The Winner's Certificate

Ta da....

here it is the 50ks in 30 days Winner's Certificate.

I took the background photo in picturesque Nana Glen (by standing in the middle of the road!). We don't get that much traffic. Then took a close-up pic of the 50k sign so I could play around with the image.

It's whimsical, but I think it expresses clearly the nature of the task before us.

If some people would prefer a white background (without the scenery), I can arrange that as well.

At the end of the month, when we have a list of winners, I can add their names to the certificate and email it to you so you can print it out.

And we now have 49 starters....

....can we make it to 50?

Diane

Sitting on the fence...

WARNING: Long - can I count it towards my June total??

Hi, I’m Rachael, I’m a writer and I sit on the fence – I’m not a plotter like Suz or a panster like Sandie… I jump between them both. Just thought I should get that out of the way, before I tell you about NaNoWriMo, well, at least my experience of it thus far.

I finally took the plunge and signed up for NaNoWriMo in 2007. I’d wanted to do it since I first heard about it in 2004… but each year something BIG came up. First year – baby two months old, second year – early pregnancy with #2 and I get REALLY tired, third year – baby 2 only four months old and I just didn’t have the energy or inclination to try. But in those years between 2004 and my sign up in 2007, a lot changed in my life (aside from the growing litter).

For almost ten years I’ve been writing, but aimlessly writing. Focusing on writing what I suppose was chick-lit. I’d like to think I had a voice but I didn’t know much else. Then, in 2006, I joined Romance Writers of Australia. In these past few years, I discovered a love of category romance and also learnt a whole lot about how to make writing stories easier. For me, some of these things include having strong characters with clear goals, motivations and conflicts. I’d written two attempts at category since joining RWA but was still (am still) learning so much.

The week before I sat down to the keyboard, I did a lot of preparatory work on my characters. I had the idea for two ex-lovers – a magician and a comedian, but I needed more to their personalities. For the first time, I chose character archetypes for my hero and heroine before starting. From this I learnt a lot about how they’d react in different situations and how they’d react to each other. I thoroughly recommend checking out the site of the author of ‘16 Archetypes for Heroes and Heroines’ and if you’ve got a bit of spare cash… buy the book.

After this, I sat down and worked out what each character thought they wanted in life. In the case of my novel the ‘thought’ part is very important, because both characters in the end, realize thanks to each other, that their goals are misguided. I also worked out why they wanted these things so badly (their motivation) and then created things/people/each other that would get in their way (their conflicts).

From somewhere I had the first scene of my novel, which also led me to picturing a scene in the middle and the end. All three scenes are to do with a wedding dress. That’s about all I had. But, before actually starting I did a little more work. I made sure I knew what points my novel should be at by certain word counts… I wrote down where I’d need character/plot turning points and where my black moment should be. I put this all on an A4 piece of paper and when inspiration about scenes struck throughout the month I jotted them down where I thought they’d fit.

Oh and I also chose pics for my characters using celebrities. See photos on this page of Zoë and Cameron.

I believe having such strong characters really helped me during NaNoWriMo. I did have a crisis point about 35,000 words and did a big NaNo No-No… I took a few days off writing and reread what I’d written. I thought it was going AWOL and as time is precious, I didn’t want to waste it and ruin what I knew was forming up to be my best story yet. Luckily I still made the word count. I scraped in at 49897 words about two and a half hours before the month was up. But I’d deleted about a 1000 over the month, so I know I’d made it.

Since then I’ve edited this novel a bit and it placed 8th in the RWA Emerald Award. I’ve changed its title and changed it back again and am now editing a little bit more.

For anyone who’s doing this for the first time… GOOD ON YA and may the writing fairies shine down upon you!!

RACH!

A NaNo Journey

Hi All,

I thought I’d share with you my NaNOWriMo journey. First off I should tell you unlike Suzanne, I don’t plan my novels. I get my ideas from different places. Sometimes it might come from a name, a title or an idea. With NaNo it was an idea. My son’s dog Bear had arthritis and last year during winter he got that bad he could hardly walk. Poor Bear had to have a course of needles and he was put on tablets during winter. So you might ask what that has got to do with NaNo. I have a thing for needles, I HATE them. Just the thought of having a needle I break out in a sweat. I had to take Bear up for his needles, I’d sit there waiting to take him in nerves in my stomach and feeling very sick. When I went in with him I covered my eyes so I didn’t have to watch. Sam the young vet thought it was quite funny, but he was very nice. This was when the idea came to me.

What if there was this big, tough hero who had a thing for needles? How would he react when he had to take his dog to the vets because the dog was crippled with arthritis? What if the vet was a sexy as hell young woman? How would he deal with it? That’s where it started and it grew from there. Then I thought, what if said he had inherited this dog form an eccentric aunt? He could have any old dog it had to be something completely removed from what you would expect a horse stud owner to have. So I gave him a Chihuahua, who loved to sleep in a big basket with a big blue ribbon.

For my heroine all I had was a young vet moving to a small country town to heal after the death of her husband.

So I had an idea, this was what I wrote for my plan.
HERO: Hates needles, inherits Chihuahua with arthritis.
HEROINE: Vet recovering from death of her husband.

Come November 1st I sat down at my computer and started to write. My story flowed easily, by the end of day one I had 6,615 words and was happy with how my story was going. Day three and I thought the whole thing was crap. I had 11,524 and no one was doing what I wanted them to do. My heroine, who I had thought would be timid, shy and reserved was turning out to be stronger than I thought. Her Aunt who I had pictured as a sweet caring person was an old cow. And my bloody hero, was not playing nice at all. I had this idea that he would take Ashley (heroine) to bed they would do the horizontal Tango and she would have this big guilt thing going for betraying her dead husband, right! WRONG! Isaac (hero) gets to the good bit, then asks her if this is what she really wants. I’m sitting at my computer screaming NO, NO, NO, NO you are not to do this. Too late, she’d pulled away. No tango tonight. DAMN.

I’d also come to the conclusion that the whole story was CRAP!!!! But I plodded on hoping that it would all work out.

I think my biggest problem was that I didn’t know my hero and heroine. With my other WIP’s, I’d been working on them for so long I had a feel for the characters. I hadn’t planned any of my WIP’s but I’d taken the time to know my heroes and heroines. With NaNo I hadn’t, this is where the no planning was a problem. But there is nothing I can do about that, I just can’t write that way. If I try to write a plan, storyboard etc my characters go on strike and I get nothing.
Anyway back to NaNo.

By day 13, I was half way through my novel, Ashley who thought her deceased husband was her soul mate, finds out he was a no good two timing jerk. I’m like where the hell did that come from? I was getting pretty down, life outside writing was moving in on my time. Characters were not being nice, I hated most of the secondary characters and it was hard to sit in front of the computer and write each day.

Miss Procrastination came round to visit and had me off doing all sorts of wonderful things. Anything was better than having to face this story I was growing to hate. I’d been sick, my mum was in respite and not very happy and I’d hit the saggy middle. Boy did that sucker sag. But I pushed through. I cheated I wrote the end. Hehehe. I needed something to cheer me up. I love the endings where they find their HEA.

So don’t go thinking that you have to things in sequence, you don’t. Just write whatever comes to you. If you have a scene that you think should be somewhere else move it, write it get it out there but move it to where you think it fits best.

By the time I’d hit day 28, I had 47,862 words and had no idea where I was going to get the last 2,138 words from. There was nothing. Diane sent her word fairy over for a visit (Hehehe, yes I was quite insane by the end. Well I was insane to start with, I was just more so by the end), anyway word fairy helped. Before I dragged myself off to bed at 1 am I was finished. I had 50,026 words, and some really good writing buddies. That was the one constant through the whole journey. We were there for one another, through the highs and the low’s offering support.

So my advice for June, If you’re a planner plan, if not don’t put pressure on yourself. If you reach the 50,000 words great. If you don’t, but you have given it all you can, than you are winners. The word count is just a number. This is all about doing the best you can in the time you have, we all have lives outside our writing and sometimes those lives need to be come first. So if you feel you’re slipping DO NOT beat yourself up over it. If you feel like having a rant because things aren’t going the way you want get on the loop or come to the blog and tell us. If you’re over the moon because you have excelled your word count or you have just written the best damn scene you have ever written, tell us. Hell, shout it out, we are all here to help, encourage and cheer. The Topless Table Dancing Tarts may even do the Can Can for you. Hehehe.

One last thing to remember. WE ARE ALL DAMN GOOD, NO GREAT WRITERS.

Hugs
Sandie

My NaNoWriMo

Hi Everyone,

Thank you Sandie for inviting me to talk about my NaNoWriMo Novel, Passion In Paradise, which now has been accepted for publication by The Wild Rose Press, New York. 50ks in 30 days is the same as a writing a NaNoWriMo manuscript, and there is four weeks before we start. Yikes.

Before I start, I should say you have to have passion for your writing. You should want to achieve your target more than anything else in the world. Then there’s determination. You have to be determined, stubborn, never failing and refuse to let anything or anyone stop you.
Preparation: This is what works for me, as we are all different. No one can tell you how to undertake your writing schedule. I got up every morning at six-thirty to be at my computer by nine and typed away until I reached those two thousand words. Late nights may suit some. Whatever way, prepare it as you prepare dinner. How many nights a week do you cook? We all buy groceries, bring them home, plan what you are having for tea and do it almost every day.
What is different from cooking and writing? Think about it. I hear you laugh. But they both have to have preparation. I think this is the key word. For me getting up at six-thirty every morning, allowing two and a half hours for washing, showering, dressing comfortably and having breakfast before chaining myself to the computer. If other things needed attention I’d do it within those hours or when I had finished my word count. You have to make it your daily routine.

I had preparation, but this wasn’t preparation to sit down and write. Now, I needed Preparation number two. I knew what the theme was going to be for my story. Lovers united, stranded on a deserted island. It doesn’t matter what title you give your story, it will change along the way, and if the editor doesn’t like it she’s going to suggest changes anyhow. My titles for Passion In Paradise were, Seven Days, Paradise Found, The Italian Lure, The Lure of the Italian, and Island of Dreams. Lol. I came up with Passion in Paradise when I finished the book. The very first comment my editor said to me was, I love the title. I think from memory it has around 55,000 words it could be closer to 60.000. lol

DON’T answer the phone. This is vital, and it really helps if you have a answering machine. That way, important calls can be returned later. DON’T answer the door. Tell your friends, family you are undertaking this challenge and make sure they understand not to disturb you. If you think this won’t help, tell them you won’t be home. I had someone tell me about unexpected friends that turned up on their doorstep and stayed for two days. She broke the golden rule. DON’T answer the door. Lol Unless you see two uniformed police waiting impatiently.

I needed to have a basic plan of attack. I knew who my hero was and what he wants. I knew who my heroine was and what she wants. I had character sheets drawn up for them, not necessarily filling in every little white space, only what I thought of up front. I had the major plot. I could see a motion picture in my head of what was happening at the beginning. I saw the conflict up front. This is my ingredient for beginning any novel.

Then I sat down and typed. Um, um. Um, now that’s three words. Lol. Seriously. Just type. His smile ??? oh hell… can’t think… so whenever I came across a place I was stumped for a word, or even a sentence, I didn’t waste time thinking about it. I put in three question marks and did a find ???, at a later date. This is then thinking time. It’s amazing what I came up with. Sometimes these questions marks made me think more about my novel. I found the question mark vital.

I hope some of my comments have been helpful. Remember what works for me might not work for you. However, make sure you have some type of preparation and desire to succeed and you will.

A Little Change

As you can see we have had a little change with the blog. This was done so the word meter's would fit in properly, can't have half a meter now can we?

So we now have a full list of everyone who is competeing in the challenge, not just the one's with websites or blogs.

Hope you like it. If you thing something need changing let me know all ideas welcomed.

Hugs
Sandie

How NaNoWriMo saved my life

Thanks to Sandie, Diane and Rachel for the invitation to post about my experience of NaNoWriMo last year. Okay, okay. I'll admit the title of this blog post is a bit melodramatic, and not true in the literal sense. But the 2007 NaNoWriMo challenge did save my writer sense of self, as well as my writing dream. Let me explain.

In the previous ten years before November 2007, I was in Writing Drought Hell. And this is an understatement. As all you writers know, when you're not writing you are miserable, depressed, in a waking nightmare that doesn't seem as if it will ever end. Well, you get the picture. That was me. I had always wanted to write a novel, but since 1997 I found I could not write one creative word. I tried almost everything to get me started writing again - counselling, writing courses, reading how-to-books and interviews with authors, trying to come up with answers as to the reason/s why I couldn't write thinking that if I knew that I could solve the problem. After two years of putting off NaNoWriMo, I finally decided it was time to give it a go. Hell, I was desperate.

But I was also scared shitless. Would I be able to write at all, let alone 50,000 words in 30 days? What if I couldn't? Then I'd have to watch while my dream of writing a novel went up in smoke. The pressure I was putting on myself was enormous. "Just sit down and start writing," advised my well-meaning hubby.

On November 1st, that's exactly what I did. I had already read Chris Baty's 'No Plot? No Problem!' a few years before, but re-read the parts of the book that related to each stage of the challenge. For those of you that haven't read this book, I recommend you pick up a copy, as I found it invaluable in helping me get through the month. You can order a copy from http://www.writersbookcase.com.au/. What attracted me most to this challenge, was that the aim was to write as fast as possible in order to silence the inner critic. This is exactly what I needed.

Part of what I had internalised was about 'what is the best way to write a novel.' I had these beliefs drummed into my head that I must plan and plot and outline before writing an actual sentence. Needless to say, I never planned or plotted or outlined. So I decided to do what Chris Baty recommended and start from scratch. I had no idea what I was going to write until I sat down at my writing desk on the first day of the challenge.

It must be said from the outset that I thought there was no way I could actually write 50,000 words in 30 days. I had been going through a writing drought remember? Even though I knew that was the goal of the challenge, I told myself the aim was for me to write consistently throughout the month, and I'd be happy if I achieved 10,000 words. Imagine my surprise when I actually managed to write 54,032 words by the end of the month!

The writing didn't come easily at the beginning. To be honest, it was a struggle. But then a funny thing happened. The writing became easier. I got so into the story and the characters that there were days when I doubled or tripled my daily word count target of 1,667 words. This gave me the buffer I needed, as I was able to have a break for a few days towards the end of the month. This was extremely helpful, as I was starting to feel run down and needed a break from the writing.

Oh, and BTW, I did manage to have a life during the challenge. In addition to working 32 hours per week in a demanding and draining job, I had a household to run, did a 4-week romance writing course, attended social engagements, and celebrated my second year wedding anniversary. I also have fibromyalgia (which is a chronic illness characterised by fatigue and chronic pain) to contend with. And I am the biggest procrastinator in the world! I found that achieving my daily word count only took me a couple of hours a day. Admittedly, it was harder to achieve the word count during the working week, but I made up for it on my days off work.

I don't believe I could have achieved what I did without the support of the RWA NaNoWriMo support loop. The sense of community and camaraderie made the challenge more fun. Who else could have provided friendly competition, shoulders to cry on when times were tough, and hugs when things went well? I initially tried to keep up with Sandie who had a formidable word count. That's what spurred me on.

Writing without an outline, or without any idea which direction the story was going, was fun. I jotted down notes at the end of the day on what my next scene would be about. I also kept a record of the dates I wrote and the word count I achieved, and felt enormous satisfaction at seeing my word count increase. Writing the ending of the story was the most difficult for me. But when I did, I was ecstatic! Writing 'The End' was the best feeling. I had finally done it. I had written a first draft.

A month later, I read over what I had written. There were a lot of holes that needed fixing, but I was surprised that the writing wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. This first draft still languishes in my bottom drawer. I might re-write it one day, but it needs a hell of a lot of work. Nevertheless, as some wise person said (Nora Roberts?): You can't fix a blank page. Participating in NaNoWriMo and completing a first draft (even if nothing comes of it) was one of my best achievements. It saved a big part of me - the writer - and my mojo returned after having gone AWOL so many years ago. Most of all, I proved to myself that I COULD DO IT. And if I can do it, anyone can.

Tell us about one of your achievements, writing related or not. What did you doubt you'd ever accomplish, and that made you proud when you finally did? I'd love to hear your experiences. You might also find it helpful to remember this achievement during the month of June when times get tough and writing 50,000 words seems impossible.

I'm looking forward to joining all of you for the June 50ks in 30 days writing challenge.

Angie :)

Struck by lightning?

Inspiration.
What's it like for you? For me it's like being struck by lightning. One second nothing, then bam! The idea is there. Usually it's a scene that rolls across the screen in the back room of my head. It's never the beginning, well once it was, but that's it. Then more scenes start following, never in order, come on, that would make my life too simple and we can't have that. So it's my job to write down the scenes and then patch them together like a jigsaw puzzle. Good thing I like jigsaw puzzles.
I'm just back from my trip to Bangkok and guess what? Yep. There was lightning in Bangkok. I was standing in our hotel room looking out the dirty windows at the even dirtier streets below and the song 'One Night In Bangkok' started playing in my head. Damn thing is still there, but that's okay because it kind of fits with the lightning. Anyway, I'm busy singing in my head because no one wants to hear me actually sing, and this guy suddenly starts talking. He's telling someone, can't see them yet, that there's probably no way to locate a missing brother. With everything that goes on in the back streets you'll never know what happened to him.
Then she appears, standing toe to toe with this guy and says she doesn't care who she had to go through she'll find her brother, dead or alive! Okay, that's interesting because I'd been thinking about how sleazy Bangkok feels, it's not just dirty it's filthy. I know it has a reputation and maybe that played into it too but that was all I had.
Then I went shopping with my friend who lives there and we were getting lunch when this guy starts chatting us up. Okay, so we're not that old but hey, we're old! Plus we've both got sizable rings on our fingers but this guys still chatting us up and that's when the second lightning strike occurred. I'm not going into details because I'm still playing with the idea and it may change shape before it's finished, oh who am I kidding, it will change shape. It always does.
So back to inspiration, it's where you find it. I'm known for such lightning strikes in the shower, which probably isn't wise with all that water but hey, you go with it. Besides there's not much choice. It can be while you doing the most mundane activity like the washing or like me while you're visiting an exotic local, it doesn't really matter. What matters is that you take advantage of it, whether using it in a new idea or fitting it into your existing wip, every little thing counts.
The best advice I can give is to write it down. I have about 6 little note books filled with little bits and pieces that have struck me at one time or another. I've used a lot of them. I'll use the rest at some point and I'm sure I'll continue to add to the books. Don't fall into the trap of thinking I'll jot it down later. Not gonna work. You'll forget. If anyone looked at my notebooks they'd swear they were written in another language, and they wouldn't be far wrong because it's my language. I have my own short hand that means I don't need to write down every word, thank god!
There are so many ways to be inspired. Music, movies, other books, even just out shopping. Next time you're out and about look at the people around you. Make up a story about them. What sort of life does the woman in the short skirt and high heels live? Is she a hooker? Maybe she's a lawyer? And what about the man over there? The one dressed in dirty jeans and holey t-shirt? Does he work construction? Maybe he's a mechanic? Or maybe he's a millionaire who hates the trappings of his wealth? See where I'm going with this?
If you have the time it's a fun exercise to think up stories for people you see. Next time you're in the line at the supermarket check out the people in front of you or even the check out chick (how sexist did that sound?), you'll be pleasantly surprised at what your mind will come up with.
So now that I've wasted your time, because you just had to read my insightful witty post, get off your butt, grab a pen and note book and head down to the local shopping center and see what you can get out of it. It actually does do more than take your money. And if you're lucky it'll help you make money.
Go forth, be inspired!
Oh, and come back and tell me how you went.
'See' ya!
Rachel C