Chris Baty's Blog, page 76

“Keep writing because someone out there is going to love your...

“Keep writing because someone out there is going to love your book. Someone out there needs your book. Someone out there is going to call you their “favorite writer”. That feeling you get when you hear that readers have connected with your work, that they “got it,” is so special that it’s totally worth all the creative agony.”

—Katya de Becerra was born in Russia, studied in California, immigrated to Australia in 2006, and now lives in Melbourne. She earned a PhD in Anthropology from the University of Melbourne. She is a mentor with 1st5Pages Writing Workshop, where she provides free critique to help foster new writing talent. Released in 2018, her debut novel What The Woods Keep is a genre-bender combining mystery, science fiction, and dark fantasy. Her second novel Oasis is forthcoming in 2020. Follow @KatyaDeBecerra on Twitter.

Your Camp Care Package is brought to you by Camp NaNoWriMo. Sign up to receive more Camp Care Packages at campnanowrimo.org.

Text added over original image by David Kennedy on Unsplash.

4 Tips to Sail Smoothly Through Camp NaNoWriMo

Okay, Campers! As we let the dust settle from Week 3 and enter the last week of Camp NaNoWriMo, it may be time to remind ourselves of all the resources we have at our fingertips. Take advantage of your greater writing community and don’t underestimate the power of your imagination! Here are a few tips to keep you typing, penned by YWP participant: Peiying Tsai:

Hello Fellow Writers!

It’s that time again where we sharpen our wits, fortify our minds, and immerse ourselves in writing. As fun as this month of writing is, we all know it hasn’t been smooth sailing all the way. Inevitably, you may have come across one of the most dreaded obstacles: writer’s block. It may seem futile. You may wish to put your writing away to never see the light of day. You may flounder around the house for hours without making any progress. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Instead, when faced with writer’s block, you can try out the tips listed below.

1. My number one suggestion is always to talk to someone about it, even if they’re not a writer. 

It may seem daunting to show your writing to someone else, but the end goal for many of us is to eventually publish and show the world our work. Other people will be able to give you a fresh take on your writing and help you come up with ideas you did not previously think about. Sometimes, even the mere act of talking will get the cogs in your brain moving. Often when I have writer’s block, it is solved with talking to someone about it. Many times, the problem at hand is much smaller than you would have thought!

2. My second tip is to read other people’s writing. 

Most of us, before we were writers, were readers. Reading can remind us why we fell in love with writing, reigniting the desire to return to our writing. 

Sometimes, you might even find the answers you’re looking for in the book. For instance, if you’re having difficulties writing dialogue, read someone else’s dialogue. If you’re having problems with an action scene, read someone else’s fight scene. Pick up your favorite book and ask yourself why you love it. What made that book work in your opinion? Try to infuse that same joy you feel reading it in your writing. In your hand is the product of an author who was once in the same position as you, and that book is proof that writer’s block is beatable.

3. My third tip would be to use a prompt. 

The NaNoWriMo Young Writers Program has an excellent selection of prompts to help you out in a pinch in its “Dare Machine.” If that doesn’t satisfy you, the Internet has an even wider selection of writing prompts to choose from. You can even specifically look up prompts that suit your needs, like romance prompts, dialogue prompts, fantasy prompts, even image prompts! Most prompts I have seen are fun and creative, and I’m always itching to write something after reading them.

4. Lastly, don’t worry about being perfect! 

As you forge into Camp NaNoWriMo this summer, remember: quantity over quality. You can always edit a bad page, but not a blank one. 

If you’re really stuck on a scene, simply write a summary of what happens and continue on to write a scene you’d much rather write, and then come back to the scene giving you trouble with a newly awakened vigor. Don’t procrastinate, don’t get caught up in minutiae, but instead focus on getting your story on the page, especially if it’s your first draft.

All of us have a story worth telling. All of the hard work you’re putting into your writing will pay off in the end. Now go write!

Peiying Tsai is a high schooler with a great life long passion for creative writing and loves talking about it with fellow writers. When not writing, Peiying can be found drawing despite a lack of talent, reading voraciously, or watching the latest blockbuster movies.

Top photo by Katherine McCormack on Unsplash.

"“Write what makes you blush” is my favorite writing advice. It comes from the brilliant..."

““Write what makes you blush” is my favorite writing advice. It comes from the brilliant non-fiction writer, Lee Kofman, but it translates well into other genres. Writing horror? Write what you fear! Your book is science fiction? Write what makes your inner science fan excited! Regardless of genre, you can draw on your personal knowledge, experiences and emotions to fuel your writing. It could really make a difference to how readers engage with your work and how well they relate to your characters.”

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Katya de Becerra was born in Russia, studied in California, immigrated to Australia in 2006, and now lives in Melbourne. She earned a PhD in Anthropology from the University of Melbourne. She is a mentor with 1st5Pages Writing Workshop, where she provides free critique to help foster new writing talent. Released in 2018, her debut novel What The Woods Keep is a genre-bender combining mystery, science fiction, and dark fantasy. Her second novel Oasis is forthcoming in 2020. Follow @KatyaDeBecerra on Twitter.

Your Camp Care Package is brought to you by Camp NaNoWriMo. Sign up to receive more Camp Care Packages at campnanowrimo.org.

Winning has begun for Camp NaNoWriMo!

How’s your Camp project going, writer? If you’re making good progress on your goal, just a head’s up that you can now start claiming your official Camp NaNoWriMo win! (If you’re not there yet, don’t worry: you can validate your project to claim your win until 11:59 PM on July 31 in your time zone.)

How to Claim an Official Win When You Get ThereReach your project goal.
Click the “Validate” button at the top of the Camp NaNoWriMo site. (Don’t see the button? Make sure your time zone setting is correct.)
Validate your writing project.
Copy and paste your project into the pop-up window, then click “Validate”. (Your project will not be saved to our site after being validated.)You’ll be redirected to your winner goodies page to get your winner flair and extra special sponsor offers!

Camp Pep: Questions Are the Answer

Howdy, Campers! Welcome to Week 3. If you find your pace slowing down, or your epiphanies drying up, don’t despair. The answers are out there. But you can’t find an answer without first asking a question. Today, NaNo Participant K.S. Trenten reminds us that sometimes questions are the answers:

Wish to put some words on the page? Here are some questions to ask yourself so you can take those first steps.

What do you want to write? A short story? A novel? An essay? This will give you an idea of how long to make your project (and define your word count goal). 

If you’re writing a story or a novel, who is your main character? What do they want? This is a way of pushing your protagonist forward, reminding yourself of this. Their goal should be something that’ll hold your interest.

Allow them to tell you about what they want and why they want it. What events led up to this? 

You may have an urge to start writing when you ask yourself these questions. Give into it. Let your character talk. Allow them to relive events which shaped them and their goals. They might decide to pick a fight with another character or simply rant. Allow them to. 

Don’t worry if you’re coming in at the middle of the story. You can add the rest later. 

Start thinking about the obstacles between your main character and their goal. Are the obstacles other characters? What are their goals? Are they connected with the events which shaped the main character’s goal to begin with?

Feeling like writing again? Go for it.

Don’t just answer the questions, explore them.

Let your main character collide with these obstacles, with other characters’ goals. Don’t worry if you end up with a bunch of disjointed story fragments. Keep playing with them and you’ll think of ways to connect them. 

A third set of questions to ask yourself is: who or what supports your main character’s goals? Does your protagonist have friends who encourage them or an enemy who says the right thing at the right time? Is there a place or an object the main character draws strength or resolve from? 

Explore all of this when you’re getting started. You may already have an idea of these things, but they’re worth considering when you propel characters who’ve been floating around your head into a plot with a beginning, a middle, and an end. 

Are you still looking at a blank page? Don’t give up. Get up and walk away from your writing tools for a moment. Do something else while you think about these things. Just keep asking yourself these questions. 

None of this may apply to you if you’re writing a poem or an essay. You may need to ask yourself different questions, such as: 

What do you wish to communicate in your writing? What do you want to express? 

What’s on your mind? A problem? Or a situation you’re trying to describe? How would you like your readers to react? 

Never stop asking yourself questions. Answering them can get you to fill the pages when you’re stuck. They can renew your energy when it falters. 

Remember, this is just the beginning. There are no constraints other than the word count. You’re not being edited. You don’t have to stop what you’re doing or shy away from anything that sounds bold, reckless, and beyond your limits. 

You’re free to put what you want on the page.

Enjoy that freedom. Explore. Let your thoughts, feelings, and your characters take you where they want to go. Let them surprise you. 

It may be frightening, beyond your control, and lead you into undiscovered territory. That’s half the joy of creative journey, finding out just what you’re capable of when you’re writing. 

Good luck!

K.S. Trenten lives in the South Bay Area of California in the United States with her husband, two cats, and a host of characters in her imagination, all shouting out for attention. Her published works include Seven Tricks; A Symposium in Space; Fairest (part of the Once Upon a Rainbow LGBTQIA+ fairytale anthology) and At Her Service (part of the Once Upon a Rainbow 2 anthology); and The Closet (part of Queer Sci Fi’s Impact, a collection of flash fictions). She also offers weekly samples of her work on Mondays and Saturdays at the Cauldron of Eternal Inspiration, Wednesdays at the Formerly Forbidden Cauldron, monthly blogs at cauldronkeeper.livejournal.com, rhodrymavelyne.dreamwidth.org, and is the author of Queer Sci Fi’s Sources of Inspiration column.  She can be found on Twitter, tumblr, LinkedIn, and has a Facebook Author Page, which reflects the contents of both Cauldrons. 

Top photo by Emily Morter on Unsplash.

“The act of writing is to create, and sometimes it’s easier to...

“The act of writing is to create, and sometimes it’s easier to let that urge manifest itself in other ways, if you feel stuck. […] It is often through doing something else that I feel rejuvenated about writing. Don’t force it. The flow will come back to you.”

—Yangsze Choo is a NYTimes bestselling author of The Ghost Bride (soon to be a Netflix Original series) and The Night Tiger, Reese Witherspoon’s Book Club Pick, Amazon’s Spotlight Pick, and one of USA Today’s best books of the year. Yangsze loves to eat and read, and often does both at the same time. She lives in California with her family and several chickens. Dark chocolate is her writing inspiration. Visit her blog at www.yschoo.com or follow @yangszechoo on Twitter.

Your Camp Care Package is brought to you by Camp NaNoWriMo. Sign up to receive more Camp Care Packages at campnanowrimo.org.

Text added over original image by Khara Woods on Unsplash.

The Newest NaNoWriMo Book is Available for Pre-Order!

We’re over-the-moon excited to announce that Brave the Page, our brand new NaNoWriMo handbook for young writers, is available for pre-order! 

Partly a how-to guide on the nitty-gritty of writing, partly a collection of inspiration to set (and meet) ambitious goals, Brave the Page (published by Penguin Random House) is the go-to resource for middle-grade writers. Narrated in a fun, refreshingly kid-friendly voice, it champions NaNoWriMo’s central mission that everyone‘s stories deserve to be told. The volume includes chapters on character, plot, setting, and the like; motivating essays from popular authors; advice on how to commit to your goals; a detailed plan for writing a novel or story in a month; and more!

As our Kirkus Reviews starred review put it: “a wonderful instruction guide for writers of any age.” 

Pre-order your copy (and support our non-profit) today!

"Sometimes your characters will want to choose difficult or inconvenient things. It’s all right. Let..."

“Sometimes your characters will want to choose difficult or inconvenient things. It’s all right. Let them go ahead. Later you can decide whether that fits in with the story arc or belongs elsewhere. There is no need to maintain perfection in your writing world. In fact, I find letting the characters wander around alternate storylines very helpful. Even if you never use the material, it adds richness and depth to the world—you will know whether character A is really the sort of person to do x and y!”

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Yangsze Choo is a NYTimes bestselling author of The Ghost Bride (soon to be a Netflix Original series) and The Night Tiger, Reese Witherspoon’s Book Club Pick, Amazon’s Spotlight Pick, and one of USA Today’s best books of the year. Yangsze loves to eat and read, and often does both at the same time. She lives in California with her family and several chickens. Dark chocolate is her writing inspiration. Visit her blog at www.yschoo.com or follow @yangszechoo on Twitter.

Your Camp Care Package is brought to you by Camp NaNoWriMo. Sign up to receive more Camp Care Packages at campnanowrimo.org.

8 Tips to Break Through Writer’s Block

Camp NaNoWriMo is an exciting time, but it can feel a bit intimidating to tackle a creative project head-on. Today, NaNoWriMo participant Jarrick DeWaine Exum offers some helpful tips for those of us struggling with writer’s block:

Ahh, writing!

People seem to think that we writers are always
endowed with the gift of creating something out of a simple idea. And many readers
seem to think that it always come naturally, that the author must be blessed with the talent, right?
Wrong! 

Now that we’re in mid-July, some of you writers out there may have discovered that it’s not so easy as it seemed when you started that project of yours (whether it’s editing a
recent piece that you took a break from or starting something new). 

Oh sure, one moment you’re flying high and putting down every single idea
that forms in your mind. From the get-go, you never want the flow of
ideas to end. And then… you hit the wall.
The dreaded wall of writer’s block. 

Sadly, people, you will not be alone. All writers go through the phase of not
finding the right idea at times, even yours truly. Sometimes, it’s only for a day or
two. Sometimes, it takes weeks to overcome. All the same, we all go through that
dreaded dry spell. But fear not, writer! There are some ways to find that inner
spark to get over that nasty slump so that you can get back to business. In fact,
there are simple tasks you can do every single day! 

Here are some of the many ways
to beat the block:

1.
Take a walk.

It’s the ultimate cure-all. Plus you’ll make sure that you’re
getting your exercise in. Self-care for the body is important, after all. 

2.
Listen to music. 

Grab your earphones or speaker and turn up the music loud. Although, if you’re in a public place like a library, best to keep it to yourself.

3.
Do some housework. 

It works for me at times, whether washing some
clothes, sweeping, vacuuming, dusting, etc. Not only will you be doing something completely different, but a clean workspace may help you find your ideas more easily.

4.
Do yard work. 

Ditto: hedge-trimming, lawn mowing, weed-pulling,
gardening, etc. 

5.
Take a spa day.

Or a mini-spa day if you’re on a budget. Nothing beats a
shower or a soak in the tub to clear the mind and the body. 

6.
Run some errands.

Handle some bills, shop for groceries, etc. Get rid of some of the niggling things in the back of your mind that take up brain space when you’re trying to write. 

7.
Take a day to catch up on some shows. 

Watching what other people have created can help boost your own creativity. Just don’t overdo it. You’re a writer, after all.

8.
Focus on your main job. 

If you, like many of us, have a career that’s not just writing, devote some time to your main job. Focusing on something else for a while may remind you why you love to write. 

The list can go on and on, but the most important thing to remember is that
you’re not superhuman. 

Everyone has a dry spell at times when working on a
project. And even when it seems like you can’t go on any further and you want to
give up, remember to take it one chapter (or paragraph) at a time, and one day at a
time. That’s all you can do, at this point. 

 So, what are you going to do to beat the wall? Sing? Dance to some crazy
song that’s stuck in your head? Sniff a candle? Visit your loved ones and friends?
Treat yourself to a dinner or a movie? The possibilities are endless. Take time for
you.
And then, get back into the game of writing. We’re artists in the literary
sense of the word, after all!

Bitten by the literary bug at age twelve, Jarrick DeWaine Exum never fully
took writing seriously until 2012 when he self-published his first poetry collection
“Sonata City” through Amazon KDP. Six years later, he began working on “A
Nerd among Heroes,” the first book of his superhero teen fiction series. “After
that, for his first NaNoWriMo debut, he published the sequel “Nerd of Fire, Rebel
of Ice.” He lives in a small town near Macon, Georgia where he is planning to
work on book three of the series for NaNoWriMo #2 in November.
You can find Jarrick through Facebook (Jarrick DeWaine Exum), Twitter
(Jarrick_Exum) or Instagram (iamtherealjarrickexum) and Tumblr
(jarrickdexum1991). He also has a WordPress weblog regarding his superhero
series (www.vigilantesamongus.wordpress.com). 

Top photo by Sergey Turkin on Unsplash

How NaNoWriMo’s Come Write In Program Inspires Better Stories

The Come Write In program brings NaNoWriMo to your neighborhood through local library partnerships. We’re currently hosting a fundraising drive to raise money for this important community program. Today, author Jarie Bolander shares why he supports Come Write In:

My first NaNoWriMo novel, Small Heart Monster, was the first novel I ever attempted to write. It’s an epic tale of Jessica, a female Asian-American publicist for professional athletes, struggling to make it in the misogynistic world of professional sports. It was inspired by my late wife Jane, who happened to be a female Asian-American publicist for professional athletes, struggling to make it (and she did!) in the misogynistic world of professional sports.

The tragedy of her death, at the young age of 36 from leukemia, compelled me to capture her life so that her stories would live on. That novel will most likely never be published (it needs a lot of work) but the inspiration to write it led to a more public dedication to Jane’s love of literacy and service—JSY Giving.

JSY Giving is a 501©(3) nonprofit dedicated to helping other nonprofits tell better stories. We believe that well-told stories can amplify a nonprofit’s impact. Our focus is on nonprofits in the Literacy, Women & Minority Entrepreneurship, Anti-Human Trafficking, and Services for Youth sectors. These were all sectors that Jane helped when she was alive.

Writing, like reading, is something that gets better with practice. The stories that inspire us to action are the ones honed over time and reach deep into our soul. We get better when we write and share our stories with others. That’s why JSY Giving is proud to support Come Write In.

“Our stories are what define us, inspire us, and expand us into different points of view.“

Our lived experiences make for the best stories. Come Write In gives many people a place to be with other story nerds and share their lives through the stories we write. This makes us and our communities better. Our stories are what define us, inspire us, and expand us into different points of view.

That first NaNoWriMo novel led me to tackle the hard work of capturing the story about loving and losing Jane. That memoir, which I wrote during another NaNoWriMo, has been a big part of my healing from grief and loss. It also captures what it means to love, with all the baggage that comes along with it.

My hope is that more people will Come Write In to their local libraries and write stories together. Sharing our stories is a powerful way to build communities that make the world a better place. It’s also a great way to bond with others since writing with a partner opens up your eyes to whole other worlds, especially ones with magical mirrors and talking sea otters inspired by your 9-year old (now 10) writing partner.

Jarie Bolander is an engineer by training and an entrepreneur by nature. He has over 20 years of experience bringing innovative products to market. He is a Certified Story Grid Editor whose uses his editor training to help his companies tell better stories. He has published six books—8 Startup Dilemmas All Founder Will Face, The Entrepreneur Ethos, 7 PR Secrets All Founders Should Know, #Endurance Tweet, Frustration Free Technical Management, and Business Basics for Entrepreneurs. He’s also the ED of JSY Giving and on Twitter @TheDailyMBA.

Top photo by Kyle Glenn on Unsplash.