Category Archives: Writing challenges

Should You Do NaNoWriMo?

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(And can you say it five times fast?)

November, historically, has been a very busy month for me, so I have never yet participated in National Novel Writing Month – although I was intrigued by the notion that you could write an entire first draft of a novel in one month. This year, my November has more free time in it, so I’ve taken the plunge and signed up for NaNoWriMo.

OK, let’s be honest. I didn’t sign up in the past because I was also completely intimidated by the idea of producing an enormous amount of wordage in one month. Of sticking to a daily schedule and meeting a daily word count. I’m still intimidated. I tend to write as ideas overtake me, which means I am not especially consistent in terms of a writing schedule. When I’m deep in the throes of a writing project, I can write for hours and hours. At other times, on other days, I do not write at all.

Can I really do this? I guess we’ll see.

Fortunately, NaNoWriMo allows you to decide on your own goals. Thus, instead of the 50,000-words that seem to be the default monthly objective, I established a more modest – yet still insanely ambitious – goal of 30,000 words, or 1,000 words a day. Even 1,000 words a day will be a challenge. A thousand words is A LOT.

I have a genre in mind – a thriller. I know who my main character is. I have a vague story arc mapped out, and some key events ready to help move the story forward. Is that enough? Help!

Have You Done NaNoWriMo?

I need to hear from writers who’ve participated in this initiative. If you are one of these brave souls, I have questions for you:

~Did you achieve your word count goals, daily and for the month?

~Did you find this kind of speed writing helpful, or not helpful? Did you end up with a piece of writing you could refine and develop into a full-length novel, or did the pressure to write quickly result in a bunch useless drivel? Were you able to publish or self-publish what you started during NaNoWriMo?

~Would kind of preparation did you do for NaNoWriMo? Did you develop a detailed outline? A list of fully-fleshed characters? Or…did you fly by the seat of your pants (which is largely what I’m going to do)?

And finally,

~Would you/are you going to do it again?

Or, Do You Think NaNoWriMo is Nonsense?

Is this approach gimmicky? Not the way real writers should practice their craft?

Whether you love NaNoWriMo, hate it or don’t care about it, I’d love to hear your opinion.

Comment away.

The Creative Constipation Cure

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Are you a writer who is BLOCKED? You’ve got a germ of an idea for something you want to write, or maybe a work in progress or maybe even a work THAT IS ALMOST FINISHED, but you can’t move forward with it. You’re stuck. That brilliant novel, short story, memoir, play, essay, nonfiction book or WHATEVER is stuck somewhere inside of you – and it can’t get out. And that is uncomfortable as hell. There’s no stool softener that’s gonna fix THIS kind of constipationGet Those Creative Juices Flowing Again

Get Those Creative Juices Flowing Again

You are a writer because you have something to say. If you are not saying it, you have a problem. Badass writers don’t get creative constipation. We don’t get writer’s block. The only thing that gets in my way is time. Or lack thereof. I always have at least a half a dozen projects lined up, in various stages of ideation or completion. However, I wasn’t always a badass writer. It took me awhile to get here, and it may take you awhile, too. So until you reach that exalted status and join the club, here are ten ways to help you to unblock, and get those creative juices flowing again.

  1. Meditate. Let those troublesome thoughts drift away. Stop worrying and obsessing about whatever is diverting your mental powers and give yourself over to thinking about…nothing. I prefer guided mediation. You can find these all over YouTube. Some are as quick as ten minutes, others are longer. Some guides have especially relaxing voices, others take you through physical actions, such as stretching your limbs or taking deep breaths. Find one that works for you, and do it. Regularly.
  2. Work on several writing projects at once. What? How are you supposed to be able to finish anything if you jump from project to project? When you hit an impasse on one, jump to another. Let’s say you’ve come to a point in your novel where you just don’t know what’s going to – what should happen – next. Instead of trying to force the story to go in a particular direction, take a break from it, and write something else. Make notes for your next novel. Call Grampa and ask some questions that will help you with that memoir you’re writing. Changing things up can be very helpful.
  3. Engage in some sensory deprivation. Go into a dark, quiet room and sit, unmoving. Set a timer for ten minutes.
  4. Engage in some sensory stimulation. Light a scented candle or some incense, put on some mood music or sounds – again, Youtube is a great place to find this. You can set a timer for this, too, although I find that scents and sounds help me write.
  5. Change locations. Take your laptop to a coffee shop, a park, a library. If you need quiet while you write, obviously you should choose a quiet location. Some people, however, may find it beneficial to be surrounded by sound and activity. I take my laptop to my backyard, and sit under a maple tree, enjoying the greenery around me and the sunshine overhead.
  6. If you have access to a sauna (like, maybe, the one at your gym that you’ve never gotten around to using), use it. Get in there, lie down and close your eyes. Stay in there for awhile. This won’t just clear your pores; it’ll clear your head, too.
  7. Participate in my Instagram #badasswriterchallenges. (I’ll be starting them soon.) Look at the image that I provide and write a paragraph based on it – and the starter sentence that goes with. Don’t like my images? Find one of your own, and write a paragraph or short story inspired by it. Who knows? What you write may turn out to be the basis of something much longer. Even if it doesn’t, writing prompts can be very effective in helping you get out of your own way. Badass writers do not get in their own way.
  8. Here’s another image-based technique: find a picture of some stranger and use it to create a character. Come up with that person’s backstory, describe their personality, what they do for fun, what gets them into trouble, assemble details about where they live, how they live, who they live with. Like that. In many creative formats, you’re going to have to invent people. Characters. This exercise gets you in that groove.
  9. Do something else that’s creative, something that has nothing to do with writing. Step away from your computer and spend time on a creative activity that makes you happy. Play your guitar, knit a scarf, paint a picture, macrame a cool wall hanging, sew a quilt, make jewelry, build a birdhouse. All creative activities stimulate your brain and enhance connectivity, so that when writing happens to be the creative activity you are doing, you can more easily access ideas – ideas that may have been percolating in your brain when you were making papier mâché apples to put in a papier mâché bowl. But the papier mâché contributed to the writing.
  10. Stop writing. Put your project away and sleep on it. When I’m tired, I can find myself completely frustrated by something I’m trying to accomplish. When I approach the same problem the next morning, the solution comes to me, as if by magic. Yeah – the magic of a good night’s sleep! Scarlett O’Hara was right: Tomorrow is another day.

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