I'm a Writer, Three Months a Year

I was in the middle of reading this post, My Journey As A (Non-) Writer by Jen Nixon ,when I stopped in the middle for a moment. It struck close to home you see, because I haven’t been writing.

My last blog post was for my New Years resolutions, which I've mostly failed. Oh I’ve done a bit of editing, I’ve written some here and there, and I did come up with some new ideas in the last few months. But for all of that I don’t feel like I’ve been doing much, in fact I know I haven’t been.

But yesterday that changed. Yesterday I started writing a new book. I’ve never done a story like this one and I don’t know that it, or I, am ready for this but I’m doing it anyway.

Why? Because Camp NaNoWriMo started yesterday.

New Year, Old Goals

Does the fact that I didn’t post this yesterday mean that I automatically fail? I did mean too, I just couldn’t say awake long enough to manage it.

Well in any case this is my, slightly late, New Year’s Resolution post. My goals can mostly be summed up by saying that I want to be more productive. More disciplined too, but productive about covers it. Most of my New Year's Resolutions are related to my writing; I want to do so much more than I have been. They are also a lot like the resolutions I made last year, I didn't get too far then but hopefully this time will be different.

I have a few more things (and more details) on my private list but here's the basics:

• Blog weekly (please poke me when I don’t)
• Work out a better plan for blogging (so that first one doesn’t fail)
• Brainstorm more (I have ideas, they just need a little filling out before I can write them)
• Finish drafting that major project of mine (two years in progress is long enough!)
• Edit those short pieces (they should be dusty enough now.) 
• Establish a better writing routine (scratch that. Establish a routine period.)
• Just plain old write more (and not just for NaNoWriMo either)

I know I can fulfill these goals, (okay actually I’m worried about a few of them but I’m trying to convince myself otherwise.) I’m working out a plan for how to right now. I just have to keep the procrastinator in me at bay long enough to implement it this time around.

How about you? What are your goals for this year? Or even just this month? Any advice on sticking with it?

Hope everyone had a Happy New Year and a Merry Christmas,
Rita

Day 30: Go Write

You don't have time to read blog posts any more then I have time to write them. 

Go Write

NOW!

~Rita

Day 30, the last day of NaNoWriMo

Day 29: Keep Writing

I am both too young and too old to be very wise and I am struggling through these last days of NaNoWriMo just as you are; what can I say? What can I do to help you get through this? Not much, but maybe these writers can:

"You say grace before meals. I say grace before I dip the pen in the ink."
— G.K. Chesterton"

"There was a moment when I changed from an amateur to a professional. I assumed the burden of a profession, which is to write even when you don't want to, don't much like what you're writing, and aren't writing particularly well"
— Agatha Christie

"I never exactly made a book. It's rather like taking dictation. I was given things to say. "
— C.S. Lewis

“Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on.”
— Louis L’Amour

“You may tire of reality but you never tire of dreams.”
― L.M. Montgomery, The Road to Yesterday

"Write me of hope and love, and hearts that endured." — Emily Dickinson

"I’m writing a first draft and reminding myself that I'm simply shoveling sand into a box so that later I can build castles."
— Shannon Hale

“Every few weeks she would shut herself up in her room, put on her scribbling suit, and fall into a vortex, as she expressed it, writing away at her novel with all her heart and soul, for till that was finished she could find no peace.”
― Louisa May Alcott, Little Women

Aha! Today I shall become an author! And I will auth and auth and auth and make a squillion dollars, whoopee!"
— Brian Jacques

"Have you thought of an ending?"
"Yes, several, and all are dark and unpleasant."
"Oh, that won't do! Books ought to have good endings. How would this do: and they all settled down and lived together happily ever after?"
"It will do well, if it ever came to that."
"Ah! And where will they live? That's what I often wonder."
— J.R.R. Tolkien (The Fellowship of the Ring (The Lord of the Rings, #1)


Keep writing. Keep telling your story. Don’t stop. Don’t ever stop.
~Rita

Day 28: Thanks for Words

For Americans, today is Thanksgiving. That means food, football (not for me,) counting our blessings and thanking God for the good things in our lives.

There are the usual things to be thankful for of course, friends, family, good food, and hopefully the day off. But at least take a moment to think of all the things we have to be thankful for as writers:

Books, libraries, book stores, bargain books, new books, old books…

All the words you wrote this month, in fact all the words you’ve ever written

All of your ideas, the big ones, small ones, bad ones, really good ones, all of them

Every person you’ve met, talked to, or seen this year. You never know who’s going to inspire your next character.

Any advice you’ve gotten this year on writing.

All the criticism that nearly broke your heart; It made you a stronger writer.

Any rejections you’ve had, this too has helped you work harder at your writing.

All the good things people have said about your writing.

Every funny, embarrassing, awful, delightful, and boring moment you’ve experienced, seen, or heard about. It’s all fuel: hoard it.

Everything you’ve learned this year, on any subject.

All the places you been, fantastic places, boring places, strange places; Ordinary places that you’ve been to a thousand times.

Pens, pencils, paper, printers, keyboards, chalk, sand, and thing else you’ve ever used to write record words

Words: All the words you’ve ever heard, or read, or made up.

There is so much that goes into our writing that we take for granted. Do you know that as a homeschooler I have no idea what attending a high school would really be like? I could, however, tell you about canning peaches or about the scent of wood smoke when it’s so cold the snow sounds dry when you walk across it. I could tell you about doing my math under a tree, or watching a calf be born.

What is normal and boring for you isn’t so for everyone. The world is a big place and everyone is living different lives. Sometimes I think that’s all people mean when they say ‘write what you know’ you can make up all kinds of things but don’t forget to use bits of things around you. The world is full of things we can use in our writing, we just have to look, really look, around for them.

Take time to appreciate, and give thanks for, everything that fuels your writing; the things we concisely draw from and the things that we aren’t even aware of being an influence.

Thanks for reading,
~Rita

Day 27: Borrowed Encouragement

Okay, I confess, I didn’t have much done for today’s post so I may have…borrowed some wise words. Really, I don’t mean any harm…I guess I didn’t really ask if I could but, well, I think we kinda need them, so yeah I took them. I mean these are the final days, I needed some help.

So anyway, have fun:

“These are the words you are looking for.” (Jedi mind tricks work every time.)

“Writing isn’t a strict progression of thoughts to words; it’s more a big ball of wibbly, wobbly, writerly… stuff.” (The Doctor said this, well sort of)

“One does not simply stop writing on the 27th of November” (thank you Boromir, that’s exactly what I was looking for)

one does not simply stop writing

“Okay, I can write this! I am, after all, a superhero!” (Larry Boy knows what he’s talking about, well most of the time.)

“Second word of the night and strait on till morning!” (I think Peter Pan said this, he always was clever)

“Weavers of Stories! Of Novels! My kindred! I know in your eyes must be the same fear that would take the heart of me! A day may come when words run dry, when we forsake our characters and leave their stories untold. But it is not this day. An hour of dry pens and broken keyboards when the age of Novelists comes crashing down! But it is not this day! This day we write! By all that you hold dear in good tales, I bid you stand! Writers of November!” (Paraphrased version of Aragorn’s speech at the black gates)


Good luck,
~Rita

Day 26: Must stay awake…

“…Must stay awake…Must keep typing…Must type…must…”

“Cathy what are you doing?”

“Hmmm? Oh, Natalie, I’m trying to *yawn* get *yawn* 3,000 words done before *yawn* before I go to…to bed.”

“Why are you trying to do that?”

“Well *YAWN* I got a little behind last week and *yawn*, and then it was Sunday, and today I had an appoint- *yawn* -tment and then I went to see the Doctor at the theater. He, they, were all 3D-ish. And now the numbers are…are all...mixed up. It was…It was brilliant. And fantastic. And cool. So I had fun there. Lots of fun and then I sorta slowed down and I was gonna go to sleep *yawn* and then I realized that it’s the last week and Thanksgiving is coming up. I *yawn* have to make up the ground and I want to be a little ahead bef-*yawn* before then. Before thanksgiving”

“Well that makes sense..... I think....Um…Cathy?”

“Ya-*yawn*”

“Its 7:00. That is its Seven AM.”

“That’s nice…Wait what?”

“Its morning you’ve; been up all night.”

“Oh…I need coffee.”

“I think you need a nap. How much did you get done anyway?”

“Uh, let’s see…oh. Not 3,000. I need coffee.”

“Nap. Now how much—Cathy this says that you got 6,109 words done sense you last logged them!”

“That’s what I said. Not 3,000. Where’s the coffee?”

“Cathy…Cathy you need to go take a nap.”

“No nap. Coffee.”

“Nap, then coffee. Come on there’s cots off the break room for days like this.”

“Cots? No COFFEE. It’s the stay-awake stuff; see, I have a cup. A cup and a thir- *yawn* therm- *yawn* a coffee thing.”

“I see that you had way too much of it last night if you drank all of that. Come on.”

“To coffee?”

“Sure, you lay down over here on the cot and I’ll go see about coffee.”

“Ok-*yawn*”

“Good night Cathy.”

“You said…Morning…coffee…”

“Sweat dreams.”

So, long story short, I just saw The Day of the Doctor in 3D with some friends and, oh, I can’t say how fantastically brilliant it was. Or how tiered I am now that I'm coming down from the excitement. If I wasn’t tired then Cathy would probably explain to Natalie what Doctor who is all about and they would plan a marathon for December. But as both of us need sleep, that will have to wait until another day. It’s just past midnight so I will go to bed and leave the writing until morning like Natalie does.

~Rita

day 26 of NaNoWriMo

Day 25: Don't Panic but it's a Deadline

Looming deadlines are things that either send us into a blinding panic or motivate us to write as we have never written before.

Take a deep breath and have a piece of chocolate, go to your happy place. You there? Good now stay calm, there’s a deadline coming up fast, but it’s okay because you’re not going to panic. No, you are going to write as you never thought you could.

You are going to sit down and write whatever comes into your head. You are going to write so fast that you don’t even know what it is you’re writing until you look back at it, and you’re not going to do that until the month is over.

Day 24: You Can't lose

We have one week left. Take today to rest up and prepare for what is to come. You are going to need it.

This last week is when you make that final push to catch up. You may survive only on coffee and chocolate. You may go without sleep. You may hurt your hands typing and have to resort to speech recognition to get things done. You may come to view the phrase, ‘word count’ as the product of your worst night mares.

But if there is one thing you will not do it is this: you will not falter, you will not give up, and you will not lose. You will not, you cannot lose in this. 

I know that you will not lose because not only are you not a quitter, you are a Creator. This month has always been about creating something new and whether you reach that 50,000 or whether you could only manage 5,000 every single word is a part of something new. Never before have those words been put together in just that way. Never before has your story been told. This month is its chance, so give it all you can this week.

Give it your best.

Wake up tomorrow prepared to write as you have never written; new lines and fresh ideas. I know you’ve been at this for the past month. I know you’ve worked hard. I know that it’s hard to imagine coming up with anything new this week, the thing is I know you can. You’re a writer, you’ve been at this for weeks yes, and you’ve learned so much. Look at all that you’ve written. Really look at the reality of the number you’ve been watching for the last few weeks. You did all that. You found new creative depths this month. Don’t let it stop now.

Tomorrow you will wake up and carry on with the same passion that you began with. You will write and learn and create. You will carry through. You are a writer; you cannot lose because whatever this next week brings, you have already won. You have won because this month you learned what it is to be a writer, and you became one.

No one can take that.
No one can diminish it.
No one can change it.

You are a writer.

~Rita