LUCY BURDETTE: Last month I participated in a mini National November Write More exercise with several of our darling Reds and friends. The idea of Nanowrimo is to write 50,000 words over the month. 50,000! We weren't going for that, we were trying to move ahead with our projects and support each other. At the beginning, we posted our personal goals for word count for each day, working in some leeway for weekends, Thanksgiving, trips, laziness, writer’s block…. (Except sharing goals was supposed to defeat writers block.)
And we posted results most days in a Facebook group, the idea being that being held accountable would keep us writing, and that the group would provide cheerleading. I shot for 1000 words a day, most days. The first day I eked out only 200, and I really wrestled about whether to lie. Honestly, I was very close to fibbing to my dear friends. But I was also interested to be reminded about the quirks of my own writing process. Here's an example: I am much faster and more productive when I’m writing scenes at the end of a book. Put me in the middle, and I am a disaster! Everything sounds boring. And if it's boring to me, I know it will be boring to you. Maybe I have to learn to write endings only...
Reds, tell us about a quirk of your writing and how you get past the problem, if you know how it happens.
HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Working working working working..I missed my 32,000 words (cumulative total for last week) goal yesterday by 50 words. Dumb, but at that point I couldn't even think of 50 bad words, let alone good ones.
The 1000 words a day goal is really successful--because it's a doable thing. BUT. I'm still telling myself I only have to do 540 words a day, and when I reach that, I push myself to 1000. It's seems to work for me to have a two-tiered goal. So the first one is definitely doable. And I feel so virtuous. Then I press on if I can. If I fail to get 1000, I haven't failed--because I made the first goal! So ridiculous how I have to trick myself. EVERY day.
And it really helps to look at the manuscript every day. Even on a day when for some reason I can't write, I still--as I explain to Jonathan--have to say goodnight to the book. Wallace Stegner has a great quote: "You have to at least give the muse a CHANCE to visit." I think of that all the time.
INGRID THOFT: Hank, I love the idea of setting two goals for
yourself. I can be rigid about word count, and then find myself frustrated even if I did make some progress. Your two-tiered goal sounds like a great way to make progress and feel good about that progress, even if you don't hit the ideal every day. Like Hallie, I have some of my best ideas in the murky space between being asleep and being awake. I always have pen and paper by the bed to catch those ideas, which hopefully, make some sense when I’m fully conscious! And NaNoWriMo? Nope. Never. That sort of deadline adds unnecessary stress to the process, but my hats off to anyone who participates!
HANK: Yeah, Ingrid. Might as well succeed!
JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: Excellent advice, Hank. I was supposed to be doing the NaNoWriMo and got about three days in when I realized I wasn't ready to pick my ms up where I left off. I've been rereading and editing what I have to get back into the story. When I caught myself thinking it would be easier to simply start a whole new book, I realized I needed to do something different. So I'm trying a writing hack from the fabulous Jennifer Crusie: I'm going to start writing scenes I already have in mind from later in the story and worry about stitching them together later.
My usual writing quirks? I always drink hot tea while writing. It gives me something to do with my hands when I'm thinking. Also, I find having a dog in his bed next to me is a very nice way to work (and makes me get up and go outside occasionally!)
HALLIE EPHRON: I was supposed to be doing NaNoWriMo, too, and got about one day in and realized I just can't write fast. Nope. Uh uh. No can do. I *need* to second-guess myself and go back and change, because my first impulse is rarely my best. And often my best impulse then requires that I go back and insert (or delete) to establish the foundation for whatever I wrote. I call it "iterative" but it could also be called chaotic.
I get my best ideas falling asleep and waking up in the morning. And if I have an idea, it'll fuel me through the next day. So I keep a piece of paper and pencil by the bed and try to write legibly.
HANK: Oh, I change everything dozens and dozens and dozens of times. Just because you type it doesn't mean you have to keep it. But I find that just writing something is better than writing nothing. Then I'll think--what if it were this way? What if it were that way? Do I have enough setting here? What's the reason for this? And often just having my brain feeling like it's editing rather than writing gives me ideas.
But I think the point of NaNoWriMo is NOT speed. Not speed at all. It's forward motion.
JENN McKINLAY: Lucy, the middle is the worst. It's where I stumble on every single book. I have no idea why but the relief when I realize I have pulled out of the middle and am cruising toward the end is like an endorphin rush for me. I don't really have any quirks, at least I don't think so. I'm just a plow horse, happy to be in the field, watching the butterflies while I put my shoulder into it and haul the rig. Sometimes the the writing is effortless and other times it's a strain, but I know if I just keep putting one word after another, the story will come.
RHYS BOWEN: Hank, my mantra is always NOTHING IS WRITTEN IN STONE. I try to be objective enough to let go of a scene that I love because it slows the action or simply doesn't move the story in the direction I want it. For me the first fifty pages are always agony. I start a new book knowing nothing, or almost nothing. I begin with, "Wouldn't it be fun if Georgie has to gate crash an important conference in Italy with Nazis?" and then I send her there and hope that good things will happen. So the first chapters are like always fraught with angst. What if this story doesn't work? What if it's not as good as the other books? Then I see a glimmer of light and by page 100 I know where I am going and then it gallops along to the end. I aim for 1500 words a day. That way I know I can finish a first draft within three months. But I make myself write those 1500 words even if I feel totally dry and I think they are the worst 1500 words ever written. Usually when I examine them the next day they are not as bad as I thought and I can polish them and forge ahead.
LUCY: Oh I am right there Rhys, in the "what if this isn't as good as the others?" stage. It IS agony!
DEBORAH CROMBIE: Oh, Rhys and Lucy, me, too!!! What if this book was a terrible idea? What if no one will like it? What if it's not anywhere near as good as the previous books???? Ack. It's amazing we ever get through that. The only way we do is to struggle on to the point where the story takes over, and you stop worrying about what other people will think...
I was an absolute failure at our Mini Nano, and it was my idea! I got off to a decent start, but then I got the flu, and then it was Thanksgiving, etc., etc., etc. But the biggest problem (other than my lack of discipline) is that I just don't write fast in the first half of a book. The closer I get to the end, the more words in a day. But I'll be back at Mini Nano word goals the 1st of January!!!!
I usually drink tea while I write, like Julia. But, Julia, how on earth do you write in bed without your back killing you? I must have my Aeron chair!
HANK: But it's math, you know? Addition addition addition. If you just keep doing it, it will get done. And then you can fix it.
HALLIE: Aeron chair? Going to look it up right now. If you rub it does the magic writing genie appear?
RED READERS: Writing tips or quirks or questions?
