Category: Nanowrimo

My thoughts after Pathfinders Writing Collective’s March Madness

I got an email on Monday that maybe you got too. It was from the Nanowrimo organization, explaining that they are shutting down.

I have mixed feelings about this. I posted months ago about why I was stepping away from Nanowrimo. But it’s an organization that inspired millions of writers over the years. It gave me the inspiration and courage to write my first published novel.

This one. Available now on Amazon and going wide as of April 25th.

And yet, I also feel we are seeing the writing community’s response to AI writing. We will not support any organization that gives quarter and comfort to AI platforms that steal our work and produce flat and soulless stories flooding our markets.

There is one part of the letter that I agree with, though. Interim executive director Kilby Blades said, “Many alternatives to NaNoWriMo popped up this year, and people did find each other.”

And this is true. We found each other. And this past month I participated in a writing challenge that does just this. The Pathfinding Writers Collective March Madness event. And it was a fantastic experience. Even though my team lost. If we’re being fair, I personally lost twice.

Let me explain.

My personal goal for the month was to write for 31 hours in March. One hour a day. And that sounds easy until we remember that I’m caring for a husband who had a hemorrhagic stroke. He needs an incredible amount of hands-on care. So there were a lot of days where an hour of writing was a delightful daydream.

But this was still an incredible success for me. Let me explain.

I still wrote more than I had been writing

As mentioned, this is a busy season of my life. And for much of February my writing took a back seat. Hell, it wasn’t even in the back seat. It wasn’t in the trunk. It was in the attached trailer behind the damn car. Most days I couldn’t even think of looking at my writing.

But in March, I wrote twenty days out of thirty-one. I made the time. I tried to write an hour, but sometimes made only 15 minutes. Sometimes I only made 10. But that’s still more than what I had been doing. I didn’t make a ton of progress, but I made more than the month before.

There was this incentive, you know. This desire to make sure I had some numbers to put on the board, even if it was a small number. Because any number, any number at all, was better than zero.

I kind of love time-based writing goals

Writing goals work for me. I like having numbers to work towards. For most of my writing career, my goals were word-count based. But I’m realizing that this sort of goal isn’t conducive to actual writing. It doesn’t take into consideration all of the work that goes into writing that isn’t putting words on the page. I was ignoring the time I spent researching, freewriting, outlining and planning. Those are all vital parts of writing that need time and space. They need to not be rushed.

I also find that my writing goes faster when I devote that time, unrushed, to the brainstorming process. It’s as if by giving my mind time to mull over the story without a keyboard under my fingers, it has more space to breathe and is already written when I am ready to write.

Having a community is awesome

We’ve talked about this before, so I’m not going to devote much time to this. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t important!

It is, if I’m being honest, the most important part of challenges like this. It’s what made Nanowrimo so special.

Writing is solitary. Its deadlines are often self-imposed. I have no boss asking me for updates. I have no co-workers to bounce ideas off of. I have no external pressure to create. Which is both a blessing and a curse.

For one thing, it’s lonely. For another, it makes it so much easier to push off tasks I don’t want to do because, after all, there are no repercussions.

But when I have a team of people I’m working with, there is some good pressure. When I don’t want to let my team down, I’m inspired to get my ass in my chair and write. On days when I might not have written at all, I wrote. On days I needed inspiration, I had the rest of my team. And that made all the difference.

I didn’t take as much advantage of the challenge as I wanted to. I could have done more. I could have attended more writing sprints. I could have chatted more and made more friends. But for where I am, I think I did the best I could. And I saw so many writers reach so much farther than they thought they could. I saw this wonderful community of writers cheering each other on, supporting each other, and inspiring each other. I don’t want to give out names that aren’t mine to give, but one writer in my group wrote through 249 hours in one month. Girl, how?!

But whether we wrote almost 250 hours or thirteen hours, we all came together to reach a goal. We all made progress on our stories. And we need stories now more than ever.

So the question is, will I be participating in more Pathfinder Writing Collective events? Absolutely. I cannot wait.

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My thoughts on the Nanowrimo controversy

Before we begin, I just want to state that everything I’m going to say today is my opinion and my opinion alone. It does not represent any organizations I belong to or write for.

I don’t want to write this. It irritates me that I feel like I have to.

I’m heartsick that I feel like I have to.

In case you’ve missed the news, the NaNoWriMo organization, apropos of nothing, decided to put out a statement that has everyone in the writing community hot under the collar.

Including me.

Now, they’ve since updated this statement. But I think it’s important to share the original one to see why everyone is so upset. Here is a link.

So, if you read this and you don’t understand why everyone’s so up in arms, let me explain. Nanowrimo is not encouraging people to use AI tools to write their novels. They are simply not opposed to this.

Now, let me tell you why I’m furious.

In April of last year, I wrote about the fears of AI writing and how I thought it would hurt the writing community. Specifically, I was worried less about creative writing and more technical writing, like mass-produced blog posts and pithy product descriptions. That was before I found out that the AI generators have been scraping the internet and stealing any work published online.

At this point, it’s safe to say that the primary AI chatbots have my books. They have every post I’ve ever written here. And if you publish your work online, they have yours too. Visual art is taken as well, of course. The online artists were the first ones to sound the alarm.

That is not fucking okay. Artists like us work for years. We practice our work, finding our individual voices and honing our crafts. It isn’t easy, what we do. It takes talent, yes, but it also takes a shit ton of work. I am infuriated that the people who control these chatbots and AI tools feel entitled to the work that we pour into our art. They don’t have the right.

I know that legal protections are coming. At this time I’m unsure how much good it will do. But I am looking into ways to be a part of that.

I am sad to say that the Nanowrimo organization is not. And based on their updated statement, they have no intention to. Their response to the well-deserved fury and vitriol online was to remain as wishy-washy as they were to start with. Though at least they apologized for calling all of us abalist and classist.

It would have been one thing if they’d come out and said that some AI tools are beneficial for writers. I don’t know what those tools might be, but I am open to there being some tools that help people. I am not myself disabled and my mental illnesses don’t impact my writing. At least not in such a way that would be helped by any AI tool I’ve ever heard of.

But that isn’t what they did. They did not say that they were supportive of tools that help people with disabilities. They didn’t list examples of AI tools that help people with disabilities. They instead gave blanket approval to tools that steal our creative work and allow people to take it whenever they please and call it their own. And I cannot abide that. So for the first time in a decade, I will not be participating in Nanowrimo. I deleted my account. I’ll be removing my Preptober planner from my Ko-fi shop, and restructuring it as a novel planner instead. I hope that the board at Nanowrimo reverse their decision. But I’m not holding my breath.

In the end, I am not going to judge anyone, personally or privately, who continues to participate. Nanowrimo is still a great inspiration, especially for young and new writers.

But I cannot in good faith associate myself with any organization that does not fiercely defend writers and artists from the creative cannibalism that is generative AI. So for now, as much as it pains me, I’m stepping away.

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Preptober planner, 2024

August is now upon us. This is a liminal month here in Western PA, probably in other places. Signs of fall have started to pop up. Some leaves are beginning to turn, but most are still a vibrant green. The Steelers preseason is starting soon. Kids are going back to school. And while the days are still stifling hot, the nights are getting cooler. The days grow short, the nights grow long and my soul is coming alive.

Pumpkin spice is coming, my friends. Pumpkin spice is coming.

And while we’re all either soaking up the last weeks of summer or counting the days until chunky sweater weather, one thing remains the same. Nanowrimo will be with us before you realize it. And it’s time to get ready for Preptober. As such, I have updated my preptober planner for 2024.

This year’s version sports a new, darker color and updated coffee cups throughout the whole thing. More substantially, it includes two new planning pages.

Our first new page is a character injury page. I think we’ve all read or seen something in which a character is injured in one scene, only to be perfectly fine far too soon after. Was this done for convenience? Or did the author just forget about the injury?

The new planner page will help you avoid this. This includes a male and female presenting outline so that you can keep track of the bumps, bruises and breaks that your character suffers along the way.

Our second new page is a map page. I am a visual person. And it might surprise you to know that I often draw maps of my story locations so that I can keep track of things. Especially stories like Station 86, which included several levels of the space station that I needed to keep track of. I also had a map of the apartment building in Quiet Apocalypse so that I could remember who lived where and across from who.

These two pages bring us up to eleven total pages of planning goodness. You can print the planner out or just download it and write directly on the document. And while you could follow along with everyone planning on October, there is no reason you can’t get the planner now and begin your novel writing adventure.

I love this planner so much. Every year it gets better, in my humble opinion. You can get it right here now on Ko-fi for only $1.50.

Happy planning and happy writing everyone!

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How I won Nanowrimo this year

We’re a week into December now, and most of us have put Nanowrimo aside for the year. And I have as well. I’m thrilled to be able to say that I did win this year.

Especially because last year I didn’t win. And I have to be honest, that kind of messed with me.

It really messed with me.

See, I always win Nano. I mean, I’ve been doing Nanowrimo or Nanoedmo every year since I started this blog. But last year, in addition to losing Nano, I turned 36. This year, I turned 37. And ever since last November, there’s been a little voice in the back of my mind, suggesting that I might be getting past my prime.

I might be slowing down.

All this to say, my confidence took a hit. And I’ve spent the past year trying to get that confidence back. Now that I won Nano, I’m feeling a lot better.

Winning Nanowrimo was a challenge. It required me to work in a way that I’d never done before. I disregarded all of my usual advice. Here’s what I did instead.

I just focused on hitting par every day.

In the past, I’ve tried to write more than 1,667 words at the start of November. And because of that, I got ahead of schedule.

And then I got cocky. And frankly, a little worn out. So I skipped a day or two. And that’s when I’d lose momentum.

This year, I focused on hitting par every day. Actually, I tried to hit 1,700 every day. This was manageable and sustainable. At least for a month. So I wasn’t feeling as burned out by writing 4,000 words in a day, and then expecting my brain to function creatively the next day.

I didn’t participate in a lot of online groups.

Well, that’s not entirely true. I did join a new writing group. But I wasn’t all that active. I’d jump on to commiserate or celebrate with other writers only after I’d reached my word count for the day.

Before, I was jumping into my groups and getting discouraged by all the people who were not getting their word counts in. Worse, I was irritated by anyone who was getting their words in. Were they better than me? Were they younger? Was I just lazy? No, it’s not that one, laziness doesn’t exist.

Was I just old?

Of course, it wasn’t any of those things. It was just that I was struggling. My struggle didn’t have anything to do with my fellow writers. And rather than letting them inspire me, I let their success condemn me.

This year, I wasn’t competing with anyone but me. It was just me and my word count, come hell or high water.

I didn’t attend write-ins

Write-ins are fun if you’ve got the time for them. They’re a great place to meet other writers and network.

And meeting other writers is a wonderful thing.

I’ve attended write-ins, study halls, and group work hours in the past. But I don’t do a lot of writing at them. At least not as much as if I were to just take the same amount of time to just write as I was taking to get to the event, do all the meet and greet events, and get settled into the location.

Plus, I used to have a little touch of social anxiety. Now, after Covid shutdowns working from home and generally not interacting with anyone for more than three minutes at a time, I have a lot of social anxiety. So when I try to write around other people, I’m focusing on all the wrong things. Are people looking at me? Does my shirt smell like cat pee? Is my lipstick smudged? Do I look like an introspective writer, working away at her project? Or do I look like a hunchbacked old woman trying to fit in with a bunch of kids?

None of this is helping me get words on the page. So I skipped the live events.

I didn’t write out in public, except for on the last day.

This point is similar to the last one. The year before I was making time to write in coffee shops, diners, and libraries. And yes, that is sometimes wonderful. But when I’m in crunch time, that is not the time to be writing in public. Writing at the library or my favorite coffee shop is for days when I’m lacking motivation or need a treat. It’s not the place to be if I need to get a significant amount of words on the page.

I did write at a coffee shop on the last day of November. And it was fantastic.

If you didn’t win, you’re no less of a writer and you can still do hard things

Now I told you all this not to make you feel bad if you didn’t win Nanowrimo this year. I told you all this to inspire you to win next time. Or, not. Maybe this will just inspire you to not be down on yourself if you didn’t make it. Because there are a lot of reasons to not succeed at something we want to do, no matter how much we want to do it.

I think it’s only now as I write this that I’m realizing something important. Last November was not a good mental health time for me. And despite the stereotype of the tortured writer, a bad place emotionally isn’t a good place to write from. It’s not a place to do anything but to heal. I needed to heal so that I could do hard things again.

Just because we fail at one hard thing doesn’t mean we can’t do other hard things. Just because we don’t achieve what we want, doesn’t mean we will never achieve it again.

Sometimes we just need to rethink our approach.

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Preptober Week Four

It’s the last full week of October. This means that we’ve reached week four of Preptober.

This also means that next week is Halloween and the start of November which means any sitting down or breathing you plan to do you’d better get out of the way now.

Week four of Preptober is always my favorite week. Because it’s the week we start outlining our stories.

Hold your applause.

That’s right, we are outlining this week! Now, there are as many ways to outline as there are writers. But I thought it might help today to tell you the way I outline a rough draft. It might work for you, and it might not.

Step 1, Start with the big scenes

Whenever I start thinking about a story, some scenes just jump out at me. Or, if not a whole scene, an image. For the book I’m working on now, I have an image of an older woman in dress clothes, standing on a battlefield with a sword.

Start with the scenes you’re excited about. The scenes you know need to happen.

I like to write my scenes out on index cards. These can be moved around, erased, and thrown out if need be. This will be important later.

Step 2, Plot out the main storyline

Now that you’ve got the big scenes in place, we need to figure out how we’re getting to them. Figure out the plot points for the main story you want to tell.

Now, here’s where some people get caught in the weeds. And by some people, I mean me.

You don’t need to write down every single little that happens in this story when you’re outlining. For one thing, you probably don’t know everything that’s going to happen yet. That’s the joy of a rough draft. You’re still learning about the story. Just get down the points you’re pretty sure you want to hit.

Step 3, Layer in subplots by order of importance

Next, you’ll be outlining your subplots. I usually have too many of these, to be honest. But a good subplot adds to the main part of the story. It cannot generally be lifted out without requiring a change to the main storylines.

There’s no time or space here to go into the hows and whys and how nots of sub-plotting. But if you want, I could do a post about that at a later time. Let me know in the comments if that’s something you’re interested in. For now, it’s just important that your sub-plots come after your primary plot.

Step 4, Prepare for this to all go out the window when you start writing.

Writing a rough draft is a wonderful discovery process. You do not know everything you want to say in the book until you start writing the book. Which is, of course, the fun of writing a rough draft.

Yes, an outline is a great place to start, so you have some direction when you’re beginning your rough draft. But don’t get committed to it.

Give yourself the freedom to redo your entire outline. Let your story go off the rails if it seems better or more exciting. I usually redo my outline at least once before my rough draft is finished.

So that’s it for our Preptober series. I hope you’re eager to get into Nanowrimo next week, armed with a solid story foundation.

See you then.

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Preptober 2023 Week three

We’ve made it to week three of Preptober. So far, we’ve made a writing plan and done some world-building.

Now, it’s time to start casting characters. For me, characters are always the most interesting part of any story. I want to know about the people.

I have for you two lists of questions. The first is for your main character or characters. I almost always have two main characters, but you can have just one or a full ensemble cast.

Main character questions

What is their full name and nickname?

What do they look like?

Why is this their story to tell?

What do they want at the start of the story?

What are they afraid of?

What don’t they like about themselves?

How are they going to change?

Do they fit into their world as it is?

How is the world going to change because of them?

Next, we’re going to consider our secondary characters and villains. A story’s main character shouldn’t be the only interesting person in the cast.

Your main character also shouldn’t have main character syndrome. Which is to say, they should be aware that the world doesn’t revolve around them. The rest of the cast should also be aware of this.

And don’t skip planning your villain. In fact, this might be the most important character. A good villain makes a story. Consider the Borg, Magnito, Ursula, Voldemort, The Other Mother, and Beetlejuice. These characters were way more interesting than their heroes.

Secondary characters and villains

What is their full name and nickname?

What do they look like?

Why are they the main characters in their own story?

What do they contribute to this story?

What do they want at the start of the story?

What are they afraid of?

What don’t they like about themselves?

How are they going to change?

Do they fit into their world as it is?

How is the world going to change because of them?

Join us again next week for week four of Preptober. And don’t forget, you can download the Preptober Planner now on my Ko-fi shop.

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Preptober 2023 Week Two

It’s week two of Preptober, and time to start writing. How exciting is that?

This week our focus is world-building. I’ve compiled a list of questions to help you figure out your world and how people live in it.

But what if your story is set in the real world? You probably still want to fill this out. Things like food, clothing and culture vary wildly depending on where you’re from. And it never hurts to get things down on paper.

Besides, thinking of these details will help you step into the world of your story. It’ll get you thinking of those intimate details.

What is the weather like?

This is pretty straightforward, but no less important. There’s a reason one of the first things I do in the morning is check the weather.

Does it rain a lot? Is it sunny? Is this a place where the weather impacts travel and crops? Does any of this have anything to do with your story?

What do people wear?

Clothing tells us so much about a person. What do people usually wear in your world? Cloaks, jeans, sweaters? Are mink coats the style, or Foster Grants?

What do people eat?

This might largely be impacted by the first question, and where your story is taking place. An ocean-side city is going to eat a lot of fish. A more rural land is going to have a lot of farm food, like chicken and corn.

What’s the popular entertainment?

This is always a fun thing to consider. What are people doing to entertain themselves? Are plays popular entertainment? Do people gather at the local tavern to hear music? Or is this a more modern story where people prefer to stay home and stream a movie? No judgment.

Is there a magical structure? What are the rules?

Here’s where things get fun. What kind of magic exists in your world, if any? What rules does the magic have? What are its limitations? Because of course, magic isn’t fun when it doesn’t have limitations.

What is their technology like?

Even if you’re writing a fantasy novel, there’s still technology. It’s just that it’s going to look wildly different depending on when in time your story takes place. Do they have smartphones or water wheel power generators? Or, if you’re writing steampunk, maybe a fantastic combination of both?

What political structure do they have?

Politics might be frustrating, but it’s something that impacts us all. Whether it’s going to impact your story or not, you should know what political structure is. Even if it’s just a local sheriff and a disinterested mayor.

What cool element exists in this world that isn’t in ours, and how does that impact everyone?

Yes, this applies to every story, even if it’s set in the real world. This doesn’t have to be magical. It doesn’t have to be fantastic pieces of technology. Though of course, that’s fine if it is.

This can be an old mill, a fantastic coffee shop, or a stretch of road that has the habit of moving around on certain nights of the year.

So that’s it for this time. Don’t forget, you can download my Preptober Planner from my Ko-Fi shop and play along all month.

See you next week for week three.

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Preptober Planner 2023

A few months ago, I was talking with a writer friend of mine. Camp Nano was coming up, and so our discussion turned to the big event in November. Eventually the discussion came to the Preptober Planner that I created last year. She mentioned something about the character creation page.

Those of you who bought last years Preptober Planner might remember that there wasn’t a character creation page included. Which of course got me thinking. Why wasn’t there a character creation page? Or a world building page? 

Since I overdo things, this line of questions made me rethink my entire outlook on Preptober. And thus, the planner as well. 

I am thrilled to announce today the new and improved 2023 Preptober Planner. And with it, a completely new Preptober game plan that will go into more detail than ever before. 

I’ll also be doing some extra posts in October, to walk you through the new program week by week. As I intend to start a new Station 86 novel this November, we’ll all be working through it together. 

Yes, this will be book six. Yes, book five will be launching soon. Thank you all for your patience. I’m hoping the space between book five and book six won’t be as bloody long. 

The path to success is planning. Writing a novel takes a lot of planning. Let’s do it together. 

Click here to get your copy of the 2023 Preptober Planner

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I didn’t win Nanowrimo

I hate that I have to write this post. This is something that hasn’t happened to me in years. I mean, honestly years. 

I did not win Nanowrimo, 2022. And that really sucks. 

On paper, it looked like I did everything right. I had a plan in place for my novel. I had an outline. I had a plan. I had the will. I was ready. 

But somewhere around the middle of the month, things just started to fall apart. I had a few days when I couldn’t hit my word count, and it just snowballed from there. For about a week, I did my damndest to get back on track. And I did get back on track, only to fall right back off track again.

Finally, with over a week left, I decided to give up for the year. I just didn’t see myself getting caught up, I was too far behind. 

I can’t say there was any one reason I didn’t make it to 50,000 words this year. Certainly, I’ve had busier years and still achieved the goal. I even went on a Thanksgiving vacation one year and still hit 50,000 words. 

It wasn’t because I didn’t like the story. I actually think this might be the best book I’ve ever written. I say that about every new book. 

It wasn’t because the story was particularly difficult. Last year I wrote a season of AA, and it is a hell of a lot harder to hit a word count when you’re writing scripts than when you’re writing a novel, let me tell you. 

I’m honestly a little worried that I’m slowing down. I’m in my late 30’s now. I just don’t have the same energy as I did even a few years ago. Or maybe I need to just learn how to ration my energy better. 

One way or another, I just refuse to be brought down by this. There are upsides to this, even if they’re hard to see. For one, this is a wake-up call for how I’m treating myself. I need to take better care of myself so that I have the energy to do things like this. I’m not that old, I shouldn’t be slowing down that much yet. Bernie Sanders is still running just fine, and he’s got decades on me. He could have written 50,000 words without breaking a sweat. 

(I think that’s going to be my new mantra, what would Bernie Sanders do.) 

This is part of why my word for 2023 is self. I need to take better care of myself.

I’m also glad I tried Nanowrimo, even though I failed because I still got a decent chunk of writing done. I still wrote at times I wouldn’t have. I still wrote more than I would have if I hadn’t done Nano, is what I’m saying. And that’s not a bad thing.

Of course, the biggest reward of failure is always the lessons we learn. If we’re humble and optimistic enough to take the lesson along with the loss, that is. Next year I’ll do better, and here’s how. 

– I let myself get away with too many days in a row of just barely making my word count. Especially at the beginning when excitement was high and fatigue was low. In years past I’ve written extra, knowing that sometime in the middle of the month I’d hit a wall.

-I didn’t plan any writing only days. Every day I had errands to run, a day job to go to, or a million other things to take up my time. I’d forgotten how much I relied on those days when I do nothing but work on the work in progress. 

So that’s it. I didn’t win Nanowrimo, but I will next year. Now, I want to hear from you. Did you attempt Nano this year? Did you win or lose? Let us know in the comments. 

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Four books for Nanowrimo inspiration

Halloween is over, Thanksgiving creeps ever closer and Nanowrimo has begun. Pages and word counts are climbing, and so far I’m feeling great about my new novel in progress.

Some of this excitement is because of the story itself. It’s a good one, I think. Some of it’s the positive peer pressure on social media. There’s something great to be said for a bunch of people working towards the same goal. Some of it as well is the energy of the season. I’m super pumped for the holidays and doing my best to put that creative energy to good use. 

But I think we all know those incentives aren’t going to last. Seasonal excitement in particular is like a sugar high. It’s great while you have it, but eventually, you’re gonna crash. 

Writing is my favorite thing to do, but it’s also exhausting. Especially when we get closer to the middle of a tale when I’m running low on ideas, and when the word counts are looming. Then, of course, we remember that it is the holiday season and I’m up to my eyeballs in crafts, cooking, and cleaning.

All good thing, but quite time-consuming. 

When my energy starts to wain, when the work begins to feel like work, when I start thinking I’ll just take up stamp collecting after all, I need something more substantial to sustain me. And what I have are the words of authors who have gone before me. Writers who I admire and respect. 

To that end, I made a reading list for myself for November. I might not get to all of them since I’ll be switching over to Christmas reads after Thanksgiving, but I wanted to make sure I didn’t run out of inspiration. Some of the books I’ve read before, some I haven’t. All are from authors who inspire me to do what we all love to do, write. 

On Writing by Stephen King

It’s the first book on writing I ever read, and it’s still one of the best ones I’ve read. I don’t want to waste a lot of time here because I’ve already talked about this book so extensively. If you haven’t read it, and you want to be a writer, go read it now.

Writing Down The Bones by Natalie Goldberg

What can I say about this book that hasn’t already been said? So many writers credit this book with inspiring them that it’s impossible to count. I can’t help but feel inspired to write deeper work that goes right to the bone. 

Gather Together in My Name by Maya Angelou

This book and the one after are autobiographies by the unparalleled Maya Angelou. They’re not writing advice books, but they inspire me nevertheless. Seeing how such an impactful author lived her life can’t help but make me want to be a better writer. And a better woman. 

All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes by Maya Angelou

Ditto for this one. 

So that’s it. It’s a pretty short post today because I know we’re all busy. But if you have a moment, I’d love to know what book inspires you most as a writer or artist. Let us know in the comments.

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