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

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