Chris Baty's Blog, page 125

"About halfway through the month, I start seeing disheartened tweets and posts on social media from..."

“About halfway through the month, I start seeing disheartened tweets and posts on social media from people who report they are “losing” Camp NaNoWriMo. The structure of NaNoWriMo—the daily and final word-count goals, writing sprints, and sense of community—is what makes it fun and effective.

 

But you aren’t "losing” if you can’t hit the daily word count. If you have more words than you had before you started NaNoWriMo you are winning. You’re closer to finishing your book and achieving your goals. You only lose if you don’t try.”

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Kami Garcia is the #1 New York Times bestselling co-author of the Beautiful Creatures and Dangerous Creatures novels. Kami’s solo novels include Unbreakable and Unmarked (The Legion Series), The X-Files Origins: Agent of Chaos, and The Lovely Reckless. Kami is a cofounder of YALLFEST and a member of the NaNoWriMo Writer’s Board. She was a teacher for seventeen years before coauthoring her first novel on a dare from her students.

Your Camp Care Package is brought to you in partnership with We Need Diverse Books. Sign up to receive more Camp Care Packages at campnanowrimo.org.

"If you’re stuck, that might mean you need to walk away for a minute. Take a walk, see some..."

“If you’re stuck, that might mean you need to walk away for a minute. Take a walk, see some friends, do something that turns your brain off.

 

It’s difficult to sustain creativity; your brain gets tired and needs a break as much as your body does. Sometimes all you need is to let your brain relax into inspiration. When my brain is overworked, I make some tea and fall into a YouTube Bollywood musical hole. It re-energizes me.”

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Preeti Chhibber works as a book-slinger for Scholastic Reading Clubs. She has words on BookRiot, BookRiot Comics, and The Mary Sue, among others. She usually spends her time reading a ridiculous amount of Young Adult (for work, she swears!), but is also ready to jump into most fandoms at a moment’s notice.

Your Camp Care Package is brought to you in partnership with We Need Diverse Books. Sign up to receive more Camp Care Packages at campnanowrimo.org

Camp Pep: Defeating Defeat

Camp NaNoWriMo is nothing without you, our incredible participants. Today, Loretta Marie Perera, a fellow Camper, offers you some pep:

“Today, I will write something good,” you declare to yourself. You have every intention, and you have all the love for the written word in the world. But now here we are, in front of our computers, or notebooks, with a half-filled page and yet another day of guilt for not having written anything “good.” There’s one thing that’s worse than not writing anything good, though: Not writing anything at all.

The first time I signed up for NaNoWriMo in 2011, I started out with an abundance of confidence; my only concern was if the world was ready for the prizewinner I was about to produce. This foolish arrogance lasted about six hours; I wouldn’t hit my target for the next 28 days.

I won NaNoWriMo that year, though I’m fairly confident that the haphazard mess I produced will (and should) never be read by anyone. Still, it’s the most important thing I’ve done in my writing career–it was proof that if I’d done it once, I could do it again. And I did, in 2016. This time, I was in a very different place mentally, emotionally, personally. I was so committed to this. I was 100% in, and I knew that I had a novel in me. This time, I wasn’t messing around.

Five months later, I have a novel draft that I’m proud of, and a novel that I’m actively working on–all thanks to an effort I made five years ago.

I have a rule that I follow: nulla dies sine linea–“not a day without a line”. This comes from a Latin proverb that dates back to the 4th century, inspired by the idea that no great, grand effort has to be put into painting (or writing, in our case)–being constant is far more important. Writing in all forms leads us to become better writers. Even if you can’t bring yourself to work on your novel for yet another day, take some time off. Write a poem. Work on an essay. Come up with a clever limerick. Write something silly, write something beautiful, write anything at all. To be writers, we must write, even when we don’t feel like it and perhaps especially when we don’t feel like it. It’s a craft we’ve committed to, and a craft that continues to exist only because writers like you around the world are, well, writing.

Maybe you’ll write something amazing. Or maybe, like me, you’ll first need to write something you’ll one day shudder to read. But you are literally putting pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) and creating something that is entirely yours, something no one else has written before. This is what has kept me going over the years–the knowledge that there is a novel only I can write, and it isn’t going to write itself.  

“… I do lay claim to whatever merit should be accorded to me for persevering diligence in my profession. And I make the claim, not with a view to my own glory, but for the benefit of those who may read these pages, and when young may intend to follow the same career. Nulla dies sine linea. Let that be their motto. And let their work be to them as is his common work to the common labourer. No gigantic efforts will then be necessary.”

–Anthony Trollope

Rett is currently based in Moscow, where she continues to work on her novel, experiments with poetry and stands with local feminists in her ongoing quest to dismantle the patriarchy in whichever city she finds herself. You can read more of her adventures on femmefauxpas.com.

"Be healthy! Week three means you’re within sight of your goal. Sustain yourself: drink water,..."

“Be healthy! Week three means you’re within sight of your goal. Sustain yourself: drink water, don’t forget to eat, and sleep—I know it sounds like a no-brainer, but it’s so easy to just keep going and not think about the next day. It’s about the marathon not the sprint.

 

I keep a water bottle on hand at all times, and if I know I’ve scheduled a writing day, I try to get to bed early the night before so I’m well-rested. (Also: I highly recommend cucumbers + a special salt called jiralu as a snack. It is nom-worthy.)”

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Preeti Chhibber works as a book-slinger for Scholastic Reading Clubs. She has words on BookRiot, BookRiot Comics, and The Mary Sue, among others. She usually spends her time reading a ridiculous amount of Young Adult (for work, she swears!), but is also ready to jump into most fandoms at a moment’s notice.

Your Camp Care Package is brought to you in partnership with We Need Diverse Books. Sign up to receive more Camp Care Packages at campnanowrimo.org

"It’s week three, and you might be feeling a little spent. But you know what? It’s..."

“It’s week three, and you might be feeling a little spent. But you know what? It’s already week 3! You got here! That’s amazing!

 

Take breaks if you need to, then come back to your writing. Remember, your words don’t have to be perfect. Revision is your friend, not your enemy. Get the words on the page. You got this.”

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Preeti Chhibber works as a book-slinger for Scholastic Reading Clubs. She has words on BookRiot, BookRiot Comics, and The Mary Sue, among others. She usually spends her time reading a ridiculous amount of Young Adult (for work, she swears!), but is also ready to jump into most fandoms at a moment’s notice.

Your Camp Care Package is brought to you in partnership with We Need Diverse Books. Sign up to receive more Camp Care Packages at campnanowrimo.org

Writing Affirmations, submitted by Camp NaNoWriMo participants....

Writing Affirmations, submitted by Camp NaNoWriMo participants. (Text reads: “I will not let fear, frustration, and perfectionism stifle me. I will show up at the page and try.” By NaNoWriMo user Crizma)

Camp Pep: Go for the Grit

Camp NaNoWriMo is nothing without you, our incredible participants. Today, Linda Xia, a fellow Camper and member of the Young Writers Program, offers you some pep:

Dear Gritty Writer,

There are a thousand things I could tell you. I could tell you that as we wrap up Week Two of Camp NaNoWriMo, I’m falling behind too. I could tell you that I’ve seen people who fell behind succeed despite the obstacles they had to face. But whatever relief or satisfaction you glean from those words wouldn’t last. I won’t give you permission to give up. I refuse to let you accept failure or self-recrimination as your due just because it’s easier.

Obstacles are a part of life. Maybe you’re like me and you’re wrestling with that little demon named Fear who lives in your head and tells you you’re crazy for thinking you could do this. That voice? It’s a part of you. Don’t let yourself be the reason you give up. If you write only one word this month and you write that word because you love writing, then you have succeeded.

Maybe the words just aren’t coming. Open a new document. Give yourself permission to be ridiculous. If you’re writing about a psychotic writer, make her a psychotic writer with a one-eyed dog who enjoys long walks in the rain with a stray cat who has a penchant for gourmet salami. When you write, you are in control. It doesn’t matter what other people might think. You are doing this for you because you want to do this. Write down the reasons why, stick them on your refrigerator, tape them to the bathroom mirror and read them whenever you even think of throwing in the towel (and then name that towel “Samantha”).

Maybe you have less time than you anticipated. The greatest writers in the world–George Orwell, T.S. Elliot–had 24-hour days. You get 24 hours a day, too, and it’s up to you what you do in those hours. There is no such thing as not having enough time to write. All that means is that your writing doesn’t rank high enough on your list of priorities to merit your time.

“You have grit, and it doesn’t matter what other people think or what Fear thinks because you love what you do and the only thing standing in your way is yourself.”

The fact that you are reading this letter tells me you’re not the kind of person who needs to be coddled or coaxed into following your dreams. And I know that because you are here, in front of your laptop (or whatever-newfangled-device you’re using), because there is a part of you that yearns to succeed.

Grit, according to Angela Duckworth, is a combination of passion and perseverance. I’m not here to teach you what passion is or what perseverance entails. I’m here to tell you that grit is doing-what-you-love-no-matter-the-cost. That grit is the willpower to keep-on-going. That you have grit, and it doesn’t matter what other people think or what Fear thinks because you love what you do and the only thing standing in your way is yourself. You are capable of writing a novel. You are bold and creative and wonderful. You are a writer and I believe with all my heart that you will succeed.

In the end, Camp NaNoWriMo isn’t about the number of words you write or even the finished draft. It’s about the act of writing, about giving yourself permission to spend time doing something you love. And if you take only one thing from this pep talk, remember this: you don’t need to be afraid–you’re as gritty as they come.

On my way to buy gourmet salami,  

Linda Xia (psychotic writer extraordinaire)

Linda Xia is fluent in sarcasm and the proud owner of over 200 books, all of which have been rescued from various book sales. Her work has been published in various anthologies and she loves (read: is obsessed with) writing, a condition that often interferes with her obligations as a high school student. She resides in Canada with her cactus, Christi. And her family. But she spends more time talking with her cactus. You can read more of her chaotic thoughts at https://lyndeks.wordpress.com.

"Your characters’ obstacles might not be of the high fantasy kind, but thinking about how your..."

“Your characters’ obstacles might not be of the high fantasy kind, but thinking about how your characters would react in extreme situations teaches you things about who they are—things that you can use in your own story.

 

Put your characters in Hogwarts, or Oz, or some other realm that you know well. What does your character do? What house are they sorted into? How do they react when faced with a Big Bad like Voldemort or The Wicked Witch? And if you find you don’t know if your character is a Slytherin or a Ravenclaw, or what they do when they drop a house on a certain witch, then maybe it’s time to answer those questions before moving back to your book.”

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Danielle Paige is the New York Times bestselling author of the Dorothy Must Die series, and the upcoming Stealing Snow series. In addition to writing books, she works in the television industry, where she’s received a Writers Guild of America Award and was nominated for several Daytime Emmys. She is a graduate of Columbia University and lives in New York City. 

Sign up to receive more Camp Care Packages at campnanowrimo.org.

"One of the hardest things for some writers is showing their work to someone else for the first time...."

“One of the hardest things for some writers is showing their work to someone else for the first time. I know that you are probably nowhere near the end. But maybe it’s time to talk out your story.

 

Hearing yourself explain it out loud might help you work out what is missing from your story and help you get over any hurdles. One more thing: choose a person who can be honest, incisive, and kind.”

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Danielle Paige is the New York Times bestselling author of the Dorothy Must Die series, and the upcoming Stealing Snow series. In addition to writing books, she works in the television industry, where she’s received a Writers Guild of America Award and was nominated for several Daytime Emmys. She is a graduate of Columbia University and lives in New York City.

Sign up to receive more Camp Care Packages at campnanowrimo.org.

"My first writing job was in soaps (Guiding Light and later, Days of Our Lives) and it was there that..."

“My first writing job was in soaps (Guiding Light and later, Days of Our Lives) and it was there that I got my favorite piece of advice. A development exec told me once that every scene or chapter must end with an actual or metaphorical slap. That doesn’t mean that every scene should be filled with melodrama. It means that even the quietest scenes should have an arc: a beginning, middle, and end, punctuated with some kind of decision, revelation, etc. At the end of a chapter, readers should feel the impact of the “slap” and have to turn the page for more.

  

In other words, your writing needs momentum. Every chapter should move the story and the characters forward. And if it doesn’t, cut it. The “slap” can be a broken heart or a bullet, but readers should feel it long after they’ve read it and it should keep them wanting more.”

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Danielle Paige is the New York Times bestselling author of the Dorothy Must Die series, and the upcoming Stealing Snow series. In addition to writing books, she works in the television industry, where she’s received a Writers Guild of America Award and was nominated for several Daytime Emmys. She is a graduate of Columbia University and lives in New York City.

Sign up to receive more Camp Care Packages at campnanowrimo.org