Chris Baty's Blog, page 64

The “Now What?” Months Are Here! Are You Revising?

Every new year comes with new opportunities. Maybe you wrote a first draft of a novel last November… well, now it’s time to whip that draft into shape!

This January and February, during NaNoWriMo’s “I Wrote A Novel… Now What?” Months, we’re focusing on revision and publishing: providing tips from published authors, editors, and agents to help you reach even greater creative heights. Are you ready?

Check out our “Now What?” resources!

Sign our official revision pledge to help take the next step with your novel. 

Plus, join in a “Now What?” event to chat with other writers about your revision process:

#NaNoWriterMatch tweet chat: Thursday, January 9, 12 PM PT — Looking for someone to swap writing with? We’re hosting a matchmaking tweet chat for writers today! IngramSpark’s Writing Challenge and Giveaway — One of our sponsors, IngramSpark, is hosting a writing challenge this January… and giving away an amazing prize pack of writer’s essentials to one lucky participant!
The Book Doctors: Pitchapalooza 2020  — It’s back! Pitch your book for the chance to get feedback and win an introduction to an agent or publisher!
Critiques and Feedback Forum: Looking for some input as you polish your story? There are tons of writers on the NaNoWriMo forums who can give you useful advice and feedback!

20th Anniversary Interviews - Part 5: The Community

NaNoWriMo wouldn’t be what it is without community. Writing is neat, but writing together is better. Here are some stories from around the community, a slice of life kaleidoscope of the people that engage in NaNoWriMo:

“I participated in write-ins for the first time in the TEN YEARS I had been doing it and finally realized why I was never making that word count,” Cassia tells us. “Community and friends and playing silly games and doing word springs helped so much with my creativity and my motivation.”

Angela overcame other challenges: “I remember going to the kick off party for my first Nano event and being super nervous about meeting strangers off the internet and what if no one showed up or talked and [insert string of non-sense anxiety]. Then I arrived at the venue and met my fellow writers. It was the first time that I have ever felt a sense of community when writing. I have made some of my firmest friends and fondest memories from that first Nano event.  Even 10 years later, that’s why I keep coming back, the welcoming and accepting community of fellow crazy people.”

Gabrielle Martin has a wonderful story about how NaNoWriMo (despite its name), crosses national boundaries. Their favorite memory: “Finding new friends in Taiwan. That group of people was so special and diverse - I really miss them now that I’m not in Taiwan anymore. I remember the first time I met them was at a write-in that one of them hosted in her home. She was an American who grew up in Africa and had been living in Taiwan for several years. I felt so comfortable in her house because it was such a perfect fusion of the three cultures. I didn’t feel like I had to change to fit into any one culture but could just be me.”

Lauren Wethers also shares a story about NaNoWriMo’s inclusivity: “I was 15, couldn’t drive, and didn’t have my own computer, so I begged my dad to let me borrow his laptop. A friend’s mom picked me up and drove the two of us to the Starbucks where we were meeting. We were the youngest ones there by far, but the other Wrimos were never condescending or unwelcoming.

“What stands out to me about finding the NaNoWriMo community as a teenager was realizing that authors were normal people. At the time, my mental picture of an author was some distant celebrity who wrote in a giant mansion and occasionally descended to sign books for the masses. (I clearly did not understand the realities of being a writer.) Twitter hadn’t really taken off yet and the only author blogs I knew about were the ones written by global superstars. Coming to write-ins – or, more accurately, borrowing my dad’s laptop and begging him to drive me to write-ins – helped me to see a different side of being an author. I didn’t have to be an impressive celebrity or live in a major city. I could just be me. All I had to do was write.”

Always remember: NaNoWriMo is for everyone. All you have to do is write, whether it’s with pen and paper, a laptop, a cobweb-y typewriter in your aging Victorian mansion, or—like Emmett Dupont and many other participants—using dictation software: “As a severely dyslexic kid, I always had stories running around my head but no way of getting them down on paper because I was almost completely illiterate. I started using dictation software around 2009, but firmly believed that because I was writing differently, I wasn’t really writing and therefore shouldn’t participate in creative writing projects.

“I found a community of other writers who also used dictation software on the NaNa forums in early 2010, and decided to participate that year even though I still didn’t consider myself to be a “real writer.”

“My favorite NaNo memory was reaching 50,000 that first year, watching that celebration graphic slowly pop up; “congratulations, writer!” I truly believe without the inspiration and confidence I gained from NaNoWriMo, I never would have applied to college, and now, I am a first generation college student with a degree in public health teaching high school, and I am lucky enough to be leading a writing circle of seven high school students who will all be participating in NaNoWriMo for the first time this year.”

And then there are people like Sujin Headrick, who founded Wikiwrimo, an extensive database of NaNoWriMo’s lingo, inside jokes, memes, and whatever else people might want to know about.

But even then, Sujin remind us: “It’s definitely about the people.”

And it really is. 

When I first sent out the call for interviews, I didn’t know how many people would respond. I hoped that it would be enough people for a few blog posts… Instead, we received over 1000 replies in the space of a couple weeks.

Seeing how much people care about NaNoWriMo, seeing how many people were eager to share not only the stories that they’re writing, but the stories that they’ve lived through was incredibly moving. So to everyone that submitted, a sincere thank you from everyone at NaNo HQ. It was a reminder of why we do what we do, and my only regret is that I couldn’t feature everyone that I talked to, let alone everyone that submitted.

As I think about the NaNoWriMo community, about all the energy and creativity that people pour into this ridiculous, wonderful program, as I think about the 20 years past, and the 20 years to come (and the 20 years more and the 20 years again after that), I keep circling back to Shakespeare. All I can say is:

“How beauteous Wrimos are! O brave new world,
that has such people in ’t!”

20th Anniversary Interviews - Part 4: Zany Events

NaNoWriMo happens every year, but apparently sitting around and writing for a month just isn’t enough for some of our participants.

Suffice it to say: All sorts of zany events happen within the scope of NaNoWriMo. Next year, join in on some of them, or start some of your own! It’ll be wild fun, and the literary abandon of NaNoWriMo will never die.

Here are a few of the many stories I heard about the things Wrimos get up to in November:

Anekta Bonacorso shares one experience: “When I used to live in the Bay Area, every Halloween WriMos would meet at a local Denny’s in costume, and the minute the clock hit midnight we would all start our novels together, right there in the Denny’s. I looked forward to it every year. It was the best way to start a novel, in a room full of silly costumes, diner food, and camaraderie.”

Ene talks about how the Great Train Escape in California inspired them to do a similar event in Estonia: “Estonia is way smaller so we couldn’t travel for 12 hours but thought that little is better than nothing. The train we chose was between capital Tallinn and one of the bigger cities Pärnu.”

Another participant on the same trip also shared their recollections of the Estonian Train Escape: “We took the first class seats so that we would have enough room for all of our laptops. The train conductor was quite amused. We did multiple writing sprints and got to know each other. Some of us had never taken this train before so it was interesting to see the scenery as well. I remember talking to someone about my love towards manor houses (as there are so many of them in Estonia).

Once in Pärnu, we found a little cozy cafe. As Pärnu is the summer capital, by November the city is quite empty. It was quite cold on that day.

We thought about going to the famous pizza place for dinner, but it was so full that instead we went to the retro cafe.

The train ride back was a bit more challenging - people were getting tired but they still tried to push the word limit even higher. For some, it was the day with the biggest word count addition.”

Sabrina Zirakzadeh told us about an event that more or less seems to capture the spirit of NaNoWriMo:

It was the second year we’d decided to have a midnight kick-off party, and since my apartment was soundproofed, key entry, centrally located, and spacious, we decided to have it there for the second time. In 2007 we had about 40 writers RSVP and 15 show up, so when we got in 82 RSVP’s, I wasn’t too worried. My co-ML and I prepared our goody bags as usual, complained about what a waste the leftovers would be, got the place set up for the potluck, and waited.

Every single person who RSVP’d showed up. Some had friends in tow. We had over 90 people crammed into my one bedroom apartment.

Q:  I’m trying to picture it and all I can see is absolute chaos. How did you manage to fit everyone in?

A: Absolute chaos is about the right way to put it! I had a decent sized apartment but the bedroom area was totally obliterated by everyone’s bags and jackets (leaving was a challenge) so only the dining and living room areas were useable and it was literally wall-to-wall people. I had actual seats for 10 people, but most of the chairs got turned into laptop or drink/plate stands. There were three of us on the couch, two people squashed into a basket chair, and everyone else was on the floor pretty much right up against each other, with laptops (and a few notebooks, those were the smart people in restrospect!) in their laps ready to go.There was a little bit of room to move around, but it was tricky, you had to keep stepping over people. I think we only managed it because I had a big open floor plan all to myself, not a lot of furniture, and the toilet was only accessible via the bedroom so the door remained unblocked!

Q: Did it get insanely hot in that apartment? Just packed with people, most of them with laptops?

A: Luckily, Halloween in October is usually pretty cold in Colorado, and I had my thermostat on so it didn’t get too hot, but I did have to switch it to air conditioning once we hit about 40 people, and the windows got really fogged up! The biggest problem I think was noise; when everyone was talking, it was really hard to make ourselves and my three pet budgies were going nuts at all the noise so that didn’t help.

Q: Did everyone behave themselves?

A: Thankfully, almost everyone behaved themselves. My co-ML Michelle had been pretty good about keeping a firm hand on troublemakers since I came on, so most of the active members were already aware that we were volunteers doing this on our own time for everyone’s enjoyment and the complainers and people doing Nano just to show off how much better they were than others didn’t tend to come to many events. We did have a couple of people we were worried about because they were pretty demanding leading up to the kick-off, but once they showed up they were perfectly lovely and since none of us could really get to the potluck food to eat it anyway, we didn’t even have complaints about food or drink issues. I’ve rarely had a kick-off go that smoothly, especially one that big, it was amazing!

At about 11:30 I broke out my guitar and sang a song I’d written the previous November, “50,000 Words,” which was a songwriting assignment that I’d ended up writing about NaNoWriMo (there is a video of this exact moment floating around YouTube still!), and it felt so good to hear everyone laugh at the in-jokes and encourage me to keep going when I briefly forgot the words to my own song.

(You can support Sabrina on Amazon, Bandcamp, and Spotify. Proceeds from “50,000 Words” go to NaNoWriMo!)

Lessons from Behind the Scenes: A Farewell from NaNo Intern Nina

We’re always sad to see our interns go—and they’re often sad to leave us! We’re wishing our talented interns good-bye as they move on to share their awesomeness with the rest of the world. Here’s some reflection from the fantastic Nina Henry, Programs Intern Extraordinaire:

I don’t want to leave.

As I sit here on my last day as a NaNoWriMo intern, reflecting on all that NaNoWriMo has taught me in these last four months, all I can bring myself to say is that I don’t want to leave.

I’ve had an incredible time being an intern at NaNoWriMo, and I’ve learned a lot of valuable lessons about work ethic and self care, along with ways to embrace a creative, fun, welcoming work environment.

In my time as a Programs Intern at NaNoWriMo, I’ve been responsible for a lot of projects that have all added to my knowledge and understanding of what makes NaNoWriMo possible. And in learning all of these features of NaNoWriMo, I’ve grown a deeper appreciation for all they stand for. They help people of all different backgrounds become more comfortable with themselves and they encourage so many people to step out of their comfort zones and embrace the writer they strive to be. I can say that, because that’s what NaNoWriMo has done for me.

Without this internship, I would have had no idea what it truly meant to take care of oneself while still delivering a strong work ethic. I really enjoyed my job here, and will carry the lessons I’ve learned along with me. I’ve learned how to better manage my time, see difficult projects through, interact with a diverse range of people, and stay the course toward my goals in life (even when they seem impossible); I’ve learned all these things while making sure I take care of myself (so I can come back in and finish those projects!)

I was even able to build a community here. Outside of working with amazing people, I was able to meet and interact with tons of talented writers who all have the same dream as me, and that’s really encouraging. Working with NaNoWriMo has been a dream (literally, I’ve always wanted to work here) and it pains me to have to say goodbye. I’ll miss every single person that works here, and I’ll miss getting to witness NaNoWriMo behind the scenes and all the work that’s put into giving people a place to be themselves.

The thing I’ll certainly take away from this experience, and the piece of advice I can give to anyone else interested in this organization, is that genuine people who are willing to help each other achieve their goals are a blessing. When they can teach you life lessons and encourage you to be your best self, all while sipping tea and having fun in the office, then you’ve struck gold; and I’ve struck gold here.

I hope everyone out there can see and feel the good that NaNoWriMo brings to the writing community. And I hope that I continue to learn lessons from them in the future as I plan my next novel! It’s been a real pleasure, and four months I’ll never forget. Here’s to the greatest internship I could ever ask for!

Farewell,

Nina Henry

Top photo modified from the original by Debby Hudson on Unsplash.

“Otherwise We Are Lost”: A Farewell from NaNo Intern Freddy

Every year, there comes a point when we have to wish our amazing, talented interns good-bye as they move on to share their awesomeness with the rest of the world. Here’s some reflection from the wonderful Freddy Cleveland, Editorial Intern Extraordinaire:

“Dance, dance, otherwise we are lost.”

What Pina Bausch meant by that, as far as I can tell, is that if we cannot make art, if we can’t express what is true to each of us through creative means, humanity and all of the good it brings into the world is doomed. Without art, we will fade and fade. Like, yeah, humans are sometimes terrible, but also: look at how far we’ve come. We’re monkeys with anxiety, but we’ve done all right.

People are impatient, they don’t know how to wait,
People are selfish, and people are prone to hate,
But God, I love some people sometimes,
Because people are the greatest thing to happen. 

NaNoWriMo is one of the greatest things to happen. The people behind the scenes are the greatest (which seems self-serving, because I was behind the scenes, but I also mean everyone else). The people who participate are the greatest. And because of that, NaNoWriMo is going to save the world.

Wait, no, not really. At least, not the organization itself, and almost certainly not the event itself, which (as I’m sure we all know) is something sweaty and desperate and defined as much by failure as it is by success.

What I mean is that NaNoWriMo’s mission is conducive to a framework of praxis that will help us change the world for the better. Which doesn’t roll of the tongue as well as “NaNoWriMo is going to save the world.” Our mission is weird, it’s abstract, it’s hard to quantify, but we believe in one thing above all else: the power that comes from the active pursuit and consistent exercise of imagination.

NaNoWriMo is trying to advance the cause of storytelling. And not just storytelling from the elite cabal of established writers that we’re used to. It’s about the stories of every person who cares to write: the stories we’ve heard a thousand times before, the ones that have never been told, the ones we need to be reminded of, the ones we need to hear in this precise moment of time.

There are things wrong with the world, and we can find people to blame, but what really drives the world’s injustices is certain narratives. Certain pieces of diseased imagination that have crystallized into reality. And if a few people imagining bad things created this world, a few more people imagining something better can get us out.

I’m keeping it vague to avoid any specific political calls to action. That’s not on me to preach, that’s on you to decide for yourself. But I will say this: Imagination is the first step on the road to a truly utopian world—and utopian imaginings are precisely what our world needs right now. Somewhere along the line, things went wrong. The status quo is unsustainable. Change needs to happen. It can not and will not happen unless people start dreaming of better things, and telling stories about them.

When NaNoWriMo says that every story matters, please don’t take it lightly. Put it in all caps. Let it guide you, even when it leads you down difficult paths.

EVERY STORY MATTERS.

So write for yourself, to remind yourself where you’ve come from, or to outline a path of where you want to go. Tell stories about what needs to change, and what they should change into. Write for everyone, to show them things they couldn’t dream of themselves. Tell stories about what you hate, but never forget to write about what you love.

Speaking of which, I love you all, and now, for however brief a time, I’ve written about you.

Write, Write, otherwise we are lost.

-Freddy

Top image licensed under Creative Commons from Cinema City on Flickr.

20th Anniversary Interviews - Writing and Mental Health

In today’s interview, we talked to Naava, a participant since 2007. We talked about mental health, depression, and bipolar disorder, and how writing has helped them. Content warning for discussions of mental health and suicide.

Q: What was your most memorable NaNoWriMo moment?

A: Winning NaNo in 2018 whilst in the psych ward due to depression. I proved myself that there’s still something in me – a fire, a spark, whatever you’d like to call it. And if I nurture that fire, it can keep me alive. It has.

Q: I imagine the fire is creativity, and nurturing it is doing what you can to engage with that creativity.

Yep, fire is creativity and imagination, nurturing it is basically writing and reading and doing things that keep my imagination “wild” as my mother always said. She said it like it was a bad thing, but I now know it was a bad thing only because I didn’t have a proper outlet for it back as a child when I would tell stories at inappropriate times. Now that I have a laptop and a writing software, I can channel my imagination onto the blank document and paint the most vivid worlds with mere words.

Q: You mentioned you’ve been participating in NaNoWriMo since 2007—have you dealt with depression that whole time?

I have had depressive phases on and off since I was five years old, since 1996, so yes, I’ve been having mental health issues the whole time I’ve been a NaNo participant. However, my official diagnosis is bipolar disorder nowadays, but my current depressive phase has lasted for a year and a half. This November, I was even briefly in the psych ward due to being suicidal, but managed to write there, too. I was officially diagnosed with depression in early 2011, but in mid-2014 it was changed to bipolar disorder due to a manic phase. (Let’s add that I simply cannot write during manic phases. I can plot the best novel ever if I’m going through mania, but I cannot sit down and write.)

I feel that if I was to stop writing, I would be nothing but an empty shell. Writing through the good and the bad times has made me feel more deeply when I go through something good, and get through the bad times by distancing myself from them. When I have a depressive phase, I’m able to still use my imagination to get into a non-depressive mood, and this is what has saved my life on multiple occasions. This month, too.

Q: It sounds like writing as a whole is a positive in your life. Would you be willing to talk more about feeling good things more deeply, and getting through bad times through writing?

I don’t know how to explain it, but let me try! Maybe I’ll succeed.

When I write a negative scene (like in my current NaNo, my orc was grieving his father and coming to terms with the fact that his father was not a perfect being), I can process the negative experiences (like losing my own father when I was seven and later coming to terms with his alcoholism), and kind of… write them out of me. It’s not a huge blob of emotions I can’t name or process but I force them to become words, I force them out, I turn them into stories that are no longer my pain but the pain of a character. That is not to say I no longer feel emotional pain, but that I can externalize it. I can process a difficult emotion by writing it out of myself, I can process it by looking at the words and seeing that maybe I’m not seeing the big picture.

And when I write a scene that’s positive (like in my current NaNo, my orc and elf are getting married and basically giving the middle finger to the general rule that orcs and elves don’t get involved) I tend to draw from my own experiences (getting married even though I felt like no one could ever love me enough to marry me), I capture the feeling more thoroughly, like it gets more ingrained in me. I process through the positive emotions and kind of… get used to having them, if that makes sense. I feel the good stuff again and again through writing, and then it’s not something that’s odd or feels like it’s going to be taken away from me because I somehow know I can revisit the feelings through writing, anytime. I can revisit the feeling of being loved by my husband by simply writing about it.

Naava can almost speak Simlish, but they prefer Finnish and English. They live in Finland with their spouse, a black cat, and a Siberian husky. One part bipolar, one part candle hoarder, one part learning enthusiast, three parts writer.

Chronic Illness and NaNoWriMo: Still Having Fun

In this post, NaNoWriMo participant Jen offers her perspective on writing with chronic illness, and offers some words of encouragement!

Every writer gets writer’s block, headaches, blurry eyes, a lack of sleep, the list goes on. Now imagine all of that, but with pain everywhere, all the time, but sometimes better, sometimes worse, usually when it’s rainy or a cold front hits…

Welcome to writing life with a chronic pain disorder. They come with different names, multiple sclerosis, lupus, fibromyalgia, so many others. They have so many things in common, often the names are interchangeable with doctors, as tests come few and far between, with not always the best results.

Personally I have fibromyalgia, and have for the past three years. In that time, I’ve gone from working every day just about, writing, painting, reading and parenting… to being in so much pain I can’t always walk, let alone chase after an active kiddo, having such brain fuzz that I can’t always think straight or remember what I was even doing a minute ago, and losing the ability to do any sort of real work.

I’d love to say there’s an upside to this, like staying home all the time is great for my writing time! (you would think so!) but instead I’m often staring at a screen, wishing I could get the words to work. I look over old things I’ve written, and wonder who wrote that, surely not me, who forgot what the work for a spatula was the other day (“the flat thing, for flipping food?” I guessed, at my husband, who is my biggest hero these days.) The lucky thing is, I have some really good days, and I take advantage of them to the fullest.

It’s not the same as it was though, former NaNoWriMo sessions, I would be blazing along with the NaNoWordSprints account on Twitter, easily passing their 1kin30 (1000 words in 30 minutes) challenges. Now, 1000 words a day seems an amazing feat. You learn to change, or you lose your hobbies and fun in life though. So despite everything else, amazingly, I am still going to attempt to participate!

This year, after having started playing Dungeons and Dragons this past May, instead of trying to write any sort of novel, I’ll be rebelling, and using the one shots and campaigns I’m writing, as my word count. While I can’t lead people at work any longer, I AM a heck of a DM (so they tell me), and run a DnD Discord server for parents who just need a break, with other people who understand that getting a babysitter for roleplay night isn’t very easy to do. Which for me, works amazingly, seeing that on top of being a mom, I’m often housebound by my pains, headaches, and general broke-ness (disability isn’t a very lucrative job plan), so it’s the perfect match for me. Something I can do from home, but still be creative.

So while most folks are getting geared up by making story boards (oh, those are fun) and book bibles, or out buying new notebooks and shiny special pens, I’ll be over here, trying to figure how best to not only help myself escape reality for a while, for free and with little resources, a few hours at a time. Different, but the same.

If you’re like me, and are feeling down about your situation, there’s always a way around it. Can’t write 3000 words in an hour? Try to write 30. Have a blaring headache and sitting in a busy cafe to get the ambience isn’t helping? Listen to an ambience Spotify playlist or YouTube video, with a homemade cup of coffee (it’s cheaper, anyway.) In too much pain to just sit at your desk to type away? Lay in bed, crack open Google Drive on a phone or tablet, and write in the same document that you would be writing in if you were at a computer. Before sitting/laying down to write, make sure you have everything you could possibly need nearby, snacks, drinks, notes, whatever. When I’m in pain, but have something that needs to be done, if it’s more than five feet away from me, I just don’t bother.

I’m sure there’s more tips from people more qualified than me, but just remember, you can do it. One achy step at a time.

Jen (also known online as Ryk) is a busy mom and wife, whose early retirement due to illness has made her see things differently, but still be awesome. When not whining about pains and brain fog, She’s trying to keep being creative in the arts, writing, and gardening, even on the bad days. Her current project is writing DnD campaigns for newbies!

Follow her blog for more great content! 

Top image licensed under Creative Commons from David Barber on Flickr.

20th Anniversary Interviews - Part 3: Writing with Disabilities and Chronic Illness

In this interview, we talked to participant Jessi Smith about what it’s like to write with disabilities and chronic illness.

Q: What is your most memorable NaNoWriMo moment?

A: I got really sick in 2015/16 and have been battling chronic conditions that have threatened to take my ability to read and write. This year I’ve had many close encounters with death that have made me reprioritize my energy to focus on things that are important to me. NaNoWriMo is one of those things! Over the past few years I have been learning new ways to adapt my writing to fit my disabilities. Over the course of October I’ve gathered together a group of chronically ill and disabled writers from all over the country who thought that their writing years were forever in the past to support each other in our NaNoWriMo journey. Many of us were published authors before chronic illness degraded our fine motor skills, memories, and cognitive abilities. This year we are working together to recapture our strong creative voices and lift each other up to achieve our writing dream of completing NaNoWriMo 2019! Finding this group of talented and driven writers has been my favorite NaNoWriMo memory. Without NaNoWriMo we would never have risked such a dangerous and exhausting journey to reclaim the words that have been stolen by our chronic illnesses. NaNoWriMo has offered us the structure, support, and community we need to find the strength to tell our stories.

Q: How did you go about finding other disabled writers for this project?

A: The disabled and chronically ill communities are super active on social media as many of us are too sick to leave the house. I have a large following on Instagram (@disablednotdefeated) and when I started talking about my desire to return to writing for NaNoWriMo on my story the messages started pouring in. I was blown away by how many of my chronically ill and disabled followers have been forced to set aside careers in writing and creative passion projects when they became sick. Many of them were afraid they would never be able to write again because of the ways in which their disabilities affected their memory, fine motor skills, and stamina. All of them shared the same dream but needed direction, ideas about how to adapt their approach to fit their new limitations, and encouragement to follow through. So I started the Chronic Illness Writing Club on Instagram with a goal to support each other through NaNoWriMo and beyond!

Q: What are some of the ways you’ve learned to adapt to your disabilities?

A: We’re a little over half way through the month and this Nanowrimo has been one of the hardest writing experiences of my life. While I’ve participated and won Nanowrimo 9 times as a teenager, adapting to writing with chronic illnesses had been a whole new beast. Now the hurdles I face aren’t just about finding time to fit noveling in with my busy schedule, it’s also about coaxing my hands to type when they’re shaking too hard to control, it’s about timing my writing sessions around my pain medications so that I have more energy to thing creatively, it’s about picking myself back up after I pushed too hard and still finding the energy to write again. It’s about navigating medical emergencies, doctors appointments, and hospitalizations. It’s about refusing to give up on my story and myself.

I am bed bound which means I have a lot of time alone with my computer. This is both a blessing and a curse. I have very little energy and it is easy for me to blow it all by writing early in the day which leaves no energy for doctors visits, working with my service dog Atlas, and everyday care. Knowing when to work and when to rest has been a challenge and my caregiver has had to take my computer away more than once to force me to rest.

Q: Did you encounter any particularly noteworthy challenges?

A: One of the (12) conditions I’ve been diagnosed with over the past 7 years (I’m an overachiever) is a seizure condition which causes neurological issues that make memory a HUGE hurdle in my writing. I’ve always been a pantser but that has made this NaNoWriMo an extra challenge.

I have adapted by writing in shorter chunks 1,000-3,000 words. I also keep a running notes tab where I add new settings, character traits, descriptions, ideas for the plot as it progresses, inconsistencies I need to go back and fix during revision, and anything mysterious that I’ve left unanswered. It has saved me hours of combing through my story to remember a characters name or what color I made their hair.

A lot of my conditions cause severe exhaustion and cognitive processing issues. I have a condition called Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome which effects my blood pressure and heart rate. I’ve learned to help jump start my brain when things are moving sluggishly by sitting up which causes my heart rate to spike giving me a burst of energy and clearing my mind. While it is exhausting in the long run it can definitely help give me a boost. This is where NanoSprints twitter comes in handy to get my word count jumpstarted!

I knew when I started Nano that I was due for an infusion of low dose chemotherapy at the end of November. The closer I get to my infusion date the more sick I become. Knowing that the last few weeks would be the hardest I raced to pad my word count to give myself time to recover. While I have fallen a few days behind this week as my body grows weaker I feel so proud of all I’ve been able to accomplish. Whether I win or not, participating in
NaNoWriMo this year has been life changing. I have built a stronger community, found my creative voice, and learned that even with the challenges of my chronic illnesses and disability I am capable of incredible things.

Jessi Smith is a full-time composer, actor, writer and musician. She’s been participating in NaNoWriMo since 2003.

Follow her on Instagram!

Where Writers Write: Creative Surroundings

Thinking about craft is always necessary, but we should also consider other aspects of how we write. In this post, Young Writers Program Participant Zoe Ward gives some advice on finding a place to write:

Ben Franklin liked to write in the bathtub. Maya Angelo paid for a hotel room by the month. Ernest Hemingway wrote standing up, Agatha Christie needed a cold bath and lots of apples, and Truman Capote always laid down, calling himself “a completely horizontal author.”

Needless to say, the world is intrigued by where writers write.

What is the key to each place that makes ordinary people create extraordinary novels?

The short answer: complete focus. Agatha Christie and Ben Franklin liked the bathtub as it took a little extra effort to get out of it. Maya Angelo preferred the hotel room: without the human distractions. A good writing space needs to separate you from everyday life enough so you can focus, but not so much that you can’t get there easily.

Maybe your idea of a perfect writing space is a clean room with the blinds drawn and nothing but a sheet of paper on the desk. This works fine if you are Marie Kondo, but it’s a bad sign if you spend more time setting up your writing space than writing. Your creative space doesn’t have to be pristine. It can be noisy (some writers like to sit in traffic) and vibrant. Just make sure that all the sounds and sights around you are inspiring, not distracting.

E.B. White said: “I never listen to music while writing. I haven’t that kind of attentiveness, and I wouldn’t like it at all.” However, he says he wrote in “a bright cheerful room,” “at the core of everything that goes on.” He described it as “the carnival going on all around me.”

There’s no exact formula for a perfect writing space. It’s all about knowing yourself. What time of day are you most productive? What noise level do you need? I can’t write without some type of sound. I need quiet music, the vacuum downstairs, or rain sliding down the window. Heroine Betsy Ray from the Betsy-Tacy books needed a picture window. Figure out what makes your pen move.

Another thing that goes hand-in-hand with creating (or finding) a writing space is making it inviting. Someone once told me that wherever you write needs to simulate all of your senses. You can’t just appeal to sight and leave every other sense by the wayside. Little things like lighting a candle, grabbing a blanket, or eating apples like Agatha Christie will help make your creative area more defined. Soon, your brain will start to associate the pictures you have on the walls, a mint in your mouth, etc. with writing. Then, whenever all of these things happen in a certain environment, it’ll be easier to write.

You shouldn’t dread sitting down at your desk. Yes, some days writing is hard, but your workspace should make it easier. Many authors always leave their stories when they know what’s going to happen next. Nothing’s worse than sitting down, eager to write, and staring at a blank page for an hour. This simple trick makes you more excited to write (aka making your writing environment more productive) and gets your creative juices flowing.

In short, writing can be hard. But the space in which you write shouldn’t be. Finding somewhere inspiring and cultivating it to give you complete focus can transform your writing habits. Switch up your area and see its effects in your novel. Write on!

Zoe Ward is a reader, writer, spring lover, and bunhead who believes in the power of writing. The writer of blog Pen2Paper, she seeks to help authors find their voices and help the world read a little more (which we can all agree makes it a better place). If she’s not scribbling poems on Post-its, you can find her eating cookie dough, dancing around her kitchen, or memorizing Anne of Green Gables.

Top image licensed under Creative Commons from Suzy Hazelwood on Flickr.

NaNoWriMo Needs Your Vote!

It’s Project for Awesome time! Project for Awesome, or P4A, is an annual fundraiser that raises money and awareness for all kinds of nonprofit organizations. We’re in the running for a grant of some of the money raised through P4A, and your vote can help us win.

Vote by this Sunday, December 8, to help us support even more writers.

It’s simple:

Click on this link or search for “NaNoWriMo” on the Project for Awesome site.
Click on each video.
Select the “I’m not a robot” check box, then click the big VOTE box.

Please vote for ALL the NaNoWriMo videos—voting is cumulative!

As a thank-you for your vote and for your help in spreading the word, we’re offering a limited-time coupon code to the NaNoWriMo store! From now until December 31, 2019, take 10% off your order with the coupon code “P4A2019”.

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We can’t do it without you. Vote for NaNoWriMo today! Tell your friends. Help us change lives.

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Communications Awesomeness Manager