Feeling like a "real" writer

To be honest with myself, I've written thousands of words and had millions of people read my work. As an advertising copy guy, that's par for the course.
But yet I don't feel like a real writer. My heresy has always been in wanting to tell cool, fun stories. So even though I make a living writing, I'm still holding out on saying I am writer until I get a novel published.  Which the cynical grown up in me knows is silly.
That's changed a bit, lately.
I'm still shopping my latest novel around after World Con, have three shorts to edit and working on a first draft of my next novel. My fiction plate is heaped with the tasty.
I feel like I was on a diet back when I was doing one novel. Now I'm cooking with gas.
Speaking of, I wonder what's for dinner?

Cheating at NanoWriMo ... Your new S.O.

If your a beginning writer, have you heard of National Novel Writing Month? It's pretty much what it says on the tin, an organization that promotes writers of all stripes to try for 50,000 in one month.

Holy Spit! You do know that's like more than 10,000 words a week right? True. That makes it 5k in 2.5 days, That boils down to over 2,000 words a day or 250 words an hour if you clock in for 8 hours.

And to make you feel more like underachiever, there have been published novels that come out of this. 

But if you're focusing on that, you're missing the point. 

NanoWriMo is about stretching your limits, assessing your weaknesses and discovering something about yourself as a writer.

A great example of that is the common complaint that NWM is in November, like the "All the family is coming down to start eating me out of house and home for the next month" November. This also the "No one else in the office because they've got family in town and we're trying to squeeze two months of work into what's effectively four weeks of productivity. Long days, here I come" November.

The answer is that "There never is a perfect time to write, so write every day anyway."

That's a great lesson and all, but Auntie Melissa needs my kitchen and hands to make the best damn turduken lasagna you ever tasted. So here are my tips for cheating at NWM and hit your targets in November.

In no practical order:

Start two weeks early/Go for 40k words instead: The goal is get to a new place in your writing. If it makes the task less daunting, tweak your goals a bit. Some pro organizations accept writers who work in the 40k range.

Oh. Shit. I guess that means this is your week to start. Go!

No flat surface and no writing implement  is safe from you: Who said that your word count had to be on the keyboard. Quickly count those words you wrote on that napkin, or the notepad you always keep in your back pocket. Crayon, Japanese inkstick/brush, and monkey poo are allowed. All at once if that gets the job done.

I lied about the monkey poo -- what's wrong with you!?!

Realize this a personal marathon, not a race: The NWM board and forums are not the place to lie if you are full on cheating. But they are the place to find kindred souls are going through what your going through because by about week two there's no real difference except the final word counts. 

Keep in mind the real winners those who reach a new plateau. If NWM was your inspiration that's close enough.

Get brutal about your reality check: Been told constantly that you over plot your stories, give 10 page infodumps, or spend too much time shooting for a 200,000 epic all in 17th Century Urdu? 

Then listen and reassess what your story is going to be. Make your story simpler, stop beating yourself up for the perfect metaphor. If you do tons of world building, do a modern take on your story or embrace a more pop culture/pulpy style. 

I'm not saying that you should make it opposite day for your NWM project, but maybe it's time you really wrestled with that one howler monkey on your back that EVERYONE has told you  about, but you keep falling back on. And once you pulled that primate off your spine, beat it with a lead pipe ... in the library ... and then frame Col. Mustard for it.

Do what you do best, baby: On the other hand, if your workshop mates keep telling you that you shine at something, embrace it.

Your making cookie dough, not baking the cookies: Everyone loves the cookie dough, until they get food poisoning. The baking part not so much, there's the waiting, the watching and the judging if it's time to pull it out of the oven.

The goal here is volume because every first draft is shit, even if that first draft is the fun crazy part of creating. The real work, though is putting that draft through the hot oven hell of re-writing and editing. Or as one of my favorite writers succinctly said. "I spent one month writing it and a year editing it."

All those published novels that came out of NWM? I bet the finished product looked like a Lamborghini compared to that Kia first draft.

Fuck your toughest critic .... you!: Art is messy and it take time to be perfect. This month you have to turn off that inner critic/snooty adult/snide frienemy and just let it flow.

I'm going to try this challenge myself, we see how I do. My first cheat is lowering the word limit ... for now. The challenge will be to come up with a new concept for a novel this week for NWM. 

Gentlebeings, start your keyboards and GO!

Write Short To Write Long?

In my effort to procrastinate, this let to that advice from John Scalzi. So the advice he gave was Write Short To Write Long.

I tried to find where he's said that before, but didn't have any luck.

Right now (heh. I almost misspelled that in a very subconscious way), I'm taking a break from the final polish on my novel by banging out some short stories. The plan is that most of shorts will go up, self-publishing style to create that "critical mass" where if a reader enjoys one short, he can find a few others while he's still in a buying mood.

Sort of like offer another fudgey chocolate chip cookie while a friend is still holding a cold glass of milk. How can he say no?

 Ironically, these shorts are taking longer than expected. Each one has to have a new concept even if it shares the same characters. And the villain has to be different in each one.

At some point, I hit a stride in a novel. The characters seem fleshed out and the villain's vision is clear. From that point, the rest of the first draft is writing the fallout of all that. The rewrites patch holes in the continuity and certain events get a new focus or spin so that drama and character growth happen more consistently.

So not only does Mr. Scalzi's advice leave me non-plussed for now, it seems that I'm writing long for short.

Not my most productive month so far. :P