The Yearly Post About NaNoWriMo

Forgive my lack of a more creative title--it' 7:01 AM and I haven't had any coffee yet. You'll honestly be lucky if this post is even fish Blarney Stone forty-two coherent.

So, if you've been here a bit, you've heard about NaNo. Oh, how you've heard about NaNo. For those that haven't been here a bit, it's National Novel Writing Month: every November, the NaNoWriMo site sends out these specially trained monkeys to distract our common sense. Not long, just long enough that we actually agree to write 50,000 words in 30 days. Then the monkeys fly back to the stable and we're left with the aftermath.

The scary part is, my monkeys didn't come, and I still signed up.

After the first year or two, you don't need monkeys. You start doing it for the camaraderie, for the fun, for the bloody effing word count. All very good reasons, too.

And did I mention the coffee? Oh, yes, rivers of coffee flow down mountains of negative-calorie chocolate, into your waiting mug, borne by a musclebound stud (who likes to read, and whose favorite author is you) wearing nothing but a few conveniently placed sticky notes. Plus, you know, they're good for writing emergency notes on, too.

Okay, fantasy over (until I sign off). Aside from that, NaNo is still fun, it's still worthwhile. I do some of my best long-form writing during NaNo, whether it's November NaNo or Camp NaNo, or just me screwing around with NaNo rules in, like, May or something.

Of course, this all somehow (apparently) qualifies me to part the bookish seas for others. I signed up to be Municipal Liaison for my region. I think I was drugged.

So, do you want to write? Do you want to pass that noveling blockage and open the floodgates on your creativity? Do you think joining NaNoWriMo is the fastest way to shut me up (It's not. That privelege belongs to only a very few things, including those chocolatey, coffee-bearing, mountain men.) ? Run on over to THE SITE (It's important. Everything in all caps is important, right?) and sign up. Like, now.

Olivia
Matrimony
Lou Garoux
Later,
Voss

World Takeover

By 2028, I think the Office of Letters and Light (the people that bring us NaNoWriMo and Script Frenzy) will be able to stake a claim on every month of the year. look at it now--we're one third of the way there with NaNoWriMo/Young Writers' Program, Script Frenzy, and two session of Camp NaNoWriMo.

Not that I'm complaining. I love NaNo. Hence the reason my bags are packed to go to camp next month. I can already hear the cicadas humming and smell the bonfire. Plus, I hear they've upgraded the inner editor stables after last year's mishap--higher voltage, more guards, and a shark-filled moat.

There is one thing I miss about the real deal, November event--the worldwide hum is gone. Or it hasn't arrived. I'm not sure which. Last year, around October, I posted about the hum. When all the people in the world start getting ready to write novels and novellas and what have you, all that unified thought creates an energy that hums and resonates with everyone else about to jump into that bushel of crazy.

But then again, maybe it's not gone. Maybe those cicadas are the hum. Maybe it's been set free from its normal bonds, left to roam through the summer like we all are during camp. maybe it really just wants to run naked through the hills and take us along for the ride (I promise, I'm not stoned). I'd like to think that's what it really is--just something different. But, if you focus on it, you can find it, even in Camp NaNoWriMo season. By May 31st, we'll all be singing about deer and antelope typing away at their manuscripts, I think...and then the world will be silent but for the rat-a-tat-tat of thousands of typing fingers.

Sorry. NaNo makes me emotional.

I'll be off, then...but listen for the hum...it should be coming to a neighborhood near you soon enough.

Off to rewrite 'Home on the Range,'
Voss

Post-Nano-Blues Anti-Depressants: Dark Chocolate Biscotti

For those that don't know, I cook. A lot. Mostly baking. I am a patisserie nutjob. I can honestly recall one situation where a cake I made ended a feud between me and this guy, and diabetics will actually eat my brownies (In all honesty, I warn them not to do it, but they can't resist...I don't get it...) they're so good. Sure I saute, stir fry, boil, poach--but baking is where I shine.

Toady is the last day of NaNo--I finished last Wednesday. For those that have done it, you know that post-NaNo blues set in about a week after "THE END". Now, since I can't smuggle prozac out, I've foudnt he next best thing to get you feeling fecking awesome again--Dark chocolate biscotti. The only stipulation to their flawless curative properties is that you hvae to make them--not someone else.

I'm not a big sharer of recipes, but these are just exotic and writerly enough to qualify...and besides, they always go with coffee--what's more writerly than coffee?

2.75 cups AP flour
1.5 cups white sugar
1.5 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
2 egg yolks
6 tablespoons meled butter
Enough dark chocolate chips or chunks to make it the way you want it

Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit

Mix dry ingredients.

Make well in center of dry ingredients. Add eggs and yolks. Mix

Add melted butter. Mix.

Add chocolate. Mix

Split dough in half. Pat into 14 inch long, 1.5 inch wide "loafs" on greased (or parchmented (or silicone-lined)) cookie sheet, 3 inches apart. Bake until firm (25-30 minutes)

Remove from oven and cool on pan. Transfer to cutting board and cut half-inch slices on the diagonal. Arrange slices on cookie sheet and back for ten minutes. Flip and cook about 10-20 minutes. They should not be hard, but should be starting to dry. Cool completely. Serve with a cup of fresh coffee (if you take sugar and milk/cream, cut back on it--the cookies are very weet.).

This is probably the only recipe you'll get out of me, but it's so worth it.

Happy eating!
Voss

Week Four

Everyone--it's official. We've hit hit week four of NaNoWriMo in full stride (or at least half stride). This means that everyone out there is about to finish their novel. The glory of week one--those long-winded, all day writing sessions--has returned and now begs for everyone to join in. this is also the second pilgrimage--when it first begins, people Join NaNo like it's going out of style. Not as many people join anew in week four--but a good number of people do join.

Now, I've been at this point *mumble mumble* times: here are my three tips to keep that motivation up and about:

1. Don't focus on the end, or how many words you have left. The important thing is to look at what you've already done, and use the awesome sense of accomplishment to keep you motivated to the thirtieth (or the end of your plot arc, whichever comes first.).


2. Socialize. By this time of the month, you NEED that social element. Your brain will explode (or something akin to that) if you can't get out and be with people that aren't fighting demons and slaying dragons and the like. Well, maybe you shouldn't go quite that far...but the people you socialize with should not be solely on the page.


3. Get ahead again. Lord knows you're probably going to be heading straight for zero words on the 24th--Thanksgiving, if you spend it with the whole family, is a word killer, and it's the same day as the big dog show--how the hell are we supposed to win against those odds? So, get at least a day or two ahead before that turkey comes out. Of course, if you're lucky enough to be the on cooking the turkey, you've got some time before everyone else gets up. Even in early-rise households, if you put the bird in at 4 AM, you'll have a good solid two hours of useless roasting time before your family whines to existence...I mean, awakes...

Now, get the heck away from this blog! Why are you wasting your precious writing time reading this? Go! Away with you! I'll see you next Thursday!

Voss

A Whole Lot of Nothing

Well, it's officially the middle of week three, and the same thing that always happens is…happening…

I'm lacking the motivation to write. It happens pretty much one day, every time, and then I'm over it. Instead of writing, I'm sitting around talking about Trockenbeerenauslese with an invisible audience, waiting for some rejection/acceptance letters to come rolling in any second now—but I'm not writing.

I know—bad novelist…whatever—I quite need this break, however, as much as I should be writing. Maybe I'll call my friends—they probably miss me…maybe. I could write another song. Make some fudge…maybe truffles, if I feel like going to town.

Or I could ignore my NaNo novel for a day and let it stew there on my hard drive for a bit. I have other writing projects I'm working on, and probably some semblance of a social life I can try to salvage before the month is out…does this sound like Week Two? Don't be surprised—Week-Two-it is normally hits me a little after the middle of the month during NaNo, but I also have a two or three day cushion right now, so I can afford myself the break…right?

For everyone out there in the same spot: you're not alone. The elusive motivation disease is running rampant, I promise, and there's no cure but time—at least one day so you can fall back in love with the whole thing—but no more than two. It's a good rule straight from No Plot? No Problem! If you stop writing that NaNo novel for more than two days, there's no guarantee that you will ever be able to pick it back up, and the whole thing may well float into the endless abyss of lost ideas to mingle with that toaster/flashlight/shotgun you knew was such a good idea…although that one may be better off in the abyss.

For now, join me in the reveling misery of lacking motivation—it's okay. Curl up with an encyclopedia of culinary knowledge and a cup of spiked coffee and let yourself fly to worlds known, but never experienced—or something to that effect. Either way, make this one day count for a lot—the rest of the month is still ahead.

Voss

NaNoWriMo Day Two

Yes, it's really here--we've reached the second day of NaNo, the day that more or less fades into the background of memory--but day one is purely awesome, as any real Nanite would know. It starts with the way too late/way too early jitters, and you end up waking at 5 in the morning, realize that NaNo is upon us, and grab your laptop to get a headstart on all of your rivals...I mean, friends...

Then you pull 7,000 words in a day, followed by an immediate colapse onto the nearest soft and/or semi-comfortable thing, person, or animal. Or something similar to that, at least. At any rate, it's a day of pure, awesome inspiration and explosive writing raising up from the depths of hell: personally, I think that the spirits that come up on the thirty-first energize the air and that's what causes it...but you don't need my scientific mumbo-jumbo...

In short--it is NaNoWriMo, and someone (who shall remain nameless (ME) ) is far higher on his word-count than he probably should be.

That's it--I just felt like bragging,
Voss

Reverse-Lent/Screw Writing! I'm Going to Mime College

NaNoWriMo--have I posted enough about this yet? No, of course I haven't.

For you outsiders, let me give you a quick rundown of how it looks from the inside compared to the outside.

OUTSIDE: Crazy people waste a whole month of their lives writing fifty-thousand words of what they admit is crap (and we do admit it.).

INSIDE: All of us Nanites finally get to come together and chatter amidst the intoxicating clickity-clack of millions of keyboards worldwide--and we might even get a salvageable manuscript out of the whole ordeal.

It's all about perception.

Now, as any Nanite could tell you (I know the official term is "WriMo", but wouldn't you rather be a Nanite than a Writing Month?), NaNoWriMo is sort of a religious event--think of it like reverse-Lent. Every Catholic I've ever met hates Lent, and for good reason--you have to give up something awesome for something like a month. I know people who have given up soda, candy, sugar (that didn't last) sex (surprisingly, that did last), and on and on and on.

NaNoWriMo, on the other hand, is a month where you get something you only get once a year--reverse-Lent. Cherish it for the gift it is.

Now for something completely different.

Writers are solitary, fairly depressing people a scary amount of the time--in fact, according to standard psychology, people with as much self-induced stress and worry as the average American writer are considered mentally ill in one way or another, depending on who you ask. But we know better than that--it's a process that helps us do what needs doing.

Sometimes, though, that writerly depression and nastiness will line up with something else, like low biorhthyms, a death in the family, the two-week long snot fest that's running rampant around town, or one too many rejection letters for the same piece. During those, I have a quick (ish) process to pull yourself back up.

1: Mope. Mope a whole hell of a lot. Allow yourself anywhere from 1-3 days of straight up moping. What you do is up to you, but feel sorry for yourself, binge on chocolate and expensive coffee-esque drinks, take bubble-baths, get drunk--just mope.

2: Work. Start getting back into work-mode. I find that the best way to do that is to read about writing, especially with a good, familiar "How to Write" book. My favorite for that situation is a tie between "No Plot? No Problem!" by Chris Baty (go figure), "The Romance Writer's Handbook" by Rebecca Vinyard, and "How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy" by Orson Scott Card. Also research for your next project. Whatever research materials you can find, snag them and devour them as quickly as possible.

3: Submit. Take that problem piece that no one will take, and lower your standards. If you've exhasuted half of your pro and semi-pro markets, go for token pay, even if you think that it's worth that $0.25 a word that Tor.com will give you, settle on that five dollar and a free e-copy market--just get it into someone's hands and out of your hair.

4: Smile. That's it. You've taken, at most, a week to stop being a real, professional writer, and now you're ready to get back on that war-cat and ride it into the four setting suns on the plains of Gilagag...or what have you.

Happy happiness,
Voss

The NaNo Goddess Cometh

And as such, I choose to pay her tribute. This will be my first official November NaNo here with this blog and all of you, my lovelies. I know that I won't be able to keep up with my blogging schedule come November time, but I can make some posts.

My hope is that I'll be able to get some of you all to kindly post here, too. That doesn't mean I expect it to happen, but I would be remiss to try. If you prefer not to post for me, you can sit back and watch other posters gallivant about my blog. I'll try and keep you all updated as to just who will be stopping by.

If you're interested in doing a post for me, drop me a line at sted1354 @ gmail dot com.

Peace, love, and chicken grease,
Voss

The Grandest of Schemes

When authors sit down to do their pre-work on a new project, they find themselves doing a lot of jumping and, if they're anything like me, talking, pacing, and scribbling, just to work out the details of this whole new thingy.

I've noticed that a lot of people that don't write, think we have these grand ideas that start off our novels, that the seeds are diamonds encrusted with gold and dipped in melted silver. They, however, are wrong. Ideas start as something supremely shallow and odd, ninety-nine times out of a hundred, something to the tune of: I want a story with an awesome guild of knights who are awesome.

Of course, no one else needs to know that's where we start.

Next comes the writing two-step: research and planning. Before we write word one, we find ourselves lost, not knowing squat about military strategy. So we read Sun Tzu's "Art of War", the equivalent of Cliffnotes on the subject (really, it's not even fifty pages, I don't think).

Then we realize, "Oh dear, why is my emperor trying to do all of this in the first place? It can't be jsut bcause he wants to rule the world--that's just boring." And we psychologically profile him, finding that he believes whatever he believes that makes him do this.

Next we make maps.

We work out the wealth of each and every country.

We find out the military force available to any one group.

We psychoanalyze their leaders.

We look at the natural resources and major exports of every nations.

And.

And.

And.

You get the picture. Why post this? To inspire others to break the rules along with me: NaNoWriMo is fast approaching, and I think, at least for people that have done it before, it's toime to go balls deep into the next project. So, I invite you to join me and begin planning your next work now...besides, it's only a little (a lot) more than the one week planning deadline given in the official rules, right?

Happy novelling,
Voss

Homemade Marshmallows

Yes, the campfires will soon be lit, the hot chocolate mixed, and the marshmallows roasted--the inaugural run of Camp NaNoWriMo is nearing its end. Around here, that means a camp party amongst our writing group--and that means s'mores--and that means I finally got to break out my recipe for marshmallows. I know, not writing related in an inherent matter, but I had to brag a little...

Also, let's take a small moment of silence. As of today, Chris Baty has announced that he's stepping down as the Executive of the Office of Letters and Light. The group that runs NaNoWriMo, Camp NaNoWriMo, and ScriptFrenzy is going to have a change of leadership come next NaNo season. He was quite a brilliant man and none of those events will be the same without him.

Back to writing--I finished yet another manuscript--and this one's actually science fiction. Yes, I finished it! It's sci-fi and I finished it without magic, so haha! To those that don't know, it's a real shocker for me to finish a full-length science fiction manuscript, especially in a month.

Now, I can't spill this last secret all the way, at least not in public, but I'll tell you that I'm working on something in the near future with Hall Bros. Entertainment--and not just a two sentence story. I can't say any more about it in good conscience--sorry =D

Peace out, ladies and sub-species,
Voss

Camp NaNoWriMo Update--Mid-Month

For those that don't know, I'm taking part in the inaugural run of Camp NaNoWriMo this month. What that means is that, yes, I'm writing another novel. Okay, technically you write a novella in NaNo events, but I digress.

Any who, for those that have never taken part in this fest of festiness, this won't mean much at first--for those that have:

It's the first day of Week Three.

Okay, I'm being arcane now. Let me cut to the chase.

Week two is the test of whether you can do this or not. Week two is HELL. Week two is that awkward transitional phase between exposition and real, solid plot, story, and character--and we all knwo how much transitions suck.

Now it's over, though, and it has a strange efect. Sometime soon, you see, the magical curse of week two is going to lift--just going to up and leave--any of the worthy that survived week two. The dog is going to suddenly become house-trained, the washer will magically fix, your mother-in-law will misplace your phone number, and that shipment of writing fairies will come in with extra thrown in to make up for late delivery.

All inall, things start to line up and you can write--even if you're way behind, you can get it written still. For me, it all came in yesterday--the final day of week two. I pulled 3,000 words that day and got totally caught up (and ahead) for the next day. And it just didn't seem that hard. I won't say I know my entire plot yet, but the most important thing is to be up on your words.

There's a sort of magic in the air with week three, and if my fellow campers aren't feeling it--you will.

Looking towards 25,000,
Voss

A Note from Camp

Well, I figured I'd throw in an update while I'm still mercifully ahead on my word count (oh benevolent writing spirits, please curse me not for my gloating!).

Maybe I'm the only one that does this--though I doubt it--but I've flip-flopped every day this month on what I should be writing. Sure, I only actually changed once, but still. I figured I would do better to trust my gut--my gut, however, wanted me to write graphic sex.

I was afraid what people would think of me as an author if that got put out--would it ruin my my standing as a spec fic author? I thought about this, and then made my decision--I'm just making sure it's on record.

First, I said f*ck it--I'll write the damn erotica.

Second, I decided to submit it to a press that specializes in spe fic erotica. Sure, they're mostly fantasy, but they might try out soft sci-fi, right?

Third, I decided that, in the event that it doesn't sell to them, I'll put it out as a self-pub (yes, yes, turn away and abandon me for saying that heinous word.).

There--it's out in the open and on public record what I'll be doing, so I can't turn back...

...right?

Going back to the woods,
Voss

MayNoWriMo?

For lack of a better term, I'll call next month MayNoWriMo. Myself, Frances Pauli (http://francespauli.blogspot.com), Adriane Cealleigh (http://blackstoneandmoonskins.blogspot.com), and a few others without websites to put up here are diving in to write another month-long novel. Frances and I are both heading for 2,000 plus words per day (so a book of at least 60,000 words) and Adriane is probably doing some god awful number (this woman can write 10,000 words in a day).

What am I writing? Well, I can't very well tell you - that would ruin the surprise.

But...

if you stay put and read the posts from this next month I won't say you wouldn't see anything about it (bad grammar, I know)...

Peace for now,
Voss