20k for March is Complete!

I did it! I've gotten the 20k for this month down.

 Yes!

 And that means that I am now free to Not Write until April rolls around, if I feel like it.

 Which of course makes me feel like... I have an idea....

Scrivener Report

Okay, so here is the promised Scrivener report.

 I'd heard a lot about Scrivener for several years, but

1. being easily intimidated by super-techy things, 
2. as well as dubious of "takes the work away" claims, 
3. coupled with a budget of zero, 

  I didn't get Scrivener.

But after finishing NaNoWriMo 2013, I decided that I had heard enough good things about the program to give it a try. The lovely folks who make Scrivener ran a 30 day trial for WriMo's, so I took advantage of that, and by the time Nov. was over I was convinced of it's benefits!
 Being a NaNo winner, I had a 50% off deal, which I exercised.

Scrivener gives a huge amount of flexibility in arranging a work space that fits you best; it has multiple screen options as well as different ways each option can be displayed, so it's super easy for formatting your thoughts and getting a good look at the big picture for your project.

 It also has places for reference material, in the form of photos or articles or just about anything. You can keep them right there in the program to refer to them at any point during your writing, but they won't be counted among or mess with your actual manuscript. It's pretty neat.

 I have only really scratched the surface of what it can do, but it's been a great leap forward in my writing tools department.

Being a "pantser", I leap right in and jot scenes hither and yon, and build and build until I've got a story that I then must stick into a structure-type frame. This has always been a highly difficult task in Word, and has really slowed my creativity down while I cowered in the face of the monumental task of rearranging everything. (I usually took the passive-aggressive track of avoidance, during which period, I got no writing done, of course.)

  Scrivener makes it super easy to rearrange things, and I have to say I'm totally in love with it's Project Targets aspect!
 This allows me to set Word Count goals for the overall project, each Scene I've created, and also to keep a Session Target, (I've set it to 2k, and shoot for that each time I sit down.)
 This ingenious aspect makes it easy to keep track of how much I'm getting done, and the feeling of accomplishing stuff makes my creative muscle happy!
   A happy creative muscle creates better, stronger, faster, and I get a lot more accomplished!

  So it's basically a beautiful cycle that keeps feeding upward momentum.

 One thing, I wish it had a smarter spell-check… my Word program had gotten to be a genius at correcting my typos; so I get a little miffed when I accidentally transpose the letters in “to” and Scrivener suggests “oat, at, OT”
 Not sure how much it “learns”, either… though I’ve only had it a few months now.
(I may be wrong, but I’m pretty sure Word “learned” my habits, ’cause it got scary good at suggesting the very word I wanted when typo’d. )


 Do you have any questions about Scrivener?
   Have you heard of Scrivener before?

Self Publishing Successes, Clickable Links!

It's always interesting to see what is going on recently, and as well as the fact that as people, we are nosy as all get out! Right? ;-)

Self Publishing Success Stories

 Here's a whole list of authors deemed to be self publishing successes, ranked by selling  over 200k or 50k... and they're click-able links! So feel free to snoop and gain insight, or whatever you do best... just don't let it get your high hopes dashed and put you in that wretched little boat named "Comparison is the Thief of Joy".  You hear, now?

 This post made in 2012, so it's a little out of date, but not so much that the info isn't useful! ;-)

Monthly Writing Goals

Even though everybody talks about them all the time, daily goals have NEVER Worked for me, at all. After several years of doing NaNo, I finally got the epiphany to set a low-ish Monthly goal for all year around. 

  Now working in Scrivener, (NaNo goodie! I should have got it long ago!) this is easier to do, 'cause I put my different projects into “chapters” and work on whatever appeals at the moment. This way I can easily have an accumulative word count, and I’m progressing on something all the time.
 (I am going to have to write up a post on the experience of Scrivener, it's different but good!)

   Monthly goals work particularly best for me, because I am a “bursts” writer, so I can rack up the words one week, and then lie fallow the next. And I don't risk feeling depressed because "I'm not getting my writing done!"
 Instead I can remember that I already did it.
 YahoooO! Love that feeling.
 
I’ve set a trial goal of 20k per month, and have hit it well so far. In fact, I finished my 20k for Feb. by the 16th, which made me very happy! I’m definitely on a creative high at the moment.
  So... if I am able to get in 20k per month, that is 20k x 12 =  240k words in a year! That is two major length books, or four shortish novels, or three medium ones.
 
    Yes! That would be progress!!!

 What do you think? Would monthly goals make sense for you?

  

Word Count Widgets... Wahoo!

 Well, if you're at all like me, you might be lazily (or reluctantly) turning over in your mind a few ways that you'd like to improve something in the next twelve months... and if you're exactly like me, you might be thinking along word and word-creating lines.

  Writing can be wonderful and brilliant and great bursts of fun...

   ...But it can also be a desert of despair in which we weep fat, salty tears and pound rocks together in frustration.

  Taking a cue from my November post, I've been thinking that maybe the desert parts aren't as wide as they seem, they only seem that way.
 If this is true, than actually tracking those monsters would be a good way of cutting their fearsomeness down to size, and thus reducing their mastery over my poor emotions. (Which are sometimes over wrought... yes, they get that way.)

 So, implementing one step in this grand scheme, I set forth in search of word count trackers, progress bars, or things otherwise known as Word Count Widgets.

 Lucky for me, I quickly found a nice collection, all sweetly compiled by the very thoughtful blogger at Writing For Your Supper- 13 Free Word Counters

 This list was made in 2011, but the comment section show how grateful people still are to find them! (Be advised, some may no longer be extant.)
 So, to pass along this little nugget of helpfulness, I've linked to her post and hope anyone in search of Word Count Widgets can find exactly what they need!

   Do you know of more widgets, or have any advice concerning them? Let us know!

Quitting? Maybe something you should consider.

 Well, it's January again.
   December, the supposedly restive "Month After NaNo", has faded too fast, and we're looking at the whole of 2014 stretching out like a road that will be traveled much too fast.

   It's always a good idea to take some thoughtful time in the middle of winter, when things have cooled between the craziness of autumn windup and the rush of spring bursting forward. In the brief lull between, thoughts turn to assessments and future strategies... something that is often on my mind, but not often so very clear as I'd like it.  *Wink*

  Kristen Lamb posted about a very apt idea for the coming year, Learn To Be A Quitter. Think about it: everybody always says "Winners never quit." But what nobody can do everything, and sometimes good enough is the enemy of perfect. And if something good is standing in the way of something better, than quitting the good thing is important. Right?
  I really appreciated what she had to say on the subject, and the way she said it. I'll have to think on that, and see if there are a few things to be quitted in my life.
 
 Are there things you should quit, but haven't?

Of Dolls, and Meanings

  When we were little, a girl gave my older (and oldest) sister a china doll. In retrospect, she was rather worn and fairly ugly, but Oh, I wanted to hold her! But she was breakable, and I was seven and us younger kids weren't allowed to play with her. We had cloth dolls which my oldest sister painstakingly made; they were intricate and lovely, but they weren't "fancy".
For years after that I wished and wished I had a china doll, and was fairly sick over it. But we didn't have money for things like that, and I knew it, so said nothing.

  When I was about 13 a dear older friend took us three younger girls into a large department store. It was our first time in an elevator, our first time in such a fancy store, and while she and Mom looked at plates and sweaters, etc. we 3 younger girls found a rack of china dolls and looked at them with our hands behind our backs.
Our friend came over to look at them too, and decided to buy our pick for each of us girls. I was astonished that Mom okay'd it, (she usually didn't allow people to buy us stuff, not wanting us to feel entitled, I guess!) (We were pretty cute, old fashioned looking kids; little girls in skirts and braids and shy smiles, so I'm sure we could have gotten spoiled into "expecting things".)

  It took us three girls the longest time to decide, as we agonized over picking. Finally, I ended with one that reminded me of Anne of Green Gables & named her Rosemary. My sisters chose a chocolate haired one, (which was a different mold, and actually the prettiest) naming her Clara, and a blonde, Maybelle (the same face-mold as mine).
I was weak with joy all the way home, not able to believe that I finally had a real china doll! We played with our dolls carefully; and the younger two used them all summer. Maybelle got several limbs broken, but we always glued her up again, and patched and mended the occasional disconnected body part.*

  My doll sat off to the side while I read book after book, for I was really growing out of doll-playing, even if not out of doll-wanting.
I still have Rosemary, her hair is a little matted, and I wish I'd chosen a different hair color.
I wish I knew some little girl, (littler than 13) who would love to have a china doll as much as I wanted one. But all the kids I know aren't careful with their toys, and the doll would surely be doomed. I don't know people who patch their dolls, or even that don't have many already.
When I look at her I am struck with the dichotomy of what we desperately want, and what actually holds lasting meaning. I will not willingly part with the intricate, cloth dolls my sister sewed, they are precious and real in a way that only the Velveteen Rabbit could understand. Rosemary came over in a crate of shiny boxes from the Orient, and stood glassy eyed in a department store with scores of her sisters for who knows how many weeks. She reminds be of that dear, wonderful lady who touched our lives with her vivacity and enthusiasm and taught Mom how to be infectiously joyful despite the hardships life can bring in secret. As I have grown, the memory of this has helped me be brave and give cheer to others even if I sometimes don't feel it myself. She is a memory I cherish, and her generous spirit is only shown a tiny bit in the gift of the china dolls. I would remember her without Rosemary... and sometimes I think that what we want is not the point.

  It's what we can take into ourselves that mean things.

  And items can hold meanings, sometimes enough to warrant keeping them, sometimes not as much as we think.
 
  (*Sidenote: Poor Maybelle actually had several severe problems... including stuffing issues to the point where she couldn't sit straight. So our brother did surgery on her, un-stitching her seam, taking out the offending material, and stitching her back up. It was quite the spectator event!)

How I did on NaNoWriMo

Okay! November is OVERRRRRR!

 Yes, that is about how happy I am to be able to say that.  It is not like I didn't appreciate it while it was here, but 50k words later, I am very, Very VERY ready to say goodbye to the month and move on to a little different headspace for a while. My creativity is strained and sprained and feeling mighty sore, but the words I got out were mostly good, high quality ones... even if I had to slip into Science Fiction scenarios there at the end.
 (Hey! Some day I'll have a crack-shot group of sci-fi story lines... )

 So, at first I did great. I was like:

Kristen Coco oil paintings

   Oh, yes. I can do this!


  Then on the 5th my sister had a cattle working accident that bashed her teeth in, and we spent all day in town at the oral surgeon's for emergency dental care. I was pretty worried about the situation; stressed and keyed up... and didn't write that day, or the next.
  I barely made any progress the third day, and (I think,) the next two either.

Tiny turtle on keyboard.

  My mojo was just gone. I had nothing to say.

Cartoon stock.

 So shortly I was like:

Sad dog.

 And pretty soon I was like:

Reminder beagle.

 Then I recovered my creativity and started to write. I was determined to make up the lapse, and even pull ahead. 

  At this point I was like this:

Armored Beagle

 I wrote hard, pulling those emotions out of the clouds, making things tough.
 I made it to my goal post, but had a hard time keeping up later.

           I flagged, I felt exhausted.

Dramatic Animals

I struggled to find compelling scenes to drag me back into the world of my tale.

 Then on 13th, it happened. I surged forward! The story was a wild thing, and I was riding it, hanging on for dear life! We sailed forward toward the horizon!
 

Photoshop Disasters

I over shot the line! I got down great scenes, sweeping complications of people trying to do their own thing in a world that draws harsh lines. Hard things. Sad things.
  I fell behind once, but it didn't bother me. The tale was coming, in bursts and snippets. The words bubbled up and sank away again, ebbing and tiding like an ocean of meaning that would fill my cupped hands, and now flee away.
 
 Then it simmered down to a faint  hum, and wouldn't sing to me any more.

via Pinterest

via Pinterest

   

 I researched ancient Rome.

And the legions.

I found shiny pictures.

 But not much inspiration.

via Pinterest

 This was starting to get serious. My lack of fire in the direction of my story was worrying me. Had I overworked the plot? Were there not enough holes for my imagination to play with? Were there too many?

  I cut off into a new direction... pitting hero against a dragon, on a burnt and blasted wasteland.

That was a lot of fun to write, and so I allowed my imagination out to play. I switched between "real stuff" and "playing stuff", and kept on track with the word count goals.

Then it was the thirtieth. And I needed 2000 words by midnight to officially make it.

 I didn't feel good. My brain felt fogged. I was sick.
 

White Tiger

But there it was: the fact!

Feature Pics

  So I tackled what may be the toughest scene in the book. The one where the hero finally understands he has to make the right choice, even if it takes everything from him.

  I typed madly at the keyboard on that afternoon, determined to make it those last couple of thousand.
   I was kind of like this:

Typing madly

 But he fought me. Why would he give everything up? He's had it good, he's done it his way. What would make him change his whole mindset, his whole life? When he has nothing to gain, and everything to loose? Hasn't he already lost enough? Shouldn't he hold tight to the things he has left to him?
    Grrr!!

On the road to Damascus

 So I had him turn aside to a small spring, and there he met a young man. They talked. He pondered. Time slipped away....

 I crossed the 50k line.

Think Stock

 My MC still hadn't decided to commit. All the way in. 

Kingfisher Dive

   But... I was done.
   I didn't feel done though.
        I felt... behind. Like I should have written 60k, or finished 5 days early, or... something.

 Or found a way to resolve this pivotal scene.

But I couldn't find a way. I thought I was getting close, read it to my sister, and she said "That's not a believable change."
     So I quit writing and watched a movie with Dad and was like this:

Watching TV

 

 The next day was December first. 

  I walked around kind of jittery, trying to remind myself that there was no required word count today. That I was free. But I didn't really believe it. Not totally. It hadn't sunk in.
 So I was kind of like this:
 

 Then it was the 2nd.


     It was real.



   I checked my NaNo profile.

 

 I had written 50k.

  And then I was like:

Exultation

 And this:

Triumphant joy.

 Sure there was a lot left to write. And my hero's turning point would come. Later...

 But right now: there was a whole lot less left to be written.

    

 So that was my November.

 How was yours?

How I Do NaNoWriMo

  The whole idea of National Novel Writing Month is to write recklessly and with abandon, churning out a whitewater rapids of words; so that when you reach the end of November you have A) more words in one piece than you've had before, and B) something to start rewrites on with the goal of eventually honing a novel out of the midst of it.
 
  This can be a good thing if you are a "slush" writer, one who writes junk and then sifts it for the good things. But if you're a more "only good things, though slowly" kind of writer, getting that kind of volume actually messes up your creative potential.
 I've run across many people who say that writing total drivel en masse in the hopes of cleaning up later and finding something good... doesn't work for them.

   This is a good point.

  I, too, found that sheer quantity isn't useful... (or hard, for me; quality is what makes me sweat! ) so I limit myself to only writing keeping-worthy words.
    Yes, I know how that sounds!
       But here's how it works: I do not have a daily goal, just a monthly one.
  I try to focus on coming up with some really good chunks of time to write great ideas before they dissipate, and go for 2,000-5/6000 per inspiration. For November I put writing first, and squirrel away from other "entertainments".

     By the end of the month my creativity is flagging, but I push for a few more sprints on scenes I already know need written, and I have always finished over goal. Usually, I don't stop just 'cause I've reached 50k, but kind of coast on til the end; and then give myself a writing free month of December!

     (I don't take it, but it's a nice feeling for a few days to just be like "No Writing! No writing anywhere!!")

 
    What do you think? Does wildly NaNoing sound like it'd work for you?

Why I Do NaNoWriMo

 I am a pretty consistent writer.
    Not consistent in "I write every day" (I don't) but consistent in "I write every year, every season, whenever something big isn't immovably in my way I'm either writing, thinking about writing, or talking about it."

  So it's no surpirse that I've racked up A LOT of wordcount all told, and several book length ms.
  I've released two YA low fantasy novels, and I've got too many WIPs to shake a stick at. (All of which I am working on!)

 So why do I do NaNoWriMo?

 Because it's fun...
   Because it's energizing in a big, big way.
    And because the WriMos are too much fun to miss out on!

  The general, contagious excitement and creativity that is unleashed onto the internet is super infectious, and I find the adrenaline pumped air a heady boost to my usual creative output.
   The fun, the enthusiasm, the wild and wonderful plot doctoring... I love the NaNo site in November, when it comes alive like the toys after midnight. There are clowns walking on the ceiling and wooden soldiers dancing on the desk lamps. It's a crazy, beautiful festival of words, and the ideas and solutions I have found among the WriMos are beyond anything I've found anywhere else.
   These strange folk are extremely helpful and upbeat... and, we must admit, just a little weird; but that makes their eyes fresher, their brains quicker, their plot-hole fixing powers just that much more enhanced.

 I so enjoy their witty comebacks to any problem, their realistic assessments of book related facts, their inexorable power of creativity on any subject matter, however fantastical it may be.

 I love the exuberance of the electrons wafting off their activities all month long.

   That's why I do NaNoWriMo.
      And I'll actually start writing any day now.... any day...
 

Guest: Two Authors & Their Novels

 Today is the first of November, so that means that WriMos everywhere need to be focusing on their novels and getting that 50k down. This includes me, and you can bet I'll be doing just that this month! 

 I've got some NaNo posts coming up starting Tues, but right now I've got a release announcement from two authors who are releasing their novels today!

 First up...

Adventures and Adversities by Sarah Holman 

 

 One day Alditha is content living with her family, the next she is taking her friends place to serve at the king’s castle.  Her father's final instructions, to keep smiling and to do what is right, will be harder to live out then she ever imagined. She will face a royal nephew who delights in making people miserable, an angry servant girl that will stop at nothing to get what she wants, and noblemen who plot murder. Will she be able to keep the promise she made to her father? Will she find the faith she longs for during all her Adventures and Adversities.

 And also... 

Captive of Raven Castle by Jessica Greyson

  

 The troubled people of war-torn Chambria are on the brink of starvation, and a delicate princess with a recurring nightmare is their only hope. Alexandra knows that her value to her country consists mainly in her ability to marry well, but when she is kidnapped by the rebels and taken to meet the man claiming to be both Chambria's true king and her real father, her entire world falls apart. Will Princess Alexandra be able to untangle the web of lies and discern who is the true king and her father?


   So there you have it! Two new books released out into the world at large. Must be scary for them, huh? 
      

    Have you read anything by either of these authors?

Q&A: How Long To Write Your Books?

Here's another question I get asked sometimes, and since I received this recently, here's the answer.

 Q: How long does it take you to do one of your books?

  A: Well, I wrote the first incarnation of Jeweler's Apprentice February of 2007. I finished final edits and published it December, 2011. So that process took a little over 4 years. IT was tough, I thrashed out a lot of problems in my way of working, and basically finally got an understanding of "how to write a WHOLE book". 

   I started work on snippets that would be Traitor's Knife sometime during the final stages of JA, but didn't really start seriously on it until spring 2012. March, I think. Summer is always really busy, so I didn't get much done on it until fall again, when I set myself to diligently writing. I wrote the first draft that winter, (NaNo helped finish most of the big stuff!) then it went into edits immediately. Beta readers wrapped up on it that spring, and I released TK in July, '13. So that would be about a year for that one.

  That was a very hard thing to do, but I felt like there were people waiting on me for the next book, so I really felt pressure on making sure it got out as soon as possible.

At this point, I'm letting my brain rest a bit, and haven't made any solid plans for when the next in the series will be out... just letting the ol' creative muscle off the hook for a while.

Does that give an idea of an answer? 

  I definitely think that the first book or so is the hardest, since you don't know "how to write a WHOLE book!!!"... and that the more you do that, the better you'll get.

 (I may even go so far as to recommend first-timers write 2-3 books before they take a swing at publishing. If you build buzz for the first book, it's easier to have 2nd & 3rd ready to release in sequence, instead of having the pressure to write it from scratch. That, and it's easier to promote when you're thinking of several books you have to sell, instead of putting all the effort out there for 1 single book available.)

  Also, once you've written that many books, it gives you a lot more confidence to be able to make decisions on how many books you are able to release on what kind of a schedule.

  And you'll learn tons on those first few books, and you can go back and tweak the first one with what you learned on the second.

   Each book is hard in it's own way, so I understand authors who say "It never gets easier." 

  But I think that's a bit of a simplification. It does get easier. It just never gets "easy".