"Write now is good."

Made it!

At around 2AM this morning, I looked at my NaNoWriMo word count. I had passed the 50,000-word mark.

I have now won it for the third time. The third book in my trilogy of novels is now a solid first draft. The story is not over, however; I will probably add another 20,000 words to it to wrap up the dangling plot lines and to tell the story completely. I'll start this in January 2008.

This year, a slew of writing buddies accompanied me during our NaNoWriMo trek. I've met all of them through blogging, and not a one in person. I don't even know what some of them look like, but I know their words, loud and clear. We cheered each other on during November, and I'd like to recognize them — those who won by making it to 50K and those who didn't but still wrote an amazing amount towards their current works-in-progress. In alphabetical order by username:

- alex wolfe
- Beccabee
- bleeding espresso
- Cathryn Hrudicka (NOTE: This is her 7th NaNoWriMo win!)
- Rebecca.
- rel

Congratulations to all of us!

National Novel Writing Month: Here's YOUR chance to write that novel

Attention, all speed-noveling wannabees: sign-ups for National Novel Writing Month (affectionately nicknamed NaNoWriMo) are in full swing.

I signed up yesterday, as I'm going for "win" #3 — I want to finish my trilogy of novels. I know of a few others in Blogville who are considering writing 50,000 words during November, too. If you go for NaNoWriMo, drop a comment and we'll form a huge community of writing buddies, all supporting each other and tracking each other's progress during the month of wacky wordiness.

My top 5 reasons why writers should do NaNoWriMo are:

1. It's fun.
2. It's challenging.
3. If you want to write a novel, here's your chance to bang out that first draft (an all-important first step to writing a finished novel). Community and structure will help push you forward to completing your goal.
4. Writing 50,000 words in 30 days will give you enormous momentum and energy in your writing life (and often in other parts of your life, too). It feels good and powerful!
5. Why not? Give it a go. See what you get.

I've written extensively on my blog about NaNoWriMo. These choice posts are packed full of pointers, advice and insights into the process and about how to win big in 2007.

Related posts:

° How to "win" NaNoWriMo in 5 (no, 6) easy steps
° Outlines are not scary.
° Finding "the zone": Wisdom from a 6-time NaNoWriMo winner
° Sign up TODAY for National Novel Writing Month

Hope to see you there!

Reminder: Last day of "Organizing the Writing Life" tomorrow

Guest blogger and organization guru Sharon Sarmiento will present her last post on "Organizing the Writing Life" here at "Write now is good." tomorrow. In it, she'll discuss how to find and work with a "virtual assistant," and also provide some parting words of wisdom to creative types longing to get more organized.

If you've had any lingering questions or comments, tomorrow will be a great time to share them.

We look forward to seeing you then!

Reminder: Tasks that writers can delegate, here tomorrow

Tomorrow is Day 5 of the "Organizing the Writing Life" series on "Write now is good."

Organization guru Sharon Sarmiento will post about tasks that writers can delegate to save time, give them more energy to write, and maximize their output and efficiency.

See you then!

Reminder: "Organizing the Writing Life" starts tomorrow

Want to learn some revolutionary approaches to organizing parts of your writing process?

Stop back by "Write now is good." on Tuesday, April 3rd to see the first part of our mystery guest blogger's series "Organizing the Writing Life."

Look forward to seeing you tomorrow!

This blog is for you.

Last week, I mentioned a blog-friend's mission statement for her writing — a contract between herself and her readers. She's promoting her debut novel as I type this, and I think one of the secrets of her success is that she so clearly writes for others. In her blog posts, her poetry and her new novel, Patry has her audience's reading pleasure in mind. It shows.

Inspired, I've started a contract of my own, a mission statement for my blog. I'll revise this as needed. Writing contracts for my freelance work and novels-in-progress would parallel many of these points, as my writing values are similar for all my projects. Since not all of my freelance work and none of my novels are available online at this point, I'll keep those mission statements for another time.

The "Write now is good." mission statement, February 2007

1. Since I'm not just writing for myself here, that means this blog is mainly for you — the readers.

2. I will post regularly, at least five times per week.

3. I will be bold in my writing and my ideas. I'll take risks in my own writing.

4. I will pay continued attention to clear expression and correct grammar and spelling.

5. I will continue to reach out through the Web to highlight noteworthy writing, artistic and creative communities, ideas and projects.

6. I'll write with attention to facts and the truth. I'll cite sources and/or provide links to where I find information and give credit where credit's due.

7. I'll share what I know to help others expand their knowledge and scope about writing and the creative life.

8. It's a complex, creative, vibrant world out there, though there is also much struggle and strife — I aim to inspire a fresh look at all of it.

9. I'll contribute to other blogs and sites that I feel are up to similar positive goals.

10. Comment here? I'll comment back, and I'll even visit your blog, because some of the best parts of blogging are the conversations and connections.

Feel free to fill out a "comment card" and drop it in the suggestion box below.

A new novel-writing approach: Not writing the novel

So I have finished writing this second novel. How was the past month of speed-noveling for me? Unlike any other I'd experienced before.

- I spent more time thinking about the novel than I did writing it.
- That carefully written outline and crucial notes? I've misplaced them and still haven't found them.
- Every time I carefully plotted scenes, my characters rebelled and showed me different ways. I wound up not needing my missing outline and notes anyway.
- I painfully pulled scene after scene out of my imagination.
- My writing music didn't energize me at all.
- It is closer to 60k words than the 80k I'd originally planned.

A failure? No. The story is done. It is complete, for now. I have no idea where it is supposed to go. My characters stopped speaking to me in the last chapter, and my closing scene is so centered around my main characters — they have become so strong — that I felt I wasn't even writing it. After my characters had their last words with each other, they closed their book on me.

I've been looking forward to writing this post the entire month, primarily for catharsis. What a journey. So uncomfortable. No smooth, effortless flow here. Much pondering, though not very focused. A lot of questioning myself — not my writing abilities or what I was doing, but why this process had so many bumps and gaps and "silent spaces": periods of time when I had no clue, no inspiration on what to write next.

This I learned:

- The silent spaces are an integral part of the writing process. Mysterious as they are, they are here to stay, though will vary in length and when exactly they'll surprise me again.
- My muse must have left for a holiday before New Year's, but she called in a replacement. Who did my lavender My Little Pony with a butterfly tattoo get to fill in for her? Some sort of old-school athletics coach, whose only encouragement was this sparse mantra: "You gotta be in it to win it."
- When writing is going well, it's an escape, a vacation, a passion, a calling. When writing drags its bare feet along an endless graveled road, it's a test of endurance and ingenuity to get quickly to the end.

This weekend, I'll go through my "first draft ritual": I'll choose a new three-ring binder, big enough to hold up to 500 pages, and pick a packet of printing paper with the holes ALREADY punched in it. I'll take my supplies home and set my document to print. Then I'll leave the printer, periodically checking in to make sure paper isn't running out and the draft hasn't spilled all over the floor. When completed, I'll put the pages in the binder, take a few minutes to look at it, and then set it aside.

I know I'll feel satisfied when I see this volume sitting next to its sister prequel, but I feel it will be a few months before I come back to the second book of this trilogy. I need a break from it. I haven't tapped into its complete story yet, though I know it is here within me — percolating, brewing — somewhere.

My story needs a silent space now, and so do I. I'll refill my emptied well and reflect on the words of my old-school athletics-coach muse: forget about winning it — sometimes it's just good enough to be in it.

The home stretch

I will finish writing the first draft of my second novel sometime tonight.

Full report tomorrow!

Finishing the novel, and props to the B-52's

My National Novel Finishing Month in December never took even one step forward. This last month of 2006 was stacked against me completing my second novel:
- holiday shopping, cards, visiting
- a cold/flu-like virus which lingered for weeks and sapped strength and sleep
- freelance work

I finally gave up swimming against the tide around December 28th and accepted I was not going to write 30,000 words before I rang in the New Year.

Now that I'm on December's other side, I feel much more energy and openness. So I declare January '07 as my "own private NaNoFiMo" (apologies to the B-52's).

So, in celebration of my just-declared goal, here's a clip of the B-52's performing "Own Private Idaho." The YouTube uploader said this is a rare video. I just viewed it, and it is vintage and from very early in their careers. Inspiring! I'm reminded how much the world needs wacky musical genius, ripping guitar riffs, big wigs, and shimmy dresses.

Is there anybody else out there who is up for finishing a project — any project — by January 31st? If so, leave a comment.

Create your own mission statement

The new year is almost upon us. This time I'm doing something different instead of resolutions: I'm creating a personal mission statement.

At the FranklinCovey website, there is a free Mission Builder exercise. Some friends have recently done this, and I was amazed at what they got out of it. It has really energized their lives on some deep levels. From the site:

Our Mission Builder exercise can help to add focus, direction, and a sense of purpose to your daily decisions. The wizard will take you step-by-step through the process of creating a unique, personalized Mission Statement to guide your life.

I'm a big believer in writing down goals in order to commit to them and incorporate them into my life. I can't wait to see what I can get onto paper for 2007 and beyond. I'll post an update after I complete this.