Another new thing this year. In putting the NPNP Kit HQ sent me last year to good use, I'll be posting up each day one of the daily short pep talks from the Kit. They're designed to provide "daily encouragement and insight for your noveling adventure."(Chris Baty, No Plot? No Problem! Novel Writing Kit). So read and enjoy!
Week One - Brief 1:
Green Lights, From Here to the Horizon
The first day. A blank page. And a slight panic about starting the book off on the right foot. But you know what? There are no wrong feet. Take a tip from freewheeling graphic design guru Bruce Mau on the subject of beginnings:
"Not knowing where to begin is a common form of paralysis. Begin anywhere."
Week One - Brief 2:
Create Your Clay
Writing a novel is like working with clay. You first create a rough shape, then massage that shape into something beautiful, such as an ashtray or a fearsome army of worms. Unlike potters, though, who can simply buy clay at the art supply store, novelists have to pull off the supernatural feat of creating their clay with their minds. It's an amazing accomplishment, really, and it's also why postponing judgment of your work until the end of your first draft is so important. What you started producing yesterday is noveling clay - valuable, essential, and invariably lumpy. Its beauty will grow as you work it.
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Nov 2, 2007 - 22 04
Week One - Brief Three:
Aim Low
One of my favourite books is called Rules of Thumb 2. The volume offers thousands of guidelines for any number of essential day-to-day activities, such as properly estimating a submerged crocodile's length and surviving a pistol duel. The dueling hint was submitted by historian Jim Barber, who writes: "When dueling with firearms, always aim lower than your opponent's vital area - to pierce the heart, aim at the knees." This is something you'd do well to keep in mind in these early days of Week One.
Abandon the stultifying notion of brilliance and aim instead for the low mark of completion. It'll take the pressure off of you, which will allow your writing to beocme looser and more ambitious, paradoxically raising the quality of your book. It's Barbar's law: Aiming low is the best way to succeed.
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Nov 4, 2007 - 06 01
Week One - Brief 4:
Let Your Fingers Do The Naming
Demographers have been noting the decreasing size of families in industrialized nations for decades. They pin it on everything from rising education rates among women to the decrease in family farming. But I know the real culprit: with a skyrocketing number of baby names to pick from, would-be parents avoid having children because they can't decide what to name the things.
As you birth your cast of characters this week, you can reduce your naming stress by simply borrowing monikers from the Great Library of Character Names. It's published annually by your phone company; look for the large white book on your shelf next to the Yellow Pages.
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Nov 5, 2007 - 14 12
Week One - Brief 5
Borrow Mercilessly
One of the best ways to learn to do something is to emulate those whose work you admire.
The treat (and task) for today is to drop by the bookstore and pick up a novel by an author whose voice you've always loved. Read the first few pages of your purchase before you start writing, and pick out the methods the writer uses to create the mood you find so appealing.
Is it the folksy vocabulary and informal writing style? The electric buzz of clipped, declarative senteces? Or the poetic, lyrical style of flowing sentences and sensual adjectives? Whatever it is, borrow the elements you love and use them throughout today's writing session.
ML Note: The Magna Carta I would work really well with this task!
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Nov 6, 2007 - 09 25
Week One - Brief 6:
Go Wild
Weird fact: Before Jerry Springer launched his brawling freak show on daytime TV, he was a serious progressive politician and highly respected mayor of Cincinnati. In his heyday, many Ohioans even saw him as a likely candidate for the U.S. presidency. As you begin worrying that you might be pushing the bounds of believability for some of your characters, remember Jerry and the countless other real-life stories you've heard that make the wildest fiction pale by comparison.
Don't be afraid to leverage the power of unlikely coincidences and unbelievable occurances. Nothing could be more true to life.
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Nov 7, 2007 - 11 48
Week One - Brief 7:
Skeletons in the Closet
So many of the things we take as a given in everyday life were actually the result of a bitter struggle between two opposing forces. Take, for example, the custom of saying "Hello?" when answering the phone. It seems like a natural extension of a face-to-face conversation, right? If telephone inventor Alexander Graham Bell had had his way, though, we'd all be saying "Ahoy, ahoy" when our cell phone rings. He thought that the nautical salutation was more fitting, and he was disgruntled that the plainer "hello" suggested by inventor Thomas Alva Edison caught on instead.
Today, use part of your writing session to explore a given about your protagonist's life or personality, and reveal one of the surprising struggles that brought him or her to their current state.
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Nov 8, 2007 - 15 50
Week One - Brief 8:
The Plot Thickens
Ah, the start of the second week. Where things get more, um...interesting. If Week One was all about character creation, Week Two is about finding something to do with all the people milling around in your book. Yes, we're talking plot here, a word that sends a lot of writers needlessly running in fear. Just keep prodding your characters and a plot will set itself in motion this week. Know, though, that the decisions of Week Two will make this the most exhausting of all four weeks.
Also, know that the more you write, the more inspired you are going to feel. If you're feeling a little pokey now, it's because you're not writing enough. Push youself to write every day, and make a point of adding something to your word count any time you're within striking distance of a keyboard.
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Nov 10, 2007 - 16 05
Week Two - Brief 9:
No Frogs in this Pond
Today, we take Zsa Zsa Gabor as our literary role model. Her enthusiasm for marriage was so great that she did it nine times. What do Zsa Zsa's many nuptials have to do with your novel?
Today, as a number of possible plot directions start offering themselves to you, you may decide to wait coyly for The One to appear. Don't.
In the world of the monthlong novel, there are no frogs, only princes (or princesses). Take inspiration from the Hungarian actress, and hitch yourself to any likely plot suitor. You'll have a great time with any of them, and you can always grab a different one on the next go-round.
Week Two - Brief 10:
Complain, Curse, Crumple
A friend of mine, who is an EMT, says that people at restaurants choke more often than you'd imagine. According to him, the real danger isn't the choking, it's the bathroom. Because the moment people get a chicken wing lodged in their throats, they do a curious thing: They use the last of their oxygen to politely remove themselves to the bathroom, far away from anyone who might be able to help Heimlich it out.
If at any point you start having difficulty with your novel, the worst thing you can do is suffer silently. Complain in great detail to your support team and anyone else who will listen.
Curse your character and their mothers. Crumple up this card (ML note: or your outline, or anything that's handy) and hurl it in the trash. Let the frustration out. You'll be surprised at how much clearer your writing vision is after a good venting.
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Nov 11, 2007 - 19 33
Week Two - Brief 11:
Bathe Your Imagination
Among the weird places where writers find inspiration, the shower is one of the more common. "Your body is totally relaxed and your mind is totally relaxed," says Ray Bradbury of his trips to the steamy plot chamber, "then the little explosions, the little revelations come."
Spend some time today investigating those places and situations that allow your mind plenty room to wander - a walk, a bike ride, standing in line at the bank - and soak in the literary results.
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Nov 12, 2007 - 12 39
Week Two - Brief 12:
Onward!
One of the most famous mountain climbers of the last twenty-five years is Joe Simpson, known not for the number of peaks he's scaled, but for a nightmarish climb gone awry in 1985. As captured in his book (and later the movie) Touching the Void, Simpson shattered his leg on a snowy, stormy descent, and fell hundreds of feet, landing on a ledge overlooking the maw of an ice crevasse. Staying where he was seemed untenable, but the only direction he could go was down, lowering himself into the dark, claustrophobic slit of the icy canyon. Getting back out would be impossible. His thought at that juncture: "You gotta keep making decisions. Even if they're wrong decisions. If you don't make decisions, you're stuffed." Simpson made it off the mountain with all his appendages intact, and you should take his good advice to heart throughout Week Two. Resist the impulse to sit back and ponder. Keep moving forward.
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Nov 14, 2007 - 14 58
Week Two - Brief 13:
A Lesson From The Deep
Recent studies of marine mammals have revealed the perplexing fact that baby killer whales don't sleep at all during their first month on Earth. The explanation concocted by scientists is that the whales are at risk of freezing to death in the inhospitable waters until they acquire the blubber that insulates them. As you head through the ides of your novel month, take inspiration from these creatures and know that with each day of writing you're developing the kind of thickened skin and world-wise writing experience that will serve you well for the rest of your life. Even if it just feels sometimes like you're swimming in circles.
Week Two - Brief 14:
Keep the Faith
Novelist Amy Bender surrounds her writing desk with a dozen synonyms for the word "faith." Why? It helps remind her that, however confusing her story may seem at the moment, its point will become clear if she just keeps writing. And it always does.
As you enter your fourteenth day of writing, make and post a sign that will help you remember that things are going to work out great in the end.
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Nov 17, 2007 - 10 13
Week Three: Brief 15
The Squint
Painters seeking the proper light and dark tones in their works sometimes employ a powerful, affordable tool that is built right into the human skull. It’s called The Squint, and it requires you to stand back from the work in progress and, well, squint. Why all the blurring? Because doing so lets you see if you’ve captured the basic structure of the thing you’re painting without all the distraction of surface textures and other superficialities. The same tool works very well on monthlong novels. Remember to use a mental squint as you write, creating in broad strokes without getting sucked into the creative standstill of fretting over the fine print. All the masterly details can be filled in later, once you better understand the arc of your story.
Week Three: Brief 16
Fair Days Ahead
Hey! You’re more than halfway done! If Week One was a crisp autumn and Week Two a brittle winter, then Weeks Three and Four are the kinds of mild springs and humidity-free summers that people pay California rents to enjoy. Good things are coming on the winds, my friend. You’ll begin feeling them this week.
Week Three: Brief 17
Dress the Part
The Billboard Liberation Front is a group of pranksters who monkey with high-profile billboards posted around the San Francisco Bay Area. The BLF’s intricate changes to the signs, done in fonts and colours identical to the ads they’re altering, often take place in broad daylight, yet the group is rarely caught. The secret: Members wear bright orage vests and workmen’s clothes. The lesson here: If you dress the part, you can get away with anything. Whenever I’m feeling like a writing fraud, I get out my novelist costume and find it always lifts my mood.
Today, try putting together your own novelist ensemble and see what wonders it works for your writing mood.
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Nov 26, 2007 - 14 16
Week Three: Brief 18
The Placebo Effect
Hippocrates, the philosophical founder of modern medicine, inspired many good things, including an oath that makes doctors promise not to kill their patients. One of his lesser-known tips to doctors, though is that doing nothing can also be the perfect rememdy for some of their patients’ afflictions. Maybe you’ve come to see some aspect of your novel as a potential book-killer. You know what the best remedy is? Ignore it for now. The solution will come in time.
Week Three: Brief 19
Re-Breaking the Routine
One of the nicest side effects of a huge creative challenge like a monthlong novel is the way it breaks routine, altering the overly familiar time-tables of our daily lives. As you head toward the fourth week of the escapade, you’ve likely created a host of new schedules and routines to help cram writing time into your busy life. As a result, your characters have come to expect a visit from you at certain times.
Your mission for the next two days: sneak attack. If you’ve been writing early in the morning, sleep late and hold a midnight session. Night owls should become afternoon owls. Leverage the potential of change to catch your book off-guard and inject energy into your story.
Week Three: Brief 20
Musical Muse
A recent study on exercise and music had some curious results. It turns out that people who work out while listening to music temporarily increase their verbal fluency compared with those who work out in silence.
Today, swing by the CD store (or music download site) and pick out a couple of discs that might give you a shot of increased verbosity, pairing your musical choices to the mood of the chapter at hand.
Week Three: Brief 21
Focus Ahead
A few years ago, my car’s rearview mirror dropped off the windshield and landed in my lap. Freaked out, I headed over to an auto-parts store where they assured me it happens all the time, and sold me a kit to glue it back in place. But after I got used to the mirror’s absence, I really started loving life without it. The view ahead was so much broader than it had been with the mirror blocking it up. I found myself savoring the forward-focused feel of driving without looking behind me all the time. It felt dangerous, yes. But also exciting. While my mirror is safely back in place again, today I recommend you pull the literary equivalent of a rearview mirror-removal.
The finish line is just 10 days ahead. Stomp that foot down on the accelerator and don’t look back.
Week Three: Brief 22
The Gold Mine of Failure
One of the most useful office products in the world, the Post-It© Note, began as a total failure. A scientist at 3M was trying to brew up a batch of a super-strong adhesive. One particularly miserable attempt produced a substance that could barely hold two pieces of paper together. It took four years for the company to see that the weak glue wasn’t the problem. The problem was preconceived expectations. As your book starts to become something different from what you’d originally intended, keep 3M’s sticky situation in mind.
Week Three: Brief 23
Limen-Aid
An anthropologist named Victor Turner added a new wrinkle to the discipline’s canon in the 1950s when he wrote about the importance of something called limen. Translating roughly as “threshold,” limen refers to those times like adolescence when we’re caught between two life phases. In these neither-here-nor-there periods, he wrote, levels of energy and disorder both run high.
You’re in a period of limen right now, novelist, and this week I recommend you heighten the energetic state by taking a writing field trip to a space such as an airport, hotel lobby, bust depot, or anywhere people are temporarily lodged in that fascinating space between departure and arrival.
Week Four: Brief 24
Pressure Cooking
Procrastination, I think, gets a bad rap. To start a project and see it through to completion, we need the pressure and sense of urgency procrastination provides. Sure, in the midst of a frantic all-nighter to get a paper or report done, it feels horribly dysfunctional. But I see procrastination as a terrifically functional way to minimize tiol and maximize output. So if you’ve been letting yourself fall behind on your novel, it’s okay. You’re just allowing the pressure to build, waiting for the do-or-die moment to arrive before you throw yourself into the book with everything you’ve got. A note to all procrastinators, though:
That moment starts today.
Week Four: Brief 25
Set-Asides
As part of their ethical code, archaeologists agree to leave a portion of their excavation sites untouched. They do this as a gift to the archaeologists of the future, who may be able to glean more from the area than current technologies allow. As you dig deeper into your novel, you may find that your cup of good novel ideas runneth over, and you can’t fit all your interesting characters and scenes into the arc of the story. If this is the case, just make a note of them, and set them aside to explore in future writing projects.
Week Four: Brief 26
A Little Ambiguity
If you’ve ever been in a book group before, you know what wildly different interpretations readers can derive from the same passage. A screamingly obvious Freudian allegory to one reader will be a hilarious skewering of today’s political parties to another. The discussions are especially fiery when an author leaves a little ambiguity in the book’s ending. Did the main characters end up together? Apart? Eaten by rampaging zombies? As you start to head into the wrap-up for your book, feel free to leave a little ambiguity in your story. Leaving some plot moves unelaborated and characters’ actions unclear means less work for you as a writer, and gives readers the toothy satisfaction of putting the pieces together in ways that make sense to them.
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Nov 28, 2007 - 08 17
Week Four: Brief 27
A Moveable Feast
In the sport of ultramarathoning, racers sometimes run a hundred miles or more at a stretch. The sport’s king is Dean Karnazes, an unlikely athlete who hadn’t done any running until his dead-end life left him feeling so frustrated that he just stripped down to his underwear and ran out into the night. He hasn’t slowed down since, and now he can run more than 200 miles without stopping. On his training runs, he uses his cell phone to order pizza and cheesecake that are delivered (and consumed) while he’s running. The lesson Dean offers monthlong novelists is clear: You can maintain focus and speed while wolfing down an oversized dessert item. Get on that cell phone, writer. Your cheesecake is long overdue.
Week Four: Brief 28
Gilding the Invisible
When it comes to ornamentation on buildings, architects tend to give up after creating the first story. The truth is, no matter how much work they put into decorating upper floors’ facades, people just don’t notice things higher than 10 feet. (This is also the reason that towering warehouse shops like Costco or Wal-Mart don’t worry overly much about leaving their ceilings surprisingly raw and ugly.) Remember the law of the invisible ceilings when you worry that you’ve left something ruinously ugly in your book. Caught up in the sweep of your story, most readers won’t even notice the rough patches.