Practice Makes Perfect: NaNoWriMo as a Writing Exercise

Nano

Practice makes perfect. While the relative perfection of any finished project is up for debate, the reality of writing, as with many creative endeavors, is that you need to work at your craft in order to improve.

When you were a small child, first learning the building blocks of what would eventually become your ability to write – the alphabet, how to fashion individual letters, how to spell short words: cat, hat, bat – no one expected you to get these things right the first time you tried. The adults teaching you understood that it would take time for you to remember all the letters, to comprehend their meaning, to adjust to holding a pencil and forcing it to make recognizable shapes, to memorize what letters represented the words you already knew. They coaxed you through repetitions, assured you of your progress when you grew frustrated, and encouraged you to keep adding new skills to your arsenal.

Writing a novel is no different, and I feel it’s particularly important to stress this now, in the midst of NaNoWriMo, when so many aspiring authors dive into the task of writing a novel in a month. Publishing professionals, and agents in particular, are quick to remind NaNo participants that their completed NaNo novel is in no way ready for submission on November 30th. What you create during this month is a draft, a very early version of what your book might one day be. But more importantly, this month of writing every day, of shaking off your internal editor and sitting down to add more words to your project instead of editing or deleting yesterday’s efforts — this month serves as a fabulous writing exercise.

Whether you are writing for NaNoWriMo or just for yourself on an average day of the year, each time you sit in front of your keyboard or pick up a pen and notebook, you work a sort of alchemy. You are creating a story out of thin air, plucking the idea from your imagination and personal experiences and influences, then fashioning it into something some other person might read. Any given day you might write a string of sentences or pages that never make it past the confines of your writing desk. They might get rewritten later on or you might give up on that particular concept and move on to something else. But never consider those abandoned pages wasted effort, because the act of writing requires practice, and part of any practice is understanding what not to do as much as what you should do.

Producing 50,000 words in a month can be a difficult haul, especially for a new writer, but ignore the naysayers who tell you that you’re crazy to do it. Because at the end of thirty days, you will have a great deal of writing practice under your belt and a good chunk of first draft to play with. Likely you’ll need to add to it, since most novels are a longer than 50,000 words. And you will undoubtedly need to revise it. Parts might get discarded, and others changed until they barely resemble their origins. There are plenty of stories of professional writers who cherry picked through their NaNo drafts, taking only the interesting bits to make a better book. But that’s no different from any first draft of a project. First drafts are meant to be jumping off points, not finished works. And with every first draft you create, your writing skills get more polished, more adept. Each book teaches you something new.

So to those of you participating in NaNoWriMo this month, whether for the first time for the fifteenth, I say good for you and happy writing. The same goes to anyone simply plugging along with their writing practice, because of course you don’t need an organized event to write daily. After all, there are eleven other months in the year, and practice makes perfect.

Friday Links

Everywhere I look, I see signs that fall is coming. Back-to-school sales, fall book lists, the return of pumpkin-themed foods. But despite all that, it’s still full-on summer in my neck of the woods, another heatwave bearing down and the air conditioning on high to combat constant sweaty foreheads. Though we human beings are the ones who imposed the concept of seasons over the way our weather cycles, we seem terribly bad at actually enjoying the seasons as they play out. Life in a commerce-driven world — we are at the mercy of the marketing calendar.

But I’m more concerned with the weekly calendar today. TGIF! I’ve a nice selection of links for you, and I hope you enjoy them, whatever sort of weather or season you’re experiencing. Don’t forget to squeeze in your writing time. Happy weekend!

The End of the Ambitious Summer Reading List – An interesting look at how our collective reading habits have shifted.

The Great Booksellers Fall Preview – A peek at the books booksellers around the country are looking forward to reading and/or selling.

What Happened to O? – Just one more small evolution of language.

The Purpose of Plot: An Argument with Myself – One reader’s relationship with plot summaries.

When the Editor Becomes the Writer – On wearing two hats.

Friday Links

TGIF! I hope you all had a terrific week and made some excellent plans for the weekend! The weather appears to be doing strange things all over the country right now, so it might be a great weekend to stay inside with a good book and/or work on your current writing project. Whatever you’re up to, I hope you enjoy the links I’ve lined up for today. At the very least, they should make for some good Friday-afternoon distraction. Happy writing!

How Will I Live? Fame, Money, Day Jobs, and Fiction Writing – An interesting look at what makes the perfect day job for a writer.

Latino Spec Fiction, April 2015 – A wonderful roundup of new speculative fiction by Latino authors for those of you looking to broaden your horizons and/or diversify your to-read list.

Her Stinging Critiques Propel Young Adult Bestsellers – A profile of Julie Strauss-Gabel, an editor at Dutton Children’s Books and the power behind numerous recent successful YA titles.

Competitions for Writers, May and June 2015 – A list of upcoming contests, prizes, etc. for writers.

Vladimir Nabokov on What Makes a Good Reader – The author’s thoughts on how to get the most out of your reading.

Friday Links

Here comes the weekend! A holiday weekend, no less, if you’re in the U.S. But any sort of weekend is good, and I hope you all have plans to enjoy yours. I’m in San Francisco through Sunday for the San Francisco Writers Conference, so you know what I’m going to be doing. But I’ve left you a supply of Friday Links to entertain and inspire you. Enjoy, and happy writing!

The History of “Loving” to Read – A look at how reading became a passionate activity.

Lydia Davis: Advice to the Young – Some excellent words of wisdom for writers of all ages.

Legendary Songwriter Carole King on Inspiration vs. Perspiration and How to Overcome Creative Block – Thoughts on innovation and getting the work done.

4 Danger Signs to Search for Before Sending Off Your Novel – Good reminders for that final proofread/round of revisions.

Judging Books by Their Covers 2015: U.S. vs. Netherlands – An intriguing comparison of cover designs for the same titles between two different markets.

 

Friday Links

Weather seems to have been the cause of quite a few problems this past week, with people not where they’re supposed to be because snow has them stranded elsewhere. I know there’s more snow on the horizon for the middle of the country and the northeast, along with some nasty cold temperatures, so here’s wishing you all a warm and cozy weekend, wherever you are.

If you’re homebound over the next few days, hiding out from Mother Nature, I have links to keep you occupied. I hope you find them entertaining and maybe a bit inspirational. Enjoy!

How to Listen Between the Lines: Anna Deavere Smith on the Art of Listening in a Culture of Speaking – Wonderful piece with some terrific words of wisdom, especially important for writers.

16 Gorgeous Locations from Pride and Prejudice You Can Actually Visit – From the films, obviously, but still beautiful and worth a peek, or a trip.

5 Non-Writerly Apps for Writers – A nice assortment to give a try.

Joan Didion on Writing and Revising – A podcast of an interview held at The New York Public Library. It rambles a little in places, but there are some real gems in there and Didion, as always, is funny and intelligent.

‘Drowned in a Sea of Salt’ Blake Morrison on the Literature of the East Coast – Of Britain, that is. On the relationship between a location and its weather, and the writing of the region.

Polish Your Prose: An Editorial Cheat Sheet

No matter your resolutions for the year, regardless where you stand with your current writing project, the time will come when you need to edit. I don’t mean rework your plot, heighten dramatic tension, or beef up your protagonist’s motivations. Rather I’m referring to that nitty gritty editorial process of looking at your work word by word, sentence by sentence, and examining the language you’ve used. Do your descriptions dance on the page? Have any cliches snuck into the mix? If you had to read aloud in front of an audience, would you find yourself running out of breath?

Sentence-level editing involves more than checking for missing words or making sure your Find-and-Replace changed a character’s name all the way through your manuscript. This is your chance to shape up your prose and show your skills, not just as a storyteller but as a wordsmith. But a manuscript can be a fairly long document, and sometimes it’s hard to remember everything you want to check as you work your way through from first page to last.

Here’s a handy cheat sheet of things you might want to keep in mind while editing:

1.  Cut your adverbs and make your verbs stronger.

2.  Rework any cliches.

3.  Eliminate filler words and phrases, such as “currently”, “that”, and “in order to.”

4.  Refer to people as “who” not “that.”

5.  Cut repetitious words and/or phrases.

6.  Divide long, hard-to-read sentences into two or more shorter sentences.

7.  Fix any inadvertent double negatives in long, complex sentences.

8.  Hyphenate modifying words.

9.  Minimize use of “very” and “really.”

10. Beware of overusing passive voice/passive verb structures (is/was/-ing verbs).

11. Double check the definitions of any words you’re not 100% sure you know.

12. Determine and weed out any words, actions, or punctuation that you personally overuse as filler, such as characters smiling or taking deep breaths, ellipses in the middle or end of dialogue, exclamation points, etc.

13. Replace general words with specific ones, such as “thing(s)” or “stuff.”

14. Cut unnecessary chit-chat from dialogue; limit conversations to substance that moves your story forward.

15. Limit distinctive dialogue quirks or movements to a single character; don’t give “signature” details to more than one person unless there’s a reason (child emulating a parent or older sibling, etc.).

Of course, these are just a sample of common errors you should be checking for at this stage of the editorial process. Depending on your writing style and personal habits, you will add to (or maybe subtract from) the list to customize it for your own use. Likewise, many of these are aspects of usage to keep in mind but not hard-and-fast rules. For instance, I don’t expect you to wipe every single adverb from your work, merely to avoid overusing them. Reliance on adverbs suggests your verbs need to pull more weight, but adverbs on their own are not evil parts of speech.

Clarity should always be your first goal. You wish to tell a story and have your reader understand it. Beyond that, you combine your personal voice and writing style with the style in which you’ve chosen to write this particular work in order to impart everything else to the reader — setting, tone, atmosphere, culture, etc. Use this editorial phase to hone those details for consistency and strength of impression. It’s your last chance to polish your prose, eliminate the ordinary and unnecessary, and make your work sparkle.

Friday Links

TGIF! It’s been a short week here, thanks to the Labor Day holiday, but definitely jam-packed nonetheless. Still plenty to do before I click over to weekend mode, but of course I wanted to drop by with some fun links to help you all start your weekends right.

September always makes me think of heading back to school. Call it years of indoctrination at a most impressionable age. Regardless, I itch for shiny new school supplies and a big bag of new books. But it’s also a great time to think of what you want to accomplish with the rest of the year in terms of your writing goals. The last stretch, so to speak. Before you know it, we’ll be racing into the holiday season, so take an hour or so in the next few days to look at 2014 so far, your writing goals and accomplishments, and determine where you want to go from here.

This week’s links are the usual mash-up, but I hope you find them helpful and that some of them inspire you to recommit to your writing goals in the months ahead. Wishing you all a wonderful weekend. Enjoy!

Sherman Alexie and Jess Walter Launch Literary Podcast – Podcasts are a great way to get writing tips, and these gentlemen are sure to be handing out some excellent ones.

The Unseen or the Unspoken: Some Notes on Absence in Fiction – Sometimes what you don’t say provides as much detail as what you do.

To Be More Creative, Question What You Know – Stepping outside your sphere of knowledge can inspire you.

297 Flabby Words and Phrases that Rob Your Writing of All Its Power – Great for writers looking to tighten up their prose and eliminate redundancies, in particular.

Novel Writing Tips: The 8 Laws of Foreshadowing – Not every project requires foreshadowing, but here are some things to keep in mind for the ones that do.

 

Friday Links

Another tense week here in the U.S. My weekend plans include brunch and books and manuscripts. Er… not in that order. I fully intend to unplug from the internet and the news, however, because it’s mostly just depressing me. Maybe I’ll peek occasionally, so I’m not completely out of the loop, but other than that… just no. It all makes me want to bang people’s heads together. So much irrational cruelty and needless violence. Somewhere on my shelves there must be a book that will remind me that human beings do good things, too. Because the other option, apparently, is to watch celebrities pour ice over their heads (for an admittedly good cause) and that’s getting old.

But first, I have links! There’s a pretty diverse group this week, so I hope there’s something to appeal to everyone. May you be inspired to some creative greatness this weekend, or at the very least find an excellent read. Enjoy!

Finding My Voice in Fantasy – Author and Time magazine book reviewer Lev Grossman discusses how he made the leap from “literary” writing to fantasy.

Why We Must Strive for Diversity in SF/F – Author David Mack talks about his own work and his reaction to readers criticizing his diverse characters.

Practical Art: On Teaching the Business of Creative Writing – A great look at some of the practical aspects of a writing career that should possibly get addressed as part of a writer’s education.

Surreal Worlds Digitally Painted by Gediminas Pranckevicius – Amazing art work that looks like it should serve to inspire some fantastic fiction. (For those of you looking for a prompt.)

Why We Need Independent Bookstores More Than Ever – The director of a smaller publisher weighs in on the book-selling wars.

When to Cut that Scene – Some good tips on how to revise with an eye toward editing out the fluff — no matter how much you might love it.

Friday Links

Summer just keeps flying right on by. It’s Friday already. I’ve a busy weekend ahead, starting with dinner and a show this evening, to help celebrate a friend’s birthday, and then some more socializing Saturday, and tons of work-related reading all in between. And somewhere in there I need to squeeze a few loads of laundry.

Weekends like this, where real life buts up against the things you want to do, make me truly nostalgic for summer vacations of my childhood, when I was too young for a real job and didn’t do much with my days besides read my way through the public library. When you hear that old cliche about kids not appreciating how good they have it, that’s the exact scenario I picture: me lying on my stomach in my childhood bedroom, the AC blowing at me while I’ve got my nose in a book.

Okay, enough with memory lane. I have Friday Links to share! I hope you enjoy them, and that they help kick off a great weekend. And if you sneak in a little good old fashioned reading time, all the better.

The Art of the Opening Sentence – We discuss how important first sentences are all the time, but this article gives you a wonderful peek into why that’s true.

A Game as Literary TutorialThe New York Times looks at how many of today’s writers were influenced by playing Dungeons & Dragons when they were kids.

What We Talk about When We Talk about Manuscripts – The folks at Algonquin give an inside look into some of the things they consider when reviewing submissions. (Hint: Most editors and agents will look for these things.)

Why Readers, Scientifically, Are the Best People to Fall in Love With – Preaching to the choir, but still interesting to read.

A Primer on Modern Japanese Literature in 10 Minutes – A quick rundown for anyone looking to diversify their reading list.

Friday Links

Happy Friday, everyone! I hope you all had a good, productive week. It seemed to go quite quickly; frankly, I’m not sure how we’re staring down April already. 2014 is flying along.

I have a collection of links this week that should inspire you to action, whether that’s to sit your butt down and actually write something or to polish and submit an existing project that’s been languishing on your hard drive. Spring has sprung, regardless of the weather in your neck of the woods, and it’s time to take the plunge, whatever that means for you. Go make something happen this weekend. Start things rolling.

With that I wish you a wonderful weekend filled with books and writing and ideas. Enjoy!

April Prompts – A prompt a day for a month. This site lists a new month’s worth of inspiration on the last Monday of each month, so bookmark it for future inspiration.

Learning to Love Editing – This writer blogs about some advice she heard from YA author Holly Black years ago and has finally learned to embrace.

Inspiration Information: “The Interestings” – The New Yorker kicks off a new series of interviews with authors about the cultural influences on their work.

Life Is too Short to Read a Bad Book – Author Edan Lepucki interviews her editor at Little, Brown, Allie Sommer, about the editing process and what she loves to read.

Opportunities for Writers: April/May 2014 – A list of contests and call for work/submissions for the upcoming months.