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- …:::Farewell:::…December 14 2008
- NANOWRIMO Tips Again…ItalyNovember 2 2008
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Hey all. I’ve been in Italy, so I haven’t had much time to blog. I know…poor me. Italy was a really cool place. We visited a small medieval town called Siena and did an overnight trip to Rome. I will blog more about this trip later.
So I blinked and Nanowrimo is upon me in full swing. I was at the bookstore last night and wondered how many of the people at the care were there to kick off their novels.
I’m sitting out again for the second year in a row. No sense in fooling myself. I don’t like to force myself into writing. I still believe that writing takes time, moreover, ideas take time to fully form. Some of you have been doing months of prep work: outlines and summaries. I think that’s the way to do it.
Every year at this time I post my Nanowrimo tips. This is a list of things that I learned about writing a novel in a month through trial and error.
So good luck to all of you participating this year and here are my tips:
The list below is an updated repost of my Nanowrimo tips. Every year that I fail at Nanowrimo, I learn something. Here are my tips:
NanoWriMo Tips
If you are considering doing National Novel Writing Month in November, here are some tips from a two-time failure. I may not have ever made 50,000 words but I did learn something along the way:
1. Try to do more than the required 1,666 words a day. It’s always good to have a buffer if you miss a few days. If you can get to 2000 wo
- Free WritingOctober 7 2008
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The thing that I like most about the guitar is that I can pick it up at anytime and just play. It’s instant creative gratification. Sometimes I strum some chords, other times, I will play a quick (sometimes out-of-tune) guitar solo. Mostly, I just play whatever comes to mind. I enjoy playing so much, that I’ve often wished that I could translate the experience of just picking up a guitar and playing, to writing.
I first wished that I could do this a few months ago, when my drive to write had completely dried up. In the last few weeks, I’ve had a new and sustained drive to write. I attribute this to my positive thinking and to my free writing.
Free writing is as close to free-form guitar playing as I can get. It’s a simple process, I sit down in the morning at around the same time every day, and write anything. These “anythings” have eventually turned into poems, flash fiction stories, and pieces of short stories. If I can think of absolutely nothing, I write word vertically and then write a sentence for each letter in that word (this is called something but the name escapes me).
Free writing forces me out of the comfort of my normal habits of writing. When I free write, I try all sorts of experimentation. Sometimes I write in first person, sometimes third. Sometimes I try to write stories that are 3-4 sentences long.
Free writing is a great way to get your juices flowing and get you into a writing routine. Keep it fun and
- Writing: Positive Thinking Kills Writer’s Block DeadSeptember 25 2008
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An Example of Positive Thinking
I can’t even begin to tell you how much positive affirmations have helped me with writing in the last week, but I will try. First, let me start with a quick list of what I’ve produced in the last 7-10 days (and please consider that I’ve written nothing of worth for most of the year):
1. Four flash fiction stories
2. Ideas for roughly 4 more flash stories.
3. 3000 words of a new novel, which I’ve also managed to rewrite completely.
4. A complete rewrite of the 2nd chapter of my last book.
So what are positive affirmations? Simply put, it’s a positive phrase that you repeat to yourself daily. The whole idea is that you planting these ideas into your sub-conscious mind. By thinking positively, you start to believe what you repeat to yourself. I’m not a doctor or anything, but there are a few books out there that detail these ideas, and let me tell you, they work. At least, they have worked for me.
The affirmations that I’ve been using daily, are as follows:
1. I am creative.
2. I always have ideas.
3. I’m always ready to write.
4. I am a writer.
5. I can
- Writing MethodsSeptember 17 2008
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How many different writing methods are out there? I’ve covered many of them in this blog over it’s lifetime. There are so many different ways to organize and write a book, that it’s easy to become overwhelmed. Especially if you’re like me and you know about all of these different processes. Weeding through them can be somewhat of a pain. I’d advise trying different things and figuring out what works for you and ditch what’s not working.
I posted a few days ago about my quest for motivational help. Instead of looking to someone else to find this motivation, I’ve decided to come up with my own plan to write and stay motivated.
The first thing that I did was take a blank notebook and do a brain dump of every writing process/aid/method that I’ve learned over the years. I was surprised at how long the list turned out to be. I then went through each of these and decided on the few that I thought worked best for me.
Over the next few days, I will describe some of the processes that I decided to use, and which are working best for me.
