Slow Start

Day 2 of NaNoWriMo is fading, and my word count is getting close to my Day 1 target. The Snowflake method seems like a good thing, but I’m rushing through it (and skipping ahead) so quickly that it’s hard to say. Part of me wants to hold off on the novelling until I’ve finished the snowflake, but another part keeps reminding me that that’s not how NaNo is supposed to work, and I’m falling behind!

My slow start is only slow in terms of building word count. Coming up with characters and a plot in two days–that’s fast.

Snowflake Fiction

Someone in my regional NaNo forum recommended this webpage, which uses the Koch Curve as an allegory for the process of creating a structure for your novel. The author calls it the Snowflake Method, and (before I clicked) I thought, Snowflakes are pretty, not useful. This is going to be lame. Then I saw that it was Koch’s Snowflake! The lameness evaporated. Anything that combines fiction and fractals is cool.

It’s NaNoWriMo Time!

I signed up for National Novel Writing Month. For those of you not familiar, that’s when a crazy group of people try to write a 50,000-word novel in 30 days: November 1 through November 30.

I tried three years in a row, starting in 2005, and finally won in 2007. I skipped ‘08, and I’m sad about this. The winner’s t-shirts had a pirate ship on them, and now I want one, but my pride won’t let me buy one. Never again!

I encourage everyone to sign up. NaNoWriMo founder Chris Baty says that one week is the perfect amount of time to get ready, but I say three days is plenty (heck, I just started yesterday). Check out his guide book on Google Books. If you want more help, just ask! Comment here or look me up in NaNoLand.

Happy novelling (that’s a real word in NaNoLand)!

Major Life Event Drops Writing off a Cliff

There’s a trade-off between productivity and peace of mind. Of course, if you’re getting a lot done, you can enjoy knowing that you’re on top of things. There are times when I have so much energy to spare I can clean the entire house, write for three hours, plan dinner, review my life list, and still find fifteen minutes to work on improving my handwriting. On those days, I feel awesome. There’s a lot to be said for getting a lot done.

Even so, keeping that up for weeks at a time makes my shoulders knotty. Planning to do it, and following through, generally makes me feel accomplished, and even energized, but still: knotty shoulders.

For the past few months, I’ve been working towards one of those Big Life Events that everyone comes together to celebrate and take pictures of, and that lots of us put into fancy albums to take out and cry over every couple years. I intend to do that, by the way. It has taken a lot of planning and effort and (ye gods) money and time, and for the past few weeks, I’ve opted to either do all that, or do nothing at all. This is one of those times that I know I’m falling short in at least one important area, but I’m okay with it because I’ve chosen to sacrifice one important thing for an even more important thing.

I’m getting married.

I’ll see you all again in two-and-a-half to five weeks.

-Linnea

Writing on a Hectic Schedule

I have not been disciplined about this at all lately, but some writing has occurred. I have known people (and I have been one myself) who can write themselves a ridiculous schedule for life, the universe, and everything, and still sit down for x hours per day and write.

This month has been more catch-as-catch-can. By the way, has anyone seen that phrase in writing before? I really like it, but I’m pretty sure I got it from a YA fantasy novel where everyone was speaking quasi-Old English. Anyway: I’ve written whenever I can catch a spare 20 minutes on the fly. No purpose, no larger project; just really wanted to be typing, so did.

I must have a lovely, patient Muse, if she puts up with this.

Old People Have Cool Stories

Not a new observation, I know. Check out the Foxfire books for a whole bunch of cool stories and useful wisdom.

I made this not-new observation last night when one of the older people I know started talking about his days as a Range Safety Officer for the Army. He told me about the time he was re-training some guardsmen on grenade-throwing, and Something Went Wrong. No one was hurt (well, not more than necessary to keep two people from being maimed), but it was an exciting tale.

If you want to write a short story and have no ideas, go find an old person! Sit, ask a simple question (“How are you today?”) and then just listen. I guess they’re not all as talkative as my grenade-throwing trainer, but keep asking; you’ll hear something. Even if you don’t, you’ll probably be making someone’s day.

New Posting Schedule

Dear Readers,

I’m getting married. Nonetheless, in a moment of excitement, I agreed to help a friend with her new website, and I have a couple new projects of my own. Also, my fiance had the (honestly) good idea of cleaning the house from top to bottom so it’s nice when we get back from our honeymoon. He’s buried at work right now and I’m at home, so I’m trying to do as much of that as I can solo. I also want to paint the master bedroom (my fiance would prefer I not drive myself insane before the wedding, but I really, really want to… paint the bedroom, that is). I also have three group memberships with varying levels of obligation.

I’m going to start posting twice a week for a while, Tuesdays and Thursdays, if at all possible.I will try to write some posts ahead of time to put up from the road while I’m off doing the wedding thing, but no promises. I might just disappear for a couple weeks.

This idea I had of paring down my schedule so I could focus on my writing… clearly I don’t actually operate that way. I think I’ll sign up for aikido again after the wedding.

-Linnea

Web Content for the Crafty

A friend of mine launched a small business today. She’s been giving her gorgeous custom frames and greeting cards as gifts for a long time, and finally decided to take everyone’s advice and start selling them. She’s had some website trouble, so I won’t post a link here yet. One of the problems is content: she doesn’t know what to write. When she mentioned that at the launch party, I volunteered to help. I know, I said I didn’t want to be a freelance commercial writer. But this is a friend, and I’m so proud of her for starting a business. It’s a creative business, too!

So I’ll be writing web content again. I’m looking forward to it. I’m sure my friend knows exactly what she wants, and I’m equally sure that if I sit down with her for lunch and get her talking, I’ll know how make it work on paper. Or a computer screen, as it happens.

It’s been a day for writing and the web. I got a call from another friend and sometime client after lunch. He needed a grammar check: should he use “to” or “with” in the tagline? I felt cool. I’m the grammar-checker, yes I am.

Grammar for one friend, content for another, outlines and plans for me… maybe someday I’ll even make money!

In the meantime, this is fun.

Again!

I got another shiny new idea. It now has a home in my notebook, two to-do lists away from the last one. This is fun, but I’m starting to wonder if my brain is generating new stuff to keep me from making progress on the not-so-new. On the other hand, I’m glad I’ve been capturing these thoughts as they fly by. Organizing my mental fluff, giving it a purpose, and setting it down in words can only be good for me.

Blog Planning

I started working on a strategy for my new blog today. Evidently, I should have done that with this one. Glad the 50 or so of you haven’t been holding that against me. The hardest part right now is narrowing my focus, from “food” down to something specific enough to write about. I’m in no danger of running out of material no matter what I pick, but I’m still tempted to keep my options open… to the tune of maybe three related subjects.

Meanwhile, I got another blog idea that’s new and shiny! And probably harder, but in the exhilarating kind of way. I might as well spend a couple hours on that, planning topics and mapping structure and finding a place for it on my calendar. If it’s not all sparkly after a couple weeks, I’ll have a nice template for something else.

My student’s lightning strike is now a short story, and I have one of my own to review, too. By “review” I mean “rewrite entirely.” Standard procedure. It’s never as wonderful in Draft One as it is by Draft Three. Or Seven.

I’m still pretty happy with all this. I’m blogging, teaching on a small scale, writing, and I’m organized.

This is awesome.