NaNoWriMo – Page 2 – Words: I love them

NaNoWriMo 2014 – Let the Adventure Commence!

October 13, 2014 by Jackie Dana

Last year a colleague suggested I try NaNoWriMo, the National Novel Writing Month challenge. I decided to take the plunge, having no idea where it would take me or if I could even meet the terms of the challenge: To write a novel from scratch in 30 days. To write 50,000 words. And maybe hardest of all, to write approximately 1700 words every single day of the month.

What was I thinking? I’ve written a couple of novels… and that took almost twenty years!

All the same, I gave it a shot, thinking that I’d be able to get a little writing done, and test out a new story idea.

I had no idea how much it would change me.

I wrote about my experience just after NaNo 2013 concluded, but now it’s been a whole year. In the past eleven months, I’ve become a much more serious writer, and now I do my best to write or edit every day for at least a couple of hours. Sometimes I’m still writing at dawn. I’ve spent countless, wonderful hours over the past year rewriting, editing and shaping the novel I “completed” in November, which as it turned out was barely a fraction of what my novel would become. Along the way, I’ve invented new characters, created a new antagonist while turning my bad guy into a hero of sorts, and explored all kinds of twists and turns, highways and byways.

It’s been both rewarding and frustrating, because let’s face it: editing is hard work.

Writing a 50,000 word novel is difficult, but turning that into a quality piece of fiction is a whole different beast.

What I didn’t expect about NaNo was how it would change me as a person. In addition to taking my writing more seriously, I’ve begun to interact with other writers, and have made new friends. I’ve researched publishing options. I’ve written more blog posts. I read different books, and more of them. And now, every Facebook post or TV show or conversation with friends over beer could turn into something amazing.

As the month of October races on, I’ve redoubled my efforts to finish the draft of my first novel so that I can start with a clean(ish) slate come November 1st. There are a lifetime of possible stories in the new world I’ve created, and so this year’s novel will be a sequel of last year’s. This comes with the benefit of having some ready-made characters and backstory, and hopefully will help me refine and expand upon some ideas that I can later port back into novel #1.

While I’m very excited to be able to once again create something new, I’m a little apprehensive about what I’ll have to do once December arrives. I’m still not completely done with my last novel; will I end up with editing debt? It’s a bit intimidating. Nonetheless, I shall press on and see what happens. I’m hoping that having a better idea of the concept of this story, and a possible ending, will keep me from getting way off track, so that my editing process will be a bit cleaner. I also anticipate being a bit more organized and clever in how I approach the task in general, having done it successfully once and learned a lot of lessons along the way.

With that in mind, these are my recommendations to myself and to anyone else who wants to give NaNo a shot this year:

Have a clear idea of the novel’s concept, even if you have no idea of the plot.
Start getting to know your main character(s) before you start. Give them names, occupations, a couple personality quirks.
Have at least a vague idea for how the novel should end. Maybe even write the ending first. That way you know where you’re going. (I wish I had done this last year!)
Don’t plan too much out in advance… allow each day to be an adventure.
Write fast and furiously for the first week while the ideas are fresh and your energy’s plentiful, and get way ahead of your wordcount. That might save you later in the month.
Make a solemn promise to yourself to not edit as you go (it’s hard to do it, but very liberating!).
Deny the existence of writer’s block. If you get stuck, just start typing anything. Seriously. Even if it’s just “I don’t know what I want to write about tonight. I’m tired and I don’t know where to take my character now…” What happens when you do that is some of the most powerful magic I’ve ever experienced.
Meet fellow NaNo writers in person, on the NaNo forums, on the NaNo facebook group, or wherever you can find them. Lean on them for encouragement, inspiration, accountability, and friendship. 🙂

For a writer, participating in NaNoWriMo is one of the greatest adventures we can ever have. I can’t wait until November 1st!

Zero to Cicero and Back Again

June 2, 2014 by Jackie Dana

I always encourage people to fall down the rabbit hole.

If you find yourself with sudden inspiration to research something, you should do it. Whether it’s going to IMDB to look up the actor you think you recognize from a guest role on a tv show, or searching on Facebook for your grade school classmates, or looking for a book that’s been out of print for decades, sometimes the very act of searching will teach you something or send you on a path you weren’t expecting.

I’ve spent hours following random thoughts through Wikipedia, Spotify and Amazon.com, discovering publications or recordings I didn’t know existed, or finding out tidbits about former acquaintences that were surprising and sometimes shocking.

This time around, I was watching tv when the name of a character reminded me of someone I used to know. Wondering what had happened to this person, I jumped on Google.

I was wholly unprepared for Google to lead me to a moviestar fandom blog, as there really was nothing more unexpected from this person than such a ‘frivolous’ blog that was easily and immediately tied back to them.

To explain further, I need to provide some backstory on myself and how I know this individual.

Many years ago I had ambitions of getting my Ph.D. in history. I already had a Master’s Degree from another school, but thought my academic quest would end there. When my former employer, UT Austin, allowed us to take academic classes for free, I took advantage of the opportunity. Within a couple of semesters I realized that I had not satiated my craving for historical research. After a couple more years of planning and effort, including an accelerated course in Latin that took us from zero to Cicero in a semester, I was back in grad school.

I took coursework beginning in 2000, and was accepted into the graduate program in 2004. For four years, working full-time at my job and as a part-time graduate student, I worked towards my goal. I read dozens upon dozens of books and articles on obscure topics that faculty said we needed to know, and jumped through many other hoops to meet arbitrary goals. I was pushed in directions I had no desire to follow and to work with faculty whose approach to history differed from my own, but I kept going, believing that in the end, the Ph.D. would open these magical golden doors to academia and allow me to pursue a teaching or research career that would be more fulfilling than the one I had, which was rapidly becoming less of a helper position and more of a petty bureaucrat.

Actually, I’m exaggerating, for I knew even then that a Ph.D. in early modern European history wasn’t likely to open many doors, but I did have hopes that I could do something new and different with the degree. As it turns out, a series of unfortunate incidents ended up saving me from any aspirations I may have held for a career in academia and a political game that involves more back-stabbing than Renaissance Italy. As the rescue came just as I was beginning to prepare for comps, it also had the benefit of allowing me to gain a body of knowledge I cherish without all of the headaches of comps and the dissertation.

The point of this long-winded post is that as a graduate student, I sat in a great many courses and learned a great many things. One thing I learned was that under no circumstances should I, or any of my colleagues, ever consider writing for the mass market. Autobiographies were out. We shouldn’t dare consider publishing popular histories (you know, the kind of books people actually buy, rather than academic monographs which sell only as many copies as there are libraries wanting to purchase them).

And god help us, don’t ever let it be known we might be so much as remotely interested in writing historical fiction. If faculty in the department ever so much as suspected that was why we were in graduate school, we’d be run out of town.

Even then, as a graduate student believing that I would succeed (because I was getting great reviews of my work and putting enormous effort into my research), I took that advice with a grain of salt. Even though I read historical fiction and had a largely-completed novel grounded in medieval history under my belt, of course I would only write serious academically-rigorous work henceforth.

So back to this rabbit hole I mentioned. Tonight I did a casual Google search for the individual who warned graduate students never to write historical fiction, only to discover that they have a fandom blog devoted to a particular individual (who, coincidentally, I also very much like). Moreover, because they no longer hold the position in academia that allowed us to cross paths, they are considering a new graduate degree in writing so they can pursue ‘non-fiction’ writing as a career.

I’m keeping this as vague as possible because while this individual was not one of my favorite instructors, I wish them no ill will, and do not write this post to embarrass them. (In fact, if they ever find this blog post, I’d tell them that leaving that toxic environment was likely the best thing that ever happened to them.)

But all the same, finding their blog, and reading a couple of their posts about their own career, led me to consider a lot of things.

One thing in particular I’m thinking about is the whole concept of advice from our mentors, superiors, or others with authority over us in one way or another.

When such people tell us “don’t ever do X” or “you really should consider Y” it’s probably always worth taking a moment to reflect on their own background and consider their own possible motivations. Are they giving us this advice because they truly care about us, or because they themselves are bitter from their own experiences? Do they make us jump through hoops and dangle possible futures in front of us because they themselves had the same thing done to them? Might they feel trapped by their own life choices and wish they could have other opportunities, and envy their students who have yet to make choices?

And if suddenly finding themselves bereft of the authority and power they once enjoyed, might they sing a different tune?

Back to the advice never to write historical fiction: I’m very happy that while I ‘heard’ the advice in class that day, I never took it seriously.

For more than two decades I’ve been a fiction writer, minus the brief interlude when I was a graduate student (and truly, all history is a bit of fiction in itself, but that’s another post). Even as I heard the advice to never consider becoming a fiction writer, I knew that doing just that was one of my options – and in truth, one of the most appealing options, even then.

Now that I’m out of academia and back to writing, I’m giving serious consideration to my next novel (that is, the novel I will start in November as part of this year’s NaNoWriMo) being, you guessed it, historical fiction.

I have to wonder, though, if the instructor who shared those words isn’t still grappling with their own (bad) advice, even as they seek authenticity in their own life, and wishing that they had chosen a different path.

Crossing the finish line

April 30, 2014 by Jackie Dana

snail crossing finish line — Photo by Tim Norris (Creative Commons license)

Today is a big day.

Today is the day that (when I hit the “Publish” button on this post) that I will have completed my colleague Justin’s month-long blogging challenge. Every day for the past 30 days I’ve posted a new blog post with some sort of original content. Some days have been pretty good posts, some were posts for the sake of posting. I’ve learned that daily posting is not my style, and I’d rather have more time to think about what I’m going to post, and then craft it a bit, than worry about just getting a post done. Then again, before this challenge, almost all of my previous posts have been photos. This is the first time I’ve written anything substantial for (this) blog since I started it.

Today also marks the end of Camp NaNoWriMo, where for the past 30 days I have been writing fiction and adding to the novel I began last November as part of that month’s NaNoWriMo challenge. The goal was 50,000 words and writing every day (like with the blogging challenge), and I’ve reached both of those goals as well. My official word count as of this moment is 50139 words, though I’m hoping to add a bit more to that before midnight. Something I find a bit amusing is that I found participating in NaNoWriMo ‘easier’ than daily blogging. Not sure what that says about me… maybe I’m just a better fiction writer than a blogger? 🙂

And today also marks the second anniversary of my Automatttic journey. Two years ago today I started my Happiness Engineer trial that successfully concluded with me getting a job doing support for users on WordPress.com.

For me, it’s a good day to look back at my accomplishments with a bit of wonder and amazement. Honestly, there were days when I didn’t think I’d achieve any of these things. It feels good, though, to take on challenges even when you’re not sure you’ll complete them, and compete with yourself to improve. In this case, I’m proud that I was able to keep to a daily writing schedule even when all hell broke loose in my life. It shows that there really is time to get writing done, even when life is chaotic and busier than I’d like.

Now I’m wondering what I should take on as my next “daily” challenge. What new mountains are there to climb?

50K and the light at the end of the tunnel

April 22, 2014 by Jackie Dana

I’m writing like a fiend.

Despite all odds, I have managed to write every single day this month. Even when I ended up in the ER, through the death of a pet and the adoption of a new one, and the last minute frantic planning of WordCamp Austin, I have found time to put words down on virtual paper, and to stay at or above “par” almost every day.

For proof, here’s today’s stats:

The diagonal line represented “par”, or the total number of words I needed to log in order to stay on track to reach 50K by April 30. Each bar is the total wordcount to date, and whether I was above or below par by that day.

As you can see, I’ve cut it close. When I did NaNoWriMo last November, even with traveling out of the country for a week I made much better progress:

I attribute the differences to a few things. Of course it goes without saying that the chaotic life I’ve led this month has hurt me. Beyond that, though, I think it was easier to write the first time because it was my first time doing NaNo; it was a brand new concept and I was discovering things and inventing characters constantly, which kept me excited; and perhaps most of all, there was an active community of fellow writers who had write-ins, and chatted a lot on forums and on Facebook, and we received almost daily writing encouragement from novelists. This time it was much more of a solo effort and much of my writing has focused on solving plot holes or character development, which is both more challenging and less thrilling than the original spurt of creative energy.

Even so, I’m pretty happy with what I’ve accomplished so far, as my characters continue to surprise and delight me, and most days I don’t know what I’ll be writing until it’s already completed.

One thing I have discovered, though, is seeing that graph and the objective total I need to reach every day has caused me on many occasions to push a little harder. What, only 1200 words today? Come on, you can make it to 1500. You’re below par, keep writing until you reach it. And even though the numbers are ultimately meaningless, challenging myself in this way has brought about some fantastic bits of writing. “Just 200 more words” has sometimes generated a gem.

For now, the biggest question is, can I make it to 50K with a very long, exhausting 4 day weekend ahead?

Stay tuned, and we’ll all find out together! 🙂

Halfway through and still alive

April 15, 2014 by Jackie Dana

The month is halfway over now. Fifteen days of blogging for Justin’s blogging challenge, fifteen days of writing as part of Camp NaNoWriMo.

Is the glass half full? After all, look at everything I’ve accomplished! So many blog posts! 26,371 words written towards my novel! Or is the glass half empty? There’s still 15 days to go. Where will the ideas come from? What will be my motivation?

Well, one thing’s for sure. It’s hump day. And today, I declare that the glass isn’t half full or half empty. It’s just a big cup of steaming hot coffee. 🙂

To all my fellow writers this month, let’s keep going. We can do it!

Acupuncture gets right to the point

April 14, 2014 by Jackie Dana

Alternative health care fascinates me. Not only are the tools for providing care different from “traditional”, allopathic care, but the methods can also vary.

Often, alternative care finds ways to reach people who don’t have access to doctors and hospitals due to expense, scheduling and other concerns. As I learned through my herbalism training, it often works just as well, or better, than mainstream treatments.

After my unexpected trip to the Emergency Room on Friday, I discovered that the pile of medicines prescribed to relieve my pain helped… to a point. Even with a full dose, I was still in considerable discomfort, particularly as I tried to sleep.

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Looking for a solution that would work in tandem with the medications (not wanting to chance herbal remedies this time around), I considered acupuncture, something I had tried once in the distant past for a similar issue. I discovered a small clinic in Austin called Acupuncture Together that advertises low cost treatments ($30 for the first one, and $20 thereafter).

I did more research and it turns out that this clinic is part of a national cooperative of affordable acupuncture clinics, the People’s Organization of Community Acupuncture. The goal of this co-op is to make acupuncture accessible and affordable to everyone.

So I decided to give it a shot. In the case of Acupuncture Together, they have one common room with 8-10 recliners, and staggered appointments every ten minutes. The room is quiet, with a peaceful meditation music playing. The recliners are draped with sheets, there are pillows and blankets for comfort, and mandalas on the walls and ceilings for relaxation and mediation. One acupuncturist attends to the room, greeting you when you come in, reviewing your file, and discussing your treatment briefly, and then you recline and they insert the needles. All you need to do is take off your shoes and roll up your pants legs/sleeves, and sink into the comfy recliner. This is in contrast to standard acupuncture treatments where you are in a private room, you may need to at least partially undress, and may have a longer consultation.

After the first treatment on Saturday I felt very relaxed, and the pain was significantly diminished, to the extent that I took a nap and without even thinking about it, slept on the side that had been hurting all week. I actually was able to skip a dosage of the pain medication and didn’t need any until the evening. As a side note: I also found the hour in the clinic provided a great meditative experience. (I should also note: there should be no pain or discomfort from properly-administered acupuncture. While you might feel the needle slightly, they are so tiny that it isn’t even comparable to a sewing needle or a hypodermic; and if needles make you uneasy, you can just close your eyes, like I d0.

So I felt great the rest of the day Saturday, but by night time, the back pain returned, so I scheduled another appointment and went back on Sunday. Again, the pain diminished, lasting even longer this time. Today, the pain came back, but once again, after the treatment, it was gone. This is in line with the recommendation that I go for four treatments, as the acupuncturist warned me that one visit was unlikely to completely relieve the pain. I can definitely sense an improvement over the course of the three days.

I discovered that one hour’s acupuncture has a longer lasting effect than two+ doses of my pain medication, and seems to be helping the overall pain diminish. I’ve also had three very relaxing contemplative sessions in which I’ve gained a few personal insights and a great idea for my Camp NaNoWriMo novel. Plus… I got an idea another blog post for my challenge. 🙂 So all in all, it’s been a big win.

The best part of all, perhaps, is that it didn’t break the bank. The entire recommended course of treatments will cost me less than $100.

If this sounds good to you, I’d suggest you consider acupuncture as a legitimate tool for managing your pain. You can check out the POCA website and find out if there’s a cop-op member acupuncture clinic in your city.