RPGs and Writing

My antagonist and protagonist are standing in a room together. The antagonist wets a cloth and tosses it to the protagonist so she can clean up her injuries.

I spend the next twenty minutes staring at the screen trying to decide if my protagonist will catch the cloth or let it drop to the floor. And what does either of those actions mean? And if she does catch it, does she snatch it from the air in anger before hurling it back? Or does she spread it out in her hands while she thinks about how in the world she ended up here? And if it drops, does the antagonist come pick it up? Does she kick it or step on it to drive home her point? Does it sit between them like a metaphor for all the things left unsaid? Or maybe she finds some clever way to use this seemingly innocuous item as a weapon?

And here's the beauty of this situation: I control it. I control every last piece of it.

But here's the ugly stepsister of this situation: I control it. I control every last piece of it.

Every. Last. Piece.

And that's asking a lot. There's a lot to consider. A lot to figure out. All the threads need to weave in and out of each other to compile a tapestry so complete I could use it for a parachute. My character's lives will depend on it.

Within the last year and a half or so, I started getting into Role Playing Games. And it took a while to let go of that enchanting ugly stepsister called "control" with whom I had become so familiar in my creative endeavors. I was suddenly a very different part of a story, and I didn't have to decide what would happen if that cloth was caught or not, or what it might mean down the road, or what every other character in the world's reaction might be to a cloth that is accepted or rejected from the air. Instead I only had to answer a single question, and I had to answer it fast because there were five other people in the room staring at me. Waiting. It's one simple, enticing, aggravating question asked time and time again: "What do you do?"

Playing in RPGs taught me to view stories differently. To take the same risks with my novel's characters that I do with my RPG characters. To make a decision and let the chips fall where they may. I learned to separate myself from acting as "Lord of the Story" and to instead look at my character's invisible stat sheet and work from there, letting their successes and failures drive the story. Whether I have one character in the scene or twelve, I can go around the room asking that familiar question "What do you do?" then take into account their strengths and weakness before letting them act. The beauty of this–in both RPGs and writing–is that it keeps things moving, because it's awfully hard to redirect a missile that isn't moving. But if you've got motion, you have all sorts of energy you can use to travel or destroy or turn towards the moon or crash into the sea. Letting things sit stagnant isn't fun in RPGs, and it isn't fun in writing either. I've gotten better at preventing scenes of stagnancy since I started RPGing.

But then there's this other animal born of RPGs - actually running a game. Which of course I had to try. I wanted to step behind the screen and pull the strings, build the world, take back a modicum of that feeling I have become so accustomed to when writing novels.

In some ways, GMing is a billion times easier than writing. Primarily because I don't need to make all the decisions. I don't need to adopt every major character's voice, determine all of their motivations and desires, or– the most thrilling piece of all–I don't need to determine the protagonist's answers to "What do you do?" Instead I just need to present them with the question and determine the outcome of their answer.

And sometimes, I don't even have to do that. Because RPGs have a beautiful little thing called mechanics. The numbers that rule the game even more than I can. You want to pickpocket the baron? You want to attack the monster? You want to convince the villagers that you are the legendary hunter they've all heard stories about? Roll the dice. We'll see where the numbers fall and go from there. It might mean flat out failure or great success, but either way the decision isn't always in my hands. And I kind of love that.

While I haven't taken to rolling dice while writing just yet (although I've been tempted) the concept does carry. How difficult will it be to convince these people to help you out? Maybe quite difficult, but if you start offering them bribes or buddying up with their pals, they might just be a little easier to persuade. Thinking about sticky situations more mechanically has made my narrative outcomes come more quickly and with less cursor blinking.

That may sound like leeching all that I-spell-gray-with-an-e poetic whimsy out of the creative process, but in reality what it does is leech all the I'm-over-analyzing-this-because-I-spell-gray-with-an-e out of it, forcing you to get on with the story. If you want to go back and sprinkle unnecessarily flowery metaphors over the bones of the scene later, that's cool, but at least get that rotting corpse on paper.

But then in some ways, GMing is also a billion times more difficult than writing. Primarily because there are a handful of unreliable co-authors at the table who can and will throw everything out of whack the minute they get their grubby little mitts into the story. They're called players, and when you ask them "What do you do?" odds are good they're going to give you some insane out-of-left-field response that forces you to reconsider everything in an instant. They'll say things that make you go, "I'm sorry. You want to do what?"

While this is challenging, it is also fantastic. It improves your improvisation skills (sorry to break the illusion, players, but yes, more often than not I'm just making stuff up trying to keep pace with your antics. I'm looking at you "first we rescue the innocent fawn from the crawling claws so later we can slaughter it and bathe in its blood" crew). Dealing with these unanticipated turns teaches your mind to not only improvise quickly but also to consider  multiple paths more readily. Where I might have previously considered two or three options for my characters I now find myself giving them a bevy of options, all at varying degrees of insanity.

But there's the drawback to this whole beautiful beast of RPGs, and it's simply this: distraction.

Between GMing, playing in, and thinking about RPGs, their lovable (or hate-able) characters, and their unique worlds, the amount of time and creative mental space left over for writing can quickly disintegrate to a mere modicum of what it could have been. Particularly when I'm feeling stuck in my writing. It is so much easier to ignore a problem scene in a book when there are other tempting creative outlets looming right at the edges of my vision, ones with other ready minds to rely on for help with road blocks.

It's a problem I haven't solved because, frankly, I'm just enjoying myself too much to worry about it. But one of these days I'll crack down and make sure I'm pumping out a solid word count again. I probably won't be back at the 1000 words a day I was at prior to diving into the world of RPGs, but I want to at least find balance between these two loves, and perhaps even a beautiful synergy.

A Story in 5 Sentences

I'm somewhat enamored with the idea of short short stories. They're fun frustrating challenging to concoct, delightful to read, and even better to ponder as they tell us something about the human experience. About how a few words can evoke emotion sometimes even more effectively than thousands. About the things we, as humans, empathize over, without even saying it. 

Short short stories remind me that the whole world shares that secret language only the best of friends understand...if only we can find the right words.

All this to say–I was recently challenged to write a story in five sentences. This was my result:

It's weird, the way the wind gushes up against the soles of your shoes when you stand on the ledge outside your office window, eyes closed, wondering what a twenty-three story drop would do to you. When I lift my foot, the crowd below coos in response, their twittering–iphoned and audible–freezing the moment.

Today could be the day.

Today–the day of broken excel formulas and circulation audits and office walls the color of dead IBM monitors–could be the day...but it's not.

I duck back through the window, return to my desk, and sigh at the way my feet still feel lifted from below while my fingers reengage the qwerty that glues me to the world.

My Google Search History: Part 2

*dah dah dah dah, another one bites the dust*

I recently finished the first draft of another manuscript (whoop whoop!), which means it's time to share my Google searches* for this book...

• How hackers work
• Quantum computers
• Anonymous (after researching this and the above topics, watching multiple documentaries, and taking a class in programming, I was completely paranoid for about a month...actually, when I start thinking about it again, the paranoia returns...)
• How to write binary (Yup, those 0s and 1s make complete sense to me now as does my father-in-law's shirt which reads, "There are 10 kinds of people in the world. Those who understand binary and those who don't.")
• How to crack a safe (Totally depends on the safe and the equipment available, which is probably obvious, but it was fascinating to learn about. FYI, if you buy a safe that has a reset button on the inside of the door, you are asking for trouble)
• Fastest way to knock someone out (I've come to learn there's fast and then there's "safe" [side note: there really is no "safe"] and the two are definitely not the same thing)
• How to disarm a bomb (Another side note: why in the world would the bad guys put a handy-dandy timer on their super-killer bomb? You realize they can set them to explode without that, right? Think about it...)
• Can you break a finger with MMA gloves on (the answer is yes)
• How to break someone's finger with MMA gloves on (...but I needed to make sure you could do it INTENTIONALLY)
• Treating a broken finger (I found this horrible, horrible YouTube video that I literally couldn't watch all the way through of a doctor resetting a finger that looked like a traffic collision. I was not meant for a career in the medical field.)
• MMA submissions (I watched a lot of MMA fights. One of those things where my husband walks past and is like, "What are you doing?" and I'm like, "...um...writing...")
• Experiences that bond people (A strange search that turned out to be not that helpful)
• Terrifying team building experiences (Hilarious results. But again, not helpful.)
• What does PTSD feel like
• Fighting knives
• What information do you need to hack a car (This was an amazing thing to research. SO MANY POSSIBILITIES! I might need to write a short story around this idea. Also, I'm pretty sure I could build what I'd need to do this myself for about thirty bucks. Tempting...)
• How long can a person live without food (a good long while) or water (not nearly as long)
• How to sleep on concrete (with your eyes closed! ba-dum-ch!)
• Needle under fingernail (I once accidentally stabbed a fork underneath my fingernail...I had personal experience to draw from while working on this particular topic)
• How long will you pass out from pain (If the past few searches weren't clear enough...things did not go well for my main character during this adventure)
• What happens if you cut a cat's tail off (I know that probably seems completely unrelated, but there was a cat and it had a tail and I needed to know...)
• What happens if you give insulin to someone who doesn't need it
• Effects of sleep deprivation
• Medical reasons you must be handcuffed in front
• How to avoid detection when running in a forest (because, hey, you never know what Google holds! I ended up getting far less specific to find what I was actually looking for.)
• How to throw off scent dogs / hounds (FYI -- walking through a river isn't going to cut it)
• How to open hood of car from outside
• How to render someone unable to speak
• Injuries from breaking glass / window with elbow
• Arteries and veins in the arm (Can I just say, the day after researching these, I went to a danger show at RenFest where a guy put a cucumber along the underside of his arm and another guy threw knives at it to slice it in half. All my research made the event that much more terrifying. The whole time I was thinking, "Do they even know how close to dying they are right now?")
• How to escape a rooftop (Somehow during this search I ended up watching this video of a guy fleeing across rooftops in this sort of ramshackle village and getting rid of his pursuers one by one while an angry crowd [a la Aladdin] watched)
• How to fall safely from heights (honestly, the best way to summarize this is, "fall drunk"...that said, in general, I don't recommend mixing large quantities of alcohol and dangerous drops)

Onto the next adventure! What will I have to delete from my search history next...

*This is not an exhaustive list. Everything searched did not necessarily play a vital role in the outcome of events. 

How I Outlined a Novel on Accident

Okay, so it wasn't totally on accident (but it made a good title, right?). Usually, I don't even outline novels. I'm lucky to keep one step ahead of my characters, but this time was different, and I'm all for that. Every novel is its own animal, so I can't expect the leash that wrangled the last one onto a word doc to tame the new beast raging around in my head.

But we're getting off topic. How did I end up accidentally outlining this novel?

It went a little something like this:

"You know, I think I need to take some time to just focus on editing this most recent manuscript. I'm going to give myself the freedom to do that by putting writing new content on the back burner for a while."

*shifts pot to back burner*

"But, boy, wouldn't basil be good in that back pot?"

*makes a note about basil even though I have no idea what else will be in the pot with it*

*repeat over the following weeks*

Pretty soon I had a big stack of note cards with little snippets and ideas written on them. Some of the ideas were very hazy. Things like "Car chase? Crash?" and "Friendly rivalry?".

Others were actual snippets of scenes, a few lines of dialogue. Things like:

The woman hesitates. "It's bad, Alice."
My stomach drops.
"You should really get over there now."

and

"What makes you think I'd believe anything you say?"
"Have you misled you so far?"
"Benedict Arnold could have asked the same question."
"You'll have to answer that question for yourself then. You said it yourself--why would you believe anything I say?"

Then one night, I fished all my note cards out of the depths of my purse and my computer bag from work and the sides of my desk drawers and started pinning them to my corkboard. Fifteen minutes, a few new cards, and a lot of rearranging later, I sat back and looked at my next novel outlined in front of me.

Sure, there are missing spots and I'm not quite sure how to actually get to some of the scenes on that board, but I know where I want it to go, beginning to end.

The brain is an amazing, amazing thing. I wasn't intentionally outlining or even thinking deeply about this novel, but all those snippets came together in a beautiful way.

Now, just to write it...

The Ten Commandments of Twitter Pitch Contests

A Twitter pitch contest is a great opportunity to start a "relationship" with an agent so you don't have to send your query in cold. Participating in the contests can be confusing, so I wanted to share my 10 Commandments of Twitter Pitch Contests. The advice here varies from Twitching manners to the construction of the pitch itself. I hope it is helpful!

1. Keep your pitch to one tweet. Don't split it between two. Don't link to the "rest" of it. 140 characters is all you've got for your pitch and any necessary hashtags. Use it wisely.

2. Don't flood the feed. Most contests will dictate how many times throughout the day you are allowed to post your pitch (generally, it is once or twice per hour) but read the contest rules. If you post more often in hopes that more eyes will see your pitch, you'll get your wish, but the feeling towards you won't be a positive one--from agents or from the writing community in general.

3. Stick to one (MAYBE two) named characters. There simply isn't space to name more than that.

4. Avoid asking questions, rhetorical or otherwise. Of course, there are always exceptions, but this seems to be the general consensus among agents.

5. Favorites are for agents. Don't favorite a fellow writer's tweet in hopes of encouraging them. You'll only give them the false joy that an agent wants to see more of their work, and they'll be sad when it's just little ol' you. If you want to show support for your fellow writings, retweet their pitch instead.

6. State the stakes. It's tough with such limited space, but do include the stakes in your pitch. What will happen if your MC doesn't succeed? Be as specific as possible.

7. Vary your pitches. Say that you can post twice an hour and the contest runs for eight hours. That's sixteen chances to get your pitch out there. Rather than posting the same thing sixteen times, vary your pitches. Come up with several strong pitches and rotate through them. When you do repeat a pitch, be sure to switch up the wording or order of words, otherwise Twitter may flag the repeated tweet as spam and you'll miss valuable pitch opportunities.

8. Respect the time limits. If the contest runs from 8AM - 8PM PST, tweet only within those hours. Be sure to adjust accordingly if that is outside your time zone and don't be that person who is posting hours early or hours late. It's bad juju.

9. Be prepared. Schedule your tweets in advance using sites like TweetDeck or HootSuite, then you don't have to worry about missing a tweet day-of.

10. Seek feedback. There are plenty of people who offer to critique Twitter pitches free of charge, so take advantage of these opportunities ahead of time (follow blogs, twitter feeds, etc. of other writers as they will often notify people in advance of these opportunities). You could always try offering a "give to get" as well! Swap pitches, offer feedback, and even if you don't hit gold (stars, that is) with an agent, you might just make a new best friend.

Best of luck to you in all your Twitching endeavors!

My Google Search History

You often hear writers talking about how their search histories are going to get them in trouble (hi, NSA!). While this book didn't have nearly the amount of suspicious searches as my previous one did (heh, yeah), I still thought it would be fun to compile a list of a few of the searches that I actually used for the book I just finished (draft 1 of) tonight! 

Without further ado...

“What is another word for abstemiousness?”

“How are CIA Agents sworn in?”

“Cool rocks” – Yup, I get real specific sometimes.

“Treat cracked rib”

“Fly to Afghanistan”

“What does it look like when someone dies from cardiac arrest?”

“Batrachotoxin and humans”

“Fast acting poisons”

“Saxitoxin”

“Worst Arabic insults”

“Hiking in Afghanistan”

“Funny zoology terms” – Note to self: anyone who would know these terms, doesn’t think of them as funny. Such a shame.

“How long does it take a brand to heal”

“Day by day photos of branding burn healing” – I actually found this. It was simultaneously super helpful and probably one of the most disturbing things I have seen. The blogger was very descriptive.

“McLaren 675 LT United States” – this car though. Seriously. *wants*

“What does julekake taste like” – Because actually making it would just be too difficult

“What happens if you spray someone in the face with Windex?” – As it turns out, not much. Unless they try to kill you for it, in which case, you have a scene.

“Heel and toe shifting” – I am seriously impressed by anyone who can do this

“How long does an MRI take”

“Spinal injuries”

“Caesium and water” – one very cool reaction!

“Sodium polyacrylate” – essentially a fancy word for the stuff inside diapers

“High stakes poker” – not going to lie, I actually really like watching poker on TV. I watched more than I needed to in order to write the scene.

“How does Kevlar work?”

“How electrical panels work?”

“Hydraulics for free fall”

“The science of telling lies”

“Stunt driving phrases”

There you have it! My Google search history behind the first draft of Beakers! I know I've got more research to do to get this draft cleaned up and ready to go. More searches to come!

Happy Endings...Not So Happy?

Have you ever read a book that ended TOO happily?

Too many characters survived? Too many relationships ended in hugs and handshakes? Too many catastrophes were easily averted?

I recently finished reading a book whose final five pages neatly did the following:

• Resolved the love triangle as the protagonist chooses between the two men she's been flip-flopping between for the last three books. The one she doesn't choose is fine with it, just like that.
• The guy she doesn't choose is immediately asked out on a date by a secondary character. The implication is that they'll live happily ever after.
• Four or five characters show up randomly (truly, out of nowhere) like "Hey, we're alive!" Despite the fact that there were numerous overwhelming obstacles in their way. This is not really explained.
• The warring parties (think hundreds, thousands of people) are gonna be just hunky-dory. Forget the angst of the past. Let's sing "Kumbaya" and roast marshmallows everybody.

I couldn't handle it. It was such a neat little ribbon, so condensed and sudden, that I simply could not suspend my disbelief. Maybe if these events had happened earlier, sort of scattered throughout. But no. The last five pages.

It's just unrealistic. I'm all for the hero winning at the end, but there needs to be balance in the force (as it were). This book was part of a trilogy that spent three books building up these insurmountable odds. The payoff of a five page, happy-go-lucky wrap up was so unfulfilling.


When you write, you are making promises to your reader all through your work. When you introduce your protagonist to the drop-dead gorgeous boy, you're promising that something is going to happen there. It doesn't have to be a GOOD thing! She could find out he's a total jerk or that he's an alien or that he's a figment of her imagination, but the promise is made that drop-dead gorgeous is going to play a role. When you set up cataclysmic events to thwart your hero, you're promising that IF your hero is going to win, it's going to be in an even more epic way, not by some simple shoulder shrug.

It's all about keeping your promises.

I know I struggle with endings in my own writing. I tend to stop too early and leave readers feeling unfulfilled (sorry!) so I almost always have to go back to my endings and take my time with them.

What books have you read that made good on their promises? What books had superb endings that are worth waiting for (without giving them away, of course)? Any advice for writing awesome endings?

Quick Tip: Editing #1: Text-to-Voice

Have a text-to-voice program read your work aloud to you. You'll catch things you missed the first time through, or even reading aloud on your own (which is also recommended). The voice will sound strange and electronic at first, but I promise that as you listen, it becomes far less noticeable. Or maybe the machines are learning...

Personally, as an added bonus, I am able listen to my work while I'm AT work this way. I don't do any serious editing there of course, but it helps me stay connected with my story and listen for plot holes along the way. It's also useful as I occasionally hear events that I foreshadowed early on in the book but never actually wrote in later.

3 Steps to Overlording Your Plot Forward

Writing is a lot like being an evil overlord. Your readers are your subjects and you have control over them - you control their emotions, their bedtimes, and their day dreams. You create new crushes and new frenemies for them. So. Much. Power.

Here's the great part about this: you can use your readers to help you BEFORE THEY EVEN EXIST.

Whaaaat?!

That's right. While you are still in the process of writing, you can channel your readers to help drive the plot forward. How? It's as easy as 1-2-3!

1. Know who your readers are. Are you writing for children or adults? Men or women? Adventurers or homebodies? (Caveat: people who are not your "intended audience" will read and love your book. I don't think there are books out there that are exclusively for one group of people and that no one else could enjoy. That is not where we're going here. But having an idea of the target audience is going to help you, not only during your writing time but also when it comes time to query that sucker.)

2. Answer this question: What do my readers want to see next/see more of? Do they want a confrontation between your protagonist and antagonist? Do they want your MC and her crush to end up with some unexected alone time? Do they want to learn more about the diabolical workings of the King? Once you know what your readers want...

3. Give it to them. Or don't. This is the part where you get to play evil overlord (mwa-ha-ha!). Your minions have made their requests and, like God, you can respond in one of three ways: Yes, No, and Wait.

        A. Give them the Yes. You want your readers to enjoy this, afterall. You want them to get their wish of crush-ey alone time. Give it to them...sometimes.

        B. Give them the No. Have you ever wanted to throw a book through the window out of frustration or cried when a favorite character died? Sometimes aswering with "No" is the best way to evoke personal response from your readers and get them truly invested. Afterall, in a world of "yeses," where would the story be?

        C. Tell them to Wait. Your MC is going to end up with Crushey-Mc-Crusherson. But not now. This is where you get to build suspense and tension, and your plot will grow for it.

So there it is, Friends. Three easy steps to Overlord your plot forward. If you're ever stuck, try using this process. Better yet? Keep a list of things you think your readers want and plan out what their answers will be (Yes, No, or Wait). You might get some new devilish plot ideas while you're at it!

Happy writing!

Currently Reading: Enders by Lissa Price
Currently Listening To: Alias Soundtrack, Season 1

The Online Writing Community Acronym Dictionary

There is a beautiful online writing community that I have recently found and am quickly falling in love with. It is amazing to connect to other writers, editors, and book lovers! I have been visiting blogs, vlogs, and twitter feeds just basking in all the great information and support that is available. But there is a bit of a secret language going on in these places, so I decided to create a dictionary to help out any other newbies like me who may feel a little lost.

General Terms:

ARC: Advance Reader Copy. This is when readers get their grubby little mitts on a book before it's officially released (the lucky ducks!)

CNR: Closed No Response (I have also heard people call this: Closed No Rejection?). This is a term used during querying when an agent doesn't respond to your query at all and you decide to close out the "open" status on the query knowing they will likely never respond.

CP: Critique Partners. These are the people who help make your rough work into awesome work and kindly point out which darlings need slaying. And vice versa, because turn about is fair play.

ER: Email rejection. When an agent emails a rejection to your query. (Be strong!)

EQ: Email query. When you sent a query via email to an agent, then crossed your fingers, toes and eyes and prayed for a good response.

FR: Full request. When an agent you queried requests to read your full manuscript (Congratulations!)

MC: Main Character

MS: Manuscript

POV: Point of View. The point of view your story is written from

PR: Partial Request. When an agent you queried requests to read a portion of your manuscript (congratulations! Here's hoping for an upgrade to a full after the partial!)

QT: Querytracker.com. If you are planning to query agents, ever, visit this website. You can read up on the agents, hear other author's experiences, and (you guessed it!) track the status of your own queries.

WIP: Work in progress. This is whatever project you are current working on (aka: your baby)

Age Ranges:

A: Adult

MG: Middle Grade

NA: New Adult

YA: Young Adult

Genres:

CB: Chapter Book

NF: Non-fiction

PB: Picture Book

R: Romance
SFF: SciFi (Science Fiction)/Fantasy
UF: Urban Fantasy

I'm sure this isn't exhaustive, but I hope it is helpful! Let me know what I missed...perhaps a part two will be in order!

Happy writing!

Currently Reading: Enders by Lissa Price
Currently Listening to: House Carpenter by Nickel Creek

My 2015 Resolutions (No, they're not late.)

I never was big on New Years' resolutions. They always felt disingenuous
to me. What I do like is making resolutions on my birthday. It's more personal. It means something to me. And, friends, yesterday was that day.

So here we go: 

Resolution #1: Finish my first draft and first edit of Silver Gray [the title's going to change]. 

This is a rewrite of the first book I ever finished. The initial draft was over 200,000 words long.

Let me give you a little perspective: the average young adult book (like this one) is 55,000-70,000ish words long. We're talking something that's three times the average...and I guarantee you most of those 200,000 words are completely unnecessary. Hence: rewrite.

In fact, I'm keeping very little of the original, even down to plot. Many of the characters are sticking around though. (I spent 200,000 words getting to know them. I can't let them go now.) So even though I'm calling it a rewrite, it's more like a brand new creation.

Resolution #2: Have an idea ready to go for book #4 
Once I finish the first draft of Silver Gray, I'll need some time before I can look at it objectively enough to edit. I don't want to waste my time during the cooling phase, so I'm going to get my idea tank filled up for the next project. I have a file on my computer full of ideas already. Maybe I'll flesh out one of those, maybe I'll come up with something new. Who knows? Such wonderfully free possibilities. This resolution will probably result in me watching a lot of great documentaries (one of my favorite sources for inspiration).

Resolution #3: Secrets secrets! I can't share this one publicly (yet) but I will when the time is right.

25 years old. A quarter of a century. I plan to make it a good year.

Who doesn't love a good dragon selfie?

Permission for Blank Space in Your Writing

We've all done it. You're writing along, happy as a lark, when suddenly you hit a detail that brings you to a shrieking halt. It could be anything - I need the name of a small city in Italy! I need to know how to escape handcuffs! I need to know who the Prime Minister was in 1963! - and all of a sudden instead of writing, you are sucked into the vortex that is Google.

Don't do it!

I know, it's tempting. I know, "it will only take two minutes," but if you are on a roll, keep writing. Because if you stop to find the name of that charming Italian city, you will never get back to the great scene you've cooked up to happen there. Write the scene, then go back and add in the details.

I recognize that there are some plot points you MUST research before you can write. That's okay. Research. Research your little heart out. Not only is it something you can do, it is something you should do. But research on research time.

The last few chapters of the most recent book I finished was rife with sentences along these lines...
After MC arrived in TOWN, X miles North(?) of where she had been, she realized she had even further to go. But the taxi ride onward would cost at least XX dollars(? find currency of this country?) and she had only XX in her pocket after the last trip.

No, that is not a REAL sentence from what I was writing (Yikes. No.). But you get the idea. Sure, I could have taken the time to find the town, the distances, the monetary amounts, but I could easily continue writing without those details, so that's what I did. The details can be filled in later during times you have set aside for editing or researching, but not during the time you are trying to write.

Give yourself permission to leave blanks and question marks. I promise, once you finish that first draft, going in to fix them is a piece of cake. (Not to mention a wonderful way to make you feel like you're taking leaps and bounds in the editing process. Always a win.)

NaNoWriMo 2014

This year was my first time attempting (and winning!) NaNoWriMo. For those who don't know, NaNoWriMo is short for National Novel Writing Month. It is an event where writers from around the world attempt to write an entire novel (or at least 50,000 words of one) between 12:01am on November 1 and 11:59pm on November 30. No small feat, especially considering many of those writers are juggling full-time jobs, school, kids, etc. then you throw Thanksgiving in there just to keep things interesting.

There's actually a bit of debate about the benefit of an event like NaNoWriMo. Some argue that it gives people "permission" to stop writing the rest of the year. Some argue that anything produced during NaNo is absolute rubbish so the exercise is useless. Others argue that NaNo gets new people interested in writing, that it brings community to the otherwise solitary activity and that it forces people to turn off their "inner-editors" and just get words down on paper.

Now that I've done it myself, I feel I can legitimately present my opinion on the matter. So, here are a few thoughts on my NaNo experience...

1) A lot of what is produced is truly rubbish.
Really truly. When you are writing just trying to get your 1,667 words in for the day (the amount needed to finish on time), sometimes you just aren't "feeling it." And it shows. When this happens to me my writing becomes a seven-year-old's retelling of the school day. "And then, and then, and then..." Sometimes you lose track of your plot but keep writing "because 1,667 words" and your character's names have changed because you forgot them and they're not doing anything at all related to what's supposed to be going on and your dialogue is stilted and your descriptions are mundane and you know what? That's okay. Even when you aren't doing NaNo a lot of what you writing in draft #1 is rubbish, so why not just get it over with in one fell swoop. It's like ripping off a band-aid. Just get it over with.

2) Writing during November means nothing if you're not going to write in December (and January through October too).
"Saving up" all your creativity and writing time for November would be like training for a marathon once a year instead of everyday. It just doesn't work that way. If you're going to put the effort into doing Nano, you'd better be prepared to put in the effort the rest of the time as well.

3) Nano did virtually nothing for my "community" feel.
This is mostly my fault. I could have done the online write-ins. I could have connected with more Nanoers on Twitter. Heck, I could have gone to the real life meetings in the Twin Cities. But I didn't. I'm not sure if it would have helped or hurt honestly. However, it was nice to know that on those days when 1,667 words seemed impossible I knew there were others out there feeling my pain or celebrating with me when I topped 3,000 in one sitting. That was nice.

4) Nano gets words on paper.
Or rather, participating in Nano gets words on paper. I can guarantee you that I would not have written anywhere near 50,000 words in November if I hadn't participated in Nano. That alone makes it worth it because even if no one else ever reads what I wrote, I wrote. I practiced. I trained. And one day I'll finish my marathon and I know that Nano will have been just one more training exercise that helped me get there.

Writing Advice: Writing Through (or Around) Sticky Situations

When writing, I feel like the first three-quarters of my job is just setting up a situation to be as sticky as possible. The last quarter is getting the situation unstuck in a satisfying way.

While working my most recent project, I hit a spot in the story where I got stuck. Stopped in my tracks, nowhere to turn, back against the wall, stuck. And I stayed stuck for literally years. I loved my story, I knew my characters were where they needed to be, but I had no idea how they were going to get out of their sticky situation.

Finally, out of pure frustration, I started writing around my problem. I had my characters go do other, unrelated things. I let them talk about the problem with each other. I let them get as frustrated as I was.

I knew that the majority these scenes wouldn't make it into the final cut (though a few snippets sneaked their way in). I was clearly wasting time and clearly ignoring the looming plot problem, but it felt good to be writing and it felt good to give my characters room to roam. Then, one day, BAM. Of course. Problem solved.

I knew who was going to live and die, I knew how, and I knew what had to happen to get out of the sticky situation. Writing that last bit came very easily after that.

So, that is one bit of writerly advice for getting unstuck and (perhaps) beating writer's block (which, by the way, are two different things). It worked for me, so maybe it will work for you!

What do you do when you get stuck or have a seemingly unsolvable problem in your writing?

The Good, the Bad, and the Wheaties Box

The good news: I got a positive response from two of the agents I queried! One is looking at a partial manuscript and one is looking at the full as we speak!

The badgood news: I got a rejection letter from an agent saying my book wasn't right for her.

Why both good? Because love requires judgment. Name one movie/book/food that people LOVE that other people don't HATE. It is good for people to have opinions, and it's all a part of the process.

I am reminded of the line from the movie The Incredibles - "When everyone's super, no one will be." A line I use to this day, except in wildly different circumstances. In college, it was usually, "If everyone has bird flu, then no one does" or "If everyone has homework, then no one does."

So what's NOT good? No response. I hate that. Even though some agents clearly state that they won't respond unless they want to see more, I'm still hoping to get an answer back. (Side note: the agent who responded saying no had also said not to expect a response unless it was a yes, so there is hope for this.)

For now, I am riding the wave of sheer joy that comes with a request for the full manuscript. I scared my cat (and probably my neighbors) when I read the email and started shouting. Allow me to parse this out for those who may not know...

Literary agents can get HUNDREDS of queries every week. (That said, I'm sure this number varies significantly depending on the agent. The "big names" get more than the boutique agencies, I'm sure.) Still, getting a request for a full manuscript is something akin to being invited to try out for the Olympic team. You've got your shot at the big leagues and if you can make it through qualifying, you'll be plastered on the front of Wheaties boxes in no time.

That said, the odds are not in my favor (in trying to get a novel published, it seems they never are), and I am not so naive to think that my work is done. The road to being published is a marathon, not a sprint, but it sure feels good to be taking those first steps!

Currently Reading: The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson

Currently Listening to: Helena by Nickel Creek

Finishing the Manuscript

There's something about being trapped in a classroom listening to lectures that makes my creative side come out. That's why, throughout high school, I wrote two complete manuscripts and got a solid start on the third. (Side note: I like to learn, don't get me wrong. I kept my grades up. I wasn't slacking. But sometimes those lectures...)

Anyway, those manuscripts were what you might expect from a blooming high school writer. Recently (now two years out of college with a shiny English degree under my belt), I picked up that third unfinished manuscript and thought, "You know what...there's actually some good stuff here!" So I finished it.

Let me repeat that.

I FINISHED IT.

If you've ever finished such a large undertaking, you'll understand how it feels to wrap up your loose ends, hit save, sit back and look at the whole thing, beautiful and complete. My first manuscript was completed while I was sitting around the campfire with my family at Sawbill Lake. I scrawled the final pages in a notebook (the old fashioned kind that you need a pen for), and when I added that final period, I felt AWESOME. I was so happy! I'll never forget what it felt like that first time, and this time was no different.

I stayed up way too late to finish, so when I crawled into bed, Zack was already asleep. When he stirred awake though, I whispered to him, "I finished my book." He wasn't really coherent enough to process that with me, so I laid in the darkness with a big smile on my face.

That feeling of elation can last for anywhere between ten seconds to ten days before you realize...your baby needs editing. Serious editing.

So that's what I've been up to recently. Every spare second I get, I have been reading and re-reading. Wording and re-wording. I made some drastic changes on the first go-round (changing the whole setting, removing the major romantic relationship, extending the ending from three paragraphs to three pages, and so on) and every time through thereafter, it's only gotten better. (At least, I hope so, or I'm just wasting my time!)

I realize that this topic may not be interesting to most people, but I wanted to share my journey. Fingers crossed for teaming up with a stellar literary agent and turning the little word doc on my computer into something I could share with everyone! Here we go...

Currently Reading: Allegiant by Veronica Roth
Currently Listening to: "This Fire" by Ben Rosenbush and the Brighton