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Holy Cow! How did that Happen?

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It’s Day 25 of NaNo and something strange has happened. The first draft is on the page. No, it is not complete and ready for my beta readers yet, but I reached the end of the storyline right at 61,000 words. [Insert a happy dance here!]

I still have five days of NaNo left, but as I pointed out – I’m not finished. This is simply getting things down on the page and making it from point A to point B. And while much of it is written the way I’d like, there are many places that I will now need to go back and do some work. I can think of spots in the story where I knew what I wanted done, but was tired and didn’t say exactly what I wanted to say. Other times, I was racing ahead with the story, simply getting from here to there. Rather than lose the thought, I wrote something in shorthand and moved on.

An example of this would be when I was trying to get to a rather important emotional moment in the book. The image directly in front of that one is no less important than the coming scene; however, I had the other scene in my head and I needed to get it down before I lost it. What I wrote in haste, “Janice knew she was running out of steam, but kept moving.” What I really see in my head is, “Janice’s pace slowed as the exhaustion, loss of blood, and adrenalin drain, ate through the small reserves of strength she was operating on. She focused on placing one foot in front of the other, her eyes on the road ahead, knowing that if she stopped, she may not be able to start again.”

There are many bits like that one in the book that will require some attention. There are also more than a few spots where I wrote something like, “Mac knew she wouldn’t like that.” Now I have to say how or why Mac knew she wouldn’t like whatever the hell it was. Otherwise, it will sound as though Mac is omniscient. I will also have to look at all those big words and make sure I’ve used them correctly. Of course, I’ll have to look at all the little words while I’m at it. Sometimes, my fingers are so used to typing “know” that they go there even though I’m trying to say “knob.” The worst is not hitting the “t” in “the.” Spell check is fine with the word “he” even out of context.

Over the next five days, the manuscript will probably grow a little and I expect it will finish between 63,000 and 65,000 words. I’m find with that. [See – I wind up with find when I meant fine] When I finish, I’ll post the final chapter schedule so you can see how it came out compared to the original. I may also try to write a better description. I’m simply not good at those darn things.

Thanks for following along. I’ll keep you posted.

50K in 21 Days!!!

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It’s just before midnight on the 21st day of NaNo and I am at 51,059 words. I’m simply too excited to sleep. This is a huge accomplishment for me. Even though I started out with some real confidence – that didn’t mean that I really believed I would meet the schedule that I was setting for myself. But here I am – I have met the NaNo Challenge of 50K in 30 days. Well, I actually kicked the crap out of the 30 days part of the program.

But for me it’s not over. I want to complete the novel and I would like to complete it this month, so I still have another 10-20 thousand words to write in the next 9 days. And I’m into the second hardest part of the novel to write. The opening is the toughest, but the ending is no easier for me.

Wrapping up a novel is tough. I have to find a way to resolve the primary conflicts and make sure that I don’t have any nagging loose ends. Nagging is a qualifier. I don’t have a problem at the end of the book if you wonder what happens next to the characters. I’ve done my job if after 70,000 words you still want to know more about the people you’ve been living with on the pages of my book. However, I don’t want to leave you wondering if someone lived or died. There’s nothing more annoying than a cliffhanger. I want an ending to the episode. Anything else is just a ripoff. I won’t do that to you, because I don’t like it when it’s done to me.

The other thing I have to do is make sure that there is a satisfactory explanation of events. It shouldn’t all be done in two paragraphs with a bunch of “and then” this happened. We’ve spent all this time together as participants in the novel – we don’t want to be told what happened after the fact. Often the revelations will come over the last two to four chapters. The bad guy and his motivations must be revealed. All the open questions about how something was accomplished must be answered, and we must know what happens to the protagonists.

Crap! I have a lot of work to do and not a lot of time to do it in. So, let me begin by setting my goals for Week Four:
NaNo Goal – 50,000 words. Completed. Sorry – I just wanted to say it again.
Low End Goal – 62,500 which is the same 12.5 K I’ve been setting all along.
High Bar – 67,500. It could be tough to get there. I’m not sure of the number I need to write the final chapters and the book could end at 65K.

Cross your fingers for me – I’ll keep you posted.

Entering Week Three of NaNo Write

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As Inigo Montoya says in The Princess Bride, “Let me explain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up.” Monday of this week was day fourteen—halfway through the four-week schedule that I’m working on. I was looking for at least 25,000 words by midnight Monday to stay on track with the NaNo website suggested pace. There was no problem with that. I kicked that goal in the butt two and a half days ahead of schedule!

My personal goal was 30,000 and my “setting the bar too high” goal was 35,000 words. The reason for those numbers is that my novel is planned for between 60,000 and 70,000 words and this would put me halfway through. I ended the second week with 34,463 words and I have no complaints. I only missed the high bar by 537 words! I’d written to the end of the chapter, was at a good stopping place, and it was after 11 p.m. My eyes were bleeding and my brain had fallen out through my ear and crawled off to bed an hour before.

I think the second week in some ways was harder than the first. The reality of the goal was settling in and I had a lot of things on my plate for last week, but the chapter outline that I reworked helped to keep me on track and focused. I did go back and add in the chapters for the “possible bad guy.” I’m going to leave it worded that way because I don’t want to ruin the story for you.

However, it was also an excellent week in many ways. My favorite college football team won and I managed to write through the distraction of chores, college football, and the second to the last race of the season for NASCAR.

What really got me through last week though was the tons of encouragement I received from my friends and family. When I mentioned that I was thinking about how to get my heroine out of the trunk she’d been confined in, many people chimed in with suggestions and comments. Some of those comments led me to make notes for a future book. My neighbor let me measure her trunk and even crawled inside to show me how a woman the size of my heroine would fit in the space.

I have some terrific friends!

I also rewarded myself with a chocolate malt for exceeding the NaNo goal.

The goals for 21 November, which will be the end of week three are:
NaNo Weekly goal: 37,500 – I passed that one on 15 November
My Minimum goal: 45,000 – I’m pretty close to that now
My High Bar goal: 52,500

Wish me luck – I’ll keep you posted.

Learning More!

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Today is day seven of NaNo and I’m way past my weekly goal of 12,500. I’m over 16,000 at this point. I should be writing, but instead I’m reading about “how to write” and “how to tell your story.” My writing buddy, author Heather Rae Scott, is a message board host for Harlequin. Now most of you know how I feel about romance, but some things hold true whether you are writing a romance, a suspense, or a paranormal – you have to have an idea, hook your reader, and follow through. When you are finished, there is always the question about how to publish.

This month, Harlequin is hosting “So You Think You Can Write.” There are many topics of discussion, conversations (blogs and chats) with editors and writers, as well as some contests, if that’s your sort of thing. I’ve been following Heather’s tweets and Facebook posts so that I know what’s going on and can pick and choose what I want to read. You can follow it on her Heather Rae Scott Facebook page.

So why would I spend time with this in the middle of NaNo Write? Because sometimes it’s good to step back and think about what you’re doing, and maybe Harlequin is not your target publisher, but you can learn something from this event.

The following topics appeared today.

What is essential in a query letter? Editorial Assistant Sarah McDaniel Dyer can tell you! http://bit.ly/vBrsCB

Blog post: Mainstream vs. Mainstream vs. Series Romance: A Primer, by Executive Editor Paula Eykelhof http://bit.ly/vbk3hg

Harlequin senior editor Birgit Davis-Todd answers 5 questions about romance publishing. HEA: http://cot.ag/vdPSF7

Blog post: Why Do You Have to Tell This Story? by Leslie Wainger http://bit.ly/tgVvkT

Your Romance Writing Checklist by Patience Bloom: http://bit.ly/scJmC3

The checklist above doesn’t just work for romance – it’s for all writers. Don’t dismiss the information just because it’s not your genre. I found a lot to interest me in Why do you have to write this Story? By Leslie Wainger. It forces me to think about what I’m doing and why – and trust me – this is not a bad thing.

The “What is essential in a query letter? is an interview with Sarah McDaniel Dyer and you have to get past the personal part of the interview to get to the meat of the matter – the dreaded query letter and synopsis.

I’m a little bummed that Harlequin is doing this in the middle of NaNo – it would have been much cooler if they had offered this last month so we could have used some of these ideas and hints this month. However, regardless of when the information comes out, the reality is that the more you know as a writer, the better prepared you are when it’s time to polish and then try to sell your novel. It doesn’t matter what the genre is – this series of blogs, chats, and interviews can help you focus your efforts and perhaps answer some of your questions about getting your novel in front of an editor.

I strongly urge all you writers and wannabe writers to utilize all the free hints and advice offered. Thanks for keeping me informed Heather. Good luck with your writing!

How’s it Going?

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I thought it might be fun to share some of the things that have happened already in this NaNo write for those who might be following along. It’s already been a learning experience for me and probably for a few other.

Day one – I started off with a bang and wrote for around six hours. Two chapters later, I felt like I had a solid start. I was sticking with my chapter outline.

Day two – I was slow to start. Distracted by everyone and everything – brain bounce is not a norm for me but it happens.

Then I got in trouble – I wrote a small bit about my heroine going to a local gym to fit in a workout. Not your usual LA Fitness kind of place. This is a place that doesn’t advertise. Janice was sent there by her teammate who happens to know the owner, a man named Oscar Islas. Oscar is an ex-SEAL and his gym is for the specialists – bodyguards, cage fighters, mercenaries, etc. Oscar is also someone that Janice finds herself so comfortable with that she tells him of her concerns about her future. I like Oscar – a lot.

This little meeting grew from what should have been a couple paragraphs of “color” to several pages and an interesting character who could seriously alter my plot. I’m not sure yet what Oscar means to the story arc. At the very least, Janice will be thinking about him at some point and possibly comparing him to Mac. Just how much of a conflict or what role he will play isn’t clear to me.

Now – if I was a man writing “manly” books. My hero would meet someone other than the woman that he’s supposed to be interested in and if he liked her, he’d simply have an “interlude” and then go on with his life. All the female readers would roll their eyes, while the male readers would beat their chests and nod enthusiastically. But if I let Janice enjoy an “interlude” with Oscar while she’s still interested in Mac – she’d be nothing more than the Whore of Babylon. Breaking that tradition might be honest, but it could also make Janice an unsympathetic character and hurt the book.

Day three – By eight p.m. I had not even opened my document. I realize that everyone thinks all I do is write, but I don’t get to do it 24-7. I have other things that require my attention such as appointments, cleaning, and grocery shopping, so no writing. That is until Heather Rae Scott fired off a Facebook post that she was going to do the 1K in 1 hour challenge, and wondered who would care to join her. That’s picking an hour out of the day and trying to get a thousand words down. I said what the heck and jumped on the bandwagon.

Chapter four began with a new character being laid off from his job. I don’t know if this is really my bad guy or if he’s related to my bad guy. I’m still not sure I can actually write from a psycho’s perspective. I’m not even sure if this chapter will stay in the story, but we’ll see – editing is for December. I didn’t make the thousand words in the hour – I came in at 850, but I kept working for another half hour to finish up the chapter and ended with over 1100 words.

Not bad for a day that I hadn’t planned on writing anything.

The one other thing that I wanted to share is that I’m not worrying about a daily word count. If you divide up the goal of 50,000 words for the month, it’s 1667 per day. That’s a doable goal, but what if you have a day like I had today? I have days where the words pour out and then I have days where I couldn’t choke out 500 if my life depended on it. I’ve decided to go with a weekly goal of 12,500 so I don’t worry about a day like today. We started on Tuesday, so I have until Monday to meet my goal. If I hit it before then, I’ll let you know. I’m confident that I will.

I hope you are all having some success with your writing – keep at it!!!

Get Off Your Butt and Write!

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It’s pretty rare that I go through a week without hearing from someone about their interest in becoming a writer. They express a desire to successfully share their knowledge in the form of articles, their family history and genealogy in stories, and then there are the crazy people like me who want to write a book.

The most frequently asked question is “How do I get started?” My answer is pretty standard and stolen from Nike, “Just do it.” Sit down and go to work. Tell me what you have to say. Don’t try to make it perfect – just get it on the page. There is no wrong way to do this!

There’s no time like the present to do that. November is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and it’s all about putting words on paper. Will you write a complete novel or story? Probably not, but it is a great way to get started. For those of us who participate, it’s about a commitment to thirty days of no excuses – we write. In NaNo it’s not about the structure of the novel – it’s about getting the words down.

The biggest problem people have is the opening. How do you write that perfect first sentence and paragraph. You don’t, so quit worrying about it. Start with whatever it is in your head that you feel the need to say. If it’s a novel, and a conversation is what you hear in your head – start there. Let your story take you where it wants to go. When I wrote Protecting Parker it all started with a “what if?” conversation. What if this woman came home from the deployment from hell only to find that her husband has tossed her out and become a violent dangerous man? I opened the book with that conversation and then told the story.

In doing NaNo, many writers don’t worry about creating a structured story, they write the vignettes that make up their story. So if they were writing the novel that might eventually become Demolition Man, they might write the individual scenes of John Spartan being frozen, then John Spartan being awoken, perhaps that would be followed by Spartan learning to drive, or Spartan discussing the three sea shells. In NaNo, those scenes can be written with page breaks between them and no thought about order or connections. Sometimes, writers begin NaNo by writing a basic synopsis of their story and then describing their characters and locations before launching into the story.

I’ve learned some hard lessons about keeping track of my people and timeline since writing Protecting Parker and Blood Link. After several books, I know how I like to write and how I want to get from point A to point B. I have an idea for a story and I jot down my idea in a paragraph or two and go from there. I write a one-paragraph character sketch that includes a name, physical description, and the basics of who they are. Sometimes it’s only a sentence: “Parker doesn’t think she needs a personal life or family because she has her job and the troops she’s responsible for.” I refer back to these notes frequently – I swear I can’t remember eye colors to save my soul.

I’ll be entering NaNo this year trying to actually write my novel from start to finish in order. I have my character sketches and my synopsis. I even have a blurb – not a good blurb mind you, but a blurb! I also have created a time line for my novel and laid out the basic chapter structure. All of this is rough – I don’t worry about making this perfect.

You can click on the links here to look at what I’ve done creating a blurb, background, and synopsis in one document, and a timeline in a separate excel document.

You’ll notice that I’ve made a note that the chapter structure could change if I add chapters for the bad guy. It could also all go out the window mid-way through if my character has other ideas. Sometimes they say unexpected things and I’m forced to adapt by going back and making adjustments. However, during NaNo itself – I won’t be going back – only forward.

December should be called National Editing Month since that’s what most of us will do – if we don’t toss the whole damn mess. I don’t toss anything – just because it didn’t work here, doesn’t mean that you can’t use it.

So why do this? Published author Heather Rae Scott always reminds me, “You can’t edit a blank page! No one writes a perfect sentence, paragraph, or chapter the first time. Don’t worry about spelling, punctuation, or all the stuff that gets in the way of being creative. Just tell me the damn story!”

So all you wannabe writers need to take this golden opportunity to get off your butt and tell me the damn story!