NaNoWriMo

If you've been in the writing community for only a short amount of time, odds are you've heard about NaNoWriMo. You may have even done it before. You may think we're crazy for even attempting it. Whatever your feelings on NaNo, I wanted to make a post about it.

This will be my first year. I'm fifteen and I recently completed the first draft of HOPING FOR RAIN, a YA contemporary novel. I'm confident and excited and scared to freaking death. I hope that's a good thing.

So here is a list. I like lists.

What NaNoWriMo is for:
- Killing your Inner Editor...that jerk who deserves to die until we're ready to consult him. Then he can be raised from the dead, I promise.
- Writing to a deadline, because God knows us writers suck at them sometimes (I'm looking at you, Twitter! Also Tumblr)
- Working within a community. Already, half a month before November, I've become part of an amazing community. Just knowing that so many others are writing with you is an incredible motivation.
- Quantity over quality. NaNoWriMo gives you a chance to suck. You can't edit (or you shouldn't, anyway), which leaves room to just write write write! Your first draft is going to suck, let's face it, but that's what NaNoWriMo encourages. I find that strangely liberating.

What NaNoWriMo is NOT for:
- Producing a crappy first draft every year and then never looking at it again.
- Editing
- Going in blind, without even an idea of what you're going to write about.
- Listening to that asshat, the Inner Editor

 Just remember that once November ends, you're not finished. A first draft is like the first coat of paint on a canvas, or any other really bad metaphors. Grab a writing buddy or a CP and, when the month is up, tear it to shreds. Watch as a whole different story emerges. And you'll thank yourself.

 So who's with me? Who's decided to be a crazy person and take on the challenge that is NaNo?

Comment below with your NaNo stories :) I'd love to hear them.

"Finishing" a Novel

Picture this. You're sitting at your computer or your typewriter (SOMEBODY in the world must use a typewriter) and typing with anxious fingers. Then you do it, you type the final word. You have a finished novel, you wrote a BOOK. This is a cause for celebration. So you bask in your glory and imagine the moment your book becomes a New York Times bestseller.

But you're not finished.

It was your first draft, your first attempt at the story you're trying to create. It's far from finished, and when you look back on it a month later you know it.

So you rewrite it, and rewrite it again. And eventually you have a piece of work chiselled down to its finest parts. It's beautiful. But it's not finished. You haven't got an agent; you haven't got a guarantee it's worth it.

Then you get your agent, and they sell it to a publishing house. EUREKA! you say. NOW I'VE FINISHED! But, guess what? You're not finished. The most important part of a book is having people read it, and that conversation between reader and writer is what we writers yearn for. Your book isn't on the shelves yet. It's not done.

Okay, you say, as you look at your beautiful book on the beautiful bookstore shelves. NOW I'm done. You open the cover to a random page and you stare in horror. A TYPO??? IN MY BOOK???

The truth is, you will never be finished. You will always want to keep editing, revising, redoing. You've got a long way to go until the book is on the shelves, and even then there's more you could do to it. The point I'm trying to make is that you have to give yourself permission to suck. Your first draft IS going to suck; it's The Law. Don't beat yourself up about it.

You tell yourself that you're finished, that you've written your book. But for us, the real writers, well...we never stop writing.

Ideas!

Let me tell you a story about a young writer named Emily.

Okay, you got me. The writer’s me. Well, anyway, when I first started my WIP, it…sucked, basically. I was angry at the time and it was a product of that anger, as well as some crazy attempt to write like somebody else. Almost more of a memoir than a novel, and I’d created such a Mary Sue that I couldn’t distinguish myself from my protagonist.

Case in point: I don’t recommend this.

So anyway, I didn’t even really have an idea. It was more just blurting out my anger onto paper, but eventually it grew into something more than that. After a while, my angry ramblings changed, until I had a real storyline. I discovered a girl called Thea who is blind (and named after the goddess of sight – yeah, I’m mean), her sister Kylie and a whole host of other things. I’d created something different to what I intended.

My story changed, and so did my characters. I think that’s very important, because a lot of the time we don’t start writing because we don’t have a good idea. Here’s the news: you don’t need a good idea. The Catcher in the Rye, in its most basic form, is a guy getting kicked out of school. That’s not exactly revolutionary, and yet Catcher is one of the great pieces of modern literature.

Write. Just start writing, and soon enough your story will take shape. The more you write about your characters and what happens to them, the more you get to explore what you’re actually writing about.

I don’t know what I wanted to write about when I first started my WIP. I really don’t. But I do know that what started as an idea to spew out the giant squid of anger within me…well, that changed into something that can actually be classified as an idea.

So next time you’re sitting in front of your computer or your typewriter or your notebook (what? I’m sure people still use typewriters) remind yourself that you don’t need a good idea. You need good characters and good writing.

A good idea will come later.

How good are you at writing?

Just as a rough estimate, I wanted to create a scale of writing, so you can check yourselves on it to see where you fit in. Bear in mind that these are only accurate to a certain degree?

Ant: You don’t really know what a sentence is, or where to put a capital letter – and what the hell is a question mark? For you, billboards and pamphlets count as books. You’re just beginning your journey.

Caterpillar: Alright, so you know what a sentence is. You know some basic grammar and how to construct a paragraph. But you haven’t entered the writing world. You’re still stuck in the theoretical stage. Grab some imagination and take it for a walk!

Bird: You’re creating short stories and liking it. But your characters are flat, your dialogue sucks and your sentences might go something like this: “She sat on the hard plastic chair and twirled her long blonde hair on her tanned finger and blew a bubble with her bright pink bubble-gum.” Read more books, write more stories.

Possum: You know the basics of writing. You know that you’re supposed to show and not tell, but you’re not quite sure how to do that…and what on earth is a voice? You’re starting to develop your characters and have natural dialogue, but you’re not quite a writing guru yet.

Tiger: You’ve got a lot of it under control. You know how to sustain a plot, develop character and create intensity. You might have a writing partner or critique group, but they commonly say things like “what’s supposed to happen in this scene?” “Is this really necessary?” or “Info-dump.” You’re getting there. Have patience, young grasshopper…I mean, tiger.

Lion, the Lord of the Freaking Jungle: You are a writer, my fine furry friend! You can create metaphors, you can create complex characters, you can sustain an interest plot and you have a great voice (and we’re not talking about singing in the shower). Your writing is polished and precise, and you’re not forcing information down your readers’ throats. But you still have room to improve…we all do.

Wherever you are on this scale, even if it’s at the Ant stage (I’m sorry, Ant! I’m sure you’re very mighty and all, but this was going on size) you can get to Lion. Writing doesn’t take talent…it takes a backbone, a funny bone and a wish bone. And a few drops of inspiration.

Have fun writing!

Why Critique Groups Are Important

We writers can be fairly reclusive folk. We write or type away at our stories, shoulders hunched and looking around every now and again for sign of human life. We shove our writing away in a drawer, or in a computer folder, gathering literal or metaphorical dust.

We don't like to share our writing. Big news, everyone: if you want to get published, you kinda have to share your writing. Reading and writing are somewhat intertwined.

Which is where writer's groups come in. But...but...criticism! Yup. Relish it. Relish the feeling of those comments improving your writing tenfold. Constructive criticism is the most valuable thing in life. As well as love and all that.

 I entered my first writing group only a few months ago, in about June. I cannot even explain how valuable they are, how much they enable you to grow and change as a writer. After all, there are only certain things you'll be able to pick up in your own writing...other writers will pick up all of them, or at least more than you ever will.

My writer's group (and new writing partner) have already taught me so much more about writing; about voice, showing and not telling, adverbs, character and pacing. It doesn't have to be a writer's group where you actually meet somewhere. Mine is online, through email and (yes) Facebook.

Plus, you know, you get to read stuff. For free.

A writer's group provides even more than tips and constructive criticism. They provide motivation, which is sometimes hard to come by. When you've got to submit your next chapter for critiquing the next day, you're going to work hard to get that chapter in. If you're by yourself, there's nobody to disappoint but you (and more on that in another post sometime).

Join a writer's group. Gain some constructive criticism. Take that criticism on board and think about it, even if you don't necessarily agree with it. Fix your writing and make it better.

You won't regret it...unless you have a terrible writer's group. But again, more on that in a later post.

Why You Should Kill Adjectives

We’re taught at school that adjectives are good; that they enrich your writing and help make images. And that’s the truth. If you use adjectives in the right (write?) way, they can help you.

For example, I saw a first sentence of someone that went a bit like this: She twirled her long blonde hair on her tanned finger and popped her pink bubble gum.

Problems? There are way too many adjectives. This is what using too many adjectives does:

1)      Slows down your writing. If your readers are trying to get through 500000 adjectives, they’re not going to get into the actual story.

2)      Tells and doesn’t show. I’ve ranted about showing not telling before, because it really is one of the most important things I can say. Instead of using any old adjective, SHOW us the scene. Involve your reader.

3)      Make you (the writer) seem lazy. Often adjectives are only approximations; you can’t really get a good glimpse of a scene through lists of adjectives alone. Words like “amazing” and “wonderful” are even worse because they’re such broad terms.

So let’s change that sentence above.

She twirled her hair and stared at the ceiling, wondering if you could die from boredom. Probably not, she thought as she popped her bubble gum. She wouldn’t be that lucky.

Already, you can see that removing the adjectives has done a great deal. You can glimpse this girl’s character more and imagine the scene much better. It flows.

Another thing. You know those beautiful scenes, comprised entirely of brilliant prose and magnificent adjectives? Cut them. Let’s face it: nobody wants to read for three pages about a garden or a sunset, and you shouldn’t make them. It may be good writing, but people don’t want to read good writing; they want to be told a story.

So, things to avoid:

1)      A string of adjectives in a row (his faded yellow old ugly horrible shirt)

2)      Redundant adjectives (big mountain)

3)      Non-specific adjectives (wonderful, beautiful, amazing etc.)

Look through your work. Find some adjectives and kill them. With fire!!

Here’s a quote from Mark Twain to help you on your way: When you catch an adjective, kill it. No, I don't mean utterly, but kill most of them - then the rest will be valuable. They weaken when they are close together. They give strength when they are wide apart. An adjective habit, or a wordy, diffuse, flowery habit, once fastened upon a person, is as hard to get rid of as any other vice.

Being a Young Writer

 *Corny warning. This is only for those made of strong stuff*

It's hard to be a young writer. We've got school, which follows us at home, chores, maybe a job, curfews, parents and...we also write. And STILL people don't take us seriously.

"Oh, she/he is a teenager. Therefore he/she must be stupid."

Frustrating, right? So what do you do? How do you convince people that your input to society is worth it?

You keep reading, and writing, and creating. You listen to Bohemian Rhapsody, you read Catcher in the Rye, you listen to people. You go to school, LISTEN TO YOUR ENGLISH TEACHERS (sorry for the caps abuse) and you learn how to write better.

Because...let's face it. If you're the best writer in the world (and this is impossible seeing how many different ways of being "best" there are) you can still learn things. JK Rowling still has things to learn.

Basically, you show people that teens can (and will) write. You show them that, yes, teens can appreciate metaphor and create voice and sustain a plot and send query letters and make gigantic run-on sentences that seem to go nowhere.

Because we can. You and I are the writers of the future - the difference is that we're starting now. When the JK Rowlings and John Greens and Stephanie Meyers of the world have disappeared, it will be up to us to take up the mantle of awesome books.

Next time you're feeding your dog, or washing up, or struggling to keep your eyes open in algebra, remember that our writing journey is just beginning. The beginning of our journey with characters, plots, readers and writers.

Just remember that: that, yes, being a writer (and especially a teen writer) is hard. But it's also the most awesome part of being a writer. It's when you're just discovering your voice, your love of writing and your love of creating characters.

We've got a long way to go. But the journey there is the best bit.