Nanowrimo Winner!

The past month has been a blur for me. Combined with school, family, and Nano, I have been nothing but busy. I was able to do it though, 50,000 words in a single month. 

I employed three methods to aid me in seeking to accomplish my goal. 

The purpose of this post is to explain how I was able to win Nanowrimo and what the benefits are from this achievement. 

Reasons for my success:

1. Stifling the Internal Editor
2. Daily Word Commitment
3. Supporting Family

The first item on my list is the most important. One of the problems I struggle with the most is my Internal Editor. Every word I write, every thought I put on paper, gets scrutinized and rejected by my critical eye, judging my work as inferior to successful, published authors. Nanowrimo helped shut that voice up, ignore its complaints, and write with freedom and reckless abandon. My abilities have improved as a consequent.

The second Item was almost as influential as the first, I had struggled to gain the discipline necessary to write consistently every day. During Nanowrimo I was able to sit at my computer almost every day, and with only two exceptions, exceeded my daily goal, keeping right on par for completion up until the last day. It takes three weeks to form a habit, and I spent four completing mine. This habit has carried over into my everyday life.

Last, but not least, the support of my family was a big aid. I did not try to hide my goal to write 50,000. I was honest and my family responded. Often they would ask me questions like "How far are you?", "Have you done your Nano yet?", and "Wow, you got a lot done today". Including my family in the Nano process gave me a support group, cheerleaders who could motivate me to continue when I felt like giving up. Because they supported me through my first Nanowrimo, I now know they will support me through my journey toward publication. This gives me the strength to continue even when achieving my goal seems hopeless.

While I was doing Nano I slacked off creating blogposts. Now I will pick this back up and add to my posts and pages more consistently and frequently.

NaNoWriMo

Recently, I have been in a slump when it comes to writing. Family, School, and other conflicts sapped my time and energy like a mosquito at a red cross fundraiser. So where did I turn? NaNoWriMo. I am three days in and have already been motivated to write five times more than I had previously written in the past three months. 

So how does it work? They have great FAQs and instructions for how to get started. Once you've created your novel and writer's profile, they have forums, give aways, write-in hang outs, pep-talks, and a myriads of other resource to help motivate you to write and achieve your goal of 50,000 words in a month. Its a great way to meet other writers across the country and across the world. Connecting with people is as easy as clicking a button to add them as your "Buddy". Everyone is super friendly and its a great environment to be in.

Most of my creative juices this month are going toward Nano, so this post isn't going to be exhaustive in its coverage. The resources to learn about Nano are out there and easily accessible. Instead of wasting my time and your time remunerating them here, I'm going to get back to writing my novel, and let you do the same.

Click on the NaNoWriMo badge at the top of the post if you want to see my Nano profile.

Photo provided by: NaNoWriMo

Scrivener, A Good Place To Store Your Writer's Toolbox.

Scrivener is a word processor designed with the writer in mind. With countless features and functions, its use can be dynamic or static, but won't get in the way of the writing process. Any feature can be used as easily as it is ignored, dismissed as easily as it is brought up.

Here are some great tutorials on how to use Scrivener, but the purpose of this post is to show how Scrivener can help, not explain how to use it. These are the features I've found the most useful.

The Binder: Chapters, POV's, scenes, any size of text can be broken down into sub files, organized, rearranged, and searched. This allows large projects to be broken down into individual sized chucks and the search options prevent any file from becoming lost.

Target Word Count: Allows the writer to set a target word count and pops up a notification when the goal has been reached. Includes a progress bar showing percentage of completion.

Compose View: Allows the writer to tune out all on screen distractions, the screen is filled with a white sheet for text and a customizable backdrop. At the bottom is a popup bar that provides options for adjusting the transparency of the backdrop, the width of the paper sheet, navigating through separate files of text, and text view size. As the writer types, the curser stays in the center of the screen.

Corkboard View: Presents each file in the Binder as a note card. With the option to create a synopsis of what each files contains, Corkboard View makes it easy to see what is in each file and rearrange their order.

Group Mode: Shows groups of files in the binder, along with their individual target word counts and any other information tagged onto them. Great for seeing which parts of the story still need work.

Compile: This is where the real magic happens. Once a story is done, it can be exported in any format, as any file type, through any medium the author wishes. The process is a little complicated, but easy to understand. This makes it simple to share a PDF with one person, create an ePUB for amazon, or a .docx document for a query letter with no need to reformat the root text. Do it all with Scriveners compiler.

There is much much more Scrivener can do. There are custom icons for each file in the binder, meta-data, comments, footnotes, quick reference pop out windows, collections, inspector, labels, notes, scratchpad, name generator, audio notes and dictation, and a unique "Scrivenings" mode.

The best feature of Scrivener is that, while it is a powerful and robust tool, any part of the interface can be ignored as easily as it is implemented. Don't need an inspector? Don't know what "Scrivenings mode" is? Ignore them! The tools you do need are intuitive and will be easy for you to pick up without needing any tutorials to get started.

Scrivener's goal is get out of the way of the writing process and let creativity flow. I've found it to be useful. If you are interested in trying it for yourself, check it out here.

David Wolverton's Kick in the Pants

David Wolverton, David Farland, he's all the same man. He began his career in 1987 after winning a prestigious award from some stuffy contest. Once he got the ball rolling, awards, records, and et cetera soon followed. Case in point: He's a successful author. Aside from his writing career he has played tutor for many authors including Brandon Sanderson, Brandon Mull, and James Dashner, to name some of my favorites. I've established some of his credentials, now let me share what he is doing today to help authors and aspiring authors alike.

"The Daily Kick in the Paints" is an email list/blog anyone can subscribe too. From this blog David Wolverton includes belly thoughts about writing, and the business of writing. Guest bloggers also chime in from time to time with their advice. He also includes important news about market trends, ethics, and moral issues.

David Wolverton runs many Writing Workshops including live workshops, interviews, online courses, lectures, and self-education books available at his website MyStoryDocter.com. The prices are always going on sell and the best way to learn of the deals is to subscribe to the Daily Kick in the Pants email list.

His stories, experiences as a writer, and extensive efforts to share his craft lend great value to the beginning author. But David Wolverton goes beyond that. In recent posts, David has spearheaded, promoted, and driven a campaign to protect a fellow author who was stricken with the bitter plague that is plagiarism. His efforts made a difference in the fight to protect creative rights and writers integrity. To read one of his accounts of the efforts, follow this link. To read the authors account of what happened and/or donate to the effort, follow this link.

In another side note, over a year ago, David Wolverton/Farland's son suffered a traumatic long boarding accident. Medical bills have skyrocketed above 1 million dollars for the Wolverton family. He has been fighting those bills simultaneously with helping the plagiarism campaign. To learn more about his situation and pay it forward for all David does to help fellow writers, visit this link. Even a successful writer needs help sometimes.

David Wolverton provides many resources for the aspiring writer. I hope this post helps you access those resources as well as learn what sort of man David is. May all writers aspire to treat their trade as David does.

Writing Excuses

If you want to learn how to write and publish your writing, then the Writing Excuses podcast is a vital resource for you. Subscribe to the podcast for their latest episodes, or follow this link to find their archive of writing advice. It's free.

Writing Excuses has four members. Mary Robinette Kowal - Howard Taylor - Dan Wells - Brandon Sanderson. Their podcast is between fifteen and twenty minutes long and covers any topic related to writing, business, creation, process, or other.

They also really like bacon and marshmallows, so really, go check them out.

At this point in my journey as a writer I have been working on my story for four months. This podcast is my principle way of receiving instructions. I download episodes from their archive for listening on my way to classes, and I catch their weekly updates as soon as they come out.

Writing excuses offers a fix for any trouble I might encounter while writing. If a character isn't working, they have an answer. If I'm caught by endless revisions of a chapter, they have an answer. If my plot is broken and I'm out of ideas, they have an answer. Hundreds of episodes means answers to almost any question you could encounter as a writer. And if you have a question they haven't answered? They often seek questions from their listeners.

At the end of each podcast they include a challenging writing prompt that is meant to push your abilities and practice the topics discussed in that episode. The prompts are a great resource for practice.

The podcasters also offer Book suggestions that exemplify the episode's topic. Because they are sponsored by Audible, you can use their name and receive a free audio book. This lets you see professional examples of the principles they discuss.

As a final side note, each year they hold an "Out of Excuses" Writer's Retreat and Workshop for hands-on instruction. Compared to other Workshops I've seen, their's is inexpensive. Tickets usually go on sale in mid-January, though seats are limited. 2014's slots ran out after less than ten minutes. Check their website frequently and listen to their podcast to receive details on availability and pricing.

It's free, it's professional, and it's entertaining. So why not give it a try? Their website link is here, and this is the link for submitting questions. There is also a forum.

This podcast has done wonders with my ability to write, it can help you as well.

Rock, Paper, Magic

I want to be an author, a published book author.

I tell people this and watch their faces. Some are blank, they don't believe me. Others, skeptical, they think i'll fail. My wife? She kissed me.

I am doing my best to take this ambition seriously. I write and do research daily to learn the craft, the business, and the art. In so doing, I've heard many authors speak about how lucky they were to get published, how getting published is a matter of writing a book, casting it's words onto an editor's roulette table, putting a "gun barrel of success" to your head, and hoping the editor pulls its trigger.

I've read blogs, listened to podcasts, and attended panels. No one can fully explain what it takes to become a published author. Writing books is hard, they say. It's not for everyone. Quit. If you can't quit, then quit anyways. If you still can't. . . then you might have a chance.

I don't like chance. Luck. The magic of creating a story is not the outcome of a rock, paper, scissors match, neither is a book's publishing. I love stories about magic. I want to write stories about magic, but there is no magic in publishing a story. There is no luck, least not the kind that requires a gamble.

I am a journeyman writer, Bilbo just leaving the shire, Harry Potter in his first day at Hogwarts. My purpose in this blog is to map my work, my story. Display it for the world to see. The title of my blog is "Paper Beats Magic" and while a blog is not physical paper, the posts will prove that publishing a book is not a process of chance. Magic will play a part in it, creative, disciplined, magic of faith. But in the end, what is on the paper will beat any contest of chance.

What does your face look like right now? Are you blank? skeptical?  Do you want to kiss me? I am a writer. I am going to publish multiple books.

You are welcome to see how it's done.