NaNoWriMo: how does it work?

A few people have asked me how NaNoWriMo works, and since I didn't get into the specifics in my last post, I'll try to illuminate them here.

First off, you go to nanowrimo.org to create an account. It's free and only takes a few minutes. Once you've created your account, you have the option to fill out a profile about yourself, and to fill out a section on what your novel is about—the genre, title, a synopsis, and an excerpt (of course, you can leave these blank if you want). You can also upload a photo of yourself, although I haven't done so because all of my photos are too big and I'm too damn lazy to resize them.

The features I like the best on the website are the word count updater and the "stats" tab. You write your novel offline, in Word or Scrivener, or whatever other program you choose, but you can update the word count on your NaNo page at the end of the day (or as many times during the day as you like). Then, under the "stats" tab you can see lots of cool stuff like how close you are to where you should be, and what your average daily word count is:

Like on facebook, you can add friends, or writing buddies. That way you can keep tabs on their stats and word count, and they can keep tabs on yours. It's fun!

There are a lot of other fun things on the NaNo website, including forums where you can discuss everything from plotting to writing music to favorite distractions. Then there are all kinds of cool widgets and badges you can put on your blog, and cartoons ("NaNoToons"), and pep talks from famous and not-so-famous writers and authors. Oh, and there's a private message feature too ("NaNoMail").

Starting November 25th until the end of November 30th, if you've reached 50,000 words, you can upload your manuscript to the website for word count verification. Everyone who successfully does this is a winner! Hooray! Then you get listed on the winners page, and you get a super special winner's certificate.

And I guess that's about it. I haven't had time to play around much with the website's more fun features, since I've been constantly falling behind in my word count and having to catch up again, but it all seems pretty cool.

So! Have I tempted you to try NaNoWriMo next year? Or does it all just strike you as odd?

National Novel Writing Month

Somehow or other, it is now DAY TWELVE of National Novel Writing Month. For those who don't know, NaNoWriMo happens each November, when thousands of people (200,000 participated last year) sign up to write 50,000 between November 1st and November 30th. Yup, 50,000 words in one month. That's around 1,667 words a day, or close to 12,000 words a week.

Today is day twelve, which means everyone participating should hit 20,000 words today.

So what am I writing, and why did I take a month off from revising my WIP to do this?

My NaNo project is a prequel to my WIP, Water Magic. It's set in the same universe—a world parallel to ours called Abernwyth, a world humans with magical powers (faeries) migrated to thousands of years ago, after a split in evolution created magic and non-magic humans. The prequel is called Dyllan and Abigail, and it covers events that took place twenty years before my protagonist in Water Magic stumbles into Abernwyth and ends up facing an evil magician called the Stone Mage.

I decided to take part in NaNoWriMo this year for a couple of reasons: firstly because I thought I could use a break from my WIP after working on it for two years, and secondly because I thought working on a prequel could only be helpful, in that it helps me to gain a deeper understanding of the history of the world I've built, and the lives of many of the characters.

So far (aside from causing me to neglect my laundry) my first NaNo has been going well. I tend to fall behind on days I work, but get caught up fairly easily on the weekends, when on a good day I can get out around 4,000 words. I've never been a particularly fast writer, so this whole experience has helped me to see that maybe I can actually write more than I thought I could.

I've currently got 17,000 words finished, so I need another 3,000 today to be caught up.

So, lovely readers, are any of you participating in NaNoWriMo this year, or have you participated in previous years? How did you/do you find the experience—liberating, stressful, or something else entirely?

Happy Halloween one and all!

Have a spook-tacular night!

Writing, introversion, and extroversion: who's got the upper hand?

One of the things I love about Twitter is that sometimes people post links to really interesting articles (or funny photos of cats/puppies/babies, which are good too). A couple weeks back, @YukonGraham posted a link to a Psychology Today article called "Revenge of the Introvert," by Laurie Helgoe, and I've been thinking about said article ever since. The basic gist of it is, about half the people in the world are introverts, and half are extroverts, and the two halves experience socializing in different ways. Introverts (who are not necessarily shy), enjoy socializing one-on-one or in smaller groups, and need time to reflect and process information. Large, loud gatherings can be overstimulating for the introvert, who values quiet solitude at least part of the time in order to think about things and decide how he or she feels. The extrovert, by contrast, thrives in the busy social world of large parties, clubs, and the like. For the extrovert, too much time alone can be boring rather than rewarding.

Of course, most people fall along a scale, sometimes feeling more introverted, and sometimes more extroverted. But I think that most people fall more to one side than the other, and if they had to pick, they would readily know in which category they best fit.

Writing other things

Recently I started writing short stories again, after not having written one in a couple of years. I had been focusing on my novel for so long that I started to miss that feeling of having finished something. It's also is a good release-valve, allowing me to take a break from the novel when I'm getting frustrated, and blow off some creative steam. I've written a rather dark, depressing magical realism piece, and I've got some ideas for children's stories building up. It feels good to see finished things piling up in my short stories folder, and if I can improve my craft (I've never felt that I've really mastered the short story form), I may end up with some pieces that I can submit to literary magazines and competitions.

So, this makes me curious. Do you other aspiring novelists have side-projects that you work on? Do you short story writers have secret novels hidden away on your hard drives? Do you submit work to magazines and competitions, and, if so, to which publications do you submit? Feel free to post links in the comments to your published work!

Want to start reading comics, but don't know where to start?

If you're a comics reader, this will be old news to you. In August 2011, DC Comics ended all of their monthly superhero storylines, and started fresh in September with a relaunch of 52 issue number ones.

There are also other changes to the DC universe—many characters have been updated with new costumes and backstories, and the worlds have been modernized to make the stories more accessible.

If you haven't read comics before, but are curious about what they have to offer; or if, like me, you've only started reading comics recently, this is exciting news—it means you can start following the stories from the beginning, without any prior knowledge of the characters or universe.

I read a few of the first issues last week, and I found Aquaman, Batgirl, and Superman to be very good. Check them out at your local comic shop or order them online.

 Further suggestions for beginning comic readers:

• You can't go wrong with Neil Gaiman. His Sandman series follows Morpheus, the Lord of Dreams, and is filled to the brim with allusions to literature and mythology. It's also won a whole lot of Eisner Awards.
• Joe the Barbarian is a series I really enjoyed—told through the eyes of a boy suffering from hypoglycemia, whose hallucinations turn his house into a fantasy landscape he must battle his way through—with the help of his pet rat—to get to the kitchen and drink a can of soda before King Death can defeat him. Magical, action-packed, and sad. Written by Grant Morrison, illustrated by Sean Murphy.
• One of my personal favorites is an independent graphic novel called I Kill Giants, written by Joe Kelly and illustrated by J.M. Kim Niimura. The protagonist is misfit schoolgirl Barbara Thorson, who lives in a fantasy world to escape an impending family tragedy. In her imagination, Barbara is a giant killer; giants, of course, represent the personal disaster she tries desperately to ward off. 

So, readers, what are your favorite comic books and graphic novels? Do you read comics religiously, or are you an occasional dabbler?

What nobody tells beginners

I found this quote on facebook, where it's lately been circulating among artistic types. I wish I had read this when I first started writing seriously—it would have helped a lot with the fear of not being good enough. But I think it's relevant for all aspiring author types, so here you go: