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?

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!