Who’s Doing NaNoWriMo?

(Modified  repub of my QT Blog Post)

November is National Novel Writing Month. For the past 10 years, writers have been participating in a growing phenomenon called NaNoWriMo. It started in the San Francisco Bay area in 1999 with around two dozen participants and has grown into an international creative event with around 119,000 entrants in 2008.

To “win” NaNoWriMo, a writer must complete at least 50,000 words of a new project between November 1 and November 30–an average of 1667 words a day. What is the prize? A website badge, 50,000 shiny new words and a sense of accomplishment.

I’ve never done it before because the creative voice in me says, “No way. I don’t write on demand like that.” On further evaluation, I’ve realized that indeed, I do write on demand. I’ve written 3 novels in less than a month each, not including revisions, of course. I’ve edited on demand for my agent, and hope to write and edit for a publisher, so why not begin and end on an artificial deadline for NaNoWriMo?

“Creativity can’t be forced.” Tell that to my published friends who write for multiple houses 3, 4, 5 times a year.

The goal of NaNoWriMo is quantity, not quality, which means turning off the internal editor. This can be good or bad–or both. The better I become at my craft, the harder this is for me, but I find my story suffers sometimes due my labors over sentence structure and word choice.

When teaching English, I would tell my students, “Get the words down, then worry about formatting and cleaning it up later.” (Teens like to use creative fonts and formatting when publishing on computer.) I guess I need to heed my own advice to some degree. “Get the words down.” I can always edit later.

I may have to revise more than I would on a relaxed schedule, but, hey, the words will at least be there.

One feature I really like is the NaNoWriMo Young Writer’s program. Being a teacher and YA writer, I’m all about getting young people into writing.

My teen daughter, who is co-authoring a middle grade mystery/suspense with me, has registered and is looking forward to the workshops and productivity inspired by the program.

Here are some cool sites and resources:

NaNoWriMo Official Site

Spacejock has spreadsheets and organizational tools to keep you in line.

Here’s an article on Squidoo on organizational techniques for NaNoWrimo.

This Squidoo article gives you step-by-step suggestions on how to prepare.

I’ve registered and am totally in for this year’s NaNoWriMo. I’d love to buddy up with you if you are participating. My NaNo screen name is marylindsey.  My profile link is: http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/user/506524

What about you? Tips? War stories? Links to great NaNoWriMo sites?

Let me know your NaNo link or profile name if you want me to buddy up with you.

Mary

The Road To Publication: Avoid the Public Personal Diary

This is a reprint of my 10/7/09 post written for the QueryTracker Blog.

The secret diary: Most of us, especially women, had them as teens. We expressed our hopes, fears, problems and crushes in writing for various reasons. We railed against the mean girl who was our arch enemy. In some ways it was therapeutic. Sometimes the therapy came in the form power from the knowledge that we had a special secret journal of our personal life that we could choose to share if we wished or hide from the *gasp* authority figures in our lives.

Some keep diaries even as adults.

Now, I’ve never been a diary keeper. In fact, it never made sense to me at all. I tried as a teen because my best friend was the diary queen. She would hide her diary carefully from her family or “accidentally” leave it open to a page to indirectly pass on information. She could control how, when, and to what degree the information was disseminated because she had physical control of the diary itself.

Enter the electronic age and the blog.

As writers, we know we need to have a web presence. We are told that by other writers, agents and editors. But there is a difference in a web presence and a beneficial web presence. “Make yourself Googlable,” agents tell us.

Okay. Done. I start a blog. It’s free, it’s easy, and heck, it’s even fun sometimes.

Many writers use their blogs to journal their road to publication. Any of us who are walking on the sharp rocks of that road in our bare feet know it is a hell of a tough journey. There are bloody footprints to prove it.

Here is the point of my post: Do not use your writer’s blog as a private diary.

I pop onto aspiring writers’ blogs all the time and large percentage of them are devoted to whining, complaining and lamenting the unfairness of the business.

Okay, Mary. It’s my personal blog. I can write whatever I wish in any tone I wish.

Darn right. But writers need to be aware of the potential pitfalls.

Why do we blog? I think that is the first question to be asked. Specifically, What is the purpose of this particular blog? Who is the audience right now? Who will be reading it in the future?

My diary-loving friend would tell me how when she was famous, she was going to publish her diaries for lots of money. Again, she was physically controlling the information in that diary hidden in the bottom of her closet under her box of summer camp photographs.

In blogging, we lose control of the information the minute we hit “publish.” There is a reason the button says that. “Publish” means to make known generally, and boy, do we. So many times on twitter I’ve seen people say something like, “How to alienate the children’s publishing industry,” or “How to never get published,” followed by a link to the post of a poor writer who has lost control on her/his blog and gone off on a career-impacting rant.

Yes, we can set the permissions on our blog to a very narrow audience, rendering it private, but if we, as writers, are using the blog to increase our web presence or establish platform, that is not practical.

Keep the nastiness private. I have a crit partners who have endured endless rants about the difficulty of this business along with my insecurities all laid out for examination. I would never put these tirades up on my writer’s blog. But to remain stable, most of us need to vent occasionally.

My advice is to never write anything on your writer’s blog you do not want read by your agent, publisher, spouse, child or fan.

Do not give tallies of the number of queries sent/rejected/accepted. This never works as planned. If I’m an agent and you have queried me, I might google your name if I like the letter or pages. What if I go to your site and see you have received zillions of rejections and very few requests? Naturally, it’s up for interpretation, but it might backfire.

What if you have ranted about how unfair and crappy a certain agent was with her form rejection? I work for a different agency, but we share office space (this is common) and talk every day. I like her. So much for the full request I was going to send you.

There is nothing wrong with opening your diary about the hardships of publication as long as you keep in mind the person you least want to read it probably will. Don’t rant and don’t give out your rejection count. I know of several cases where agents have told writers they requested material based on their sites or online presence (I’m one). I also am aware of a couple of cases in which an agent said that she found the presentation of the writer’s blog offensive and unprofessional and were not going to pursue representation for that reason.

Now, I don’t mean you have to be serious and stuffy and only blog about writing. Your website can handle that part. Quite the contrary. A blog is where you let your personality show. I’m not much of a blogger by anyone’s standards. I blog mostly about writing and my road to publication, but on the rare occasion when I post, I try to make it fun for myself. The posts where I am “me” are the ones that get the most hits. I’ve blogged about singing out loud in a Waffle House and getting caught at the country club in my pajamas. It lets my online friends get to know me as a woman and not just as a writer. It doesn’t mean I don’t get discouraged and have posts that reflect that, I just refrain from ranting, venting or giving out information that will come back to bite me someday (My ever-tolerant crit group receives the full force of all of that).

One last parting bit of advice from someone who needs advice herself: Refrain from mentioning anyone by name in a negative light. Most folks are aware of this, but I’m a total technotard and found this out a year into my writing career *blush*: There is a thing called “Google Alert.” If a person has it on their name (as I do now), she will receive an alert every time her name is published online. I get dozens of alerts a day, most of them not about me, but some are. Agents/writers/editors use these. Your private diary can now broadcast with pinpoint accuracy to the people you are talking about.

Be yourself on your blog, but remain professional. Use care. Be aware of the image you want to project and keep in mind that every person with a computer holds the key to your private diary.

Thoughts, anyone?  What are your favorite kind of posts to write or read?  If you are a writer, who do you envision reading your blog 5 years from now?  10 years?

Oh, Look! Shiny Object.

I’ll admit it.  It gets to me–the constant barrage of input from the outside. I used to be able to compartmentalize my life. In law school, I could go to my cubicle (carrel) and study for hours on end no matter what was going on around me. As if the whole world were muted.

As recently as a year or so ago, I could shut out distractions, disconnect from the outside world and focus. Not now. It seems to get more difficult all the time.

So, I thought, maybe I just need a project I’m crazy about. Nope. I have 4 partially finished books I’m nuts about.  Love them. Can’t wait to finish them. My heart rate increases when I think about them.

What’s wrong with me? Absolutely nothing. Life happens. It’s all a balancing act. Right now, some balls I’m juggling are more fragile than others. Those are the ones that draw my focus. The ones I must keep in the air.

It occurred to me that writing is like my best friend, Stephanie.

Steph is amazing. We’ve been best friends for 10 years. Our kids are best friends. We will go weeks without contact, yet we spend days together at my river house and it is as if we see each other every day. We used to apologize to each other for not calling/emailing daily, and then over the years, it dawned on us that it wasn’t necessary. The relationship is so enjoyable and solid, we never doubt each other. We KNOW each other.

I know I will finish all 4 of my projects. Soon. But like my best friend, Stephanie, writing will patiently give me some time to get my life together so that I can focus exclusively on her. And it will be worth it. I love nothing more than uninterrupted time at the keyboard.

Maybe that’s part of it. I want to give the books my undivided attention–free from internet, children’s homework, teaching my acting classes–free from everything.

Even on my most focused days, even when the other balls in the air are perfectly aloft, the shinies still tend to divide my attention. The internet is my enemy and my best friend. I’ve met the coolest people ever through my favorite site, QueryTracker. And I’ve wasted more time just surfing than I ever thought possible. All things in moderation. Well, that takes more self-control than I have sometimes.

Several of my RWA friends use a thing called an AlphaSmart for this very reason. These are people who make a living as novelists, so I pay attention to what they do.  Emulate success, right? The AlphaSmart allows you to only see two lines of text and you can’t connect to the internet. So, no editing as you go and no bright shiny internet calling your name. Sounds perfect.

My game plan?

1. Treat writing as if it were my best friend, knowing I love it and the relationship is permanent.

2. Get a freaking AlphaSmart and finish these 4 books rattling around in my head.

Anybody have any tricks you are willing to share with me? How do you guys avoid or work around distractions?  Anybody use an AlphaSmart?

Have a fantastic week.

A Question for my Writer Friends

I need some of this.  Where can I get it?

Well, Everyone’s Doing It. Right?

Youtube is full of book trailers.  They take a lot of time to create and since I’m a technotard, I decided I didn’t want or need one.  ”I will never have one,” I have often proclaimed.

As always, whenever I draw a line in the sand, I’m forced to smooth out the sand and reevaluate my line. An opportunity came up that allowed me to get a book trailer with very little effort.  AirProductions was offering a special deal on trailers–a “Godfather” kind of too-g00d-a-deal-to-refuse.

I would love your comments, but not about the trailer itself.  I’d like to know if you have a trailer (feel free to link) and what you think of book trailers’ marketing power or appeal.  Have you ever bought a book based on one?

There are Raisins in my Toast

Well, it’s true.  There were raisins in my toast.  

I was at Waffle House with my kids because they were being grumpy and …teenish and I was lazy and looking for an excuse to get out of the house and avoid the sequel outline looming over my keyboard-cramped hands.  

Most Americans have been to a Waffle House, but if you haven’t, the experience is something everyone needs (if only once).  It is a tiny restaurant that seats a limited number of customers.  Most surfaces are greasy and the waitresses shout the orders in mystical code to the grill chef, who by some miracle or supreme skill, always seems to get the order correct.  

On this particular day, the pre-teen and teen angst of my kids was getting on my nerves.  I have a high tolerance for angst, which is good in a YA writer, but my grouchiness was obvious to even the most oblivious, including the waitress, who was sure the biddy  sitting at the counter with the 3 surly kids was going to stiff her on the tip.  I guzzled caffeine and focused on suppressing the desire to push my kids off of their tall counter stools like dominos, which would have been amusing had it been a simple Benny Hill type affair in which nobody got hurt.  

Out of the blue, the quiet of the cafe was broken by a 50’s doo wop kind of song.  A typical song similar to what you’ve heard hundreds of times came cranking out of the jukebox right behind me.  

Wait a minute…

They were singing about raisins…”Raisins in my toast…”

“No way!” one of my angsters shouted. 

“No.  They’re not…”

“Oh. My. Gosh.  They are singing about raisin toast!” The third one chimed.  

None of us could believe there was actually a song playing about the toast at Waffle House.  When I had successfully swallowed so that the coffee didn’t spew out of my nose onto my own raisin toast, I got up and checked out the song selection on the jukebox.  Sure enough, there was a whole flip page of Waffle Hits.  I kid you not.  

By the time the monumental import  (not) of all of this hit us, we were swaying at the counter, the Lindsey Quartet, belting out a rousing round of “There are Raisins in my Toast” along with the jukebox, causing everyone else in the joint to laugh along with us.   

Mood about-face.  No angsty teens, no grouchy writer mom, no surly waitress.  Happy folks all singing about raisin toast.  It’s the little things, I tell you.  The levity lasted the rest of the day.  Even days later, when someone would get grumpy, one of the other members of the Lindsey Quartet would belt out a verse of our now favorite song.  

For your listening and/or singing enjoyment, follow this link and click on the last song on the left column called, of course, “There Are Raisins in my Toast.”  Enjoy.  

Click here to hear song. 

Who, Me?

When I was little and the house would get quiet, my mom would yell, “What are you up to?”  I’d invariably reply, “Who, me?” even though I was the only one in the house and knew full well whom she was addressing.  My kids do the same thing:  ”Who, me?”

Sometimes this response is to stall in order to cover up whatever malfeasance has occurred.  Sometimes it buys time to figure out an appropriate response.  Usually, “Who, me?” is a mindless response because the answer isn’t within reach or is possibly silly or embarrassing. In all three scenarios, the next utterance after “Who, me?” is usually, “Nothing.”

Well, I’ve had lots of folk ask me “What are you doing?” recently and I’ve found myself slipping into the pattern above.  Some of my friends do a Work In Progress Wednesday post on their blogs.  I should probably do that, but I’d rather be working on the work in progress than write about working on it.  

I have been busy, so the answer, “nothing,” isn’t going to fly anymore.

 

So, here’s the update:

Family stuff:

* School is out and the acting classes I teach are over for the summer.  Free time with my 3 kids, which brings me joy. 

*  I’m teaching a musical theatre acting camp for two weeks, which is an all-day gig.  My kids are involved, so I’m with them, which is fantastic.  My oldest daughter is directing the show.  

Writing news:

*  As you probably know, I have a new agent who is fabulous.  My YA paranormal, SOUL PURPOSE is in submission with publishers, but since it is summer, I expect it to take a loooooong time for the editors to respond.  The subs were sent out last week.  

*  I’m half-way through a children’s non-fiction on Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches.

*  I have begun two books in a paranormal romance series (adult), DEATH ANGEL and MUSIC OF THE HEART.  I love writing in this genre.  So fun. Using a pen name, of course.

*  Polishing two children’s picture books–not thrilled with them.  I’m so clueless about this genre.  Guess I’ll get a professional children’s editorial opinion before I burden my agent with them.  

*  Working on solidifying two YA concepts.  One deals with DNA experimentation begun during the cold war resulting in the creation of a super species (an unwilling one, of course,  that has now reached the teen age). The other is a modernization of the original Grimms Fairy Tale of Hansel and Gretel.  It sounds stupid, I know, but the original story is dark and creepy.  And I’m not going to use little kids lost in the woods finding a candy house.  I’m focusing on the abandonment and the lure of safety that is only an illusion.  

So, that’s what I’ve been up to.  

If I’m lucky, I’ll come out of the summer with 1) a completed NF 2) a completed paranormal romance 3) The outline for a new YA project 4) a book deal for SOUL PURPOSE and maybe its sequel, SOUL POSSESSION.  

What are you working on?  (And you can’t answer, “who, me?”) Are you bouncing around in different genres like me?  Are you writing while your kids are at home, and if so, how’s that going?

Have a killer weekend!

Online Gets Real

I just got back from a trip to Utah.  I flew there to visit my online friend, Suzette Saxton.  The flight was necessary because, in my mind, it is impossible to have a best friend you’ve never really met.  Now I’ve met her.  All is right with the world.  As an added bonus, I got to meet several other writer friends who live in Utah.  Elana Johnson is a fellow QT blogger and has some of the coolest hair ever–as well as a snappy personality.  I met Angie Lofthouse, Michelle Mclean and Bethany Wiggins too.  

I think the coolest thing was how comfortable I felt with everyone right off the bat.  It wasn’t like a first meeting at all.  We had been corresponding for over a year and have all read each other’s books.  Some of them have read my stuff in its roughest stages, which is kind of like being naked–so I guess being at home right away is understandable.  

I wanted to share some of the fun pics.  We got a little silly.

Hannah and I were glad to be in Utah.

Suzette's sister is a photographer, so she snapped some shots of me and my daughter.

Elana Johnson and Mary Lindsey (me) at Salem Pond.

Angie Lofthouse, Elana Johnson and me.

Suzette Saxton, me, Michelle Mclean, Bethany Wiggins

Um...yeah. Librarian types.

Everything was going along fine until Elana picked up the pitchfork.

We could have taken Suz if I hadn't broken down laughing.

Me, Elana Johnson and Suzette Saxton

One of the highlights of the trip was when we went to Angie's house to play with chickens. A highlight, I kid you not, in that those suckers are FAST. It was hilarious.

This chicken's name is Tina Turner. Nice hairdo, huh?

I only have three regrets about the trip.  1) It was too short, 2) I wish I could have met a few more of my writer friends but they don’t live in Utah and 3) I forgot to give everyone the Dove Dark I brought for them.  I’d better mail it out before I give into the temptation and eat it all myself.  

Have you ever had the chance to meet someone you knew online for a long time?  I’d love to hear about it.

Work Clothes

My husband wears a suit and tie in court every day.  My kids carefully select what they wear to convey who they are when they go to work–which for them is school.  We wear clothes that set the right image and enable us to do our job best.  

So, I work in pajamas. 

On days I write, I get the kids off to school, shower and put on a clean pair of pajamas.  The reason is two-fold: 1) I am comfortable 2) It keeps me at the keyboard and prevents me from shopping or leaving the house. 

Except for last Friday.  Yep.  My work uniform choice backfired.  

One of my 12 year-old twins had an after school party at a pool near my house.  This isn’t a neighborhood club, mind you; it’s a high-dollar exclusive private country club to which my family belonged when I was a child, so complete ignorance isn’t an excuse on my part.  I knew the setting.  

I’ve had kids at this school for 9 years, and I thought I had the party routine down.  Not. 

The kids were taken to the country club after school by parent volunteers–great; more time to write.  I pound out the words until 4:30, which is when I leave so I can be one of the first in line to pick up my kid.  I assume the teachers and chaperones would have the kids ready to go and would be placing them in cars like they had at other functions.  Wrong. 

I arrive  and there is no line.  I watch from the safety of my car while parents (dressed to the nines) park their cars and stride into the country club.

Heart sinks.  A twinge of nausea.  Crap, I’m wearing pajamas.  

Remaining calm, I decide to keep my eye out for someone that I know so I can flag her over to beg her to retrieve my progeny.  No luck.  You’d think out of over 100 kids, I’d recognize someone’s parent.  

By the time I concede defeat and accept the fact I am going to have to go public in my pajamas, every parent has arrived and is hanging out at the pool.  I should have gone in right when I got there, grabbed the kid and beat it out.  Now, I had to join a social melee of epic proportions.  

So, I’m not fully fluffed and in makeup.  Nope.  I’m au natural sporting  a ponytail, black pajama pants and a blue T shirt–my work clothes.  

In all fairness, they are lounge pants, not true pajama pants, so there are not little sheep or sleepy teddy bears on them, but still.  

Hoping for the best, I launch mission “Get In Quick and Get the Hell Out.”  The mission fails.  

It takes almost 30 minutes to find my son and get him out of the club.  I am seen by and chat with almost everyone there.  I must have heard, “You look so cute,” two dozen times.  ”You look so cute” translates to “WTF” in social speak.

My family thought it was hilarious.  I do too, now that I’m comfortably cute in my own home again.

What do you wear to work?  Any “you look so cute” moments of your own?

Purple Prose Contest on the QT Blog

After the earth’s brilliant, illuminating orb rises from its slumber, peeking above the dark, horizontal, linear barrier at the edge of sight (at 9:00 AM tomorrow) and running for seven rotations of the blue sphere which we inhabit, the co-authors of the illustrious QueryTracker.net blog cordially invite you to lovingly submit your golden, or rather, violet literary nugget into our utterly fabulous foray into the ever-increasingly forbidden realm of purple prose in celebration of our second anniversary.

Yes, I know that’s a stinky sentence; in fact, it reeks. It would have been better as: For the next seven days, we are having a purple prose contest to celebrate QueryTracker’s second anniversary.  

This is a duplicate post from the blog, but I wanted to be sure all my friends know about the contest.

The contest is simple. Just submit one sentence of your purplest prose in our online form. It can be a compound or complex sentence because, well, it’s purple, which is hard to achieve in a simple sentence. The only stipulation is that it must include the word, “QueryTracker.” Other than that, it is wide open. (Keep it tasteful, please.) 

What is Purple Prose?

The easiest word I can think of to define purple prose is overwritten. Purple prose possesses one or all of these things: too many adjectives and adverbs, forced or ridiculous similes, alliteration and/or cliches. Basically, it’s using a whole lot of words to say something. Often, purple prose is nothing but description, which at one time was the norm.  In today’s internet world where you can see foreign lands from your desk, most multi-page description is unnecessary. 

The definition from Wikipedia:

Purple prose is a term of literary criticism used to describe passages, or sometimes entire literary works, written in prose so overly extravagant, ornate, or flowery as to break the flow and draw attention to itself. Purple prose is sensually evocative beyond the requirements of its context. It also refers to writing that employs certain rhetorical effects such as exaggerated sentiment or pathos in an attempt to manipulate a reader’s response.

Why is it called Purple Prose?

Purple dye was rare and expensive during the Roman Republic. In order to appear wealthy, social climbers would sew purple patches (less expensive than a piece of purple material) onto cheaper clothing. The practice was regarded as gaudy and pretentious. 

 The term purple prose comes from a quotation from the Roman poet, Horace in 18 BC. He said that flowery, overwritten text was as ostentatious and inappropriate as sewing purple patches onto garments.  

Purple Trends

Throughout history, purple has been the color of many works of literature, both great, and well, not so great. The current trend to a more minimal writing style gained popularity with Earnest Hemmingway.  

Writers from Henry James to Edgar Allan Poe to Stephanie Meyer have been criticized for their purple prose. So obviously, it’s not a kill-deal.  

The difficulty is keeping straight the line between evocative, rich writing and flowery purple prose.

Some genres fall victim to crossing this line more than others. Romance has a tradition of purple shades dating back to Victorian times. Purple prose began a resurgence in romance several decades ago when the topics became steamier and because of societal dictates, writers had to find creative alternatives to naming parts of the human anatomy. Truly hilarious purple phrases and terms came out of this, and though more accurate terminology is used in today’s romance, vestiges of this violet hue still creep into the genre. I’m a big romance fan, so this isn’t a diss in any way.

Examples of Purple Prose

The most familiar example of purple prose was written by Edward Bulwer-Lytton, who begins his novel, Paul Clifford (1830), with the following sentence: “It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents—except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness.

Some fantastic examples of purple prose can be found in the annual Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest, in which entrants submit first sentences in the spirit of “It was a dark and stormy night” for their imaginary novels. The entries are amusing must-reads. Click here to read last year’s winners.

Rules for the QueryTracker.net Blog Purple Prose Contest 

Entry must be one sentence long and contain the word “QueryTracker.” Compound/complex structure okay. Submit via the online submission form here.  Submissions open at 9:00 am MST Tuesday, May 19th, and close Monday, May 25th, at 9:00 am MST  The purpler the better.  Make it wowy All entries will be posted on the QT blog on Wednesday, May 27th.  Winners will be posted on Monday, June 1st. 

Remember, this entry is not an example of how you really write. It’s a contest for fun. Go nuts. 

Prizes

As with all the contests during our carnival, every contest entry results in the contestant’s name going into the drawing for the grand prize: a free writer’s website design by Purple Squirrel Design, a $600 value! (They designed my website, by the way.)

First place will win a free premium membership to QueryTracker.net–a $25 value. (If the winner is already a premium member, an alternate prize will be offered.) 

Second place wins a gift basket of a purple nature. Chocolate, book related items, etc.  

Third place wins a copy of Plug Your Book! Online Book Marketing for Authors by Steve Weber.  

Go over to the QT Blog and enter!

Have a great week!  

 Mary