Chris Baty's Blog, page 203

30 Covers, 30 Days 2013: Day 1

What have we here? It appears to be the first cover in our 30 Covers, 30 Days project! Synopses, novels, creativity in the air: it must be November 1.

Today’s book-inspired art was designed by Andrew Twigg, based on a synopsis by Young Writers Program participant, S. Sharpe:

Strange Things by S. Sharpe

There was a time when Tova’s kind had great power and respect, when their gifts and practices were exulted in public. Now, they have been silenced, reduced to meager circumstances after uprisings forced them to live in colonies in the Appalachian Mountains. But reclamation may be at hand, after a series of suspicious murders buckle the small Alabama town—murders that resemble those that took Tova’s elder sisters years ago.

A southern Gothic with a supernatural twist, Strange Things mixes past and present to tell the story of those who aren’t wanted by heaven and aren’t needed by hell.

About the Designer

Andrew Twigg is Presidents Council Chair and sits on the Board of Directors of AIGA, the professional association for design.

He is President Ex-Officio and an advisor of AIGA Pittsburgh, and serves on the Board of Directors for DesignInquiry, a conference-alternative design research organization. He teaches web design and cross-media systems at the Carnegie Mellon University School of Design, is a one-time karaoke contest winner and has a perpetually sleeping old dog named Rusty. You can find him at @andrewtwigg.

A 100% Awesome, 100% Thorough Guide to NaNoWriMo 2013

I’m in. How does one NaNoWriMo?

A 10-Step Guide to Participating in NaNoWriMo.

Most importantly:

Start writing on November 1. Keep writing. Don’t stop writing until you hit 50,000 words, or December 1, whichever comes first.
Where do you write? Not on the site! In your word processor, notebook, or even typewriter, you iconoclast, you. 
Update your word count by clicking “Update Word Count” in the topmost menu. Watch your word-count graph climb your novel as if it were Everest.

How to make friends and influence people, NaNo-style:

Find your regional forum and attend a write-in. (No region near you? Watch for our livestream write-ins on our YouTube page.)
Read pep talks from authors like Rainbow Rowell, James Patterson, and Marie Lu.
Embrace the forums. (The Newbies forum and All-Ages Coffee House are good starting points.)

I want the ultra-deluxe, full NaNoWriMo experience:

Nominate your novel to receive professional cover art.
Consult your NaNo Coach.
Participate in our Writing Marathon.
Get a hard copy of your winning novel to add to the bookshelf.
Rock the 2013 NaNoWriMo shirt. Repeatedly press the start button on the front. Wonder why you are not being transported away to the noveling retreat of your dreams.

Starting My Novel Help:

How to Schedule Time for Writing
One Sentence on Launching Your Story
Five Secret Steps to Story-Building
Writing Your First Novel

Plot Help:

Creating External and Internal Conflict
25 Ways to Plot, Plan, and Prep Your Story
The Plot Doctoring forum

Character Help:

The Official NaNoWriMo Character Questionnaire
Creating Three-Dimensional Characters by People Watching
The Character Cafe forum

Word-count Help:

@NaNoWordSprints (What is a word sprint?)
The Reaching 50,000 forum

Welcome, newcomers, and welcome back, oldcomers, to what will hopefully become a new yearly tradition—one that inspires and instills you with confidence; one that transforms that idea in your head into a novel; one that’s somehow a hundred times better than a week’s worth of Thanksgiving leftovers.

Have a favorite writing resource or tip? Link and/or comment below! Happy NaNoWriMo!

Roadtrip to NaNo: Banishing the Fog of Writer's Block

Happy NaNo Eve! Our Road Trip to NaNoWriMo ends in San Francisco, where volunteer Municipal Liaison Kayla shares pro-tips to help you smash through writer’s block: 

Greetings, fair readers and writers of NaNoLand. My name is Kayla and today I come to you from the City by the Bay—San Francisco. If there is one thing this city is known for, it’s the hills—the ups and downs of pavement that are often covered in fog that rolls in from the Pacific.

And what a terrific metaphor for National Novel Writing Month’s reckless writing abandon! 

There are many times when we are struggling up the hills just trying to figure out which word, any word, we could possibly type next. Other times, we are coasting downhill and the words flow easily. Sometimes a fog sets in and we wonder why we ever started this crazy endeavor in the first place.

Now, I am not a story planner. I’m a “pantser”, who opens a blank document on Day One and flies by the seat of my pants. But there are ways I like to deal with the roller coaster of November.

Filler Stories

I like to prepare some filler stories that I might write about on days when the hills are very steep and my main plot is just not happening.

For these, I find inspiration all over the place. I use famous landmarks, local history, stories from friends, snippets overheard on the bus— anything really. Any little tidbit of information or historical anecdote might spark a few hundred words on those days when ideas have run dry and word counts cannot be coaxed.  

Incentives

Yes, I like to bribe myself with various rewards along the writing journey. Personally, I enjoy coffee bribes myself (and San Francisco is known for its coffee shops) but you can customize these to your own liking.

Reached your word count for the day? Have a cookie! Maybe you have just completed a scene? I think you deserve a walk to get some fresh air. Knowing there is a little treat at the end of the tunnel may be the lantern to get you through the fog.

Have Fun!

It may seem straightforward but it is surprisingly easy to forget in times of difficulty and writer’s block. Tell family and friends about your journey—sometimes, hearing their support and encouragement is the perfect pick-me-up during the month ahead.

That’s all from the foggy city. I hope these tips were helpful to you, Wrimos. Best of luck in November and don’t let the hills get you down!

Kayla Trail is from the San Francisco Bay Area but is now living in Seattle. She discovered NaNoWriMo in college and has never looked back. This will be her fifth year participating and her third year as an ML. When it is not November, she makes a living sailing around with kids and volunteering in museums.

Top photo by Flickr user walkingsf.

Roadtrip to NaNo: Ask Your Characters "Why?"

November is nearly here, and our Road Trip to NaNoWriMo is winding down. On the way, we’ve heard from so many great writers about how their cities can inspire your novel. Today, we stop in Los Angeles, where volunteer Municipal Liaison Xander asks you, “who are you?”: 

Writing in Los Angeles isn’t as glamorous as it sounds (unless you’re writing on Rodeo Drive. That’s about as glamorous as it gets). It’s hard, dirty, gritty work. So then why are you here?

The answer to that comes back to hard, dirty, gritty work, too. People come to Los Angeles seeking many things. Some come seeking careers in showbiz, some come looking for sunshine and palm trees. Some people are born here, privileged and underprivileged alike.

Think about motivation as you plan your NaNo novel. Watch people’s faces as they pass by and imagine where they are coming from and where they are hoping to go to. Think about the uncertainty that surrounds the darker and lighter sides alike, in a city like Los Angeles.

Sitting around the Hollywood and Highland Center (home to three premiere-sized movie theatres, and the Academy Awards) you can see a thousand people walk past you in an hour, which is something like two thousand stories (one has a happy ending, the other has a tragically dramatic ending that may or may not involve a high-flying death. The trick is to not get stuck in the rut of making all the tourists secret ninjas).

Venice Beach, Santa Monica Pier, the La Brea Tar Pits, or that large cylindrical building in the middle of Downtown are all possibilities for pondering people’s many motivations. Maybe spend a day imagining the inner lives of people at the Laurel Canyon Dog Park, or revealing that uber-prep school Harvard-Westlake is secretly a school for ninjas (yes, we have ninja theme. It only ends when the dinosaurs show up).

I suppose you don’t have to travel all the way to our glamorous city to do these things, you could find similar places near your own home where they have ‘weather’ and don’t sell Mexican Coke by the bottle, that would be up to you.

Good luck, and good writing!

Xander Bennett (artofcheatery) has participated in NaNoWriMo since 2009, barely succeeding every year. In 2011, he became a Municipal Liaison to facilitate meeting people after moving cross country on a whim and dumping his inner editor at an undisclosed location somewhere in Middle America. He has never looked back, because then the ninjas would know he knows. To procrastinate, he helps moderate the Plot Doctoring forum and he swears that this year he’ll actually do Camp NaNoWriMo, not just sign up and forget about it.

Top photo by Flickr user novastarlet.

Wattpad: On Passion, the Democratization of Storytelling, and Pizza Money

Today, we have an interview with Nicholas Jones: staff at Wattpad HQ in Toronto, Canada, and past NaNoWriMo winner (Nicholas’ NaNo Profile; Wattpad Profile). Aside from being a great launching point for a complete NaNo-novel, Wattpad is also sponsoring NaNoWriMo 2013, and looking to reward one lucky NaNoWriMo participant with $2000 for sharing his/her completed novel on Wattpad!

Q: So who is this Nicholas Jones person?

A: I’m Wattpad’s resident wordsmith, and though it’s my day job to write these days, I’ve been writing, in one form or another, since the seventh grade. My passion for writing makes me feel very fortunate to work at an organization that believes in connecting readers and writers through great stories.

Q: What have NaNoWriMo and Wattpad got in common?

A: At Wattpad we believe that if you’ve got a story that you want to tell, that is reason enough for it to be out in the world. This is all NaNo ever asks of you: an idea, some words, and a drive to weave them together. In both places, the only thing standing between you and being a “serious writer” is motivation. At Wattpad, we like to call this approach the democratization of storytelling, and it’s something I believe in very strongly.

Q: When did you participate in NaNoWriMo?

A: I was encouraged by some friends to join their NaNo writing circle in 2010. With their near-constant cheerleading, I successfully got my novel The Building to 50,000 words. It didn’t hurt that there was a distinct lack of other distractions in the 3,800-person Japanese fishing village where I was living and teaching at that time!

Q: What’s this about a prize for one lucky NaNoWriMo participant?

A: Yes! Wattpad is so into NaNoWriMo that we’ve decided to offer a cash prize for a NaNoWriMo writer who successfully completes his or her work of 50,000 words in the month of November and posts the complete work on Wattpad. I mean, this is all about the words and the accomplishment of completing a novel-length work in 30 days, but $2,000 can buy a decent amount of celebratory pizza.

Q: What do participants need to do to qualify?

A: Anyone who wants a chance to win the prize must be registered with NaNoWriMo, have a Wattpad Profile, and must have completed and posted to Wattpad a work of 50,000 words or more by December 8th. We’ll be drawing the winner from all completed stories, and interested Wrimos can find all the details here.

Q: So you will be NaNo’ing again this year?

A: Ha! Absolutely. I pretty much have to now. I’m hoping that writing my NaNoWriMo novel on Wattpad will save me some sanity. If I’m at an actual computer, I can write my novel on the Wattpad site. When out and about, I can access and add to the same story from my phone using the Wattpad app. I’m looking forward to getting a decent amount of writing done on the subway.

Q: Can we track your progress?

A: Certainly. I’m aiming to publicly post my writing each day. Once you create a Wattpad profile, other writers and readers can follow you to get updates on your work. It’s a great way to write serially and to find fans for your book before it’s even published. I’m serializing my NaNoWriMo 2013 novel right here.

Q: Do you think you’re going to make it to 50,000 words this year?

A: One of the things I love most about NaNo is the pressure motivation factor. When I came up with the idea of posting my daily progress publicly on Wattpad, I hoped it would be even more motivation to make it to 50,000 words.

NaNoWriMo is also about sharing your writing experience. I’ve already followed a bunch of people on Wattpad who are also NaNoWriMo writers, and I look forward to encouraging them and offering feedback by leaving comments on their posted stories.

Check out Wattpad, and the rest of our fantastic NaNoWriMo 2013 sponsors and their special offers for Wrimos!

Roadtrip to NaNo: Keep Your Novel Weird

November is just a few days away, and our Road Trip to NaNoWriMo is winding down. On the way, we’ve heard from so many great writers about how their cities can inspire your novel. Today, we stop in Portland, Oregon, where participant Jaymi challenges you to make your novel weird: 

Portland loves writers. We really do. From our myriad cafés, to the flagship bookstore Powell’s, Portland has enough places to keep writers interested throughout an entire NaNoWriMo experience. Our city has an eclectic vibe that casts the area in a laid back but strange light.

Portland has many unexpected and “weird” elements. A network of passages, known as the Shanghai tunnels, run underneath the city, and was once used to carry goods from the ports along the Willamette River to various shops in the cities. Some claim the tunnels are haunted by the workers who used to run around in them, that their ghosts can be heard still to this day.

How does all of this fit into your novel prep? When you’re planning a novel, consider including the unexpected element. 

Above ground in Portland, we have our Saturday Market that allows artists from all over the region to show off their creativity. Music, dancing, and lots of food happen here. When wandering around the Saturday Market there are all sorts of people to bump into; you never know what you’ll find to purchase.

Speaking of people, we have our fair share of weird personalities. Portland is home to the famous unicyclist who sometimes wears a Stormtrooper costume while playing bag-pipes down the northeast streets. Our food carts feature wonderful chefs who are known far and wide for making some of the best food options in town. (Just thinking about food carts makes me want to head downtown and snag my favorite Whole Bowl.)

As you prepare to write, I challenge you all to discover the unexpected in your novel. Whether it be a strange setting element that you have your characters wander around in, or an unexpected character that seems to jump out at you, discover the weird in your imagination and allow it to run free. When you’re hung up, making your work weird will keep writing fun.

Jaymi Elford writes, reads, and dreams in words. An 11-time NaNo winner, she loves writing stories set in a world-like-ours-but-slightly-different. When she’s not writing or reading, Jaymi studies Tarot and spins fire. You can find her stories in Ravens in the Library, and in source books by White Wolf Game Studio. Her non-fiction essays are published in Megalithica Books’ anthologies, and her creative inspiration articles at DIY Planner. She lives in Portland with her loving husband and 3 cats.

Top photo by Flickr user strausser.

5 Tips for NaNoWriMo: Getting Started

Nathan Bransford is an author and former publishing professional. Today, he offers five tips to getting your novel started. (This post is adapted from How to Write a Novel: 47 Rules for Writing a Stupendously Awesome Novel That You Will Love Forever.)

Writing a novel is hard. So hard, in fact, that some people are intimidated by how large the task looms. But do not fear! You can do this. Here are 5 tips for getting started:

NUMBER ONE: Think of an idea you love enough to neglect everything else you enjoy in life.

When you’re choosing an idea for a novel, you’re choosing something you are going to be spending more time with than many of your best friends and your most demanding family members. You’re choosing an idea that will render your bathing habits irregular and your sanity patchy.

In other words, it can’t be an idea you merely like. Liking an idea will get you to page fifty. It will give you an initial burst of enthusiasm—a dawning feeling of “Hemingway’s daiquiri, I can do this!”—before you inevitably lose interest, your attention wanders, and you find yourself with an unfinished novel that you feel vaguely embarrassed about.

Open yourself up to the world so that the right plot hook or character will flow into you. Prime yourself for inspiration.

NUMBER TWO: Flesh out a vague idea.

As much as it may disappoint us, entire plots do not spring forth fully formed from our brains for us to breezily channel into words. You will not have a eureka moment where you suddenly have an entire idea for a novel, from start to finish, that you can transcribe in mere days, and even if this should miraculously happen to you once, you should not tell another writer because they will hate you forever.

More likely, you’ll have a vague idea that might be the merest embryo of a novel. A tiny shard. A little novel sapling that needs to be lovingly coaxed not just into a tree but into an entire forest.

Don’t just jump in. Take some time to figure out what matters to your characters and put some big obstacles in their way.

NUMBER THREE: Figure out how you’re going to back up your work.

Come up with a backup plan and stick to it. Email your manuscript to yourself all the time. Use a storage site like Dropbox. Sync everything to iCloud or write in Google Docs. Save to thumb drives and secretly bury them under rocks in local parks. I don’t care. Just make sure that if you lose your computer and your home backup drive, you won’t lose your novel.

NUMBER FOUR: Don’t chase trends.

If you try and write your book according to trends, you’re playing a very risky game. The industry and reading public will likely have moved on to the next thing by the time you’ve even completed your manuscript. Trends move fast.

Don’t worry about the fads and don’t follow the trends. Be original. Write what you love. It’s better to start a trend than to chase one.

NUMBER FIVE: Just do it.

When you’re just starting to write a novel, there are only two things you’re looking to find: voice and plot.

All the world building, all the ins and outs, and all the “how in the heck am I going to make this work?”—you can worry about that as you go along. Voice and plot are what you’re looking for when you start the actual writing.

Start writing. It’s time. You’re ready. You have nothing to lose and a whole new world waiting for you.

Nathan Bransford is the author of  Jacob Wonderbar and the Cosmic Space Kapow ,  Jacob Wonderbar for President of the Universe  and most recently  Jacob Wonderbar and the Interstellar Time Warp . He writes a blog on writing and publishing. He lives in Brooklyn and has just published a guide to writing a novel.

Top photo created from a photo taken by wwworks.

Roadtrip to NaNo: Finding Inspiration In Your Writing Community

November is nearly here! To get ready, we’re taking a Road Trip to NaNoWriMo. On the way, we’ll hear from writers about how their cities can inspire your novel. Today, we stop in Denver, where volunteer Municipal Liaison Michelle challenges you to find inspiration in your local community: 

Ahh, Denver, the “Mile High City”! Denver is situated at 5,280 feet—aka one mile—above sea level in the heart of the Rocky Mountains. Denver offers so much inspiration to writers of every age; its beautiful scenery can evoke ruminative prose. And, of course, we can’t neglect the robust folklore that the Front Range owns: from the infamously haunted Stanley Hotel to the many Native American sites of interest. It matters not what your personal genre proclivities are, you can find inspiration for any of them around our lovely city.

But what, exactly, is inspiration? According to the dictionary, its definition is: the process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something, esp. to do something creative. If the natural scenery, let alone the rich history, that Denver possesses isn’t enough to inspire you—and hey, it’s okay if that’s how it is!—let me shift gears.

Some people need a little bit more inspiration than some rugged mountains and ghost stories to keep them going so let me introduce you to what inspires me the most for NaNoWriMo here in Denver: the over 1200 active yearly participants!

I have participated in NaNoWriMo for seven years and I have had the distinct pleasure and honor of being a Municipal Liaison for all but one of them. Some may consider it work—I consider it fun. My Wrimos (and yes, they are mine… my own… my Precious!) are truly what make NaNoWriMo for me, and why I keep coming back. They are some of the most fun, friendly, helpful, and inspirational people I have ever met.

They are there, not just for me but for each other, at every stage: from the initial planning phase all the way through editing after November has come and gone. We stay in touch even after November is over, even if there are no works in progress to discuss.

So, despite the incredible challenge that NaNoWriMo offers, you can bet that you can rely on any of our participants for help and inspiration in a variety of ways—you can come to one of our write-ins throughout November, hang out on the NaNoWriMo forums, chat with us in our website’s chat room, connect via Twitter, or hook up with us for both serious posts and humorous posts on our Facebook page. If you’re not in Denver, seek out that community in your city, because it’s definitely there, and it will be your lifesaver, come November.

Do it Mile High City style—oh, and go Broncos!

Michelle Kellogg has lived in Colorado for nearly 20 years. She is married with two children, two cats, a hamster, a fish, and a voracious reading habit—all of which need feeding several times per day! By day she is an Instructional Designer. She has participated in NaNoWriMo for the last seven years, six of which have also been accompanied by the honor of being a Municipal Liaison. Her biggest inspiration comes from her Wrimos who she abundantly plies with candy and chocolate each November—because nothing in life is free, right?!

Top photo courtesy of the Boston Public Library.

Why You Should Consider Sharing Your Novel As You Go

Chris Baty founded NaNoWriMo in order to extend a simple invitation to people around the world: to write the novel inside of them. When he was invited to co-write a story and share it as a work-in-progress, he stepped up, just like you stepped up to our November challenge. Today, he explains why you should consider sharing your novel-in-progress, too:

Last month, I got an email from author Tom Kealey. Tom teaches a NaNoWriMo class for undergrads at Stanford, and he wanted to know if I’d be interested in collaborating on a short story about a happy teen going through life with an arrow sticking out of his head. 

These are the emails that every book nerd dreams of getting. An award-winning short story author wants me to help him write something involving dangerous projectiles and atypical head wounds? 

Finally!

I had assumed that collaborating with Tom would mean he came up with a rough sense of the story and character arcs, worked out the general tone, and then did all of the actual writing. I would pick out the font, insert the page numbers, and fly to Oslo to accept the Nobel Prize for Literature on our team’s behalf. 

But Tom, sadly, had other ideas. 

Tom wanted us to write the entire story in two weeks using an online collaborative writing tool called Ensemble, created by Stanford students Joy Kim and Justin Cheng. Ensemble is built to get reader feedback on works-in-progress. (Eeep.) Tom would post the first 500 words on Ensemble, and I’d have a day to come up with the next chunk. Which Tom would then add to the following day. And so on, for two weeks. We’d ask readers to weigh in on the tale, and help us make story decisions.

There wouldn’t be much time to edit. There would barely be time to write. Every weekday, we would just post whatever we’d come up with and let the other person take it from there. And let a whole lot of strangers read it along the way.  

I’ve spent the past 15 years embracing the power of imperfect first drafts, but the idea of actually showing those drafts to other people terrifies me. I’m an obsessive editor, and feel most comfortable sharing a piece of writing only when I know every sentence has been polished for a decade or so.  

But because I’ve resolved to do as many scary things as possible this year, I told Tom I was up for all of it. We started "Arrowhead" last week, and it will conclude on October 31, just in time for NaNoWriMo.

I’ve been loving the story so far. If you need a break from your NaNo prep, please come by and meet Caleb, and tell us what he should do next! 

I’ve also learned a couple lessons from the whole thing that I wanted to share.  

Writing with a partner and posting the story as you go is nerve-wracking, but the inflexible deadlines it creates are priceless. Even if your co-author (and readers) don’t love what you come up with, you know you have to give them something. Those expectations have helped me prioritize writing on days I would otherwise try to weenie out of it.
Having someone reach out and invite you to do something that’s exciting and daunting and maybe a little over your head can totally change the way you see yourself. (Thanks, Tom!) I’m going to send out some invitations of my own this week.

Okay! I need to get cracking on today’s installment of the story.

Happy writing, everyone!

Chris

Chris Baty is the founder of NaNoWriMo and a maker of fine posters for writers. In the Bay Area? Chris and Tom are doing a free event together at Stanford on Monday, October 28 at 7:15 PM.

The “Arrowhead” illustration is by Sara Sisun.

Roadtrip to NaNo: Finding Your Novel's Sense of Home

November is nearly here! To get ready, we’re taking a Road Trip to NaNoWriMo. On the way, we’ll hear from writers about how their cities can inspire your novel. Today, volunteer Municipal Liaison Kaitlyn challenges you to find a sense of home from Salt Lake City: 

Due to Salt Lake City’s rich natural bounty, it is a popular tourist destination. But, unlike other hot vacation spots, where people come in and out casually, a lot of supposed-tourists end up deciding to stay in Salt Lake City and make it their home. It is all too common to hear the story “we came to visit and we never left.” (Heck, that’s what happened to me!)

As you get deeper into the planning of your NaNo novel, you should consider the impact of such a decision on your characters. What if a forced move (maybe for a job, or a spouse, or a long-lost cousin) pushes your character to a new home? Maybe somewhere like, say, Salt Lake City?

Well, if that does happen, let me tell you a bit about our little city:

Salt Lake City is located right in the middle of a valley: with huge mountains surrounding us on all sides. Every moment offers a breathtaking view. The desert environment means that while it gets hot, it is never humid. And because we are above sea level, it means the weather changes very drastically very quickly. You know how in movies, when, just as the two teenage lovers are about to kiss for the very first time, suddenly the skies open up and pour rain onto them? Well, in Salt Lake City, that could actually happen.

Utah likes to pride itself on having The Best Snow on Earth, and I am here to confirm that. People from all over the world come to ski at our resorts and hike our trails (ski lodge romance anyone?). And, because of the changing elevations, a thirty-minute drive can take you from a snowy mountain to an arid golf course, all in the same day! You can get thousands of words in your NaNo novel just describing all of the sights one can see along such a drive. Tall mountains are replaced with rolling red rocks and deep canyons, gurgling rivers stream right alongside the road.

The mountains, the world class ski resorts, the stunning national parks… these are our playgrounds. And they could be your character’s as well.

It’s not going to be easy, but like dropping off a ledge to ski down a mountain, you have to let your novel, characters, and creative voice guide you through all the snowy bumps along the way. At the end you might happen upon what I find so unique about Salt Lake City: a sense of home. Writing can give you that feeling just as much as any city. I hope you find that feeling at the end of your adventure.

Kaitlyn Booth is a East Coast native that now resides in Salt Lake City, Utah. She has been a co-ML since 2011 and a NaNoWriMo participant and winner since 2004. When she’s not writing and looking into getting a manuscript published, Kaitlyn often goes to Real Salt Lake soccer games or the movies.