It's nearly NaNoWriMo month! I'm excited, are you? Or are you smart enough to avoid the 'first draft' rush?

Hello writers!

NaNoWriMo is just around the corner and I'm getting excited as I have for five years in a row.

Are you willing to ignore your family, forget socialising, eat chocolate instead of regular meals, put aside showering, do without sleep, up the coffee intake? In that case, consider joining the thousands of masochists who do all of these in the pursuit of 50,000 crappy words of a first-draft novel in 30 days. 

Thirty-seven thousand masochists wrote a novel in 2012. Of course, first drafts need a LOT of work -- editing, feedback, professional editing, and so on before the manuscript is ready for submission, but anyone who finishes a novel has achieved something amazing.

In case you're a NaNo newbie, here's how NaNoWriMo works:

1. Write a 50,000-word (or longer!) novel, between November 1 and November 30 (in your time zone).

2. Start from scratch. None of your own previously written prose can be included in your NaNoWriMo draft (though outlines, character sketches, and research are all fine, as are citations from other people’s works). You really need to have your story idea, some sort of outline before November 1st, or you will have a nearly impossible task ahead of you.

3. Write a novel. A novel is a lengthy work of fiction. 50,000 words is a small novel. Nothing stopping you writing the next 30,000 words or so when NaNo finishes.

4. Be the sole author of your novel. 

5. Write more than one word repeated 50,000 times. Sure, some non-masochists cheat, but who are you kidding? What's the point in writing 'nada' 50,000 times. I don't want to read that novel, do you?

6. Upload your novel for word-count validation between November 25 and November 30. [Time zone specific].

Daily Word Count

50,000 words sounds like a lot. And it is! But you've got 30 days to finish, so here's how the word count breaks down:

Write every day:
50,000/30 = 1,667 words per day

Take one day off a week:
50,000/26 = 1,923 words per day

Two days off a week:
50,000/22 = 2,273 words per day

I try to write well over the daily word limit, so if something comes up I can't avoid, I don't panic.

Sign up - how?

It's easy, and free, to get involved. Just head on over to the official NaNoWriMo website and sign up. You can work alone, but the site can put you in contact with NaNo-ers in your area. There's often a welcome BBQ and regular write fests in a coffee shop near you (in Brisbane, anyway). Or you can buddy up with fellow masochists just like you and message each other instead of breaking the computer, the wall or your sizzling brain.

Preparing For NaNoWriMo.

NaNo groupies have their own methods for preparation. After 5 years of participation, this is what works for me.

1. Write as many words as you can daily on a regular basis, all year round, so that when November comes around, as it does with great regularity (lol) you find getting 2,000 words on the page easy bikkies. 

Regular blogging counts--it is writing, you know.  Write flash fiction, short stories, guest blog posts, magazine or newspaper articles. Whatever floats your boat. That's why I've hosted a writing meme for over 2 years (Sign up here!). Many of my flash fiction stories have been extended, polished and submitted/published in women's fiction magazines. Cool.

2. Work on the structure of your story

You're allowed to outline your story before November 1st and I think it's a fabulous idea. Here are a few links with thanks to Karen Woodward:

The structure of a story

Orson Scott Card & The MICE Quotient: How To Structure Your Story
Short Story Structures: Several Ways Of Structuring Short Fiction
How Plotting Can Build A Better Story
How To Write A Story
Chuck Wendig On Story Structure
The Basics of Good Storycraft: 5 Tips
A Perfect Plot In 6 Easy Steps
Chuck Wendig on Plot, Complication, Conflict and Consequence

The structure of a scene within a story

Making A Scene: Using Conflicts and Setbacks to Create Narrative Drive

Outlining

Kim Harrison's Character Grid
4 Ways Outlining Can Give A Writer Confidence

3. Prepare meals in advance if you want to eat anything other than junk food.

4. Find a place to write

Coffee shop? In the middle of the family's hustle and bustle? Hidden away in your home office, or reclining beside the pool or at the beach or on a resort balcony or in the cool, crisp mountains?

Do whatever works for you.

5. Tell your friends and family you're going to write 50,000 words in 30 days.

Maybe then they'll  understand your zombie status and the glazed look in your eyes when they're speaking to you. All you'll be able to think of is what your protagonist is going to do next. 

Or something.

Are you up for NaNo this year? How prepared are you?

• Don't forget to sign up for some writing practice pre-NaNo. You can sign up for the WEP blogfest right here in my sidebar.

• I'm still on holidays in North Queensland. Having a great time. Here's another photo for you if you didn't catch it on fb. 

The Strand along the waterfront in Townsville with Magnetic Island in the background.

You Never Get a Second Chance to Make a First Impression. 5 Editing Tips I've learned.

Hi there Insecure Writers and friends!

Some people hate the editing process, others (of which I am one) love it...er, maybe too much. When is enough, enough?

I 'finished' Fijian Princess at the end of November 2012. If you've written a novel during NaNoWriMo, you'll know that the ms I completed was pretty rubbishy...but it was an exciting story...I felt it had potential. Maybe it was going to be the first novel I actually finished...and got published. But I'm quite aware that:

"Writing is rewriting" - Eudora Welty.

I earnestly believe that you never get a second chance to make a first impression. Publishers these days don't have a big budget for editors, so they are more likely to accept a good story that has been fully edited (publication ready is the term) - it's not just finding all those typos/misspellings/punctuation/grammar errors - there are development editors, structural editors, copy editors...ever look at the list at the back of a bestseller? It certainly takes a village to write/finish a book, a good seller anyway.

Most of us do the bulk of the editing ourselves. Who can afford to pay a heap of editors? That's where critique partners, beta readers, clever editing writer friends are worth their weight in gold. And don't forget the heaps of 'how to edit' books we have on our shelves.

Insecure Writers Support Group post - Be your own structural editor

Welcome to the first Wednesday of the month which means posting for the Insecure Writers Support Group.

For the next few weeks I want to pass on some things I've learned recently through attending a Queensland Writer's Centre novel workshop conducted by a structural editor.

Who is a structural editor? Well that would be the person who gets given your ms after it's been accepted by a publishing house. It's the structural editor's brief to look for flaws in your story structure, character arcs, well, your whole ms really. (Not that you'll have any obviously!)

Today I'll just share general tips that were passed on:

• Publishing requires a lot of luck as well as a lot of hard work.
• Your novel has to be commercial or publishers won't want to know you. (Go here to read more on Jane Friedman's site - invaluable!)
• Your novel has to be structured and clear.
• In other words, you have to do it right.

Now a little more particular:

Get your story idea - the editor suggested you write about familiar things. Write about people you know, by blending people. Take events that have happened - your life, newspapers, television...and use these events in your story. (This reminds me of Jodi Picoult's style. She gets her ideas from current events then thoroughly researches the event, then peoples it with her characters - always quirky, always showing multiple viewpoints.)

As Anne Lamott says in Bird by Bird, first drafts are 'shitty'. She even says that 'all writers write them'. But the good news is: 'This is the way they end up with a good second draft and a terrrific third draft.'The difference between a 'shitty' first draft and a 'terrific' third draft is...editing...and that's what I'm going to post about next time. Here is a great link to Write to Done, a great article, 15 Ways to Write Tight which might help you with your first draft.

What do you think? Stephen King in 'On Writing' says much the same thing as Anne Lamott - get that first draft down, put it away for a month, drag it out and go to town on it, discuss it with others, then start your third draft. Do you agree? Do you get bogged down in the first draft, self editing as you go and driving yourself and your story crazy! Like me?