Category Archives: Finish It!

Goals: Can’t Live With ‘Em, Can’t Live Without ‘Em

Failures Finish It! Giving Yourself a Break Goals Kristin Luna Making Progress as a Writer Reflection Self-Motivation Successes The Writing Life The Writing Process Your Writing Career No Comments

Welcome to 2018!

We hope your 2017 was full of wonderful words and stories, and that 2018 will be even better. That might even mean giving up on your New Years resolutions.

It’s shocking to think about, isn’t it? Quitting your goals? Almost taboo. Most of us have “never give up” stamped on the insides of our brains, and tell ourselves we’re quitters and failures if we do give up. Sometimes we barrel through our goals even when it’s no longer in our best interest.

This month, we’ll discuss when it’s appropriate to quit your goals. That’s right – when failure is your best option. Are you ticking off items in your to-do list just to do them? Are your goals no longer serving your overall purpose?

Some of us may not agree with quitting your goals, however. Some of us might say complete the goal anyway, because it’ll create a good habit for you to always complete your goals. Perhaps it’s best to modify your goal instead of doing away with it completely.

Please enjoy this month of thinking critically about the goals we set and when it’s best to quit them, modify them, or complete them! We’d love to hear your thoughts on our posts – please comment whenever a thought on the topic comes to mind!

You Won NaNoWriMo, Now What?

Author's Perspective Craft & Skills Finish It! First Drafts Giving Yourself a Break Goals Making Progress as a Writer Rewriting Starting a Career The Writing Life The Writing Process Your Writing Career No Comments

I’m a big believer in the power of finishing things. National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is an annual writing adventure challenging writers of all skill levels to write 50,000 words in the space of thirty days – this is an average of 1,667 words per day. For most of us, this is a challenge. As a multiple year winner of NaNoWriMo, I can tell you that typing those last words on a manuscript is a great feeling but I can also tell you that “The End” is just the beginning. So, you’ve won – what next?

First Things First

Celebrate. Kick back on December 1st and relax a bit. You’re a NaNoWriMo winner! Be sure to upload your novel text and get your official word count verified. Be sure to look for the emails about the winner’s prizes (and there are usually some great deals). Post your success and get virtual high fives on social media. Take a little time to enjoy your success, but don’t be surprised if the urge to get back into your manuscript is there gnawing at you. What do you do?

Resist!

Do not open that NaNoWriMo manuscript for at least a month – six weeks is best. Your goal right now, Winner, is to forget that you wrote that book. Yes, there are things you need to fix. Yes, you have a passive voice problem or a comma splice problem. Yes, you have a character that explicably vanishes from the story in Chapter 3. I got it. Your mind is whirling with all of the “I should fix this immediately” things. If you’re really scared you’ll forget them, write them all down on a piece of paper but do not open that manuscript. At the end of that six weeks, sit down with a notebook and a pen/pencil alongside your manuscript. You’ll see immediately that you’re reading with fresh eyes. Again, though, resist the urge to make corrections. Read your manuscript as a reader would and see what pieces of the story develop as you go. You’ll see holes and find things that seem out of place – make a note and move on. When you’re done with the read-through, close your notes, and give it a few days to percolate. Now you’re probably thinking that this is a lot of time when you’re doing nothing on this manuscript – and you’re right. What should you be doing with your new disciplined approach to writing every day?

Write Something Else

If you want to write on December 1st or 2nd, open up a new file and start typing something else. Make it something different than your manuscript. Different characters, different settings – everything in this new piece should be different. If you wrote fantasy during NaNoWriMo, write science fiction. You get the idea. Write something that you’d never be caught dead writing. I’ve messed around with a romance novel idea, a zombie apocalypse story, and a few other things that may never see the light of day in this phase. Think of it as cleansing your writing palate. When the six weeks described is up, you’ll be ready to jump back into your NaNoWriMo winner and edit it from start to finish. But what if I want to keep writing that new project? Do it. Adjust your writing goals and expectations, though – you’re trying to get your NaNoWriMo winner in shape to send out into the world.

After Edits – The Next Step

I can’t stress hard enough that you really need to run through your manuscript at least once before you look for potential first readers. Gaining insights from others is a huge piece of this step. You cannot write in a vacuum and expect to put a rough manuscript into consideration for publication or start the mechanics for self-publication. Take the time to get it read, reviewed, and even professionally edited. Trust me, it’s worth your time to do this even before you submit it to a publisher or do it yourself.

NaNoWriMo is a race to 50,000 words. It’s a challenge that teaches you self-discipline and creates a habit of writing daily. Publishing a novel is a marathon, not a sprint. It will take time to get it right. There are times it will seem like glaciers move faster than your manuscript through the process. Keep writing other things and do not, under any circumstances, get caught up in any one novel project. Keep moving forward. That’s really what NaNoWriMo is all about. Starting a project, finishing it, and moving on to the next one. And the next one after that.

That’s how you win NaNoWriMo, folks. Keep moving forward.

Don’t Panic!

Finish It! First Drafts Goals Kim May Making Progress as a Writer The Writing Life The Writing Process Work-Life Balance No Comments

Today’s post is in scream-o-vision. When you see the prompt (Scream) you should scream — especially if you’re in a public place. Librarians are particularly fond of scream-o-vision. Enjoy.

(Scream)

(Gaaaah!)

This is the time that many NaNo writers dread. The month is 2/3 gone, and for one reason or another you’ve fallen behind. You’ve got 20K (or more) to write still, all your friends are at least 15K ahead of you, and just thinking about how you’re going to catch up is giving you a panic attack. The Final Countdown is playing through your head (and if it wasn’t it certainly is now). Plus, in the US we have the worst complication. Dare I say it?

 

(Dare! Dare!)

 

Thanksgiving is coming!

(Scream)

(Gaaaah!)

The family is coming over in three days, you haven’t cleaned since before Halloween, you haven’t even bought the turkey (let alone started thawing it), and the idea of serving your family frozen pot pies instead of a Norman Rockwell feast is looking better and better.

(Scream)

(Gaaaah!)

If this sounds like you then I want you to do something. Take a deep breath and DON’T PANIC! There are some things you can do that can help you salvage NaNo:

  1. The first thing to do is to not rage quit. If you give up now then it’s guaranteed that you won’t win NaNo. If you stick with it you might surprise yourself with what you can do.
  2. Look on the bright side! You have (insert word count) words that you didn’t have before. A lot of people who dream of writing a book never make it as far as you have and you totally deserve a button for that. Whether you reach the 50K mark or not, that’s something that you can still be proud of.
  3. Totally do the pot pie dinner. That’s at least 6 hours of cooking time that you’re eliminating — time that you can spend writing. Or if you don’t want your mother-in-law to accuse you of dialing it in for the rest of your life, serve turkey burgers, sweet potato fries, and a store bought pumpkin pie with the words “It’s NaNoWriMo. Be happy it wasn’t frozen pot pies.” written in frosting on the top.
  4. Get a massage. Yes, it’s lost writing time but it’s not unproductive time. You can think about the next scene or about entertaining conversations your characters might have. Once the massage is over — and you really needed the stress relief — the words can flow easily.

Did you find this helpful? Great! Soon you’ll be back on the metaphorical road to success. If you didn’t, at least you got to relieve some of the tension by screaming. See? You feel better already. All of those mental stress knots are loosening and you can go sit down and crank out another 2K words today.

(Scream)

(Gaaaah!)

Now go write!

Game on! Making writing fun 

Finish It! First Drafts Ideas & Plotting Making Progress as a Writer Mixing it Up Motivation Sean Golden Self-Motivation Storyline The Writing Process No Comments

It’s NaNoWriMo time.

As I said last month, I’m not really a NaNoWriMo participant. I do watch from the sidelines though. It’s interesting to watch writers push themselves to achieve word count goals. I do believe that the hardest part of writing is finishing a story, and anything that gets people to complete a project is probably a good thing.

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But I do worry about people putting ridiculous amounts of pressure on themselves to complete a project. Creating an artificial pressure-packed environment can make writing a chore, and that can give writers a bad taste in their mouths which can lead to less motivation, not more.

So how do you keep writing fun when the pressure is on?

Honestly, that’s a very hard question to answer. Sometimes writing really can be a chore. And if you’re trying to make a living at it, then it’s a chore that you have to do, just as much as if you were a pastry chef getting up at 4am for the umpteenth time and dragging yourself into work.

Here are a few things that might take the drudgery out of your writing as you try to maintain that 1,500 words per day goal that will get you close to a NaNoWriMo success.

  • Remove a significant character, and replace them with a completely different one. You don’t have to go all George R. R. Martin here, you don’t have to kill them. Maybe they just had to move away. Maybe your protagonist got into an argument with them, and they decided it was time to move on. Whatever the cause, this will force you to think about your characters’ personalities and give you a chance to explore how your protagonist deals with adversity.
  • Introduce some weather into your narrative. I can’t even think of the number of books I’ve read where it apparently never even rains, much less storms. Let nature become an obstacle to your characters’ goals. This is a great opportunity to paint a memorable scene.
  • It is apparently very difficult in a novel to get sick. Nobody ever seems to. I’ve read eight book series and the main characters never even get the sniffles. Your macho he-man hero type may be able to stare down a raging fire-breathing dragon, but how well does he handle a migraine?
  • Throw a party. In real life people go to parties all the time. Unless a party is part of the plot, characters in novels never seem to be invited to do anything. I’m writing this the day after Halloween. Maybe your main characters get invited to a costume party. What would they dress as? What would that reveal about their personalities that might not come out otherwise?

These are all things that can reveal new and interesting things about your character, while giving you something interesting and new to write. That’s when your mind is open to new ideas, and when your story can take interesting twists and turns that you didn’t anticipate. And if you didn’t anticipate them, it’s a good bet that your readers won’t either.