web stuff 4 writers

Lessons learned from NaNoWriMo: Part IV

This is a guest post from Caitlin Fitzsimmons, a journalist, travel writer, blogger and wannabe fiction writer. Her site is caitlinfitzsimmons.com.

The process of writing a novel is a learning process and it is likely to uncover weaknesses you didn’t know you had, as well as those you did. Doing NaNoWriMo is no different except that potentially you can learn your lessons in 30 days and progress more quickly. I learned a few things about myself as a writer in the course of NaNoWriMo, none of which I knew before I started. Since everyone has a different writing style, everyone will learn different lessons, but these were the ones that jumped out for me.

• I like to plan. Some of my novel was plotted in advance and some of it was improvised but I found the writing was much stronger when I had a clear idea of what I was trying to achieve, rather than just seeing where the story took me.
• I am too nice. I grew very attached to my characters and I found it hard to either make them behave badly or to let bad things happen to them. If I made them fight, they would make up by the next scene. If they were captured by baddies, the baddies would turn out to be not so horrible after all. Since drama needs conflict, this is not desirable, and it’s something I’ll be focusing on in future drafts and when I write other pieces.
• I need to put in more detail. As a journalist I am always trying to find the most concise way to say something and I am very sparing with the description. The result was that I ran out of story at 40,000 words - even though 50,000 words is actually a very short novel (175 pages) and 80,000 words is more standard. I think there was enough plot but I need to develop it more, and put in a lot of the detail that I am naturally inclined to remove. It’s a little strange since I think most authors have the opposite problem!
• Strong, well articulated characters are essential but it’s not just about creating them, it’s also about sustaining them and their journey through an entire novel. I discovered that while my characters all started off as unique individuals, the fact that I was banging out thousands of words every day meant they started to morph into one. So that’s another thing I will be keeping an eye on in future.

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Lessons learned from NaNoWriMo: Part III

This is a guest post from Caitlin Fitzsimmons, a journalist, travel writer, blogger and wannabe fiction writer. Her site is caitlinfitzsimmons.com.

I spend most of my life on a computer. I touch type at a reasonable pace so it’s faster than writing longhand, and there’s no doubt that word processors make the editing process far easier. But writing on a computer also has disadvantages. Firstly, I already spend all day at work on a computer, so sometimes I might like a change of scene. Secondly, the computer is distracting. My mind wanders and before I know it, I’m checking emails and my favourite websites. I found that I often had to leave the house and take my laptop to a library or cafe - anywhere with a power point and no internet connection - just to get some work done. And even then, I was checking word count every few hundred words. The final disadvantage to writing on a computer is that you need the computer in order to do it. It’s a mistake not to write just because you are not near a computer - in reality you can write anywhere and feeling hidebound by technology is just another excuse not to write.

I had to write most of my NaNoWriMo novel on the computer because I wanted to submit the electronic text in order to get my word count verified. But I think I will write the next novel by hand and the second draft will be when I type completed chapters or even the entire manuscript into the computer. The few times during NaNoWriMo that I did write longhand with pen and paper were a revelation. It’s true that editing is much harder but that’s actually a good thing when you are trying to write the first draft. It’s also true that I write slower than I type (average writing speed is 25 words per minute for longhand and I type at 70 words per minute). Again, that’s a good thing because it takes slightly longer for the thought to travel from your brain to the page, which results in nicer, more considered prose. Best of all, there were no distractions, so I probably wrote more words in a shorter space of time on the computer.

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Lessons learned from NaNoWriMo: Part II 

This is a guest post from Caitlin Fitzsimmons, a journalist, travel writer, blogger and wannabe fiction writer. Her site is caitlinfitzsimmons.com.

Another oft-repeated piece of writing advice is that writers should write every day. In NaNoWriMo terms that means writing 1,667 words every day, no exceptions. Except I didn’t do that. Some days it was impossible to write at all, other days I wrote 3,000 words without any problem. It does help not to fall too behind - one day I had to write 5,000 words and that was no fun at all.

Now that NaNoWriMo is over, I’ll be lowering my goals on word count - for the sake of my sanity, health and the quality of my writing. But I don’t think I’m going to commit to a daily output. I found that it’s really about writing regularly rather than every day, and it might be helpful to think about weekly rather than daily output. It’s like exercise - if you write three or four times a week, you will still stay “writing fit” and words will be written.

Some writers do write every day and swear by it, but it’s about finding what works for you. If I can’t even manage every day during NaNoWriMo, then I doubt that’s ever going to be my style so rather than feel guilty I should probably accept that and find what does work.

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Lessons learned from NaNoWriMo: Part I

This is a guest post from Caitlin Fitzsimmons, a journalist, travel writer, blogger and wannabe fiction writer. Her site is caitlinfitzsimmons.com.

No matter how often we are told that the only way to get better at writing is practice and the first draft is allowed to suck, I think many beginning writers find it hard to turn off the internal editor. I certainly did and partly I blame that on my background in journalism. When I write an article, I edit as I go. The first step is perfecting the very first sentence, then the rest of the piece flows naturally from there. But if I try to apply this approach to creative writing, I never get beyond the first sentence of the first paragraph before I want to delete it and start again. So I never get anything written.

But with NaNoWriMo, word count is king. If you are writing 50,000 words in 30 days on top of your normal life and work, then you are bound to be writing some pretty awful prose. It’s quantity over quality. What’s the point, you may ask? If you tend to get paralysed by writer’s block like me, it’s a really great way to let go of those inhibitions and give yourself the freedom to just write. You can always edit it later.

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Okay, I admit it. I didn’t finish NaNoWriMo. Or NaBloPoMo. Life and other web stuff got in the way of the writing. However, I’m fortunate that one of my friends, who did finish NaNoWriMo, has agreed to write a series of guest posts about her lessons learned.

Caitlin Fitzsimmons is a London-based writer originally from Sydney, Australia. She is a seasoned journalist, with a decade of experience writing for newspapers such as The Guardian and The Australian and consumer and business magazines. Among other specialties such as media and technology, Caitlin is a travel and food writer, with a penchant for exploring off-beat destinations with an interesting social or cultural slant.

When not writing or travelling, she loves reading books, watching theatre, cooking and inline skating.

Her professional site is found at www.caitlinfitzsimmons.com, and she also keeps a personal blog at www.niltiac.net, a travel website at www.roamingtales.com and a food blog at www.thegooseberryfool.com.

Caitlin writes:

I feel like I’ve run a marathon. I’ve just completed NaNoWriMo, which is perhaps the literary equivalent.

For those who don’t know, it stands for National Novel Writing Month, though it’s now a truly international event with participants from Baltimore to Berlin, and the idea is to write a novel in one month. You are not allowed to start until November 1 and you must finish by midnight on November 30. The benchmark is 50,000 words so once you get beyond that and your word count is verified by their software, then you have won NaNoWriMo. It’s tough and most people don’t finish; this year they had 15,000 winners out of more than 100,000 participants. There’s no prize and no one reads your novel, you do it for the fun and the glory.

So why did Caitlin do NaNoWriMo and what did she learn? Check back over the next six days for answers to these questions, as Caitlin shares the experience of writing 50,000 words during the month of November.

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Writing about writing, Week #11

What is your opinion of writing groups?  Are you a member of one?  And if so, what stage is you work at when you show it to others?

If you’ve answered this question in your blog, please leave a link to the entry in the comments box below.  Alternatively you can write/paste your answer directly in the comments box.

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One of my major distractions from writing over the past few weeks has been following the Australian elections, and reading endless politically-focused articles at the online version of Melbourne’s The Age newspaper.  Which leads me to this week’s writing about writing question…

Writing about writing, Week #10

This might be another silly question to ask writers, but in your opinion, is the pen really mightier than the sword?

If you’ve answered this question in your blog, please leave a link to the entry in the comments box below.  Alternatively you can write/paste your answer directly in the comments box.

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I’ve been working a report this week, and I wrote a page of text to explain a particular concept before deciding to replace it with an image that really said it all.

Which got me thinking…

Writing about writing, Week #9

This might be a silly question to ask writers, but in your opinion, is a picture really worth a thousand words?

If you’ve answered this question in your blog, please leave a link to the entry in the comments box below.  Alternatively you can write/paste your answer directly in the comments box.

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One of my first posts here on web stuff 4 writers was about Bianca Zander’s website, Sponsor My Novel.  Later, Bianca also agreed to be my first interview victim.

I checked that website again today, and was pleased to see that Bianca’s raised $3250 towards her $8000 goal.  And perhaps, even better, she’s added 20,000 words to her manuscript since the appeal began.  I remember enjoying the extract that Bianca’s published on her site, and hope to one day see all those words and paragraphs and pages that have been sponsored inside the cover of a book.

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I’ve just received a comment from Lee Henshaw, whose novel, Queer Fish in God’s waiting room, is being published in February 2008 by Legend Press.

Lee’s been given three potential versions of his novel cover, and is asking his blog readers for advice on which one he should go with.

I did a similar thing, before Lessons to Learn was published, asking the readers of my blog over at LiveJournal which photo out of a series that my husband had taken one Sunday morning, should be used on the cover of Lessons to Learn.  I sent the four favourites from that vote on to the publisher, and ultimately, the one that was the most popular with my blog readers was the one that was chosen.

 Why ask your blog readers for advice?

Personally, I suck at making decisions, and once I’d asked my husband, parents, friends and everyone at work for their input, then blog readers became the next logical step. 

As a reader of blogs, I like to be asked.  It makes me feel like I’ve played some small  part in the publication process.

What do you do if you don’t agree with your blog readers’ suggestions?

Luckily, in my case, my readers’ preferences largely coincided with my own.  If they hadn’t, well, then the decision ultimately had to be made by me and perhaps more importantly, by my publisher.

Even if your blog readers have read your entries all through the drafting stages, even if they feel they’ve been asked then ignored, it’s likely that you’re the one who knows your book best and you’re the one whose names on the cover that has been decided upon.

Your thoughts

Would you/have you asked your blog readers for advice on any elements of the writing, publishing and/or marketing of your book?  What sort of reaction have you got?

PS: If you want to take a look at Lee Henshaw’s cover options, and give him your thoughts on those, you can do so at his website Next to Hemingway.

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