Chris Baty's Blog, page 233

The ML's Guide to Writing in the Philippines

Tina has been an ML in the Philippines region for five years, and was joined by Liana in 2010. The NYC and London MLs are super rad, but Tina and Liana are keeping an entire country racing towards 50,000 words.

Tina was kind enough to jot down a quick guide to noveling in the Philippines. Guys. They have a local varietal of coffee that is mighty-man strong. Game changer.

The Philippines region rundown:

Best Local Writer Fuel — Coffee and Pringles. It’s a weird combination. We have a local type of coffee called barako that I rarely drink because it’s so strong, but it has a very distinct local flavor.

As for the Pringles, any kind will do—we crush them, and then sort of ‘drink’ it from the can. We’re too busy typing to be bothered with sticking our hands inside.

Best Way to Beat Writer’s Block — Hop onto public transportation! Commuting from one place to another can get crazy here, especially with the massive traffic, but it can be great to people-watch during those times.

Regional Genre of Choice — We’ve had a lot of fantasy and mainstream fiction writers in past years. This year, we’re challenging everyone to write something apocalyptic, since the Mayan calendar said the world will end this December. Ha!

The Can’t Miss Philippines NaNo Event

I love our Kick-Off Party, and our first write-in, because we always have the most energy during those times. Just last year, though, we launched a new event after our kick-off: a Plot Party. It’s like the kick-off’s Pimp My Plot, but we discuss a lot more writing and plotting, and it was a big, big hit! I’m looking forward to doing it again this year.

The Runners-Up — Since we’re MLs for an entire country, we love our online chats. We’ll start a nightly conference over Yahoo! Messenger, which is crazy fun (and distracting!) but we do get a bit of writing done. We can talk about the most random things, too: Chuck Norris has remained a favorite topic since 2008.

We hold our word wars online, too, and you wouldn’t believe how much some people write.

The Municipal Liaisons

I’ve been doing NaNoWriMo since 2004, and have been an ML since 2007. I joined NaNo in college; I used to write a lot when I was younger, but I stopped when I got too busy with school work.

I lost my first year, but finished the novel a few months later. I found a fellow Filipino in the forums, and he told me that I should win by the following year. So I joined again, and just as we finally formed an Asia :: Philippines region, I won. And I found it very addictive.

In 2007, the ML baton was passed to me. I had no idea what I was doing, but because I loved the event so much, I just decided to jump in. It’s been a crazy ride ever since, but I love the thrill and fun of seeing my fellow writers reach the 50K mark. In 2010, my co-ML Liana joined me at the helm, and we’re expecting another new ML to join us this year.

A Guide to the Local Wrimos and Culture — I always remember 2008 as my favorite NaNoWriMo year, and it’s a great example of our region at its best. We had two Thank God It’s Over parties: we had a pizza party to celebrate everyone’s success (whether they reached 50K or not), and then the next week, we had our TGIO sponsored by a local writing group. It was like we didn’t want to live our novels behind.

Filipinos have always been known to be warm and hospitable, and I’ve seen that in our region as well! We’re a pretty friendly bunch, and…we have a way of bribing people to get to 50K. :) And we have really good food, too.

The Region In a Nutshell — The Philippines has been called Pearl of the Orient all this time, but allow me to borrow our country’s tourism slogan for this year: NaNoWriMo: It’s More Fun in the Philippines.

Check out the region in November!

The NaNoWriMo Philippines forum
The website
@PinoyWrimos

Author Karen Cox: We Want More IPPY Winners!

Karen M. Cox is a writer, speech-pathologist, and longtime Jane Austen aficionado. Her first novel, 1932, was published in September 2010, and she wrote her second novel during NaNoWriMo that year. She published Find Wonder in All Things this February, and was awarded an Independent Publishers Book Award.

We caught up with Karen to talk about her latest book, her experience with NaNo, and, of course, her love of Austen.

How did you find out about NaNoWriMo and what convinced you to participate? 

My son, who writes fanfiction, heard about NaNoWriMo through one of his high school English teachers. Meryton Press had just released my first novel, and I was planning my sophomore effort. I had an idea for a character and knew I wanted to adapt Jane Austen’s Persuasion, but I was having trouble getting into the project. 

My son convinced me to give NaNo a try as a way to put some structure on my writing. We started out together, but alas, he got the flu the first week of November and ended up not winning that year. He still finds it ironic and somewhat annoying that my second published work was the direct result of his pushing me to do the NaNo!

You’ve based your past two published novels on Jane Austen books, adapted her early-1800s romanticism to modern times. How much work goes into that adaptation process, and what do you think makes for a timeless plot? 

I wanted the themes in my novels to be as accurate to Austen as I could manage, and yet still be relevant to modern readers. So, I researched by participating in group reads with other fans, reading critiques and annotated versions of her books, and summarizing each chapter with my own notation of the events and how those events illuminated something about the plot or characters.   

After I got a good handle on the original timeline, I imagined a modern person walking through that story arc. What would those events look like in today’s world? I wasn’t wedded to every event in the original books—first and foremost, the story had to ring true in the setting I’d chosen. But I tried to elicit the same timeless themes that I gleaned from Jane Austen’s novels.

It’s interesting—when I read her books, I’m always struck by the psychological truths in them: erroneous first impressions in Pride & Prejudice, forgiveness in Persuasion, endurance in Sense & Sensibility, integrity in Mansfield Park. So when I wrote 1932 and Find Wonder in All Things, my objective was to write about those themes in such a way that a reader who might not ever pick up Austen because it seemed too daunting would understand and enjoy them, too.  

How do you develop characters? Do you flesh them out before you begin plotting, or do your characters build themselves as you write?

I spend a lot of time at the beginning of a story thinking about and ‘interviewing’ characters. I typically start with a character sketch: a physical, intellectual and emotional description of the character. What he or she looks like, a birthday, childhood fears and wishes, personality characteristics, pets, favorite foods and music, favorite sayings, habits, and (this is significant) character or personality flaws, i.e., challenges that the character must overcome to be a happy and useful person. 

Then I’ll start running through the story events from the timeline I’ve made. When an event occurs, I mentally ‘pause the movie,’ turn to him or her and ask, “What are you thinking here? What are you going to do? I bet that made you angry/sad/ecstatic”, etc. Sometimes, because I’ve already worked out a complete person in my head, the answer surprises me. For example, I had a story event occur where I expected a character to be angry. I watched as he turned around, and he was laughing instead! He completely surprised me.

If you could live in any of Jane Austen’s novels, which would it be? 

It would depend on which character I got to play—I mean, who wants to be Mrs. Norris, tormenting Fanny Price? Or Willoughby, the 18th century sociopath who seduces innocent young women? 

But if we’re talking main characters here, I would have to choose Pride and Prejudice’s Elizabeth Bennet—a little bit of beauty, a lot of brains, some good fortune thrown in for good measure, and a tremendous amount of honesty, resulting in a huge capacity for emotional growth. And she ends up with a cute guy. And a nice house.  

Do you have writing, revision, or publishing advice for other NaNoWriMo participants? 

Write every day during NaNoWriMo, if at all possible. The days that I started out ‘behind’ (and they happened during that month, believe me) were tough days.    
When you stop for the day, know where you’re going tomorrow. Write those next couple of lines or a brief chapter summary. It helps eliminate the ‘staring at a blank screen or paper’ syndrome. 
Honestly, and this is hard for me to do myself, resist the urge to edit until you’ve got the thing out of your brain and onto the stone tablet, paper, or screen. I’ll wager that many books don’t ever get written because an author’s overzealous internal editor jumped into the process too soon.
Find people you trust to give you feedback: whether they be NaNo friends, or a local writing group. I found online friends at a nonprofit Jane Austen website who did this for me. They gave me invaluable feedback because most of them have no agenda besides reading good material.
Throughout the writing process, treat your book like your child. What I mean is love it, treasure it, brag about it, but be objective and open-minded enough to discipline it—through accepting constructive criticism, editing, rewriting—without losing your long-term vision for when it’s ‘all grown up.’ This is harder than it sounds—you have to weigh others’ opinions without pride and prejudice, yet still stay true to what you want for your ‘child’ in the end.

Writing is work, but most of the time it’s fun work. Lighten up, be open to learning new things, allow yourself to make mistakes and then fix them. And keep writing—always, always, keep writing. 

You can find Karen:

On her blog
On Facebook
@karenmcox1932

We Want More of Claire & Jenn: The ML’s Guide to Writing in London

Claire and Jenn joined the MLs in London last year, but have been writing with NaNoWriMo since 2008 and 2007 respectively. We asked them to give us the Wrimo’s Guide to noveling in London, home to Dickens and countless other literary giants.

If you find yourself wondering where to write in the UK’s capital city, Claire and Jenn can give you the scoop on the best loose-leaf tea, tackling steampunk, and writing-without-permission at King’s Cross:

The London region rundown:

Best Local Writer Fuel — As Londoners, we have to say tea! We’re especially fond of the many loose-leaf blends at Yumchaa, in Soho, where we have our Tuesday write-ins. They also have delicious homemade sandwiches and scones.

Best Way to Beat Writer’s Block — At the cafe at the British Library, you can sit by entire walls full of beautiful leather-bound books and let the scope of the place inspire you. We also organised our first write-ins at the British Library, so we have a soft spot for it.

Regional Genre of Choice — We’ve seen a rise in Steampunk in the last few years. With a backdrop like London, it makes sense—where better to set a Victorian-era novel?

The Can’t Miss NYC NaNo Event  

NaNoRilla, our yearly Writing Crawl! We took the concept of a traditional UK pub crawl, and applied it to writing. We travel by foot between London landmarks, stopping at each one to do writing sprints.

The name comes from the rather guerrilla approach we take—by which we mean we rarely ask permission. We tend to give places a try and see how long they’ll let us stay! In the past three years, we wrote on the bank of the Thames, in King’s Cross station, the Tate Modern, the British Library, the British Museum, and a few others.

The Runners-Up — The All-Night Write-In: we held our first-ever 12-hour writing marathon at the Big Green Bookshop, which has been incredibly supportive of us, over the last weekend of NaNo 2011.

The Municipal Liaisons

Our first year as MLs was in 2011, but we had been organising local write-ins for a few years before that, and that turned out to be invaluable experience when we became MLs. We joined London’s longstanding ML, Lily, who has been the voice of experience, and another new ML for 2011, Tom. (For 2012, Lily is stepping down and we’re welcoming Suzanne!)

Jenn found NaNoWriMo online, and did it for the first time in 2007, and Claire discovered it in 2008, just a couple of months after moving to the UK from France. For both of us, London is the only NaNo region we’ve been a part of.

A Guide to the Local Wrimos and Culture — Our favourite NaNoWriMo memory so far as been of all the people winning during our first All-Night Write-In! More than ten people won that night. Every time someone won, they got to give themselves a shout out, and everyone else stopped writing to clap and cheer for them.

The atmosphere was great—really supportive—and even the people who didn’t actually cross the finish line on the night got an incredible number of words written.

The Region In a Nutshell — It’s London. An inspirational city to write in, and a vibrant NaNoWriMo community to be a part of make it the only place to be in November! London Calling (but will you answer?)

Check out the region in November!

The NaNoWriMo London forum
The website
@NaNoLondon

Author Alan Averill: 'We Want More ABNA Winners'

After years of translating video games and writing for Nintendo Power, Alan Averill has shifted into serious novelist mode. His NaNoWriMo novel, The Beautiful Land, won this year’s Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award, and as such will be published by Penguin.

We managed to get a hold of Alan for a quick Q&A about time travel, localization, and being a shark.

Can you tell us about The Beautiful Land?

I tell people The Beautiful Land is a love story with time machines, because that’s the closest I can get to describing it succinctly.

In longer form, it’s a story about a guy named Takahiro O’Leary who goes to work for a company that invents a time machine. Four years later, he discovers that the company is going to use the machine to change our reality, which will in turn kill his childhood love, an Iranian-American military translator named Samira Moheb. So he flees the company, steals his own time machine, and sets out to save her life.

It’s an action-driven science fiction novel, but at the core it’s really a story about these two people coming to grips with the fact they are in love with each other—and I tried to keep it focused on that, despite the absolutely crazy things happening throughout the rest of the book. Hopefully I succeeded.

That sounds awesome! Where did the concept come from?

Um…yeargh. I don’t really know. I think the book just kind of germinated in the back of my mind while I was doing other things. I know that sounds weird, but there wasn’t a lot of planning, or outlining, or anything. I pretty much just wrote and ended up being surprised at what came out in the end.

What inspired you to try for the ABNA?

Desperation, mostly. The Beautiful Land had been turned down by a few dozen agents, and I was really at a loss for what to do with it. Eventually, I put it on Amazon as a 99-cent ebook and sold maybe 150 copies, which gave me just enough money to buy some beer and try to forget that no one was reading it. So when I found out there was a novel-writing contest that was free to enter where the winner got a publishing contract, I figured “Hey, why not?”

You worked on the book for a long time. What role did NaNoWriMo play in the process?

I wrote the first chapter of the book a few months before NaNoWriMo and then got busy with other things and didn’t get back to it. Eventually, a few of my friends announced they were going to do NaNoWriMo, and so I decided to join them. I ended up writing the bulk of the book during that month—probably a good 60% of it—and then finished it up in January.

The Beautiful Land turned out to be a pretty fast-paced book, and I credit NaNoWriMo for a good deal of that. One of the great things about NaNo is that you don’t have time to think about what you’re doing. You can’t decide to rewrite the first nine chapters because you had this really great idea, or go back and turn your Iowa farmboy into a lesbian bowler from Canada. You’re basically a Writer Shark, and if you don’t keep swimming forward at all times, you’re going to die.

I don’t mean this to imply that’s the only way to write a novel—I know that there are some folks who take ten years to write books, and end up with really amazing stuff. But it’s easy to get bogged down in process and rewrites and “yeah it’s good but it could be better if I just did these 5,000 things” and then all of a sudden you look up and you’ve got as many pages done as you did three months ago. If you can finish the book, then you have a much better framework for editing and rewrites and all that.

What worked or didn’t work for you in the revision process? Any advice for NaNoWriMo participants?

The biggest change I made during revision was to toss out a chunk of the novel. There were originally two other characters, as well as a bunch of other stuff going on, but I realized it was just making things unnecessarily complicated, so I cut it. And it sucked to cut it, honestly, because I really liked it, but in the end it made it a much stronger book.

The best piece of advice is the one I mentioned earlier: finish the book. That sounds really simple, but it’s one of the harder things to do. Don’t tweak. Don’t edit. Don’t go back and change things. Don’t do any of that. Just keep going forward until it’s done and then worry about all that stuff. Be the shark, man.

Did your work localizing video games help with your novel-writing?

Oh, immensely. First of all, it taught me to be concise. Since Japanese is a character-based language, you can say a whole lot in a small amount of space. So some guy might come on screen and make a massively long speech filled with all kinds of flourishes and happy bits, and then when you start localizing, you realize you have to fit it into a two-line speech bubble above the dude’s head.

So you learn very, very quickly how to get a large amount of information into a small space, and how to cut extraneous stuff. It also made me better at writing dialogue, because that’s often the bulk of the translation, so I got a lot of practice.

Would you want to write a game of your own? Do you think the two kinds of storytelling are similar?

I would love to write a game of my own from the ground up. I am a huge proponent of the narrative and storytelling power of videogames, and I think we’ve only scratched the surface of what folks can accomplish in that area.

The main advantage of a game story is, obviously, that the player has complete control over what’s going to happen (so long as it stays within the framework of the game). In a book, you have to go from A to Z, but a videogame lets you stop off at G, or M, or wherever you want so long as the developers think about it in that kind of way. And that’s a huge bonus.

On the other hand, that freedom is also a huge challenge, because the first thing a lot of people are going to do when they get into a game is to try to break it.

So, er, yes. I’d really like to take a crack at it someday. But I also want to continue writing books, because I love books with all that I am, and oftentimes nothing beats the immediacy of a well-written novel. Hopefully, I can find a way to do both.

And finally, if you had a time machine, what one game would you go back in time and personally oversee the localization of?

I really wish I could have worked on Metal Gear Solid. Not because I’d want to fix anything, because I think the localization in that game is pretty much flawless. But I’d just like to have been a part of it anyway, because it’s such a seminal game in my life. I’d also say Earthbound for the same reason.

Oh, and I’d like to have worked on the NES version of Pro Wrestling, just so I could be the guy responsible for “A Winner Is You!” …and no. I would not change that ever.

We Want More of Kristina: Wrimo & Music Video Mastermind!

Kristina is a six-time NaNoWriMo winner, and all-around awesome person. Not only has she accomplished putting down 50,000 words every November since 2006, she’s somehow found the time to write, sing, and perform in the music video for “The NaNoWriMo Song”.

Thankfully, since it isn’t November, Kristina found the time to sit down for a whirlwind personality quiz and interview. You can also check out her YouTube channel, and blog!

The Personality Quiz, NaNo-style:

Pantser, or Planner? I am definitely a planner. It really depends on the nature of the story I am working on that year, but generally, I’ll at least map out characters and a general story arc. Sometimes I even break down chapter arcs before I dive into them, but it’s always a work in progress and my notes are ever-changing.

First Encounter with the NaNoWriMosphere — This girl I knew from my fanfiction days mentioned it in her buddy profile on AIM (wow, remember when we all used AIM?) in 2005. I went to the website to check it out, but November was more than halfway over. 

In 2006, I saw mention of it again somewhere or other online, and even though I’d missed the start date again by about four days, I decided to dive in anyway.

NaNo Fuel of Choice — My friend Liz and I always spend a lot of our NaNoWriMo month working with each other. In our first year writing together, we powered through with the the divine aid of banana cream pie, and now it’s become somewhat of a tradition. Believe it or not I’m not really a coffee person; so I suppose sugar is my crutch.

NaNoWriMo Motivation — I wish I could tell you some inspirational tale about how NaNoWriMo challenges me in new ways and helps me grow not only as a writer but as a person, but really I’m the authorial equivalent of a drug addict, needing my yearly fix of writing a novel way faster than should be humanly possible. 

One year I even tried not doing NaNoWriMo, because it was my junior year in college and I was totally swamped with ‘real life things’. But I got so jealous when I saw other people online talking about their stories that on November 2 I started a novel anyway. That was the year I wrote my favorite story.

Spirit Animal — This is a tougher question than I first thought. I was about to unblinkingly say “a unicorn”, but upon second thought, I think that’s more my Patronus than my spirit animal. My spirit animal is probably Pinkie Pie. It’s a My Little Pony reference. No, it really is a good show… sigh.

Favorite Literary Character — Draco Malfoy. Blame it on a schoolgirl crush, but old habits die hard.

Live, rule, raze: Narnia, Hogwarts, Panem — Live at Hogwarts, Rule Narnia, Raze Panem. Come on.

 - 

Kristina and OLL In the Mooorning:

You are a triple threat! Vlogging, singing, writing: what is your favorite thing about doing all of the above? What is the most challenging thing?

I think what’s really important is finding ways to use your skills in tandem—writing and vlogging often go hand in hand, but when you can find ways to combine all of your skills (be it music videos you make at home, or video blogs when you’re out on tour) that’s when you’re really pushing yourself to your full potential. Though lately I’ve been doing a lot more acting than singing!

Let’s talk about the NaNoWriMo song, which you updated last November. How did it come about? Why was this the time for a reboot of the franchise? Most importantly, what happened to the bro posse from the first video?

Well, the idea for the song originally came to me during a previous NaNoWriMo. I was struggling along with my word count (as you do) and I wished I had some sort of anthem to motivate me and keep me going. I realized nothing like that existed online, so I knew I had to write it myself!

As for the reboot—the original music video was filmed a long time ago, when all I had was a crappy little flip cam. I happened to live with a serious filmmaker last fall, who wanted to make some sort of music video. Since the opportunity was available, I thought it would be fun to create a more polished version of the video!

As for the bro posse (haha), one of those guys is the other half of ALL CAPS, the band I was in that wrote the song. He wasn’t in Seattle when we filmed the reboot, so I substituted him with another one of my roommates.

 - 

The Character Profile:

Who’s your favorite character from your NaNo-novels?

Meredith, the retail magic shop owner who wasn’t satisfied with illusions and tricks, and started researching real, darker magic. She then proceeded to shrink everyone in her town down to the size of a toy to keep them in a weirdo dollhouse neighborhood she built in her attic.

Your character is now mortal enemies with your favorite literary character. Who would reign supreme?

Well, Draco knows real magic and Meredith is kind of a wannabe, though I get the impression that Draco didn’t pay much attention in class. So they’d probably be pretty equally matched.

After a while, Meredith would get lucky and manage to shrink Draco down to the size of a puffskein: her only real ability. She would delight in keeping Draco in her attic for awhile, until Lucius found out. At this point he would burst inside, free Draco from his miniature prison, and get Meredith a life sentence in Azkaban (without freeing any of the other prisoners, of course).

Draco would never speak of it again, filing it away next to “that time he was a ferret” in his memories.

Your character is now tasked with rebuilding the land you razed. Are they up to the job?

Meredith? Yes, but it would be a tiny, miniature version of Panem. She would be their Queen. It would honestly be a step down from the previous Panem, which is hard to imagine is possible. Maybe she’d even hold a miniature Reaping. This would be exactly like the real Reaping, but smaller.

Castle In the Air's Karima Cammell: We Need More Creativity

If Harry Potter were a Wrimo, he’d buy his writing goods at Castle in the Air, a writer’s fantasyland in Berkeley, CA by way of Diagon Alley, full of Venetian glass pens, Roman leather albums, hand-formulated ink, sealing wax cooked in cauldrons, and more.

Castle in the Air generously donated a package of such sumptuous, old-world writing accoutrement for our summer fundraising drive. We talked to owner Karima Cammell to learn more about their reverie-inducing approach to creativity (and check out the section of their website dedicated to Wrimos).

What gave you the idea for a shop that speaks to the whimsy and fantasy of another era in our technology-oriented age?

I’ve always been inspired by the ideal of the Renaissance master’s studio. If it was good enough for da Vinci, it’s good enough for artists today! That period was characterized by a blend of the new and the old—scientific discoveries, trade between cultures who had just found one another, dragons at the edge of the map, and fairies at the bottom of the garden. It’s a lot like where we are now, trying to balance new discoveries with our longing for personal meaning.

As a young artist I was often told that my options were limited. The science world didn’t seem to support my artistic side, and the publishing world rejected my paintings as “not commercial enough.” Fortunately, my other hero is the children’s book character the Little Red Hen, who says, “Fine, I’ll do it myself!”

I had money set aside from some graphic design work I’d done, and I used it to set up a little greeting card shop and studio where I could work. I was frustrated by the idea that art couldn’t be commercial, so the shop and studio was an attempt to reconcile that. Even if someone had told me it wouldn’t work, I wasn’t about to keep listening to that sort of nonsense. Seeing my paintings and their story turned into a book was my biggest dream, and I wasn’t going to let anyone take my dream from me.

What is your favorite writing product in the store?

Speaking of flying, appropriately enough, my favorite writing tool is the Namiki Falcon fountain pen. It’s got an old-style flexible gold nib, and as I write the nib slows me down just a bit and brings my attention to the paper, and that brings some art to my shaping of each letter and word.

Do you ever use a quill to write?

Occasionally I do use a quill for writing letters to friends. I run an in-house publishing company at Castle in the Air called Dromedary Press. In our latest book—Pirate & Hoopoe—one of the main characters, named Pirate, uses a quill and sealing wax.

I used a quill to create a calligraphic letter purportedly written by him and enclosed a reproduction of it in each copy of the book. The splotchy nature of any writing done with a quill conveyed some of his madness. “Hand-done is best done” is one of Pirate’s favorite sayings, and it’s one of mine too, which is why I brew my own ink from oak galls to use whenever I write with a quill. Maybe I’m a bit mad myself!

Incidentally, Pirate & Hoopoe is the dream book I mentioned earlier, proving that with enough hard work dreams can come true.

I’m especially interested in the booklet On Gnoming: A Pocket Guide to the Successful Hunting and Cooking of Gnomes. Can you share one tip for hunting gnomes?

That pamphlet is one of our best-selling items at the store, and it’s going to appear as a chapter in a book this fall—Goblinproofing One’s Chicken Coop, published by Conari Press. It was written by my partner in Dromedary Press, Clint Marsh, under his pen name Reginald Bakeley. He’s mentioned that gnomes have a highly developed sense of smell, so it’s important that gnome hunters blend in, scent-wise, if they don’t want to frighten off the gnomes.

What do gnomes taste like?

As a vegan I’m not really qualified to answer that, but Reginald claims they taste like rabbit.

Are you going to write about gnomes in this year’s NaNoWriMo?

Right now I’m working on a book about trolls, actually. I hope to be done with it before November so I can tackle something new during NaNoWriMo. Some of my ancestors were magicians in Scotland in the 1930s, so I’m toying with the idea of writing something along those lines.

I kind of specialize in short books, or even wordless picture books, so it will be a real challenge to get to 50,000 words. Pirate & Hoopoe was about that length, but it was a collaboration with my birth father, Diarmid Cammell. He wrote nearly all the text, and we tinkered with it off and on for years and years.

I appreciate the focus NaNoWriMo provides. Getting to 50,000 words in 30 days is really throwing down the gauntlet, but setting such goals is an invaluable gift for all writers to give themselves.

Do you have a philosophy of creativity?

Being creatively effective has to do with knowing what is possible, and trusting that it can happen. We can combine two seemingly unrelated things and create something new. Water and powdered minerals can become paint. Paper and ink can become a drawing or words on a page. This kind of creativity is craft, knowing your materials and what they’re capable of.

Where creativity really takes off, though, is when we add our ideas to the mix. We already know our materials, and if we can trust our imagination and follow through with our ideas, then the sky’s the limit. I think of artists as standing on the edge of a cliff. The artist knows that, as crazy as it sounds, they can fly if they can only muster the strength to throw themselves off, to go for it. Creativity is courage incarnate.

Learn more about Karima Cammell at www.castleintheair.biz and www.dromedarypress.com.

And don’t forget to donate to NaNoWriMo’s summer fundraising drive for a chance to win the Castle in the Air package:

We Want More of Erin: The ML's Guide to Writing in New York

Erin is one of our fantastic Municipal Liaisons in New York City, and has been leading the NaNoWriMo charge there since 2003. We asked her to give us the Wrimo’s Guide to noveling in NYC, and boy, did she deliver.

If you find yourself wondering where to write in the Empire City, let Erin regale you with tales of the “Desperation Libation”, typing in front of the Flatiron Building like the Wrimos above, and where to get the best latte:

The New York City region rundown:

Best Local Writer Fuel — There’s a little bakery in my neighborhood in Brooklyn called Joyce Bakeshop that is the best place to get a latte and a pastry, in my honest opinion.

Best Way to Beat Writer’s Block — The Met has a suggested donation admission, so you pay what you can. You’re guaranteed to see something you’ve never seen before, no matter how many times you go.

Regional Genre of Choice — We have a lot of smart, creative fantasy writers, but we get a lot of people writing really authentic New York stories, too. Who knows the city and all its oddities and idiosyncrasies better than a New Yorker?

The Can’t Miss NYC NaNo Event  

Years ago, a former co-ML started what we call the “Desperation Libation.” That’s our last chance write-in, held on November 30; the first ones were held at places that served alcohol, hence the name.

Basically, we all gather at a place with free Wi-Fi and cheer each other across the finish line with much fanfare (and often cocktails).

The Runners-Up — My personal favorite events are the write-ins we do in Brooklyn; they’re a little more intimate than the big Manhattan write-ins.

The Thank God It’s Over Party (TGIO) is not to be missed, and a couple of years ago, the New York Public Library got in on the act, too, for which we are super excited and grateful.

The Municipal Liaison 

This year will be my 10th (!) as ML of NYC. I had just moved to New York a few months before my first NaNo, and wanted to meet people, so I checked out the forums. A group of 6–8 of us started meeting regularly at this crepe place in the West Village, which is tragically no longer there.

When the call went out for MLs the next year, I volunteered, and I’ve been running the show with a revolving team of co-MLs ever since. We had over 100 people show up for a write-in a couple of years ago, and participation grows every year!

A Guide to the Local Wrimos and Culture — We have a lot of great participants, of course. Example: a few years ago I found this tea shop with a great little basement room that seemed perfect for a write-in. I underestimated the number of people who would come, though, and we unfortunately had more people than chairs.

The Wrimos just rolled with it, getting comfortable on the floor. The ‘floor people’ became a Thing that November; it was sort of a badge of honor. I will say, aside from the writing, one of the best things I’ve gotten out of NaNoWriMo is the opportunity to meet some really incredible people, a number of whom have become my good friends over the years. We take our novels seriously, but we like to have fun, too.

We host enough events that there’s something for everyone, from quiet library write-ins to boisterous social meetups and lots of things in-between, depending on your mood. There are lots of opportunities to meet other writers, from the first-timers to the published professionals, and we’ve got all kinds of ages and backgrounds represented, so it’s easy to meet writing buddies, and find cheerleaders and support if you need a little boost.

The NYC Region In a Nutshell — We’re the city that never sleeps—there’s always something going on and the city provides an endless source of inspiration.

Check out the region in November!

The OLL-iverse: Starlog 6

I’m still on the run from July! It keeps trying to track me down, with fistfuls of frozen dairy products. Have you ever had to flee an entire month? It’s not as easy as you’d think. It’s everywhere! It’s on calendars, email headings, newspapers… Hopefully it won’t show up in this blog post. We’ll see.

Today’s recap is brought to you by Ben, who is not fooled by July’s clever ploy to sneak up on him with gorgeous sunshine and pleasant breezes.

NaNoWriMo:

We’ve kicked off our Summer Fund Drive! Help us reach our goal of more novels, more writers, more words, more you! So far, we’ve reached $10,400 of our $50,000 goal. We think we can sell 100 more trading card packs over the weekend. Let’s go!
Have you seen the awesome donor goodies? Sweet trading cards… and if you’re very lucky, a golden mustache promises even grander prizes!
You can also start fundraising now for the Night of Writing Dangerously! Raise $200 in July, and you can get early admission to our noir-themed, writing event.

Camp NaNoWriMo:

Scrivener codes are up for June winners! They can be found on the Winner Goodies page.
We’ve refurbished the cabins with a lovely new message board that should make things smoother in August.

Facebook and Twitter:

Friday’s writing prompt on Facebook: How would your trading card bio read?
@NaNoWriMo threw a mash-up Pirate/Ninja/Viking/Vampire/Zombie party while Sarah Mackey, our usual Twitter captain, took a vacation.

In the Office and Elsewhere:

Chris Angotti was in Virginia, giving a speech for the Virginia Board of Education! We hope it went well. Hey, if he was charismatic enough to win over a bride…
The Legend of Korra was renewed for 26 more episodes! Are you as excited as I am about that? Because I am pretty dang excited.

That’s all for this week! Next week will bring us to the midway point of July, and put me one week closer to freedom from this month of madness and tyranny…

We Want More Like Gennifer Albin: "I Sold My Camp NaNoWriMo Novel!"

Gennifer Albin is a recovering academic who realized she could write books of her own and discovered, delightfully, that people would read them. She lives in Kansas with her family and writes full-time. Her debut novel, Crewel, the first in a trilogy, will be published in October 2012 by FSG/Macmillan.

You can follow her on Twitter and Facebook. She also blogs infrequently at genniferalbin.com and weekly at The League of Extraordinary Writers.

Can you tell us a bit about Crewel?

Crewel is about a sixteen year-old girl who is set to become a powerful Spinster in a world where women weave the very fabric of reality. The trouble is she doesn’t want the job.

What’s the connection between NaNoWriMo and Crewel?

I’d always wanted to write a book but every time I tried I abandoned it a few chapters in. My husband started to tease me that my obituary would read “author of the twenty most promising first chapters ever written.” So I decided to give NaNoWriMo a try, and up to the night before I was still toying with which story to work on. I posted my two ideas on the forum, and someone private messaged me and told me I was crazy if I didn’t write Crewel. I’m forever in her debt, because I started writing it the next day after the boost of confidence.

How did you come to find out about NaNoWriMo, and what convinced you to participate?

I kept hearing references to it on writing sites and a friend’s husband had done it the previous year, so I looked it up. I’m an incredibly competitive person and the idea of winning by writing a book really tempted me, so I signed up.

How complete was your book by the end of the event?

I think most of the main characters were there, a lot of the dialogue, and I knew the general trajectory. As it turns out I ended up hacking off the last 15k I wrote and putting it into the second book, so that left me with 35k of typos and half-baked scenes to work with. It lacked a middle, whole characters were missing and there was no worldbuilding, but I was so thrilled to have written 50k that I jumped into revisions in January.

What is your writing practice like? Do you tend to plot your writing in advance or do you prefer to fly by the seat of your pants?

I’m a little bit of both. While drafting I need freedom to explore, but I find just thinking about where I’m at in the story and what needs to happen helps me get going. I don’t outline until I have a full draft and then I do one to figure out what’s missing and what needs the most work.

What lessons did you learn from revising Crewel that surprised you? Any revision regimens you swear by?

I absolutely must revise using pen and paper. I didn’t have my own computer when I wrote Crewel, so I thought once I did I would start revising on the laptop. Nope, give me pen and paper or give me death. I work faster and more effectively seeing it on the page. A friend also recommended changing the font when you print it so it’s fresh to your eyes and that’s actually very helpful, too.

What was the process of shopping this book like?

It was a whirlwind. I was a stay-at-home mom when I wrote Crewel, and my husband watched the kids so I could go out and write at night. During the day while they napped or played, I would do research on agents and publishing, and I was prepared to hunker down for the long process of querying. To my surprise, I wound up with an agent and offers on the book within a month of finishing the novel. Go figure.

Are you taking part in NaNoWriMo this year?

Not only am I participating, I’m dying for it! As I type this I’m gearing up for a lot of travel promoting the book, and I just know that I’ll be ready to settle in and write during November. My username is Creweler - hold me to it!

Letters and Light Around the World: Janna, in Saskatoon!

Janna Willard has participated in NaNoWriMo since 2001, and is a Reference Desk moderator and ML for Saskatoon, in Canada. When not wielding the moderator scepter or novelist’s pen, she blogs about living with ADHD, and hosts a blog for her guinea pigs’ musings, too. She took a break from all that story-telling to speak with us:

Can you talk about your experiences as a moderator and ML? 

Moderating is always interesting. Reference Desk (where Wrimos conduct research and polls for their novels) has some of the most interesting threads, and it’s probably the busiest forum.

Last year, I started dating threads using Stardates in an attempt to make people laugh and to deal with the problem of time zones. The conversations are amazing. Last year, we had an incredibly respectful thread about gender identification. I was proud of all the participants in that thread.

ML-ing is interesting and lots of fun. My primary role is to run events. We are building a partnership with a local bookstore, where we held our first-ever Information Night and our Kickoff Party last year.

Last year we also had our first-ever writing workshop, run by the library’s writer-in-residence. I’m very hopeful that we’ll be able to repeat that this year, and possibly have some other events at the library, as well.

Has your experience with NaNoWriMo changed over the years? Do you consider yourself a master, now, of the art of 30-day noveling?

My first NaNo was in 2001, and I hand-wrote three pages (if that). What’s changed most is the people, largely because I moved in 2009. I’ve had three finishes, so I haven’t mastered the art of 30-day noveling, but I live in eternal hope that I’ll make it again this year!

My experience with NaNo has really changed through becoming more involved with the community, whether online or off. The community is so rich and vibrant, and full of amazing people. That includes my fellow ML’s, my local Wrimos, and all of the folks who poke their noses into Reference Desk.

Has your ADHD affected your NaNo writing, or vice versa?

ADHD affects basically everything I do. I don’t know who I’d be without it, because it’s been part of my life since I was a child. ADHD makes it difficult to focus, so it can be a struggle to buckle down and write. It‘s also hard to change focus once I get into something, so when I‘m really involved in writing, it can be difficult to stop and do something else (you know, like eat).

If I can hop onto my ADHD advocacy soap box for a moment: Executive dysfunction often looks like laziness or a lack of motivation, but as a general rule a person who has ADHD is really motivated to do stuff but can’t actually get started.

Sometimes that’s because we have trouble making plans, sometimes it’s because we can’t figure out how to break down the task into smaller pieces, but sometimes it’s because we just can’t make the focus happen. And that’s just how our brains are wired.

Medication can help, but it doesn’t always work. And it’s important to remember that pills don’t magically give us skills. We still need to learn how to make a plan and follow it. As I like to say, the only thing consistent about my ADHD is its inconsistency.

What’s been your favorite novel to write?

The one I wrote in 2009, Pointillism. It’s about a 17-year-old artist with ADHD. It’s part of the series I’m working on about teens with disabilities, and he’s one of my favourite characters. I threw all kinds of things at him, and his voice came through really strongly. It was the first time I’d written something so long from a male POV. That story was very different from anything I’d written before, and I loved the challenges. 

Can you describe your guinea pigs’ blog?

I have three boars (males) whose personalities I try to bring out in their posts. Batman’s excitable and interested in everything; Bubble’s kind of a grouchy loner; Squeak’s stand-offish but becoming friendlier.

It started last year, when Batman participated in NaNoWriMo. I posted to the Marketing forum and asked people to contribute random writing during November. Batman “wrote” 4,000 words, which I’m hoping to publish by October. He’ll write again this year.

If you’re thinking about getting one (or two, which is better!), seriously consider seeking out a rescue or shelter and giving a forever home to a piggy who desperately needs one. I haven’t bought an animal from the pet store since I got my third guinea pig, way back when I was in grade six, and I have no regrets!