Writerling Writes

Comparison is the thief of joy.

– Teddy Roosevelt

How is it almost April already? Where did the rest of winter go?

I will once again be participating in Camp NaNoWriMo next month. I’m especially excited because I am sharing a cabin with people I actually know! For the last few months I’ve been getting together with a group of young female writers in Silicon Valley. We decided to create our own cabin this year, so we’ll be able to meet in physical cafes and online. While I enjoyed my past experiences with Camp NaNo cabinmates, I think it will be good to hold each other accountable in person.

Our virtual writing forest

I’m going to be working on my latest draft of Rave (which desperately needs to be retitled). This draft is close to completion, but I have this chunk in the middle that needs several new scenes (about 10,000 words worth), which will undoubtedly then have to be rewritten. Sigh. So goes the cycle. I’m looking forward to having a concrete goal and more accountability from my cabin mates.

I’m a winner!

Just validated my word count, and it feels oh so good to have a machine tell me I’ve won! I find this especially ironic, given that the main robot in my novel is often the announcer of truths. I am quite pleased by this accomplishment, especially having reached 50,000 words in sixteen days.

Night of Writing Dangerously

Officially, I won at the Night of Writing Dangerously, a NaNoWriMo fundraising gala held in San Francisco. I got to ring a bell and wear a crown and announce my accomplishment to all of twitter! It was wonderful to be a part of such a public celebration of writing.

Too often, we writers are the only source of our own validation. That is a huge bummer. While I don’t need someone telling me I’m the Greatest Writer of All Time, I do need other people to remind me that what I do is work. It is hard work; it is worthy work. This is same sort of validation I look for when trying to break my dog of eating everything in sight. It’s a reminder that while we may not all experience the same difficulties in life, the life you are living is valid.

So celebrating my win surrounded by 300+ other writers was excellent validation. And motivation! My manuscript is much too short to sell, clocking in at under 55,000 words. I’m already hard at work editing and hope to have it out to betas soon. In the meantime, though, I am proud of my blitz two weeks of writing, and excited to have raised so much for the NaNoWriMo Young Writer’s Program!

Executive Director Grant Faulkner & I

One of the best parts about NaNoWriMo is the community. I’ve been very active on the NaNo forums this year. By challenging myself, I’ve written more this month than any other, since grad school. I’ve also challenged others with this writing crawl, which is designed to help focus your mind. Whether you’re doing this crawl first thing at 6 a.m. or last thing at 2 a.m., hopefully it will help center you. If you’re curious about the title and inspiration, check out this clip from The Jungle Book. Glhf!

• Hup Two Three Four : Can you hear those elephant feet? Wake up with a quick 100 word sprint.
• Keep It Up Two Three Four : Great job! Keep it flowing with a 250 word sprint.
• A Parade! : Lift your arms, stretch your legs and make sure you have plenty of water/coffee/tea. Move a little extra on your way to fill your mug.
• Oh No, The Dawn Patrol Again : They show up every day, but it’s never at exactly the same time. Go to random.org and get a random number between 100 – 1000. Sprint!
• Company, Sound Off! : Switch up your playlist. Try something new on Pandora or Spotify. Change the tempo of what you’ve been writing to. If it’s late, try something more chill. If it’s early, pump that bass.
• Ho, The Aim of Our Patrol : is to write! Challenge yourself to stay focused for an entire 10 minute sprint.
• Is a Question Rather Droll : Take five deep breaths. On a piece of paper or a new document, write down the main question you think your novel is asking. This can be the theme, plot, character motivation, etc. Don’t think too hard and as soon as you write it down, put the question away. This should be the quickest part of the crawl.
• For to March and Drill : Take your total word count for this crawl thusfar. Halve it, and sprint to that number.
• Over Field and Hill : That new playlist not working for you? Feeling a little cramped? Do like the elephants do and reverse. You can change your playlist, jog around the room, pet the dog. Whatever it is, take a moment or two to get silly, get loose. Wake up the last sleepy parts of your mind and body.
• Is a NaNoWriMo Goal : March through a 15 minute sprint.
• Halt! : You made it! Colonel Hathi approves. Now that you’ve focused your thoughts, it’s time to update your writing goals for today. Or perhaps you’d like to motivate yourself with a carrot (but beware the stick).

If you continue writing today past this crawl, peak at your Question Rather Droll. Let this guide your writing, let the question permeate every scene.

Hope you enjoyed marching to The Dawn Patrol!

I’m in the middle of not one, but two, different projects right now. One is a YA scifi/fantasy crossover with a lot of world building and complex geopolitical elements. The other is a romance novel, and as I haven’t attempted a romance novel before, it’s proving to be full of challenges. So, I’ve struggled.

Lucky, there’s always help (and a whole lot of not help, but that’s a post for another day) to be found on the internet.

ilys is a kickstarter project. You enter your word count, and it takes you to a dark, nearly blank page with a large text box. You can only see one letter at a time as you type, forcing you to turn off your inner editor. It does take me a few minutes to settle into it, to accept spelling errors and just push forward. But I’ve made tremendous progress when I enter small word counts, 250-1000, with this app. And it’s a lot better than similar apps, which will threaten the writer with noises and even the deletion of words. Meep!

Hemingway is my new best editor friend. It is essentially the 10% Solution, in program form. It will review your writing for complex sentences, adverbs, passive voice and more. It even gives you target grade levels. This feature may be completely unhelpful if you’re writing literary adult fiction, but I found it quite useful. I even plugged in this post, et voila, much improved.

Any other writing resources I’m missing out on?

For the past two years, the Nebula Awards weekend has been hosted in San Jose. I went last year on a whim and had an absolutely wonderful time. It definitely set the tone for this year, which was busier, more difficult to navigate, but equally engaging.

Despite being one of the more geographically diverse cons, in that the nominees come from all over, I spent both Nebula weekends mostly with local writers. Funny how sometimes it takes an awards banquet to bring people together! Last year I stuck close to Rahul Kanakia, who I miss dearly, and this year I caught up with my local group, including Vincent Jorgensen and Amy Sundberg. I also had the chance to spend lots of time with Dr. Lawrence M. Schoen and his wife, Valerie. I know him even better now than I did after spending two weeks with him at Taos Toolbox in 2010.

Myself, Lawrence, and Amy

And that’s really what I enjoy about the Nebs: while it’s certainly a fantastic opportunity to network, everyone is so open and friendly and excited. It truly felt that we were all a part of the same tribe, and that we were collectively honoring some of the best and brightest among us. The glow of the writer community brightened especially in the evenings. I made new friends, shook hands with some very well known writers, and smiled so much my jaw ached.

As always, there are things that could have been improved. Sunil Patel began a conversation on Facebook which has been summarized neatly by Juliette Wade at her blog. I wasn’t at the “Writing About Other Cultures” panel. I admire Sunil and Juliette for sharing their experience. I hope we continue to talk and reflect on diversity, that we find ways to improve our panels, our writing, ourselves. Next year, the 50th Nebulas Awards ceremony will be held in Chicago. I’m hoping to attend.

But before that, I have many other workshops and cons to attend this summer. Next up: a trip to Philadelphia for a writing workshop with some of my dearest writer friends.