Please Write Me this November

I just received an email with the title of this post as the subject line.  The email was from "Your Novel  at nanowrimo_loves_you@nanowrimo.org".  Yep,  it's that time of year again!  November is National Novel Writing Month and Nanowrimo is back to challenge us to write our novel with their excellent support and encouragement.  Here's the rest of the letter:

Dear Burgeoning Novelist,

I'm writing to tell you I need you. That's right, I've been swirling around in the breathtaking labyrinths of your unconscious mind for a while now, and I'm itching to leap into the world. The only way I can come out, though, is if you commit to writing me in November.

So, if you haven't already, please sign in for 2013 NaNoWriMo and create me. For inspiration, just read Abby's story in our 2012 Annual Report. Abby's novel was such a powerful force that she faced down naysayers, found a way to write while juggling a busy life, and then crossed the finish line on the shoulders of NaNo's amazing community.

I know we'll write a gobsmacking, mind-bending story as well, so please commit to writing me in the following ways.

  Start prepping with a NaNo notebook—just released! We have so much to decide. Who is our protagonist? What sorts of wicked plans are our tales' rapscallions hatching? Sure, I've been swimming among the stories in your unconscious depths, but we have to start working to get 'em all out onto the page.

So let's get in the noveling mood. Check out these NaNo Prep resources to get primed:

• 10 Reasons You Should Do NaNoWriMo
• Inside the Mind of a Planner
• Pantser? Planner? Percolator?

Above all, please just write me. November is a grand celebration of everyone's amazing creative powers, so let's plunge into NaNo's rollicking mayhem and give light to a riveting story.

With rip-roaring wishes,

Your 2013 NaNo Novel

Word count: Ready to go...

As you can already guess, I'm in.   What I'm wondering is who's willing to join me?  Anyone up for a month-long bout of noveling insanity?  While I can't say that I've ever managed to write a gobsmacking, mind-bending (at least in the positive sense) story, I can say from experience that it's a wild ride.

50,028 Words and the Night of Writing Dangerously

Back in early September, I made all sorts of grandiose plans for November.  Here in November, I've been scrambling to keep up.

One of those plans I made involved Nanowrimo.  As you may know, November is National Novel Writing Month, and the folks over at Nanowrimo challenge each and every one of you to write a novel over the 30 days of November.   

I find myself looking forward to Nanowrimo eleven months out of the year.  Nanowrimo.org is hands-down the best support network for aspiring writers I have ever found.  For thirty days, they provide every encouragement to simply write.  Pen to paper, fingers to keyboard, internal editor silenced – with duct tape if necessary – letting the words flow.

This is my fourth year participating.  While the goal for Nanorwrimo is 50,000 words in 30 days, this year I decided to up my personal ante.  My goal was and is to actually FINISH my story this time around.  I will not feel I have won if my characters don’t make it to their own finish line, whatever form that might take.  And so I decided to take drastic measures. 

The collage for my fundraising page

That's where the Night of Writing Dangerously comes into my story.  The wonderful folks who sponsor Nanowrimo host a gala fundraiser event in San Francisco every year during November.  That's what I want to do, I thought to myself.  If I could reach 50,000 words before I left that ballroom, not only would I get to ring the winners’ bell to the acclaim of my peers, but I'd also give my characters twelve additional days to make their way through whatever my story has thrown at them before we’re all dumped into the cold, cruel, Nanowrimo-less world of December. 

So I put together my fundraising page and contacted some of my nearest and dearest and raised enough to attend and to drag my amazing husband along with me.  And I bought our plane tickets. 

Uh, oh!  Problems ahead

Fast forward to November 10.  It's just over one week until the Night of Writing Dangerously, and I'd managed to write exactly 8,709 words.  That meant I was 7,907 words behind the recommended pace to finish by November 30th, forget about November 18th.  Ouch!  I wasn't sure I could catch up by then, let alone by by November 18th.  I nearly threw in the towel. 

But my mom, mother-in-law, sister, aunt and best friends had all pledged.  I didn't want to go back to them and say, well I tried, but I gave up.  Even if they'd understand.  I wanted to at least put in a good showing.  More, I wanted to have something awesome to share.  So I decided to give it my all.

So I wrote, and I wrote, cramming writing into every little bit of time I could squeeze from my schedule.  By the time I arrived in San Fransisco around midnight Friday night/Saturday morning, my word count stood at 25,659.  I had written just shy of 4,000 words that day; one of my best ever single-day counts in four years of participation.  I was still behind, but I figured I could at least catch up with the recommended daily word count before the end of the weekend.  And I hadn't given up!

what I saw of San Francisco

Then something miraculous began to happen.  In between short jaunts out to see snippets of the city, I continued writing and my story came alive!  By Saturday evening, I'd increased my word count to 34,096.  I wrote another 2,000 words before joining other Nanowrimos for breakfast at a local diner on Sunday.  By the time we had to dress for the event, my word count stood at 42,015.

 But I still had nearly 8,000 words to go, and only five hours during which to write if I wanted to "win" that night. 

The way the night works is from 4-5pm there's cocktail hour, with an open bar.  Joe and I showed up late, because more than one drink and my literary hopes would have certainly been dashed for the night.  At 5pm, doors to the ballroom itself opened and everyone scurried in to find their seats.

The Julia Morgan ballroom turned writers' haven

It was the funniest thing to see, everyone in their Noir themed gala finery, sitting down and whipping out their laptops.  Everyone else at our table were from the local area and knew eachother, and none of them were trying to go for the bell.  But they were very encouraging when they found out I was, and how far I still had to go.  I'd barely sat down before the bell rang for the first time and everyone burst into applause. It was Chris, one of the writers I'd met at breakfast that morning.  He'd been at 47,000+ words at that time. 

There were speeches and word sprints (where you try to write as fast as you can for a specific period of time) and raffle drawings and all sorts of other fun and interesting things and I can't tell you about any of them; I was trying to focus so hard on writing.  I did help myself to the candy bar, and spent the evening hopped up on cinnamon jelly beans, which seemed to work even better than chocolate to my amazement.  At some point, Joe went out to the buffet and brought back dinner for me.  Later in the evening he delivered a German chocolate cupcake, and at 10pm, a freshly baked chocolate chip cookie and milk.  And still I wrote (do you see a theme here?)

At 10:32pm, less than half an hour left before the evening ended, I checked my word count once again. There were the numbers I'd been hoping for: 50,028.  For a moment I simply stared at the screen.  Then I started to vibrate.  Then Joe asked me what was wrong.  I couldn't speak, so I pointed, not quite believing what it said.  He looked at my screen, grabbed my hand and literally dragged me to the front of the room.  There, a very kind woman put together my crown. Where else do fully grown adults wander around proudly wearing paper crowns?  Then I got to ring the bell.  It was large, and my hands were so numb from all the typing I had to hold it with both hands.  And the room applauded. 

Some of my writing from last night is truthfully quite awful, I am sure.  I haven't even opened my document to look at it since Sunday.  Tomorrow morning, I think, is soon enough.  To reach my word count, I'd turned the automatic spell check off, so I wouldn't be distracted by the red corrections.  I expect my entire screen to bleed red when I turn spell check back on. 

But the amazing thing is, I truly like my story!  It's ungainly, and awkward and needs a huge amount of revision, but I'm more than two thirds of the way through the plot and it's fun!  I have never made it so far into the plot in any of my other previous novels.  And now I have another twelve days (ten now as I took the past two days off) to finish the first, horribly rough draft of Jane's, my 13 year old protagonist's, story. 

I'm still stunned that I actually did it!  On Sunday I wrote 15,932 words.  To give you something to compare it to that's roughly equivalent to about 59 pages in a trade paperback.  Even today I'm still stunned and walking on air every time I think about it.  I did something I truly thought couldn't be done.  I thought I'd lost my opportunity when my word count slipped so low last week.





If you're curious about my story, you can check out the plot synopsis I wrote on November 1st on my Nanowrimo page.  The story has definitely morphed since then, but that's where it started.

November is National Novel Writing Month

It's Nanowrimo time - National Novel Writing Month.  If you've ever thought about trying your hand at writing a novel, November's the time to do it.

The folks over at the Office of Letters and Light make it just about as easy as it's ever going to be.  You still need to put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard), but they provide the tools, pep talks and encouragement that makes all the difference.

I think of it as my annual cross-training exercise.  For the next month I'll spend my free-time delving into an entirely different artistic medium.  World building.  Story telling.  Learning and possibly even honing my craft of writing. 

The challenge is to reach 50,000 words before the clock ticks over to December 1st.  That translates to 1,667 words per day for 30 days.  Since this is my fourth year participating, I decided to up my personal ante.  My goal is to not only reach 50,000 words, but to complete the first, totally rough draft of my story.  Start to finish.  I've never actually completed a story, so that would be something entirely new for me.

Of course, I'm not off to the best of starts - too bad none of the characters in my upcoming novel have hacking coughs; I've got great source material. :)



Anyone up for joining me?

Saturday again, funny how that works...

It's Saturday again, and I'm sitting here trying to think of what exactly I've accomplished this week.  Despite running full tilt most of the week, I cannot honestly recall a single thing I've actually accomplished.  Which makes it really hard to write a blog post. 

Now I remember, it's been a maintenance sort of week, including rehanging the door to a refrigerator so it would seal correctly, adjusting a storm door's pistons, raking more leaves than one yard should truly have and replacing all of a toilet's inner parts (the toilet was clean; it just wouldn't stop running) amongst other things.  The last is something that I'm pretty sure you're never supposed to mention on a blog; toilets being about as non-sexy a subject as I think you can get.  But I have to say that I was as proud of that toilet when it actually flushed without leaking as any bead work I've completed in the past several years.

 I had my fair share of mishaps - including a column of water hitting the ceiling at one point.  Who knew toilets had so much water pressure?  The instructions told me to take off a valve cap, hold a cup over the top to prevent splashing and turn the water on to clear the pipe of debris.  I read it as 'set' a cup over the top, especially since I had to reach down and around to turn the shut-off valve.  As soon as I turned on the water said plastic cup shot to the ceiling.  Oops! 

Turn the water back off, fast while trying not to panic and trying to stem the column of water with my other hand.  Fast forward a little - the bathroom's mopped, I'm still soaked as are my instructions, but I've made it all the way to the last step.  I put the valve cap back in place and prepared to turn the water on, cringing.  Waters on.  Nothing happened.  Huh.  Good on the one hand; no new fountains or leaks is generally a good thing.  But bad because at this point, the tank was supposed to start filling.  Nope, no water.  Turn the water off, take the cap off, put it back on, turn the water on; still nothing.

Breaking down, I called the 1-800 number on the repair kit I purchased.  I ended up speaking to an amazingly personable tech who 1) was impressed that I'd read the instructions, 2) never talked down to me like I was an imbecile for not being able to figure it out myself, 3) provided the solution and 4) was willing to stay on the line until we'd flushed the toilet several times, insuring it actually worked. Kudos to Fluidmaster - you have great employees!  And I'm pleased to report that a day later, it still works! 

In other news, I finished out Nanowrimo at 56,077 words, but my poor characters are still languishing in the final two thirds of the book.  More early morning writing sessions for me.  Just got back from the TGIO (thank goodness its over) party down at the Seattle Center happy to know I'm not the only one still writing.  Though I've only written 1,000 words since November 30. 

And for those of you who have made it this far, I promise that my next blog post will actually be about beads, beaders and other bead related subjects.  Tomorrow is the NW Seedbeaders meeting and I've been tagged as responsible for photographing the challenge pieces and project ideas for next year.  So I'll have lots of fun stuff to share very shortly. 

And I still have several personal UFOs I need to finish before the new year as well.   So I promise, no more weirdness for a while (at least I sure hope so!)

45,042 words

Just caught up with my word count this afternoon!

That's my total word count so far this month for my annual attempt to write a novel, a la Nanowrimo (National Novel Writing Month).  The challenge is to write 50,000 words in 30 days. No holds barred, damn the torpedos, just get the story on paper as a first draft that can be edited later sort of writing.  This is my third year and like both previous attempts, I'm coming from behind for my win.

The last several months have been crazy busy; putting together samples and handouts for new classes, working on several beading patterns, dealing with unexpected vacancies at my rentals, and just life in general.  You know how it goes.  There was an entire week early this month that I literally could not find the time to write despite my intentions to write a little every day.  At my worst, the Nano stats helpfully informed me that "at this rate" I'd be finished by December 20th!  Ouch! 

Today's stats

But life has started to calm down, and as of last week I've managed to carve time in the early mornings and late evenings to write. And since we stayed home for Thanksgiving, I've dedicated this weekend almost entirely to my novel (No Black Friday shopping for me - I'm writing!) 

Are there other uses I could make of my time?  Most certainly - I've been putting in 60+ hour work weeks for over a month now, trying to catch up. My to-do list is still about a half-mile long.  Which is exactly why I'm set on carving out this time for myself.  One month.  Early mornings.  Evenings.  Weekends. Mine.


While I "won" in both 2009 and 2010, I have never actually finished a novel.  In fact this is the first time I've made it past the half way point in my plot.  So beyond the 50,000 goal set by Nanowrimo, I have my personal goal of finishing my entire story.  Will I finish it by November 30th?  Considering how much of the story is still left to tell, the jury is definitely out.

But I'll be writing fast and furiously again tomorrow, and for the next few days.  The word count graph turns off at midnight on Wednesday.  Just how far can I get between now and then?  And if I still haven't finished my story, I'll let myself keep writing through next Sunday, because I will finish the story, as trite and ungainly and misshapen as it might be.  There's something powerful about finishing a project, especially one on this scale. 

To add a little pressure, I was crazy enough to sign myself up for a pitch workshop on December 7th sponsored by Createspace.  And now I've told you to make it harder to back out.  I'm supposed to pitch my novel to two separate editors as "part of a round table format" for new authors.  Why?  Because I want the experience.  My fiction writing may never be publishable, but I want to know just how far I can go.  And it's never a bad idea to practise presenting my ideas. 

Today I wrote 6,243 words.  I think that might be a personal record.  My brain is pooped, so I thought I'd write a blog post.  Go figure!

So my question to to you is this: what crazy artistic endeavors have you always wanted to try?  And what would you need to have happen to let yourself go for it?

Synchronicity and Cross Training

For me, November is National Novel Writing Month and Nanowrimo with its challenge to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days.  I'm an avid reader, always have been.  Give me a choice between watching tv and reading a book, I'll take reading any day.  And of course, I've always thought it would be great fun to write my own story.  So for the past two years, I've put aside both books and tv during the month of November to try and do just that. 

Frankly, I'm a horrid fiction writer.  I get bogged down very quickly in the story, and have yet to make it past the half way point in either of my novels despite reaching the 50,000 word goal by November 30th.  But here it is October and I'm gearing up for my third attempt.  Why you ask?  Good question, I've been asking myself that too.

Easiest answer - the only way I have any chance of writing a decent story is to put words to paper and Nano gives me a wonderful, built-in excuse to do so.  Also, it's fun - more than I would have expected.  Instead of living in someone else's world, with someone else's characters and choices, I get to make my own.  Anything can happen when I put pen to paper.  (Unfortunately not enough does or I wouldn't end up stuck mid-story).  And there's an amazing comraderie to the event - meeting at coffee shops for write-ins and sharing plot snippets and problems interspersed with furious bouts of typing.

Since I'd like to give myself the best possible chance of actually finishing my story this year, I signed up for a plot writing workshop by Renda Dodge, author and managing editor of Pink Fish Press.  So yesterday a friend and I made the trek up I-5 through the early morning fog to catch the Mukilteo ferry over to Whidbey Island for her last workshop before November.  Walking into the room at the Coupeville library, the excitement was palpable.  Her workshop offered such a feast of information that I felt like a glutton trying to drink it all in. 

Fantastic Workbook!

Now my head is swimming with ideas and plots and plans.  Lucky for me, Renda has published The Indie Writer's Workshop.  If you've ever considered writing your own novel, you want this book in your library.  Renda has created a fun, comprehensive, easy-to-read and to use wookbook that is going to be my new best friend over the next month and a half.

At this point, I doubt I will ever show my fiction to another living soul.  But oddly enough, I've found it's a rather effective form of cross-training.  Committing to and following through on my first Nanowrimo challenge is what gave me the courage and confidence to tackle my non-fiction book project.  It's also how I first discovered CreateSpace (they're one of Nanowrimo's sponsors) and the new world of self-publishing. 

Next month, I'll once again be going completely outside of my personal creative box for some artistic cross-training of the literary variety.  And I invite any of you who are at all interested in trying your hand at writing a novel to join me! 

The Economics of Self-Publishing

Since last week's post, I've received several emails asking about what it actually cost to self-publish my book Freeform Peyote Beading.

I think everyone remembers the 'old days' when self-publishing meant shelling out bookoo bucks and ending up with a thousand or so copies of your book, which then lived in stacks in your garage or basement and substituted as end tables in your living room while you tried to sell copies to everyone you knew.

With today's print-on-demand publishing, it's a whole new ballgame; books can now be printed economically in print runs as small as a single copy.  Many of the online print-on-demand publishers, including Winkflash, Apple and even Lulu focus primarily on the momento and memory market, printing on glossy stock for around $16-25 per book.  This is perfect if you want a coffee table book of your recent backpacking tour through Europe.  Not so great if you're hoping to reach a larger market. 

That's where publishers such as Createspace come in.  Their up-front costs are minimal to nonexistent because they're banking on recouping their costs through royalties and wholesale purchases by the author.  Setting up an account and starting a book project is free.  

Upfront Costs, using myself as a case study:
As mentioned in my earlier post, I paid Createspace $199 for a package deal special on a supported interior and cover because I wanted the extra hand-holdings.  What I received:

• Free phone and text support through the publishing process.  
• They reviewed both of my pdfs for errors that would affect the printing
• Free physical proof of my book (including free shipping). 
• Free upgrade to the Pro Plan (normally a $39 cost) which increased my royalties from Amazon sales significantly and lowered the wholesale price when I purchase books directly.

I used the phone support several times through the publishing process.  When I had a question, I'd send them an online text requesting a call and specifying a time (I usually opted for 5 minutes later).  A tech support person always called me back right on time and if they didn't know the answer to my question, they would find it.  The same with their email support. 

I wasn't as impressed with their review of my book.  It was not a proof-reading, but rather checking things like whether the page numbering was consistent, and that all my images displayed correctly and had sufficient resolution for printing, and that everything fit properly on the pages.  It added several weeks to the publishing process and they didn't find any errors or make any suggested corrections, likely because I'd spent so much time with tech support clarifying their printing specifications and requirements during production.

Receiving the physical proof was incredible!  Simply holding it in my hands and seeing a book rather than a sheaf of papers was amazing - I don't think it was truly real before that.  And the proof let me know exactly what a potential purchaser would see.  This prompted me to make a few changes, requiring a second physical proof (which they also sent me for free due to the package I'd purchased). 

Other out-of-pocket expenses included:

• New camera: $350 to replace the one I knocked off of a table while setting up a photo shoot. 
• Printer inks and paper.  I printed reams of proof pages as I worked, and figure I spent between $50-100 on printer inks and paper (mostly ink).
• Thumb drive to back up my files at the end of each work session. I also backed up to CD once to twice per month during the project. 
• I already had all of the computer software I needed, so they're not included in my cost figures, but they could definitely add a chunk of change if you needed to purchase them for your project. 

Time was the primary 'expense'.In my experience, your primary "expense" with self-publishing will be your time.   After I'd stitched and photographed all of my designs, written the text, and created the illustrations I found that it took me a minimum of 4-6 hours, often considerably more, to finalize the layout for each two-page spread. 

Getting everything to fit on the page in an aesthetically pleasing manner is rather like working an especially challenging puzzle.  Nothing ever seems to want to fit properly on the first go-round.  Or the second for that matter.  Text too long or too short, too many, too few or not quite the right images, or the images were too large or too small.  All told, I put over 500 hours on photo editing, page layout and design as a conservative estimate. Adding in the time to create and stitch all of my designs, write the text, create the illustrations and photograph my work, and all of the other associated aspects of this project the total time commitment for this project soars considerably north of 1000 hours. 

I seriously considered abandoning the project at least once a month over the course of the nine months I actively worked on the project, especially as my initial enthusiasm waned and I began to wonder if I could possibly recoup my labor costs.  One distinct disadvantage of self-publishing is no royalty advance.  Of the $24.95 list price for Freeform Peyote, I receive $8.10 from each Amazon sale.  Doing the math, this means I'll need to sell over 1000 copies to make somewhere near minimum wage. (I hate doing the math!)  I finally decided that completing the project, simply to prove to myself that I could, was more important than worrying about whether it was 'worth my time'. 

Will I do it again?  Definitely.

Projected Budget for my next project:

• Pdf submission:              Free
• Physical proof copy:    ~$10-15 with shipping
• Upgrade to the Pro Plan $39
• Office supplies:              $100
• So my total publishing expenses should be under $200 unless I decide to upgrade my software
• Time - 600 to 900 hours