Ann Wachtler, Author: May 2016

Camp Nanowrimo 2016

The nice folks over at Nanowrimo set up a less challenging month in April called "Camp Nanowrimo." The biggest differences between regular Nanowrimo and the spring version are a) you define your own word count goal and b) each writer is part of a cabin (writing group). Three writers in my group made it to the end.

I kept my a goal modest 10,000 words because I helped direct the spring musical. On the chart you can see when it ended (day 11) and how long it took me to mentally recover (about a week).

Once I started cranking out story, story happened.

Which means I won this:

The Problem of Evil

One of the biggest challenges for me while writing SPOTD was finding a villain. And you don't have much of a superhero without a decent villain to act as a foil.

In fact, the villains tend to steal the show.

I struggled finding SPOTD's villain because I didn't want him (or her) to be cliched. And a bully is a big cliche. Even more than that, I didn't want Chase to fill the cliche of a bullied kid. Eventually I realized that Chase's sister Addy could be the target of the bullying, and the unfortunate Billy Bully was born.

Even though Billy is present from chapter one, Chase doesn't see him as dangerous. He is blind to his sister's situation. He must first overcome the villainous part of his own personality -- how he mistreats his sister Addy. Then he can see her problems and step into the role of protector.

Once again, I am faced with the challenge of finding villains. This time, they need to be plentiful. And to my surprise, this time they have been easier to write.

All I had to do was let them start killing people.

What I Learned in November

It is true, what successful writers say about the writing process.
To write a novel, one must have enough discipline to sacrifice other pleasures.

Stephanie Perkins puts it this way:

Novels aren’t written by muses who come down through the ceiling and shoot magic through your fingers and out onto your laptop’s keyboard. Before NaNoWriMo, some teensy part of me still believed that because writing is a creative act, it should feel easy. But fairies don’t write novels. They’re written with one simple equation: Time + Work = Novel

Neil Gaiman puts it this way:

You write. That’s the hard bit that nobody sees. You write on the good days and you write on the lousy days. Like a shark, you have to keep moving forward or you die. Writing may or may not be your salvation; it might or might not be your destiny. But that does not matter. What matters right now are the words, one after another. Find the next word. Write it down. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

And as Pat Rothfuss puts it:

1. Yay, Verily. You Must Sit Down and Write.

1a. Thou shalt not go see a movie instead. Or watch reality TV. Thou shalt write. No. Stop. You don’t need to clean out the fridge right now. Neither dost thou need to sort the recycling. I’m not even kidding. Go and write.

1b. Thou shalt not just think about writing. Seriously. That is not writing. The worst unpublished novel of all-time is better than the brilliant idea you have in your head. Why? Because the worst novel ever is written down. That means it’s a book, while your idea is just an idle fancy. My dog used to dream about chasing rabbits; she didn’t write a novel about chasing rabbits. There is a difference.

1c. Thou shalt not read, either. I know it’s book-related, but it’s not actually writing. Yes, even if it’s a book about how to write. Yes, even if you’re doing research. You can research later. Sit. Down. Write. P

So last November, I wrote.

And I learned that Ms. Perkins, Mr. Gaiman, and Pat were soooo right.

Here's my 2015 chart:

You'll notice my wordcount flatline on day 10. Even though I hadn't finished the Kostova, I went to book club. That loss of time plus post-wine lethargy led to a few late evening hours of organizing my thoughts, but no new words in the story. Skipping the actual writing taught me that even if I had to stay up past midnight to put in my time, skipping a day of writing is not worth the extra sleep.

My mother called what happened for me this past November "momentum," and she was right. Writing a novel is like jumping onto a moving train. You can't reach your destination without the courage to make the leap, every day. I have to thank Nanowrimo for pointing me in the direction of a slow but steady train. I didn't "win" the month, at only 40,000 words. But I love the story I am writing. And I love the writing of it.

Next up: An update.

Progress and Inspiration (with too many ellipses)

So last summer I...
... spent a lot of time in my head, world building
... rationalized time spend reading as time preparing to write (lots of Flanagan)
... hashed out quite a bit of my new story's plot, mostly while driving
... revised the 6000 or so words I had written in February/March
... researched castles by visiting British castles and
... did not write a word of actual story.

Then this happened...