It has become clear to me that I am not ready to write a novel in 30 days. I won’t tell you I tried, because I didn’t really. I wrote here and there, and gave in to other life callings, and wrote a poem a day—for the most part. It’s evident to me that I will choose a poem daily over a novel in thirty days every time.

No Writing Super Hero Cape for Me

I thought I might manage it this year: the daily poems and the novel. It was just my imagination. This year, I am officially letting myself off the hook. I will work in a relaxed manner, writing daily, to finish my novel in a year. I take the idea from Walter Mosley’s writing book, This Year You Write Your Novel. I will take the year beginning December 1 to complete one of the two stories I have started in this and last year’s NaNo event. (I still have the notes.)

Daily writing is a great idea. I find I enjoy it very much. However, I don’t always have it in me to write on the exact same subject. It is possibly what draws me to poetry. Still, I have longer stories I want to tell. It’s just that forcing myself to do it in thirty days only works in my imagination.

Why Not

I really can and often do write more than 2000 words daily. I type at an adequate rate of 60 words per minute on average. I have cool software to assist and my tried and true application, Corel WordPerfect. It’s not the mechanics.

There’s no problem with following ideas. I prime them, feed them, and let them go, chasing frantically, writing feverishly to capture the nuances and tangents. I’m perfectly willing to shape them later. So, it’s not the postponement of editing.

I could blame it on the fact that everyone says that you have to write crap. Writing crap really doesn’t appeal to me. I don’t mind bad first drafts. But that isn’t crap to me, necessarily. Most likely though, it’s the fact that I have way too many story questions. I’ve not substantially stacked in my favor, the odds for success. I watch stories, think of stories, and read stories. When the leaps don’t work for me, I wonder how it might have been done differently so that it doesn’t resemble magic, but a founded, logical next step.

I’m Just Not Doing It in November

Ok, I do want it to be good the first time out. I just don’t need perfection. The bottom line is that I don’t feel it in the month of November. Perhaps I’ll take the next 30 day month—Oh, no! That’s April, National Poetry Month. Just kidding. I’ll give myself the year and let the story play out as it will, leaving myself free to do any extraneous research I might choose.

Who can say if it will take the full year? I can’t say because I never got so far as finishing. Still, by next November, I may be eager to crank out a sequel. For now, I’ll get back to my daily poems. Write on, NaNoWriMo’s. Part of me really does wish I was finishing with you. But, I let myself off the hook and I’m staying off, indefinitely.

Hello and welcome to my 2010 NaNoWriMo endeavor. That’s National Novel Writing Month. And here is where I’m laying out my plan and logging my journey through the month of November.

I’m reactivating my meter because I really enjoyed him last time I participated.

This meter comes from Writertopia.com, where writers can find useful stuff to distract and entertain themselves, keeping the writing fires burning.

As always, I need to write 1666.67 words daily to reach the finish line. It proved to be more of a challenge than I expected, as is evident by the fact that I never finished.

Last time, I tried telling people to get them to leave me to my own devices. It didn’t help. This time, I’ll just write and not say anything. If my regular writing time isn’t feasible, I’ll take whatever time I can get, focusing on the goal of 2,000 words daily (I prefer the roundness of “2000″).

With this plan, the first week is critical. So, I’ll make particular effort to stay on track through 11.7, (my birthday by the way). Making this milestone will be a nice gift from me to me.

Come back and check out my log posts I’ll be posting here, and tell me what’s up with you.

1. Fun, Frenzied Writing Time, 10.31.2010 – November activities are here.
2. NaNoWriMo: I didn’t Do it Again, 11.29.2010 – No more pressing myself, I’m released.

With two days left before NaPoWriMo begins, I’ve been thinking about what goes into writing a prompted poem daily for a month. One key is to use routines wherever you can. You know what you have to do and you get used to going through the steps. Breaking down my strategy, I found that a routine surfaced, and I want to share it.

Eight Steps to a Poem a Day

1. Read the prompt as early as possible. Give it time to marinate. Let your subconscious have first crack at it, while you go through your day.
2. Consciously dismiss all concerns and distractions at writing time. You may even try saying aloud, “Time to write a poem.” Focus on the prompt and how you interpret it.
3. When a prompt takes you to a particular place, that’s where you start writing. If that doesn’t happen, write whatever thoughts come to mind. In this stage of associative writing (I call it that) you’re stirring your personal knowledge from the bottom up, and things can surface that may have been dormant for many years. It happens and it is quite useful.
4. Eventually something will strike you. That’s the theme you wan to give your attention to and develop.
5. Find the sense of what you’re hearing in the words. Write words that are fully expressive of what you’re thinking, in colors, smells, emotions. Write to reflect the rhythm you feel, breaking lines however you like. Just get the words down to flesh out your message.
6. Shape your poem. You’ll read your poems several times before it’s over. First reading: Listen to the flow and revise your line breaks and punctuation to convey the rhythm and breaths you use.
7. Read aloud with affect. Does it sound like you want. Read with different rhythms that play from your shape. Listen for what readers may hear. Make changes as you see fit.
8. Take a break from the poem. If you’re like me you may not have a lot of time for this. But it helps. When you can, move off your poem, to something else. Return later to repeat the process of reading and editing  until your comfortable, (or run out of time), and post.

A Word about Speeding

These steps are from my experiences with daily poem writing on my own, and with prompts in November 2009. The writing goes fast, and so does the editing. In fact you can do it in a day or in an hour as time permits.

My point is that your goal isn’t to perfect your poem. That comes later. What you’re doing is making it work so that 1. your message is understood, and 2. you’re willing to let it go live. Easy, right?

Writing without prompts

Although this is written toward prompted poems, there’s really very little difference between prompted and unprompted poem writing. Really, the only difference is that someone other than you provides the prompts.

Think about it: Unprompted poems are really poems that you prompt for yourself. Rummaging through your thoughts, you pick up things that interest you and get working on it. So, skipping number 1, you can move through the same steps as above—I do.

Be sure to visit the links on the NPM 2010 page for links to participate in National Poetry Month. Links for this event are in the sidebar for easy access.

Let me know your thoughts. What did I miss? What routines do you have to write your poems?

Feeling wordy I sat to blurt it,
just anything that came
singing to me.

I made to type
and it hit hard in my face
there were no sensible words
left in the Guff.

© 2010 Shari Lynne Smothers

Really, it’s not that bad. Rather unexpectedly, I’m in New Orleans until Thursday. My mom decided she wanted to be here for the playoff game against the Vikings. So we’re in our hometown for a few days, before returning home to Houston.

While I’m here, I don’t have regular access to the internet, and I hadn’t really planned to work the whole time anyway. However, while it’s good to spend time offline, I miss it. So I got on for a minute to post a brief note to explain my absence and maybe later I’ll be visiting blogs I regularly enjoy.

Monday morning I’m
three poems in arrears and some
thousands words behind.

©2009 Shari Lynne Smothers

This is a short Haiku to convey my rising anxiety about the projects I’ve taken on.

I can deal with being three poems behind–on  a regular day. But, because I’ve taken on NaNoWriMo and I’m very far behind, my anxiety is reaching  a feverish pitch.

My writing could well be over for NaNoWriMo, except the characters are still alive in my head. I’ve got all these ideas and twists and I let time get away from me. Well, I let family and events get in the way, cardinal November sin.

Ultimately, I’m not out of the game until November 30th. So, with ideas still to record, creativity still flowing, I need to open their creative outlet. I’ll take these last eight days and make the best of it.

National Poetry Month, 2008, 2009 Unofficial
Poem a Day Chapbook Challenge, November 2009 Official
National Novel Writing Month, 2009 Official

Attractions to Group Projects

Officially and unofficially, I’ve participated in these and other writing projects. They can be really intense. And I was thinking about why I elect to participate. It’s rarely just because I get bored.

Challenge

• Pushing myself beyond my suspected limits makes me think I’m not lazy
• It makes me know that I can reach beyond my comfort zone
• It affords me the opportunity to be part of a variety of projects
• It’s exciting both to participate and to complete

Community

• I learn of many new writers that I might not otherwise find
• One common interest brings people together to learn about each other
• Participants share resources that may be new to me
• Participants may actually become a resource
• There’s the chance to share something that others may find useful

It Adds up to Growth

1. Create on command.
It’s important for me to step outside my comfort zone. On my own, it’s really hard to do, and these projects help me toward that. On my own, I do give myself projects. So, I’m somewhat practiced at making the demand on myself. What’s a stretch with the poem a day challenges is the daily posting.

2. Post daily.
The first time I wrote a poem a day, it was a private event that took place solely in the pages of my journal, in 2003. Back then, I didn’t even have or consider having a blog. Fast forward to today and I’m writing and posting often in the same day.

3. Edit on the fly.
Daily posting tasks me to focus and edit really fast. That takes some getting used to. I have to find just the right everything to be willing to let it go. And it feels like I’m forcing my mind to sift through the much for the trinkets that are pleasing.

The speed is unsettling on some levels, and so I’m learning to ignore that as it’s mostly fear that hangs me up.

4. Confidence to comment.
I’m still working up the courage to leave comments more than I do. I appreciate feedback, so I want to do that for others. I’m coming to that. Baby steps.

The Helpful Side of Fear

Fear has it’s uses, to be sure. It keeps me from hitting the “Publish” button, without review of what I’ve written. I’m compelled to really look at the lines, read aloud to hear the flow, and recheck words and everything. Sometimes I have to sleep before I can finish because I try to never publish when I’m all bleary-eyed. If I forget what I’m writing in mid-phrase, then I need to crash for a bit.

As long as I find benefit I’ll keep participating in writing projects. Why do you participate in group projects?

NaNoWriMo 2009 Update

Some people say that they don’t write with an outline. I get that. It was great fun letting my characters meet new characters, and watching them evolve. However, I’m learning what I can and cannot do regarding leaving them their own devices.

In short order I’ve managed to get a good bit behind in my writing. However, I have good reason. I needed to go back and do some mapping. It turns out that these characters with lives and personalities still need some guidance. Especially if I’m going to get them to the point of fulfilling my ideas.

Even if it turns out that the story ends up someplace different from my idea, I still need the frame to work in. If a story line more plausible than mine presents itself, then I’ll just be grateful.

Brainstorming

To further my novel before getting hopeless behind, a few days ago, I worked up a frame to give me the structure I needed. It includes things that I’d never thought of before, and possibly over-thought for this. We’ll see.

My brainstorming yielded:

• a time line
• calendar of events
• useful characters to make sense of the plot
• details to flesh out the story

Benefits of brainstorming at this point:

• I see events to develop and characters to make it happen
• Knowing what events and activities may be left out
• Confidence to go forward because I know what forward is

Everything is fluid and therefore negotiable. This novel writing is an interesting experience. At just over 10,000 words now, this is the farthest I’ve ever gone in writing a novel. And even unedited, this is exciting and satisfying.

Still, I thought of things that I want to change and am really fighting not to go back and change them. I’ve made notes of what to change and if I finish early, then I’ll go back to revise. Otherwise, I’ll leave the notes for revision time, starting December 2009.

So, this is my update for now. I still have a few thousand words to write this afternoon. And I’ll likely be writing into the night because family is coming over soon. But, since I’m still having a blast, it’s my pleasure to keep going—to learn what comes next.

Are you having as much fun as me? Learning new things about how novel writing works for you? I invite you to share, leave a comment.

Poets know that poems are songs, but few of us realize that novels are too.

~ from Walter Mosely’s book, This Year You Write Your Novel

Although I don’t hear it quite clearly, I’m definitely going with the flow of something. There are rhythms to the actions of the characters. Even as I try to steer them, they move those individual cadences. So, I have to let them go in hopes of keeping them believable.

Otherwise they are contrived and unbelievable. Contrived characters in stories can be painful to read. Characters that are made to do things contrary to their nature, just to make something else fit, are really annoying. As my story works itself out, I’m on guard to respect the rhythms.

What do you look for as you write a novel? Are there sticking things in books that put you off?

It’s three days into the writing projects and I’ve learned some useful stuff that will help me to get through. Being flexible is helpful because the effort is so new to me. Tell me what you think.

The 6 characters I met on the first day, must have been waiting in the wings, because they were not on my first list. One of those new characters emerged as a possible transformation subject, which would make her a major player. Needless to say, it was really nice to meet her. She was very round right off the bat so I’ll definitely let her do her thing.

Day 2 revealed more about the plot and the big news and big secret (yet to be revealed to me).

Day 3 is working out to be a transition day. I’ve learned useful things about my writing process. Some of them I won’t be able to use until tomorrow:

1. Writing for hours, chasing my imagination across the page is fun
2. It’s easy to let other important tasks get my attention, (case in point, yesterday’s short progress – only 1,024 words)
3. It helps to de-claw my inner critic by saying I know this will suck but I’m moving forward anyway
4. Writing before work requires early rising that I’m still struggling with (should’ve practiced that in October)
5. I still get distracted by a good Saints football game, (gotta be on guard for that)

I’ve got more work assignments to complete, then get a late lunch before I get to writing. I definitely want to flip this order for tomorrow. When do you do your first writing of the day?

This year I’ve gotten a lot more involved with the activities surrounding NaNoWriMo, and it’s helpful. The opportunities to compete and commiserate are encouraging. It’s a solitary job that doesn’t feel like I’m doing it alone.

I’m excited about my first day’s progress! Having written 3,001 words is a good sign. And although the writing still feels foreign, I’m getting more familiar with the characters. They have traits and quirks that are filling out the frames I thought up for each of them. My new character are interesting, too.

While I managed to think of some ideas before today and started in that direction, the characters have places to take me. I’ll follow them for a bit and see how it plays out. Today they took me to a Deli near their office, and I met two office workers that weren’t on my list and one that was in my head. So, two and a half came through, plus some minor characters showed up to round out the personality of my lead character. What an adventure!

Shortly, I’ll post my poem for today. I looked for a prompt but didn’t see one. So, I’ll just post random poems like usual, increased to one a day, of course.

Tomorrow, work will intrude on my writing, and other life stuff that I must allow. To keep up with the demands of these writing projects, I’ll sacrifice daily updates on my progress. So, watch my progress meters in the sidebar to see my progress. For those of you who are participating, enjoy!

Hi! I’m participating in NaNoWriMo 2009, that’s National Novel Writing Month. And here is where I’m laying out my plan and logging my journal for the month’s activities. If you want to see how it’s going for me, check back here from time to time.

This meter comes from Writertopia.com, where writers can find useful stuff to distract and entertain themselves, keeping the writing fires burning.

To get to the finish line successfully, I need to write 1666.67 words daily. This is not so difficult in an of itself. But, when you add on the need for ideas of what to write, the daily goal gets a little sketchy. To give you the fuller picture of my situation: I thought of characters. I basically interviewed them to learn about their lives. It got pretty detailed and the characters were quite round.

Then after a couple of days, and no solid story line the question came up: Who are these characters and why are they present in my notes? Not at all a good sign 5 days before lift-off, right? That’s what I thought.

But, no matter. I’m committed and ready to get to it. I’ve decided to record my adventures through this giant group writing project. The first entry is posted already because I shocked myself and had to write it up. Let’s see if I can keep this going throughout the month. I’m guessing the posts won’t be long, maybe just letting you know I’m screaming and freaking and panicking, or thrilled by my progress.

If you’re participating in NaNoWriMo too, you can connect with me on that site. My buddy information is connected in the sidebar.

Check out my log posts and tell me what’s up with you, or give me tips about different things I might attempt.

1. My Pre-NaNoWriMo Activities, 10.27.9 – Get ready! Posted over at The Word ‘Mage Blog
2. What’s Up for November, 10.28.9 – Get ready!
3. More Tools to Track Your Writing Progress,10.29.9 – Get ready!
4. NaNoWriMo: My First Day,11.1.2009 – And, we’re off!!
5. NaNoWriMo: Day 3, 11.3.2009
6. Listen to The Rhythm, 11.4.2009
7. Benefits of Brainstorming, 11.13.2009
8. Facing November Week Four, 11.23.2009
9. November Activity Results, 12.2.2009