November is my favorite time of year!

Well not really. I actually happen to hate winter, and by November in Wyoming, winter has arrived in with full force. Which makes it the perfect month to hole up in your house with a store of hot chocolate and write. So from now until ... well, probably sometime in the middle of December, National Novel Writing Month (NaNo WriMo) is pretty much all I'm going to talk about. I'm a big believer in NaNo WriMo. It's because of NaNo that I finished my full novel and here's why: * To finish 50,000 words in 30 days (the goal NaNo WriMo) you have to keep pace at 1666 words per day. That means you have to totally shut off your inner critic. Which feels good. (Until you go back and read through it ...) * It taught me to write to the finish, no matter how bad I think it is. The result is that instead of a computer full documents with only one or two chapters, I actually have a folder full of (badly written) first drafts with a lot of potential. * It's okay to write silly and ridiculous scenes. Remember, you're the editor. You can always take it out later. But if you want to write it, write it! I think everyone should try NaNo WriMo just for the things it will teach you about your writing. Don't worry; like I always tell my sister, the NaNo WriMo Police won't come after you if you don't make 50,000 words. Get geared up! November is right around the corner and I expect you all to join in! (I created a fun group on Facebook for moral support for NaNo WriMo. Drop by and we'll add you to the group! http://www.facebook.com/raneesclark)

Exemplary Lives to Follow

It's my birthday today and I always ponder on what I have accomplished over the time I have been on earth thus far......  These two people were a great example to me --so I wanted to write about them.

It’s difficult in our modern times to listen to the nightly news without getting totally disgusted.  There are so many negative reports of all the crime, corruption and destruction of our great nation and it can really weigh you down.

I received an email from an old friend, from where I grew up in New Jersey, last week telling me that her father passed away at the age of 78.  A rush of memories had filled my head.  I loved her father.  He was a very giving person.  He used to drive us around to church activities, singing songs and telling stories and we all had such a great time together.  No generation gap there.  My friend and I were teenagers during the 70’s too. I “googled” his name to find the obituary because he had accomplished so much when I knew him, I wanted to see what else he had done after I went off to college and their family moved away.

It was amazing to see. He already had a PhD in nuclear chemistry and helped Bell Labs in New Jersey get a satellite up in orbit. After moving away, he then became the head of the department of physics at the State University of New York in Albany. He did Research in X-ray optics and then eventually did research on the effects of metal in the human brain helping to find how to cure Alzheimer’s disease.  Besides all the work he accomplished in his career, he was very active in his church and spent a lot of time with his family making his life very full right up until the end.

Another friend of mine wrote this week about a speech she heard Sunday night at a church fireside of a woman who spent time in a concentration camp as a child in Indonesia during WWII.  Her name is Kitty De Ruyer Bon and she wrote all about her experiences in a book called “As I Have Loved You”. The amazing thing about this woman is that in the face of the most humiliating of circumstances and inhumane physical treatment, she kept faith, courage, strength and dignity.  With no hope of any earthly reward or return for the good she gave, she still gave even to her captors.

The lives of these two people have touched my life and gave me such a great example to never give up when life seems so overwhelming.  At times life does get overwhelming and discouraging and the temptation to throw it all away is sometimes very great. Even to give up on mankind, but that would accomplish nothing. The wisdom to give to others is much better than always thinking: What’s in it for me?   Raising children, filling a calling at church, finishing a college degree, building a house; all have their moments when we stop and think--Is this really worth it?  A resounding: yes! This is most definitely worth our time on earth.  A great lesson for us to learn while we are here.

MBA

Not Master of Business Administration but rather, My Best Advice.

I was going to sugarcoat this post in analogies. I had this really great one about being a new mom and listening to all the well meaning advice of ladies that haven’t birthed a baby since. . .

Instead I’m going to be straight up today.

People always ask authors, “What’s the best advice you could give an aspiring writer?” The inevitable answer is “write every day,” or “write what you know.”

Fantastic answers.

You should be doing that.

But what is my best advice? Well you thought writing the book was the difficult part? Editing your books? I’m here to tell you that’s the tip of the sinking-of-the-titanic iceberg.

There is a book published every ten seconds. Ten. Seconds. How do you stand out in the crowd?

This is what I wish someone had told me, before I hit the publish button.

Start marketing yourself. Now. Your RSS feed should be your best friend. Facebook. Twitter. Goodreads. Don’t have a blog? Get one. Then start making connections, because those are the people who are going to buy your book. Face reality immediately and realize you are not going to be Stephenie Meyer. You will be lucky to even get a publishing contract. And that publishing contract will not come with a media frenzy. You will have to create it yourself. This is how you can begin.

Get a blog. Blogger and wordpress are the two best services for beginners. My website was done through wordpress.org, because I know how to write code. I love you all, but please don’t write me with wordpress questions. That is what google is for.

After you have a kicking blog, start finding other kicking blogs. Focus on book review sites. Start adding them to a feed reader, and making meaningful comments on posts. They love followers. I have approximately 1100 blogs in my feed reader. That is not a typo. Eleven hundred. They are split into all sorts of folders depending on the type of site they are. I try and spend an hour each day going through them quickly, and commenting on at least three of them. It’s easiest to do this if you have a smartphone and can read while the kids are at swim lessons, waiting in the carpool line, etc. Read the review policies and see if they allow guest posts. I have a spreadsheet of review sites that allow indie reviews.

Most sites will have a twitter button. Click on it to follow them on twitter. Then make it a point to write them a note about why you’re following them on twitter. Something like, “Just started following @abc’s reviews because they’re so insightful and you should totally follow too!” include a link to their site.

If they have a goodreads account, follow their reviews. Start posting your own reviews of books they’re reading, and start commenting. Goodreads is the single greatest social media site for authors. Take advantage of it now, before your book is published, and before you might be seen as having ulterior motives.

I don’t think I can stress the importance of this enough. Get networking, start building your name brand before you’re even finished with your first novel, it’s much harder to do once your book is out.

I’d love to hear from some of you- how do you network yourself?

Day 12: Taking on Time Management

Almost halfway through the challenge you've ideally already come up with some great methods for managing your time wisely.  Ideally.  But if you are like me, then you're still struggling to figure out how to fit a few hours of writing in alongside diaper changes, feedings, preschool, playdates, snuggle time, etc.  In the hopes of overcoming these challenges I've done some research and found some great time management advice.

• 1)  KEEP A DAILY TIME LOG.  If you think you lack the time to write, try keeping an hourly log of your activities.  Do this for a week and then take note of any patterns of time wasters you see.  Too much TV?  Too much internet surfing?  These diversions are fine in moderation, but if you have a tough time writing because you're wasting your time with distractions give the old kitchen timer a try.  Set it for 10 minutes of internet surfing or a half hour of TV watching and when it rings get back to the tasks that truly matter.  For a great time charter check out this time log or make up one of your own.  Also, take this completely superfluous survey to see if you're a time waster. 

• 2)  FIND YOUR HAPPY HOUR.  Whether its first thing in the morning or an hour before bedtime there should be some time set aside during your day to write uninterrupted.  Even those of us with young kids can give ourselves at least an hour.  It may mean sacrificing some sleep to wake up earlier or giving up some TV time with the hubs to go upstairs and write - whatever you choose, be consistent.  If you've programmed your brain to go into "writing mode" about the same time each day - and if you tell that same brain that you'll only be working for an hour so stop bugging you about the dishes in the sink or the pile of laundry on the floor - then you'll find your muse becomes less and less elusive with time.

• 3)  SET A WRITING GOAL.  Before beginning (this MUST be done prior to the one hour of productive writing time), set some goals of what you hope to accomplish during your happy hour.  This might be a particular word count, a scene, maybe outlining, or perhaps editing.  Make the goal concrete enough that you can tell with certainty at the end of the hour if the goal was completed, neared completion, or was unrealistic.  (With time and experience you will begin to know your writing style and will be more capable of setting realistic, achievable goals).  

• At the end of the hour (again, this should not be done DURING the productive writing time), take stock of how well you did with your time management.  How many times were you distracted?  What caused the distractions?  Were these distractions of your own making (email, research, facebook, twitter)?  Do you think that a different hour of the day is required to help you avoid distractions not of your own making (kids needing attention, phones ringing)?  To help you track your productivity check out the Writing Time Tracker in this series of amazing worksheets for writers. 

• 4)  DON'T ASK FOR TIME.  The above advice has been geared toward all Mommy Authors, not necessarily those doing the 30 day writing challenge.  Clearly those of you involved in the writing challenge will need more than an hour a day to accomplish your goal, but if you think you will find the time by asking others (nicely!) to accommodate you, you might be mistaken.  Victoria Lynn Schmidt says in her novel Book in a Month,

"While writing may be important to you, few people in your life will see it as important. Many will just see it as an unnecessary indulgence. Asking them to help you find time for writing just won’t work.  Of course if you had a major circumstance or emergency these same people would give you all the time you needed, so the time is there. They just might not see writing as worthy of it. You have to decide writing is worthy of that time, and then just take it."

• If you think those around you have a tendency to write off your writing (pun intended) then ordering that pizza or neglecting to scour the bathroom for another week may be the ways you can find the extra time you need.  By expressing your enthusiasm and excitement for all that you've accomplished with the time you would have spent scrubbing the toilet you can show the "doubters" that you are not only serious about your writing, but that you are using all of your time creating something that you - and hopefully they - can be excited about.

For more great information on time management check out these resources:  "4 Tips for Making Time to Write,"  "Time is Not on Your Side,"  Book in a Month

MY DAY 12:  A fabulous day for me as I was able to write for 6 full hours (not consecutively, of course) and get three full scenes done.  Two lessons learned:  1- Saturdays can really be great when you've got a supportive, non-busy spouse to watch the kids, and 2- no place makes me so careful and productive with my time as the library.

Journal Writing

I have always been a journal writer.  Since the time I was 12, I wrote in a journal and now being nearly 52 I’m writing in my 10^th journal.  I don’t write every day but at least once a week, sometimes less than that. 

Writing in a journal can help anyone’s hectic life stay sane. Not only does it help to accurately record events but it is also therapeutic. Reading back in my journal from fifteen years ago brought a smile to my face.  See if you agree:

A personal visit to the store for a full time mother can be a chance to get away for a few minutes and take a break from life. Depending on which children you leave behind at home will also depend on what state your house will be when you return.  For me, I took my chances in leaving my seven children and a neighborhood girl from across the street on their own so I could run to the store for a few needed items.

 It was a Thursday afternoon that I stole away leaving my oldest of 15 at home to baby-sit.  All the school-aged children were to be working on their homework and the younger ones would be playing.   When I returned, a wail of complaints and protests filled my ears as to what happened while I was gone.

 1. “Nobody is doing school work.”

                        2. “Isaac didn’t want to cut the lawn.”  (My oldest son, 13 at the time)

                        3. Tasha and Jena (neighbor child) were cheating at kickball.” (both 11)

                        4. “Tasha didn’t want to cut the lawn.”  (They were supposed to take turns)

                        5. “Sarah (15) hit Caleb(7).”

                        6. “Caleb hit her back.”

                        7. “Tasha hit Sarah with her PEZ dispenser.”

                        8. “Isaac locked Caleb in the closet.”

                        9. “Naomi (14) is touching everyone’s stuff.”

                      10. “Everyone is yelling at Naomi.”

                       11. “Naomi was walking backwards and ran into Sarah.”

                       12. “Naomi shot Lydia (3) with a rubber band.”

Ah, motherhood.  Isn’t it wonderful?

How I Manage to Write Everyday and Not Neglect My Children

When I went to college, I wasn't ashamed that it was in sole pursuit of my MRS. I happened to get a Bachelors in History along the way, but let's face it, that was just a bonus. I've known since I was little I wanted to write and in my naive mind, that was the perfect occupation for someone who wanted to stay at home and raise kids in her free time. 

Well, two little boys later, it's still the perfect occupation for a stay-at-home mom, it's just a bit more complicated than I imagined. Sure, I get to stay home all day, the question is: when do I write? And how do I manage to write everyday and not neglect my children?

Let me start out by stating something I really, strongly believe. That in most cases you should delete really out of sentences because it's worthless. Okay. Seriously. We're all given talents and whether your talent is writing, scrapbooking, cleaning (yeah, I honestly call that a talent), sewing, cooking, or insert your own here. We should be working on improving those talents. It's not a crime to take an hour or two out of your day to focus on doing something you love. It keeps you sane. And it all depends on you about the time. I'll tell you how I make it work.

My computer is in the living room & I frequently write for only five and ten minutes at a time. These two, for me, have to go together. Both of them may seem counter-productive, and for many people they are. I'd get very little writing done if I didn't do both. I happen to have rewired my brain to work with "Phineus & Ferb" playing in the background. With my computer out in the open, I can write while my kids are playing and feel like I'm keeping an eye on them, and I'm involved in their wonderful, little lives. If they're entertained by battery-operated light sabers for twenty minutes, I use that twenty minutes to hack out a scene.  Then, when the light saber mission turns into a UFC fight with weapons, I'm onsite to take control. 

I try not to turn my kids down, even if I'm in the middle of something "important." If they let me, I take thirty seconds to finish a sentence, but the risk I take while writing for those few minutes is that I might lose part of an idea. I'll take it. 

I'm lucky enough to have two kids who still nap. In my world, nap-time means I get to do anything I want. I refuse to crowd it up with cleaning just because the kids are asleep. Cleaning can be done (or not done!) any time of the day. So I take those two or so hours and I write!

Just figure out what's going to work for you. One of the biggest steps I took was finally calling my writing "work" to myself and my family. (I was the hardest one to convince.) It can definitely still be fun, but when you let yourself think of it as something important, you'll find ways to get it done. 

Now you know how I manage, how do you do it? What do you do to keep writing every day?

Day 11: Striking the Proper Tone

Let's say you're at your local bookstore browsing for something to read and you come across a book with this picture on it's cover:

With no title and no descriptions you already have a pretty good idea that the book is going to be dark, maybe a bit spooky, and definitely harkening back to Bronte gothicism.  You figured this all out from a picture how?  Because the picture displays tone - the feeling, tenor, or mood of a work.  As a writer you are without the use of visual media so you must paint the picture with words, helping your readers feel the tone by emphasizing the right images.

To help explain how tone can effect the way a reader "sees" you story I'm going to use an example from Laura Whitcomb's book Novel Shortcuts.  She's taken an excerpt from Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett and changed the tone to make it dark.  Here is her version:

 "Two figures lurked in the ruins that had once been a graveyard.  One figure was bent, heavy of trunk and limb.  The other thin with a menacing expression.  Fog curled between the headstones like the Angel of Death.  The two would wait patiently for him all night if they had to."

Pretty creepy-spooky, right?  Now here's the actual version:

"Two of them lurked in the ruined graveyard.  Two shadowy figures, one hunched and squat, the other lean and menacing, both of them Olympic-grade lurkers.  If Bruce Springsteen had ever recorded "Born to Lurk," these two would have been on the album cover.  They had been lurking in the fog for an hour now, but they had been pacing themselves and could lurk for the rest of the night if necessary, with still enough sullen menace left for a final burst of lurking around dawn." 

The exact same scenario but with two totally different feels to them.  In the first example Whitcomb describes a guy as being "heavy of trunk and limb."  Using the word "heavy" she adds weight to the narrative which, when combined with the words "trunk and limb" makes us see an imposing character who is thick and sturdy.  In Gaiman and Pratchett's story they describe the man as "hunched and squat," which lends a more comic, less imposing feel to the story.  That description alone wouldn't let us sense the comedic style of narration, but in conjunction with phrases like "Olympic-grade lurkers" and "Born to Lurk" we see that the authors have a dark, tongue in cheek writing style.

Before sitting down to write a scene try to imagine that you are watching that scene through a camera lens.  What images from the scene's background will assist in the creation of your tone?  What about mannerisms of your characters?  What can your camera focus on that will help the reader feel the tenor of your story?  Once you've decided on what to highlight in your narrative take a few moments to find descriptive words that will pack a punch - less long-flowing, more concise but meaningful.

MY DAY 11:  I took the day to finish my outline as far as possible, but I STILL can't decide how I want my story to end.  (Is that a bad thing?)  I was however, able to get a rough estimate of how many scenes I needed to write before the end of the challenge.  Divide that number by the number of days left and I had a pretty good understanding of how many scenes to write per day in order to finish the novel by day 30.