Nano Log: Writing Communities

One of the most important things that’s helped me along not only this month but through all of my writing journey is the amazing support network that I’ve found among fellow writers. Whether these writers are from Nano events or from Twitter or other writing groups, having them by my side has helped me to grow so much as a writer and a person. Collaboration is one of the most powerful and important tools that we have as humans.

We can collaborate through actual shared projects (such as writing a novel together or creating a written roleplay), we can edit each others’ work, and we can offer general assistance or advice, like letting a friend bounce character ideas off of you.

It’s also great to have writing communities there for support. From the writers in my communities, I’ve learned about writing as a craft and as a business. Not only have I gotten a lot of practical creative advice from them, but it’s from members of these communities that I’ve learned most of what I know about independent editing and self-publishing.

They’ve also been there to offer support in the form of encouragement. It’s not hard to get discouraged when looking at the garbage of a first draft or when drowning in an abundance of plot bunnies. But I’ve always had other writers to pick me up and keep me going.

Not only has surrounding myself with other writers given me opportunity for collaboration, but it’s also helped me to grow and develop, both as a person and as an artist. These other writers have showed me how to move past periods of self-doubt and keep creating.

Whether I need someone to give me feedback on a novel draft or answer worldbuilding questions or offer a friendly dose of encouragement, I’ve always been able to rely on my writing friends. And, of course, writers are just a lot of fun to have around. We’re pretty wacky people, constantly straddling the line between artistry and insanity. Without the other writers I constantly interact with, I don’t think my writing would be nearly as good as it is. I take so much inspiration from other writers during the creative process.

Having these amazing other writers in my life has meant so much to me. I’m blessed to have each of them in my community.

Nano Log: Strike a Match with Music

Whether your goal as a writer is to teach, to inspire, or to entertain, there’s a good chance—especially if you’re writing fiction—that you’re trying to ignite a fire within your reader. You want to intellectually and emotionally move each person who reads your work.

But creating this fire requires an initial spark of inspiration. Finding this can be one of the hardest parts of writing, whatever kind of project you’re working on.

Too many people wait for inspiration to strike them like a bolt of lightning. The problem with this is that it’s unreliable, unpredictable, and unsustainable. You’re unlikely to be struck, you’re less likely to be struck often, and if you are struck, the results aren’t always what you’d hoped for. Try managing the fire that results from that mess.

Inspiration, contrary to popular myth, is something that writers have to create for themselves. If we waited for these sparks to happen on their own, we’d rarely have anything to write. So instead of standing in the rain with a lightning rod, we go back inside and search the drawers for a matchbox.

For a lot of us, that matchbox is actually music. Listening to music as we write is one way that we can use to light a fire and keep it going. It doesn’t guarantee us the next great American novel, because pretty much nothing does. It does, however, make it easier to write when we take the power away from the unpredictable elements and start the fire ourselves.

This one tool, it turns out, is different for many writers who use is.

We choose our music differently. Some of us prefer songs without words or written in languages we don’t understand. This makes it easier to concentrate on the words that we’re writing and keeps us from being distracted by the desire to sing along to a catchy song. This is what I’ll usually do, depending on what I’m working on.

Sometimes we like to pick songs based on genre or personal preference. Whether we tend to listen to country or electronic or pop, that’s what we choose when they’re writing.

Other writers will choose their music based on song lyrics. They pick things with lines that connect somehow to their plot or characters. Since discovering musician Dalton Rapattoni, I’ve found that a couple of his songs really speak to the main character of my current work-in-progress.

How do you choose your music? Do you find lyrics distracting or inspiring? Do you stick with whatever genres you usually listen to?

We organize our music differently. Some of us will categorize music by mood, meaning that we have a different list to choose from for whatever emotion we’re trying to convey. This can be characters’ moods or the overall mood of a scene. Something with a racing beat, for example, for a chase scene or something dark and sad for the character battling depression.

We can also organize our music by character or project. You could create a playlist meant to represent a character or even an entire project.

So how do you prefer to sort your writing music? Do you have playlists of sad music, happy music, etc.? Or do you have lists that relate to characters or stories? I personally do both.

We use our music differently. Some authors prefer to manually switch from song to song as they write. If you know what you want to listen to and when you want to listen, this method may be right for you. Working off of a playlist isn’t for everyone.

Some like to listen to a specific song or playlist on repeat. I think I’d go crazy doing this, but if there’s a single piece or collection of music that creates the spark for you, then listening to it constantly may be the best way to keep your fire lit.

Some writers, including me, prefer to create a “smart” playlist. Using music apps like Pandora (my personal preference) you can put together a list of songs and then sit back as the algorithms suggest others that may appeal to you. Pandora learns pretty quickly what I like to listen to on each of my stations and saves me the time of having to manually collect songs. And I also stumble across perfect songs for my lists, often songs that I hadn’t known before.

How do you listen? Do you put together a list, listen to one song at a time, or let a program select songs for you?

Chasing lighting isn’t the most reliable way to get your fire going strong. But by strategically including music in your writing process, you can strike a match whenever you want and create a flame that you can control.

If you like to listen to music as you write, do you use any of the methods that I’ve mentioned for collecting, organizing, and using your writing music? Or do you have your own system that I didn’t touch on? Let me know in the comments below!

Nano Log: Creating and Developing Characters

The character creation process is, for me, a tricky thing. Because there’s no such thing as a “usual” when it comes to the people who populate my stories or my methods of developing them. Some I have to psychoanalyze before they start to open up to me; others show up, introduce themselves to me, and tell me exactly what they’ll be doing in the story they want me to write. There’s plenty of room for variation in the process.

We’re a third of the way through Camp Nano, and one of my biggest priorities in the past ten days has been adding words to my draft as quickly as possible. But I’ve also been taking all the time I can afford to develop my characters.

Though character creation and development can come in many forms depending on the writer, the type of project, or even the character themselves, there are a few key practices that I follow.

I let my characters form naturally.

When a character idea first comes to me, it can be incredibly vivid or frustratingly blurry. What remains constant is that I get a general “feel” for the kind of person that they are. That character “core” is almost always the first thing that materializes in my mind.

Inspiration can come from anywhere. For me, a character idea can be inspired by something random that I see going about my life, like a stranger that I see on the bus or a cool knickknack I come across at a thrift store. Or a character can suddenly appear to fill an empty spot in my story. For example, if I need a sometime-antagonist that can double as a part-time role model, sometimes someone will just show up who happens to fit those qualifications.

Once a character idea is in my head, I usually leave it alone to incubate for a while. I try not to act too quickly so I don’t lose those core characteristics. Character ideas are elusive when they’re first forming. And if I can’t hold onto them until they’re more concrete, they change on me.

I write down details as they come to me.

Right now, I have a template that I’ve been working off of. I like to use this as a character development exercise and also as a reference sheet that I can look back at during the rest of the writing process. I’ve created the form by collecting and adapting character development material from a variety of different sources. I’ll link to a blank version of this form here.

There are a few of things to remember with this form. The first is that each writer’s process is different. The items on my form may or may not fit your needs. And if that’s the case, feel free to play with it to make it into the tool that best suits your style and your project. That’s how I created this resource in the first place.

The second is that I’ve purposely left certain fields up to interpretation. When I’ve shared this with writers I’ve collaborated with, I’ve had a lot of questions about what’s supposed to go in certain fields. The answer is simple: write whatever makes sense to you. If you’re going to be using it as a reference, it only makes sense to use structure and language that will make your job easier.

Finally, this resources is very extensive but not exhaustive. What you put into this form will not be all there is to your character, but feel free to add fields or categories if you want addition info. Similarly, don’t feel pressured to fill out every detail the form asks for. One writer friend complained to me that there was just too much to fill out. If it’s too much for you or for your character, then just skip over what you don’t want or need.

I track changes with my characters as they occur.

I’ll often continue to develop my characters through personality tests or interview questions. There are a lot of good character development threads on the NaNoWriMo website. Whether I’m giving a character the Myers-Briggs test or the Pottermore Hogwarts house quiz, I learn a lot about them with the questions I ask.

I also like to develop my characters by roleplaying them a little. I might, for example, write a scene where a character has to choose which Divergent faction to join or a scene where two characters from different stories meet and push each other’s buttons a little. I’m also a fan of written roleplaying, so I’ll sometimes throw in characters from works-in-progress to see how they do under completely different circumstances than their own.

Finally, I add to my characters as the plot deems necessary. Sometimes the story will need something very specific to happen and there’s only one person for the job. When that happens, it will usually fit with a character that I already have.

I like to just build on my characters’ core traits as I go. Characters can change within their own arcs or through the writing process. Sometimes storytelling will reveal something about my character that I never knew before. Maybe he’s a closet nerd. Maybe she’s secretly in love with her best friend. When I learn interesting little things like this as I go, I’ll add it to that character’s form.

This might even mean overriding something that I’d thought before. That’s fine, especially if the new information fits the character better or makes the plot more interesting. Don’t resist change. Former Pixar writer Emma Coats says, “Discount the 1st thing that comes to mind. And the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th – get the obvious out of the way. Surprise yourself.”

Whether because of story planning or character arcs, you’ll want to write these changes down so you can remember them.

I trust my characters to reveal themselves to me in due time.

Don’t be afraid to leave blanks on the form! Just because there’s a field doesn’t mean you need to use it. When I write, I only fill half to three-quarters of the fields I’ve provided for myself. Sometimes I put random information in as a placeholder just to test it out.

But don’t force anything that doesn’t fit. If I test run something and it isn’t working, I remove or replace it and continue to develop my character form there.

If you approach character development with the mindset that each person in your book needs to develop organically, both in-universe and out-of-universe, you’ll be setting yourself up to create more believable and relatable characters.

I create and develop my characters by letting ideas form naturally, writing down as many details as I can about each character, keeping track of changes in my characters, and trusting each of them to reveal themselves to me in their own time.

Nano Log: This Month's Challenge

Once I’d written my first novel, I was hooked. The crazy roller coaster of emotions connected to the project was dizzying, but I’d never been as proud of myself as I was when I looked at my full wordcount meter days before the deadline. For the past several years, I’ve participated in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo or just Nano) and have written a few novels in a month each.

I’ve been writing ever since I learned to read, but attempting my first full-length book opened up an entirely new world to me. Participating in Nano each November and in Camp Nano, a spin-off event that takes place in April and July, has taught me a lot about how to put a story together. The editing work I’ve done since then has taught me how to nicely polish a story once it’s been put together.

Nano and Camp Nano helped me to create new characters and worlds, to discover new things about my own writing style and habits, and to become a part of an incredibly supportive and creative online community of writers. Through NaNoWriMo, I’ve improved my writing, increased my confidence, and connected with fantastic writers.

And that’s why I’m going to experiment a little. I’m going to try something this month that I’ve never tried before. I’m going to write, instead of a book, a short story collection.

I look forward to challenging myself this month. My fastest writing sprints have taught me that I’m capable of writing 1,000 to 1,500 words per half-hour, and I’ll be pushing myself to get into that range with each writing session. My goal is (1) to write 30,000 words by the end of the month and (2) to have clear outlines for my main plot and subplots and a strong understanding of how they all tie together.

To help me reach these goals, I’ve allotted 1-hour blocks of time each day to dedicate solely to working on my camp project. In addition to drafting, I also like to take time after I’ve worked on increasing my wordcount to put together notes for my next writing session. If I have a few scenes outlined (whether it’s with an actual outline or just a few sentences detailing what I want to happen) it’s a lot easier to get started the next time I write.

When I have time, I also like to get around to non-writing activities that affect my writing, like interacting with other writers, reading camp care packages (mini-peptalks full of writing advice), or participating in events like virtual write-ins.

I also plan to create and publish a blog post each week for the duration of the month, rather than the one per month I usually post. I’ll just put aside a little time a few days a week to work on blog posts. Hopefully, that’ll be enough to get me a post for each week of Camp Nano, because posting on my blog is one way that I stay connected with my community and chronicle my journey.

The tools that I’m using to follow my strategy and achieve this month’s goals are Scrivener, a couple kinds of writing exercises, and interaction with the Nano community.

My exercises include a poetry book and these part-of-speech prompts that I put together specifically to use this month.

I bought the book of poetry writing warm-ups at a thrift store about a year ago, and it’s been pretty helpful to me in getting my creativity flowing when I don’t know what to write about. I pick and choose which ones I want to do and then give myself five to ten minutes for each exercise.

I also have the part-of-speech exercise I put together. I wrote, on color-coordinated paper, 30 each of random nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs, tossed them into a little box, and mixed them up. Each day I’ll draw one paper of each color and incorporate each into at least one scene that I write that day.

Yesterday’s combination (stained patio learning hesitantly) didn’t seem to make much sense when I first read it aloud. But it actually inspired a completely unplanned scene that taught me more about my characters!

I’m looking forward to tackling this challenge during April. With a solid plan and the tools to fall back on, I know that I can reach my goal.

What are your writing goals for this month, whether or not you’re participating in Camp Nano? How do you plan to reach your goals and what tools have you prepared to get you there?

Writing Tip: Learning as You Go

“No work is ever wasted. If it’s not working, let go and move on –it’ll come back around to be useful later.” –Former Pixar Story Artist, Emma Coats

My 2014 NaNoWriMo novel was a wreck. Though I did reach the 50,000 word goal, the project fell apart at the end of November. You can track that disaster,  which starts with this post (the pre-Nano portion of my Nano Log), if you’re interested. And, in case you don’t know what Nano is, you can check out the website here. It’s a fantastic program for writers of all kinds that comes with a supportive and inspirational community.

Despite its early end, the project was a great exercise in character development for me, and I really had a lot of fun writing it. I also learned a lot about my personal writing style. And whether or not I continue work on that particular novel, I can already see the positive impact that it’s had on every project since then, whether directly or indirectly.

I think the biggest writing lesson that I’ve learned through failure—other than the importance of backing up my work, which I had to learn the hard way—is that I excel at preparation.

I don’t, however, excel at improvising (or, as the writing community often calls it, pantsing—as in, flying by the seat of your pants).

That November, I’d decided to experiment by trying this method. I knew plenty of writers who wrote this way, and it seemed worth it to give it a try. When I started writing, I had a hazy idea about what I wanted to happen in the story. My characters were paper-thin collections of facts. To push myself along in the process, I’d collected random writing prompts from the internet, hoping that they’d keep words coming as I wrote my draft.

As someone who likes to plan ahead, I often prewrite for about as long as I draft or revise. Generally, I can be found outlining or graphing plots and subplots or creating detailed analysis profiles for characters or designing fictional worlds.

Because I’d decided to pants, I did none of these things. The plot followed my internet prompts and whatever ideas popped into my head. And it took a while for my characters to go from two-dimensional ideas to believable people. I just jumped into the whole thing and did whatever came naturally.

Some of it was good, some of it was bad. And I managed to grow a lot as an author because of that. My good points got better, and my weaker points improved with the practice.

By the end of the month, I had an entertaining plot, engaging scenes, and relatable characters.

By the end of the month, I’d also discovered a problem during my research. I’d based my entire novel on an incorrect assumption. The premise that was the backbone of my book was flawed and I couldn’t use it.

So I had to shelf that project for now. I may find a way to repair and finish it, or I may not. Either way, it was an enjoyable learning experience.

When it comes to writing, I’ve seen that effort is never wasted. I don’t trash any of my ideas; I recycle them. I’ve seen themes, characters, and plot ideas return reincarnated, better than they were before and more fitting in my newer work. Whatever I don’t use the way I’d originally intended, I learn from.

Don’t be afraid to experiment as you write. Learn from your mistakes. Build future stories on the foundation of all the lessons you’ve learned. As a result, everything you write post-error will automatically start out stronger.

For anyone who’s interested in checking out some of my 2014 work-in-progress, Flying Change, I posted several excerpts throughout my Nano journey. You can read those stating with this post here.

What lessons have you learned through your writing, whether you went the easy route or the hard one? Let me know in the comments below or link me to a blog post of your own!

Creative Chat: Writing Obsessions

My current writing obsessions are symbolism and intertextuality. That is, the use of symbols to represent ideas or qualities in art (especially in literature) and the ongoing interaction between multiple works of art (especially literature).

When I say “current writing obsessions,” I mean those things that I’ve been itching to write, the things that drive me increasingly toward insanity as I struggle to get them onto the page the way they work in my head. They’re those things that I’ve been devoting my time to studying because I need to be able to execute them the way they’re executed in the works I admire. I’m sure you all know the feeling.

Your current writing obsession is something that you notice everywhere from books to television to other forms of art. Whether you’re looking for it or not, you start to see it more and more in the things you watch, read, and listen to. Ultimately, regardless of what it is, it’s something you’re obsessed about as a writer.

I’ve been reading about the use of symbolism and intertextuality in literature, and that’s opened up this door for me. I really like the idea of storytelling going deeper than the surface, whether it’s through the use of symbols or through the dialogue between new stories and an established ones.

Creating strong symbolism and intertextuality in your writing will keep readers coming back. And each time they do, they may learn something more about your book, themselves, or the world. They’ll be able to work their way inward, with each layer becoming bigger and better than the one before it. Developing these layers in your work could be the difference between writing a nice story that people read and smile about and creating a lasting piece of art that readers will hold on to and cherish for years to come.

I want my writing to be intellectually and emotionally engaging; I want to create stories that keep readers coming back for more the way I’ve gone back to books I’ve connected with. I enjoy engaging with authors, through their work, to discover meanings that lie beneath the surface, and I want my readers to be able to engage with me in a similar experience.

I’m studying and experimenting with symbolism and intertextuality because I think that learning and perfecting their use will greatly improve the quality of the writing I produce. Learning from the greats about the tricks of the trade that they use will, at the very least, expand my knowledge of the literary world and allow me to better enjoy my reading. At best, they’ll exponentially amplify elements of my original stories so that they can be better enjoyed by my readers.

I plan to use the knowledge I gain to create content that readers will be able to analyze and enjoy. I want to connect with my audience in a deep and meaningful way. I want to touch them and teach them like I’ve been touched and taught by other authors.

So, what are your current writing obsessions? What have you become passionate about, and how are you incorporating it into your writing? Leave a comment below or link me to your own blog or vlog post!

Writing Tip: Refilling the Well

Happy New Year! It’s January 2016, and the year is overflowing with opportunities. We’re hunting for jobs, joining gyms, and learning new languages. Everyone seems to have a long list of New Year’s Resolutions, and everyone is ready to capitalize on the unlimited potential that a new year inevitably brings.

I have my own list of things that I want to accomplish in 2016, and, so far, I’ve been doing pretty well. My progress on most of my goals is exactly where it should be for the end of the first month.

Unfortunately, my writing goals are the exception to this rule. Particularly my goal to write 1,000 words per day. I think I’ve stuck to that once or twice in all of January.

It’s not that I’m not trying, because I am. But, aside from the challenge of making time to write each day, I often feel powerless to turn a blinking caret into literature the way Rumpelstiltskin turned straw into gold.

Each of us has a well of inspiration that we draw from. And the water levels in these wells are usually well-maintained by those very special springs unique to the mind of a creative writer, the springs that turn everyday people and events into fiction fodder.

Yet sometimes the springs fail us. Sometimes, when we come to draw water, we find a vast, echoing emptiness.

What’s a writer to do when their well’s run dry?

I think that the answer depends on what’s causing your writers’ block.

Your writing couldn’t possibly be good enough. At least, that’s what you tell yourself at times. And, during those times, you revise your work to death, uprooting the good along with the bad.

Sometimes you’re bogged down by a single routine, a single mindset, or a single writing method. Trapped in tunnel vision, you become incapable of seeing things creatively and you kill new ideas before they’ve even taken shape.

Or sometimes the problem is simply a lack of inspiration. The laws of physics tell us that energy can’t be destroyed or created. It just changes form. And the same goes for your creative energy. You can’t create something out of nothing. Of course, you can’t just sit around waiting for your muse to show up—muses are notoriously fickle—but you also can’t expect fantastic output when there hasn’t been any input. Creating anything worth your time will become exponentially harder if you’ve failed to nourish your imagination.

So, now that you’ve identified the cause of your empty well, what do you do about it? Curing writers’ block is like curing hiccups—all your friends may swear by a remedy that just doesn’t work for you, and it can be difficult to find what does. Based on what I’ve learned from experience and from other writers, there’s no one-size-fits-all advice, especially in the world of creative writing. But here are several methods that have often gotten me through creative dry spells.

Believe in yourself. I’m aware of how cliché that sounds, but confidence in yourself and your work is crucial to producing quality content. One thing that boosts my confidence is going back through old pieces that I’ve written that I’m proud of, especially ones that other people have enjoyed as well. This reminds me of the things that I’ve done right, which I’m fully capable of doing again.

It also helps to remember that each of us has doubts. We’ll all have moments when we don’t believe in our own abilities.

Vary your routine. Take a different route to work, eat lunch with someone other than your usual crew, or take a class on something you know absolutely nothing about. Breaking from your everyday traditions can free your mind and get you thinking creatively again.

Vary your thought process. Approach the familiar as though seeing it for the first time. Try to observe your world through someone else’s eyes. I use my fictional characters’. You’ll be surprised by how a small shift of perspective will transform the mundane into a wealth of inspiration.

Vary your writing process. If you’ve outlined each of your recent projects, do a couple of writing exercises that require spur-of-the-moment creation. Or, if you’ve been revising on a computer, print your next draft and mark up the hard copy before typing the corrections.

Store up input. Consistently churning out original content without taking any in, you’ll eventually run out of ideas. So read books, watch movies, and listen to music. Absorbing the stories around us keeps ideas forming and flowing.

Writers’ block is practically a rite of passage for us; it just comes with the territory. Luckily, restoring your well can be as simple as reminding yourself how amazing you are, breaking free of routines you’ve been stuck in, or spending an afternoon curled up with a cup of tea and a library book.