Triple Visual Dare #3

Welcome back!! It's time for another NaNoWriMo Edition of the Visual Dare!! 

I think the trio this week fits more neatly into a single story than the previous two challenges -- hopefully this will create a massive boost for someone's NaNoWriMo tale during the mid-month slump! (If it's you, let me know!)

ANYWAY. I have posted THREE black and white photographs. Your mission is to:

     * Pick the one that grabs you the most.
     * Use it to write a story in 100 words OR LESS. (I'm counting this month!! Mind!!)
     * BONUS POINTS: Make your entry an excerpt from your current NaNoWriMo story.
     * BONUS BONUS POINTS: Use all three photographs (somehow!) in your entry!
     * Add your entry via the cool linky thing below. Be sure to link directly to your Visual Dare post, and not your home page. (You want everyone to see your amazingness straight away!)

Got it?

Ready? Then on your mark.....get set.....WRITE!!!!!

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Triple Visual Dare #2

Welcome back!! It's time for another NaNoWriMo Edition of the Visual Dare!!

I have posted three - count them, THREE - black and white photographs. Your mission is to:

     * Pick the one that grabs you the most.
     * Use it to write a story in 100 words OR LESS. (I'm counting this month!! Mind!!)
     * BONUS POINTS: Make your entry an excerpt from your current NaNoWriMo story.
     * BONUS BONUS POINTS: Use all three photographs (somehow!) in your entry!
     * Add your entry via the cool linky thing below. Be sure to link directly to your Visual Dare post, and not your home page. (You want everyone to see your amazingness straight away!)

Got it?

Ready? Then on your mark.....get set.....WRITE!!!!!

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Triple Visual Dare #1

IT'S NANOWRIMO!! So of course everyone's keyboards (or notebooks, or papyrus scrolls, or small napping children) are in full swing with the wordmongering. YAY. So excited.

This month I am resurrecting the original Visual Dare format that I used when I first debuted this writing challenge during last year's NaNoWriMo spree. Every Wednesday through November 28th will have the following format:

I have posted three - count them, THREE - black and white photographs. Your mission is to:

     * Pick the one that grabs you the most.
     * Use it to write a story in 100 words OR LESS. (I'm counting this month!! Mind!!)
     * BONUS POINTS: Make your entry an excerpt from your current NaNoWriMo story.
     * BONUS BONUS POINTS: Use all three photographs (somehow!) in your entry!
     * Add your entry via the cool linky thing below. Be sure to link directly to your Visual Dare post, and not your home page. (You want everyone to see your amazingness straight away!)

So......everyone clear on the rules?

Are you ready? Do you dare?? Then on your mark.....get set.....WRITE!!!!!

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Pulse Check

As a teacher, I constantly give pulse checks to my students. In my classroom, a "pulse check" is a start-up activity or pop quiz, in which I ask broad questions that let me know where the students are - how they are progressing with projects, what they are reading (or not reading), what has overwhelmed them, what has surprised them, and what they think adds or detracts from the class.

I do these every other week or so; and over the course of the semester these pulse checks tell me something  that the individual papers cannot. Collectively, they show me how far my students have come: in their thinking, their writing, what they find important or unimportant. One pulse check tells me details of the moment they're in; an accumulation of pulse checks shows me their trajectory.

Last Saturday night I got a pulse check of my own, and when I least expected it. I was printing out my NaNoWriMo script when I found I was in need of some divider tabs. I fished around in a desk drawer and found them, buried underneath an avalanche of construction paper. When I pulled them out, however, I discovered the tabs were already labelled with old story titles. Story titles, moreover, for book ideas I had not thought of since college. Book ideas that, at the time, I thought would launch my writing career.

Need I say it? The titles were horrible. Every one of them.

Don't think so? Then let me tell on myself for a moment. Here is the full list of what my College Self considered "promising material" for future publication:

Haley's Comet
Yearleaping
Devil at Death's Ridge
The Unpredictability Factor
The Pirate Conspiracy
Summer of the Vikings
Flight of the Predestine
Raising Cain in East Wigging

The worst part of discovering these labels was knowing that, once upon a time, I had a working rough draft for every one of these underwhelmingly banal ideas. Every. Single. One.

Now, if you're not laughing at me, you might be tilting your head to one side and thinking "Well, that one doesn't sound so bad; I'm pretty sure I've heard of that title elsewhere - or something similar to it..."

Which is one of the reasons I find all of these titles so cringe-worthy: first, because they are all so neutral and generic sounding; and secondly because I remember the general concept behind each book, and they were all monumentally bad. Even if the titles themselves were all right (only the East Wigging title still makes me smile a little bit), the stories would not have lived up to any marketing hype. Not even close.

I looked at the divider tabs, and thought about the ideas they represented. Then I glanced back at my NaNoWriMo manuscript, for which I needed the divider tabs in the first place. I hardly knew whether to laugh or blush. In the end, I was encouraged, not the least because the reminder showed me a couple things about myself:

* I'm glad I wasn't published while I thought I was great. Obviously I was infected with some serious "delusions of adequacy" at the time I wrote those labels. I thought then that I had grand, new, cutting-edge tales to tell. Ideas that no one had ever considered. I, with all my inherent creativity, would write those books and wow the world. My Present Self looks back at that season of life and says an earnest thank-you prayer that the Almighty prevented me from taking any of those manuscripts through to the end. I shudder to think of the consequences, had I tried to seriously submit any of those earlier ideas.

* I'm glad I lived a little before I truly knuckled down with my writing. Since making those dividers, I've traveled to five continents, been a sign language interpreter, and learned how to cook hard-core vegetarian and vegan food. I've played flag football in the woods at night (and got a killer bout of poison ivy as a result). I've had an herb garden, been mistaken for Sigourney Weaver, and helped take apart (and reassemble!) a Chevrolet motor. I've been cussed out over the phone by an irrational customer. I've skied in the Andes and hiked in the Alps, been camping in a snowstorm, and read copious amounts of Viking sagas. I had a pickle-canning fiasco that ended in stitches and a tetanus shot. I've played poker for Skittles and won.

Such experiences gave me a wider view on the world than ever before; and when the time was right, those experiences didn't just trickle into my writing - they leapt and flew and wrangled and erupted onto the page. Marvelous eruptions, in ways my Present Self still can't fully understand or explain.

But I have a hunch my Future Self knows very well how it will end. And when that Future Self sees what sort of literary litter I am leaving behind now, she will take another pulse check, blush a little, and say "My, how far I have come...."

Creative Fatigue

Only once have I ever stayed up all night "just for the fun of it." Sure, I've been awake 36+ hours during international trips, due to the logistics of traveling across multiple countries and time zones. But as for staying up all night just to prove that I could - yeah. Once was enough.

Here's how I knew I was not designed to pull an all-nighter, except under great duress: During high school, I went to a friend's house for a slumber party and stayed up all night. We did absolutely nothing, but it was the principle of the thing: I had boasted I could stay awake all night, and so I did.

I came home early on Sunday morning, just in time to find my family walking out the door for church. My mother instructed me to get ready (being home in time for church was the condition for my going to such a party on Saturday night.), so I obediently went to my room to dress, after promising to meet everyone at church as soon as I was ready. I put on my blue-and-white dress suit with the kicky skirt, fixed my hair, slipped on what I thought were my nice white heels, locked the house, and set out to join my family.

Thirty minutes later I parked in front of the church, but well back in the parking lot for all I was so late. I walked slowly across the asphalt, feeling the strain of fatigue threatening to bring me down. The temptation to curl up and sleep was such a threat, in fact, that I was unsteady on my feet.


Wearing heels? Not a good idea today, I told myself.

It wasn't until I reached the doors of the church that I realized that I wasn't merely tired - I was struggling to walk normally. The door greeter, however, had pity on me and pointed out what I had neglected to realize at the house: I had put on mismatching shoes.

More than that, I had put on one high heel and one flat, open-toed sandal.

My mother, who was waiting for me just inside the door, looked at my dejected, lopsided appearance and shook her head.

"Go home and sleep," she said.

I gladly obeyed.

November this year has left me feeling only slightly more oriented and rested than I did that Sunday morning. I haven't pulled any all-nighters, but I have juggled three jobs amidst pushing through my 51,000 word count for NaNoWriMo. Oh - and there was also that trip to Colonial Williamsburg with my students a couple weeks ago. And Thanksgiving. And music practice and church and tutoring and stuff.

You know - just a big ol' scoop of life. And then some.

The result is that I'm feeling somewhat creatively fatigued. Notice that I did not say I am creatively exhuasted - that's a different thing. I still have as many ideas bouncing around inside my head as I ever did; but right now I just don't have the energy to act on them. When I crossed the NaNoWriMo finish line last Saturday night, I immediately put it away until mid-December, at least. Right now I'm focused on recharging my batteries so that I'm equal to the task of taking up my project again in a couple weeks.

One way I plan to do this is to indulge in some "fun reading" for a change. As a humanities teacher, I've always got my nose in the classics; but I've decided that I'm also going to read some fun, recent, non-classics over Christmas break. I was interrupted a while back with Hood, by Stephen Lawhead, so I've picked that one up again. I've also discovered - thanks to the wonderful pep talks that NaNoWriMo sends out - the fantastical imagination of Brandon Sanderson and his Mistborn Trilogy.

Slipping into these reads have been like falling into a hot bath after a very long, hard day. It soothes all those sore literary muscles that I've stretched daily for the past thirty days, and makes them restful and limber for the next round of wordmongering. I hope all my fellow WriMos are treating themselves similarly. We all know the wisdom of reading while we write, but after such a grueling literary month it pays to balm our bruised literary egos with reminders of why we do what we do.

Besides, we can't afford to go into our own literary endeavors with a galumphing stride, or plot our own course with unequal shoes. Heels and sandals just don't go together, after all.

Take this time to make sure you're properly rested in your craft, so that you will not only be well equipped for the challenge, but so you will become, in turn, a restful literary bliss for someone else.

What do you do to recharge your literary batteries? 

What books are you reading for fun right now?

Melty Brains

No, this is not a zombie post. Although I feel like a zombie right now.

A good kind of zombie (if there is such a thing).

   

This has been a big month for me. First I had the honor of winning the "first line" contest at the WriMosFTW! website, and THEN - on Saturday night - I won NaNoWriMo four days ahead of schedule, with a grand total of 51,044 words.

I am SO very pleased...and exhausted. Hence the melty brains reference.

Of course, my NaNo draft is nowhere near finished, let alone in a condition for anyone else to look at. I employed several messy techniques to allow me to stifle my inner editor and push through, so I could get the greatest amount of narrative down during the time allotted to me. Those messy techniques included (but were not limited to):

     * Highlighting "fluff" passages to delete (or heavily edit) later in olive green

     * Highlighting substance that ought to stay, but needs serious reworking, in violent yellow

     * Line breaks between scenes that I wanted to write, but whose transitions just eluded me

All of this will probably be expanded into later blog posts of some sort, but for the moment it's sufficient to say that I am thrilled to be across the 50K finish line, and deeply thankful for all the wonderful writers who encouraged me and entered word wars wtih me, and so helped me win my NaNoWriMo certificate.

Below are the main cohorts who helped me cross that finish line. I've listed their Twitter names so you can find them there. Where possible, I've included links to their blogs. This is my online writing community, and they are all AWESOME.

@emholbert4                           @JamieOehring                         @JennyAdams
@ashviper                                @LillieMcFerrin                      @Redhed_Stepkid
@Love_Kenzie_                       @9inchsnails                            @placesense
@annaavenhoward                 @surlymuse                              @write_me_happy
@jbirchwriter                          @beccajcampbell                      @BettisiTheThird
@wrimosftw                            @LynMidnight                          @jennifergracen
@Jon_Stoffel                          @JasonRunnels                         @raineerose
@writenowcoach                     @MarkLanden                           @saraleggz
@AdrienneDorais                   @SpartaGus                               @zencherry
@lindseyEarcher                     @courtcan                                  @ColleenWrites2
@BerryKitsune                       @WordyWags                            @notashamed87

Thanks to everyone who helped spur me across the NaNoWriMo finish line! 

I hope all of you were equally successful in your writing projects, 

and I hope to see all your hard-won tales in print very soon!

Plot Problems & Quick (Temporary) Fixes

Hello there! I am enjoying an extended Thanksgiving holiday with friends and family, and am not near my computer today. So please enjoy this reprint of a guest blog I did for the wonderful WriMosFTW! website earlier this week. 

Welcome to the third week of NaNoWriMo! We've indulged in wild, literary abandonment! Hedonistic word abuse! Tangents that turn into plot development!!

It's great, isn't it? Only right now maybe it ISN'T so great. Maybe you are stuck. The how-the-heck-did-I-get-HERE??? kind of stuck.

Yep. Know that feeling well.

The problem with getting stuck in the middle of NaNo is that you're crunched for time. The whole point of NaNo is, after all, to give starry-eyed dreamers a kick in the pants so we will push on, even when we want to spin our wheels and edit, re-edit, polish and tweak Every. Single. Line.  So you barrel on, reminding yourself of that glorious finish line of 50,000 words, and that you can edit to your heart’s content come December. But sometimes you turn a corner and find yourself in a plot tangle that only gets worse the more you write.

Frustrated? Sure you are. Want to fix it? Absolutely. But since this is NaNo, the big, glossy edits come later. But take heart - there is a way to move on ---- even if you have to leave a mental "bookmark" or two for the editing process.

Below I've listed three common plot problems that make ME stop in my tracks, especially now, when I’m so focused on my word count. I've also given my "quick fixes" that allow me to press to the end of NaNo and THEN do the hard edit.

Problem #1: Too Many Characters, or Too Few: These are opposite problems, and neither of them can be fixed mid-NaNo. But you can still pause long enough to see if this is the root of your problem. Don’t be afraid to do it either – determining if you’ve got a problem in this arena will save you a world of hurt later.

Quick Fix: Too few? Add in the new people as you press on, but make some kind of notation to indicate you've introduced a character that wasn't there before, but ought to have been. (I manage this by putting that character's first appearance in bright red font.)

     Too many characters? Figure out which are your weaker characters, and mentally cut them loose. This will leave your stronger characters to pick up the slack, and they will be even more dynamic and engaging because of it. But don't try to fix your earlier pages now. Wherever you are in the manuscript, hit the enter key a few times to indicate a break from previous plot details, and keep going - but with the revised set of characters. You may even need to leave yourself a clear note about who got axed. Everything up to that point will need adjusting post-NaNo.

Problem #2: Murky Plot Points: For me, a "murky plot point" is something that I haven't thought through very well, that is now turning out to be a bigger deal than I thought. In my current project, I knew I needed an underground train. I had no idea it would become so central to the story. Now I realize I need to study up on trains come December. I can’t become a Train Expert just now; but I will.

Quick Fix: When I realize I need technical jargon I just don't have yet, I'll insert some notes in parenthesis and in red (or bold, or all caps) that reminds me of what I need: For example: "Then Finn looked under the train (((and detected some serious problem that stalls the train out for the next two chapters))). Then he turned to..." etc. Since I already have a basic understanding of trains, I'll know that Finn at least needs to go for some parts, which would be conveniently located in a troublesome part of town. Plot moves on. 

Problem #3: Not Thinking Wide Enough? This is a different sort of problem. It doesn't create so much of a writer's block as a moment of realization amounting to: "Oh, CRAP I should have done this four chapters ago! Now what?" If you've hit that sort of snag, you've realized there is some key character, scene, or whole chapter that is missing from your earlier writing, and without it you don't have enough internal scaffolding to bear the weight of your story. But this is NaNo, and you want to press on to where you NOW know the story ought to go.

Quick Fix: Print out the pages you have so far, and quickly scan what you’ve written. In the margins, make plain but simple notes: “Put Anne in this scene.” Or “Needs more cowbell.” Or “’Add chapter about Marv’s POV from the Inner Sanctum”, etc. If you do this while it's fresh on your mind, you’ll not only thank yourself later, but sometimes you’ll pick up on other things that need to be added to the margin notes. (I usually sacrifice a whole evening of NaNo-ing to do this step anyway, even if I feel I’m doing well.) The trick is to not bog down here, and forget to type. Make your notes and move on.

It’s been said that “If a thing is worth doing, it’s worth doing badly.” As writers, that is what we ought to remember as we pursue our craft. Your first pass at a rough draft – whether hastily written or no - is going to be just that: ROUGH. But if your tale is worth telling, then it’s worth telling badly - at least during the first pass.

But you’ll get to the ultimate finish line. Of course you will! Because we’re writers, and we know that rough beginnings are always the first step – but never the last.

Triple Visual Dare

While I continue my efforts to catch up from my now-five-day hiatus from NaNoWriMo, I've decided to put up another visual dare for my readers - only this time I've put up three photographs, including one from the marvelous Alexy Titarenko.

Choose one, or two, or all three as visual references for some component, character or scene in your NaNoWriMo manuscript.

Think you can't? I think you can.

Heck --- you're a writer. I know you can.

Photo by Hilda Randulv 

Photo by pingallery

Photo by Alexy Titarenko

While I Was Gone...

I'm back from my road trip!!!!! Thanks so much to everyone who continued to check my blog and leave feedback and encouragement during my absence. You guys are wonderful.

As you can imagine, I'm pretty wiped out. Driving 1200 miles in 4 days, plus keeping up with 30 students between the ages of 12 and 17 as we scamper from one historical site to another really puts a girl through her paces. But we got to see some amazing things, had loads of fun, and learned a LOT --- and what more could you want out of a school field trip?

HOWEVER....tired or not, travel-brained or not, I would count myself as no real human being if I didn't take a moment to say a couple of very important things....

First of all - THANK YOU to everyone who voted, and THANK YOU to the marvelous Lyn Midnight and her judges over at the WriMosFTW! website; because guess what - I won first place in the first line contest!!!

This is amazing to me because I never win anything. EVER. Not even the "gag gift" door prize of the 50 lb bag of dog food at the company Christmas party. (Put this in context:  I don't have a dog.) So it was a huge honor to be included in the top 12, let alone to get the most votes overall. Not really sure how that happened, actually....there were some stellar entries!!

Congratulations also goes out to the fantabulous Jenny Adams and the magnificent Regina Grey, who both scored some pretty sweet prizes. Hit them up on Twitter if you haven't discovered them already!!

As for my own prize - it makes me the proud owner of Rochelle Melander's book Write-a-Thon, which is itself an amazing tool for taking my NaNoWriMo project to the next level. I can't wait to get my hands on it! With two working rough drafts and a soon-to-be third, I know this volume of writer-ly insight is just what I need to help me with the next step in my quest to be published.

But the best part of all this?? I have made some amazing friends. These gals, and others I have met through NaNo (and especially through Twitter) have proven to be the most encouraging bunch of die-hard writers I've ever met. Go check out their websites, and find them on Twitter if you're in that corner of the social networking universe.

Now....to make tracks with my word count!! Have a great day and keep on writing!!!

Visual Dare

Photo taken by Jerry Uelsmann

Photo discovered via website Black and White.

Yesterday was the midway point for NaNoWriMo. Many of you have pushed through your difficult passages in just the last 24 hours. But if you're still stuck....

.....then I double-dog-dare-you to include Uelsmann's amazing photo in your story somewhere. I can totally use the idea in mine, even though I'm not exactly there yet in the narrative.

But I'm plotting. Oh, I'm plotting.....

Incidentally, check out the Black and White website if you haven't yet. There are tons of photos to stir the visual imagination...which is what writers often need in order to wrap their mind around a detailed concept.

Put a funky tree-house in yours. Or go to the Black and White site for another idea.

I double-dog-dare-you.

Can you picture this in your story?

Never Say Die!

Never say die! We're only halfway through the adventure!!!

Photo still from the movie Goonies (1985)

Today is the 15th of November - and we are halfway through NaNoWriMo!

Are you fed up yet? Stuck? Ready to kill off all your characters due to their inherent stupidity? Wondering if you should eat all your writing snacks and just forget the writing?

I totally understand the frustration. NaNoWriMo is all euphoria and cool snacks and lots of fun snarking on Twitter....for about the first four days or so. Then it's still fun, but fun that you have to work in around real life as the daily pressures mount up.

Around the end of the second week is when things get tough.

The honorable Chris Baty tweeted the other day to push through the 20Ks as quickly as possible, because once you reach the 30K, you're over halfway there and the psychological push to win NaNo isn't quite as toxic. He certainly has a very good point - and he should. As one of the founders of NaNoWriMo, he's been through this a few times.

So --- this is when all you writing goonies out there need to pull together, stare up the wishing well to the starry sky of the endangered Astoria, and shout 'GOONIES NEVER SAY DIE!!!"

We're only halfway through the adventure, after all. You gonna leave One Eyed Willie (or whatever your as-yet-undisclosed plot twist) in permanent pirate purgatory like that?

Of course not. Because you're a writing goonie. And Goonies NEVER say die (or kill off their masterpiece).

And to get you back in the groove of literary composition - here's a fun link that a friend shared with me a while back. I had to download this from iTunes, I love it so much. But note: If you're at work, or in a house with sleeping people, put in the ear buds or else watch the volume - they start rocking out around 0:50.

Enjoy!! And above all ---- keep on writing!!!!

NaNoConfederates

The first week of NaNoWriMo is almost over! As of typing this post (late Thursday evening) I am sitting at about 7200 words, so I'm feeling pretty good about the whole thing so far. Plus I get to see my writer's group on Saturday for several hours, during which we are determined to do multiple word blitzes, talk about our current projects, dream big dreams, eat tons of food, and indulge in more than the FDA-recommended allowance of maniacal laughter and world domination plans.

So.....a typical writer's meeting. Yeah.

I hope all of you fellow writers are having equal success (or better) with your manuscripts, and that you have a regional NaNo meeting, or a local writer's group or something, that you can tap into to sharpen your focus and add to your word count. If you don't, you should check out some of the wonderful NaNoConfederates who live online. The following blogs are run by people who are actively participating in NaNoWriMo and whose websites I found intriguing, with lots of stuff to read and think over and cull through. Some of them are published authors, some of them are "not yets" like me; but they are all worth a closer look:

Write Me Happy                       The Daily Dose                          Lawrence Pearce                   
Liz Holbert                                Jason Runnels                          The Wild Pomegranate   
The Four Part Land                  Musings from the Slush Pile      Fly Casual

Like what you saw? Great. Want to find more blogging and writing greatness from WriMos across the web? Then go visit the hub of all the amazing NaNoNetworking at Lyn Midnight's site WriMosFTW! You'll find all manner of fellow WriMos networking there, plus a wealth of NaNo-centric information, writing tips and contests.

Now go add to your word count!! The month is still young....

But before you go, tell me - how are YOU doing with your NaNoWriMo endeavors?

3 Impossible Things Before Breakfast

NaNoWriMo

Alice is my hero - both the real Alice, and the perpetually blonde, blue-frocked gal with comfits in her apron pockets, immortalized by Lewis Carroll. (The real Alice, incidentally, had short, brown curly hair - the exact opposite of Tenniel's imaginings of her.) There are many reasons why Alice endures as one of the most iconic heroines in children's literature; but her greatest virtue (I think) is that she can believe the impossible, and does it routinely - every day before breakfast.

Today I commence my second annual NaNoWriMo marathon. In so doing I have, in one stroke, committed to believing three impossible things:

1. I believe I will find time to type a minimum of 1924 words on a non-work-related project on any given day. Usually the word minimum is 1667/day, but I have a four day road trip planned that will put me beyond reach of a computer, taking my NaNo days down to 26. So - 1924 words per day it is. With three jobs, it logistically seems impossible. But I also know where to steal from Peter to pay Paul (metaphorically speaking), so I stand convinced I can get it done.

2. I believe I can keep up that 1924 minimum every day for the entire month of November. An enthusiastic beginning is inevitable, but all marathons require stamina and endurance. I can steal from Peter to pay Paul for a few days, maybe a week or so; but can I keep it up all month? Well, I did it last year - and I had FIVE jobs then. So, what's my excuse? You say: "None." (That's what I thought.)

3. I believe I have a tale worth the trouble of writing down. In some ways, this is the biggest leap of faith. The word count is one thing; making time for it is another. But to believe at the outset that I have a coherent, believable tale that would interest others, is the biggest impossibility of all. It's also the virtue for which no one - in NaNo or out of it - can reward me at the end of this month. When NaNo is over, the hard work will have only just started. There will be layers of faith and frustration to push through before my manuscript is ready for beta readers, let alone professional eyes.

But that's why it's a leap of faith, right? An enormous leap. A leap so huge that even to believe in it is considered impossible.

That's why we should do as Alice, and believe in our impossible goals before breakfast every single day. Because even believing in your dreams does, at rock bottom, require practice.

What impossible things are you believing in today?

Writer Comforts

With NaNoWriMo only four days away, I am hearing more and more of my NaNo buddies "stocking up" on goodies and supplies to see them through their writing blitzes.  I must admit, I had not given a thought to what sort of "treats" I ought to keep on hand to reward myself during the thirty days of literary madness. My quirk is that I have so many jobs, and such a broad taste in food, that anything would make a great snack for me. So long as I have the luxury of sitting still in one chair the entire time and not being interrupted by anything - I count that as a real treat, especially if that "sitting still time" can be Writing Time.

What I do like, though, is a special drink. Hot chocolate, chai, lattes, hot tea, cider, ginger-beer --- put a cup of something perky in my hand (preferably hot, and non-alcoholic), and I am a happy gal.

My list of "NaNo Goodies" began in the back of my head just this morning while working with a trio of homeschooled siblings. The ten year old has a lovely habit of putting a kettle on to boil about eleven o'clock, and treating all the hard workers to a pot of hot tea right as they're getting to the really tangled parts of their lessons. Today, however, she pulled out the Russian Spice mix that her mother had made and stored in an old mason jar. A couple scoops into each cup, a generous libation of hot water over each, and voila - I was handed heaven in a cup.

Russian Spice Tea

Russian Spice Tea is a seasonal favorite as the days grow dark and the temperatures drop and - as my young pupil so rightly determined - now is the perfect time of year to pull it out. It's easy to make, the ingredients are not difficult or expensive, and keeps indefinitely in a sealed container. It's a bold, warming citrus tea that is just the balm to soothe a writer's soul. There are many recipes out there (just ask Google!), but an easy one that does the trick can be found right here.

But if the citrus-y savor of Russian Spice Tea isn't your style, then you're probably on the sweet and creamy end of things; in which case you'll want a totally different set of recipes.

Chai 

Cocoa and Chai Lattes: My friend, fellow writer and co-blogger Amanda over at Fly Casual put up a timely post about two weeks ago, showcasing a couple of her own homemade hot drink mixes. Check out her recommendations here for a couple of great, simple recipes for a one-cup cocoa concoction, as well as one AMAZING chai latte mix. (And great writerly insights to read while you're sipping your cup of heaven!)

I have plenty of cocoa mix here at the house, but I have every intention of putting together some chai latte mix this weekend. Or the Russian Tea. Hmmmmm. With November  almost here....I better stock up on both, just to be on the safe side. :-)

What about my blogging friends? What's your "comfort cup" 

when settling into a long evening of creativity?

Life in the GURMAD

So, the fantabulous Amanda said in her guest post that I am currently wandering around in the GURMAD - ie, The Great Unknown Regions of Mystery and Death. I laughed aloud when I saw that, because that really describes my life right now.

Well, apart from the death stuff. No death-ish-ness, or anything pertaining thereunto, going on here. (So don't worry about that.)

Even so, my life is enmeshed in the Great Unknown on several levels - some of which has been going on for a while, some which is only now gearing up (including this blog). Being self-employed is, in itself, a Great Unknown, an adventure within adventure, that is ongoing and ever changing. And I love it. Despite the curve-balls it throws me sometimes (okay, maybe more often than merely "sometimes") I wouldn't change it. Life in the Great GURMAD is one heckuva ride and I will proudly wear my membership badges (all of which I have entirely earned).

This week finds me in Texas to see old friends for an extended and much needed vacation. So you might say that here in the GURMAD (shall I not do it in all caps? I think it works well as a name of it's own) I have found an oasis, where I lick some of my battle-wounds and get myself back up to snuff for the next round of adventures - because the Gurmad, like Wonderland and Neverland, is full of adventures, each one coming closely on the heels of the next.

And honestly - I need those adventures, especially the little ones that add so much flavor and variety to each day. If you follow my Twitter status updates, you know that I am always posting about the oddments that color my days, and it is those oddments that feed my writer's brain and give me the wherewithal to pour out new ideas onto paper.

This holiday in Texas has been just that. I have been able to unplug from the Blackberry (well, mostly), leave the grading and lesson plans behind, and not worry about anything else for several days. I have been treated to copious amounts of hot tea, lots of conversations with precocious children (my friends have four, each one of them a rosetta stained glass window), twilight dinners on the back patio, immersion in local history (Texan history is one of the things I know practically nothing about), daily naps and the most wonderfully restful, soaking conversations you'd ever want to bask in.

The timing could not be better. With my manuscript rolling out for its first round of cold reads with the Beta readers, NaNoWriMo only two weeks away, plus my 983475 other jobs that I must attend to (one must pay rent and buy groceries, after all....selfish but true), I am staring a ton of deadlines in the face - some self-imposed, some just part of the natural workings of the Gurmad. But it can all stack up very quickly.

That's why I need to remember that Gurmad is a much bigger place than deadlines and bills and lesson plans and such. There are three-year-olds that need foot races, Darjeeling tea to be savored, mango salsa to be slurped in large quantities, evening conversations by candlelight to be enjoyed, and friends to embrace in ever-winding layers to which (one hopes) you never quite find the bottom.

That is the beauty of Gurmad: it is mysterious and dangerous, and maybe death does peek in on you once in a while; but mostly it is a glorious adventure full of unbounded opportunities. So many opportunities that, as Amanda speculated, I may have a hard time finding my way out.

And honestly? -- I hope I never do.  :-)

Ringscar and the Guest Blogger

By the time this updates I will (hopefully) be in the air and on my way to a much-needed little vacation visiting friends out west. Under the heading of keeping my wonderful blog family up to snuff, here are a couple of little updates about what's going on:

1. Guest Blogger: First of all, since I'll be out of pocket for at least four days, I have asked the fantabulous Amanda from Fly Casual to do a guest blog for me on Friday!! So be sure to check back late Friday/early Saturday and see what sort of amazingness appears!

2. Ringscar says hello: NaNoWriMo begins in just over two weeks! Are you registered? Are you ready? Are you just going to plunge in headfirst and fly by the seat of your pants? Either way - the NaNoWorld welcomes you. Get over there and get ready! Then let me know how I can find you on the forums. I'm on there as Ringscar.

3. Read Much? Just in case you haven't discovered it yet, go over and check the book-friendly social network of Goodreads. It's like being in a big virtual library and being able to whisper to each other through the bookshelves. That and you can show off just how incredibly book-savvy you are, to boot.

4. Twitterpated: I am getting such great insights into the current agent/publishing industry that I am actively working on a weekly spotlight on my blog that, I hope, will be insightful to others as well. More details later - stay tuned.

NaNoAmmo

Three days remain till I see my journalist friend about my manuscript. Thirteen days remain until the manuscript blitzing of NaNoWriMo begins, and I get to plunge headlong into the sequel. And in the meantime, there are the wonderful NaNos themselves, creeping out of their litearature-infused dens to network with the extended Brotherhood of Writers. This means that the NaNo forums are lighting up with activity (expect the avalanche to grow as November 1st approaches), and the NaNoBloggers are going into overtime.

Not all of the NaNos are only just now coming out of hibernation, however. A few diligent souls have been hard at work, most notably Lyn Midnight's blog of WriMosFTW! This blog is an excellent source of networking and encouragement as you gear up for November, with guest blogs from various WriMos throughout the month. While the official NaNoWriMo site puts out all kinds of pep talks from published authors, the blog posts on Lyn's site are from fellow NaNos who have a common heritage of battle-scars from previous November blitzes, and infuse their posts with all sorts of wisdom and encouragement such as only a fellow NaNo can bring - and who doesn't want to be encouraged like that, from those who are part of the NaNo Brother hood?

The blog updates every day (or nearly), and with a variety of topics that keep apace of the NaNo frenzy. Be sure to bookmark the site as November draws near....you never know what glints of NaNo awesomeness you might find there....perhaps even a guest post from yours truly? Quite possibly....

OK. So it's not a mere possibility. I've submitted an idea for a guest post and have been accepted. Can I tell you how excited I am about this? You have no idea.

So....keep your ear to the ground, folks.....the next few (writing) weeks are going to be wild....

NaNoDebate

14 days!! That's all! Only two weeks until National Novel Writing Month, also known as NaNoWriMo, begins on November 1st. The NaNoWriMo website will give you all the details, but the short answer is that NaNo is a month of pure reckless literary enthusiasm, during which aspiring authors (and maybe even a few published ones) attempt to churn out 50,000 words, or the length of a short to midsize paperback, during 30 breathless days at the keyboard. The general idea is that you have a completed rough draft of a manuscript by the end of the month. Those who cross the magical finish line get a certificate, a nifty banner to put on their wall/website/avatar, and - at least in the case of last year - a limited time offer to get a free printed edition of your work from CreateSpace.

All of this sounds great. Spectacular. Marvelous. Just the thing to give a would-be-author the perfect sort of literary head rush. BUT...there is a flip side. (Isn't there always?)

Realistic Expectations?

Over the past few years, many literary professionals have turned up their noses at the whole idea of NaNoWriMo. They bemoan the concept on the grounds that it gives legions of starry-eyed JKRowling-wannabes this notion they can write a novel in 30 days, give it a quick brush-up, submit it and then - voila! - dream come true. Instant epic greatness. Start booking the talk shows now!

((I should pause and say here that there are more than a few published books, including some well-known ones, that were birthed during NaNoWriMo. Go ahead and check out the list!))

The Gold Rush Syndrome

But do the naysayers have a valid point? Unfortunately, yes. Every year there are competitors who go into NaNo thinking they'll have a rough manuscript at the end that'll only want a tweak here and there (something they can surely manage during Christmas break). Then they'll send it out and their work will be snatched up by eager agents and editors because it is the brilliant, fantastic "ZOMG!!!" work that it is.

How does a person get there? Possibly because the story has been in their head for so long that they've gotten to the point of "whattheheck" - that point where you shove back all the naysayers and just DO something. It's a good place to be, of course - but it is not a good place to stay. That whattheheck, cannonball-into-the-deep-end plunge is a transition moment - not a place to camp out. If you stop there, that is when the unrealistic expectations begin to multiply.

But you know what? I don't think most NaNos are like that. Not at all.

The Narnia Principle

Most of the NaNos I know - both personally and through eavesdropping on the NaNo forums - are serious about what they're doing and, as a result, they're willing to take their time. They understand what C. S. Lewis told his goddaughter Lucy in the preface to The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe - chiefly, that "girls grow quicker than books." Of course, he was talking about how he had started writing a fairy tale for her, only to see her outgrow fairy tales before the book itself was ready. But that's the nature of life, isn't it? Stories grow at a slower rate than girls or boys. They don't mushroom nearly as quickly as the daily demands of work and family. They don't scream quite as loudly as the bills that need to be paid and the household chores that must be conquered.

No matter how you slice it, getting a story out of your head and onto paper takes time -a LOT more time than any newbie (myself included) would like to admit.

Bottom Line?

The upshot? NaNoWriMo is an excellent kick in the pants for anyone who wants that kind of fun, persistent franticness that comes with blitzing your way to a finish line alongside oodles of other crazy writer types. And whether you reach the magic 50,000 word mark or not, whether you end with a completed rough draft or not, it's never a lost cause or a waste of time. Why? Because chances are you'll have written a good deal more than you would have anyway - certainly in November, of all months, with its holidays and   Black Friday and work pressures and goodness knows what else. Real NaNos know that it's not about having a golden trophy at the end. NaNoWriMo is a kick in the pants - the hurt-to-help-you kind.

If you're serious about writing, then steady, disciplined time is what you really need (and you already know it). Time does a lot of magic on its own, if we have the self-control to neither drag our feet nor outrun our opportunities.

Am I making sense? Where do YOU weigh in on the NaNoWriMo debate?

Countdown: 4, 11, 21

October has always been a pressure month for me, filled to choking with exams, papers, art shows, projects, and other deadlines that try to squeeze the stuffing out of the days leading up to Halloween. This year is no different. Though I eschewed all art shows this fall, and scaled back from five jobs to three, I am still a very busy bee. However, this October brings three additional deadlines amid the usual chaos - all for which I am eagerly counting down the days:

4 Days:  I have four days until I finish my Vision Impaired training for the home therapy group that employs me. I already work with deaf and deafblind babies and toddlers; this current class is enabling me to work with visually impaired tots who are otherwise cognitively normal and need additional challenges, including pre-Braille training. Did you know that you could teach "pre-Braille" to someone still in diapers? I didn't either, till I joined this class.

11 Days: I have eleven days till I hand off my current manuscript, Castle 8, to a journalist friend who has agreed to give it a cold read. I cannot tell you how excited I am - first, that I get to see my friend, whom I haven't seen since visiting her in Jakarta several years ago; but also that I will get a thoughtful, honest response from someone who can tell me where my (literary) hangups are and what to do about them.

21 Days: Only three weeks remain until NaNoWriMo! I will do a specific post on this annual event later, especially as I know there is some strong debate in literary circles as to whether NaNo is everything it's cracked up to be; but I for one am very excited. I have already storyboarded the sequel to Castle 8 and am ironing out the details as we speak. I don't anticipate having a complete rough draft by the end of November, but if I cross that magic 50,000 word mark, that's roughly 200 pages closer to the end than I would be otherwise.

What about YOU? Are you considering doing NaNoWriMo this year? Let me know!