NaNoWriMo Anyone?

Next month is NaNoWriMo time!

That means National Novel Writing Month. That means, in November, try and write a novel (50,000 words) minimum during that month. It’s a challenge with its own reward–a 50,000(+) word novel!

Anyway, I am thinking of doing this. Otherwise, I may stay in this editing loop that has got me mired. (Not a wholly unpleasant place to be. I’m learning lots and I like to learn.) I’ve written new scenes for the works that are supposed to ‘complete’ and I keep tinkering with. That means I keep ignoring the new story idea that’s been pestering me for over six months. Now given, I have learned a lot in the past while and it has been important for me to focus on fixing and improving and not just writing more junk with the same old errors and distracting myself from honing the new skills I’ve been learning. But now, it’s back-on-the-horse time with a great excuse to keep me focused and motivated and goal-oriented.

Let’s see…November has 30 days. If I wrote every day, that would be how many words a day? 1666 words per day. Wow, that’s quite a few. I know I can do it though. And you are allowed to do character profiling beforehand and have an outline (if say, you were the type of writer interested in that)–just no story words down on that screen! Which means that I might need this:

This and a whole lot of take-out.

In fact, the book I am reading for my book club, Water For Elephants, was written as a NaNoWriMo challenge. Cool, eh?

Interesting stats: In 2007 there were over 100,000 participants, with over 15,000 of those folks finishing with a 50,000 word or more novel. This year, I will be one of them. Oh yes, I shall! Want to join me? I promise to email you motivational pep talks!

Reaction Phrases

My instructor, Susan Meier, from my Can This Manuscript Be Saved class had us look for reaction phrases in our work as part of an assignment. Sure we as writers try and make the reactions make sense in things like dialogue. But honestly, I hadn’t really thought of ‘reaction’ as something separate. Something that had the power to affect the whole story’s tone. Even one small word or the way they handle something (reaction) could change your perception of a character. Holy crap, the power of words. Eeek.

Anyway, I have been skimming my manuscript looking for reactions that haven’t fit right. Luckily, I my critique partner has already gone through and pointed out the areas where she wanted to slaughter characters because of…yep, you guessed it, reactions and my word choices. Yikes. Small reactions had made one of my characters into a mean friend that was very unlikeable. Who wants an unlikeable secondary character who is supposed to be a supportive friend–and is mean instead? Yuck. So really, on the grand scale of things, I’ve lucked out in this case. Still, there are the odd places where I have the wrong word or a reaction is just so blah. Or, I’ve used the wrong words to describe something. The nice thing is that by going through and skimming quickly, I don’t give myself a chance to analyze or excuse what I’ve done. I just mark it and move on. Later it will be attended to with an unrelenting eye. (Yikes.)

Right now I am reading Jennifer Weiner’s book Good in Bed. It is a good read and although I get lost in it, at times I pull out and begin critiquing it from a writers perspective, which is a really weird sensation for me–a novice. I feel as though at times there is a focus issue, which isn’t strange at all. I think this was her first book and as agent Joshua Blimes said in his AQ chat the other night, it is a common problem of beginning writers. Still, I love the story and I love the protagonist, Cannie. What makes me bring her up is that she is an AWESOME example of the great use of reaction phrases in regards to creating a fabulous, believable, and very real character.

Cannie is an overweight, heartbroken, pregnant gal. She is talking to her weight loss doctor on the roof of the medical building after she’s decided to keep the baby and drop out of the weight loss program. Anyway, they’re chatting and she’s trying to figure out his sense of humour. He says he is funny. She is in slight doubt. Here’s the reaction that really speaks to Cannie:

“Oh,” he said. “So if you were to describe yourself, you’d say you were funny?”
“No,” I sighed, looking out at the night sky. “At this point, I’d say that I was fucked.”

See? If I had been writing that, I, in all likelihood, would have continued on with the ‘I’m funny’ conversation. Instead, Weiner looked at her character and thought about what reaction would be most true to Cannie and where she was psychologically at that moment and then delivered it.

So, off I go. Checking for reactions. Hopefully, I will have some good reactions like above that really add some punch to the story. And if not, well, maybe I’ll catch them on the next pass!

A Great Chat with Agent Joshua Blimes

Last night Agent Queryhosted a chat with agent Joshua Blimes of JABberwocky Literary Agency.

What a great chat. The AQ members brought lots of great questions to the table and Joshua took his time to answer each question thoroughly. Somehow, he still managed to answer over 40 questions during his hour in the spotlight. Wow.

He said he loves to discover a new writer and that often a new writer has a raw talent that needs to be honed. What, we aren’t perfect by the time we get accepted? Dang. And I’ve learned so much in the past year! Good thing I don’t mind learning! However, one of the biggest problems he sees in new writers (he having read thousands of first pages in his 20+ years in the publishing business) is that “while some who are good just can’t focus on how they need to advance the story”. I’ve been there! In fact, that is something I’ve dedicated the month of October to working on! I’m on the right track! Yay!

Keep posted for information on other upcoming chats.

Free Book on Writing!

I love free things. Honestly, I’m a bit of a sucker for anything free. Plus, I love books. Sadly, I often find myself too cheap to stack up the ones I really want.

So what is better than a free book? Nothing in my mind. I used to just about fall down with happiness when my university profs would weed through their personal collection and leave a stack of free books outside their office door. Sigh. Books. Free books.

Anyway, Donald Maas, an agent and writer, is giving away his ebook version of The Career Novelist. A writing book! And it’s free! I’m so pumped! Follow the link above to download your own copy. I’ve also heard that his other books on writing such as Writing the Breakout Novel are great too. Those ones, you have to pay for, but really, I’d pay money for them if the free one helped me out–smart marketing!

Enjoy!

Agent Chat With Joshua Blimes

On Tuesday, October 7th Agent Query will be hosting another agent chat. If you are free at 8pm Mountain time (10pm Eastern), join us. I will be moderating the chat as usual and it should be an informative and great time.

Our guest will be Joshua Blimes, owner of the JABerwocky Literary Agency. Although he’s not looking for romance (or at least not between book covers), his advice will be informative for writers of all genres.

Joshua has been running his own agency for 14 years and has more years of experience int he publishing world than you could shake a stick at. He is very aware of the changes happening in the publishing world and his advice is, “You may be told, and it may even be true, that it’s harder for new authors to break into the business these days. But that can only be true to a limited extent, because everyone needs new authors, and they have to come from somewhere. Established authors stop writing or their sales decline. Some of the new authors launched a year or two ago will turn out now to work. We all need to look out for our tomorrow. But it’s never going to be easy.”

If you want to have the chance to ask an agent a question, join AQ, if you haven’t already–it’s free–and join the chat on Tuesday.

Hope to see you there!