Pep Talk Week #1: It’s a New Dawn, and It’s Calling You

Before you read this: For your safety, please wear a face mask and wash your hands. Ha ha. That’s probably getting old, but I had to.

♫ It’s the most wonderful time of the year. ♫

Can you hear what I hear?

The rambling of your muse itching to come out to play though you locked her in a box, waiting for June 1^st.

Can you feel it?

The excitement bubbling inside, mixing with determination to finally do something normal again.

Most importantly, how are you?

What a crazy few months this has been! Although I told myself at first that I was going to use all that time to write and edit undisturbed, it just wasn’t in me.

I was preoccupied with numbers and the health and well-being of my loved ones. Trying my best to not crumble at times from fear or loss, I turned to different outlets.

My writing goals were replaced with fun family time I wouldn’t have changed for anything, such as “glamping” in the backyard.

But, now that we’ve established some sort of normalcy, my old goals are creeping in, and I’m ready to write and take on a new WriMo challenge.

IT’S JUNOWRIMO TIME!

So, this WriMo might look a little different for you whether your state is still under lockdown or venturing to a new normal, and that’s okay. But here are some ideas on how I’m tackling this JuNoWriMo. Hopefully, it can help you too.

The New Dawn JuNoWriMo:

Here’s how to tackle JuNoWriMo during these crazy times.

Wash your hands. Like we say in the South, “I don’t know what those hands have been touching. Wash your hands.” And don’t forget to sing a 20 second song clip while you do it.

Set a timer for 10 minutes. Yeah, this is an old, tried and true WriMo tip that works, but this one has a twist.

The twist: The 1^st timer you set for the day, make yourself sit in front of the computer with your word-processor of choice.

If you feel the writing/editing inspiration, go with it. Keep writing. Join a writing sprint.

If after 10 minutes nothing comes, give yourself permission to try again later.

Wash your hands.

Write bad and be proud of it. There are so many tricks that suggest ways to get more words in, such as write out your character’s whole name in place of he/she/they/I/you.

This is not what I mean. Those tricks make editing extremely tedious, trust me.

When I say write bad, I mean don’t correct your mistakes. Any of them. For example, if you have a new idea for a scene, don’t delete what you’ve written. Rewrite by writing it as an addendum to what you’ve previously written. You may end up liking the other better or be able to use it in another piece or writing.

The twist: Use this the next day as what you read during the 1^st timer you write. You can edit it if you wish at this time or just use it to coax your Muse out of hibernation.

Wash your hands.

Set small goals and hold yourself accountable. It’s not about the 50k words in one month. It’s about the small goals you achieve to get there. How does Miley Cyrus say it? “It’s the Climb.” Managing to get 200 words in 10 minutes is an awesome attainable goal, but once you hit it, set another. 400 words in 10 minutes. Challenging yourself this way builds your word count to that 1667 before you know it. And of course, hold yourself accountable. For instance, report your word count every day on our Twitter feed or FB group.

The twist: Instead of rewards for goals, make consequences. When you don’t have new words to report, what is something you have to do since you didn’t? Maybe yours will be not watching the next episode of Outlander until you hit a goal or not reading another chapter in Sarah J. Maas’s latest book.

For me, knowing I’d have to write ‘I will not talk to my friends during class.’ a hundred times was a much bigger motivator for me not to talk during class than if I got an ice cream for not talking during class.

Wash your hands. By now, you’ve probably washed them down to the bone, so go clean the dirt outside.

Then, come back and let’s write, because it’s a new dawn. It’s JUNOWRIMO!

What goals or consequences are you setting for JuNoWriMo?

Stay Happy and Healthy out there.

Jessica Dragon Cheramie is a Young Adult Fantasy author with a love of all things magical, dragons, and her crazy holistic ways.

June 26, 2019May 21, 2019

Pep Talk Week #4: The JuNoWriMo World Series

It’s week 4. Like the World Series of Baseball. Did you know there is a Poker World Series? It came up when I googled World Series for this. Crazy. But that’s not what I’m talking about so back to baseball.

This week, you have 7 playoff days before you can grab that championship ring. It’s shiny. It’s purdy. It Can Be Yours. Do you have what it takes?

You might have given up already. Hopefully, not. But even if you did, you can still win this. Maybe you did already win this thing, you can add another 50k. Even if you are at 0 words. You can still win this thing. And let’s face it. Sometimes we just need that win.

7 ways for 7 days to win the World Series of JuNoWriMo (Yep, made that a thing.)

Set your goal. So 50k words turns out to be roughly 7143 words per day. It’s a lot. I won’t lie. But, it’s doable. In fact, I’m going to go one step further and say. Shoot for 10k a day. Why? If you get that 10k, first, you get the 10k in a day badge. Wowza. A bonus perk. Second, it puts you ahead of schedule. It gives you time to reward yourself or take a breather later. You’re amped when you first set your sight for this, so use the motivation. It would’ve been better to do this week 1, but procrastination is just more fun sometimes. Extra challenging, right?
Order out for the week. Unfortunately, as living things, you have to eat. Grumbling bellies and parched lips only distract us from our championship ring. You need words. Let those take-out apps or your own personal butlers (AKA significant others or awesome friends) be your chefs for the week. You need to write.
Ignore the world around you. Say no to any and everything. Even to your boss. Okay, if you must do the work thing to pay those bills. Go ahead. Nah, I’m talking about the other 16 hours in your day. Turn off the TV. Turn off your phone, or at least, put it on silent. Crank up the music. Focus on one thing. That blank, white screen in front of you with the blinking cursor. Oh, and don’t sleep unless you fall asleep at your computer.
Forget good hygiene. Don’t clean your messy house. Don’t do laundry. Don’t shower. Don’t brush your teeth. Don’t brush your hair. If you’re really gunning for this, you can even keep a urinal by your computer and cut that part out too. Hehe. These are precious minutes, people. Okay, sometimes, showering or a bath can help me work out my plot. For some, it’s washing dishes. So, these are tools for writing that sometimes must be used out of necessity. **Please note: This is not really something you have to do, except for not cleaning your house or laundry.
Writing in sprints. Most people write more words sprinting against the timer. If you don’t know this already, with JuNoWriMo, you have the awesome word sprints going on throughout the day on Twitter at #JuNoWriMo. Take advantage of that. It helps you to stay focused for a set amount of time. Imagine. You write 200 words in 20 minutes against the clock. Well, 60 minutes later, you have 600 words. The more you do it, the faster you get. Before you know it, you’re doing 1k words in 30 minutes. Five hours of that gives you 10k words. It’s tough to do, but with our community on Twitter, you’ll be amazed at what you will do. Use it.
Set rewards. Rewards are a very powerful thing, but they have to be used correctly. They must mean something. Sure, doing small rewards for small goals works short term. For major goals that require so much sacrifice requires a substantial reward. For instance, just saying you’ll get to binge watch a show doesn’t hold clout if you’ll do it anyway. It should be something that you’d never get or do or have unless you read the finish line. Your championship ring. What would that be?
Just Write. Write anything and everything. Some internal dialogue you have with yourself could spark ideas for things later. There are no such thing as wasted words. Everything can be turned into something. During editing, I’ve come across lines like ‘I’m not sure where this story was going.’ I wrote what was in my head until something clicked, and I picked back up with the story or changed it into something else entirely. The rest can easily be erased or fixed later. Don’t stop to edit. Don’t correct mistakes. Keep Going. The important thing is to not stop. Just write. Some people will write out every character’s first and last name, no contractions, and other tricks like this. While they will help you up your word count, it will make the editing process later even more tedious, but they do work.

It does take sacrifices to do a 50k week, but it is possible. On the plus side, you likely have some words written, so yours may not be as extreme. Don’t let excuses and negativity weigh you down. You can do this. How badly do you want this win?

Besides, even if you give the best week ever and it doesn’t get you to that 50k, think of how far you’ve come. You’re still that much closer to finishing your book. Overall, that’s the goal we all want to achieve. That’s the ultimate reward. How badly do you want it? If you’ve already hit 50k, are you striving to double that this week?

So, grab your bat and leave a comment on how badly you want to win JuNoWrimo and how you’ll make it happen this week. Batter’s up.

Jessica Dragon Cheramie is a Sci-Fi/Fantasy author with real Dragon blood. Seriously. It was her surname from birth until the day she said, “I do.” This has inspired every aspect of her writing. As a girl with dragon blood, she has a love for shiny things, coffee, painting, knitting, and wine. Her website scribblingdragon.com will be premiering soon.

June 19, 2019May 21, 2019

Pep Talk Week #3: When You Feel Like a Fraud

This week’s pep talk comes from Fallon Brown. Enjoy!

When I was asked to write this pep talk, I may have frozen up a bit. What am I supposed to say? What kind of advice can I give? Who is even going to listen to me?

Confession time: Sometimes I feel like a fraud. And by sometimes, I mean sometimes at least once a day. Sometimes it’s just that little whisper in the back of your head, but sometimes it’s up to a shout. And I’ll admit, there are times when it’s hard to keep writing through that voice. But, I’ve gone the way of not writing, and I know where that leaves me. Hint: It’s not pretty. There are too many characters in my head to leave them to their own devices.

So, I write anyway. Sometimes that’s all you can do to shut that voice out. Because if I don’t, those stories won’t get told. And while I know my stories won’t change the world, that doesn’t mean they can’t be important to someone. But, that won’t happen if I don’t get words down on the page.

And writing is self-care for me. As I said above, it’s not pretty when I don’t write. There’s a quote by Franz Kafka I’ve seen around, “A non-writing writer is a monster courting insanity” that I relate to quite well. Even when that voice tells me that no one cares what I have to say, that I don’t know what I’m doing, that I should just stop; I can’t.

Words have always been important to me, been points of discovery. Whether it was discovering a new passion or discovering a part of myself that I hadn’t known was even a possibility. Words I’ve read lit the spark of that discovery, and my own words have made it burn even brighter.

So who am I to let a voice in my head tell me to stop, when maybe my words can be that spark for someone else? Yours could be as well. Unfortunately it’s not as easy as gagging that voice in your head, but here are some things to do that might help:

Blast music: Sometimes that can be enough to distract the voice and let your own words come out. It doesn’t matter what kind of music, I have different playlists for different projects. Whatever works.
Writer friends: And sometimes you need someone else to help you push that voice back. I probably would have given up by now if it wasn’t for some of those friends I’ve made.
Remind yourself: Your words are important. There is someone out there who needs to read it, and you’re the only one who can tell it in your way.
Write anyway: And sometimes all you can do is shove everything else away and write to prove that voice wrong.

You’re not a fraud. You are a writer. Don’t let anyone, even that mean little voice in your head, tell you otherwise. So, write!

Fallon Brown was born and raised in a tiny town in the northwestern corner of Pennsylvania. At one time, she dreamed of having a cabin in the woods or mountains where she could be left alone to write. Instead she spent three years studying psychology before realizing that wasn’t for her. She now lives outside of a slightly larger small town in the same corner of her home state with her husband, two children, two dogs, and a cat.

Website: fallonbrown.com
Twitter: @ frbrown906
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/fallonrb

June 12, 2019May 21, 2019

Pep Talk Week #2: Muck-Slinging and Word-Making

This week’s pep talk comes from Courtney Cantrell. Enjoy!

Greetings and Felicitations, Wordslingers!

And I mean that. Wordslingers. You’re past the gummy shallows of this splashy craze-fest known as JuNoWriMo. Here in Week Two, you’ve waded at least knee-deep into the ooze of creativity and subject-verb-agreement. Maybe you’re even hip-deep. (“Oh heck, it’s up to my neck!” as a certain Shel might say.) Either way, the Writer Is In, and it’s time to sling.

Sling those words. Plunge your arms into the raw, mushy heat of your story, clench your fists around whatever you can, and explode up out of that muck with verve and pizzazz. Fling those words around you like a monkey throwing poo! Don’t worry about what sticks and what doesn’t. You’ll clean up the splatters in July. Right now, your concern is smacking your immediate universe with all the gloppy characters and gooey plot points you possibly can.

If this slime-pit metaphor of wordy imagination is too ick for you, let’s move away from it for a moment.

I’ve participated in NaNoWriMo eight times and won seven; I’ve won JuNoWriMo once, but I’ve been loosely associated with it since its inception. And in this abundance of NaNo-ing, one of the challenges I’ve heard writers bemoan over and over again is the temptation to edit.

You know how it is, lovelies. You sit down at your computer, your typewriter, your pen-n-paper, your reed-n-clay-tablet — and you essay to re-read but a fraction of what you scribbled during your previous writing session. Just to get the juices flowing, y’know. Or maybe you don’t re-read. Maybe you just sit down and launch into the keyboard-pounding frenzy (don’t break your reed stylus, those are delicate). Either way, something catches your eye. Something you wrote prior to this session. You remember a phrase you were unsure about yesterday, and you need — you absolutely NEED — to check over it again. And the next thing you know, you’ve spent an hour nitpicking a paragraph or prodding a recalcitrant sentence into just the right shape….

And ya coulda spent dat hour writin’, kid. Ya coulda been a contendah.

(I just wholly dated myself, and I don’t care.)

(I make an awesome date.)

(I do not create fruit.)

*ahem*

Where was I. Oh yes. NOT TO WORRY. You’re still in the JuNoWriMo running. You’re still a contender. You are still fiercely amazing for even attempting these fabulous writing shenanigans. The point is this: during these month-long noveling capers, the Dread Pirate Editing is a temptation for all? most? many? of us. (I have no stats, just edumacated guesses.) The shadow of the Dread Pirate Editing looms over us, threatening to pillage our time and loot our first draft of progress. ’Cuz that be what ye’re pennin’, me hearties: a 50k-word first draft in the space of a month. (Note: that’s 50k more words than most humans in history ever wrote in their lifetimes.)

And if you give in to the Dread Pirate Editing, you’ll end up wanting to FIX ALL THE THINGS and your novel will taking a looooooong (not to mention wet) walk off a very short plank. (And there are sharks down there. They eat plot bunnies.)

Here I am with the metaphors again. Okay. So, in plain English: if you spend your time polishing words, sentences, and paragraphs — instead of generating new words — you will not reach your June 50k-word goal.

Thus…WHAT TO DO?

I can’t make you exercise self-control and ignore your editing urge. I can’t peer over your shoulder and remind you to get back to making new words instead of fiddling around with the old ones. I wouldn’t do any of that even if I could, because I wouldn’t be doing you or myself any favors.

What I can do is offer just a few practical tips that work for me. Your mileage might (and probably will) vary. If you wanna come find me on Twitter or at my sadly neglected blog, I’m happy to chat it out.

In the meantime, suggestions!

Recall these tidbits from writers more well-known than I:

“It is perfectly okay to write garbage — as long as you edit brilliantly.”

—C. J. Cherryh

“You can fix anything but a blank page.”

—Nora Roberts

“Write your story, and don’t be afraid to write it.”

—Nnedi Okorafor

—> i.e. DON’T WORRY. JUST W̸̟̜̜͈͇̱̩̍̈́̿̊͜R̸̦̳̲̄̆̐Ī̸̗̮̗̲͙̳͖̳̌̊͋̓̄̐̕͠Ì̶͙̺̻̳͎͈̘͇̩͂͌́͠I̸̪̱̰̠͆͠Î̸̢͈̫Ï̸̧̲̝̝̭̪̽̈́͆̓̓Į̴̻̳͓̠͖̠͇̦͋͋̂͐́͘̕Ĭ̸͈̱̒͑Ì̸̢̛̱͎̭̑̂̃Ỉ̶͔͎̪̲̈́͑̈́͠I̶̗̯̹̱̰̐̽ͅỈ̵͚̻̮̱͎̖͙̖̣̆͆̄̏͊̾̾̾͜͝I̷̢̺͊́́̀̕I̶̡̛̳̥̻̞͎̠̱͂̆́͊Ȋ̴̧͔͔̯̺̙͕̬͖̒̋͝Ĩ̶̩̈͂̿̅̓ͅI̴̥̖͔̘̣̱͓̗͔̽͊̈́̓͊̋͐̒I̸̝͉͓̻̖̓̈̍̓̄̓̃͗͠ͅT̴̠͖̠͕̔̿̋͐̅̈͆̂͝E̶͇͖͙̰̮̾̔ (write).

Do word sprints.

These are set periods of time — 10 minutes, 20, 30 — during which you force yourself to keep your butt in the chair and make words. Any words. It’s almost a free-association kind of thing.

Just write, write, write. (W̸̟̜̜͈͇̱̩̍̈́̿̊͜R̸̦̳̲̄̆̐Ī̸̗̮̗̲͙̳͖̳̌̊͋̓̄̐̕͠Ì̶͙̺̻̳͎͈̘͇̩͂͌́͠I̸̪̱̰̠͆͠Î̸̢͈̫Ï̸̧̲̝̝̭̪̽̈́͆̓̓Į̴̻̳͓̠͖̠͇̦͋͋̂͐́͘̕Ĭ̸͈̱̒͑Ì̸̢̛̱͎̭̑̂̃Ỉ̶͔͎̪̲̈́͑̈́͠I̶̗̯̹̱̰̐̽ͅỈ̵͚̻̮̱͎̖͙̖̣̆͆̄̏͊̾̾̾͜͝I̷̢̺͊́́̀̕I̶̡̛̳̥̻̞͎̠̱͂̆́͊Ȋ̴̧͔͔̯̺̙͕̬͖̒̋͝Ĩ̶̩̈͂̿̅̓ͅI̴̥̖͔̘̣̱͓̗͔̽͊̈́̓͊̋͐̒I̸̝͉͓̻̖̓̈̍̓̄̓̃͗͠ͅT̴̠͖̠͕̔̿̋͐̅̈͆̂͝E̶͇͖͙̰̮̾̔). Use a timer. When it goes off, stand up, walk

around, get a drink and/or snack, use the restroom, run around the block once. Ten minutes later, get your butt back in the chair and do it again. Look for Twitter hashtags #wordprints #wordmongering #wordgrab and find other Gorgeous Wordslingers Like You(™) online who are sprinting together (or against each other — maybe a little competition will light fires under that cute, melded-to-chair butt of yours).

2. End your writing session in the middle of a sentence that excites you.

I know, this sounds counterintuitive and even downright agonizing. But trust me. If there’s anything that can cannonball you directly into the goopy mass that is your story, it’s sitting down to your next writing session and plunging right into that cramazing sentence you so desperately wanted to finish. Finish it — and then keep going. Do. Not. Stop. Let the momentum carry you like a bulbous sludge-shark hauling you along behind it through the gook. It’ll take you to whatever miry depths you need to reach.

And so, I believe, we arrive back at the muck-slinging glop metaphor. You’ve got this, O Writer! Ye’re a wordslinger, Harry. You wield your words like a mage their wand, an Annie Oakley her gun, a seven-year-old her fistful of mud, a chimp his excrement. Sometimes you make magic. Sometimes you make slop. It’s FINE. That’s exactly what it’s like for every other writer in existence ever. That’s exactly how it’s supposed to be.

Welcome to the party. This is where we dive headfirst into what makes other people wrinkle their noses in disgust, and we have a raucous good time with it. So come on, writer. Jump in. The goop is great. Keep getting your hands dirty.

Slimily Yours,

Courtney

Courtney Cantrell is the author of twelve book-length works, including: epic fantasy series Legends of the Light-Walkers, paranormal series Demons of Saltmarch, and short story anthology The Elven Dead. She’s also a 7-time NaNoWriMo winner. Her writing career began when she was 8 with “a Tiger that growld”; continued with a bachelor’s degree in creative writing; and most recently grew to encompass epic fantasy murder mysteries (The Priestess Murders, coming soon!). Courtney lives in Oklahoma City with a husband, a daughter, and a hobbitcat.

You can find her at her blog: courtcan.com or on Twitter: @courtcan

June 5, 2019May 31, 2019

Pep Talk Week #1: Kindness (to Yourself) Is Your Key to Success

To help us start this month strong, Angi Griffee gives a little encouragement for all of us writers.

Hey there JuNoWriMo-ers! How you doing?

This summer has been a challenge for me. This year, actually, has been a challenge for me in the writing department. There’s always something telling me I don’t have time or I’m not good enough, or maybe I’m even being left behind.

But you know what? None of that is true. And it’s not for you either. If you’re joining us for JuNo, writing matters to you. And we always find time for what matters. It’s not a hobby or extra or whatever, it’s your soul trying to get out on the page – and that matters.

You matter.

You’re good enough. Remember, this is a first draft. If it’s perfect on the first draft, please come teach me your ways, you word wizard! But you are making words and telling a story and that is good enough.

And I know as writers we tend to get into the comparison game, but you know what’s great? If one bookshelf gets full, we can just make another. There’s no getting left behind, it’s just a matter of endurance. This is a marathon, not a sprint. And you’re doing awesome.

Just remember to feed yourself, get up and stretch, and hydrate. Races are long, even if you’re only competing with yourself. And you’re close to crossing that finish line.

So no matter how it’s going, keep going. One word in front of the other.

It’s always easy to sit down and write when the words are flowing. Those are the best days. You sit down, stretch your fingers over the keys, and with that gentle tap-tap-tap the world that lives in your brain comes to life in front of your eyes. True magic

But what about those days when it’s hard to put a sentence together? What about the times when life stands in between you and the keyboard? The days when you’ve convinced yourself you’re not a writer. Those are the days I’m talking about.

First – everyone has those days. Every. One. If they say different, they are selling something.

Second – it’s gonna happen. Sometimes I can sit down and pump out so many words I have to double check the count to make sure I actually did that. Sometimes, I can’t do anything but read over my last chapter and delete the ten times I used the word Justandalso and so.

Third – One bad day does not equal a wasted month. (Or year, or book, or whatever our brains would like us to believe)

When I get stuck I try to remember those three things. I take a deep breath and think them through.

Don’t get inside your head. Just keep going. You can mold and edit and fix what you write, but if the words aren’t there, it’s harder. We tend to take a slow day of writing and turn it into OH MY GOD I’LL NEVER WRITE ANOTHER WORD WHAT AM I DOING HOW DID I GET HERE WHERE ARE THE SNACKS IS IT FIVE OCLOCK YET?????

But remember – feed yourself, being kind to yourself, stretch, hydrate. It’s amazing what a little grace toward yourself and a deep breath can do

When you start to struggle, think about what you would say to someone else who is struggling. I bet you’d encourage them, tell them they got this, and give them permission to have a slow day. Talk to yourself like you would a friend. Some days you might need tough love, some days you need a break, but every day you need kindness.

So now, do that for yourself. A lot of us think we’re not writers because of where we are in the process. Some of think we’ll never finish that second (or third or tenth) book. All of us worry it won’t be good enough.

If you are writing, you are a writer.

You will finish whatever you put your mind to.

And your words will speak to the people they are supposed to.

All it takes is a whole lotta bravery and a little patience with ourselves.

So happy writing, my friends!!

Now, take a deep breath! Drink your water. Eat some fruit. Because I believe in you. You got this!!! And slow or fast, you’ll get there. Happy writing!

With magic words and love,

Xo,

Angi

Angi Griffee is a dance and theater instructor whose love affair with words helps her create books. She also bakes, sings, and owns Wise Owl Words Editing.

June 25, 2018June 16, 2018

Pep Talk Week 4: The Final Push

Hey everybody! Week 4!! We’re so close to the end of the month!

I thought about talking about word counts, final pushes, or finding something super inspirational—but instead I’m going to say this:

Good job!

Look at what you’ve accomplished! 5 words? 50 words? 50000?? Great! You decided to do a thing and you did it. You’re a writer. You made art. You did something original.

You still have this last week to meet your goal, but if you don’t, that’s okay. You can still write in July. You can write in August. You can set a new goal and try again in November.

As long as you keep writing, you simply can’t fail. There aren’t any wrong answers here or only one way to do it.

Your way is the best way for you. Don’t let anyone tell you different.

So, my writing friends, here’s to the last week of June. It might be the end of JuNoWriMo 2018, but it’s only the beginning of your journey. So keep on writing. Keep on making art. Keep on believing in you.

Peace, love, and words,
Angi

Angi Griffee is a dance and theater instructor whose love affair with words helps her create books. She also bakes, sings, and owns Wise Owl Words Editing.

June 18, 2018June 16, 2018

Pep Talk Week 3: Strategies for Writing through the Middle

We’re entering week three of JuNoWriMo. Some of you have already crossed the 50k line, some of you are close, and some of you are writing madly while knowing you won’t make that goal. The thing that all of these have in common is that you are writing and that is fantastic.

Today, I’m mostly speaking to the folks who aren’t finished yet and are trying to jam out a whole bunch of words. Yes, you can just write random stuff and bump up your wordcount that way, but wouldn’t it be nice to have words that you’ll be happy with later for more than just the quantity of them? Here’s a list of strategies find words you’re excited about.

Remember that you are telling a story and you are telling it to yourself first and foremost. We are, all of us, readers. So when you’re sitting there staring at the page, don’t think about what you should write next, think about what you would want to read.
Remember what excited you about the story in the first place. Bring it back. You liked the flying monkeys in chapter 2? No reason they can’t make a reappearance here.
Doodling for writers. Write description from your character’s point of view. Ridiculous descriptions. Describe the woodgrain on the desk sitting in the corner of the room that your character is in. At some point, your brain will say, “Really? We’re talking woodgrain? I have some plot here. Would you like some plot?” That description isn’t wasted. It tells you about the space that your character is in and you can often cut those words up and put them in other places in your novel
Pick a technique to practice. Dialogue. Setting. Internal monologue… Now doodle for writers with that, until you find your way again.
Gift your character with your indecision. They don’t know what their plan is either, so think about the smartest thing that they can do — but think about it on the page and in their point of view.
Figure out what your character wants overall and also in this scene. Now. Systematically deny it to them. They want a glass of water? Fine, break the faucet. They go to call the plumber? Tough luck about the phone coming off the wall like that. Be mean to them.
Brackets are your best friends. If you are on a roll, don’t stop to look things up. Put it in [square brackets] and come back to it.
Bored with a scene? Just jot down what happens next so you can get to the part that you really want to write. Sometimes, you’ll come back later and find you didn’t need the part you skipped.
Set a timer for twenty minutes and tell yourself that your fingers cannot stop moving. Before you hit start, pick a goal for the scene — something specific like “they break out of prison with a mason jar” or “she realizes she loves him.” Now write.

And if you don’t hit 50k by the end of June? No big deal. There’s always next month. Sure, JuNoWriMo is in June, but dude– writers write. And you, my friend, you are a writer.

Mary Robinette Kowal is the author of historical fantasy novels: The Glamourist Histories series and Ghost Talkers. She has received the Campbell Award for Best New Writer, three Hugo awards, the RT Reviews award for Best Fantasy Novel, and has been nominated for the Hugo, Nebula and Locus awards. Her stories appear in Asimov’s, Clarkesworld, and several Year’s Best anthologies. Mary, a professional puppeteer, also performs as a voice actor (SAG/AFTRA), recording fiction for authors including Seanan McGuire, Cory Doctorow, and John Scalzi. She lives in Chicago with her husband Rob and over a dozen manual typewriters. Visit maryrobinettekowal.com.

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June 11, 2018June 9, 2018

Pep Talk Week 2: How To Keep Writing

This week, Angi Black helps you sail through the halfway point of JuNoWriMo (and probably also your diet if you’re on one).

Hey there JuNoWriMo-ers! It’s week two and we’re nearly halfway done!!

How you doing?

Two weeks in is always the tipping point for me. If I’m sailing, I only build steam. On the other hand, if I’m struggling, I think about quitting. And that’s what today’s pep talk is about. How to keep going no matter how it is going.

First – everyone has those days. Every. One. If they say different, they are selling something.

Third – One bad day does not equal a wasted month. (Or year, or book, or whatever our brains would like us to believe).

When I get stuck I try to remember those three things. I take a deep breath and think them through.

Have you ever been on a diet? That was a silly question. I’ll rephrase. Remember the last time you were on a diet? And you ate that pizza and then you had a birthday party and ate cake and then because you’d done all that you finished the day with one (or three) too many glasses of wine? No?

Oh. Me either then. But hypothetically speaking… Because you’d felt like you’d blown it you decided to make your little bonfire into the explosion behind Ironman as he walks away. This is the same thing we do to our writing when it doesn’t come easy. We take a slow day of writing and turn it into OH MY GOD I’LL NEVER WRITE ANOTHER WORD WHAT AM I DOING HOW DID I GET HERE?????

And you know what’s great? It’s the easiest thing not to. All you have to do is this – be nice to yourself.

I know, weird, right?

When you start to struggle, think about what you would say to someone else who is struggling. I bet you’d encourage them, tell them they got this, and give them permission to have a slow day.

If you are writing, you are a writer.

You will finish whatever you put your mind to.

And your words will speak to the people they are supposed to.

All it takes is a whole lotta bravery and a little patience with ourselves.

So happy writing, my friends!!

Now, take a deep breath! Because I believe in you. You got this!!! And slow or fast, you’ll get there. Happy writing!

With magic words and love,

Angi

Angi Griffee is a dance and theater instructor whose love affair with words helps her create books. She also bakes, sings, and owns Wise Owl Words Editing.

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June 4, 2018June 2, 2018

Pep Talk Week 1: Writing Isn’t Just Writing

Get excited for this month’s challenge with a poignant and funny reminder from author Chuck Wendig that writing is so much more than “just writing.”

The good news, and the bad news, is that there is nothing I can tell you that you don’t already know.

You already know it’s going to be hard. Writing, despite what some assume, isn’t easy. It’s an act of mining – except instead of chipping rock, you’re chipping away at ideas, at emotions, at the schist and bedrock of your own mind.

You already know that it’s going to be weird. I mean, c’mon. You sit in front of a computer, basking in the glow, and you look at that glowing square and try to impress upon it the breadth and depth of a whole story. You also make people up. Like, you invent them. Wholecloth. Thin air. Entire beings that are you, but aren’t you, at the same time.

You already know that nobody will really appreciate it. I’m a NYT-bestselling author, and I still meet people who know I’m a writer, and their response is basically, “That’s nice.” And then they tell you a thing as if it’s somehow equivalent: “Oh, I found a sale today on a nice jacket,” and you want to respond, “I CREATED A WHOLE UNIVERSE WITH MY MIND, IT ISN’T THE SAME, JANICE,” but they just blink and smile and you can’t really crack that nut.

You already know that to write, you need to write. You need to quantum entangle YOUR BUTT with THAT CHAIR and herd those words. Writing can’t happen without writing, can it?

You also already know that writing isn’t just writing. It’s also a whoooooole lot of wandering and dreaming and thinking and worrying. It’s showering and mowing the lawn and then reading and re-reading and editing and weeping and eating cake under your desk.

You already know that desk-cake is the best cake, but also the most worrisome cake.

I can’t tell you anything you don’t already know.

But you and I both know, too, that no matter how weird and how hard it is, writing is what you do and who you are, and it’s worth doing just the same. Stories are sublime. Books are amazing. You don’t come to this ignorant of that. It forms part of a fantastic tradition – a tapestry of words and tales to which you wish to add your very own thread. You know that it matters. That being this thing and doing this work is important to you. Because you’ve read so much already by so many others that has left an indelible print on your soul.

You know you’re going to do it.

You’re a writer, and a writer writes. You know that, too. In your heart. In your gut.

So go write. Show us all what you know.

See you on the other side, penmonkeys.

Chuck Wendig is the New York Times bestselling author of Star Wars: Aftermath, as well as the Miriam Black thrillers, the Atlanta Burns books, Zer0es/Invasive, and his upcoming epic, Wanderers (Del Rey, 2019). He’s also worked in a variety of other formats, including comics, games, film, and television. A finalist for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer and the cowriter of the Emmy-nominated digital narrative Collapsus, he is also known for his popular blog, terribleminds.com, and his books about writing. He lives in Pennsylvania with his family.

Social Media: @chuckwendig on Twitter and @chuck_wendig on IG

May 23, 2018May 10, 2018

The Pre-JuNoWriMo Character Development Series, Part 4: Character Family Trees

The very first time I tried NaNoWriMo, I found out about it and joined mere days before the challenge. I didn’t prep anything save to decide I wanted to write Fantasy. I thought, for some reason, that Fantasy would be the easiest genre to write because I could make up my own rules. Having read Tolkien before, I don’t know why on earth I imagined this would make the task easier.

I managed to do some halfway decent worldbuilding on the fly, but aside from my two main characters, the others were mere afterthoughts—place holders for actions and dialogue that needed to move my two protagonists forward. (Yeah, because I also decided two main characters was a great idea for my first ever novel. Maybe I suffered from temporary insanity back in ’08 brought on by the recession? I’m running with that.)

Anyway, I reached a part in the novel where I didn’t even have a name for a character, so she got the label [PM1] for “protagonist’s mom.” Talk about an identity crisis.

Let me fast-forward a few years to when I was doing some personal genealogical research. I realized just how fascinating it is to think about where we come from, generations back. Take what I say next with a grain of salt because I haven’t verified it by going to England seeing the records for myself, but I managed to trace one line of my family tree back to the time of Alfred the Great. Stories came to mind for all those individuals—regardless of whether I’m actually their descendant. One of them helped inspire my protagonist for my current work-in-progress.

Understanding his family tree and how those people moved in the world helped me understand him better, which is why this week, in my fourth and final pre-JuNoWriMo character development post, I’m recommending you make your character’s family tree.

For Family Tree Newbs

If you’ve never made a family tree before, the process can seem daunting. But, if you take it one step at a time, I don’t doubt that you’ll have fun! There are a number of programs and apps you can use for this sort of thing, but as many of them actually link your tree to real people, I’m going to suggest you go with old-fashioned pencil and paper for this exercise. You can always take a photo of it if you want to store it digitally.

So, I’ll talk you through my process for making a family tree. By all means if you come across a different method, especially those recommended by actual genealogists, feel free to follow that guidance if you like. For this exercise, it doesn’t really matter how you create the family tree—just that you create it.

How I Make Character Family Trees

I start out by writing my character’s name in a square. Seems easy, no? I also write their birthdate. I draw a line to the sides to connect them to any siblings—circles for gals, triangles for guys. I know, in our progressive-thinking world it seems horrible to differentiate by gender. I’m a feminist, I promise. But if you’re making a large family tree, some kind of pictorial distinction can help. If you don’t want to use these shapes, or you don’t want to separate by gender but by something else, please be my guest!

I draw a vertical line to my protagonist’s parents, who are connected by a double line to signify marriage. If they had the children in the branch below theirs out of wedlock, I put a slash through that double line. You can already see how I tell a story with simple lines, names, and birthdates. I continue the process, moving up the family tree until I’ve gone back as far as I feel I must.

Even though I went back about 1200 years on my own family tree, I didn’t go back so far on my protagonist’s. But, his family are descended from the aristocracy, so I did go back several generations at least on his paternal side, since that’s how surnames are passed in British history. If your protagonist is from a matriarchal society, you’d want to follow their maternal line.

Okay, one more step to go—a special step I take for character family trees. For each person on the tree, I write one or two notes about who they are as a person, what they did in their life, and/or any metaphors I want to attach to them. This is a ginormous help to me in my drafting process, especially if I have many characters to keep track of.

Final Thoughts

Have you ever made a family tree for your characters? Is this an exercise you plan to try this year? If you’ve been a pantser in the past, have you thought about becoming a planner this year, or do you thrive on the spontaneity of going into a 50K in a month challenge completely uncertain of what you’ll write?

I’d love to know! Check in on the comments or catch me on Twitter! Happy pre-writing and writing!

Margaret McNellis has been volunteering with JuNoWriMo for years. She holds an MA in English & Creative Writing and is currently pursuing her MFA in Fiction. Her WIP is a historical novel set in the 17th century. Margaret’s short fiction has appeared in Fictitious Magazine, See Spot Run, The Penman Review, The Copperfield Review, and Dual Coast Magazine. To check out some of her fiction and poetry, visit her website. You can also connect with her on Twitter.