Writing After NaNoWriMo

Certainly it must be possible to write after the infamous National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo).

Right?

Yeah.

Okay, I should clarify: writing a different story once NaNo is over. And by a different story, I mean to assume that you've completed your NaNo piece. Because we all complete the things we work on.

I did NaNo last year, successfully. I got it published in April, so I was editing during that time. Once I had it finished, I wrote stuff in vague bits of inspiration for some time. And basked in my own *glorious* writing.

Then I went back to old projects. Then took a break. But now, I've got two main projects and I love them both. I recently checked the page count for my new story, "Daniel and his Dead Brother Brian", and it's at 27 pages. I was very happy. That's something. It's the beginning of a story. Readers can actually judge it!

So, I suppose I am in a surprised state. It feels strange to be writing without an overt deadline. No end of November to hound my dreams (nightmares). Instead just the nightmares of stories forgotten. Just Kidding. Really.

But, in the end, I'm happy that I'm back into writing something and not moving on quickly. I'm back, baby!

-JK

Jason's Rules of Writing

Jason's Rules of Writing

(And why you shouldn't listen)

1. You write gold. Except you suck.
2. You will usually describe objects (nouns) by their three most important features. (More of a context thing.)
3. Passive sentences are killed by a watchful eye (or eyes) and practice.
4. Being redundant is redundant. Don't be redundant.
5. Readers will hate a meaningless story more than a story full of crappy writing.
6. Readers don't like to read crappy writing, unless glittering vampires are involved; and thus the pages glitter in their own respect.
7. You write gold. Except you suck.
8. The mark of a great writer is one who learns the rules (guidelines), and breaks them in such a way that the reader benefits from it (and possibly doesn't realize the breakage).

Apologia Writing

We don't live in a vacuum.

Our words can hurt others as much as they can enlighten.

Learning to tone down the critical or negative aspects of one's views in light of how others may perceive the message is something I have never been particularly great at.

And, because of this, sometimes it means you have to bite your own words.

NaNoWriMo gave me a lot. Although I have only participated in it a single time, I have fully experienced the trials and stress of the competition. A friend of mine has children and she gave it a shot last year, only to get a few thousands words typed. So, because I finished means what exactly? That I had an easier time. That's all.

Under the guise of being Awesome, it seems I became cocky and then  not-so-cocky after the fact. Now I just pity the poor souls who devote November to the Writing G-ds. I pity them for one main reason: it's a drug that is hard to give up.

I will re-iterate that I am not jealous of my friends doing it this year. It is a tough thing to do and should not be taken lightly. After all, as students, hitting 1667 words a day ain't easy. And, that assumes you don't like writing utter sacks of smelly forgotten words. You want to do well. And so did I.

The first thing one must do in any sort of rhetoric, especially when they are communicating with a potentially opposing beliefs crowd, is not to attack them or make them feel stupid.

I didn't quite miss that mark. I didn't mean to come off as critical or pretentious as I might have. I was only looking to write a blog post.

So, brave NaNo'ers: fare the rocky synonym shores and alliteration valleys with caution as you make your way to the Land of Eternal Denouement. If you're lucky, you might come out with something you'll want to continue working on.

JK

Making NaNoWriMo out to be a (non) Giga Deal

Perhaps it should be stated that NaNoWriMo is a giga deal.

It isn't so much that the act of writing itself is important, but the persistence in doing so.

That is the "magic" of NaNoWriMo.

And, at least in my case, once I've waved the NaNo stick, suddenly the event itself seems to disappear.

Until over half of my writer friends are doing it.

Prologues assasinate Wookie Witers

So, it all began.
There was a forest.
And a young boy — in said forest — who didn’t know who he was.
Then an old man with a tangled, silvery beard, came up to him with a somber smile.
The boy didn’t know that a smile was meant as a greeting, but considered it evil.
He leapt to try to kill the old man, but failed pathetically.

Then one day a horrible storm washed through the forest, and as the old man was fighting the world’s strongest bear, he died when a tree struck by lightning flattened him.

The boy reverted back to his original, evil programming.

And thus begins our story.

Get a literary Prius

Sputter. Sputter. Sput. Sput. Sput.

Your writing engine just died. The pen stopped and the paper stretches on for seventeen notebooks. Crud.

You gotta finish though, right? It's fairly important, this ridiculous thing called writing. And, for many of us, it pays the bills.

So, what happens when you're cruising along the margins, admiring your penmanship (penwomanship), smiling as the characters do lovely and not so lovely things to one another, and then your story stalls? You could get an oil change, or fix your tires. But, really, what if all you need is a new car?

No, I'm not talking about a new story. I'm not talking about taking a leak, and I'm not talking about replacing your pencil. I'm talking about a new perspective: that might be your Prius--half writer, half real person.

If you're stuck in the pot-holes of your story, hybrid or not, even if you've just finished a great chapter, you must wonder what to do next. Is it possible to lose the magic? Could you actually break the mechanics of your story if you make a wrong move? It is certainly possible. Thus, you can do a couple of things: either write through it, or do something else.

I, my lovely thousands of readers, usually opt for the latter. That doesn't mean that you can't, but sometimes it just gets to be a lot of crap before you hit gold. So, how about hang out with those creatures called "friends", see a movie, or by the G-d's powers, read?

And that is what you'll need to think about. Change up your vehicle--either by turning down another road, or looking through the eyes of a different windshield. Either way, you should put some thought into it, otherwise writer's block, no matter what form it is, if it exists, will keep blocking you from that Pulitzer.

Now, back to work. Drive that car to the finish line.

-JK out.

Down & Dirty Fiction

Okay, so the title to this post might be misleading. What I meant was for “getting into a story”. People say, “Oh, yeah, I got into Lost.” Or, “I just couldn’t get into Harry Potter.” The topic of this post, then, is what does it mean to get into something, and on a greater note, why we use that phrase. Let’s begin like we normally would: with some ridiculous statements that we can hardly back up.

Chuck Wendig of terribleminds has coined the term, penmonkey, and wisely so. In his book of predominately edited blog-posts, Confessions Of A Freelance Penmonkey, Chuck talks about how the content of a story is not bound to the margins of the page (or sides of your compy or tablet). He calls it the magic of the cell-phone, with communication from all places of the story coming in and going out, and especially interfering with one another. Of course, that’s the way it should be. And that, JK’s huge base of readers, is where our idea of “getting into a story” takes place.

Getting into something probably means finding yourself in the story. Perhaps you are reading Gulliver’s Travels (the revised for modern comprehension edition), and within a couple of pages you find yourself gasping at the *SPOILER* tiny men tying up our beloved Gulliver. You got into the story. You found yourself at the scene, and what’s really important here is that you cared about the story, and hopefully, the character.

Writers and readers want that. If within a chapter the reader hasn’t gotten into the story, then they probably won’t (and hopefully they didn’t waste their money and time!). They can try, and they might, especially if there are vast changes in the story or a different POV. But, they would probably just be forcing their eyes along the pages until they go Fahrenheit 451 on that POS. Writers, too, but many won’t realize if they’re writing crappily until they’ve received 50 rejection letters from (hopefully) prominent publishing houses. (You can self-publish, of course!) They might not notice what they’re writing. Or, they might. Hopefully they do. And, if that’s the case, it’s the same situation: if they can’t get into their story writing-wise, or if they find content wise they don’t like it, then SOL and try again.

So, now we have an idea of what getting into something means. The why is as easy as the what. It’s a great why because the meaning of words actually give some semblance of a “world” in which you can “see yourself living in” with the actual characters.

Therefore, the first step for any reader or writer is to find those special things that they can relate to in a story, and get in knee-deep. Down and dirty fiction.

-JK out.