reader into caring. Are they going to fess up to their pain, move past it and find happiness? What happens if the don't? Dig deep, find the source of the pain and open that wound.

4. What is the moral compass of you character? How does it fit in with the pain they carry. Don't be afraid to delve into that. It adds to the depth the reader invests in the outcome. You want them to cheer for the good guy. Even the villains have a moral compass, at least most do. If you've ever read Dean Koontz's "The Watchers" you will know what I mean. Even the 'monster' brought a tear to my eye.

I leave you with a quote from Franz Kafka "A book must be the ax for the frozen sea within us". Just like the actor who allows the watcher to feel emotions while remaining safe, so too can the author allow the reader to experience the pain without living through it themselves. 

Doris Gardner-McCraw -also writing as Angela Raines

Author, Speaker, Historian-specializing in
Colorado and Women's History

For a list of Angela Raines Books: Here 

Photo and Poem: Click Here 

Angela Raines FaceBook: Click Here