S.L. Viehl's Blog, page 213

Odds/Ends

Fall Back: In the U.S. "Standard time begins each year at 2:00 A.M. on the first Sunday in November, with clocks moving one hour back." So all my U.S. resident visitors who did not set their clocks back last night should go do it now because Daylight Savings Time is officially over. It's also an excellent time to change the batteries in your household smoke detectors (link: U.S. Daylight Savings Time in 2010: Clock Changes - When to Spring Forward and Fall Back)

Finished, Eh: Jean M. Auel, author of the Earth's Children series which started with The Clan of the Cave Bear thirty years ago in 1980, says that The Land of Painted Caves, the sixth and supposedly final novel in the series (due out in March) may not be the end after all. I've been reading this series since I was nineteen years old when I actually hung out with Ayla in the caves, so yeah, I'd like some closure. Jean, you're 74. Write book seven if you have to, but please, finish the damn series before one or both of us buy the farm, okay?

It's Alive: For those of you who chuckled over the Mash-O-Matic, you might want to check out Seventh Sanctum's new
So long, Nathan: Literary agent and popular indy blogger Nathan Bransford has abruptly quit the rep end of the biz to work for CNET as a social media strategy coordinator. Makes me wonder if I should fly to NY, swipe my agent's Blackberry and toss it in the Hudson. All kidding aside, best of luck over at CNET, Nathan.

White Night: I stumbled across this beautiful and brilliant video while out surfing and thought it showed just how, um, shattering love at first sight can be (has background music, and is about four and a half minutes long -- runs mostly in slow motion -- but is entirely work safe.):

Nuit Blanche from Spy Films on Vimeo.

EndWeek NaNoPost

This first week of NaNoWriMo I felt like I'd gotten caught up in a secret conspiracy to keep me from writing. To give you the Reader's Digest version:

Monday: Go to scheduled doctor's visit, have unscheduled minor surgery, hobble home, write while ignoring new and mysterious jaw pain, pain results in sleepless night #1.

Tuesday: Go for emergency dentist visit, root canal not required (hooray) but if I don't stop stressing I may have to begin wearing a mouth guard to bed (whine), too wired to nap but manage a little more writing, stress over stressing results in sleepless night #2.

Wednesday: Protagonist #2 refuses to let me in his head, write three pages of utter crap, my voice fails, indulge in hours of more stressing over whether I've taken the wrong approach (but I didn't clench!), massive tension headache, sleepless night #3.

Thursday: Shift into "keep busy mode" while having mental knock-down drag-out with Protagonist #2, I win, try to nap but can't, later fall into temporary couch coma and sleep through my editing time, then can't sleep when I should, sleepless night #4.

Friday: Have to skip my morning writing to edit Thursday's pages, daughter decides to have emergency BFF sleepover, set aside writing again to get guest room ready, my guy takes a day off and wants to hang with me, set aside writing yet again, I consider moving to a hotel with internet access until Dec. 1st, imagine my guy making Thanksgiving dinner, cringe and decide to write this post until they all leave tonight for the football game (I'm staying home to write in what had better be complete peace and quiet.)

The unexpected hits all of us, and one thing I've learned as a person and a writer is not to let it burrow under my hide. Life is chaotic, stuff happens, and you deal with it until you can get back to the work. Or you don't and the work grows cold, gathers dust or is abandoned.

It's hard not to feel inadequate when we don't reach the goals we set for ourselves. Guilt and blame start to settle in and gnaw at us. We envy others who don't have to arm-wrestle minor surgery or jaw pain or sleepless nights on top of the work; it's tempting to hate those who are sailing merrily along while we flounder.

Stay out of that place, because it poisons you and the writing. Laugh at it, tell a friend about it, write a blog post about it. Treat yourself to a little first-week reward for having made it through because I assure you, you had it a hell of a lot tougher than all those merry sailors who effortlessly rapped out 20K. You didn't just write twenty pages this week, you probably fought twenty battles to write those pages this week.

I would have liked my first week of NaNo to go smoother and myself to be more productive, but it's done, it's past, and I have three more weeks to play. More than ever I am determined to have fun. Can't do that if I'm too busy being disappointed over what I now cannot change.

What was your biggest challenge this week? How did you deal with it? Let us know in comments.

Everything I Didn't Want to Know (Almost)

Blogger via Google has now stuck me with a Stats section, which shows page views for Paperback Writer per day, week, month and year as well as referral links, search terms, countries where my audience resides and what every one of you were doing last night at midnight. Yes, I'm kidding about the last part (although God knows, that'll probably be the next invasion of privacy.)

I've never put any stealth software or traffic counter on PBW, so until now I've been able to pretend only a dozen or so friends stop by occasionally to follow my rambling. Turns out there are a lot more of you dropping in than I realized (more like four times the amount that ping the blog whenever I ask.) Thank you so thoroughly tromping on my blogging fantasy, Google.

One good thing about this is I can see which posts and pages are getting the most traffic. Novel Outlining 101 is at the top of the charts today, as is my Freebies and Free Reads page. I'm glad the most popular posts are the ones about novel writing and free stuff; being a writer's resource is the whole point of PBW.



Another bonus is this global map, which shows where my visitors reside. I'm really not nosy, but it is pretty neat to see where everyone is (and the map only shades in the countries where the majority of my visitors live; there's no personal residence info or any other creepy invasive stuff.) The United States tops that list today, followed by the United Kingdom, Canada, Russia, Australia, the Netherlands, Germany, Slovenia, France and Israel. As I've always suspected, we are a very international bunch around here (and I know one young lady in France who is reading this instead of unpacking those boxes in the spare bedroom, which she had better do before her father comes to visit, hint, hint.)

I'm not happy about the rest of the data they're shoving at me -- sometimes ignorance truly is bliss -- but I suppose it'll come in handy the next time the Powers That Be want to know how popular the blog is. No more pinging required. That's rather depressing; I always liked the ping posts. Sniff.

What do you guys who are using Blogger think of this new feature? Is it just the next version of incessantly Googling yourself, or do you think we can get some practical use out of it?

ABCharacter

One thing about NaNoWriMo is that it doesn't exactly give us weeks and weeks to figure out who our characters are. With that in mind, here's a quick and fun characterization exercise I use for the creative writing workshops that may help you speed up the process

First, compile an alphabetical list of quirks, traits and/or other aspects of personality (positive or negative) that best describe your character. Try to avoid words that are synonyms of each other. For the tough letters (X and Z) you can use words that contain the letters versus starting with them.

Here's one of my lists:

Arrogant, bewildering, courageous, demanding, exemplary, ferocious, gifted, hot-headed, intelligent, jealous, kind, lonely, mysterious, nitpicky, overbearing, proud, quick, rebellious, sensitive, terrifying, unyielding, volatile, wistful, eXiled, young, priZed

To get more out of the exercise, take each word from your list and describe in one sentence why that particular trait, quirk or other personality aspect applies to your character (bits of backstory are helpful here.) By the time you're finished, you should have a pretty decent character outline.

Midweek NaNo Post

If you haven't begun writing your NaNoWriMo novel yet, don't beat yourself up over it. I mean it. You've still got twenty-eight days left, and while I don't recommend waiting until the twenty-seventh to start your novel, coming out of the gate a little late may be your subconscious's way of giving you a little more time to get your head in the right place.

Most writers do something to align our creative selves and prep for the story journey. We have rituals and warm-ups and self-motivational habits that we refine and hone to get the maximum benefits. Writing a novel can be like running a mental marathon, so it makes sense to warm-up right before the race (and be sure to double-knot our lucky sneakers.)

Mental writing preparation doesn't have to be all about the work. Putting together my novel notebook and writing a synopsis are two of my pre-novel rituals, but they're no more important than my daily thirty-minute morning meditations or picking out the right socks to wear each morning (green, blue or black with no obvious patterns.) Your choice of prep do doesn't have to make sense to anyone but you; the important thing is that it works.

If you feel like you're stuck in a writing rut, you might consider mixing things up a bit. If possible, trying changing things like where you write, the time of day or night you write, or alter the length of your writing sessions. If your empty word counter is bugging the hell out of you, get rid of it. The internet can be a huge distraction as well as a source of endless temptations that can and will derail your writing, so try unplugging for a day or two. Don't worry, Twitter will still be there when you get back.

Reading while you're writing a novel can also be a tricky business. I am not an advocate of reading your favorite author(s) books when you're writing because of the tendency to compare your writing with theirs as well as the temptation to (consciously or unconsciously) lift things from their work. Aside from what research I need to reference, I tend to stick to nonfiction books that are entirely unrelated to what I'm working on (today's TBR stack is Quilts en Provence, The Pirate's Primer and Dungeon, Fire & Sword.) I also stock up on cooking, architectural and archaeological magazines for writing break times. P.S. If you don't agree with me, and find reading your favorite authors doesn't mess with your own work, go for it. In all things writing, do what works for you.

If you know the only thing keeping you from your story is self doubt and/or fear of failure, I invite you to join the No Expectations Club. We don't charge dues because as writers we've been informed -- repeatedly -- that we suck, we can't write, and we'll never produce a bestseller, interest a single reader or attain even a tiny crumb of that mythical fame and fortune that has been bestowed on far better writers. Naturally we won't; we're serious losers.

In fact, everything we write is probably going to be utter garbage that should be used only to publicly humiliate us, or line kitty litter boxes, or be burned along with our effigies at the next BEA. Sad, but true. So come on, say the club's motto with me: We're totally worthless, no one cares about us, and we know it. See, once you join the club and accept our charter, you can write whatever you want. No expectations = complete freedom.

I've made this novel journey almost a hundred times now, taken the same roads, moved at the same speed, and followed the same lines. Even when I make stops in the same places, not once has it ever been the same trip. It's always different. No matter how carefully I plan, I will never really know what's around the next page corner. That won't stop me from writing, because a big part of this is discovering what's waiting for me to find it.

So how are you guys doing with NaNo?

Writing Kits I'd Buy

I spotted another writing kit the last time I was at BAM, and decided to buy it to play with in December after NaNoWriMo (nothing is getting between me and my novel this month.) Naturally I had to open it to see all the bits and pieces, and there were some books and a pack of cards, and it all seemed pretty nice (I'll write up a real post about it after NaNo, when I've had a chance to test-drive it.)

The only problem I saw was that it is basically more of the same thing I've seen before, which boils down to a self-starter kit: "What to write if you're depressed, blocked, or otherwise completely clueless as to what you should write." As those are definitely not my usual problems, it made me think about the sort of kits for writers that I'd like to see put on the market. More realistic, genuinely helpful stuff for writers who don't need a jumpstart would have to cover a lot more ground, I think.

My first pick would have to be this one: 1001 Ways to Describe Your Novel Setting Without Falling Asleep and Drooling All Over Your Keyboard. Then maybe one for unruly characters who don't want to follow my outline: The All-Purpose Make 'Em March to Your Tune Character Repair Tool Box. I wonder if Dremmel could make an attachment for that. I should call them.

I'd absolutely need this one for those days when the pups want to play more than they want me to write: Placating Pet Strategies for Busy Writers (manuscript-shaped chew toys included!). Also one for the high school kid: 200 Pre-recorded Variations of "Those Other Girls Are Just Jealous of You" "Your Nose is Not As Big as a Toyota" and "You Are Wearing That to School Only Over My Dead Body". I think I'd need some bonus ear plugs in that one.

It doesn't have to be a kit per se, either. I'd love to see a lovely Quick Recovery From a Bad Writer Friendship gift basket, or some nice Stop Backtracking and Editing Before You Ruin The Damn Thing velvet-lined blinders and handcuffs. Wouldn't those make terrific holiday gifts for writer friends, too? I think a Ignoring the Indifferent Editor motivational CD would be a hot seller, as would a Getting Even with My Evil Critique Partner planner. A My Agent Doesn't Hate Me, He's Just Not Returning My Calls Because He's Really, Really Busy pacifier might work if it can't be chewed through, but the Surviving Horrible Cover Art wubbie would have to come with a bunch of extras (I'd donate the chocolate-covered Valium). So would the Hatchet Job Review First Aid kit.

All right, it's your turn: what sort of realistic writer kit would you like to see on the market? Tell us in comments.

Winners & NaNo Begins

Before I unofficially dive into NaNoWriMo here at PBW, we kept the magic hat home on Halloween night and wouldn't let it trick-or-treat until it selected the winners of the Wild for Writers giveaway, and they are:

Darlene Ryan

Nadia Lee

Tracy Sharp

Deb Salisbury

bunnygirl

Winners, when you have a chance please send your name and ship-to info to LynnViehl@aol.com so I can get your books out to you. My thanks to everyone for joining in.



Today NaNoWriMo officially begins, and from now until December 1st I'll be writing along with everyone who participates. As in 2009 I'll be updating daily my NaNo wordcount widget over on the sidebar here as well as my writing log over on the Stories blog.

Because I had a little trouble deciding which story I was going to tackle in November, I took some time to write in advance a fairly detailed synopsis for my NaNo novel. Mapping out the story really helped, too; I feel now like I know my vision of it inside and out. Since I'm already in love with my protags and the storyline, it should be interesting to see how that translates on the page.

Are you ready to NaNo? Any last-minute jitters, or are you raring to go? Let us know in comments, and if you'd like some fellow NaNo'ers to drop in please post a link to your website or blog. Good luck to everyone.

Wishing You

I am unplugging this weekend for the holiday, so winners of the Wild for Writers giveaway will be announced tomorrow. In the meantime . . .

Inventing Your Wordrobe

Recently I encountered three interesting, new-to-me words and word phrases: gender resistance (source: NPR), helicopter parenting (source: online article about bullying) and gynobibliophobia (source: Paul McFeries's Word Spy blog, while I was looking for a term to use for my post title.) I jotted down all three because they intrigued me, and I'm almost sure I'll use the first two in conversation if not fiction. As interesting as gynobibliophobia is, though, it sounds like a fear of gynecologists with books, or books with gynecologists, not the meaning it was given (a dislike of women writers.)

When you want to invent some new stuff for your wordrobe, you should always keep in mind that coined words must be comprehensible not only to you but anyone who reads them (and remember, you're probably not going to be there with the reader to explain things.) Wordnut Randy Parker blogs here about inventing an advertising term for a commercial client, and mentions how to do this: Most of the time, words coined in advertising are combinations of existing words or parts of words, so that the meanings are still understood. This is really the first law of word-coining for any field.

You may be hesitant to dive into adding new things to your wordrobe, but coining words becomes easier with practice, too. I found a simple random word generator with an option to choose the level of obscurity, and began generating nouns and combining them into words and phrases with my own definitions. In ten minutes I had put together these seven:

Fumetruth: the honesty we display when we are furious

Fuzzyshed: pilled bits that have come off an old sweater in the wash

Honesty Hell:: where we end up when we tell the truth a little too often

Inkclaim: a hand-written deed proving ownership of property on a fantasy world

Joydump: what a person who has had remarkable luck gives you in the process of informing you about it

Maze-Minded: someone whose thought processes are lengthy, convoluted and rarely provide results

Sigh Processor: someone who always tries to interpret the meaning behind the non-verbal sounds you make.

When you coin words for stories, look at your worldbuilding, your characterizations and details from your plot. These are all excellent sources of keywords and concepts, some of which will jump out at you when you're thinking about words to invent. Once you've made a list of the words that have the most appeal to you, start playing with them. Chop them up, recombine them and see what happens. I like fusing two words together to form a new/third meaning, but I'm also an anagram junkie.

What's in your wordrobe?

Journal-Wrecking

Handing out blank journals to kids of all ages is one of my annoying habits, but it helps infect them with handwriting as well as journaling, two things I don't want to see disappear off the face of the earth. Lately I've been suggesting they also make great places for teens to practice texting, plus a handwritten journal doesn't require batteries, never needs to be recharged and can never be accidentally sent to their parents' phones. I can usually keep a straight face as I say this, even when the kids give me suspicious looks.

All those empty pages can be intimidating, though, so I also employ guided journals (blank books that come with writing prompts in them) whenever I can find any that are kid-friendly. That's how I discovered Keri Smith's Wreck This Journal, which celebrates creation through destruction by instructing the journal's user to do all sorts of non-writing activities with the journal's pages. These include jumping up and down on it, tying a string to it and dragging it around, making a page and the journal into a golf game, and throwing it against the walls (there is also much cutting, ripping and scratching of pages.)

Since then I've given copies to other writers and younger kids, but I've never tried it out on older teens (or myself for that matter.) As I'd like to incorporate it into some of the writing classes I teach, I decided to give it a personal test drive via a controlled experiment. I bought three copies of the book, and gave two to my daughter and her best friend. I then challenged them to join me and work on wrecking the journals this winter with a goal of finishing every page by January 1st, when we'd trade them and see how each other's turned out.

The girls thought it was a neat idea, but they were obviously in no hurry to get started on their journals. I suggested they look through them to see some of the activities involved, and then I left them alone. Within five minutes they were both sitting on the floor with their copies of the journals. They spent a good hour laughing and making suggestions as they ripped, tore, glued and wrecked different pages.

I'm not sure why this guided journal is so much fun, only that I've been pulling my own copy out daily to creatively deface at least one page. I believe books should be protected, not mangled or destroyed, but I think having the author's permission -- and specific instructions on how -- to wreck the journal directly bypasses my lifelong inhibitions. With every page I wreck the journal seems to be morphing into an art project, and while I don't think book-wrecking will ever become my thing, it's weirdly delightful to follow Keri Smith's path of artful havoc.