Bryce Moore's Blog, page 210

A Look Back on NaNoWriMo

November has come and gone, and I’m happy to report that I was able to finish the first draft of my (still untitled) thirteenth novel. NaNoWriMo: complete! I really enjoyed the experience, although there were definitely a few times when I wished I hadn’t signed up for the commitment. It was a lot of fun to see the friends I had on NaNo making progress to their goals, and it was a great motivator for me–mainly because of my strong competitive streak, and THERE WAS NO WAY I WAS GOING TO BE BEATEN.

Ahem.

That said, I still feel like I was cheating somewhat. I’ve been writing every day for the last 10 years or so. I knew exactly what I was getting into, and I’ve got plenty of practice writing and finishing novels. It’s a learned skill, no doubt, so there were times when I felt kind of bad for updating my word count. Not that I consider myself a “professional” writer yet, but NaNo seems quite aimed at the novice crowd, and I’ve got more experience than that. (Not that this made me stop updating my word count, mind you.)

Writing a book “off the cuff” and in a rush was a whole lot of fun in many ways, but I’m not sure about the final product. Where I would normally have stopped and tried to come up with some fixes to the plot and the characters when the going started to get sloggy, I just plowed forward. I’ll be interested to hear what my alpha readers have to say about it. Writing without a real outline at all was very freeing–I was motivated to keep going, because I wanted to find out what happened next. That’s a great feeling to have, and when I was doing 2,000+ words a day, it was much easier to have that sense of continuity.

Maybe being a full time writer would be a pretty sweet gig. Go figure.

I was surprised at how I was able to write myself out of some corners. Things would be happening in the book, and I was stumped about how I’d get my characters out of the jams I was getting them into. Somehow I managed to do it, and while it felt like I managed to do so in a good way, it again remains to be seen. Pesky reader feedback.

I know some people have a lot of trouble coming up with ideas for their books. I’ve never really suffered from this, and this experiment showed me I’m pretty good at coming up with ideas in the middle of books too. The biggest problem I have is telling when too many ideas are swirling around. I’m always tempted to just keep dumping more in there. I need idea brakes.

In any case, it was fun. I’m glad it’s done–doing NaNo in the middle of this crazy November was insane. But now I can say I’ve done it, and if the end result is salvageable, I might try it again sometime. Maybe soon, even.

In the meantime, I have a Christmas newsletter to write, OUR LADY to revise, THE MEMORY THIEF revision on its way at some point . . .  Once that’s all done, I’ll have some revision of this book to do (hopefully), and then it’ll be time for something else to write. If nothing else, I’m really happy NaNo added another novel to my mix. I like having a lot of projects in the works at once. Makes me feel like I’m actually, you know–a writer.

My Post on Ferguson

I really didn’t want to write up a post on what’s happening in Ferguson. I’d already written about the subject back when it first exploded earlier this year, and my feelings hadn’t changed much since then. (Not to mention the fact that I’m on vacation, and writing about such a gloomy topic is more than a bit of a downer.) I also don’t like writing about topics where I know much less than I feel I ought to if I want to be able to say anything constructive.

But . . .

As I’m watching my Facebook feed implode with people on both sides of the issue, there comes a point where I just can’t keep my mouth shut anymore. The good news is that readership is down over the holiday, so most of you probably won’t read this, anyway. Right? Anyway.

I’d like to start out with a fairly basic summary of what I’m seeing on Facebook. On the one side, you have a lot of people very upset that Darren Wilson wasn’t indicted for killing Michael Brown. They feel like this is a travesty of justice, and that it is a symptom of the devaluing of non-white lives in America.

On the other side, you’ve got a group who are set on pointing out that there’s an alternative explanation for events, where Michael Brown was really assaulting an officer, and where the officer really *didn’t* deserve to be indicted.

Here’s the thing. Unless you were actually there and witnessed the shooting firsthand, I don’t think there’s any way of knowing what actually happened at this point. There’s enough written about it on both sides to justify whatever you want to personally believe, whether it’s that Michael Brown was innocent of any wrong doing or the opposite. You want to take a side and start throwing facts around, you’re going to have plenty of ammunition to throw.

At this point, however, I’d argue that the actual facts of this single incident no longer are what’s most important.

Why do I say that? Because people keep trying to judge the reaction to those events solely by which narrative they think is true.

And that doesn’t matter.

I’ll be honest. This post is mainly directed at my friends who are posting defenses of Darren Wilson and talking about how much the rioters are overreacting in the extreme. I’m not going to defend the rioters–I don’t know them, I don’t know the situation on the ground, and I have no way of understanding where they’re coming from. But one thing that *is* clear?

People are beyond upset about the way they’re treated in this country.

As a writer, when I’m looking for feedback, I’ve learned to pay attention to indisputable opinions from readers. If someone tells me they found a part boring or confusing, there’s no way I can argue with that. You can’t argue with emotions. People feel the way they feel. You might try to argue that those feelings are unjustified, but at that point, you’re pretty much just being a jerk. If someone says they didn’t like a movie and you say they’re wrong, what is it that you’re arguing?

What I’m trying to say is that going around telling people that they’re wrong to feel like society undervalues them, or doesn’t listen to them, or is biased against them–doing that isn’t just petty and annoying, it’s proving the point.

Every post about how these rioters are unjustified only adds further evidence to the argument that they have every right to be upset. And more arguments to the need to somehow deal with this structural problem of our country.

I’m not here to offer any proposals on how to fix things. I tend to think it’s something that has to be dealt with over time, as more and more people begin to see that there’s a problem, and more and more people try to actually deal with it instead of just pointing fingers at other people and being self-defensive.

In any case, that’s all I have time for today. As always, I don’t mind comments on this subject–I encourage them actually. All I ask is that people remain respectful on both sides of the issue.

Adventures in New York City

Denisa and I took the train into New York yesterday for some authorly adventures. Up on the agenda? Lunch with my new editor, dinner with my agents, tours of offices, exploring the city, and then finishing it all off by taking in a performance of A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder. The only problem is I’ve been trying to write a blog post that doesn’t come across as inordinately braggy, and it’s not working, so I’m going to just not comment much on the meals–which were lovely and full of interesting conversations–and focus more on the things around them: the city, the show, etc.

It was a gorgeous day in New York. Sunny and in the high sixties at least, I’d guess. For a couple down from Maine, it was a tad on the sweltering side for November. We walked a ton–17,000 steps total!–but since it was broken up into smaller chunks, it was much easier to handle. By the end, my feet were certainly tired, but I didn’t feel like I was going to collapse or anything. Jogging in place wins again!

Going from western Maine to New York City is certainly a big culture shift, and I feel very much like the city mouse who went away to live in the country for a very long time, only to return to the city at long last, if only for a day. The strange thing for me was that I found myself falling back into the same habits I had when I used to work in New York, even though it was only for 6 months. Denisa commented at the end of the day how strange it had been to be without the kids the whole day (they stayed with my mom in PA), and I hadn’t even really noticed it that much. It was New York–a place I didn’t have kids. So it was natural that I shouldn’t have kids when I was back again. (Though no worries–I did remember I had voracious readers when I was at Egmont’s office. Picked up quite the haul of books for TRC, and a few for DC too. (They had more Middle Grade/YA stuff that would appeal to him.))

I’m continually surprised by the sheer variety of people you see in New York. Everything from the business men to the street performers. We were sitting in St. Patrick’s cathedral taking a breather, and suddenly a man next to us starts shouting out gibberish. Angry gibberish. Security showed up to give him a nice escort out of the building. You don’t see that happen in Maine every day.

The show itself was really good, although the tickets I bought (way up high in the balcony) were certainly not the best seats I’ve ever had. They were high enough up that it was hard to see the expressions on the faces of the actors, which was too bad. Bad enough that I wished I’d paid an extra $70 per ticket for a better view? Not quite. Though maybe I’m getting to the point in the not too distant future where that will be different. In any case, it was funny throughout, with great songs and acting–almost the entire original cast still with the production. Dark humor, but sometimes that’s the best kind.

Getting in and out of the city is a long affair. Two hours in, two hours back. Very hard for me to believe I used to do that every workday. Makes a guy glad he’s got such a short “commute” these days. 5 minutes is much better than 2 hours, believe me.

Denisa and I had a long conversation about why in the world people would like to live in a city like that. (Recognizing, of course, that for some people, there’s no choice involved. It’s the only place they *can* live.) Joshua and Eddie seem to thoroughly prefer it, and Eddie grew up in a smaller town than where I live now. It was exciting working there when I was younger, but these days I like to be able to go home and night and listen to a whole lot of nothing outside my windows. In the city there’s so much activity and buzz–I think it would just be exhausting after a while. Here I am the next day, and my brain is still sort of just whirling.

Had some good conversations about my writing, and I have a general idea what I’m going to do for the next bit. Looks like THE MEMORY THIEF edits won’t be coming until January at the earliest, which is dandy by me. That means I’ll be able to finish up my NaNoWriMo work, then turn to some structural edits of OUR LADY which Joshua pointed out after his read through of the book. Some significant changes, but I think I have a plan of attack now. I’ll have some alpha readers looking at the NaNo piece in the meantime. It’s always a jugging routine, keeping all these different projects moving forward.

Speaking of writing, I got none of it done yesterday, meaning that all my NaNo padding has evaporated. Time for me to bring this post to a close and get to work on more important things. It was a grand day out. Had a great time in the city, and it’s very nice now and then to feel like a “real” author, as opposed to just sitting up in my house in Maine and writing by myself. Have a great Tuesday everybody!

A Ten Year Old Reviews ‘Mythbusters: Behind the Myths’

TRC and DC are Mythbusters fanatics. TRC especially. So when I saw they were touring the country, I checked to see when they’d be in Boston. It would be right after our PA trip, which wasn’t ideal. Another long drive right after getting back? I wasn’t sold on that. Plus, we wouldn’t be done until 10, and not home until 1 or so–on a school night. Not the best options. But then I saw they’d be in Philly at the same time we were.

Sold!

Except Saturday, when the big day came, I got sick. Go figure. I haven’t been sick for months, but I knew right away I wasn’t going to be able to go see the Mythbusters in that condition. Denisa still went with the kids, though. And they all had a great time. I’d hoped to be able to write up a review myself, but since I couldn’t see it firsthand, that wouldn’t make the most sense. So I’ve handed over review duties to TRC. Here you go–a ten year old’s take on Behind the Myths.

I thought the Mythbusters show was pretty cool, and they did a lot of really funny stuff. Like they had ASL interpreters, and Adam is like “So we have these ASL interpreters, and I’m going to see if I can find out some sign language for any funny stuff I say, like ‘elephant farts.’ Wait–wait–did you see that? Do that again! Okay. Apparently that’s sign language for ‘elephant farts.’”

Then they showed us how physics affected the way those machines where you whack it and a little rock hits a bell. They did a lot of sciency stuff, but they turned it into a way where it wasn’t all like big words. They also said that when they started, they thought they knew a lot. It turns out they knew 5%. I thought it was pretty cool, because if they had used all this sciency stuff, I would have not understood pretty much anything. And I guess probably not many people would have understood anything they were saying either. They told us that they aren’t really scientists. They’re just people who watch what things happen when you try to make them happen. The way they talked about it, they made it pretty interesting, and they demonstrated it live.

I also thought it was pretty cool to see Jamie and Adam in person. I have been watching them on Netflix for quite a long time, and I never thought I’d actually get to see them. Jamie really didn’t talk much. He just sort of did stuff and went around with Adam, because Adam was talking. Although he did end up doing a few pretty interesting things. Adam talked a lot and made it much more interesting for other people who had never seen the show before. He talked about how they started, how he learned to juggle, what Jamie was going to do. He also did a bunch on trying to make up a story on how Jamie came from his home planet. It was pretty funny. Jamie kept on interrupting, saying that’s not how it happened.

I like the Mythbusters because they usually use a lot of explosives and explosions. Even after you’ve seen a cement truck exploding 50 times, it’s still pretty impressive. They also tell you if you could actually do something, like if something could actually happen. They give you knowledge of what to do and what not to do. And it’s also not one of those reality TV shows where it’s planned out and everything happens perfectly. I mean, they accidentally overfilled the cement truck, and the myth was “Can I clean my cement truck with this stick of dynamite?” A stick barely made a dent. They probably used like 50-60 pounds in the final giant explosion.

I would probably recommend the show to people who like explosions or are wondering if it’s going to happen or just in general want to know a lot about myths. I would give it 10 stars out of 10. They did a lot of really cool stuff that I really enjoyed, like showing a tape of explosions twice. If you have sensitive ears, you should bring ear plugs.

Book Review: The Rithmatist

The Rithmatist by Brandon Sanderson

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

At this point, sometimes I wonder why I write reviews of Brandon Sanderson’s books. I’ve loved them all, and so it seems at times like I’m just continually beating that “this was awesome” drum. But you know what? I like drums, and when you find an awesome one, why *wouldn’t* you want to keep beating it?

This is Brandon’s version of a school book, sort of on the vein of Harry Potter, but with the typical Sanderson flair for magic systems. The Rithmatist takes place in a world where certain people can cause chalk drawings to come to life. Oh yeah–and some of those drawings can eat people. There’s an elaborate system of magic built around the concept, with summoning circles and geometry playing big roles. It’s all a bit bewildering at first, but you soon get the hang of it, and there are plenty of illustrations to help you along the way.

So that’s the setting. The main character is a boy who wishes he could be one of the people who has this magic ability–but he isn’t. He studies everything he can about it, but no amount of wishing gets him closer to his dream.

And then people start dying at his school, and he’s one of the people tasked to help the main investigator.

I think that’s enough to give you a taste of what to expect from the book. I loved the fact that it worked well as a standalone book. Yes, there’s certainly lots of room for sequels, but it’s fairly well self-contained. The magic system was also very clever–it reminded me of Flatland in many ways, and that’s a good thing in my book.

It was also interesting and refreshing to have the main character unable to do any magic. That definitely goes against the grain of the normal in YA fantasies–or any fantasies for that matter. But it worked well in this novel.

It’s a fast read, and one I can wholeheartedly recommend without any need to give disclaimers about content. Yay for that.

So if you haven’t already checked it out, might I point you in this book’s direction? Have you already read it? I’d love to hear what you thought.

View all my reviews

Grownups Need to Be Told to Go to Bed

So I get home from work yesterday, and I’m just exhausted. No idea why. It wasn’t a really stressful day at the library or anything, but I was pretty darn tired. To make matters worse, I discover that I’m really grumpy and short tempered to boot. (Does that happen to any of you? You realize you’re grumpy and want to not be grumpy, but you seem to be stuck in one gear and can’t get out of it? That was me.) My family suffers through me through dinner, and then I just put my head down on the table and found myself almost snoozing off right then and there.

Denisa suggested I might want to go to bed.

Seemed like a good idea to me. At 7pm last night, I went to bed just to take a break for a bit.

I woke up at 7am, 12 hours later.

It’s so easy to look at my kids and know when they’re tired. They become different people, almost. They’re more easy to upset, they argue more often, they get grumpy–and it’s really easy as an adult to just tell them to go to bed and sleep. You know what? I think every grownup needs to assign a person to be in control of their sleep schedule. Someone who can take an objective view of what the grownup is doing, and then order him or her to bed when they just need more sleep.

I know what you’re thinking–you’re thinking that you know what’s best for you, and you know how much sleep you need, and you don’t need somebody to tell you when to go to bed. You know who else makes those exact same arguments?

My kids.

We’re not that different from children, when you get down to it. It’s not like someone waves a magic wand when we turn 18 and leave home and suddenly we need less sleep. I’m sure this would apply in other areas as well. Someone to step in and tell us when we’re behaving like a jerk and need to apologize. Someone to tell us when we need to share our toys, or when we need to stop eating.

Maybe it’s a copout. Maybe we’re here on earth so we can learn how to do all that without a grownup telling us to. That’s why I’m not going to advocate for anything more than assigning someone to tell us when to go to sleep.

I’m feeling much better this morning, thanks for asking. I don’t feel foggy-headed, I’m not grumpy, and I’m not overwhelmed with everyday tasks. Sleep is our friend, and sometimes we need someone else to step in and remind us that no, checking Facebook for an hour and then playing World of Warcraft for another hour is really not as important as sleeping for both of those hours.

My advice? Find someone in your life who you’re in contact with a fair bit. Someone who knows what’s going on in your life. And authorize that person to be able to order you to bed. Then, when they do (and they will), remember why you authorized them to do that . . .

And go to sleep.

Where’s My Awesome Tomorrow?

I read an article yesterday. A depressing, saddening article. It wasn’t about how global warming is ravaging our planet. Nothing about an increase in crime or poverty. It didn’t touch on genetically modified food or the obesity epidemic. Nope, it was simple. It focused on how Google Glass is looking like a big old failure. Just look at the title: “Google Glass is Ready to Become This Era’s Segway.”

How awful is that?

The only way things could get any worse is if I suddenly were to find out that self-driving cars aren’t going to come to production, after all.

I remember when I first read about Segway, and when I first saw Google Glass. They were exciting technologies. Things I thought would change the way we lived. Things that would bring us closer to what I think we all can agree is our ultimate goal:

Living like the Jetsons.

Seriously. I’ve been lied to, people. I want my flying car and my robot maid! Is it too much to ask from science? I mean, I’m willing to wait on the house that is way up in the sky. I don’t even need need a talking dog. (Not that I’d turn one down, mind you.)

But then I look at Segways and Google Glass, and I begin to wonder if this isn’t the fault of science at all. If maybe–just maybe–humanity itself is to blame. Science gives us awesome, innovative things, and we turn them into jokes on Arrested Development.

At least it’s for a funny show. If it were all done for something like Two and a Half Men, I’d be even more depressed.

I get that Segway can come across as something for the lazy, and that Google Glass has more than a little bit of creepy to it. But come on! It’s up to us to figure out how to put the awesome to work, not to make fun of the cool things people are coming up with.

And yet we ignore it. Let innovation die. And every time we let a Google Glass slip into becoming the butt of jokes, our robot maid gets a little farther away.

I realize I’m part of the problem. I’ve never been on a Segway, and I never considered actually buying Google Glass. (They both cost way too much money.) But the next time science comes out with something awesome, how about we all decide not to make fun of it?

Or are you people not interested in robot maids?

A Report Back on the Library Conference

I’m slowly getting back to normal after the MLA/MASL conference Sunday and Monday. When I first signed on as Vice President of the Maine Library Association, I’ll admit I didn’t completely understand all the things I’d be in charge of taking care of. One of the biggest things I didn’t see coming was just how complicated it is to run a big conference. (Even for values of “big” that are 250 people or so.) Planning for this first started almost a year ago, and it’s been a long and winding road to get to where I am now, with the conference in my rear view mirror at last.

(YAY!)

It was a crazy busy weekend, however. Sunday was a 17 hour work day, starting at 6am setting up the conference site and finishing at 11pm when I delivered our keynote presenter (Eli Nieburger) to his hotel. In addition to just trying to be present to help people as problems arose, I presented 5 different times (on cataloging, academic libraries, MLA’s business meeting, resource sharing, and social media tips).

For a person who doesn’t relish socializing, it was quite the weekend. I thought it might be interesting to go over some of the things I went through over the course of it. (This is by no means exhaustive. I’ll just list the first few things that come to my head)

Sunday morning, a big line was developing at registration, so I stepped in to help move things along. It was a good idea in theory, and I do think I helped, but I didn’t realize how many people I’ve met over the course of my 7 years in Maine libraries. Many of those people were in line. They would come up to me and cheerily greet me, and I really ought to have known their names. All their names. And their faces. Except I’m bad with names *and* faces. (Short aside to show just how bad I am with faces. Freshman year of college, I went on a blind date with a girl and we really hit it off. Spent like 4 or 5 hours with her on the date. And for the life of me, I couldn’t remember what she looked like after that date. I knew she was blonde. I knew generally where she lived. But that was it. I spent the next week smiling as cheerily as I could at every blonde girl I saw, just on the off chance it was her. Folks, if I can’t remember what a girl looks like–a girl I was really attracted to and whom I spent an entire evening with . . . I think I definitely have a problem.) So I had to continually admit to people that I couldn’t remember their name, something I hate admitting. I began to get flustered, and then that really messed me up. I started switching people’s names in my head. I gave the Dean of Libraries at the University of Maine the registration packet that belonged to the State Librarian. I know and work with both women, and it’s crazy I was that off-kilter. Thankfully, people were understanding. I still feel bad about it, though.
Some of the panels I presented on were perhaps even more useful to me than they were to my audience. I came away with some really great ideas for things MLA can be doing in the future to help librarians of all types, and I’m excited to try them out. My presentation style as a librarian is pretty much the same one I have as an author. It’s helpful that I’ve been on so many fantasy panels at writing conferences–the practice on those definitely transferred over to the library side. (Then again, I haven’t read the evaluations of the panels I was on yet. That’s one nice thing about writing cons. You never have to see what people thought of your presentation . . .). In this case, it really helped that I had picked my co-panelists. They were fun, easy going people who also really know their stuff.
Yay food. I was pretty impressed with the offerings the Cross Center in Bangor had for us. I’m used to conference food that’s pretty middle of the road–or worse. But we had everything from whoopie pies to chocolate fondue. It was all tasty, plentiful, and I ate way too much. (Stress + buffets = bad idea for Bryce.)
I didn’t have much time in the vendor hall, between everything else that was going on, but I did duck in to check things out. I was walking up and down the aisles, I turned, and suddenly I was face to face with a pig. A big, fat, very much alive pig–right there in the hall. Apparently people were being asked to kiss it? I never did have the chance to find out more about it, but that was a first for me. I wonder if I can see a walrus next time.
The keynote by Eli was really fantastic. Thought provoking and entertaining–everything I’m looking for in a keynote. (Interested to see what he talked about it? Here it is:)

It was a crazy few days, and it’s over now. I’m very glad it went as well as it did, and I’ll never go to another conference without thinking of the time and effort that has to go into a conference to make it all come off without a hitch. I can’t imagine what planning a WorldCon or a Comic Con would be like.

I came home yesterday afternoon, and I still hadn’t gotten my 2,000 words written for the day. The temptation to just blow it off was very great. My brain was pudding, I had slept horribly the night before, and the last thing I wanted to be at the moment was creative. It took me over 2 hours to churn it out, but I got it done. That right there is the value of specific goals for me.

Anyway. Here I am on the flip side. Glad the conference is over. Many many thanks to all the people whose hard work went into it. Now, to get ready for a trip down to Pennsylvania at the end of the week. Huzzah!

Conference Day Cop Out

Hello all you lovely people. Hoping your weekend was stupendous. Mine’s been a tad on the crazy side. For the last year or so, I’ve been working on planning the Maine Library Association’s annual conference, and that’s going on even as we speak. (Well, technically I guess it’s not. The second day of the conference starts in 21 minutes.) I hope to have time to give a full update and overview of my thoughts on this whole conference planning/running thing, but for today, I have to just bow out of the daily blog and leave you on your own. Suffice it to say that the next time I go to a big conference, I will have newfound empathy and understanding of the hard work that went into it to make it successful.

But like I said–I’ll talk more about that. Probably tomorrow.

Today’s goal is to not hyperventilate. Wish me luck!

NaNoWriMo Update: A Novel is One Elaborate Lie

Ah, the beginning of a new novel. It’s smooth sailing and wide open spaces every time I sit down to write. There are no pesky details nagging at the back of my mind. I can write anything, have my characters be anyone. It’s endless possibilities, and that’s really exciting and fun. Yes, that blank page can be downright intimidating, but it’s also very freeing if you’re coming from a book you’ve been revising for a while. The best analogy I can think of is that a new book is like fresh powder on a ski slope. I see it, and I just get excited.

Things start to change as soon as you begin typing, of course.

A novel is a series of cause and effect events. Seen from a different point of view, a novel is one elaborate lie. You’re trying to convince your reader that something happened to some people, and you have to present it in a way that’s compelling and consistent. Consistency will increase the compelling nature of the story, but compelling won’t do much for consistency.

So as soon as I pick a main character and start having that character do things, I shut down a wealth of opportunities that were previously open to me. The genre, setting, and conflicts are defined. The character starts showing me what he or she would do or wouldn’t do in any situation. And once they start showing me that, there’s nothing I can do about changing it other than going back and making changes to that character from the beginning.

It gets very complicated.

For me, I’ve found that I’m usually good to go for the first third of a story. I’ve got enough momentum and excitement to dash in and churn through the word count quickly. I’m setting the stage, introducing the conflicts, showing the reader what’s possible and what isn’t. And life is good. Then the second third of the novel hits, and it looks like this.

Suddenly, gravity starts taking over. The second third of the novel is the most difficult for me. I scramble around trying to keep the action going and make sure everything gets set up right. There’s a lot of “figuring things out” I need to do, and for a while, I inevitably feel like this is never going to come together. It’s important to me to know and expect this, because when I hit that second third and the going gets tough, it’s so tempting to quit. To just throw in the towel and go looking for some fresh powder.

The good news is I’ve been doing this long enough to know that–as I keep punching through that second third–something strange always happens along the way. Bit by bit, the pieces begin to fall into place, and somehow or another, I find myself in the final third of the book. And at that time, I discover that all that gravity that was freaking me out for the second third has suddenly switched sides and become my ally. I gain a ton of momentum, and I’m no no longer falling. I’m flying.

Well, maybe it’s more of a “falling–with style!” sort of a thing, but you get my point. The last third is just as much fun as the first. Things pop, I’m excited again. Fun times.

This is all just to say that I’m now 23,000 words into NaNoWriMo (well, actually 30,000 words into the book, but the first 7,000 words were written before November started . . .) and guess what?

It’s hard.

Trying to slodge through 2,000 words a day of the second third of the novel is tough stuff. The last few days have taken me much longer. and they’ve consisted of me staring at my screen for long swathes of time. And if that’s where I am, then I imagine a lot of other NaNo’ers might be at the same spot. What am I doing about it?

First off, I’m reminding myself that there’s an end to this feeling. I can’t be too far from breaking through and hitting my stride in the final third again. That helps somewhat. But I still need the discipline to keep trudging forward, and for that, I remember my original pieces of advice before all this started: manageable chunks, don’t fall behind. Stick to the plan.

It’s what I always fall back on when my writing gets tricky. It’s helped me finish twelve novels before this one. It’ll help me on the thirteenth.

Anyone else having troubles out there? Feel free to share. If I have any gems of wisdom, I’ll do what I can to help you out.