NaNoWriMo Pep Talk: More Than Halfway There
And suddenly, it was the halfway point. Could you call that Hump Day? Or is that reserved for Wednesdays? I think that’s an American thing, because this Brit had never heard of it for a long time and then thought it meant something completely different. Nomenclature aside, here we are at the halfway point, or possibly a little beyond by the time this gets posted. That graph thing on the website would have us be around the 25,000 word mark by now, but, well, if you read my previous post, you know what I think about that idea. You are where you are and that’s just fine. We’re all different. Some can do it at a steady pace. Some can sprint at start and then amble in for the finish. Others dawdle and prevaricate and then do a massive sprint towards the end (which is how most of my university essays got done). And, some, like me, write in fits and starts, as and when time and energy allows. My progress graph will probably end up looking like the ECG of a very sick person. You are wherever you are, however many words you have above or below that mythical halfway point and you are doing just great. Don’t go stressing about it. It’s meant to be fun after all. Halfway is just some arbitrary point along the way. And, just like Hump Day in the week, it’s different things for different people. For some it means that the worst is over and they can glide to the end of the week, for others, it means they have to ramp things up to get things done by the weekend. For me, Wednesday is just fish & chips night, because that’s when the fish & chips man comes round our way in his van. Which is great, because that gives me more time to write. There are many different reasons for doing this – a personal challenge, like doing a 5k or a Marathon; or doing it because, like Everest, it’s there; or doing it just for the fun of it. Whatever reason, somewhere in there you are doing it because you have a story to tell, a tale to relate. That’s the important thing – they are your words, your tale, your creation – a story only you can tell. So don’t worry about how well, or not, other people are doing. What you are doing is unique, and it will be wonderful because of that, and only you can do it. However far along the way you are, pause a moment, give yourself a pat on the back and a rousing cheer. You’ve got this far, and that in itself is an achievement. If you got this far, you can make it to the end and feel proud. You can do this! About Nathaniel Ballard Nathaniel Ballard is a fictional character in Second Life® who also now serves as his creator’s alter-ego online and as said creator’s pen-name. Outside of Second Life®, he has been a sausage straightener, an engineer, a trainer, a fund-raiser and now manages a charity shop. He writes a lot of words. Some of them even...
read morePep Talk with Nathaniel Ballard
How can it be over a week already? Wasn’t it Preptober only yesterday? And yet, here we are, already nearly two weeks into NaNoWriMo. And what a busy week it has been. When I’ve not been trying to bash out my own daily dose of words, I’ve been watching the Nano community around the world. I’ve been reading comments and questions on the NaNoWriMo Facebook group, watching my buddies on the website, having discussions on my local group’s channel on Discord, and noting the progress of those people I actually know in Real Life™. Everybody is at a different place. Some are roaring ahead like a sprinter, getting words down like crazy. Some are toodling along, more or less maintaining the pace, and some, at this early stage, are struggling to keep up. And, of course, everybody is having to deal with Real Life™ getting in the way – sickness, broken-down computers, extra work shifts. I know that one. I can always tell when it’s NaNoWriMo because I suddenly get loads of texts asking me if I can cover for xxx at another shop, do a couple of extra days while yyy is on holiday. But, that’s life. It happens to everybody, and we keep on going regardless. We work around it somehow. The thing to remember is, whether you are at 500 words, 5,000 words, 20,000 words, or staring at a blank screen and a pile of scrunched up paper – at least you are giving it a go, at least you are trying. You are doing something a little scary, but amazing and wonderful and beautiful. It’s an adventure. Maybe some of you are writing an adventure story, but the very act is an adventure in itself. And, like any adventure story, things aren’t always going to go to plan, things aren’t always plain sailing. There are bumps and detours, setbacks and small victories before your adventurers get to their goal. It wouldn’t be an interesting story otherwise. It’s the same with your novel’s progress. That dotted blue line on the progress chart doesn’t really show the true picture. When you climb a mountain, it isn’t a smooth slope. When you climb a mountain, there are going to be easy bits, level bits and steep bits. Sometimes, you might have to go downhill for a while before you start to ascend again. Sometimes, you even look at the stretch in front of you and think “how the hell do I get past that?” Or you look ahead and can’t even see the peak. But, you can get there and you will. You will get to the top, and the view from there is glorious. Don’t worry too much about where you are relative to that blue line, concentrate on the words that are in your head, queueing up to get out and down on the page. Get them written and worry about the blue line later. Wherever you are on your adventure, however far you are up your particular mountain, keep on going. Keep churning out the words, even if you aren’t entirely happy with them. You can deal with that later. Just get them down. It doesn’t matter where everybody else is, you are on your own journey and you are doing just great! Every single...
read moreVirtual Writers: NaNoWriMo Events 2019
NANOWRIMO AT MILK WOOD We are excited to announce that we’ll be hosting a selection of online workshops again this year. Click on the links below to participate at the specific time. These workshops are held in Second Life®. All scheduled events take place online at the Milk Wood Writing Group area (unless otherwise stated) or in the writing room at Book Island (Sundays at 12 noon PT). All are welcome to join us. ══════════════════════════ Writing Workshops & Write-Ins══════════════════════════ What’s NaNoWriMo and how do I join?Hosted by Harriet Gausman Tuesday 29th October, 20198am PT / 11am ET / 3pm GMT Want to know what all this NaNoWriMo nonsense is? Well, join us at 8am and we’ll run through the details and provide you with some great resources to make the challenge easier. We’ll share some plot storyboard and character development resources in readiness for November, and we’ll begin to plot in a timed writing session. About Harri In 2007, Harri conceded her élan vital to pixels and created the atmospheric Milk Wood, inspired by the Dylan Thomas radio drama, Under Milk Wood. Over the years, the sim has become a literary home to many artists and continues to offer a range of writing and reading events, providing opportunities for writers to cultivate their craft, develop literary poise, and establish a strong artistic voice. Harri is experienced at planning and hosting online events, and applies a unique approach to promoting and supporting writers. She is a NaNoWriMo veteran. Click here to be taken to the online event. ——–Huck’s Cube of NaNo – this year with added BrexitHosted by Huckleberry Hax Thursday 31st October, 20191pm PT / 4pm ET / 8pm GMT It’s National Novel Writing Month again! Prepare yourself for pep talks! If there’s one thing aspiring novelists can rely on in the month of November (besides sleep deprivation and bleeding fingertips) it’s other writers delivering their ‘top tips’ for getting 50,000 words written in the space of 30 days. Huckleberry Hax has absolutely no intention of deviating from this formula (chiefly because it makes him feel for an hour like a real, grown-up writer), and will be once again delivering his ‘Cube of Nano’ talk at Milk Wood as novelists assume the crouch position, ready for the starter’s gun. Why ‘cube’? Because he has six tips, and six without the framework of a cool geometric shape sounds like it really ought to be edited down to five – BUT WE DON’T EDIT DURING NANOWRIMO! Join us for an hour in voice on 31st October at 1pm SLT. Please come voice-enabled so you can hear Huck talk. Every person who types the line ‘When is it starting?’ five minutes into the talk *will* be given lines to write. About Huck Huckleberry Hax writes virtual reality novels, many of which are set in Second Life® (the best known of which is ‘AFK’). He has completed NaNoWriMo eight times. Click here to be taken to the online event. ——– NaNoWriMo Kick-Off Party & Halloween HuntHosted by Harriet Gausman and DJ Grease CoakesTreats donated by BeeBee Bekkers and Raina Anatra Thursday 31st October, 20192pm PT / 5pm ET / 9pm GMT A chance for you to meet your fellow Wrimos, pick up the resource box and titler, chat about your NaNoWriMo ideas,...
read morePep Talk from Doyle Slen
Here we are: Another November. Another NaNoWriMo. Another Fangsgiving. Another hectic down-to-the-wire rush for some, and a “how did I get here, and why did I do this to myself again?” moment for others. What with the bulging, red-rimmed eyes and over-caffeinated blood, and the sideways stares from loved ones, and the aching back from sitting in that position for too long, and wondering if that sentence fits there, and did you get all the research done, and what was that thing that had to be done, and did you get the dry cleaning (you just can’t remember, you have too much going on in your head to remember unnecessary things like that, right now), and dinner (What! Don’t they know its NaNo month? – you told everybody this was going to happen), and that run on sentence that you just can’t seem to fix; you wonder if it’s all worth it. Yes, just take a deep breath. It’s almost over. Well, the hectic part is. The rush to slap down fifty thousand words in a sloppy rush is. The heaping pile of rough draft that no one can make any sense of is almost over. The late night, “what the hell was I on when I wrote that mess?” is almost over. Just take a deep breath and cross the line. Even if you don’t make the tally you run the race to the finish line. You do it because you started the journey, and the journey is worthy of the struggle. December begins the real work. The making sense of the mess. The slogging through rabbit trails and putting the frayed ends together. NaNoWriMo is the beginning not the end. Now you have to put the pieces together and finish what you started. The mad dash is winding down and the tempered thought process needs to begin. Take another breath. Get more coffee. Stay up late. Shake off the looks. Talk to those characters and plunge on to the finish line. We need your...
read moreNaNoWriMo Pep Talk from Ercila Robbins (aka Susan Agatha Davis)
Welcome scriveners, cursive writers, typists, poets, scripters, and authors of all types. NaNoWriMo is well into its third week and I’m already two weeks behind. Well, I won’t get discouraged, and neither should you. As a matter of fact (unnecessary cliché), this is the time to put your shoulder to the grindstone (or is it the wheel?) and press forward. Yes, some of us will surpass our wildest word counts. Others will languish behind and swear to be better next time – and maybe we will. The important thing is this: You showed up! We’ve all heard these words of wisdom (more clichés?): 90% of the battle is just showing up. True story – I decided to take up walking around a track, once. I had multiple health problems. The first day, I got a quarter of the way around the track (1/16th of a mile?) and quit. I couldn’t breathe. So, I made my goal to just show up at the gym and put my gym shoes on. That was it. That was my entire goal. A year later, I was walking 2 miles. When you get discouraged, sit down at the computer (notebook, desk, under your favorite tree, etc.), and write SOMETHING. It doesn’t have to be good. It doesn’t have to be related to your award-winning novel. It doesn’t even have to make sense. Just write. Just show up. That habit will get you farther along the road to being published than anything else you do. For all my friends (and those who hate me right now) who are struggling, keep one thing in mind. All it takes to get anything done is to show up and put one foot in front of the other. Wait a minute, that’s the adage about a thousand miles, right? Let me rethink that. Oh, yes! All it takes is to put one word after another. Enough words, you have a sentence. A few more: a paragraph. More: a chapter. Before you know it, you’ll have a book! If you can do one chapter a month, you could have a book in a year or two. If that sounds discouraging, keep this in mind: the time will pass anyway -if you do nothing, a year or two will speed by and still no book! I’ve often quoted the adage that the only difference between failure and success is that the successful person stands up one more time than he/she falls down. Get up, put your gym shoes on and write! Ercila Robbins About Ercila Retired criminal attorney and author of five crime novels – and more in the works. Ercila is also a former journalist and newspaper editor, and a published poet. She is a mother, grandmother, and veteran. Website | Facebook | Amazon...
read moreNational Novel Writing Month – 50,000 words in 30 days
We are excited to announce that we’ll be hosting a selection of online workshops again this year. Click on the links below to participate at the specific time. These workshops are held in Second Life®. Join our Second Life® group Milk Wood Wrimos for event reminders and follow us on Twitter for daily tips – you’ll find lots of great links under the hashtag #virtualwrimos. NaNoWriMo at Milk Wood in Second Life® All scheduled events take place at the Milk Wood Writing Group area (unless otherwise stated) or in the writing room at Book Island Library (Sundays at 12 noon PT). Please be aware that the clocks go back in the US on the 4th November and on the 28th October in the UK, and we go by Pacific Time (PT), also known as SLT in Second Life®. Our main Second Life® meeting place is here: NaNoWriMo at Milk Wood Writing Workshops & Write-Ins Wednesday 31st October, 2018 2pm PT / 5pm ET / 9pm GMT Click here to teleport to the writing area NaNoWriMo Kick-Off Party Hosted by Harriet Gausman A chance for you to meet your fellow Wrimos, pick up the goodie bag and titler, and chat about your NaNoWriMo ideas. We’ll share some plot storyboard and character development resources in readiness for November, then we’ll all sit down together and begin to plot in a timed writing session. Fancy dress a must! This year the theme is ‘Cruel Intentions’, so be creative. We’ll be looking for originality and flair. Best outfit wins a prize of 2,000 Linden dollars, and a month’s free stall rental at Milk Wood. About Harri In 2007, Harri conceded her élan vital to pixels and created the atmospheric Milk Wood, inspired by the Dylan Thomas radio drama, Under Milk Wood. Over the years, the sim has become a literary home to many artists and continues to offer a range of writing and reading events, providing opportunities for writers to cultivate their craft, develop literary poise, and establish a strong artistic voice. Harri is experienced at planning and hosting online events, and applies a unique approach to promoting and supporting writers. The former teacher, turned children’s author, has published non-fiction articles, short stories, and poetry. She is currently completing an MA in creative writing, and writing an historical children’s novel set in Siberia during the Stalin era. She is a NaNoWriMo veteran. ————————— Wednesday 31st October, 2018 3pm PT / 6pm ET / 10pm GMT Click here to teleport to the event Huck’s Cube of NaNo Hosted by Huckleberry Hax It’s National Novel Writing Month again. Prepare yourself for pep talks! If there’s one thing aspiring novelists can rely on in the month of November (besides sleep deprivation and bleeding fingertips) it’s other writers delivering their ‘top tips’ for getting 50,000 words written in the space of 30 days. Huckleberry Hax has absolutely no intention of deviating from this formula (chiefly because it makes him feel for an hour like a real, grown-up writer), and will be once again delivering his ‘Cube of NaNo’ talk at Milk Wood as novelists assume the crouch position, ready for the starter’s gun. Why ‘cube’? Because he has six tips, and six without the framework of a cool geometric shape sounds like it really ought to be edited down...
read moreVirtual Writers’ Poem-A-Day (PAD) Competition Winners 2018
Winning Entries We received over 200 submissions. There were scores of poems that called to us for a re-read and to choose among them was a very difficult task. In the final cut, each of our winning poets had at least two poems in the running. What common element characterizes the winning poems? They each have a feeling of immediate relevance while connecting with something vaster. They bring something large into specific focus. But there’s something else. In going back and writing a note for each winner and honorable mention, it becomes clear that the selection came down to the visceral. Each winning poem not only engaged thought and emotion, but grabbed and tugged at something deeper, and harder to describe … which is, after all, why we have poetry. The winning poems continue to call for a re-read, and, with each reading, deliver something new. First Prize — ‘A poet, living in Rome’ by Fionn Bookmite Mine is one of the little hills. I look down a gentle slope and the words spill out of me and down the hill, running to get to the Sacred Way and parade themselves. Lines slink around my feet and trip me, vanishing when I look down. I follow them, chasing, calling, and pass the little house of Cinna. My neighbour is a lawyer, precise, and lives to make everything tidy. The doorway is clean, recently swept and washed, even sprinkled with dried rosemary. Cinna has prepared his house as neatly as he parses his rolling clausulae. The Temple of Tellus looms on the other side, and I dash through its shadow. “You can’t avoid me,” says the Temple, “for I am Mother Earth.” I whisper a prayer in iambic tetrameters and hurry on, trying to catch up with the paragraphs now happily gambolling at the foot of the hill. I round them up and speak firmly to them and they fall into dutiful crocodile lines. As I walk at their head, I sort them out, swapping places for some, making others stand up more smartly or walk a little slower. A turn around the Forum — and my lines are neat and pinned, each wriggling word brushed. My poem is done. I head for home. Fionn taught Latin and Greek and Ancient History for twenty-five years before moving to the Middle East where she now is a lady of leisure and is finally getting down to that novel she always knew she had in her. Poet’s Website | Amazon Author Page Judge’s Comments “What delight to see historic ruins spring to life. This poem paints in a palette from deepest ochres to brightest primaries. A dead language’s poetry, law, and religion are invoked here with such a refreshingly playful spirit, the ancients are humanized, accessible, relevant, and joyful.” ________ Second Prize — ‘Salmon’ by Blitz Silver clad companions of the creek, you wade in shallow pools regaining strength to go upstream, scraping bellies on mossy stones as the trees tremble with feathers of the gulls. Your journey through morphing waters has altered you, with red gills filtering the ocean into freshwater. With your promise to lay birth and die, your orange flesh gleams split-open. I witness your karmic drama, watching over your cyclic return. You flow...
read moreNaNoWriMo Pep Talk from Raina Anatra (aka Barbara Jacksha)
Be Grateful for Where You Are We’ve just had Thanksgiving here in the U.S., a season when the smell of roasted turkeys and feelings of gratitude hang in the air. It’s easy to be grateful for so many things and people in our lives, but how often does our writing make the list? When you think about your writing, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? Are you thrilled with the idea of sitting down at your desk/couch/coffee shop chair and pounding away at the keys? Or are you frustrated, feeling like you should be farther along, or maybe questioning your ability to write in the first place? If the latter describes you or you on some days, take heart. It’s only your starting point. Let’s throw gratitude into your writing mix. You can keep a gratitude journal, including all the wonderful things that happen during your writing life that often get overlooked. That’s a great ongoing practice, but I’m going to suggest you do one thing right now. Give a big shout out of Gratitude to wherever you are right now in your writing project, your process and your career. Hug it, acknowledge and accept it as part of your crazy, topsy-turvey writing journey. Many of you are writing your NaNoWriMo novels, and this last week can be a sticky one. If you’ve already finished your 50,000 words, then gratitude is easy. Whoop and dance around and celebrate all you’ve done. But what if you’re running low on ideas or that early-NaNoWriMo-induced adrenaline? Then be grateful for where you’re at. Celebrate each fresh word you’ve put on paper that is only there because you made the brave choice to take on this challenge. What if you signed up but didn’t write? Be grateful you signed up. That’s a step forward. And there’s still time left in November to write. Gratitude for where we’re at changes how we look at our projects and ourselves. It lightens things up. It opens things up. Gratitude makes it easier to go back to your project and say “this is great, but now what might I do”? In that way, gratitude becomes a form of momentum that can help move you forward to the next place you want to be. As the month of November and NaNoWriMo start to wind down, let that gratitude and momentum help you finish strong. Whatever “finishing strong” means to you. My writing coach and mentor Tracee Beebee often reminds me that finishing strong is even more important than starting strong. Why? Because finishing strong gives you momentum for the next phase of your project. For writing the next draft of your novel. Or for whatever writing or editing you do in December. All that momentum sounds good, doesn’t it? You can set it in motion simply by being grateful for where you and your projects are. Right here. Right...
read moreNaNoWriMo Pep Talk from Doyle Slen
Get ready for some literary clichés, because they’re going to be coming fast and furious. Fangsgiving has come and gone like the wind taking week three with it. The turkey and ham are being used to fill sandwiches made of dinner rolls smeared with cold mashed potatoes and gravy. Frankly, my dears, you should give a damn. The long nights and bloodshot eyes and cramped, arthritic fingers and caffeine overdosing and finding space for Juan Valdes and his burro to crash and the looks from family and friends when you say, “Oh, I have to write,” are all worth it. When I first started writing, I attended a meeting at The Quillians clubhouse in Second Life. Michael Stackpole was leading the event. It was a question and answer time for new writers with published authors. It was an eye-opening experience for me. The most notable thing was a poster they had on the wall behind Michael’s chair. “If you treat it like a hobby it will pay like one. If you treat it like a business it will pay like one.” Now I understand life gets in the way and disrupts the flow of writing, and November is the beginning of the holiday season in the U.S. Family members don’t understand; if they aren’t writers, they don’t get the burning intensity of building your world and breathing life into it. Work gets in the way, so do children and school needs. For some, this year is not THE year, and we lament with them. Writing takes dedication, and I’ll toss in my favorite quote for emphasis: “Discipline allows magic. To be a writer is to be the very best of assassins. You do not sit down and write every day to force the Muse to show up. You get into the habit of writing every day so that, when she shows up, you have the maximum chance of catching her, bashing her on the head, and squeezing every last drop out of that bitch.” ― Lili St. Crow Even if you can’t find time to pound out 1667 words a day, you need to find fifteen minutes to write something. Anything. A song. A poem. Lament your inability to find a topic worthy of your attention. Perhaps even an interpretive dance. You have a story inside your head screaming to get out. You can’t do anything without thinking about it. It burns just behind your eyes. the characters are clamoring like a horde of middle schoolers at their first dance. You owe it to yourself to write every day. This year may not be your year, but maybe next year will be. The hobbyists are mostly gone now. The idea of scribbling out 50k words in a month sounds like fun until you’re a week in and have 500 words down and no prospects for further production. This is where the rubber hits the road. Don’t stop just because you won’t make the word count. This is the time to hunker down and grind it out. Reach deep and pull out the win. My small region in central Florida has produced nearly one million words this NaNo. Your story matters. Every story matters. The more that are written and in circulation the better. Clichés done. Get back to...
read moreNaNoWriMo Pep Talk from Ercila Robbins (aka Susan Agatha Davis)
Good morning fellow scriveners! Now that you’ve jumped out of bed, jogged your two miles, taken a hot shower and had a good breakfast, it’s time to write! I’m dreaming, right? After all, I write fiction. Getting up, jogging, showering and having breakfast BEFORE I write is NOT how I start my day. If I did, I’d never get to the writing. Writing is what I do first thing in the morning. And last thing at night. And if I need a break from “real life.” And sometimes at 3 am when I have this great idea and it just doesn’t go away. Jogging, eating, sleeping, showering is what I do BETWEEN spells of writing. I want to take a moment to offer a piece of advice for when you’re stuck. I usually get stuck because: a) my story is too long, and I got lost in it; b) I’m struggling with this one scene, and it’s holding up the rest of the book; or c) I alter my routines. For long stories, stop and make an outline/timeline. List each scene, with the characters and one or two significant points. Summarize. This way when you’re staring at the page and going, “Wait, how did I get here? What’s supposed to happen next?” You’ll know. It’s also good to create vignettes of your scenes and then splice them together later – like creating the parts of a crossword puzzle and then matching the edges. (Sometimes you have to trim the edges for a good fit.) When you’ve got that one scene that just won’t work for you, don’t throw it out! The most common advice I hear from people is, “If it doesn’t work, chuck it.” No. That’s just being lazy. Write it first! THEN if it doesn’t work, chuck it! Just get it down on paper any way you can. It doesn’t have to be good. It doesn’t have to fit just right. Why? Because there’s a reason that scene found its way into your head. It has a meaning, a purpose. Often, after I’ve finished, and it still doesn’t quite work, I put it into a folder to use it in the next book! Don’t be afraid of sweating it out. Nothing good comes easy. Routines are essential for writers. You write best at the desk by your bed? Write there! All the time! You write best at a library? On the front deck? By the beach! WRITE THERE! 3 am? Midnight? Only on Saturdays? Call it discipline. Call it habit. Call it superstition. Go with what works. Finally, there’s an old Biblical saying, “A prophet is never recognized in his own home.” The people who are closest to us, usually family members, are often the people who are the least interested in our writing. Don’t get discouraged because they “don’t get it.” We’re writers. We’re a tribe. We have NaNoWriMo. Go...
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