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Are You Ready?

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Today is Monday, 28 October 2013, and the challenge begins on Friday, 1 November 2013.

Yes! This Friday!!!

Are you ready to come play? Here are a few lessons learned from previous years – I hope these help you towards your goal.

Before the challenge:
1. A well-developed story plan is essential. Not that you’re going to follow it precisely, but it certainly helps to know where you’re going.
2. Know your characters and take the time to write a short biographical sketch. I have to keep referring back to certain things because I simply can’t remember everything. I often forget the last name of one of my characters or their eye color.
3. A chapter timeline is essential for me. I keep mine open and update it constantly. Since my story timeline is very tight, I have to pay close attention to what is happening and when. This prevents me from having those annoying issues with “sequencing.” I once read a book in which the hero sat down to an evening meal where there were fireflies, while something bad was happening to a kid in school at recess. That’s the type of thing that makes me insane as a reader.

During the challenge:
4. Don’t make the daily word count your nemesis. I figured out early that working on a weekly word count was less stressful for me. Some people like the idea of the small bite, but 1667 words a day can be their own little nightmare. I have days where I can’t manage 800 words. But I don’t panic because my weekly goal of 12,500 words feels much more attainable.
5. Set the bar high. It’s been my experience that people live up to the expectations placed upon them. I make sure to proclaim my goals here on my website and also to all my friends. The continuous encouragement makes a huge difference.
6. Don’t waste a lot of your primary writing time self-editing. Make a note about what you need to fix and move on. I have a sheet of paper where I just jot down the stuff as I think of it. I do my primary writing in the morning, and then in the evening I generally go back and read things over. This is frequently when I will take care of the notes I made during the day.
7. Write the scene that’s in your head. It doesn’t matter if it’s out of sequence – if you know what happens to your character at a certain point get it down on paper before you lose it. This challenge is about words, not necessarily continuity.
8. Don’t be discouraged if you feel like you aren’t going to make it. Keep working and power through the hurdles. 2011 was not my first attempt. I’d tried several times before and did not even get close. In fact, I’d quit without even reaching 15,000 words the last two times that I tried.
9. Don’t throw away or delete anything. Save the document under another name so you can use it later to put together a new plan and set new goals.
10. Remember above all else – this is just a challenge! You have to live in the real world and accomplish real things. Those are what really matter!

Are you ready?

Now is the Time

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This is a partial repost of my blog from 2011 concerning NaNo. If you are going to participate – please take a minute and read this:

“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 woken, 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!”

I Have a Freaking Idea!

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Yes, it has happened – the two lone particles in my brain have collided and an idea has formed.

Hot Deputies Boffing in Utah

Yup! That’s the story for NaNo 2013. I have no title yet, so this is what I’ve been calling it since the idea first started forming several years ago. It’s not a pretty working title, but at some point we all know that this is what will be happening when the lead characters get together. How did I get here? Well… it’s a little convoluted.

When I was writing Blood Link back in 2009/10, I called to talk to my friend Darryl (Del) LeBouef. The original question was about terrain models, and this turned into a discussion about continuity of training in the military and the Rangers in particular. Somehow, we wound up talking about the desert phase of his Ranger training at Dugway Proving Grounds in Utah. Dugway is where our country tested all of our chemical and biological warfare stuff. It’s also picked up the nickname of Area 52 since NASA crashed a damaged satellite there a few years ago. As usually happens with Del and I, the stories began. (Have I mentioned that I love to hear men tell stories?) Anyway, Del is a master storyteller and this one had just the right amount of cool and freaky. The vivid picture he painted with his words has stuck with me and was what sent me researching and digging. Dugway was and is the ideal setting for some kind of bad crap to happen. But what?

Then in 2011, my friend Arwen and I were zipping up the highway heading for Salt Lake City to do some genealogy research, and she had slowed to pass through a piddly little town in Kanab County. I spied a group of men clustered outside one of the small gas-and-go type places. This was a group of about eight rancher/farmer/hunter types just standing around with their coffees or sodas talking about whatever it is that men talk about in these clusters. In the center of the group, was a damn fine specimen of a man in blue jeans, tan sheriff’s shirt, and a cowboy hat. He was laughing with the others, but his eyes were on the passing traffic. I have never been able to ignore a damn fine specimen of a man. However, I have learned that when you see one in the wild, look only with your eyes and not your hands. Touching leads to AARP issues – Arrest, Arraignment, Restraining orders, and Pointy comments from Mr. Scott because he had to come get me. Again. Thank goodness Arwen didn’t stop the car and my confinement was averted. And thanks to that little drive-by, I now had my hero firmly planted in the back of my empty little brain.

Not too long after the Utah trip, my friend Teresa McCormick announced she had joined the Army Reserves and would be deploying to Afghanistan. Teresa is a former Air Force Security Policeman who was now going to be in an Army MP unit. She LOVES the military. She’s great on the range firing weapons, but at the same time, she’s very much a “girl.” She loves shoes, clothes, dresses, shopping, wine, Skittles, and wears makeup! She even had the audacity to look good deployed! I had the brilliant thought that my female lead character could be a former MP who’s also a cop, and moves to Utah. I could come up with a lot of stuff for that. And I might even let her own a pair of heels and wear makeup as a nod to Teresa. All I needed to do was come up with a story that placed her in front of a smoking hot deputy and surely something good would come of that.

As I researched my location, the people who will populate the fringes of my story have emerged. As it always is with me, the more I read and learn, the more questions I have. I sent off for maps of the area, and emailed and made phone calls to other Rangers that Del knew. More stories have been added to my catalog about Dugway over the last year, and I was pretty close to where I wanted to be.

I know I can create a good book with the elements of Dugway as a character, the old Ranger stories, the deputy who can laugh, but never stops being watchful, and a smart, tough woman who has to look forward not back. But the sticking point has always been that I don’t write straight romance. There has to be an outside factor or threat that brings them together in a certain place at a certain time.

It turns out that I knew what that threat was the entire time.

Question: If you wanted to steal, build, or store a weapon containing a dangerous chemical or nerve agent, where would you do it?

Answer: Wherever there are chemical or nerve agents already.

We’ll have to see if this premise works out, or if the story leads me down a different path.

Stay tuned.

Time to get back to work!!!

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November is National Novel Writing Month (nanowrimo.org), known affectionately as NaNo to those of us crazy enough to participate. The goal is to write 50,000 words in one month and perhaps complete that novel that you’ve always dreamed of. No self-editing, no rewriting, and no worrying about anything but getting the words on the page. I’ve done NaNo for the last three years and have completed it for the last two. Yup! That makes me a freaking winner!!! In 2011, I wrote Saving Emily from start to finish and blogged about the process here. It took several more months to rewrite and edit before Emily was ready for release. Last year, I went for completing the 50K word count and didn’t worry about finishing the book in the time given – it was too large a project for NaNo. Those words were part of The Embassy Guards. Getting all the words down on the page made me a winner.

I have no idea what the hell I’m going to write this year, but I need to decide pretty damn quick.

I have a couple projects in the back of my head, but I’d been taking some time off. My latest unnamed standalone suspense novel turned into a slog (for me) and I’m inclined to set it aside. I did this when I wrote A Shared Fear. I knew I had a good book but it wasn’t flowing, so I let it set and wrote Blood Link III – The Civilian. Focusing on something else took the pressure off me, and when I came back to A Shared Fear, it rolled right out.

With only two weeks to go, I’ll need to choose the project and lay out the novel. I can work blind, but I’ve found it’s better with NaNo to have a clue where I’m going. My list includes a plot outline and rough chapter schedule so I can meet my major plot points.

The other thing I need to do is alter my personal schedule. If I’m pushing the word count then I should warn my friends that I won’t be around as much, pay the bills in advance so I won’t forget, and warn the girl dog that she’ll have to be much more vocal in getting my attention to go out. I’m not telling the cat anything – she’ll use it against me.

Mr. Scott shall have to be forewarned also. He really doesn’t mind NaNo as my distraction often affords him the opportunity to practice his hunting and gathering skills. None of those skills are particularly healthy as he has a tendency to hunt between the closest fast food places and he gathers way too much Taco Bell than is good for us. This being said, I should also spend a little time in the next two weeks cooking a few things that can go in the freezer. And you should all buy stock in bag-o-salad since I sure as hell won’t be spending time making my own.

Oh!!! And names for my characters – yeah – I definitely need names. Something short and quick to type… like Ed or Sue…

Dumping the Garbage

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“Sometimes, it all becomes too complicated and too hard. Sometimes, I begin to believe that I don’t have the brains, background, or the skill, to write the novel I want. Sometimes, I just have to step away from the damn project and admit that I can’t do it.

I’m not normally that person. Call it stubborn pride or just call it stupidity, but I usually put my head down and start researching while I push and shove my way through the information until I feel I can write about the subject without sounding like an idiot. I don’t have to be the expert. I don’t have to know the subject like the back of my hand. But, I have to have a freaking clue about what I’m writing.

But, today, I have no clue. Today, I feel like I’m in over my head and I’m freaking lost. The storyline I saw so clearly is just not working. Not because this isn’t a great story. It is. Not because I’m incapable of telling a good story. I can. And not because this couldn’t be a great book. It could.

But, I can’t seem to figure out how to get there from here. Every time I think I have the story hammered down, I don’t. Every time I think I know what I’m doing, I don’t. And for every day I write, I’m spending two days tearing it up and rewriting. The police investigation in the book doesn’t work. Put simply, there are too f***ing many laws, rules, procedures, and pain in the ass reality checks to deal with. I don’t know how the cops put up with the bullshit!”

That’s the blog I started early this morning. Actually, I wrote much more than this in what turned into a massive pity part that went on for several more paragraphs as I poured out my anger, frustration, and self-doubt. At the end of this horribly diatribe, I wrote, “I don’t want sympathy, suggestions, or to start a damn support group. My hope is that by saying all of this, I will get it out of my system and much like an irresponsible dog owner on a walk with Fido, I can leave the hot, stinking pile of crap on the side of the road while I just move the hell on.”

I spent a good part of today in a lousy mood, and I’ve seriously considered hitting the delete button on the manuscript several times. Then, it hit me. I wasn’t writing my type of book. I’ve always stretched my limits and learned new things, but my books are action/adventure/suspense involving a strong woman with a military career or background along with a decently hot romantic element. I DO NOT write police procedurals, and while I have a male character’s viewpoint, my stories are not generally from the primary viewpoint of the man. I had also split the story with the romance in one place and the police procedural in the other. This weakened the novel and split my focus. In small words – IT DIDN’T WORK!

My original premise for this book remains excellent. However, I have to alter the focus and dump the police procedural that is not occurring in the primary location. I have to go back to the guts of the story.

So tomorrow morning after walking the pooches and brewing a large pot of coffee, I will sit down and begin the task of blowing this up. I’ll be lucky to salvage 5,000 to 7,500 words out of the 35,000 that I have, but they’ll be the right ones. They will be the ones that set the tone and pace of the book and put me back on my path. The rest will go into a folder that I keep for things I’ve written but can’t currently use.

I’m suddenly feeling pretty good about this again.

The Freaking Process – Picking a Hero

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Question: Why do I use so many Marines?
Answer: I could come up with several extremely rude and crude comments about this question, but I won’t.

The simple answer is that I’m lazy.  When I say “Marine” most people have an immediate image that comes to their mind – that recruiting poster of the incredibly attractive Marine in his dress blues with his sword and the slogan, “The Few.  The Proud.  The Marines.”.  Based solely on the great advertising by the Marines, you know who my character is and what he stands for.  All I have to do is give you his name, rank, and physical description and you alter the poster to suit.

One of my beta readers told me that I look at Marines through rose-colored glasses.  He works around Marines all the time and feels that most of them really aren’t all that cool.  I get that.  All Marines are not honorable people who always do the right thing.  All members of the military are not responsible men with common sense.  All Air Force guys aren’t smarter than the men in the Army.  (Having spent a lot of years in the Air Force, I can tell you that many of them aren’t any smarter than the damn boots they’re trying to put on.)  But the same is true of any group of people.  All cops and fireman aren’t nice guys and heroes.  All teachers aren’t selfless. And all cowboys don’t have cute butts.

One of my jobs as an author is to create a hero/heroine who has the potential to overcome the conflicts in my story.  I have to pick someone who provides credibility to the story.  If I want to send a small force of well-trained men in to a dangerous situation where they need to have tactical and weapons skills, then I can’t send a bunch of dweebs from accounting and finance to do the job.  I can send one person, who gets caught up in the middle of a mess, but without the trained fighters, he’s going to get greased pretty quick.

I’m not opposed to using the other services.  I have a particular fondness for Rangers and military police from all branches, but I have a tendency to avoid the Green Berets and SEALS as primaries.  As I’ve mentioned before, I don’t know enough of them to ask for help in getting the details right.  And I don’t use the Navy much because even they don’t understand their own organizational charts.

I use the military police because I have a fair-sized group of military cops who I can call upon for tactical help and guidance.  How do you clear a room?  How does a small tactical team approach a building?  What the hell do you actually call that thinga-ma-bob hanging from his gear in the center of his chest in this picture?  Once they’re done screwing with me, they always step up and help.  And when I get it wrong, they don’t hesitate to throw the bullshit flag on a regular basis.  That’s what they’re there for.

Why not the Air Force?  Well… short of a few career fields that go do really interesting and exciting things, most Air Force personnel are not generally in a position to get in the kind of trouble my folks seem to get into.  And, with the exception of those few career fields, airmen also aren’t trained for trouble.  All Air Force personnel have weapons qualification training once a year, and for many of them, that’s the only time they ever handle a weapon.  Most of them barely remember year to year to keep the muzzle pointed away from other people.  While many of these folks are cool and interesting people, just how is my avionics technician supposed to get caught up in something dangerous and, once in it, why would anyone believe that he has the necessary combat skills to get out of it.  Not that a detail like that stopped Tom Clancy for credibly using an Air Force weather nerd in Red Storm Rising.  But, realistically, the average Air Force back shop technician would be nothing more than “in the way” to those who would have to protect him in the field.

Marines are just easier. And, I mean that in the nicest possible way.