Wednesday Writing Workout: What's Your Writing Manifesto?

Last Friday, in honor of November being the month of NaNoWriMo and PiBoIdMo, I shared links to some articles/blog posts about how other writers approach their first draft. I was especially intrigued by a blog post by Shelley Moore Thomas, author of The Seven Tales of Trinket (Farrar, Straus Giroux), in which she describes using a writing "manifesto" as a springboard to her first draft.  She says:

"Before I even write a word:  I have a document (the manifesto) in which I write down all the dreams I have and ideas about the story.  This is a fun time, a time when I won't allow myself to  write the book because usually I am busy drafting or revising something else at the time." 

As soon as I read that, I decided I wanted to write my own manifesto for my next novel. Here's an excerpt from the three paragraphs I have so far:

I want this story to give readers a glimpse of what it feels like to be an outsider who is so desperate to fit in that she's willing to deny her own talents and gifts. . . .  Even though the story will be character-driven, I want there to be aspects of mystery and suspense as my character discovers not only how she received her special gift but also how she will comes to terms with figuring out whether/how to use it.  

Obviously, I have a lot of work to do yet to flesh out this manifesto. But the process of writing just a few paragraphs of it has made me excited to go deeper and think harder about both the character and her story.

Now it's your turn. For today's Wednesday Writing Workout, answer this question, either for a current work-in-progress, or a story you have yet to start: What's your writing manifesto?

In other words: what are your hopes and dreams for this story?
What type of structure/form will it take?
Who will you write it for?

I encourage you to go back and read Shelley Moore Thomas's post all the way through for inspiration, and also to do what she does: think of your manifesto as your "playground."

And remember: you'r not writing the story yet, you're writing about the story. Have fun!
Happy writing,
Carmela

A Little Inspiration From Those in the Trenches....

Happy Monday! As Carmela mentioned in her Friday post, some of us have taken the leap, challenging ourselves to boost our output throughout November with PiBoIdMo or NaNoWriMo (and if you're doing both, hats off to you!). I thought it might be fun to poll friends and see why they made the commitment to one or the other. May their thoughts inspire you – whether or not you're participating!

Question:  Why are you participating in Picture Book Idea Month or National Novel Writing Month?

Jewel: Sometimes my writing mind focuses on one subject and picture book ideas lay dormant. I am actively participating in PiBoIdMo to help me discover hidden picture book ideas just behind my two eyes and under my thick skull.

Miranda: Because for about every 30 ideas I have, I usually get one good picture book. So it's a way to ensure that I continue to fill my idea notebook, and to do it with others makes it more fun – and keeps me accountable.

Dorothia: I love to brainstorm. To me, PiBoIdMo is like a piece of flint chipping at the imagination to ignite new ideas. It's exciting to be a part of this huge creative spark.

Lee: I tend to over think things, worrying too much about making my writing 'perfect.' Having to come up with 30 pb ideas in 30 days is a great way to force myself to create on the fly, giving myself permission to come up with abysmal stuff that maybe isn't as abysmal as I think it is!

Dianna: There's something invigorating about joining a large group of people who collectively love writing and work feverishly together for an entire month. Perfection not needed!

Linda: It will be fun brainstorming new pb ideas every day and then  having a file of ideas to follow up on for the next few months. Since it can just be ideas, titles, and characters, there's no pressure to come up with a whole story in one sitting.

Debbie: The best thing about PiBoIdMo is it gives me a good "excuse" to set aside time to work on my writing. Knowing that others are doing the same thing is motivating, and the competitive side of me loves a good challenge....Especially one I know I can reach.

Breanne: I got my idea for my novel a year ago. Since then I've been slogging through a rough draft. I got to over 60,000 words and felt the whole thing was just a mess and that I still didn't know my characters. I've regrouped and added a new character that changes the dynamics of the whole story. I don't expect to reach the superhuman goal of reaching 50,000 words in one month, but I'm hoping that by participating in NaNo events, I'll more than double my usual paltry monthly word count – and gain some momentum with my WIP that will hopefully result, someday, in a draft that I want to show to beta readers.

Lisa: I love PiBoIdMo! It's the only time of year when all ideas – the great, the bad, the silly – are truly appreciated. So often writers view work through a certain lens: is it good enough? Who would publish this? What will my critique group/agent/editor think? This platform offers the freedom to experiment with the emphasis on effort. And who knows, the right combination of coffee and chocolate may just yield the dream.

Wendy: I'm doing NaNoWriMo as an exercise this year – to force myself to purge words instead of overthink words, which can suck away my enthusiasm for projects, especially a big project like a novel.

Elizabeth: NaNoWriMo gives me the jump start I need to put pen to paper without the dreaded temptation to self-edit.

Erica: I like the idea of a challenge and I think having a schedule will teach me to become more diligent in my writing adventures.

Kimberly: Since I have a full-time job and own a business my writing often gets pushed to the back burner. By doing PiBoIdMo I'm hoping that the routine of sitting down every day to try and write something simple will start a writing habit that I won't want to break after a month.

Pat: NaNoWriMo jumpstarted my return to writing one year ago. The deadline drives me and encourages creative juices. I don't plan.....I write and see what happens.

Renee: I am participating because I'm riding the wave of success with Woody's World that earned a Silver Medal in the international Children's Literary Classics Awards program. I figured I would write a new book, this time focusing on a girl growing up in the 60s rather than a boy growing up in the 30s. I usually have an historical component with character education in my fiction for pre-teens.

Katie: I think November is the perfect time to focus on fresh ideas before the complete craziness of the holiday season sets in. It also heightens my awareness to the little snippets of ideas that are floating around in our days.

Elise: Every time I finish a manuscript and dummy I waste several days feeling panicky and fresh out of ideas. (I need an arsenal to work from!) I also thrive on deadlines, so a daily assignment is right up my alley.

Patricia: I signed up because I love coming up with ideas for picture books. I have an "idea box" I keep my index cards in. PiBoIdMo gives me the opportunity to fill my box with at least 30 ideas. When I've finished one picture book and I need to let it "simmer" – or when I'm waiting to hear back from editors/agents – I can go to my idea box and start another PB. I also signed up because I like getting the inspirational messages from other PB writers.

Amy: Time to walk the talk and take the WANTING to write picture books more seriously; to have faith in my creativity for 30 consecutive days is also a good exercise in commitment to the story writing dreams... "The best way to predict the future is to invent/create it myself." –A. Lincoln

And on that note, go forth and write! Best of luck to you us all!

Jill Esbaum

Writing Challenges that Provide Inspiration, Support, and Prizes!

Happy November! Today I'll be sharing some resources I've gathered in preparation for beginning a new writing project. But first, if you're looking for a way to jump-start your picture book or novel writing, I want to recommend you sign-up for one of this month's writing challenges: PiBoIdMo or NaNoWriMo. I'll introduce you to both below. Two weeks from today, we'll invite you to participate in our annual Two Weeks of Thanks-Giving. I hope you'll take some time out from the challenges to join in. And when you're done reading this post, you can click on the link at the end to visit today's Poetry Friday round-up.

November is both Picture Book Idea Month (PiBoIdMo) and National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). These challenges provide inspiration, support, AND the chance to win some fun (and possibly career-changing!) prizes. Perhaps best of all, they provide concrete, specific goals with a built-in deadline: November 30!

1) Picture Book Idea Month (PiBoIdMo): Here's a description from the official website:

"This challenge is to create 30 picture book ideas in 30 days. You don’t have to write a manuscript (but you can if the mood strikes). . . . You might think of a clever title. Or a name for a character. Or just a silly thing like “purple polka-dot pony.” The object is to heighten your picture-book-idea-generating senses. . . . Daily blog posts by picture book authors, illustrators, editors and other kidlit professionals will help inspire you. By the end of the month, you’ll have a fat file of ideas to spark new stories."

As an added bonus: "Participants who register for PiBoIdMo and complete the 30-idea challenge will be eligible for prizes, including signed picture books, original art, critiques and feedback from one of five picture book agents." These are some highly respected agents, too! You can see the list on the official registration page. So, if you're a picture book writer, I suggest you join our own Esther Hershenhorn and Jill Esbaum by signing up for this challenge!

2) National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo): Here's a description from the official website:

"National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to creative writing. On November 1, participants begin working towards the goal of writing a 50,000-word novel by 11:59 p.m. on November 30. Valuing enthusiasm, determination, and a deadline, NaNoWriMo is for anyone who has ever thought fleetingly about writing a novel."

While I've never officially participated in NaNoWriMo myself, I did organize a pseudo-NaNoWriMo event to write the first draft of my YA historical back in January 2009.You can read a little about that event in this blog post. (My friend Megg Jensen was one of the other writers who participated in that challenge, in which she completed a draft of her novel Anathema.) You can read about the "prizes" for NaNoWriMo participation provided by their sponsors on this page.

In recent years there's been some backlash against NaNoWriMo, which I addressed in this blog post that was written BEFORE I learned that bestselling YA novel Cinder (Feiwel & Friends) was a NaNoWriMo project (as were its sequels!).

Special note to writing teachers: NaNoWriMo has a Young Writers Program (YWP) with online resources for educators, including a classroom kit. See their Educator Resources page for details.

While I'm not participating in either of these challenges, I have been thinking about/gearing up to start a new writing project. That's prompted our next TeachingAuthor topic: I've asked my fellow TeachingAuthors to discuss how they approach new projects, along with the perennial question: "Are you a plotter or a pantser?"

If you're not familiar with the term "pantser," it refers to someone who writes without outlining first, or what some call "seat of your pants" writing. I've confessed here before that I'm a "pantser." But that doesn't mean I don't do any prep work. I typically spend time journalling about the characters and plot possibilities. I also set up a three-ring binder with partitions labeled "characters," "plot," "setting," "themes," "title ideas," etc. I think of this more as preparation, though, than plotting. How about you? How do you approach a new writing project? 

Lately, I've been collecting articles about how other writers approach a first draft and/or how to write a first draft quickly. These articles include:

•  "9 Tips for Writing a Really Good Shitty First Draft" by Lisa Cron, author of Wired for Story: The Writer's Guide to Using Brain Science to Hook Readers from the Very First Sentence (Ten Speed Press) 
• "First Drafting: Now 96% Faster" by Tara Dairman, author of the middle-grade novel All Four Stars (Putnam) 
• "Writing the Tight Synopsis," which is really about using a synopsis as a plotting tool, by crime writer Beth Anderson.
• "How I Went From Writing 2,000 Words a Day to 10,000 Words a Day" and the follow-up post "12 Days of Glory" by fantasy writer Rachel Aaron.
• Notes from 2011 RWA Convention Talk on How to Fast Draft by Candace Havens (you have to scroll down a few paragraphs to the notes from this particular session).
• "My Weirdo Writing Process--Middle Grade Edition," in which Shelley Moore Thomas, author of The Seven Tales of Trinket (Farrar, Straus Giroux), describes using a writing "manifesto" as a springboard to her first draft.

If you've read any of these articles, or have tried any of the techniques mentioned in them, I'd love to know what you think. Meanwhile, I'll be back next Wednesday with a Wednesday Writing Workout inspired by one of them.

Now you can head on over to TeacherDance, where Linda is hosting today's Poetry Friday Round-Up.

Happy writing!

Carmela   

Becoming a "Finisher:" Using a Deadline to Silence the Inner Critic

Knowing I'd be one of the last TeachingAuthors to blog about first draft fears brought its own fears: would I have anything left to share that my brilliant co-bloggers hadn't already discussed? Jeanne Marie kicked off the series by sharing four specific ways she deals with her own tendency to be "a serial starter." Esther gave us a whole slew of ways to get to THE END, along with some inspiring quotes to tack up in our workspace. Joanne talked about her love of first drafts and her sneaky way of getting past her inner critic. And Mary Ann reminded us that first drafts are supposed to "stink." Having low expectations can be a great tool. :-)

I hope my co-bloogers' posts have already given you, our readers, encouragement and inspiration. However, I'm relieved to see that none of them shared one of my tricks for overcoming first draft fears:  A DEADLINE.

I've found that deadlines work best for me when there's some sort of associated accountability and/or consequences for not meeting them. One of the reasons I was so productive during my two years at Vermont College had to do with the monthly deadlines. I might never have finished Rosa, Sola without them. But out here in the real world, it's sometimes difficult to create deadlines with real sting. Fortunately for us novelists, there's a deadline-oriented opportunity just around the corner: National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). Every November, writers around the world take on the challenge of completing a 50,000-word first draft in 30 days. NaNoWriMo isn't for everyone; last year I heard some negative buzz about it, everything from "no one can write anything good that way" to "real writers don't need gimmicks." Despite the negative hype, there have been a number of NaNoWriMo success stories, including bestselling novels that started as NaNoWriMo projects. One of the most recent is the adult novel The Night Circus (Doubleday) by Erin Morgenstern. The book was released less than a month ago (on September 13), and according to the NaNoWriMo blog of September 28, it had already made it to the New York Times bestseller list. The Night Circus has also garnered an impressive list of starred reviews, (you can read excerpts of those reviews on the book's Indiebound page) and has sold foreign rights to over 30 countries.

Morgenstern talks a little about her NaNoWriMo experience in an interview at Writers Unboxed, saying:

"I started doing National Novel Writing Month in 2003. I failed miserably that first attempt but reached 50k in 30 days the next year, and it became a really good exercise for me — writing without stopping to be overly self-critical and having the magical pressure of a deadline."

I'm not surprised Morgenstern was helped by NaNoWriMo--it offers lots of structure, feedback, support, and accountability via a website, forums, and live events. However, since November is a bad time for me, I've never actually participated. Instead, I created my own pseudo-NaNoWriMo events, first with a group of my fellow writers, and then later on my own. I blogged about those activities here before. They were key to my finally finishing my young adult historical novel last month.

By the way, if you're a picture book writer, there are some comparable events for you, such as Picture Book Idea Month (PiBoIdMo), which, like NaNoWriMo, takes place in November, and National Picture Book Writing Week (NaPiBoWriWee).

I don't have plans for any marathon writing sessions any time soon, but I continue to be inspired by weekly deadlines I set with my writing buddy. If you missed my post about that process, I encourage you to check it out here.

And be assured, this isn't our "final word" on the subject of silencing the inner critic. Last but not least, April will close out the topic on Friday. I'm looking forward to reading what she'll add to the discussion. If you have any tips to share, please post them as comments below or email them to us at: teachingauthors at gmail dot com.

Finally, I just found out that today is World Teacher's Day. Hurray for teachers everywhere!

Happy writing!
Carmela

Taking My Gluteus Maximus for a Walk

Reading Mary Ann's post on Monday reminded me of something Madeleine L'Engle says in Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art:

"If the artist works only when he feels like it, he’s not apt to build up much of a body of work.  Inspiration far more often comes during the work than before it, because the largest part of the job of the artist is to listen to the work and to go where it tells him to go.  Ultimately, when you are writing, you stop thinking and write what you hear."

For my pseudo-NaNoWriMo project, I've been spending lots of time with Butt in Chair, or BIC, as Mary Ann calls it. I've discovered something interesting. Often, when I first sit down at the computer, I have no idea what I'm going to write about next or where the story will go. Those days usually start with me tweaking what I did the day before, trying to add sensory details to make the scene come alive. Then, somewhere along the way, inspiration kicks in and I'm soon typing away. As L'Engle says, the story starts telling me where to go. I know the inspiration wouldn't have come along if I hadn't been sitting there, listening, Butt in Chair.

Unfortunately, there's no magic formula. As Mary Ann said in her post, some days, even when we glue our butts to the chair, the words don't come. That's when I usually try taking the old gluteus maximus for a walk. As Julia Cameron says in The Artist's Way: "A brisk twenty-minute walk can dramatically alter consciousness." That altered consciousness often helps me hear what I couldn't when I was sitting in my chair.

Over the last few days, I've fallen behind in my word count goals for my project, and no matter how I tried, the words just wouldn't come. When that happened again today, I took a walk and thought about my story. As I walked, it occurred to me that much of the tension had leaked out of the story. Why? Because I'd made things too easy for my character. I needed to go back and change events so that she'd have to work harder to get what she wanted. Aha!

I know from experience that taking a walk doesn't always yield dramatic "aha" moments. But at least it helps keep my gluteus maximus from getting too big for the chair. :-)

I'm keeping this post short so I can get back to my novel-writing now.
Happy writing, all!
Carmela

P.S: I forgot to mention: there's a great book giveaway going on over at the MotherReader blog. Enter to win one of two sets of 25 books!

A Savage-soothing Tip for Novelists Pseudo, Real and/or Lost

I know first-hand: writing a novel can easily overwhelm – both the writer and the writer’s life.
I liken the experience to Alice’s, when she fell down that hole and left behind the world she knew.
By necessity, the writer becomes schizophrenic, a citizen of two countries – one fictive, one real.
Advil helps.
A lot.
The best cure for me, though, to keep me present to both worlds?
Hands down, it’s music.
It soothes the savage beast.

Your writer’s circumstances matter little.
You could be lost, like Mary Ann, in the fog with faulty headlights.
You could be over-tasked like Jeanne Marie or time-strapped like Carmela.
If you surround yourself with music that sings of your story - its heart, its soul, the characters who grabbed yours - you’ll be living your story 24-7.
Driving the carpool.
Shopping for groceries.
Washing dishes or scrubbing the bathtub.

I discovered this cure when writing my first novel,When They Only Had ‘til Monday, a never-sold middle grade – one part historical fiction, one part mystery - set in 1897 in St. Charles, Missouri. My peripatetic orphaned characters had but three days to uncover their beloved patriotic benefactor’s will or else... all six would be sent down river!

Reading about composer Scott Joplin’s Missouri hometown had indirectly led me to the story line. It seemed natural to surround myself with Joplin’s rags and operas.

Before long, I was assigning each Chapter a particular Joplin rag. An action-packed scene? "Cascades." A moment of poignancy? "Bethena." For the glorious resolution I chose the "Gladiolus Rag." 

The syncopation. The thrumping base line. The flurrying high notes.

Each time I listened I was scoring my novel.

Ironically, Joplin composed his rags in 4 prescribed movements, utilizing variations on a theme. Soon the scenes of my chapters mimicked Joplin’s style.

I played two Patti Page songs – “How Much is That Doggie in the Window?” and “The Tennessee Waltz” – while writing my middle grade novel The Confe$$ion$ and $ecret$ of Howard J. Fingerhut. Both 1950’s songs captured Howie’s earnestness, his ingenuousness, his yearning to win The H. Marian Muckley Junior Business Person of the Year Contest.

To me, the Yiddish folksong “Tum Balalaika” and my picture book Chicken Soup by Heart are one in the same, variations on a theme – i.e. the reciprocity of friendship.

To my surprise, the riddle nature of the song led to the back-and-forth dialogue between my character Rudie Dinkins and his afterschool babysitter Mrs. Gittel.

So,

once you’ve written your first draft and told yourself the story,

think about your character, your setting, your story’s time, your story’s heart.

What piece of music sounds like your story?

[Note: if stuck, think what songs your characters might purchase for their Ipods were they living in today's world.]

In many ways, that piece of music might serve as your GPS from first draft to last, a handy tool to help you carry on should your headlights fail, time make itself scarce and/or your Life overwhelms.

Keep writing.  Keep whistling. (Or is it the other way around?!)

Esther Hershenhorn

Falling Back

If you allow me to slip into "teacher mode" for a moment, let's have a show of hands.  How many here are participating in National Novel Writing Month?  Good luck, and happy writing to all!

I did consider signing up this year -- for all of two minutes.  Who am I kidding?  My writing ADD is at least as bad as my reading ADD.  Just as I tend to read a dozen books simultaneously, I am working on at least half a dozen writing projects at once.  In fact, I am finally discovering my natural pattern, and I can't say it pleases me. My habit is to complete a draft through chapter three, and then...  I send it off to my agent; he reads it, offers notes, and I revise; then he says he is sending out the proposal and the chapters to a variety of publishers, and then I never hear from anyone again.  Does this sound familiar to a single one of you? 

I suspect that the "real writer" in me should be so compelled by my characters that I absolutely must, must finish a draft.  On the other hand, I have other characters and stories clamoring loudly to be told, and extremely limited "spare" time in which to do so.  Do I finish a draft that apparently has little prospect of being sold?  (Especially if my agent is not actually sending it out!)  Or do I move on to the next one?  What would you do?

To illustrate my dilemma more clearly, these were my obligations of the past week:
1) Write outlines for two 60-minute TV shows (20 pages each) with two days spent in meetings discussing said shows.
2) Entertain my five-year-old, who had no school on two days this week.  (I have discovered that each week seems to bring at least one day on which one child has no school.)
3) Grade definition essays for my community college class -- for which, by the way, I spend more time driving to and fro than I do actually teaching.
4) Grade annotated bibliographies for my online class and moderate the week's discussion.
5) Write an article for a local publication.

Like sands through the hourglass...

I'm sure many of you can relate to the feeling of being generally overwhelmed.  (We Teaching Authors are hyphenate multi-taskers by definition, after all.)

In lieu of enrolling in NaNoWriMo, I signed up at onepageperday.com to receive "gentle reminders" of encouragment toward the simple goal of writing one page a day.  I have yet to post a page.  (DAYS OF OUR LIVES, alas, does not count.)

Meanwhile, my Gruve exercise monitor has been blinking at me, telling me I have failed to have a "green day" (adequate calories burned) all week. 

I was exceedingly happy to crack open a book last night in bed, making the absolute most of my extra hour (until my five-year-old threw up in her bed, anyway). 

Today I hope to spend a few minutes with my adult mystery novel (!).  Small steps, baby!

Last weekend at church, my daughter almost poked out my son's eyes with a pencil in the middle of the Transubstantiation.  This week, a kind stranger from across the sanctuary came up to me and said, "I know you don't know me, but would your kids like to sit with ours?"  Then the priest went on to deliver one of those homilies that I desperately needed to hear today.  His advice, in a nutshell:

1) Live deliberately.
2) Live authentically.
3) Live as a brother or sister of the world.
4) Live fully in moment.

It occurs to me that substituting the word 'write' for 'live' in all these cases also works brilliantly.
Wishing everyone lots of good living and writing! -- Jeanne Marie

My Pseudo-NaNoWriMo Project

I'm hoping to make this post quick. You see, I'm working on my own novel writing challenge this month. As JoAnn and Mary Ann have mentioned, November is National Novel Writing Month, also known as NaNoWriMo. Writers from all over the world attempt to complete a 50,000-word first draft during the month of November.

Back in 2008, I had an idea for an historical young adult novel that I wanted to write, but I kept getting bogged down by research. I decided it would make the perfect NaNoWriMo project. The daily word-count quota would force me to stick to the story instead of agonizing over what kind of glassware my character drank from. The only problem: November is a bad month for me, due to family commitments. So I brainstormed with members of my critique group and we decided the best month for a NaNoWriMo-type project was January. Here in the Midwest, January is a great month to hunker down indoors and write like crazy. And, since January is the season of resolutions, what better resolution than to write a new novel? Plus, January has one more day than November. When you're counting words, every day helps. :-)

So, in January, 2009, I banned together with a group of other SCBWI members to work on what we called our New Year/New Novel project, or NYNN (which rhymes with "win"). We called ourselves NYNNies, or writing "fools," and set up a Yahoo group to support each other in our endeavor. We shared tips from a variety of writing books, including No Plot! No Problem, written by NaNoWriMo founder Chris Baty. As facilitator, I also periodically sent links to the NaNoWriMo pep talks from the previous November.

Thanks to the support of the NYNNies, I managed to write (a pretty horrible) first draft of my novel that January. I learned so much about my writing process and how to quiet the internal critic. But perhaps the most important thing I learned is that when I make writing a priority and keep "butt in chair," I can accomplish amazing things.

Unfortunately, when it came to revising the draft of my NYNN novel, I allowed myself to get bogged down in research all over again. I also struggled to find some sort of a plot in the mess that was my first draft. Yet I kept procrastinating. After months of work, I'd managed to eek out little over 30,000 words of a second draft. A few weeks ago, I decided it was time to end the procrastination. I came up with a plan for my own pseudo-NaNoWriMo project. I calculated that I need to add about 37,000 words to finish this draft, and I'd really like to finish it before Christmas. Looking at my calendar, I counted up 36 days (not counting holidays and weekends) that I could commit to working on the draft, beginning October 25. That comes out to about 1050 words/day to reach my target. Having lived through the mad crush of producing 1667 words per day for my original NYNN draft, I knew 1050 words/day was a feasible, though aggressive, goal.

I've been at my pseudo-NaNoWriMo project for a week and a half now. It's actually been harder than I expected to reach my 1050 words/day goal. I think that's due, in part, to still struggling with some plot issues.What's really helped me stick with it is the tremendous support I've received on Facebook. Since I started early and will continue this project through December 15, I didn't feel right signing up as an official NaNoWriMo participant, which means I can't take advantage of all the NaNoWriMo support. So instead, I've been posting my daily goals and accomplishments on my Facebook status. Knowing that my friends (and family!) will be checking on my progress has really helped me persevere, even on bad days. (If you'd like to be one of my Facebook friends, you can find me at http://www.facebook.com/carmelamartino, but if you send me a friend request, be sure to mention you read this blog. I don't "friend" just anyone. :-) )

If any of you are participating in NaNoWriMo, you're probably too busy writing to read this. And that's as it should be. But if you do have a moment, stop by and let us know how it's going for you.

And for those of you who think NaNoWriMo is a ridiculous idea, you're not alone. See this blog post by author Tayari Jones. 

Whether you are a NaNoWriMo writer or not, happy writing!
Carmela

Night Driving

     It's like driving a car at night.  You never see further than your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.--E. L. Doctorow


     Welcome to National Novel Writing Month. This is the month when I drag out my favorite Doctorow quote about novel writing, and sticky note it to my computer screen.

     I hate driving at night. I have terrible night vision. I hate driving in Atlanta, where the street lighting is bad and a street can change names several times, for no good reason. I absolutely refuse to drive at night unless the route is so familiar, I can put my brain on autopilot.

     A couple of weeks ago I drove my daughter to the Regional Skating Competition in Raleigh, North Carolina. I had driven this road exactly once before.  In daylight. It's pretty much a straight shot from Atlanta to Raleigh, seven hours according to a certain Online Mapping Site. This time, however, we couldn't start until school was out. Trying to leave Atlanta any time after three can take up to two hours.

    It took two hours. By the time we got to the Raleigh-Durham area it was well after eleven. And that's when we got into trouble. My Internet Directions were more than a little ambiguous. Forking left instead of right left me driving in an endless loop for three hours. Three hours of driving through what could have been the set for The Blair Witch Project.  No towns, no signs, no lights, and only occasional traffic lines. Lots of deer and spooky looking trees.

   The rest of the world has GPS in their car. I don't. Or at least a road atlas. I didn't. All I knew was that I started in Atlanta and needed to get to Raleigh. Finally I found that wrong fork-in-the-road and made the correct turn. But even the "right" road looked unfamiliar because my directions send me a different way from my previous trip. Go figure. At one thirty in the morning, after a lot of U-turns and squinting at at unlit street signs, we arrived, exhausted at our motel.

    You can see why I like that Doctorow quote. Beginning a novel is easy; first chapters are a cinch. You know where you are; here are the main characters and setting. Here is the set up for the conflict.

     Then you hit chapter two. Suddenly you find yourself driving in the dark, with unclear instructions, and only your literary headlights to guide you.  For years, at this point, I would noodle around for a couple of more pages (usually, description....I love description), and then my headlights would go out. Or I would hit a dead end road, with nowhere to turn around. I have more Chapter Ones with no Chapter Twos in my files than I care to admit.

     I can't/don't outline. The few times I've tried, the story sounded forced, my characters unhappily moving around at my direction. Unhappy characters are not interesting people to spend time with. Some people can write an outline and wham-bam-thank-you-Sam, they have the first draft of a novel. Lots of people use this method for NaNoWriMo.

     I am not one of those people.

      Some people have an internal GPS that just tells them where to turn and stop. I really don't like those people. The ideas just flow right along, beginning to end. They always pull into the Driveway of the Last Chapter before dark. Boo! Hiss! No fair.

      Then there is me. The one thing I have learned about writing novels is that when you have to have some notion of where this story is going to end. Why start a journey if you don't have a destination? So after Chapter One, I make a lot of notes as to how I think the story will end.

     So now I have a beginning, and a possible destination. I assemble as much information as I can as to how to get there. I get to know my characters (which I have written about earlier), and my setting. I try to anticipate any specialized information I might need. Then ever so slowly, I creep along from Point A to Point B. Only moving as quickly as my headlights allow.

      NaNoWriMo encourages setting a goal of so many words per day, every day. I've never really had much luck with that. When I have written say 1500 words per day, every day, by the end of the month, I find I have about 200 pages of some pretty funny characters and description, but no story. No end in sight.

      NaNoWriMo discourages revising as you go. I'm all for that. I could spend Eternity polishing that perfect first chapter. I do make a lot of "pit stops" to make sure I am still heading towards my last chapter. I do have a compass in my car,(and head) so I can tell if I am heading north or south) Or. . .


     I may discover that I don't want to go to Raleigh after all(although in the case of Regional Skating, I didn't have much choice....I had to find Raleigh!).  Sometimes my characters start telling me where they are going. I always let them. As I've said, forcing characters is like forcing my size 8 foot into a size 6 shoe, just because I like the shoes.  It can be done, but not for long, and the result is not pretty.

     In both Yankee Girl and Jimmy's Stars, my characters bumped me out of the driver's seat for the last third of the book. I am embarrassed to remember how I thought those books were going to end. I think that by the time you are two thirds of the way through, you know your characters so well, that they just hijack your mind and finish the story for you. At least that's what's happened for me so far. It was if I started out for San Francisco and wound up in Omaha. And discovered that Omaha was exactly the right place to be.

     Writing novels is hard. I am constantly driving up dead-ends...but I've learned to find a place to turn around and re-group. I hit roadblocks; I suddenly discover I absolutely need to know something like World War I field medical procedures. (No kidding....this is my current roadblock.) Eventually I decide that I can go another route, or I find the necessary information.

    Sometimes I discover a character in the backseat who hasn't spoken in a long time. I stop the car and see what the problem is. Are they still part of the story, or do they need to be left by the side of the road? (I know it sounds ruthless, but your novel can't drag around dead weight.)

     Right now I am working on two novels, simultaneously, since they have the same settings and characters, albeit the time frames are different. I have been switching off every time I hit a roadblock. The result is I have 2/3 of two novels. I am putting pedal to the metal now on only one now(having removed a roadblock last week). I know where I am going, but I am still driving at night. Cautiously, and focusing only what I can see in my headlights.

     Maybe I can NaNo that last third this month. Now that is a possibility. . .

     Happy NaNoWriMo, fellow writers. Keep your headlights on.

     P.S.  My daughter won silver in her competition level.
 
      Posted by Mary Ann Rodman

Windy Weather, Poetry Friday, and November Writing Challenges

Inspired by this week's blustery autumn weather and Poetry Friday, I wrote a windy weather poem.

Wind grabs the bird feeder,

tosses it next door,

giving hungry birds

a new yard to explore.

Wind grabs the garbage can,

turns it upside down,

blocking the alley

on our way out of town.

Wind grabs the wind chime,

carries it along,

clinking and clanking—

wind must like its song!

We are so excited! Next Friday, November 5, the Teaching Authors host Poetry Friday! Be sure to take a peek! Today's Poetry Friday host is Toby Speed at The Writer's Armchair. Hi, Toby!

NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) begins on November 1! The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30.

Picture book writers can take part in their own challenge in November. The goal of PiBoIdMo (Picture Book Idea Month) is to create 30 picture book ideas in 30 days.

Good luck! Have fun! Keep writing!

JoAnn Early Macken

Ask the TeachingAuthors Question: How to Encourage Young Writers

Today I'd like to respond to an Ask the TeachingAuthors question submitted quite some time ago. A reader named Derin wrote to us about his desire to encourage his 14-year-old niece, a budding fantasy writer. Derin asked:

"I remember reading somewhere on you blog about a book that is written especially for young writers but I cannot find it again."

Well, Derin, part of the reason we've taken so long to respond is that you've stumped us--we can't find it either. Mary Ann Rodman did mention Marion Dane Bauer's What's Your Story? A Young Person's Guide to Writing Fiction in her September 21st post, but that was after you wrote us. (Perhaps you're psychic, Derin?) In any case, What's Your Story? is a great book, not only for young writers, but for writers of all ages. In fact, when I was at Vermont College, it was required reading for all students in the MFA in Writing program. Two other books aimed at young writers that adults may also find helpful are: Writing Magic: Creating Stories that Fly, by Gail Carson Levine, and Ralph Fletcher's How Writers Work: Finding a Writing Process That Works for You.

Interestingly, just last week Judy, the mother of a seventh-grader, emailed me with a similar question. She was disappointed that an after-school creative writing class her daughter was interested in had been canceled due to low enrollment. Because young people today have such busy schedules, it's difficult to attract enough students for such classes, at least during the school year. Summer writing programs, like those I teach at the Hinsdale Center for the Arts, tend to be more popular. But that doesn't help this young writer right now. I suggested to Judy that she encourage her daughter to read this blog post, because today I'll be sharing some online resources especially for young writers.

A particularly timely resource right now is the NaNoWriMo Young Writer's Program. In case you haven't heard of it, NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month, which occurs every November. Adult writers from around the world attempt to complete a 50,000-word novel in 30 days. The NaNoWriMo Young Writers Program allows participants who are under 18 to set their own word-count goals. The challenge began on November 1st, but it's not too late to sign up!

Also, a brand new writing contest has recently been announced especially in honor of NaNoWriMo. The Young Adult Discovery Contest is open to writers ages 13 and older. You need submit only your title and the first 250 words of your novel to enter.

Many published authors also provide links and tips for young writers on their websites and blogs. My fellow TeachingAuthor, April Halprin Wayland, includes these on her "Where Can a Young Writer Get Published?" and "Tips" pages. And just yesterday, I updated the "For Writers" page of my own website, which now includes two dozen links to sites especially for young writers. Many of those sites offer children and teens the opportunity to submit their work for publication either on the Internet or in print form.

Finally, I hope young writers (and their teachers) will find our TeachingAuthors blog a valuable online resource, too. In addition to the many links to writing-related websites you will find in our sidebar, we regularly feature writing tips, author interviews, book reviews, and writing exercises (called Writing Workouts). And if there's a writing-related topic you'd like us to address, you can submit your own Ask the TeachingAuthors question via the link in our sidebar.

Meanwhile, I hope you'll visit us again on Monday, when Mary Ann Rodman will post a follow-up response to Derin's question.

Happy writing!
Carmela

One Big Rock

A speaker at a time-management seminar poured stones into a large glass jar. He asked the audience to tell him when the jar was full. When the stones reached the lip of the jar, the audience spoke up.


Next, he poured pebbles in; they fell between the stones. Again the audience told him when they thought the jar was full. Then he filled the gaps with sand and finally water, demonstrating that we can keep fitting smaller and smaller tasks into what seems to be a limited amount of time.

Have you heard this before? Just a sec. After the jar really was full—of stones, pebbles, sand, and water—the speaker showed the audience one big rock. He asked, What if this is the most important thing you have to do with your time? How can you fit it in?


Obviously, you have to put it in first.

You have to put it in first. I’ve been carrying that jar around in my head lately, trying to imagine which tasks in my work life are stones (income-producing work: teaching, school visits, freelance assignments), pebbles (projects I hope will pay off in the long run: manuscript submissions, marketing, networking opportunities), sand (necessary but unpaid work: housework, financial matters, miscellaneous family obligations), and water (everything else: e-mail, web surfing, reading). I know what my one big rock is: writing. Yet too often I fritter a whole day away without writing a single creative word.

I need to act as though my writing comes first and everything else fills in the gaps.

My teaching schedule changes every semester; this summer, I’m teaching two six-week college courses, and they require a certain amount of preparation time. I try to take a decent walk every day, usually with the dog and preferably to the lake. Everything else is up in the air. My husband and our sons are all pretty independent; their needs for my time vary. I can’t count on a regular daily wake-up time, especially during the summer. But almost every morning when I get up, I grab a cup of coffee and spend some time working in my pajamas.

My challenge is to make that time—whether it’s fifteen minutes or two hours—as productive as possible. I have to put my writing first. Before e-mail, which can sidetrack me worse than any other distraction. Before Facebook, enjoyable as it is to see what everyone else is up to. Before I even push the button to turn the monitor on. I can fly off in a dozen different directions before I put one word on the page if I look at the computer first—even worse, I might avoid my own writing for the entire day. I have to head straight for the notebook or the novel. This month, I’ve promised myself I’ll spend one hour a day working on the YA novel I started last November for NaNoWriMo. I've missed a couple days, but I'm still trying.

What is your one big rock? How can you fit it into your jar?

Polish Those Nuggets until They Shine! More on Writing Fiction Inspired by Reality

Mining your memories? That’s only Step One. You still have to refine what you dig up. As Esther says in her Wednesday post, people, places, and things we know often turn up in our fiction—but not exactly as themselves. How do we unearth an event from real life and shape it into a story? Here are some possibilities.

1. Exaggerate. This is my twin sister Judy, my roommate during our college years. She and the cats she’s holding inspired my first picture book, Cats on Judy, which began with a simple observation: the cats always slept on Judy’s bed. The story’s resemblance to reality ends at that point, though. No one could really sleep with “one [cat] in her arms and one on her head,” let alone “one on her knees and one on her chest” and “one on her back and one on her feet.” When I wrote those lines, I stretched the truth beyond the believable to the intentionally silly. The clever illustrator, Judith DuFour Love, added two cats to the picture each time one of those lines appeared, giving Judy six tumbling, frolicking cats and making the story even more preposterous.

2. Focus on an emotion. My son Jimmy has always been a singer. Now about to head off to college, he looked like this around the time I wrote Sing-Along Song. Jimmy inspired me not only because of his love of music but also by helping me remember my own musical childhood. My six sisters and I sang while we did the dishes, performed for visitors, and arranged musicals in our backyard. Remembering those experiences helped me imagine a safe home, a loving family, and a child who knows the joy of singing along with whatever the day brings.

3. Write from a different character’s point of view. See the white streak in the water in the middle of the picture? That’s the canoe my husband and I were paddling on a family camping trip, pinned against a clump of trees in the fast-flowing Buffalo River. In an article in the 2009 Children's Writer's and Illustrator's Market, “Fiction Inspired by Reality: Put Some Life in Your Work,” I wrote about my search for a way to make a story out of that challenging situation. In my unpublished middle grade novel Nothing but Water, I shifted to the viewpoint of a girl who watches her parents’ canoe capsize and then must take charge of her younger brother in the wilderness.

4. Change the time frame. In her Friday post, Mary Ann mentions compressing events. You can also change their sequence. In order to make the canoe crash story be that of the protagonist and her younger brother (rather than that of their parents), I reversed the sequence of two actual events so that the parents are forced to leave their children alone.

5. Extrapolate. In a young adult novel I began for National Novel Writing Month, I’m exploring what might have happened if a high school stunt had gone further. Judy and I (yes, we’re identical twins) switched classes once: she passed my impossible swimming test; I flunked her surprise English quiz. As payment, she made me go ice skating with a boy she no longer liked and didn’t have the heart to break up with. In real life, we were afraid to try another switch. In my novel in progress, one switch leads to another, relationships intertwine, and the twins are forced to untangle a convoluted muddle of emotions.

6. Make it up! That’s what we writers do, right? At each turning point, look for a logical, believable, different direction that moves your story forward. Give yourself time to think and room to play around with options.

Keep polishing those nuggets! Your story will sparkle!

Writing Workout: Mining and Refining

Choose any of the methods above to turn your real-life story into fiction. Look at each event as a turning point. Imagine all the options you can. What if a character makes a different decision or misses an opportunity? What if good intentions lead to unexpected consequences? What about events beyond the character’s control? Here are a few more suggestions.

• Change the setting. Put your characters and their problems into a different time or place.
• Create a misunderstanding.
• Impose a deadline to add tension.
• Focus on a small event and blow it out of proportion.
• Introduce a witness who sees something that should be kept secret.

Give yourself permission to play with the possibilities. Have fun!