Chris Baty's Blog, page 11

“My World is Going to be a Beacon for Joy and Happiness”: Interview with Daphne Ashling Purpus

NaNoWriMo is inviting our community members to become monthly donors and help nourish our creative community! This week, long-time NaNo writer and monthly donor Daphne Ashling Purpus shares her story of creativity and community care across all theareas of her magical, colorful life.

Tell us about your first NaNoWriMo. What drew you to tell your story with us?

I first heard about NaNoWriMo on a blog I was following in 2011, and while I’d never written creatively before then, I really needed a new challenge. The feeling of writing my first novel was euphoric beyond belief. To think that I’m nearly ready to publish my 14th novel and already started on my 15th (15,697 words so far this Camp session) just boggles my mind!!! I really don’t have words for what this means to me personally.

How have you participated since then?

I have won NaNoWriMo every year for 11 years and counting. According to the NaNoWriMo website, I’ve now written 1,217,353 words in all sessions. I have done both Camp and NaNoWriMo events every year since April of 2012 (some of those records got lost when the site got upgraded, but I’ve never missed a Camp session). So that makes 11 NaNoWriMos and 21 Camps, for a whopping total of 32 events! I can’t believe it!

You’ve told me that you write your novels with a purpose in mind. Can you tell us more about the purpose of your writing and why you self-publish?

I write fantasy because I like it, and so do many of my students (I’m a volunteer tutor for students at our alternative high school). I’m LGBTQIA+, as are many of my students, so I try to write novels showing the importance of diversity, the importance of kindness and community, and the importance of all life.

I self-publish because I want total control over my stories and because, at least in the beginning, I was too inexperienced to be chosen by the traditional publishers. But after all the work I put into my stories, I wanted to see them in print for both me and my students.

You’re one of the most colorful people I know—literally! What draws you to bright colors and the use of bold colors in your house (and on your cat walks)?

I’m a flaming queer, and I also can only see bright colors. I think there’s way too much beige/neutral in our world, but my world is going to be a beacon for joy and happiness, I hope. My home and my own pink hair make people smile, and that’s a very good thing.

You’re a writing tutor in addition to writing. Why do you tutor kids, and what have you learned from them?

Actually, I don’t tutor writing, I’m a volunteer tutor in math—all levels from 4th grade through pre-calc. I have over the years discovered that there are many ways to learn. Many of my students have been told they are stupid and can’t do math. I work with them to discover how they learn and to prove to them that they certainly aren’t stupid.

Why do you give to NaNoWriMo?

NaNoWriMo has given so much to me, showing me that there are millions of people all around the world also telling their stories. I need NaNoWriMo, probably more than it needs me, but I give to help ensure that it will continue always. NaNoWriMo helps more stories survive, especially in these troubling times.

One of the things that’s important to NaNoWriMo is how stories connect people—how a sense of belonging is built through our stories. How do you feel that writing or reading stories has given you a sense of belonging?

Just knowing that I’m not alone in my quest to tell my stories gives me a sense of connection with others.

Top row depicts Stella and Wilson. Bottom row depicts Ghost and Emmett.

You’re a lover of animals, I know. What role have your pets played in your writing?

Oh, yes, my pets through the years have definitely helped me (and also walked on keyboards, etc). And when I’ve lost a pet, I have honored them by naming a character in my next book after them. Since I write series, those pets get mentioned in many books.

Check out Daphne’s books here!

As encouragement to all her fellow Wrimos, Daphne has pledged a one-time USD $5,000 matching gift for all monthly and one-time donations made during the month of April. To date, we have more than 600 Wrimos providing year-round care through their monthly gifts. Join your fellow Wrimos and start a monthly donation today!

“The writing community is full of caring, kind individuals that...

“The writing community is full of caring, kind individuals that all have one thing in common: We all started from scratch.”

—Mel Walker is an award winning rare bird, the male romance author. Specializing in heartfelt small-town romance, he enjoys telling compelling romances with all the feels. A native New Yorker and life-long frustrated NY Mets fan, he enjoys baseball, reading, bike rides and writing outdoors where he absorbs the energy of the city.

Check out Mel on Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok!

Read more camp care packages here!

4 Tips for Autistic Writers

Autistic writers can face unique challenges when it comes to writing. NaNo Participant Auden Halligan has tips to handle some of those challenges!

So, you’vejust sat down at your desk, all ready to work on your next chapter,but you just can’t seem to start. Something is itching at yourbrain, and no matter how hard you think, you can’t figure it out.For autistic writers, that itch might be even harder to get aroundwhen compounded with autisticinertia, introspection issues, and sensory processing disorder — even if wewere super excited to get started, sometimes the stumbling blocks areenough to keep us from going anywhere at all.

Hereare four tips to identify your struggles and work around them ratherthan against them as an autistic writer!

1. Scheduleyour writing time appropriately

Whilekeeping a schedule can help you stave off unwanted change in yourroutine, the need to switch to another task when the clock strikesthe hour sometimes feels like a monumental task, one that eventuallybecomes detrimental to your creative pursuits.

Ifswitching tasks is the biggest hurdle to your writing, setting adesignated writing time with no other plans around it could do thetrick. Oftentimes, just one hour of time to transition from doingdishes to sitting down at your computer to write is exactly what youneed to get past that point and find your writing headspace.

2. Makesure your sensory environment is right

Sometimesgetting into that writing headspace is harder than normal, but youcan’t put your finger on a reason. Chances are, you’re not quiteready until you have your sensory needs met and you can fully focuson your story.

Personally,I like to be on the couch with my water bottle, a playlist at justthe right volume, and a comfortable jacket or hoodie on. For you, theideal sensory space might involve a desk and a snack, a pet nearby,and a quiet room. For others, it could be outside or even at alibrary or coffee shop. Autistic people are all different and so are theirsensory needs, so this one is supersubjective — do what works best for you!

3. Takebreaks often

Writingcan be exhausting, and if you’re struggling to keep going, youmight need to take a pause. If you’re like me and struggle withremembering to hydrate and eat once you’re deep in a task, use yourbreak to get some water and a snack. If you’re having troublestaying focused, get up and move around and stim or go outside togive your brain a reset. If you feel like you’ve gotten somegood progress done, however small, reward yourself — do somethingrelated to your special interest, dance with a pet, and celebrateyour little (or big!) win!

Thepomodoromethodis a good way to keep yourself from working too long without a break,and if that doesn’t work for you, methods like the Eisenhowermethodwith breaks interspersed and even simply inserting breaks into yourscheduled writing time are just as valid.

4. Don’tbe afraid to skip around

Anotherthing that often trips us autistic people up is needing to follow the storydown its natural progression, from start to middle all the way to thefinish. But inevitably, once we’ve gotten past the initialexcitement of having the project started, we hit a stumblingblock…and the project gets abandoned. I’ve left behind countlessprojects because I lost interest after hitting a scene I wasn’texcited for after just a few chapters.

Tocombat this, try writing out of order! Skip ahead to the scenedirectly after your stumbling block. You could also skip to the next scene your favoritecharacter is in or even to the climax if it helps you move forward. Ifyou’re having trouble putting your first words down, try writing arandom scene in the middle of your story to get into the groove ofwriting your characters.

Alternately,if you can’t abide by the out of order method and really need toget your characters from Point A to Point B, try putting the sceneyou’re stuck on in brackets. For example:

[Character1 and Character 2 fight over the decision to kick Character 3 off theteam. 2 leaves in anger.]

It’ssimple, efficient, and gets you out of that particular rut so you cankeep moving toward that sweet, sweet conversation you’ve wanted towrite since Day 1.

Nowgo forth and write, my friends!

AudenHalligan is a creator through and through. She’s been writing herentire life, but didn’t start participating in NaNoWriMo until2017–right now she’s working on developing a TV series (or two!)and has several novels and short films in the drafting phase. Audenis currently a college student studying film production and hoping tominor in disability studies. You can find her on her very sparseTwitter at ink.and.spite.

Photo by Lisa Fotios from Pexels

If you’re an autistic writer, check out the Pillow Fort in the NaNoWriMo forums! It’s a group for people who are neurodivergent, have disabilities, mental health concerns, or physical challenges that affect their lives.

Five Tips for Memoir Writing When the Words Feel Too Hot to Touch

Memoir writing can be powerful, but often times, requires the writer to look back on difficult times in their lives. NaNo Participant Emily Henderson talks about her own experiences with memoirs and gives tips on navigating painful experiences.

Content Warning: Death of a child to cancer.

I’ve been working on a memoir for what feels like 1000 years. In the beginning, I wrote about how, by the time I was 18, I lost both of my parents, one to a plane crash and the other to breast cancer. I wrote about my descent into alcoholism and eventual path to sobriety. I wrote about marriage and motherhood, all against the backdrop of my love for running. I thought this would be my memoir.

But then, in 2019, my youngest son Aiden was diagnosed with brain cancer, and four months later, he was gone. Suddenly, the memoir I had in my mind no longer made sense, and I stopped writing. It wasn’t until the pandemic that I returned to journaling and running to process my grief. I decided to run every street in my city, and thus a new shape for my memoir began to form.

In 2021, I threw my hat in the NaNoWriMo ring. I began knowing how hard it would be to write about my son and all the trauma surrounding his death. I wanted to protect my mental health while I tried to put words into the most painful moments of my life. Below are afew strategies I employed to help me win NaNo.

1. Gather Source Material

I re-read old journals, blog posts, and social media posts. I highlighted different themes and organized them into sections. For instance, I marked scenes from my childhood and those about my son with different colored highlighters. The idea is to avoid getting lost in memories when the focus should be on writing.

2. S.O.S. Journal Prompts

On days when the words just aren’t flowing, I like to have a few journal prompts handy. I write them down on index cards and pull them out when I get stuck. I made some of my biggest writing breakthroughs with these prompts.

“The doctor said….”

“On a good day….”

“At my age….”

3. Change your entry point.

I wrote around and around the scene where my son dies, possibly trying to change the ending, but I couldn’t seem to get it right. Rather than bang my head against the wall, I came at it from a different angle. I wrote about my husband and how our marriage grew stronger through our son’s treatment. Then when it came time to write the worst moment of my life, where my husband and I hold each other as we say our final goodbyes, I felt more relaxed and confident that I could do the scene justice.

4. Write a rant.

I have a lot of anger around the loss of my son, and I find writing a long rant about how unfair it all is, helps to clear the cobwebs to find the truth in the narrative. I like to set a timer for 20 minutes and write nonstop, even if all I write is, “I miss my son,” over and over again.

5. Non-judgmental social support

Writingabout trauma is emotionally draining, and I knew I would need to decompress after tapping into the harder parts of my story. I scheduled lunch with close friends with whom I could talk openly. They often made connections I couldn’t see, and that led to even more writing breakthroughs.

Once again, life keeps happening, and in January, I gave birth to my fourth child. She is next to me as I write this, cooing and grunting while she sleeps. It seems my memoir has shifted once again, and I have a perfect epilogue to my story.

Emily Henderson is a freelance writer living with her family in Santa Barbara, CA. Her essays have appeared in HuffPost Personal, Scary Mommy, Writing Class Radio, and The Santa Barbara Independent. She is currently working on a memoir about processing the loss of her son while running every street in her city.

You can read more of Emily’s writing on her Substack, I’m Really Very Literary, or follow her on Instagram @emilykathleenwrites or visit emilykathleenwrites.com.

Photo by Carli Jeen on Unsplash

NaNoWriMo Pep Talker Book Bracket: Final Round!

March is over BUT let’s pretend it’s still March for the final round of our Women’s History Month March Madness-style book bracket. It’s time to choose the winner! (View the full post here)

Final Match-up:

Alanna: The First Adventure by Tamora Pierce

The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley

How to Avoid Token Representation

What’s the difference between token representation and authentic representation? NaNo Participant Nayantara discusses token representation and how to avoid doing it in your own writing!

The smart Asian character. The sassy Black character. The Gay Best Friend.

Too many stories written today that supposedly have “diverse” casts fall prey to “token representation”: a symbolic effort towards inclusion that gives the appearance of equality, without actually exploring diverse narratives.

Recently in the publishing industry, readers have been calling for more representation within their novels, whether it is the LGBTQ+ community, racially and ethnically diverse readers, people with disabilities, or other marginalised groups of people, and many authors have responded with this easy-way-out tokenism — leaving readers unsatisfied and indignant.

So, what exactly is the difference between token diversity and real representation?

Essentially, tokenism includes a character that checks boxes titled “diversity” in face and name, but does not acknowledge their lived experience.

For example, Cho Chang in the Harry Potter series and Lane Kim in Gilmore Girlsare reduced to harmful stereotypes of their characters (both their names and characteristics) without acknowledging the diverse experiences that East Asian people have. Their Asianness becomes their entire character, yet at the same time, that same Asianness is entirely misunderstood.

In contrast, the recent Oscar-winning film Everything Everywhere All At Once stars East Asian characters whose lives are affected by their race and background. However, they are fully fleshed out characters regardless of it.

As actor, Anna Leong Brophy, said in an interview, she enjoys it when her “Asianness complements a role, but is not the full role.” Real representation acknowledges how someone’s lived experience as a person of colour, queer person, woman, or member of another marginalised community affects their life — but they have genuine feelings, thoughts, and characteristics far beyond simply their race or identity.

The terms “Black dude dies first” and “Bury your gays” are also commonly associated with token representation. Quite self-explanatory, they are tropes in which the cast’s “diverse” characters are killed early, to save the writer from having to explore or acknowledge their experiences.

Not only is this lazy writing that erases diverse narratives, it also creates the subconscious belief that marginalised groups of people have no place in these stories or in commercialised publishing in general. Everyone deserves representation, whether or not the cis-het (cisgender-heterosexual) white reader can relate to the character’s specific cultural experience.

What counts as good representation, then?

Good representation involves any story that includes a diverse cast and follows each of their story lines fully, allowing them to be well-rounded characters that contain depth and get adequate development.

My personal favourite example of this is Leigh Bardugo’s Six of Crows duology, where her cast of six main characters includes Black and Brown people, bisexual and gay people, people from different countries and religions, and people recovering from trauma — all of whom have their own, carefully constructed character arcs that acknowledge their identity, but also give them substance and characteristics far beyond that.

However, this is not to say every story has to be as international — The Poppy War trilogy by R.F. Kuang has a solely East Asian coded cast due to its setting. But even within this, her characters are from different ethnic, religious, and social backgrounds, and each have their own, carefully-constructed character arc extending far beyond their identity on paper.

As you begin writing for Camp NaNoWriMo, ask yourself the following three questions:

Is my cast truly representing the diverse types of people who exist in this world (either real or imagined)?Are each of these characters individuals beyond simply their ethnicity, sexuality, gender, disability, etc?Do each of these characters have a fully fleshed out character arc?

You don’t have to be an author from a marginalised or minority background to write characters with diverse experiences. Just make sure to approach each character with empathy and respect, and devote adequate time to research (or to world building, if you’re a fantasy author!)

Good luck, and I know that you are going to absolutely smash your writing goals next month!

Nayantara is an 18 year old student, green tea connoisseur, bookworm, Spotify-playlist-maker, dancer, and writer hoping to study economics and political science at university next year — and hopefully find some time to work on her many unfinished novels in the meantime! Follow her on Instagram @ moonlitsunflowerbooks.

Photo by Ketut Subiyanto from Pexels

10 Ways to Turn Revision Into an Adventure

For some of us, revision may be your next big challenge during Camp. Sounds a little intimidating, doesn’t it? Well, have no fear! NaNo participant Madison Vaughn-Parra is here to make revision fun!

So… you’ve got yourself a first draft. Perhaps it’s years worth of work, or perhaps it was the product of the frenzied rush that is National Novel Writing Month. Either way, you’ve deemed it a complete work, which means only one thing: it’s ready for revision.

Did you picture lightning striking on a dark and stormy night when reading the big “R” word? If so, you’re not alone! For many, revision is even more intimidating than dreaming up a novel from scratch. If writing a first draft was an adventure of epic proportions, then revising that same draft is a slog through already-explored terrain, right?

Wrong! I’ve found that revision can be just as grand of an adventure as writing 50K in 30 days! To prove it, I’d like to share ten ways you can turn your revision journey from a dreaded duty into an exciting adventure:

1. First things first: make a copy of your first draft, and then don’t touch the original! You don’t want your adventure bogged down by regrets, after all, and having an untouched first draft will ensure that if you’re unhappy with any changes, you’ll always have the original to fall back on.

2. Be prepared! Just as you wouldn’t want to forget your socks and undies, you’re going to want to pack everything you need to help you on your revision adventure. NaNoWriMo’s “Now What?” revision guide should come in handy, for starters!

3. Take a trip off the beaten path and explore all of the “What If’s”, no matter how wild they might seem. What if you added to the chemistry of your main characters and turned your action-adventure novel into a full-blown romance? What if the murder mystery mastermind was the other guy? The possibilities are endless!

4. Go on a hunt to find the most hilarious typos born from the fever-induced ramblings of the NaNo mind, and share them with your writing group for laughs!

5. Make it a game! For example, does your novel have a character who keeps disappearing from scenes they’re supposed to be in? (Mine was a tiny dragon named Mouse…) Every time you write that character back into a scene, reward yourself with a treat for “finding” them!

6. Gleefully chop away at tangents, plot twists, and descriptions you included in your first draft simply for word count. No one can stop you from backspacing now!

7. Try new tools! Is there any better feeling than using a brand new travel accessory for the first time? That’s how I felt when I first tried Scrivener’s split-screen feature and discovered just how fun it made revision. Why not check out NaNoWriMo’s offers page to see if any new tools spark your excitement?

8. Delight in discovering passages that you have absolutely no memory of writing! If you’re anything like me, there will be quite a few of them, and you’ll find you can improve them with the ease of editing someone else’s writing.

9. Capture your favorites! Create a “Snapshots” document or folder and fill it with all the first draft passages that you got right the first time. If you start feeling discouraged during revising, simply pull up these snapshots and remind yourself of your owngenius!

10. If you really want to capture the NaNo spirit, try rewriting your novel from start to finish without even glancing at your first draft. This trick terrifies me, personally, but I know folks who swear by it!

Congratulations! You’re now ready for your revision adventure! Pack up your bags, be kind to yourself, and have fun exploring your novel again. I’ll be right there with you!

Madison Vaughn-Parra is a lifelong writer and passionate geek, who technically works a corporate job in program management but prefers to spend her time in fantasy and science-fiction worlds of her own creation. She’s happily lost in the woods of her own revision adventure at the moment and hoping to dive into the publishing process next. She rarely posts on Twitter, but you can still follow her @vaughn__boyage if you’d like!

Header Photo by Leah Kelley from Pexels

nanowrimo:Book Bracket: Favorite Novel by a NaNoWriMo Pep...

nanowrimo:

Book Bracket: Favorite Novel by a NaNoWriMo Pep Talker

Did you know that nearly 70% of NaNoWriMo writers are women? This year for Women’s History Month, we’ve gone through our list of NaNoWriMo Pep Talkers to find some of our favorite books written by women and featuring a strong female protagonist. In the spirit of March Madness, here’s a just-for-fun book bracket featuring eight of our favorites. Which is yours?

To vote, choose your favorite on each individual poll that will be posted separately and linked below. We’ll tally up the votes for all three rounds to find out which book you all like best!

We think all of these books are fantastic, and you should check them all out. If you want to see our full list of Pep Talk authors and read their inspiring messages, you can find them at https://nanowrimo.org/pep-talks

Round 1:

Alanna: The First Adventure by Tamora Pierce vs. Cinderella is Dead by Kalynn Bayron: Vote in Poll 1.1

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee vs. The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin: Vote in Poll 1.2

The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley vs. Victories Greater Than Death by Charlie Jane Anders: Vote in Poll 1.3

With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo vs. A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik: Vote in Poll 1.4

Round 2 is live!

Alanna: The First Adventure by Tamora Pierce vs. The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin: Vote in Poll 2.1

The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley vs. A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik: Vote in Poll 2.2

NaNoWriMo Pep Talker Book Bracket, Round 2.2

This year for Women’s History Month, we’ve dug into our Pep Talk archives to find some of our favorite books written by women and featuring a strong female protagonist. In the spirit of March Madness, here’s a just-for-fun book bracket featuring eight of our favorites. Here’s the full post!

Bracket 2, Option 2:

The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley

A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik

NaNoWriMo Pep Talker Book Bracket, Round 2.1

This year for Women’s History Month, we’ve dug into our Pep Talk archives to find some of our favorite books written by women and featuring a strong female protagonist. In the spirit of March Madness, here’s a just-for-fun book bracket featuring eight of our favorites. Here’s the full post!

Round 2.1

Alanna: The First Adventure by Tamora Pierce

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin