NaNo, No, No.

So I didn't make the 50,000 words for NaNoWriMo. To be honest, I didn't even come close.

I did outline, and I did write a few scenes. I've made a great start on my novel. But I didn't finish.

It came down to this: my Physical Therapy team told me that in order to heal my shoulder, I would need to do about 40 minutes of exercises and stretches three times a day for several weeks.

40 minutes x 3 = 2 hours a day = my NaNo time.

I hated making that decision, but when it comes down to healing and taking care of my body versus spitting out 50,000 words of crap, taking care of myself wins every time.

SO.

I don't have a crappy novel that will need months and months of revision. I DO have a couple of well-crafted scenes that will probably change anyway, but are serving as a good foundation. I have a solid outline. I have a chapter book whose first half is beautiful and whose second half is about to go out to my crit group for feedback. And I have a bunch of many-times revised picture books that are nice and shiny and polished. (You'd be amazed how much work you can get done on a picture book when you only have slivers of time scattered here and there.)

All things considered, I did okay.

How was your November?

NaNo Nutso

LORDYCAKES, I have dropped the blogging ball this month. Sorry guys. NaNo + PiBo + houseguest = crazy Ishta. I'll try to do better from here on in.

FIRST, my next MMGM will go up NEXT MONDAY, when I will be spotlighting one of my favorite books to come out this year by one of my favorite people, so make sure to come back for that.

And now for the nutso part...

I changed my NaNo project at the last minute. I was originally going to write a YA dystopian that I've been thinking about for a few months now, but the characters just weren't coming together. And then I met Sandra Bogart Johnston last month at a conference, and hearing about some of the books she's been working on got me thinking about my family and their role in WWII, and THAT got me thinking... there's a book in here somewhere. And I really want to write it.

So I'm outlining and taking notes for a YA historical about the guerilla movement in the Philippines during the Second World War. And I love it. That stuff about writing the book you're burning to write is totally true - I've never had the words fly out so fast before.

What have you been writing about? How is NaNoLand treating you?

NaNo News

It's November! And you know what that means...


National Novel Writing Month!


and...


Picture Book Idea Month!


And because I'm CRAZY, I'm doing both again! WOO-HOO! Let's hear it for the crazy people!


So, the thing to know is that this month, posting will be erratic. There will be one MMGM post next Monday, and NaNo posts on Wednesdays, and maybe the odd random Friday letting-off-steam post about nothing in particular, but for the most part, I'm not going to be here. Because I'm going to be HERE, in NaNoLand.

Are you NaNo-ing this year? If you are, come find me - my user name is Ishta - and let's be buddies!

And in the meantime, I've spent the last few days wondering how to start my NaNo novel. Last year, I started on page one. But there's more than one way to steamroll your way through 50,000 words, and this year, I'm trying something different.

I'm just going to start. I've got the beginning of a scene in my head, and I'm just going to start there and work my way over, around and through this thing.

So if you're like me, sitting there with this kernel of an idea and wondering what to do with it, maybe try that. Just start with the scene that is your idea, and go from there. See where it takes you.

Happy NaNoWriMo-ing!

I Heart Picture Books

I promised you guys a post on PiBoIdMo today, so I'm here to deliver.

I signed up for PiBoIdMo thinking, just like with NaNo, that I'd coast through it if I kept my notepad on me at all times and scribbled down every idea I had. NOT SO. (See how stupidly arrogant I can sometimes be? When will I LEARN?)

Picture books are hard to do, guys. The picture book author is truly a lover of books and of words, because there is no way that anyone would just do picture books for kicks or because they had a gap in between projects. They're hard to write, they're hard to revise, and they're super hard to get right. Because you have to work to a 32-page format, they're actually very technical. And coming up with new ideas was HARD. Just when I thought I had a great idea, I'd realize it had been done. And maybe you're really good at taking repeat ideas and putting a fresh spin on them - in fact, I bet you are - but I'm not. It was humbling.

So, like with NaNo, I squeaked by. I came up with exactly 30 ideas, and my 30th idea came at 10pm on November 30th. But if I do say so, some of these ideas totally kick butt.

What PiBo did for me was force me beyond the usual, old-hat, done a million ways from Sunday ideas and into the really unusual, out-of-my-comfort-zone ideas. It made me look at the world with different eyes, and it made me really listen, to myself and to my surroundings. And since PiBo, I've actually continued coming up with ideas, which kind of rocks. So it forced me into a new habit, which I hope will continue.

The other thing that PiBo and NaNo both did was show me that I can meet a deadline. I used to freak out about that element of being a "published author" - that I'd suddenly have deadlines, and wouldn't be able to meet them. But after completing both these challenges, I know I can.

Now, over to you guys: Did you do PiBoIdMo? How about NaNoWriMo? What did the experience teach you? I think as long as we all learned something, everyone came out a winner.

I'm Baaaack!

Hey, everybody!  Thank you so much for sticking with me and coming by to comment even while my blog was on hiatus. It also came to my attention that I might have an award or two floating out there that I have to collect, which I will get to in the coming days. (And THANK YOU for that! You guys are the best.) I just wanted to say that you are awesome, and having you guys come by to say hello really brightened my days while I was slogging through those 50,000 words.

Which I did! I wrote over 50,000 words of my novel! 51,636 words, to be exact, including the ending.

I DID IT!


And I'm feeling pretty proud of myself, actually, since over 47,000 of those words happened after November 15th, and a little more than 40,000 of them happened after the 25th. Yeah. Thanks to my husband, who took over the housework and kept me supplied with caffeinated food and beverages, I wrote 40,000 words in five days. And I'm tired. But that's okay, because I conquered the NaNo mountain.


And since this is a Wednesday post, we've got some wisdom coming through the brainwaves. (But only maybe a little - I'm tired, guys.)

When I first took on the NaNo challenge, I thought it would be totally doable. Actually, I thought I'd coast through it. 1,667 words a day? I thought, That's not even two hours' worth of word-vomit. No problem. I can be arrogant like that sometimes; it's not my best quality. But when November 16th came and I was still stuck at 4002 words, I thought I was in serious trouble. And I had no outline to speak of. I had several failed attempts at an outline, but no outline.

And on November 22nd, when my word count had topped out at 6,483? I thought I was toast. Which was really disheartening, because I really didn't want to still be cranking out my rough draft in the days leading up to Christmas. I wanted to be working on my picture books and my chapter book, and letting my novel marinate. It was an important goal for me.

But here's the difference: by November 22nd, I had an outline. I had a map. I knew where I was going, and I even had a plan for getting there. I also had John Green. On an endlessly repeating loop sometimes, but I digress.

And, of course, I stopped restricting myself. If I was stuck in a scene, I threw quality to the wind and let my internal editor make her notes in the margins and on the outline (and there were a lot of notes, believe me) and just wrote my way out of it. If I was really stuck, I skipped the rest of that scene and came back to it later, when I had written more and had a better sense of where everything was headed. I even allowed myself to veer off-outline once, and later found that what I had written was SO much better than it would have been if I had stuck to the plan. And most importantly for me, I knew that there were other writers, whom I have a LOT of respect for, who knew I had signed up for this. Meeting other people's expectations is a big motivator for me.

Does a lot of my NaNovel suck? Yup. But that's okay, because I can revise it. Revision is the fun part for me; it's the gravy. Cranking out the words is just tedious, but revising the story and crafting those words into something beautiful (or in this case, gory) is what it's about. Like I said a while ago, I'm a critique junkie.

So, that's my tiny piece of maybe-wisdom today. Have an outline, have someone or something to encourage you, and make yourself accountable to someone else. And know that it's okay to suck. Okay, so that's four tiny pieces. I'm tired; the ability to count is not important in moments like this.

Of course, after that 5-day caffeine binge, I have a migraine, so I'm going to sign off. More tomorrow on PiBoIdMo, which I also did this month.

And congratulations to all the writers who participated in NaNoWriMo! Even if you didn't make it to 50,000 words, you made a decision to start, and you started, which is something, in my book.

Hiatus!

I am swamped.

Not only am I way behind on my NaNo goals, but I have critiques to do and an epic outline to complete. Having company over will have this sort of result, methinks.

So, I am going to have to take a two-week-ish blogging hiatus. I'll miss you guys, but I have to take my own advice here and buckle down and prioritize. And I hope you'll understand and come back in December, when I'll be back to my daily blogging schedule.

In the meantime, have a great November, and I'll see you on December 1st!

Random Pre-NaNo, Pre-PiBo Stuff

There's all kinds of great stuff going on right now here and in the rest of the blogoverse, so I'm postponing the usual Wisdom post until next week.

FIRST UP: There are TWO WAYS to enter the HALLOWEEN CONTEST EXTRAVAGANZA!!! You can either comment telling me your wacky costume ideas, OR email me a picture of yourself in your costume. So don't be shy! Enter here.

SECOND UP: OMG, guys, have I got a great author spotlight and book giveaway contest for you coming up tomorrow. I am so excited! It's going to be awesome, so come by and enter, okay? Okay. You can enter both tomorrow's contest and the HALLOWEEN CONTEST EXTRAVAGANZA! It will be easy-peasy, I promise you.


THIRD UP: I guess you noticed from the title of this post that I'm probably going to do NaNoWriMo. In fact, I have so much of my YA paranormal outlined that I have decided that I AM doing NaNo! WOO-HOO! And, of course, I am also doing PiBoIdMo. I'm pretty sure I can come up with 30 PB ideas in 30 days; my 3-year-old is a rich source of material. I mean, his big thing is running around the house with his underwear on his head. So, yes! to NaNo!  Yes! to PiBo!  YES! to my head exploding! (I'm just kidding about that last part...I think.) I am not yet set up on these things, so I will post over the weekend with links to my pages so you can buddy me.


FOURTH UP: Obviously, this means that I will have less time for blogging.  Like, a lot less.  Like, none.  I will maintain a thrice-weekly posting schedule, comprising of Mondays (random updates, writerly thoughts, linkages, etc.), Wednesdays (Wisdom), and Fridays (Favorites/random writerly stuff).  But I won't really be commenting as much on other blogs, at least not for the first half of November while I have family visiting from overseas (OMG, I must be MAD). And of course, we'll be right back up to five-posts-a-week from December 1st!


SEE YOU TOMORROW!!!

To NaNo, or Not To NaNo...

FIRST: Have you entered the HALLOWEEN CONTEST EXTRAVAGANZA yet?  If not, do it here.

And now: To NaNo, or not to NaNo?

It's the question on everyone's mind this time of year, isn't it? It sure is the question on mine, and I still haven't made a decision. Here's why.

When I take the "vomit on paper" approach, what I write is crap. I mean, steaming poo, scrape it off your shoe and throw it away crap. It's awful. But as bad as it is, there are usually kernels in there that I can use, that serve as the foundation of the scene that I wanted to write but didn't because I was rushing to get the words out.

On the other hand, when I take the "write, delete, write, think, go back over the last scene, think, delete, write, write, cut-and-paste from somewhere else in the scene, write, think, write, delete, write" approach - otherwise known as the painstaking, my-fingers-are-bleeding, "edit-as-you-go" approach, what I come up with isn't too bad. It's still not great - there are always things that need to be done to make it better - but it's not something I'd be embarrassed to show to my crit group. But it also takes a lot longer. I'd never make the NaNo target of 50,000 words doing it this way, especially not in November, which is when Thanksgiving and visitors from overseas and housework threaten to take over my life.

So, which is better? Just getting something down quickly, even if it's crap, knowing that I can rearrange and edit and delete and rewrite it into something critiquable? Or saying, screw daily word goals, I'm going to write for four hours a day and no matter how long it takes me to finish the book at least it's going to be of an okay quality when I get there?

What do you think? Is NaNo a go, or a no-no? What writing style works best for you?