It's almost that time of year again! Thanksgiving? Christmas? Snowy weather? What is she talking about? National Novel Writing Month! For the whole month of November writers across the world commit to writing a 50,000 word novel. If you write every day that comes out to about 1,667 words a day. I did NaNoWriMo for the first time last year and I won (meaning I wrote a 50,000 word novel). Last year I attempted to write a young adult book, but it was very difficult for me to write stylistically. This year I hope to write something I'm more interested in and something more usable for me-- which means this year I'm planning to write an essay collection. I have ideas and admittedly some essays to start with. Even though I have some things written already I'm going to edit them during November to make them fit with the collection I plan to write.
I was more successful than I planned last year and I think part of my success was having a writing buddy. My boyfriend joined me in NaNoWriMo and we wrote together every night. We really encouraged each other and it was great to have someone to bounce ideas off of. If you're participating in NaNoWriMo this year I would really encourage you to find a writing buddy--even if its just someone on the Internet. A lot of writers outline before NaNoWriMo. I did write an outline last year, but this year I don't plan to. I've kept random thoughts in various journals throughout the past year and I plan on using those as my ideas.
Who else is participating in NaNoWriMo this year? Feel free to add me as buddy-- my screenname is ashbrux and I promise I'll add you back! What worked well for you last year if you did it?
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National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) starts for me in two and a half hours. I'm not sure if I'm going to try and get any writing in tonight or if I'm going to do it tomorrow, I probably should start tonight. We'll see.
I'm really struggling about which of my two ideas I should do. The first idea a historical fiction novel about suffrage in America, pretty challenging but I have timeline of events that I would like to include in the story. The second idea is a young adult novel about a nerdy comic book boy, much like something I would have read in my teens. This would be less challenging and I might lose interest, it's hard to tell.
In any case, I am very excited for NaNoWriMo. I will win! I hope. If you don't know about NaNoWriMo, it's not too late! It's a challenge to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. We can do this.
Last night I kind of officially threw the hat in on National Novel Writing Month. I currently have about 17,000 words and there is no way I'll be able to catch-up in a week. When I first looked back on last year it seemed like this year should be just as doable. But in reality my job actually requires me to do real work now, whereas last year I just sat at a desk and worked on homework. I also lived in the dorms last year and didn't have to deal with any real life responsibilities, like cooking dinners and cleaning. And I had a lot less night classes. All three of these things seemed to contribute to my downfall this year.
But I'm not giving up entirely. I'd still like to write another 15,000 words before the end of the year, which is a goal that seems doable to me. And as far as writing goes, I've been more successful this year than I was last year because I have produced five essays this month that are great starts. I actually want to work with these essays more and continue honing them. At the end of last November I said I would go back and edit my novel, but I never did. I never edited it because I didn't feel passionate about anything I wrote. I think I learned more from National Novel Writing Month this year than last year. I learned what process works well for me when writing an essay, and I pushed myself to write some narrative nonfiction which I've never done before.
Overall the experience was a success. It got me in the habit of thinking about essay topics all the time. Whenever I had a conversation or saw something happen I thought about how I might turn that into an essay. The truth is that great essays are all around you, you just have to be aware. I think that is what essaying is all about-- being aware of what is going on around you and how it fits into a chain of reactions. So while I didn't win in the sense of getting 50,000 words, I still consider this year a win.
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Today I have an interview with up and coming author Alexandra Bracken. Her novel, Brightly Woven, debuts March 23. The short description of the novel from her website is, "Sydelle Mirabil is living proof that, with a single drop of rain, a life can be changed forever. Tucked away in the farthest reaches of the kingdom, her dusty village has suffered under the weight of a strangely persistent drought. That is, of course, until a wizard wanders into town and brings the rain with him." I haven't read her novel yet, though I plan to, so many of you might be wondering why I chose to interview her. Bracken is unique in that she was working on publishing her novel while she was still in college. She signed with an agent on her 21st birthday and after spending her senior year revising the novel her dream is finally coming true next week. How did she do it you might ask, and I think the work diligence pretty much sums up Bracken's story. I won't just leave it at that though, as follows you can read her answers to my questions about how she balanced school and writing and what path (or paths) she took to get there.
Where did you go to school, when did you graduate, and what did you go? I went to the College of William and Mary, graduated last Spring, and majored in History and English
Did you start as an English major? What made you decide to become an English major? When I was applying for schools, I focused on the Virginia area, mostly because I knew I wanted to study Early American History and I would freeze my butt off if I went to school in New England. I had always loved English, but my dad had convinced me to major in History and Government because he wanted me to be a lawyer. BIG mistake. I took one Government class and realized how stupid it was for me NOT to major in English--AKA the subject I really loved.
What were your plans for after graduation? How have those plans been fulfilled or how have they been different than you expected? Originally, I was going the pre-law route (I'm sure you've all noticed that when you say you're an English major, most people assume that you want to be A) a lawyer or B) a teacher)... but I realized, in the middle of taking the LSAT unfortunately, that being a lawyer would make me MISERABLE, and spent all of the summer between Junior and Senior year moping around without a life plan. My next idea was to work in PR/Communications (which I definitely recommend), but I ended up getting a scholarship to attend the Columbia Publishing Institute and decided to take it. I now work as an editorial assistant in children's publishing. Looking back, it seems like a natural choice since being an author had given me a lot of insight into the business.I'm not sure if it's what I want to be doing forever, but I'm happy to be employed and doing something I enjoy!
What made you decide to take on writing a novel while in college? I first tried my hand at writing a novel my freshman year--I always say that NaNoWriMo made me very brave, and it's true. I thought I would just give it a go, and ended up getting hooked on the process.
Were you planning to publish this all along? No... I tried to be very realistic about it and not get my hopes up, but secretly I was hoping I'd be able to sell something before I graduated.
How did you balance school and writing? I get asked this all the time, and I'm still not sure what the right answer is. I was very disciplined and made a lot of social sacrifices on the weekends. You really do have to find a schedule that works, though. The first three years of college were incredibly reading and writing intensive (I was once assigned 2000 pages of reading a week in my Sophomore year. Not. Fun.), but that helped me write. Knowing that I only had an hour here or two hours there meant that I used that little time for writing and writing alone. When i was working on revisions with my agent, I gave myself a deadline to finish the first round before finals that May. Starting in March, I woke up at 6 AM every day and wrote until I had class at 1 PM, and when I was done with homework at night, I'd be back to revising. I tried getting up at 5 AM and squeezing in an hour of work out time, but... uh... I quickly decided an extra hour of sleep was more important than getting my fitness on.
What advice would you give college students who want to write seriously in college? What advice would you give those who want to publish? What steps should they take? The advice that I always give to high schoolers and college students that ask me this question is this: While you're in school, focus on being a writer before you focus on being a published author. I really miss the days I had before I was published, when I could write whatever I wanted regardless of how crappy it was and I didn't have to worry about another person's judgment. I can't reinforce this enough, being published in college is like having a full-time job, and one that isn't always fun. It's an incredible amount of stress and pressure to put on yourself, when you're already anxious about exams/papers/what-have-you. Not everyone will have a negative experience, but I would also add that a good portion of my friends thought that I had graduated a semester early because I was so deep in my revision hole that I only surfaced for food and class. School is such a unique and wonderful time, but you don't get to experience it when you're by yourself writing. There are a zillion and a half elements in Brightly Woven that I picked up from the classes I was taking at the time. Be a sponge and absorb as much as possible from your classes and friends. Make sure you're taking advantage of all that college life has to offer, and if you happen to write something that you feel is ready to be seen by the world, go for it! Revise it seriously, submit it to agents, and learn from the feedback you get. Make sure that when you're writing you are happy and excited, because the minute you start feeling stressed out or depressed, it often means that your life has become unbalanced, and you need to step away and refocus.
What advice would you give to English majors about how to make the English major work for them after school? Okay guys, here's a secret: what matters in the job world isn't necessarily what you majored in, but the internships and work experiences that you have. My current boss didn't hire me because I was an English major (though I'm sure that helped)--she claimed it was because I talked about coordinating our Student Assembly's Thanksgiving airport shuttle rides. So don't discount any work experience you have, regardless of how small or insignificant you think it is. I would also recommend networking with alums in the career field of your choice, and seeking out speciality programs like the Columbia Publishing Course, which often feed you directly into jobs. Besides the fact that companies are always looking for good writers (seriously--critical writing does not tend to be a strength of most business majors), so be sure to always play that up. Plus, you've spent how many years analyzing and forming your own arguments, right? That's another skill you have in the bag.
Alexandra's novel, Brightly Woven, comes out March 23. You can read a longer synopsis if you follow the Brightly Woven link.
I've made it through my first week of NaNoWriMo! So far the story is going really well, although I've been making a few changes to the plot as I've been going along. After forty-three pages of novel my 5-15 page Nonfiction essay seems less scary.
I don't think I've mentioned this before, but my boyfriend is doing NaNo with me. I can't even express how helpful this has been. Most days we write at the same time and we keep each other going. I don't know if I'd still be going without him, last year I ended up quitting after two days. We didn't even discuss doing NaNo together, he just knew I was doing it and started the same day as me. Then the next day he started telling me about his novel. I was surprised and excited to have a writing buddy.
So far the I have just been reaching the recommended word counts, I'm hoping that when November 22 comes I will be inspired and write a lot (maybe I'll even finish my novel! Dream on).
I finally finished NaNoWriMo last night. I don't really feel like I have finished a novel. Like my boyfriend said, I just feel like I've written a bunch of words. I have two weeks left of school and then I want to go back and read my novel. There are several things I know need to be changed. At one point my main character was going to get a job and then I just sort of forgot about that part. I really didn't know where my story was going to end up, so the ending has a lot of build up to the ending and I think there needs to be more in the beginning for it all to make sense. I'm looking forward to reading my boyfriend's novel more than mine because his sounds absolutely ridiculous.
Final Word Count: 50,032 Pages: 207 Total Time Spent Writing: 24.5 hours Revisions: 135
Congratulations to everyone else who finished a novel this month! If you didn't end up finishing your novel that's okay, there is still hope. I failed miserably last year and succeeded this year even though I was ten times busier. And if you didn't participate this year, you really should do it next year! I'm planning on it.
Sidenote: I know college students use "not enough time" as an excuse to skip NaNo, but I managed to get it done on top of work and all my other responsibilities. It was a great homework break and now that I have thirty pages to write this week I am not scared. The tactics I used to help complete NaNo have turned into really useful tools for completing papers. Plus, once you have written 50,000 words in 30 days you realize that nothing is impossible.
On Monday I created a video to share how badly I'm doing on National Novel Writing Month this year. I had one really good day this week where I wrote over 3,000 words, but then it all kind of fell to the side. Working on an essay project is a lot more challenging than working on a fiction book because I can't really just make a bunch of stuff up. At the same time, when I finished National Novel Writing Month last year I never wanted to see what I wrote again. I can already tell you that won't be the case this year. In any case, I'm hoping to do a lot of writing this weekend so I won't be very busy doing much else (except writing a paper or two).
I'm going to share a beginning of an essay I struggled through this week. I'm really excited about the idea but still need to fill it out more. The essay is titled On Planes.
I was a bumbling, tall girl in a giant leather jacket my father lent me so I could pretend to be Amelia Earheart. I was twelve and I thought I wanted to get my pilot’s license. My father had his and I knew he always wanted to be a pilot. I didn’t want to become a pilot, but I thought being able to fly a plane would be something that would bring my dad and I closer together. We could sit in the cockpit together and fly over cornfields and soybean fields and talk about what we thought of that yellow green earth.
Amelia Earhart saw her first airplane at the Iowa State Fair where her father tried to interest her in taking a flight, but she was too afraid to ride in what appeared to be a very unsturdy airplane. Approximately ten years later she took her first flying lesson.
My dad took me flying when I was three weeks old, I’ve never met someone who flew sooner than that, and it’s always been a source of pride for me. I used to have a recurring dream about it. I was outside of the plane in the dream, floating by it. It was yellow and black like a goldfinch. A small plane made just for three people. I looked through the window of the plane to see a small, baby version of myself sitting in my mothers lap. I am sleeping with a smile on my face
So far this year's Nanowrimo is going much better than last year's. I'm actually keeping up with my story and coming up with a pretty good plot. Last year I tried to write a Western which I think was a little ambitious on my part considering I have read very few Westerns. This year does not require any research on my part, but I'm not getting bored because there are some twists in the story that are making it fun for me to write. I'm trying to only write the suggested word count for the days right now, if I get too excited and write all the time I know I will get burnt out on it.
My story has changed a little bit because of something that happened to me. Yesterday I feel down a bunch of stairs and twisted my ankle, so now I cannot walk very well and my ankle looks humongous. In a sense it was a good thing though because it made me come up with a better way for my two main character's to meet.
I started a discussion in the Young Adult genre forum about how old everyone is. Most of the YA writers who responded were in their twenties, but a lot of them said they had younger siblings that helped inspire them to write YA stories. I do not have this luxury, my main characters are both seniors in high school since that is not too far away from where I am now (but far enough thank goodness!). I'm actually really enjoying writing characters that are in high school because it was a time of my life that I despised. This is my main motivation and inspiration for writing these characters. I feel like I understand their angst.
