Writing ditty

Write a book through and through
Write a proposal and query too.
Send them out in droves and hordes
To as many agents your pocket affords.

Keep on tweaking, writing, breathing,
Despite the rejection letters' seething.
Don't forget you can always be better.
Keep sending out those query letters!

If no one offers representation,
Consider other modes of publication.
But first, take a good, hard look
At the quality of your much-rejected book.

Audiobooks, Kindles, PDFs,
Do whichever you think is best.
Plan your publicity well and clear.
Work, work, work! Your book is here!

www.nanowrimo.org

NaNo Toolbox

NaNoWriMo doesn't have to be planned out. You can write by the seat of your pants (called being a pantster) and sometimes, that's fun.

But I've come to the realization that NaNoWriMo can be more than just fun. It can help writers become more experienced in their craft.

The hardest part about writing a book in a month is that every single word is a decision. That's 50,000 decisions you have to make, 1,667 decisions every day. I find my mind gets tired of making decisions really quick, especially if I also have to decide which way the plot is going in the process. Deciding on a few things before you begin writing will help take away some of the burden during November.

The following tools are things I'm finding help me a lot when I start a new project. You don't have to spend hours on them, but even just thinking about it without making a firm decision will help you discover what you want to write when the time comes.

1. A genre. (Pick one or make up your own.)

2. A main character. (Even better if you know what motivates your main character.)

3. A single sentence describing the most important part of your plot.

4. A villain or antagonist.

5. A setting. (Time & place)

6. Minor characters

7. A detailed outline of your plot.

8. Any research you might need about your setting or characters.

9. What the denouement (climax) of the story will look like.

10. Passion about what you're writing. (And yes, this is a decision/choice.)

With these ten things prepared beforehand, I can almost guarantee you'll have lots of fun writing an entire book in 30 days.

This year I decide to go for the uber outline. I've been preparing this story for eight months and have gotten it to the point where I could almost hand over my notes to a seven year old and they'd be able to write it. I certainly should be able to!

Good luck in getting ready for a writing marathon! See you November 1st! I can hardly wait...

NaNoWriMo

It's the time of year when the leaves fall, and when I greatly anticipate the start of November. Next month is a time of literary abandon through the program NaNoWriMo. I'm so excited. I've been outlining what I'm going to write for six months and my fingers are itching to type.

During November, I plan to have a short post for EVERY DAY of the month, mostly pertaining to writing, of course. The schedule is as follows:

Surplus Sundays: Encourage writers to write more than their daily goal to build up a surplus of words going into the week.

Method Mondays: Talk about methods we use during NaNoWriMo or anytime of the year to get the writing done.

Trip Tuesdays: All about location writing. What are some favorite places to write? The most convenient? Every Tuesday I will purpose to write somewhere I've never written before.

Word-war Wednesdays: Kind of self-explanatory, but I'll be challenging writers to see how many words they can write in an hour, then post their results in the comments.

Thick Thursdays: Challenge writers to thicken their plots. I will offer a choice of ways to do this, but it's entirely up to you! I will also post how I chose to thicken my plot.

Fast Fridays: I will attempt to write double my daily word count goal every Friday. Watch those fingers fly! If you want to join in the challenge, awesome! Post how many words you got done in the comments.

Sanctuary Saturday: We'll talk about writers and their writing spaces, how to protect your writing time and space, and what are some good ideas for setting up that perfect ambiance of inspiration.

See you on November 1st with Trip Tuesday, my first location writing exercise! I'm off to the NaNoWriMo forums!