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Monthly Archives: October 2012

Why Do NaNoWriMo?

I’ll be doing some posts on NaNoWriMo.

There are a million ways to write a book, a million ways to start, a million ways to slog through, a million ways to finish. These will be my personal tips for NaNoWriMo. They may not work for you. They may not even work for me. It helps me to write them down, and if it helps you too, awesome.

My advice will be a little different than the official NaNo handbook. I’m big on outlining at the moment, so I won’t be using a seat-of-the-pants approach. That’s not to say, however, that there is a place for the kind of break-neck, no-inner-critic writing NaNo is famous for. But I think that too works best when you have some idea where you’re going.
This may depend on how experienced you are at writing. NaNo and its methods are strongly geared toward pushing first-timers into the arms of their virgin book. What I have in mind may be of more use for writers who already have a few under the belt.

My friend Michelle Davidson Argyle has questioned whether NaNo is at all useful for seasoned writers. 

I don’t see the attraction for seasoned writers to sit down during a holiday month (at least in the U.S.) to pound out 50,000 words, when during the rest of the year, and many years prior, they’ve worked at a fine, steady pace for something they consider a career (that’s part of what I consider seasoned). 

…So, I wonder how many seasoned writers do NaNo to actually prove to themselves that they can write a specific amount of words in a short amount of time? Do they do it just for fun? Because so many of them ignore family and housecleaning, etc. for the entire month just to complete NaNo. That seems like a huge sacrifice for something that’s just for fun. For me, it’s not so much fun. I’m a girl who doesn’t care much for following crowds, and doing NaNo feels too much like a trend or following a crowd, so I think that’s part of why it turns me completely off. I know I can write a book in a certain amount of time, if needed. It’s my job now. I don’t need NaNo to prove that to myself. I already proved it to myself twice this year. A large portion of my friends (many of them I consider seasoned) are participating in NaNo this year. I’m definitely cheering them on, but I’ll be revising this month instead of typing new words on a novel.

I agree with this completely. There’s been many a year that NaNo has fallen during a period when I needed to do something else than writing a draft…like revision.

This year, I will do it, but I’ve set some ground rules for myself. First off, I’m doing it on my own terms.   (And why not? The exercise exists for us not the other way around.) I’ll be aiming less at wordcount than at a useable rich outline. I think it’s better to start with an outline than just a word flood. In fact, in my opinion, you’d be better off if you ended NaNo with a 20,000 word tightly plotted rich outline than with 50,000 words of a sloppy draft with huge plot holes. That’s my own goal. And I plan ride the wave of NaNo enthusiasm as I do so.

NaNoWritMo Schedule

Here’s the schedule for NaNoWriMo, which you can also find on their site (I assume) and in the emails:

November 1: Write your first 1,667 and feel great about embarking on this wild, wordy adventure. Tell your inner editor to take a hike for the next 30 days, or else. Watch him/her/it skedaddle, and heave a sigh of relief.

November 2: Check your NaNoMail early and often for pep talks from staff and published authors, messages from your fellow Wrimos, and updates from your regional Municipal Liaison (AKA magical ninja heroes of noveling goodness). To stay extra-informed about everything happening in NaNoLand, you can also like our Facebook page, follow us on Twitter, and keep up with our daily blog posts.

November 3: Take some time this weekend to stockpile writerly rewards. When you reach a word-count goal, you’ll have a treat at the ready to reinforce your admirable dedication to this project.

November 5: You hit your weekend target of 6,668 words (or not—that’s okay, too, so long as you keep writing!). Now save your novel-in-progress to a USB drive, or email a copy to yourself or a trusted friend, as part of the first “Back Up Your Novel” Day. These occur every Monday throughout the month, and will ensure that your novel is soundly saved in multiple locations to prevent loss, theft, or destruction.

November 6: If you’re in the US, vote! And keep writing. In whichever order you choose.

November 9: Your goal by the end of the second weekend should be to write at least 18,000 words. Plan to use Saturday and Sunday to catch up (or get ahead) in preparation for Week 2.

November 12: You are entering Week 2, a time when encouragement is key. Be sure to read up on the pep talks from staff and guest authors in your NaNoMail, and peruse all past writerly encouragement in our Pep Talk Archive!

November 14: It’s Donation Day, a public-radio-style fundraiser running from 6 AM to midnight Pacific time. If NaNoWriMo is rocking your creative writing world, please consider making a tax-free contribution to fuel our engines of inspiration for kids, teens, and adults around the globe. And today alone, you’ll be eligible to receive great hourly bonus prizes for making a donation.
November 16: On this ML Appreciation Day, be sure to thank your ML(s) for all they do. Send them a NaNoMail message, high-five them in person, or bring them a bouquet of plush porpoises. Trust me, it’ll be a hit.
November 18: By land, sea, and sky, NaNo-novelists travel from around the world to congregate in San Francisco for the Night of Writing Dangerously Write-a-thon. It’s an extravaganza of noir and noveling: fast-and-furious typing, costumes, raffle prizes, a candy bar, oratories, fabulous food, and more inspired writers than you can shake a gold-tipped cane at! Sound like the most fun you’ll ever have? Find out how you can attend!

November 19: Have you been backing up your novel? No?!?! Well thank goodness it’s “Back up Your Novel Yet Again” Day. Do it. Future You will thank Present You profusely.

November 21: Do a happy dance that you’re three-quarters of the way through the month and still trucking on your novel. Are you not still trucking on your novel? There’s time yet! Visit YWP’s Dare Machine to get your novel restarted.

November 22: NaNo HQ is closed in observation of Thanksgiving. We will raise a goblet of gratitude for Wrimos everywhere; wonderful, wordy novels; and delicious, carb-filled holiday foodstuffs.
November 25: Winning begins! Between now and 11:59:59 PM on November 30, you can cut and paste your 50,000-word novel into the website’s Word Count Validator to be declared an officially official NaNoWriMo Winner!

November 25, later that day: Winner Shirts are back on sale, as the perfect complement to your officially official win. Visit our online store to get yours today, or whenever you cross the finish line!

November 26: Plan out your word-count goals for the final five days of noveling to ensure that you do indeed reach 50,000 words by the end of the month. Deploy emergency measures as necessary.
November 28: Take a quick break from writing like the wind to mark down the date of your region’s TGIO party.

November 30: Write, write, write! You’re in it to win it!

December 1: Validated, won, and done; you’re sleeping like a baby. As you should be. Sleep on, Winner! 

I’ll be joining NaNoWriMo this year. We’ll see how that goes. I’m bummed because I planned to go to the kick-off party on the 28th, and then missed it.
I have one big grief with NaNo, and it’s that the choice of November was clearly not made by a mom with three kids hyped up on a month’s supply of Halloween candy to watch during a week of half-days and a festive holiday feast to cook for and a bigger festive holiday to shop and plan for in the very next month. November–really? That was the best you could do?
Because November is the third worst possible month for this (after December and September), I always regretfully decide I can’t do it this year, but then as the month goes on, I get caught up in NaNo fever and join late, with predictably futile results. So this year, I’m going to treat myself, and just go for broke. There’s a project I’ve wanted to try for a while, so I’ll work on that. I need a breather after finishing Book 5 on The Unfinished Song, and I’m hoping that this will revive the creative juices. 
Most likely, I’ll spend most of November chasing sugar-crazed toddlers and burning turkey, but I can dream.

10 Spooky Books for Halloween

Neil Gaiman has a brilliant idea: why not make it a tradition to read spooky books on Halloween? It’s like telling ghost stories, in print. Headsmack, right? Why didn’t we all think of that?

Anyway, I’m all for any excuse to read books. And I’ve been gobbling up some great ghosties for Halloween. Here’s my recommendations for all ages, starting with the book I wrote for my own tots (but of course!) and moving on up the Scary Scale.

Title:  My First Book About Halloween
Author: Tara Maya
Age: 6 months – 3 years
Blurb: It’s a cute book with simple words and fun pictures. My 2 year old and 3 year old love it and my 6 year old can read it (with just a little help). It’s 20 pages illustrated, and normally $2.99 but it will be FREE on Halloween itself, on Amazon. If you want it as a pdf, you can email me and I’ll send it to you free.
Scary Level: Cute. The scariest part is the monster lurking in the haunted house…who turns out to be a mouse!
Preview it on my blog here.



Title: A Ghost Went Trick or Treating
Author: A.J. Cosmo
Age: 4-8 year olds
Blurb: This is a more substantial story than the short collection above, and it’s more than a picture book. I read it to my toddlers as well, but it’s also suitable for elementary kids. A “ghost” goes trick or treating. Secretly, he’s a real monster! Some trick-or-treaters are nice but some are bullies… and everyone gets their just desert.  😉 
Scary Level: Spooky Cute. A little scary, in that there are bullies. This book re-enforced my first-graders opinion that teenagers belong in the same category as vampires, zombies and other monsters to avoid.

Title: The Goblin Brothers Adventures
Author: Lindsay Buroker
Age: 7-12 (Middle Grade)
Blurb: I wanted to include something for every age group, and for Middle Grade, I adore this collection of connected stories about the inexplicably heroic goblin brothers, Gortok and Malagach. Lindsay Buroker is better known for her awesome Emperor’s Edge series, which is also well worth reading. Her humor shines through in both series.
Scary Level: Spooky Funny

Title:  Haunted: Ten Tales of Ghosts
Editor: Rayne Hall
Age: Adult (but okay for Young Adult too)
Blurb: In assembling her anthologies, Rayne leaves no stone unturned searching for tales which are alike in quality but different in tone, theme and plot. These stories are all well-written and original, frightening but not gory, and a great read to curl up with on Halloween. Plus, it’s free or a dollar, depending on the promotion, so you can’t beat the price. The proceeds of these collections all go to charity.
Scary Level: Frightful but not Gory




Title: The Devil Eats Here
Editor: Rayne Hall
Age: Adult (but okay for Young Adult too)
Blurb: Another creepy collection of devilish tales edited by Rayne Hall. In fact, you could read almost anything of hers on Halloween and not go wrong. She’s also got collections about witches, vampires and just downright scary stories.  This one is free, so honestly, if you have any interest at all in stories where folks confront the Big Baddie, give this one a try.
Scary Level:  Frightful but not Gory

Title: Anna Dressed in Blood
Author: Kendare Blake
Age: Young Adult (but okay for Adults too)
Blurb: The set up is absolutely classic: haunted house, ghost, ghost hunter. Toss in a witch or two (some good some terrifying). Voodoo? Why not. A murdered father to avenge? Sure. A doomed love between the ghost hunter and the ghost? Don’t make me say, “Oooooooh!” And high school? Okay, now you’re scaring me. Mix it all up, and this is a story which feels like vintage Halloween, with true creeps and gore, and yet fresh YA paranormal and a sweet romance at the same time. There’s also a worthy sequel, The Girl of Nightmares.
Scary Level: Frightful with a Slice of Gore

Title: By Darkness Revealed
Author: Kevin O. McLaughlin
Age: Young Adult (but okay for Adults too)
Blurb: A young man at a military boarding school has to deal with a monstrous darkness released a fellow student. This truly demonic creature reminded me of the “monster” in Forbidden Planet. It’s never clearly seen, except outlined in shadow. It’s known best by the bloody havoc in its wake. An equally formless, yet some adorable “kitty spirit” helps the hero in his quest to lock the evil back into its prison.
Scary Level: Frightful with a Slice of Gore



Title: The Name of the Star
Author: Maureen Johnson
Age: Young Adult (but okay for Adults too)
Blurb: It’s not fair for any book to be so scary and so hilarious at the same time. The subtitle of this book is The Shades of London, implying there may be more to come in a new paranormal series. Let it be so! The heroine is wry and snarky (but not mean) American from Louisiana who attends a boarding school in London–just in time to be haunted by the ghost of Jack the Ripper. By a freak coincidence, which makes perfect sense as explained by the book, she’s one of the few people who can see him. Special invite to an elite ghost-hunting police squad follows. Isn’t that a cool concept–ghost hunting police? There’s even a rational reason why they are all young adults. And did I mention how funny this book is?
Scary Level: Suspenseful but Funny

Title: My Life as a White Trash Zombie
Author: Diana Rowland
Age: Adult
Blurb: What’s worse than a drug habit? A brain habit! Especially when some schmuck is decapitating all the bodies in the morgue where you dine work. Where would Halloween be without zombies? This is a great way to get your zombie fix. There’s a sequel Even White Trash Zombies Get the Blues. Oh, and Diana Rowland’s other series Blood of the Demon is good too.
Scary Level: Gory but Funny




Title: The Hallowed Hunt
Author: Lois McMaster Bujold
Age: Adult
Blurb: I really wanted to add a story to the list that was specifically about or set during Halloween, but I haven’t read any. This book is a second world epic fantasy, so no Halloween per se, but its definitely autumnal. You also won’t find anything so prosaic as werewolves or ghosts, but you will find something crazy awesome mindblowing that is like the mother of all werewolves and ghosts, along with gods and magic and romance and mystery.
Scary Level: Suspenseful and Epic

15 Greatest Avengers Quotes

“Aren’t the stars and stripes a little… old fashioned?”

Tony Stark: The Avengers. It’s what we call ourselves, sort of like a team. “Earth’s Mighiest Heroes” type thing.

Steve Rogers: When I went under, the world was at war. I wake up, they say we won. They didn’t say what we lost.

Tony Stark: Dr. Banner, your work is unparalleled. And I’m a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster.
Bruce Banner: Thanks.

Steve Rogers: Is everything a joke to you?
Tony Stark: Funny things are.

Steve Rogers: How can you not trust Fury?
Tony Stark: He’s a spy, he’s THE spy. His secrets have secrets. 

Thor: We on Asgard pretend that we are more advanced, but we, we come here battling like Bilgesnipe.

Steve Rogers: Stark, we need a plan of attack!
Tony Stark: I have a plan: attack!

Loki: I am Loki, of Asgard and I am burdened with glorious purpose. 

Bruce Banner: I don’t think we should be focusing on Loki. That guy’s brain is a bag full of cats. You can smell crazy on him.
Thor: Have a care how you speak! Loki is beyond reason, but he is of Asgard and he is my brother!
Natasha Romanoff: He killed eighty people in two days.
Thor: He’s adopted.

Natasha Romanoff: [watching the aliens come toward them] This is just like Budapest all over again.
Clint Barton: You and I remember Budapest very differently. 

Bruce Banner: Are you here to kill me, Miss Romanoff? Because that’s not gonna work out for everyone. 

Steve Rogers: We have orders, we should follow them.
Tony Stark: Following’s not really my style.
Steve Rogers: And you’re all about style, aren’t you?
Tony Stark: Of the people in this room, which one is A – wearing a spangly outfit and B – not of use?

World Security Council: Director Fury, the council has made a decision.
Nick Fury: I recognise the council has made a decision, but given that it’s a stupid-ass decision, I’ve elected to ignore it.

Nick Fury: I still believe in heroes.

Loki: Enough! You are, all of you are beneath me! I am a god, you dull creature, and I shall not be bullied by…
[Hulk flattens Loki with repeated smashes into the floor]
The Hulk: [leaving] Puny god.

Got any more to add?

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