We're getting down to the wire here. With less than one week left, where can you find that extra ounce of motivation you need to get to the finish line? In a word: Rewards!
Find something that you really want. Something worth working toward. Something that motivates you. Then set your goal and go for it. For example, if your goal at this point is just to get to the 50,000 mark on time, pick out a great reward for when you hit that goal. Buy a cute purse you wouldn't normally splurge on. Get that new techie item you've had your eye on for months. Promise yourself a night out to see the new Harry Potter movie (plus popcorn!). Or, if you're cash-poor, try to think of other ways to reward yourself. Give yourself permission to spend an entire afternoon doing nothing but watching TV and doing your nails or eating pizza! Reactivate your WOW account and create a brand new character and play 24 hours straight. Whatever you can think of that inspires motivation, go for it. There's got to be something you want, right??
I am currently sitting at 30,069 words. With basically only six days left, I need over 3000 words a day to make my 50k goal. Can I do it? Absolutely. I just need a little push. So what did my amazing husband promise me? The one thing I've been wanting for over a year: a new Android phone! He came home from work tonight and told me that if I can write 9,000 words before tomorrow night at midnight, we can go to T-Mobile on Black Friday and get Android phones. Believe me, I already have mine picked out! For me, it's a reward worth working toward! Of course, it will also double as our one year anniversary gifts to each other (hey, we're not millionaires, hehe), but it's still an amazing incentive to work hard.
Writing an entire novel in a month is not an easy task. It's not something that most people can do. Just taking on the challenge is amazing and ambitious. If you've even gotten halfway to 50,000, you've accomplished something great. Don't forget to reward yourself along the way. We all need to refill our motivation every now and then, and during a month like November, we need extra motivation juice to keep us going. Next year, if you dare to try again, think about setting word count milestones. At 12,500 words, you get a new set of pens. At 25,000 words, you get to go out to your favorite restaurant and pig out on chocolate cake. At 37,500, you reward yourself with that new book you've had your eye on. And save something really special for the 50,000 word goal. Choose rewards you can feel good about that will push you to keep going.
NaNo WriMo Tip #4: Reward Yourself
NaNo WriMo Tip #3: Don't Give Up
Here we are just 9 days away from the end of November (if you count today). Obviously, I'm way behind. Not only on my NaNo word count, but also on this blog, cause hey, if I don't have time to write one, where would I find the time to write the other? I thought about doing 10 tips, but let's shorten it to 5. :)
Tip #3: Don't Give Up
This is my mantra lately. I repeat it to myself in the shower and on the sidewalk and in the car. I remind myself when I wake up in the morning and again sometime in the evening when I'm feeling exhausted after a full day. Don't give up! It's not over yet!
Those first few days and even weeks of November can seem so magical. The story you've been thinking about for the past few weeks (months?) is finally coming alive on the page. You see your word count shoot up beyond anything you ever imagined. But then somewhere, life steps back in. Your husband gets sick. Your mom turns 60 and you can't miss that party. Work needs you to work overtime. There's always something that is bound to come up that will derail your word count plans. But Don't Give Up!
With only 9 days left, my word count currently sits at 21,897, not even halfway to the 50,000 word goal. At this point, I have two choices. I can throw my hands up in despair and admit defeat, leaving my word count to sit at that measly 21,897 for the rest of the month and possibly the rest of my life. OR I can spend the next 9 days re-dedicating myself to the goal I set at the beginning of the month. I can try to recapture that excitement and happiness I felt when November 1st finally got here. I might not be able to punch out the over 3,000 words a day I need to win NaNo this year, but I could try. I could refuse to give up and just keep pushing through.
Who knows? At the end of the month, you might still be shy of your 50k goal, but what if you made it all the way to 40,000 words? And what if you persisted throughout December to finish this novel and make it great? Or what if you found your excitement again and pulled out a miraculous win over the next 9 days?? It's not too late, I promise you. I plan to be a winner in 2010, and I know you can do it too.
Don't Give Up. Not now, after you've come so far.
NaNo WriMo Tip #2: Make Friends
We're one week through NaNo. Three to go! How are you doing so far? Have you been to any local write-ins? Last night, I went to an amazing write-in here in Cary, NC. We had 12 people there. We ran period word sprints, got to talk and find out about each other's work, and enjoyed hot coffee and snacks together. It was so much fun! I got over 2,000 words written within the 3 hours we were there, and more importantly, I made some new friends.
Writing is a solitary life. Sure, writers get together to talk about craft and critique each other's work every once in a while, but when it comes down to it, it's just you and the blank page. NaNo WriMo isn't just about writing a 50,000 word book. It's about doing it at the same time as thousands of other people. It's about the collective struggle. It's about the community.
If you're doing NaNo this year, but you haven't had the nerve to go out to one of your local write-ins, you might really be missing something. I know it can be hard to walk into a cafe or library you don't know very well and search for a NaNo sign or a group of writers hard at work on their laptops, but it's one of the most valuable experiences of the month of November.
My first year doing NaNo, I didn't go to a single event. I wrote alone and stayed home. I was solitary. And really, other than a higher word count, it wasn't that much different or more exciting that a regular writing month. But last year, I broke out of my shell and went to some write-ins. At one, I met Jennifer. We hit it off right away and exchanged buddy info and email addresses. About a week or so after NaNo, she emailed and invited me to join a critique group. Through that, I met Erica, and the three of us are still working together. To be honest, they have become two of my best, most valuable friends in the world. And I never would have met them without a NaNoWriMo write-in.
Many of us who do NaNo are full-time, serious writers. Writing is an all year thing. But try to remember that NaNo is about more than just the writing. It's about belonging to a group of people - writers - who share your dreams and fears and interests. So get out there and find a local write-in. Meet people. Exchange email addresses and user names. Make friends. It could change your life.
NaNoWriMo Tip #1: Quantity Not Quality
As I get past the first few days of initial NaNo excitement and head into the really tough part of National Novel Writing Month, I thought I would write a series of posts on my top 10 tips for making it through the rest of the month.
I first started NaNo in 2008, just after I had started taking writing seriously in my life (meaning wanting to make a career out of it). I wrote a book called INTO DARKNESS about a girl whose twin brother goes off to college and disappears two weeks later, leaving nothing but a pool of blood behind in his dorm room. It was an awful horror novel, but when the month was over, it was 50,000+ words, and I had won! In 2009, I attempted a novel called PANDEMIC about a group of teens trying to survive the zombie apocalypse. I only got 30,000 words in by the end of the month.
So what made the difference? Why couldn't I reach my goal the second time around? My answer: NaNo is sometimes more about Quantity than Quality. The first year, I was clueless about what agents wanted or what the so-called 'rules' were. I just wrote for fun. I had nothing more than a basic idea of the plot and a joyful sense of oblivion. I wasn't worried about whether I was writing the great American horror novel or not. I didn't even worry too much about whether the plot totally made sense. I just let the words fly out of me and land on the page unedited.
By 2009, however, I'd been a member of several writing organizations, a critique group, had read a dozen or more books on writing and was avidly following agent blogs and author websites. I was full of do's and don'ts. With every scene I wrote, I worried and obsessed about whether the book was any good. I wondered if the plot was something an agent would find unique or if I was just writing something cliche and overdone. I ruined my chance at winning NaNo by worrying too much about things that honestly don't matter during that first draft process.
Quality is what second drafts are for. There will be plenty of time to revise and shape your first draft once November is done. My advice? Stop worrying about quality. You are a writer. The quality will be there. After NaNo, you'll discover moments of genius you don't even remember writing. Granted, you'll probably also discover complete dreckitude within those 50,000 words, but no one ever has to see it but you. Don't worry about whether an agent will ever think your idea is awesome or not. Just write. Stop thinking about the rules. Just let the joy of writing flow through you for once. Let it come without judgment. Be free to write material of questionable quality. It could be some of the best writing you ever do.
Beautiful Demons: My First Novel is Out Now!
Haven't blogged here in a while, but this news is BIG. My first published novel is available now! BEAUTIFUL DEMONS is the first book in the Peachville High Demons series. All together, I am planning five books in the series. The second book, INNER DEMONS, is my NaNo WriMo 2010 project. If you don't know what NaNo is, it's National Novel Writing Month where thousands of writers across the globe pledge to write 50,000 words in a single month. It starts tomorrow night at midnight, and I can't wait! If you want to add me as a buddy, my user name there is sarramaria.
Now, back to my book! I made the decision to self-publish at the end of the summer, and I couldn't be happier with my choice. I know it's going to be a lot of hard work and a lot of promotion and marketing, but I'm ready for the challenge. Please check out my book, which is available for only $0.99 in the Kindle store and at Smashwords. (and just waiting for approval in the Barnes & Noble store!)
Here is a brief description:
Harper Madison isn't like other girls. She has extraordinary powers, but her inability to control them has gotten her kicked from so many foster homes she's lost count. Shadowford Home is her last chance, and she hopes Peachville High will be the fresh start she needs. But when evidence ties her to the gruesome murder of a Demons cheerleader, Harper discovers this small town has a big secret.
Beautiful Demons is a young adult fantasy with a dose of romance. It is available for purchase at the following online retailers:
- Kindle Store
- Smashwords
- Barnes & Noble (Coming soon!)
Productivity Booster
No matter how hard you work, there is always more that needs to get done. So much so that it can get overwhelming pretty fast. When I feel overwhelmed or I feel like there's so much to do that I will never be able to finish it or reach my goals, my first reaction is to freeze. I'm not saying it's logical, but it happens. Doing nothing at all is the worst thing I could do, and yet that's my typical reaction. Unless something forces me into action like a payment due or a meeting that I just can't miss, I have a hard time getting out of that paralysis and working hard toward my goals.
As a writer who sets my own schedule, this is a serious problem. I have set a very ambitious goal for myself during the month of September, and frankly, there's just no time for this bullshit. I want to write an entire 50,000 word novel that I can self-publish in ebook form. My goal is to finish it by the end of September, revise it over the first few weeks of October, and publish it before NaNoWriMo begins on November 1st.
For some reason, just knowing it was a huge, difficult goal, made me freeze up, unable to work as hard as I truly wanted to. In a way, I needed to trick myself into working harder. That's where my awesome husband comes in. He came up with this idea of making it into a kind of game. He's playing an MMO shooter called Global Agenda, which has little raids every hour or so that last between 15 and 30 minutes each. So, we decided that each time he went into a raid, I would work on my novel. We decided on a formula to compare his dps to my word count and now we race to see who can be the most productive in that time frame. Typically, this ends up meaning that I need to produce around 500 words in 15 minutes, which works out great for me.
Then, after the burst is over, I get an hour to watch TV or talk to friends on twitter or read a book or whatever. But when the raid starts again, it's go time. When we tried this method on Sunday, even though I was woefully hung over from the bachelor/bachelorette party the night before, I wrote 3700 words! Not too shabby!
We started talking about how I could extend that productivity into the daytime when G is at work. Last night at the Dollar Tree, G pointed out a digital kitchen timer. "Set this for 15 minutes," he said. "Then you can work at home when I'm not there." Aha! Great idea! We tried it last night even though he was here, and I still got six hundred words written before the timer went off. There's just something about knowing that I only have to focus on what I'm writing for a short 15 minutes that gets me quickly into this zone. There's no time to judge myself or my ideas. There's only time for writing. I think for rough draft writing, it's the best way I've ever found to add more productivity to my day in terms of writing. Now, I just need to set the timer for ten minute increments and get this damn house clean.
Thinking ahead to NaNo WriMo
What's that? It's only August, you say? And National Novel Writing Month is still several months away? Yes, yes, but it's never too early to start planning! Having recently finished my YA novel, Pandemic, I am looking ahead to my next project. (Other than querying and trying to sell said YA novel, of course.) If you aren't familiar with NaNo WriMo, it's one month out of the year where thousands of writers across the globe attempt to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. 2010 will be my third year participating. I won my first year with a novel I called "Into Darkness". I finished the word count, but never actually finished the book. In fact, it got right up to the most interesting and terrifying part of the book and stopped. My husband is still upset about it. Last year, however, I only made it about 30,000 words in (this being the same novel I just finished), at which point I trashed the entire thing save one scene and started over.
This year, I will be triumphant. Heck, I might even set my goal larger than 50,000 words! Oh, the insanity! But let's face it, 50k does not a novel make in most instances. It's only half a novel. Ish.
So, the question already tickling the back of my brain is which project do I write this year for NaNo?
Option 1. I write the second book in my Pandemic series. It's definitely not going to be complete at 50k since book 1 is easily almost 90k, but getting 50,000 words into the second book would be great. On the other hand, some writers have said that you shouldn't write the second book in the series until you know whether or not the first book is ever going to sell. Hmmm. Could be good advice, since selling book 2 would be particularly hard if no one wanted book 1.
Option 2. I write a book that will be complete at 50,000 words and is targeted toward an ebook only self-publishing route. I have been toying around with the idea of self-publishing a lot lately. The writing community is up in arms about the future of traditional print publishing and with last week's announcements that Dorchester is ceasing its Mass Market paperbacks and Barnes and Noble is possibly up for sale, I am beginning to wonder if it might be smart to test the self-publishing waters just to learn a thing or two. After all, any writing I do is good practice, and I might as well try to get some practice in with the publishing bit too, just in case.
And those are pretty much the two options I am tossing around. If I decide to go with option 2 and write a book I specifically plan to self-publish through Kindle and Smashwords and PubIt! or whatever other self-publishing ebook formats are out there at the time, then I'll have to completely brainstorm ideas for what I want that book to be about. There will probably be a little bit of research involved as well, such as what demographic is buying most indie ebooks. What genre is selling best and is there a market for my type of YA horror/urban fantasy/romance mixture? Option 2 comes with a lot of unanswered questions, but a lot of excitement as well.
Good thing I have a few months yet to think about it.
NaNo Failure
Well, folks, I didn't make it. NaNo WriMo ended at midnight last night, and instead of furiously writing, I was laying in bed, reading my newly checked out copy of Suzanne Collins' "The Hunger Games". Am I upset? Not really. I got a good chunk of my novel down this month despite the busy season and the upcoming wedding. I'm proud of that. Now I have a better idea of how the novel is going to progress.
Is there still a lot of work to do? Absolutely. But mostly, it will wait until G and I get back from all of our wedding and holiday activities. January 1, I can sit down and write out my usual list of goals for the year, then I can get started on one of the first goals for 2010 - finish Pandemic.
For all of you out there who actually finished your 50,000 word novel by midnight... Congratulations! You worked hard and reached your goal. Whether your novel is complete at 50K or not, the key is not to stop and not to give up. There's still so much work to be done. I may have failed NaNo this year (and have to take my t-shirt back :( booo), but that won't stop me from working on this novel - nor will it stop me from trying again in 2010. Maybe by then, I'll actually have a publishing deal and be writing a book someone is already paying me to write. Wouldn't that be the coolest?
NaNo WriMo Update
We're officially halfway through National Novel Writing Month, and this week I made it to the magical 25,000 word mark. Basically, that means I've been playing with Hello Kitty markers and pencils and ribbons for the past couple of days :). By next Saturday, I should be hitting the next goal of 37,500, which sounds ridiculously close to the end!
So, how do I feel about my novel so far? Truthfully, I think there are some good parts, but they are few and far between. In the first 25,000 words of my zombie apocalypse novel, there has yet to be a single zombie. This could be a problem. Well, actually, that's not entirely true. I wrote a pack of zombies into the prologue. Yay! I had almost forgotten about that. But the time has come where I need to start writing them into the main story. To explain where they came from and how they started killing people.
In the end, I know that my novel cannot be finished at only 50,000 words. 50k is still my goal by the end of November, but the entire novel needs to be more like 65-75,000 words. I am praying that by the time I get those 75k words written, I will like my novel a lot more than I like it now. Is it normal to be less than thrilled about an early first draft? The story is good, I know that. But now I'm afraid it's too cliche or overdone. I'm committed to this story though, and I must press on. All I can hope is that somewhere in the next 12k words or so, I start to really love the way I'm writing it.
NaNo WriMo Write-ins Rock
Tonight, I went to my second official NaNo write-in at the local Borders Bookstore. It was awesome. I met some great local writers and got over 2000 words written. I definitely recommend going. Even though I consider myself to be pretty outgoing, it makes me nervous to go to a coffee shop alone, not sure if I'll meet up with people and get along with them. But, I am so happy that I got over those silly fears and just went out. It was a great experience, and I had a lot of fun. Oh, and another bonus to going to meet with local authors is that they can help with ideas and recommendations on cool websites or books out there. Anyway, here are a couple of pictures of the group that was at the Cary Borders tonight. Unfortunately, "Shadow Birth" aka Kelly, had already left before I remembered that I had my camera. I am the one taking the picture, so I'm not in there either, but it was a fun group. If you haven't been to a write-in yet, but you are doing NaNo WriMo, GO!
In this photo: (L to R by NaNo username) magiuspendragon, Rai Yan (our fearless ML), thegreekparvula, and lynoir. Great group of people! I had fun hanging out with you guys. (**Sidenote: Notice the purple pen on the table in the left corner of the photo? Oh yeah, one of my 12,500 word NaNo rewards! Love it!)
In this photo: Rai Yan, the Raleigh area ML, holds up his beautiful sign, letting NaNo participants everywhere know we mean business. (**Sidenote: No, Rai Yan does NOT work for the FBI. I asked.)
NaNo Update: First Goal Reached!!!
12,631 words so far!
Anyone who reads my blog or knows me personally knows by now that I need outside motivators. If left purely to my own inner desires, I will come up with excuse after excuse as to why I didn't accomplish something. That is why for NaNo again this year, I have decided to give myself little mini-rewards for each word count milestone.
And today... I won my first reward! That's right, 12,500 words in and I get the fabulous EnerGel Purple pens! Okay, so none of these rewards are fancy or expensive, but they make me happy and that's what matters. All told, I've spent about $30 on rewards, and it's money well-spent. Of course, if I don't reach a word count goal, I have to take any un-earned rewards back to the store. I seriously don't want to do that, so I'm working hard to meet my goals. Here is a little peak at my future rewards: (I already blogged about this earlier in the week, but it didn't include pictures, so here goes)
Goal #1: 12,500 by Saturday, 11/7 Reward: EnerGel Purple Pens. Okay, so this might not excite anyone else, but dammit, I love pens! Especially purple ones.
Goal #2: 25,000 Words by Saturday, 11/14 Reward: Hello Kitty Items!Yes, Hello Kitty is my hero. I got these things at Target in the dollar bin and I am not ashamed to say that even at 32, I still love Hello Kitty and she still makes me happy.
Goal #3: 37,500 Words by Saturday 11/21 Reward: The Zombie Survival Guide by Max BrooksSince I'm writing a book about the zombie apocalypse, what better reward than a book about how to survive it? I have already read his book, World War Z and I loved it. Can't wait to read this one too!
Goal #4: 50,000 Words by Saturday 11/28 Reward: T-shirt
I couldn't resist this shirt, because it's so true! If the zombie apocalypse comes, only those who have pwned some monsters in video games will survive. Everyone else will be too shocked to know what to do! (In my idea of a perfect future, I will wear this shirt to a book signing where hundreds of fans have lined up to meet the author of Pandemic, haha! Dreams are good for you!)
Since I'm aiming for 65,000 words total, I have also added an extra little goal of reaching the 65K by December 5th. If I do that, I get to go get a Manicure/Pedicure. A fitting reward since a week later I'll be getting married!! Woohoo! (And by the way, the wedding is happening regardless of the word counts :).
I'm proud of myself for reaching my first goal a full 2 days early. I'm sure most of what I've written is terrible, but it's better than a blank page anyday. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go open my purple pens and play with them for a while!
NaNo: Day 3
NaNo WriMo is off to a strong start. The President, Chris Batty (? did I spell that right? /shrug) gave the advice to start strong early, to pump out as many words in the first few days as possible. Why? Well, because at the beginning you have a lot of energy and are pumped up for the new story. A week in, however, you start to realize that writing 50,000 words in a month isn't as easy as you thought it would be. You start to feel tired and uninspired. That's when having a huge start can really help.
On days where you're feeling low or you don't want to write, you can simply tell yourself that all you have to write is 500 measly words. That's nothing! Barely more than a page or two! Chances are, of course, that once you're writing and getting into the story, you'll write more like 1000 or more words, but anything is better than nothing. The important thing is not to let yourself have any 'zero' days where you don't write any words at all. Keep plucking away and in another 27 days, a novel will be born!
NaNo WriMo has Begun!
It's officially that month again where over 150,000 writers from all across the globe vow to write a 50,000 word novel in just 30 short days. I was counting the minutes until midnight, chomping at the bit to get started on Pandemic, my YA zombie apocalypse novel. I've been working on ideas for this book for so long that I can't believe I'm actually writing it now!
It's 1:17, but with the change in time, it's really already 2 hours and 17 minutes into November. I couldn't believe it when I looked up and I was already 2709 words and 10 pages into my novel. I'm sure it sucks, and I'm sure I'm going to need tons of rewrites at the end, but for now, it's just really fun to keep writing and not worry about editing yet.
Like last year, I have decided to work on a reward system. Only this time, instead of just the four NaNo weeks, I am actually going to write for five weeks. Why? Because I want this novel to be more like 65,000 words instead of 50,000, but I'm not quite sure I can write that many in 30 days. So, I'll aim for 50,000 by November 30th and 65,000 by December 5th. So what are my five rewards this year?
- If I hit 12,500 words by Saturday, 11/7, I get a 3 pack of purple Energel pens. Anyone who knows me knows I am pretty much obsessed with new pens, so when I saw these awesome purple gel pens for only $4 at Staples, I had to grab them. Amazing how motivational a silly $4 item can be, but dammit, I want those pens! If I don't hit the goal, I have to take them back, and I'm just not going to let that happen!
- 25,000 words by Saturday 11/15 gets me a variety of Hello Kitty items that I bought at Target last night. I only spent $5 on this reward and it includes: A pack of four HK mini-highlighters, A pack of 3 HK double-sided markers, Two packs of different designs and colors of HK ribbon I can use for hair bows or crafts, and a pack of four HK pencils.
- 37,500 words by Saturday 11/21 means I get to go buy Max Brooks' "Zombie Survival Guide." I just finished his book, World War Z and it was incredible. I am going to look for a copy at the used book store since we're saving all the money we can for the wedding, but even at the regular book store, it probably won't cost more than $8 or so.
- 50,000 words by Saturday 11/28. I bought a shirt at Hot Topic that is black and on the front in red writing it says "Video Games: Preparing Youth for a Violent, Post-Apocalyptic Future". How cool is that? I figure it totally fits into my YA zombie apocalypse theme. Plus, I love video games, so it really works for me. I plan to wear it someday when I'm doing a book signing for Pandemic after it gets published :P
- 65,000 words by December 5th and I get to have a manicure and pedicure in preparation for the wedding. I will make a beauty day out of it, where I can relax and be happy that my first draft is finally finished! Also, at the point, it will only be 2 weeks until our wedding!
