National Novel Writing Month - Home

Post-NaNo Blues?

Chris Baty — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 18:10:55 +0000

So these past four days I've been feeling what I think a lot of Wrimos are feeling: Weird.

It's strange to have my evenings free for non-noveling chores. Yesterday night, I went grocery shopping for the first time in weeks, and my attention kept gravitating to high-energy, easily scarfable foods that wouldn't leave an oily trail on my keyboard.

"I can eat like a normal person now," I realized.

It was a discomforting thought.

If you've been fighting to post-NaNo blues this week too, never fear: There's a bunch of great stuff on the NaNo horizon. This week and weekend, there are tons of Thank God It's Over parties around the world to attend, where you can celebrate with your fellow Wrimos. We're having our Pan-Bay Area TGIO on Friday night at 8 PM in San Francisco at Root Division. Check your regional lounge for details of your local fest!

We'll be putting up a new WrimoRadio of 2008 on Monday, and next week I'll be sending out an email with some thoughts on this year and the adventures ahead. Big, Fun, Scary, ahoy!

Still eyeing those scarfables,

Chris

Today's Guest: Dr Wicked, creator of Write or Die!

Lindsey Grant — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 21:38:25 +0000

Q: Dr Wicked, we have heard from thousand of Wrimos who use (and were led to victory by) Write or Die, a writing tool you created. Why did you make it, and how does it work? Will the electric shock mode be activated any time soon?
A: I made Write or Die because it occurred to me that the reason people stop writing is lack of motivation. An apt metaphor for motivation is the donkey and the carrot. The donkey moves forward because there is a carrot dangling a few feet in front of him on the end of a pole and he wants to eat the carrot. When that metaphor is applied to a writer toiling in obscurity, we must imagine the pole being about 3 miles long and the path before our proverbial donkey is laden with land-mines. When the reward for your work seems impossibly distant it is no longer useful as a reward and it's time to break out the riding crop.

Write or Die was born because it is better to have a tangible punishment than an intangible reward.

So when you use Write or Die, you set a goal: either a word count or a time goal. You then select the most effective punishment mode for you. The modes are Gentle, Normal and Kamikaze. Until you reach your goal, you will be punished when you stop writing.

When you click the Write! button you are presented with a blank text box on a white screen (simplicity is key to the banishment of distraction). Start typing away. When you stop, the consequences kick in. In Gentle mode, a text box pops up and gives you a mom-like reminder to keep writing. If you get distracted in Normal mode, you will be played a Most Unpleasant Sound, in a loop, until you start writing again. If you stop writing in Kamikaze mode, my mode of choice, your screen will fade to red and then your work will start To Unwrite Itself. It will delete one word per second until you start writing again.

As for Electric Shock mode, I know that it's possible and I know how I'd build it but if it is ever a reality it will only be available in the Write or Die Desktop Edition, which is due out very soon.

In true Mad Scientist style, you've not heard the last of Dr Wicked's Writing Lab! The project I'm most excited about is a short fiction podcast which will be open for submissions very soon. Thank you all for helping to make Write or Die the success it has been; I appreciate each and every one of you. Also thanks to Chris and the whole NaNoWriMo team for inspiring Write or Die and millions of words of fiction.

Dr Wicked is the Super Secret Pseudonym of Jeff Printy, an aspiring writer, podcaster and general nerd. Check out his blog at http://drwicked.com and follow him on twitter at http://twitter.com/DrWicked. You can subscribe to his free weekly newsletter to get writing tips as well as updates about his upcoming projects, which will keep you all writing all the time. Subscribe or visit to receive dispatches from the lab.

Writing NaNoWriMo's next chapter together

Chris Baty — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 01:48:38 +0000

Thanks so much to all our donors who have chipped in over the past few days! We've received donations from almost 7% of our participants, and we're so, so grateful for the support. Still, we've got a long ways to go before we have enough money to launch NaNoWriMo and the Young Writers Program in 2009.

I really can't stress this enough. Getting NaNoWriMo and the Young Writers Program ready for an October 1 launch means we need to have our tiny-but-mighty crew working in the early spring, and spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on technology, supplemental staff, printing, rent, and heaps of other costs.

Next year will be more expensive than this year. We want to invest in a dedicated, part-time tech guru to build new features and integrate more servers into our arsenal. We want to create and install more inspiring activities and word-coaxing functions on the site. We want to curate more pep talks, and provide community-fostering resources to 600 NaNoWriMo chapters around the world. We want to invest in a grantwriter to broaden our foundational funding base. We want to professionalize our curriculum for the Young Writers Program, and forever change the way 50,000 kids and teens see their creative potential.

To do any of this, we need your help. Please make a tax-deductible donation today and help us light up another book on that beautiful fund-o-meter!

We've moved from preliminary stats to close-to-final numbers for words and winners in 2008. The Word Count Scoreboard now includes all the words written in the final hours of the event. With that bump, the total collective word count now stands at (gasp!) 1,643,343,993 words.

Over on the I Wrote A Novel, Now What? page, the CreateSpace free proof copy codes are live for 2008 winners. If you're signed in and a winner, you'll see your code on the page now! We also added some rewriting advice from Sara Gruen, who will soon be putting all of us in her movie. Hooray!

Chris

Kelley Armstrong's pep talk

Lindsey Grant — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 00:00:31 +0000

Dear Fellow NaNo Writer,

So it’s all over. How’d you do? If you hit 50,000 words, congratulations! If you didn’t, and you gave it your best shot, congratulations! Whether you achieved the word count goal or not, you now have a brand new story. So what do you think of it?

When you reflect back on what you’ve written, you may be thrilled. You may be amazed at what you’ve produced. Or you may not… You may be disappointed. You may even feel like you’ve just wasted a month and an awesome idea. You haven’t. Trust me. I’ve been there.

I first did NaNo in 2005. I’d been hearing about it for years. By then, I was already published myself, but I thought it would be a great exercise for members of the online writing community I host on my message board. To truly support and encourage members, though, I needed to take the challenge alongside them. And I knew exactly what I wanted to write—the first draft of an idea I’d been toying with for years, that of a young adult story set in my Otherworld universe.

So I wrote that novel, called The Summoning, and this summer, The Summoning was released and made it onto the New York Times children’s best seller list. And that sounds so much more impressive if I don’t point out that the novel I wrote for NaNoWriMo is not the same version that was published.

What NaNoWriMo gave me was a quick and dirty first draft, and by the end of it, I could see that my book had some good stuff…and it had some serious problems and missed opportunities. So I put it aside for a rest period and pondered how to fix it while I worked on my next contracted novel. The manuscript underwent significant revising, reworking and, yes, rewriting, before I let my agent take it to market.

If a multi-published author can’t expect to turn out a publishable first draft during NaNoWriMo, then neither should you. Of course, you could—some people do—but what NaNoWriMo has given you is at least two things you didn’t have on November 1.

The first reward will vary. Maybe you have a first draft you can work on. Or maybe you’ve realized that your idea wasn’t as novel-worthy as you thought. Or maybe, in the course of writing this book, you got an idea for another.

The last two may not seem as rewarding as the first, but they’re equally important. If you’ve been writing for a while, you probably have stories you’ve labored on for months, even years, before realizing the idea wasn’t novel-worthy. To hit that realization in a month frees you up to start something new without lamenting all the time you put into a story that didn’t work.

The second reward is one that every NaNoWriMo participant gets: one full month of writing practice. It’s a rare writer who publishes the first book they wrote—I didn’t—so practice is invaluable. And whether you dream of getting published or not, you have just spent a month discovering and exploring the joys of storytelling.

Oh, and in case you’re wondering, yes, I did hit 50,000 words this year. I just barely squeaked by with a win on Saturday, though. I can blame my near-miss on a month of book-touring and unexpectedly early edits, but I’m a full-time writer, so I really have no excuse for not hitting 50,000 words. For all of you who reached the goal words despite school or work or kids, I bow to you.

I’ll let you get back to your post-NaNo rest, right after I wish you good luck with your manuscript—this one or the next one. Because, even if you aren’t planning to edit this one, there will be a next one, right? I hope so. The world always needs more storytellers.

Kelley

Brian Jacques' pep talk

Lindsey Grant — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 22:47:44 +0000

Dear writer,

Never write just for yourself. Allow me to explain. There are countless would-be authors, with shelves and cupboards packed with deathless prose that will never be
published. They think it's good, but do other people? I'm not just talking about loving family members, and best friends. I mean the world at large. What I'm saying
is, think of the audience, the class, the age group, for whom you're writing. If they could enjoy your work, then you're on a winner matey.

Read the stories of authors you admire, study them, analyse them maybe. But never copy them. Reading helps you to develop your own personal style. When you have that, then you've made it. However, authors are born, not made. Again I'll explain. The spark must exist, with learning, and experience, it can be kindled into a flame, nay, an inferno in certain rare cases. If you don't possess the initial spark, then a teacher may lend you a match, this can ignite a fire. Though I do find that in many cases, without that first God given spark, a tutored interest tends to fade after awhile. Then who knows, mayhaps you find your own, different, talent. To paint, dance, act, or be brilliant at something miles from writing.

The advice I continually give to young writers is this "Learn to paint pictures with words." Not just once upon a time, but... In the long secret dust of ages, beneath a blue forgotten sky, where trade winds caress the sun bleached shores of unknown realms... See, as much as there are words in poetry, there is a poetry in words. Use it, stay faithful to the path you have set your heart upon and follow it. How many times have you heard someone say. 'Oh I'm going to write a book someday!' Meet up with them again on that nebulous "someday", my bet is that they're still talking about it.

Do it! Start now! Don't make excuses to yourself, that's the easiest way of admitting failure. There's nothing wrong with a touch of modest ego to go with writing talent. I never attended college, or university. I had the most basic education that an Elementary School in a working class dockside area could provide. I left school, with no formal education at the age of fifteen. So (here's my little bit of ego). Look at me now baby! You are living in America, one of the worlds greatest countries. With superb education, devoted teachers, awesome libraries, and everything they entail. With all that, imagine what you could achieve!

You know, you'll disappoint me, if in a few years time, I'm not standing on line at a bookstore, waiting for you to sign my copy of your book. Come on, all it takes is you, and determination, self belief, and of course, the flame, which came from that first tiny spark.

Your pal,
Brian Jacques

Piers Anthony's pep talk

Lindsey Grant — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 22:27:27 +0000

Dear Writer,

You're a fool. You know that, don't you? Because only a fool would try a stunt as crazy as this. You want to write a 50,000 word novel in one month?! Do you have sawdust in your skull? When there are so many other more useful things you could be doing, like cleaning up the house and yard, taking a correspondence course in Chinese, or contributing your time and effort to a charitable cause? Whatever is possessing you?

Consider the first card of the Tarot deck, titled The Fool. There's this young man traipsing along with a small dog at his heel, toting a bag of his worldly goods on the end of his wooden staff, carrying a flower in his other hand, gazing raptly at the sky—and about to step off a cliff, because he isn't watching his feet. A fool indeed. Does this feel familiar? It should. You're doing much the same thing. What made you ever think you could bat out a bad book like that, let alone write anything readable?

So are you going to give up this folly and focus on reality before you step off the cliff? No? Are you sure? Even though you know you are about to confirm the suspicion of your dubious relatives, several acquaintances, and fewer friends that you never are going to amount to anything more than a dank hill of beans? That you're too damned oink-headed to rise to the level of the very lowest rung of common sense?

Sigh. You're a lost soul. So there's no help for it but to join the lowly company of the other aspect of The Fool. Because the fact is, that Fool is a Dreamer, and it is Dreamers who ultimately make life worthwhile for the unimaginative rest of us. Dreamers consider the wider universe. Dreamers build cathedrals, shape fine sculptures, and yes, generate literature. Dreamers are the artists who provide our rapacious species with some faint evidence of nobility.

So maybe you won't be a successful novelist, or even a good one. At least you are trying. That, would you believe, puts you in a rarefied one percent of our kind. Maybe less than that. You aspire to something better than the normal rat race. You may not accomplish much, but it's the attitude that counts. As with mutations: 99% of them are bad and don't survive, but the 1% that are better are responsible for the evolution of species to a more fit state. You know the odds are against you, but who knows? If you don't try, you'll never be sure whether you might, just maybe, possibly, have done it. So you do have to make the effort, or be forever condemned in your own bleary eyes.

Actually, 50,000 words isn't hard. You can write “Damn!” 50,000 times. Oh, you want a readable story! That will be more of a challenge. But you know, it can be done. In my heyday, before my wife's health declined and I took over meals and chores, I routinely wrote 3,000 words a day, taking two days a week off to answer fan mail, and 60,000 words a month was par. Now I try for 1,500 and hope for 2,000. That will do it. If you write that much each day, minimum, and go over some days, you will have your quota in the month. On the 10th of the month of August, 2008, I started writing my Xanth novel Knot Gneiss, about the challenge of a boulder that turns out to be not stone but a huge petrified knot of reverse wood that terrifies anyone who approaches it. Petrified = terrified, get it? And by the 30th I had 35,000 words. That's the same pace. If I can do it in my doddering old age—I'm 74—you can do it in your relative youth.

Of course you need ideas. You can garner them from anywhere. I noticed that our daily newspaper comes in a plastic bag that is knotted. The knot's too tight to undo without a lot of effort, so I just rip it open to get at the goodies inside. It's a nuisance; I wish they'd leave it loose. But I thought, maybe there's this cute delivery girl who has a crush on me, and she ties a love-knot to let me know. Not that at my age I'd know what to do with a real live girl, but it's still a fun fantasy. Okay, there's an idea. I could use it in my fiction. Maybe even in a Pep Talk. The mundane world has provided me with an opening. It will do the same for you, if you're alert.

Here's a secret: fictive text doesn't necessary flow easily. Most of the time it's more like cutting a highway through a mountain. You just have to keep working with your pick, chipping away at the rock, making slow progress. It may not be pretty at first. Prettiness doesn't come until later, at the polishing stage, which is outside your month. You just have to get it done by brute force if necessary. So maybe your ongoing story isn't very original. That's okay, for this. Just get it done. Originality can be more in the eye of the reader than in any objective assessment.

You can make it from a standing start, even from a foolish daydream when you should have been paying attention to the Pep Talk. You will want to try for a bit more quality, of course, and maybe a spot of realism. Garner an Idea, assemble some Characters, find a suitable place to start, and turn them loose in your imagination. Now go home and start your engines!

Piers

Preliminary stats are in!

Chris Baty — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 01:37:38 +0000

The numbers will shift by a tiny bit over the next few days, but the stats are mostly in. And it looks like we just did something we've never done before.

Come by the blog and leave your thoughts on what happened!

Chris

Today's Guest: Antwon and Ealasaid, dynamic duo

Lindsey Grant — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 21:35:17 +0000

Q: Antwon and Ealasaid, you've both won NaNoWriMo for the past
eight years, and you still found time to fall in love and get married! Is it true that your first date was a NaNoWriMo event? What role did writing novels together play in your courtship?
A: Well, we tend to say that our "zeroth" date was a NaNo event, because we went to the 2002 TGIO party in the same car but were carpooling with a third person (shout out to Gallifreyan!). Our first real "we should do something! together! sans other people around!" date was the following weekend. But it's easier to remember December 1st than whatever the date of the other outing was, so December 1st is our dating-anniversary.

Although we first met at the South Bay Webloggers' Meet up, the NaNoWriMo forums are where we really got to know each other over the following couple of months. Since Antwon is something of a shut-in (or, at least, a social butterfly he is NOT) I was the only person on the forums who had actually met him and could testify to the fact that
he was, in fact, a real person and not a Perl script on some remote Korean server doing a smashing job at passing the Turing Test. We both spent a lot of time posting on the forums that year, and had a blast.

The fact that we both do NaNoWriMo was definitely a part of our initial bonding. We don't generally write together: I like writing in groups, while Antwon is much more a solitary writer. We do share in the NaNoWriMo experience, though: bantering about our stories-in-progress, teasing each other about our respective weird writing habits, providing each other with a sounding board for figuring out tricky plotting issues, and so on. Plus, having this sort of intense experience gave us something in common from the get-go, which is always a help in a developing relationship.

Last year, we took things a step further and swapped plots: each of us took the plot of a book we'd written in a previous NaNo year and handed it over to the other, to see what their treatment of the same story line might look like. It was really fun, seeing how we took the same general outlines and handled them very differently. (When dork lit meets fantasy, you end up with a medieval tale where the narrator
references Soundgarden and aluminum siding. You'll have to talk to Antwon about that one.)

Every year as we start NaNoWriMo, we mutter about how maybe this will be the last year, because holy cow, it's been so many years running now; burn-out seems inevitable at some point. But then, every year, we have so much fun that before the end of the month we're already talking about what we'll write about next year.

Antwon and Ealasaid are eight-time winners and combined their awesome NaNo power when they married in may of 2007. You can learn more about Ealasaid at www.ealasaid.com, or Antwon at www.antwon.com, or both of them at www.youhaas.com!

We did it!

Chris Baty — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 08:44:45 +0000

Woo hoo! Congratulations, everyone!

My brain is a little spongy, so instead of writing a long Breaking News laying out the exciting stuff coming up this week, I set up a microphone and recorded an impromptu midnight episode of WrimoRadio.

In case you don't get a chance to listen: The "I Wrote a Novel, Now What?" page will go up around noon, Pacific on Monday. I'll also be back with some stats on winners and our collective word counts. (If you had trouble validating, get in touch! We'll help you get purple.)

Right now: The great December and Beyond forums are live! Novel swaps! Revision tips! Ideas on surviving the post-NaNo blues!

What a month.

A huge thanks to Lindsey, Tavia, Cybele, Russ, Sam, Heather, Bradford, Erin, Jen, Elizabeth, Diane, Drew, Emily, and all our great interns for their hard work in this record-setting year.

More tomorrow!

Chris

December 1 midnight shout-out

Chris Baty — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 08:16:12 +0000

NaNoWriMo's sleep-deprived Program Director Chris Baty says goodbye to the month, and hello to the action-packed weeks ahead.