National Novel Writing Month - The Writer's Ally™

5 Lessons I Learned from NaNoWriMo 2011

November is over and so is the National Novel Writing Month challenge. I’m so excited to be a winner with 50,180 words validated around noon on November 30. Not quite the last minute, but I sure cut it close!

I feel extremely positive about my NaNoWriMo experience, partly because I accomplished a very difficult thing that I wasn’t sure I could do, but also because I learned valuable lessons throughout the thirty-day “seat-of-your-pants literary adventure” as Executive Director Chris Baty calls it. Below are five of the most important lessons I learned this year.

A Change of Space Changes Everything

I noticed that when I tried to write at my desk, where I also work every day, I had trouble getting started and the thoughts came more slowly. However, when I wrote on my laptop downstairs in the living room, the words came out much more quickly and I did better. Better still was going out to local write-ins, where I churned out paragraph after paragraph. My best results? I went on a weekend silent writing retreat with some friends and wrote nearly 15,000 words in a day and a half!

Time Limits May Work Better than Word Goals

At first, I followed the suggested 1,667 words per day breakdown, and in the beginning, it was easy to fly past the goal and write even more each day. But by the time I hit week two, that word count felt like a lot. I didn’t feel right adding fluff like “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” just to pad my word count, either. But at the write-ins we did “word sprints” where for 15 minutes at a time there was no talking, eating, or getting up from your seat—just writing as fast as you can. I wrote as many as 1,000 words during just one sprint! When I applied similar time limits at home (15-20 minutes at a time worked best) I repeated my positive results.

Friendly Competition Will Egg You On

One of the benefits of registering with the NaNoWriMo website is creating connections with Writing Buddies. These are Wrimos with whom you link up and then monitor on your dashboard. Seeing how your progress bar compares to theirs, especially if these are real-life friends, can give you a much-needed boost when you’re falling behind. My friend and colleague Angela Render is a very prolific writer, while I tend to write slowly, so competing to stay on par with her word count or even ahead (I was winning the race for a little while!) helped me stay focused.

Carrots Work…If You Can Actually Grab Them

I used to think that focusing on “important” benefits like improved self-esteem were enough to motivate me to accomplish goals, and promising myself things like a piece of chocolate or a night out with friends were silly rewards that I could certainly give myself any time, and thus lacked power as carrots dangling on a stick ahead of me. Now I know better. The more I set mini goals and rewards that were tangible and instant—like treating myself to a plate of cookies and a favorite movie if I first wrote 4,000 words one Saturday afternoon—the more I saw tangible results. I definitely felt great validating my novel when I hit 50,000 words, but it wasn’t until I printed out my instantly available certificate that I felt an extreme rush of pride and spilled more than a few tears.

Keep Going to Push Past the Suckiness

More than a few times, especially in weeks two and three, I felt horrified by the crap I kept committing to paper. I lost my direction, got confused, and just generally thought my manuscript sucked. But because I had to hit that 50,000 word count, I pushed on. And every time, I sort of wrote through the crap and ended up back on track, writing something really interesting and fresh. If I’d given up just because I didn’t like my draft or felt like I’d lost my hold on the story, I would never have broken through and written the material I know will help shape my later drafts (unlike the crap, which will come out in my first revision, probably).

If you’re also a winning Wrimo, congratulations! If you didn’t make it this year, you still deserve some cake and a good movie for trying. However many words you wrote, that’s more than you had back in October! I hope you’ll keep working on your manuscript and try again next November. I also hope you’ll consider donating to help keep NaNoWriMo going—it’s run by a non-profit called the Office of Letters and Light. Please check out their Donation Station, or buy something in their store to help fund their many excellent programs (including a youth writing program) today.

Founder of The Writer’s Ally, Ally E. Machate is a bestselling book collaborator, award-winning editor, and expert publishing consultant who loves using her insider knowledge and experience with the publishing industry to lead serious authors toward success. She and her team live to help make great books happen, whether that means showing a writer how to improve a manuscript, get an agent, or self-publish; or coaching an author on growing her platform to sell more books. Since 1999, she has supported hundreds of authors on their publishing journey and takes pride in serving as their books’ best ally.

4 Special Treats For NaNoWriMo Participants

By the time you read this, we’ll be entering the second weekend of NaNoWriMo, and hopefully I’ll be on track with my word goal or ahead of the game. Right now I’m ahead. It’s true it’s a little late in the game to join in the fun, but not too late if you already have a draft started (yes, technically that’s cheating) or if you can write really, really fast. Still, I wanted to tell you about a few fun and interesting perks and activities the folks over at the OLL—the non-profit behind NaNoWriMo—have cooked up. As if there weren’t enough benefits of participating in NaNoWriMo, check out these treats.

Free Writing Software Trials (and Discounts!)

One of this year’s corporate sponsors is Scrivener, a piece of software designed for writers. Scrivener has developed a special trial run of its software just for Wrimos, and if you win (i.e. if you reach the goal of 50K words by November 30) you’ll get a code for 50% off to buy the software. I think this is a wonderful idea, so I’ve downloaded my free trial and am working my way through the tutorial. So far, this is looking like an easy to use and incredibly helpful tool for organizing working files, resources, and more while writing a novel. I can even see how it would be useful for article and blog post writing. I’ll report more about this after I play with it a while.

A Crash Course in Cover Design

The forums for NaNoWriMo.org are featuring the 30 Day 30 Covers challenge, in which 30 professional book cover designers (many of whom seem to work on staff or freelance for major publishers) select 30 works-in-progress from Wrimos and create covers for them. There’s a new one featured each day along with the novel’s synopsis. For those of you who are considering self-publishing and may or may not attempt your own cover design, this is a great way to study the connection between a story line and a cover concept. I wish the designers would chime in on their respective threads to talk a little more about how they arrived at their concepts, but maybe they will as time goes on. In the meantime, many other Wrimos haven’t been shy—the discussions on some days have been eye-opening with regard to critiquing the covers, and you can learn from this intelligent feedback.

Creative Challenges for Fun and Bragging Rights

I’ve noticed a variety of “word challenges” going on. Maryland and Texas, for example, have challenged each other to a word duel in which the state with the highest average word count at the close of NaNoWriMo will win. If you follow @NaNoWordSprints on Twitter, you can join in live “word sprints” (brief bursts of uber-productivity) and challenges throughout the day. The organizers also encourage you to challenge your buddies and yourself. All of these challenges use the spirit of competition to make you write harder and faster, and most important of all, to keep going!

Now For My Special Treat…

With all these added goodies for Wrimos, I’ve decided to create one for the Wrimos among my loyal readers. All Wrimos who contract with Ambitious Enterprises for a manuscript consultation or developmental edit for their NaNovel in 2012 will receive a complimentary query letter review. But you have to sign up to get it! I’ll be posting the rules for this special offer only in my newsletter as a gift to my subscribers, so click on the link under Subscribe over there on the top left of the page. The only things you need to know now are:

Subscribe to Your Ambitious Enterprise by using the link under Subscribe (over there on the top left of the page!)
Connect with me on NaNoWriMo.org as my Writing Buddy (I’m listed under FXDaniels).
Look out for my newsletter in your inbox this month. It goes out on November 11 and 25. I’ll post further details there.

Happy NaNo-ing!

Success Story: Eric D. Goodman

Novelist Eric D. Goodman calls his book “a novel in stories.” Tracks is set on a train traveling from Baltimore to Chicago. Each story is told from the perspective of a passenger on the train. They are the strangers we meet every day: a soldier, a salesman, a former mobster, a Holocaust survivor, couples in love, a woman who has lost her parents, a poet, a hit man. The stories in Tracks stand alone, but they become stronger when linked together. Tracks is all about how people—even strangers on a train—can touch one another in meaningful ways.

Eric began writing Tracks five years ago, during NaNoWriMo. He wrote about 60,000 words that year, then went on to add and subtract stories, rewrite and revise, until he had a final draft ready to take to publishers. “The nice thing about NaNoWriMo,” Eric says, “is that you’re forced to write even when you’re not sure you have it all figured out. And for a first draft, that’s good. Tracks is a different, and better, book than that original draft. But the original draft helped make it possible.”

As much as Eric wanted to have a published book, he decided against self-publishing. “I felt like in order to ‘make it,’ I needed the validation of an independent literary agent and publisher,” he explains. Although he believed in his novel, he thought it would be difficult to attract readers without the support of an agent and publisher. “I probably would have been published years ago if I’d gone the self-publishing route. But I’m glad I held out and finally secured a literary agent and book deal,” he says.

Eric had submitted other manuscripts to publishers before, so he knew how difficult it would be to find a publisher. He wrote lots of query letters to agents over the years until he finally found one who fell in love with Tracks. He signed with DSM Agency in New York City, and they began pitching Tracks to publishers. Eventually, Atticus Books made an offer, and a year later, they published Tracks.

Although he hasn’t hit any bestseller lists yet, sales have been good. But even more satisfying has been the reaction from reviewers, other writers, and most importantly, his readers. “I was overwhelmed to get endorsements from such great writers as Madison Smartt Bell, Thomas Steinbeck, Victoria Patterson, Jessica Anya Blau, Bathsheba Monk, and Yona Zeldis McDonough,” Eric relates. “And good reviews in literary journals and from book bloggers are fulfilling. It also feels wonderful every time I get an email or note or comment from someone telling me how much they enjoyed the book, or talking emotionally about a character from Tracks. Touching readers enough to prompt them to reach out…that’s one of the great joys of writing fiction.”

Lessons You Can Learn from Eric’s Success

Understand the importance of starting small. As he published more of his short stories in literary journals, Eric slowly began gaining ground and legitimacy when submitting book-length manuscripts. He believes he may have published a book sooner if he’d focused more on short fiction earlier in his career.

Reading other writers improves your own writing. “Read as much as you can within your own genre. Read the authors you love,” Eric recommends. “And branch out to read some things you might not ordinarily read, just to get the pulse of what is selling and what agents and publishers (and readers) are looking for.”

Don’t put off writing until your idea is perfect. “The first draft is spillage, or brain-dump. That’s the clay you’ll mold into something beautiful later.”

Which brings us back to why movements like NaNoWriMo are so effective! Don’t worry about being perfect as you push on towards your goal of writing 50,000 words. Just keep writing to get your words and thoughts on paper. Reach this goal, and with a little hard work in the editing and revising department, you could be the next NaNoWriMo author who ends up with a published book.

Be sure to check out the book, Tracks: A Novel in Stories, by Eric D. Goodman, published by Atticus Books. To learn more, please visit the Tracks website: www.TracksNovel.com.

Publishing Contest Aimed at NaNoWriMos

If you are participating in NaNoWriMo this year, you have the opportunity to enter a publishing contest designed just for you! Ebook publisher Literary Partners Group, Inc. is accepting 50,000-word novels in the genres of erotic romance, horror, crime, or mystery/thriller. Literary Partners’ team of editors will evaluate the submissions and choose first place winners, as well as honorable mentions, from each genre for publication by imprints Ravenous Romance or Ravenous Shadows.

Each book chosen will be eligible for standard contract terms, including an advance and competitive royalty rates. The winning books will be published as ebooks in 2012, with potential for print publication as well.

Ravenous Romance publishes erotic romance in all subgenres, with an emphasis on great stories that push sexual boundaries. Ravenous Romance novels have been nominated for many awards, including RT Reviewer’s Choice Best Erotic Romance and the Lambda Awards, and have hit several retailer bestseller lists. The vast majority of the imprint’s authors qualify for RWA’s PAN membership within a year of publication.

Ravenous Shadows is a new horror/mystery/crime/thriller imprint, led by New York Times bestselling author and editor John Skipp. John is acquiring edgy, commercial, blood-pumping fiction by both established and new writers.

Submit your completed novels as word docs with a brief author bio and synopsis to Literary Partners’ Editorial Director, Lori Perkins (lori@literarypartners.com), by December 1, 2011. Winners will be notified by email by February 1, 2012.

Yes, the deadline follows immediately after NaNoWriMo ends, which is a little less than ideal since most Wrimos come out of the thirty-day word sprint with very rough drafts. But if you have a novel from last year, or if what you produce is closer to a submittable draft, consider entering. We’ll hope the judges take the tight turnaround into account when they consider the entries!

Why NaNoWriMo Is Awesome

It’s November again—National Novel Writing Month! And that means it’s time for NaNoWriMo.

The basic idea behind NaNoWriMo is to write a 50,000 word manuscript in just 30 days. You aren’t supposed to do any revising or editing. You are supposed to get your butt in the chair and your fingers on the keyboard every day so you can reach your target word count.

Some people have criticized the program, saying that this style of writing only helps you churn out words, not necessarily a good book. In fact, several book deals have arisen from NaNoWriMo projects—after much revision, of course. No one’s going into this thinking they’ll just start sending out sample chapters in December. Instead, the goal is to create a rough draft that you can continue revising throughout the year (December has become known as National Editing Month, as it follows on the heels of NaNoWriMo).

However, the benefits of participating in a speed-writing endeavor such as NaNoWriMo go beyond the drafting of a manuscript.

How You Can Benefit From NaNoWriMo

1. The goal is word count, not literary value (though if you end up with something publishable, good for you!). For me, this official “permission” to write 50K words of what may be total crap is very freeing. I don’t have to—in fact, can’t—quibble with my editor-brain over which phrasing sounds better, or whether my protagonist would be better off as a tall brunette or a short blond. All I have to do is keep those fingers moving. And surprisingly, what I produced during my last attempt at NaNoWriMo isn’t too bad. TIP: Write without thinking too hard or correcting yourself. Just let the words flow. You’ll polish it all up later.

2. The structure of the program helps participants cultivate a writing habit. I teach my students that the very act of sitting down to write on a regular basis helps train your brain to write more, better, faster. It also helps strengthen your ability to defy emotional reasoning (I really don’t feel like working, so I’m not going to), which in turn encourages discipline. Now I’m getting to experience that truth for myself! It didn’t work out last year, but I’m hopeful for better results this time now that I know what I’m in for. TIP: Choose a time of day you can continue using as writing time once November is over, to stay in the habit.

3. Participating in this effort year after year can ultimately help you become more prolific. Again, you’re training your brain to be creative on a constant basis. It’s essentially practice in churning out a rough draft quickly. You may take another year or more to revise it into something great, but that’s better than spending a year on the rough draft and THEN another few years on the revising. TIP: Don’t let a flood of great ideas distract you from your NaNoWriMo novel. Instead, write them all down someplace safe so you can explore them later—maybe for next year’s NaNoWriMo!

4. A program like NaNoWriMo forces accountability in a fun environment. Many people—including me—have what they feel is a great idea for a book, but can never find the time to work on it, either because they’re truly busy or because they’re afraid. In my case, it’s also because I find it difficult to shut off “editor-brain” and just have fun with the writing! When you do NaNoWriMo, you’re making a more solid commitment than just saying you want to write a book. And you get toys to play with! The NaNoWriMo website offers widgets, an online community (writing partners really help with that accountability factor, and it’s fun to share the experience), a word progress function so you can compare yourself to others, and more. And, since writing a novel can seem so daunting, the idea of committing only 30 days to the effort makes it much less scary. TIP: If you get thrown off track for some reason, don’t give up. Even if you don’t reach the 50,000 word count goal by the end of the month, you’ll still end up with a lot more than the zero you had before you started.

Stay tuned throughout November for updates on my NaNoWriMo 2011 experience. I’ll also be tweeting and posting to Facebook about it. I hope you’ll share your stories with me, too! I’d love to get a conversation going on my Facebook Page, in particular. Or leave a comment here!

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5 Lessons I Learned from NaNoWriMo 2011

A Change of Space Changes Everything

Time Limits May Work Better than Word Goals

Friendly Competition Will Egg You On

Carrots Work…If You Can Actually Grab Them

Keep Going to Push Past the Suckiness

4 Special Treats For NaNoWriMo Participants

Success Story: Eric D. Goodman

Lessons You Can Learn from Eric’s Success

Publishing Contest Aimed at NaNoWriMos

Why NaNoWriMo Is Awesome

How You Can Benefit From NaNoWriMo

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A Change of Space Changes Everything

Time Limits May Work Better than Word Goals

Friendly Competition Will Egg You On

Carrots Work…If You Can Actually Grab Them

Keep Going to Push Past the Suckiness

Lessons You Can Learn from Eric’s Success

How You Can Benefit From NaNoWriMo

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