Chris Baty's Blog, page 65

20th Anniversary Interviews - Part 2: Writing In Difficult Times

This participant interview focuses on Kara Reynolds, who participated in NaNoWriMo for the first time in 2010 after a miscarriage. Content warning for discussion of pregnancy loss.

Q: What NaNoWriMo memory stands out to you?

A: I started doing NaNo in 2010, after a miscarriage that left me feeling terrible about myself and life in general. Doing NaNo helped me have something to look forward to every day at a time when I really needed it. It had a huge impact on my healing. 

Q: I’m very sorry to hear about your miscarriage. I know it might be difficult to talk about.

A: It’s not a difficult subject for me to talk about, and actually I’m a big believer in talking about it because a lot of people feel like they can’t be open about pregnancy loss and that can hinder people’s healing. 

Q: What I’m interested in discussing is how NaNoWriMo helped with the healing process. What was that first novel about?

A: NaNo helped me immensely with healing because it gave me something to focus on and work towards, which kept me from being immersed in my sadness. My husband was in school and worked full-time, so once my son was asleep I often had hours to myself every night. NaNo helped me fill those hours with creativity, and even success once I realized I was going to hit 50k! I hadn’t felt successful in a while, so that energy really helped me remember how to be happy again. 

Q: I’m struck by the kind of… dual role that NaNoWriMo played: both as a distraction from sadness and a pathway out of it. Would you like to talk about the journey between the two, or the relationship between those at all?

A: Yes, I’d say that’s an accurate way to describe it. Everyone deals with grief differently, of course, but for me it was very helpful to have a distraction from my feelings. And I think what made it a pathway out of grief (instead of just a temporary distraction) was that it gave me a goal I could work on as well as a creative outlet. Creativity can be an important part of healing for many people; I am the kind of person who is terrible at most forms of creative expression, so writing fills that need for me. I’d like to say I wrote something really deep that year that helped me process my feelings, but I did the opposite: I wrote something light and fluffy and fun because those feelings were missing from my life.

Q: What was your novel about?

A: It was a coming-of-age story about a girl breaking free from her family responsibilities and finding herself on a summer road trip to visit Shakespeare Festivals. It was the first novel I’d ever actually finished, even though I’d started a lot over the years. NaNo gave me the discipline to complete a novel.

When I finished, my husband threw a little party with some of our friends where I got to read an excerpt from my work, and it felt amazing to be celebrated for an accomplishment instead of an object of people’s pity for something I’d lost. Not that their sympathy wasn’t appreciated, but it was also so helpful to be seen as something else.

Kara is currently serving as ML for the USA::Wyoming::Elsewhere region.

Follow her on Twitter @Kara_Reynolds7, and visit her website.

30 Covers 30 Days: Wrap-Up Post

November is over!

NaNoWriMo has concluded.

Hopefully everyone had fun, got some words down, and is ready for whatever December brings.

First and foremost, thanks to Debbie Millman for coordinating once again. Every year, she goes above and beyond to help us put this program together. Round of applause, everyone!

Also, huge thanks to the designers, without whom this whole endeavor wouldn’t be possible. These are professional designers who choose to donate their time and energy for zero money. Everyone should give them as much love as you possibly can! (A full list of designers can be found below!)

And, of course, there are the participants, who submit their synopses. Make no mistake: it’s a brave and vulnerable thing to give people a glimpse of your creativity. So thanks to everyone who submitted!

Fun Facts!

We’ve seen hard and soft science fiction, we’ve had fantasy of all shapes and sizes. We’ve had Young Adult literature, Erotica, Mysteries, Thrillers, Horror, Comedy, and whatever “Literary” is (because, ultimately, isn’t all writing literature, and thus all of it is literary by definition?) Ah well. Setting my quibbles about genre aside, here are some fascinating stats:

This year, there were 1484 submissions932 came from NaNoWriMo participants557 came from Young Writers Program participants

The most popular genre was Fantasy, with 451 submissions—a number with fun literary connotations.

Young Adult was a distant second with 195 submissions.Followed by Adventure with 147And Science Fiction with 142

Y’all are nerds, is what I’m saying. Be proud of yourselves!

I really wish that every single synopsis could get its own cover, because every single one of you deserves it. Seeing the sheer variety of our participants’ imagination was a genuinely moving experience.

To help illustrate people’s interests, here’s a word cloud showing all the tags that people used for their novels:

A high quality download of the word cloud is available here!

Because of our limitations with image formats on the blog, the covers posted here are usually downgraded versions of higher quality files. Go check out our daily forums threads to see higher quality versions of the covers!

Designer List!

(in order of appearance - links go to their cover designs)

Michael BraleyKevin PerryAlberto RigauCora WoodwardCookie ReddingKelley MalonePatrick KingSamantha BarnesDavid Hisaya AsariJesse HernandezLauren VajdaJoe SchwartzHolly AguilarMarvin ForteKimberly WeinerRoshanak KeyghobadiMaddy AngstreichJoshua EgeApril GreimanFreddy ClevelandSean Childers-GrayVictoria PickettCourtney GlancyRachel GogelVictor DavilaKatharine GrippDebbie MillmanJina AnneRoxane Gay

This has been one of my favorite parts of working at NaNoWriMo! Thanks to everyone for sharing the covers, for taking part in the discussions, and for being involved in this incredible program.

I hope next year is just as wacky and fun!

-Freddy

30 Covers 30 Days: Day 30

Every November, during National Novel Writing Month, thirty professional designers volunteer to create book cover art inspired by novels being written by aspiring authors from around the globe. Why? To encourage new, diverse voices, and help build a more creative world.  

30 Covers, 30 Days is presented in partnership with designer and author Debbie Millman.

Here’s day 30! What a month it’s been!

Dominus

Cover design by Roxane Gay, based on a novel by NaNoWriMo Participant arellaAngel:

Toile escaped her life in the LA Mafia, and Marcus, to find herself hidden away in the White Mountains, at an exclusive BDSM lifestyle retreat for the wealthy known as Dominus. The secluded Dominus Campus is accessible only by Helicopter and  includes a Hunt Club, where girls are hunted; a BDSM Club called Club Tango, scening encouraged. Safe, Sane and Consensual is mandated,  safewords are mandatory including no touching without consent. Marcus isn’t capable of following the rules, but he is determined to find Toile and manages to slip through the filters to purchase a top shelf membership.

Cover design by Roxane Gay

Roxane Gay is a writer of all kinds of things.

For one final round of discussion, head on over to the forums! 

20th Anniversary: A Celebration of Our Participants - Part 1

It’s NaNoWriMo’s 20th Anniversary, and to celebrate, we reached out to our participants to her about their experiences.  Wrimos really are a shining example of what makes humanity great, and it’s wild that I got to hear from so many of them. So I’ll just get out of their way and let our participants speak for themselves:

Did y’all know that we have some incredible people participating in NaNoWriMo?

Like Frankie Finch (participating 2018-present), who let us know that their favorite NaNoWriMo memory is “novelling on the calmer disneyland rides last year!” Even on calm rides, I would be terrified of dropping my laptop (or notebook) and losing it forever to the bowels of Disneyland.

Or Brandy (2014-present), who let us know that during NaNoWriMo, they have always “written at least a short story.” The outcome of this writing? “Those short stories then became my Dungeon & Dragons homebrew campaigns where I flesh out details and build on my story.” Very cool! Is there an LFG thread on the forums? Somebody make one!

Sarah Alley’s (2012-present) roleplaying ended up having a somewhat different impact on their life. Their favorite memory: “Meeting my husband in the RP forums, our characters getting married after meeting each other, and then we married almost a year to the day later.” You heard it here first, folks: participating in NaNoWriMo will do wonders for your love life. Who knew? (We all secretly knew this already, didn’t we?)

However, the most common answer when asked about your favorite NaNoWriMo memory, by far, was finishing for the first time. 

Sky has been participating off and on since 2006, and shared their favorite memory: “Last year when I participated in my 12th NaNoWriMo and got my FIRST win.” I love that Sky kept trying for over a decade, and finally achieved their goal. NaNoWriMo is about persistence, after all, and Sky definitely persisted.

The experience of winning for the first time “transformed my confidence,” says Jenai May (participating off-and-on since the distant year of 2003), a sentiment echoed by participants Ferv, Caroline Redman, Catherine, and many others.

Sara Gonia, an 8 year participant, talks about finding confidence in the process, rather than the final achievement: “Making it past my first serious goal I set during Nano: 10,000 words. It’s not 50,000, but just that small step gave me a confidence boost like no other goal has. I finally felt like I could write something big and grand, and not regard it as a childhood dream anymore.”

Whether you’ve written 100 words this month, or 100,000, we hope you’re remembering that extrinsic rewards aren’t everything! Badges are cool (and I resent that I’ve missed out on some of them), checking in on your graph and all your stats is exciting…

But what ultimately matters is the writing itself. 

What matters is finding your voice, and telling your story.

30 Covers 30 Days: Day 29

Every November, during National Novel Writing Month, thirty professional designers volunteer to create book cover art inspired by novels being written by aspiring authors from around the globe. Why? To encourage new, diverse voices, and help build a more creative world.  

30 Covers, 30 Days is presented in partnership with designer and author Debbie Millman.

Here’s day 29:

Space Race

Cover design by Freddy Cleveland, based on a novel by NaNoWriMo Participant Kari Booij:

It is 2319. To celebrate the 350 year anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, a bunch of history nerds has decided to reenact the whole thing. Building authentic space craft, and dressing in period costumes, they prepare to LARP their way to the Moon. But historians are not exactly rocket scientists, and the authorities are not about to approve their home-built chemical boosters, which are not nearly up to modern environmental regulations, for liftoff. The world is watching. Will they make it to the Moon?

Cover Design by Freddy Cleveland

Freddy Cleveland is technically a professional graphic designer. He has been paid to make graphics. What fun! He’s currently the Editorial Intern at NaNoWriMo, but if you want to hire him for graphic design work, DM him on Instagram. Find his video work on YouTube. He demands to be taken seriously.

Also, head on over to the forums and discuss the cover!

30 Covers 30 Days: Day 28

Every November, during National Novel Writing Month, thirty professional designers volunteer to create book cover art inspired by novels being written by aspiring authors from around the globe. Why? To encourage new, diverse voices, and help build a more creative world.  

30 Covers, 30 Days is presented in partnership with designer and author Debbie Millman.

Day 28! I’m almost sure it’s a holiday of some sort…

Summerland

Cover design by Jina Anne, based on a novel by Erica Hughes:

In Rochester, New York in the year 1848, a young physician is introduced to three sisters who claim to be able to communicate with spirits. Skeptical until the mediums put him in touch with his dead sister, the physician decides he must discover the scientific underpinnings of the phenomenon—to prove, in other words, the existence of an afterlife.

Cover Design by Jina Anne

Jina is a consultant, community builder, and advocate focused on design systems. She organizes Clarity, the first Design Systems conference. She co-authored the Design Systems Handbook, Fancy Form Design, and The Art & Science of CSS. She has been said to be one of the most cheerful goths. You can follow her on Twitter @jina.

Come check out our forums thread to discuss the cover!

30 Covers 30 Days: Day 27

Every November, during National Novel Writing Month, thirty professional designers volunteer to create book cover art inspired by novels being written by aspiring authors from around the globe. Why? To encourage new, diverse voices, and help build a more creative world.  

30 Covers, 30 Days is presented in partnership with designer and author Debbie Millman

It’s day 27! You know what that means!

Confident

Cover design by Debbie Millman, based on a novel by Mallory Anderson:

Stuck in college without tuition, Aylssa must go way outside her comfort zone if she’s to stay in school. Introduced to the world of strippers, it doesn’t take long for her to fall in love with the money, or the attention. The sudden feelings that she develops for her college roommate, best friend, and fellow dancer Samantha, also take her by surprise. She finally realizes how much she’d been keeping her true self locked away to make everyone else happy, and she’s going to have a lot of fun with her newfound knowledge.

Cover Design by Debbie Millman

Debbie Millman is the host of the award-winning podcast Design Matters, the world’s first podcast on design; Chair of the first ever Masters in Branding Program at the School of Visual Arts, a curator for the Museum of Design, a contributor to Print Magazine, President Emeritus of AIGA, and the author of six books on design and branding. Follow her on Instagram and Twitter @debbiemillman.

Author photo by Chase Jarvis.

Pro Tips From a NaNo Coach: Mind the Gap

NaNoWriMo can seem like a daunting task sometimes, for NaNo newbies and veterans alike. Fortunately, our NaNo Coaches are here to help guide you through November! Today, author Kate Clayborn is here to share her advice on how to cross that finish line:

Dear writers, 

You’re so close. 

It’s a risky first line for this letter to you, here in your last week of NaNo, because no doubt there are many of you out there who feel like you aren’t close at all. Maybe you’re looking behind you, across the distance of all the calendar pages, to the you you were on November 1st, and thinking: what happened to that person? The person who was actually excited to write a book? 

Y’all, I’ve been there. In fact, here’s a (not-so-secret) secret: most of the time, when I’m working on a book, I basically live there. While NaNo encourages us to keep moving, to keep putting words down, I’ve often struggled with the gap between what I imagined the process or the plot would be like, and the actual experience I’ve had writing on any given day, or the actual story that has evolved on the page. And the gap can be a dangerous place for writers,  because it can make forward motion feel impossible.

For a long time, I tried to fight my way free of the gap, to keep moving in spite of it. For some writers, that works, and if you’re plugging along with your story, making all your word counts and loving every second, I want you to know, I salute you (and envy you a little, too!). But if you’re like me, maybe it’ll help you to know what I’ve learned about…well, minding the gap. 

The first thing I’ve learned is to “mind the gap” in the British sense: to pay attention to it, to watch out for it. While it can be frustrating to notice where I’m falling short of my plans, it can also help me understand both my process and my story. I watch out for what times of day I tend to write smoothly or slowly. I pay attention to how I write more freely when I abandon chronology, when I work on the scene that’s moving me, not necessarily the one that comes “next” in my plan. I notice when a character’s voice sounds inauthentic, or when I can’t seem to draft a plot point I once outlined with excitement. Minding the gap tells me where to make adjustments going forward, how to set myself and my story up for success. NaNo is doing that for you right now—it is teaching you about yourself as a storyteller. 

But this way of minding the gap only works if I remember to not mind it too much. When we say we “don’t mind” something, we mean we’re not bothered by it, and fellow writers, that’s been the more difficult lesson for me to learn. As much as I’m helped by paying attention to the gap, I’ve also had to teach myself not to get blocked by it. I’ve worked to acknowledge that the gap is simply part of my process, and if I don’t mind it—if I don’t get too bothered by it, I mean—I can keep moving. I put a pin in the stuff I’ve noticed about myself and my story, noting where I’ll go back and make changes later. The gap is as much a part of my journey as that first shiny synopsis I wrote, so when it shows up, I say hello and I keep going. As you reach the end of your NaNo journey, don’t be bothered by that fresh, excited former you, waving across the distance since November 1st. Wave back, and keep writing. You know more than November 1st you, anyway. 

So what I’m saying is: mind the gap, but also don’t mind it. And most importantly, mine it: use it to guide you, to help you learn who you are as a writer and what you want your story to be. The gap is a companion and a conscience, a fussy but well-meaning co-worker who ultimately helps you get the job done.

Mine the gap, because the gap is what’s going to get you there—to the book you were meant to write all along. 

Cheering you on from the gap,

Kate

30 Covers 30 Days: Day 26

Every November, during National Novel Writing Month, thirty professional designers volunteer to create book cover art inspired by novels being written by aspiring authors from around the globe. Why? To encourage new, diverse voices, and help build a more creative world.  

30 Covers, 30 Days is presented in partnership with designer and author Debbie Millman

Day 26:

The Caw of Cthulhu

Cover design by Katharine Gripp, based on a novel by Jocelyn De Vore:

In Book II of The Orphanage Series, Arrabella Whipple-Smythe, the new owner of “Hammett Whipple’s Orphanage for Abandoned Books”, finds herself in the middle of another mystery. After befriending a murder of crows, they begin to give Arra gifts in exchange for treats she leaves on the porch. But when one of them gives her a ring–with a decomposing finger still attached–Arra finds herself going on a scavenger hunt to find the rest of the body.

When she does find the dead body of a local pawn shop owner (one that the whole town hated), she gets tangled up in a local town legend, a conspiracy hiding lost treasure, and a war between two crotchety archeology professors.

Cover Design by Katharine Gripp

Katharine Gripp is the Communications Manager (a.k.a. content wrangler, YouTube wizard, and occasional in-house graphic designer) at NaNoWriMo. She’s currently in the process of getting an MFA in Creative Writing for Children and Young Adults, and is also in a folk-punk band that mostly sings songs about mythical creatures. You can follow her on Instagram @kitgripp.

Come on over to the forums! What will we talk about? You decide! (Just kidding, I’ll decide, and I’ve decided it’s going to be this specific cover).

A Five Step Procrastination Guide

We’re nearing the end of NaNoWriMo, which is the time of the month when all those moments of procrastination have added up, and now you’re looking at your word count and can’t see hope of recovery.

Well. If you think you can’t do it just because you fell behind, you’re wrong! You’ve never been more wrong in your life! No shame in being wrong. But you are. You are wrong.

In this post, NaNoWriMo participant Sarah Lefebvre gives some sage advice to all our procrastinators out there:

NaNoWriMo encourages writers to pick up a pen or cozy up to a keyboard every day for the length of November, all in reach of the 50,000-word holy grail. Success requires dedication, time management, and consistency.

Or, if you’re a master procrastinator, it requires a dash of lunacy and a significant supply of sheer willpower.

I fall squarely into the procrastinator category. In fact, the higher the pressure radiating from a responsibility or commitment, the more my procrastinator brain relishes putting it off. Each year I’ve participated in NaNoWriMo, I started the contest late. Sometimes I didn’t expect to participate at all until after it began. But each time, I made it to that 50,000-word goal. So, from one procrastinator to another, here’s my guide for succeeding in NaNoWriMo despite a late start.

Step One: Start on the first day?

Yawn. Where’s the fun in reducing stress by allowing ourselves maximum time to achieve our goals? Leave that to the people who don’t want to lie awake at night calculating how to manage a daily word count that escalated from 1,667 per day to 3,813 (and counting). Instead, start when life—or your procrastinator brain—makes it possible. Maybe that’s one day late, or three days, or two weeks. As long as you start.

Step Two: Embrace the Pit of Despair.

Admit it: if you’re truly a master procrastinator, you probably like it. You know that feeling when you’re halfway through NaNoWriMo, your word count tracker has flatlined, and your characters refuse to write themselves? Rather than allow it to bog you down, embrace it. Turn it into your fuel. 10 days and 25,000 words to go? That’s not terrifying. That’s exhilarating.

Step Three: Establish accountability.

The hardest part of winning NaNoWriMo as a procrastinator is knowing when to stop procrastinating. Put someone—your critique partner, writing friend, mom, significant other, cat—in charge of checking in on you. Did you write the two chapters you promised to write, or did you binge watch five episodes of The Good Place? If you have someone keeping an eye on you, you might be more inclined to do the former.

Step Four: Reward yourself, don’t punish yourself.

Procrastination and instant gratification go hand-in-hand, but you can turn that to your advantage. If you find yourself procrastinating from your NaNo goal, don’t punish yourself with discouraging thoughts or relinquished activities. Reward yourself before and after the work. Watch the TV episode you’re dying to watch, do your writing, and then play a game—or whatever it is that serves as reward in your life.

Step Five: Take a deep breath and have fun with it.

NaNoWriMo challenges us and teaches us lessons about time management, daily writing, and establishing goals. But most importantly, NaNoWriMo should be fun. Whether you start on Day 1 or Day 21, have fun with it. Revel in the challenge and know that choosing to write, whether you ‘win’ or not, puts you ahead of where you would be if you did not write at all. Maybe you arrived late to the game, but at least you showed up, so make the most of it.

Tackling NaNoWriMo as a procrastinator means turning an already difficult challenge into a true feat of strength. But if you choose to start your NaNoWriMo journey later than the first day, know that you too have the power to cross that virtual finish line. And you might feel all the more impressive for doing so (at least, that’s what I tell myself every year).

Sarah LeFebvre is a self-proclaimed master procrastinator, Walt Disney World cast member, and writer of LGBT Young Adult fiction. Alongside three writing friends, she co-runs @WriterCoven, a Twitter account dedicated to putting writers in touch with the magic of writing. When she’s not working or writing, she’s probably attending to the whims of three cats or giving into her Sims 4 addiction.

Be sure to visit her website to see more of her work, and follow her on Twitter!