Stuff I like: NaNoWriMo

Now that we’re at the tail end of September, is it too soon to consider the approach of November? I think not. After all, November is National Novel Writing Month, better known by its jaunty abbreviation of NaNoWriMo. That alone makes me happier about winter’s approach. (I dread winter’s cold and dark days.)

NaNoWriMo challenges writers to write a novel—50,000 words—in a month. Last year there were 167,150 participants. Think this is impossible? It’s not. I did it last year and “won.” So did 32,177 other writers. I finished with 50,590 words of THE LILY MAID’s first draft (since extensively reworked and expanded to over 100,000 words).

Would I have gotten it together to start a novel otherwise? Perhaps, but doubtful. Knowing myself, I’d just put it off until a future date. Or until I felt more confident as a writer. In other words, probably never. The good people at NaNoWriMo acknowledge that most people have these same excuses reservations. They offer these wise counterarguments:

1) If you don’t do it now, you probably never will. Novel writing is mostly a “one day” event. As in “One day, I’d like to write a novel.” Here’s the truth: 99% of us, if left to our own devices, would never make the time to write a novel. It’s just so far outside our normal lives that it constantly slips down to the bottom of our to-do lists. The structure of NaNoWriMo forces you to put away all those self-defeating worries and START. Once you have the first five chapters under your belt, the rest will come easily. Or painfully. But it will come. And you’ll have friends to help you see it through to 50k.

2) Aiming low is the best way to succeed. With entry-level novel writing, shooting for the moon is the surest way to get nowhere. With high expectations, everything you write will sound cheesy and awkward. Once you start evaluating your story in terms of word count, you take that pressure off yourself. And you’ll start surprising yourself with a great bit of dialogue here and a ingenious plot twist there. Characters will start doing things you never expected, taking the story places you’d never imagined. There will be much execrable prose, yes. But amidst the crap, there will be beauty. A lot of it.

3) Art for art’s sake does wonderful things to you. It makes you laugh. It makes you cry. It makes you want to take naps and go places wearing funny pants. Doing something just for the hell of it is a wonderful antidote to all the chores and “must-dos” of daily life. Writing a novel in a month is both exhilarating and stupid, and we would all do well to invite a little more spontaneous stupidity into our lives.”

I can attest that all of this is true. NaNoWriMo is life-changing. It’s also a lot of fun, which is reason enough to participate imho.

Though I won’t be participating in National Novel Writing Month this year—instead, I’ll be doing a private National Novel Editing Month as I revise my novel—I’ve been encouraging all of my writer friends to participate. I’m envious of the wonderful time they’ll be having, but it would be difficult to abandon THE LILY MAID at this point to jump into another narrative—like leaving a baby in the bathwater without supervision.

So, think you have a novel inside you? (Of course you do!) Are you ready to jump into a month of literary abandon? (I hope so!) Can you stand so much creativity? (Mais oui!) Good news: the 2010 NaNoWriMo website will be live at the end of the week for you to sign up for free. Then you can use October to outline or research your novel in preparation for November.

Let me know if you do. I’ll be cheering from the sidelines.

ETA: The 2010 site is now live!

• Filed under The Novel, be-mused, creativity, events, stuff I like, the world around me | One Response

Sacred World Oracle: Five animals to go….

With all the projects going on here—novel revisions, iPad e-books, gallery exhibits, and iPhone apps et al—it’s been some time since I’ve posted any Sacred World Oracle updates. The good news is that I’m closing in on finishing this deck, with just five cards left to illustrate. I’m very pleased that U.S. Games Systems will be publishing the Sacred World Oracle; they’re also the publisher of my Goddess Tarot and Lover’s Path Tarot. If things keep on schedule as hoped, deck will be available in mid-2011.

With five cards left to illustrate, I thought it would be fun to get your feedback: What other sacred animals should I include?

Some background information: The decks is divided into quadrants, each devoted to the elements of earth, air, fire, and water. I’d like to add another card to the quadrants of earth, air, and fire; two cards to water. You can view most of the art here. Or, better yet, try a free reading with the in-progress Sacred World Oracle.

Here’s what I have so far:

Bat
Bluebird
Butterfly
Dove
Dragonfly
Owl
Peacock
Raven
Spider
Bear
Bull
Cat
Dog
Fox
Lion
Rabbit
Ram
Snake
Carp
Crab
Dolphin
Frog
Salmon
Swan
Turtle
Whale
Centaur
Chimera
Dragon
Falcon
Firebird
Horse
Phoenix
Salamander
Scorpion

I invite you to post your card suggestions in the comments below. If I use your suggestion, I’ll send you a copy of the Sacred World Oracle when it’s published. (In the case of two or more people making the same suggestion, a drawing will be held.)

So bring on the animals!

• Filed under mythic living, new projects, publications, tarot and oracles | 5 Responses

Publishing Monday: First Lines

The first line of a story Thea wrote for kindergarten about her hamster, Hamsty,
complete with her special glyph for “hamster”.

American Book Review has posted a very engrossing list of 100 best first lines from novels. They appear to be listed in an order similar to a radio Top 100. The first sentences range from the obvious — “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife” (Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, #2) — to the not-so-obvious (at least to me):

When I finally caught up with Abraham Trahearne, he was drinking beer with an alcoholic bulldog named Fireball Roberts in a ramshackle joint just outside of Sonoma, California, drinking the heart right out of a fine spring afternoon.” — James Crumley, The Last Good Kiss (#85)

This got me to thinking: What makes a great first line in a novel? Obviously, it has to be something which is intriguing enough to compel you to continue reading. Yet it’s more than that—it has to have that intangible something. But what is it?

All this contemplation of first lines is especially timely—I’ve been mulling them over as I head back into revising THE LILY MAID. My current one isn’t bad — “I was surprised when the invitation arrived that June morning from St. John Dulac.” But I’m sure this sentence won’t remain since I plan to rework the book’s opening scene.

Interestingly, the original first line from my NaNoWriMo novel (the root for THE LILY MAID) still remains. The sentence is now tucked into a penultimate chapter near the end: “The original plan was for a candle or two to light the rowboat’s way.” I suspect my current first line will meet a similar fate of “gone from the first chapter but not forgotten.”

Anyone with any thoughts on what makes a great first line feel free to post in the comments! In the meantime, I’ll be trying not to spend too much time obsessing over this. As I know too well, it’s very easy for me to get caught up in the details—a great way to procrastinate.

Hamsty, the protagonist of Thea’s story.

• Filed under The Novel, be-mused, publishing | 2 Responses

Creativity Friday: Reading to Write

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I’ve started work on the second draft of THE LILY MAID, my novel set in Victorian England’s Aesthetic art movement. Yet I have not written a word of the draft yet. Instead, I’m compiling lots and lots of notes in a small journal* I carry everywhere with me—even to my bedside at night in case a stray thought should arrive.

Some of these notes are inspired by feedback from my literary agent and readers. (I had four supportive friends read the first draft. Not surprisingly, their comments mirrored many of my literary agent’s, which is why it’s Important and Necessary to have more than one reader at this stage of the game.) My other notes are along the lines of stream-of-consciousness musings-to-myself. Many of them have been triggered by the reading I’ve been doing in preparation for writing this second draft.

So far, if I was to divide the labor put into revising the novel so far, it would be tilted to 85% reading, 15% writing.

Just as humans need food to live, writers require inspiration to transform into creative energy. The time between finishing a first draft and revising the second is made for this sort of intake. I’m fortunate that, along with notes on my manuscript, my agent also gave me a reading list of novels to help me refine character motivation, plot arc, and all those other persnickety details that give a book emotional resonance.  Other suggestions came way of friends familiar with my novel and the era in which it takes place.

So, curious what I’ve been reading? So far, the books have fallen into three categories:

1. Fiction with similar themes and character dynamics.

2. Biographies of Victorian-era artists and muses.

3. Nonfiction about the craft of story.**

Here are a few of the books I’ve been perusing:

FICTION:

The Age of Innocence (Edith Wharton)

Year of Wonders (Geraldine Brooks)

Inamorata (Joseph Gangemi)

The Piano Teacher (Janice Yee)

Girl With a Pearl Earring (Tracy Chevalier)

The Good Soldier (Ford Maddox Ford)

Anne Perry’s Victorian-era mysteries (for setting and details on class structure)

and a host of others….

***

BIOGRAPHIES:

Lizzy Siddal: Face of the Pre-Raphaelites (Lucinda Hawksley)

Jane and May Morris (Jan Marsh)

Oscar Wilde (Richard Ellman)

Several group biographies of the Souls, a Victorian cohort of artistic intellectuals

The Gentle Art of Making Enemies (James McNeill Whistler)

also several books on photography, Victorian spiritualism, and other related subjects….

***

NONFICTION:

The Fire in Fiction (Donald Maass) – Has great revisions suggestions for novels underway.

Story Structure Architect (Victoria Schmidt) -  The author breaks down plot in examples using mythic examples. She includes diagrams for the story arc for each plot example too, which I think is reason enough to buy it.

Story (Robert McKee) – This book is a classic for screenwriters but has lots of applicable ideas for novelists.

Plotting and Writing Suspense Fiction (Patricia Highsmith) – Recommended to me by a novelist-friend who teaches fiction writing. Has applicable ideas even if one isn’t writing a thriller or mystery.

Bestseller: Secrets of Successful Writing (Celia Brayfield) – Corny title, but she uses Joseph Campbell’s hero’s return to illustrate plot structure in novels. It offers great advice for shaping what my agent calls the “C Plot” of a book—character development.

And several others, some which I haven’t mentioned because I found them a bit simplistic or jargonesque.

***

What has been the result of all this reading to write? Well, I’m starting to chomp at the bit to dive into Draft #2 in earnest. In other words, I feel inspired and prepared for the next phase. If all goes as hoped, I plan to have a revised draft of THE LILY MAID sometime this winter.

———————————————————–

* Yes, that is my journal in the photograph. I have very messy handwriting, alas!

**To those reading this blog who are also writers: What are your favorite books for writing and revising a book? I’d love to hear! Please share in the comments.

• Filed under The Novel, creativity, stuff I like | 4 Responses

Good news: NPR and Spoonflower

Two nice surprises this morning:

1. My illustrated novel THE LOVER’S PATH was featured on NPR in their Three Books feature. Their theme du jour is “Three Books To Take You Back To The Renaissance.” I’m in exhalted company—the other two books are Sarah Dunant’s SACRED HEARTS and Robert Hellenga’s THE SIXTEEN PLEASURES. This is a bit ironic, since THE SIXTEEN PLEASURES was one of the novels my literary agent recommended I read for inspiration while I was writing THE LOVER’S PATH.*

An excerpt from Three Books:

Prepare to be transported to 16th century Venice from the first page. This novel is a feast — a full-color picture book for adults that tells a wrenching story of eternal love…. This beautiful fable reminded me of Erica Jong’s Serenissima, except without the explicit sex.”

2. My Venetian Masque design came in second place on Spoonflower’s Fabric of the Week contest. It’s now also available for purchase, just in time for all your Halloween needs. Thanks to all who voted for it!

* On a related note, I have a post simmering about reading lists and inspiration, specifically in regards to my now-onto-the-second-draft novel THE LILY MAID. Hopefully it will go live tomorrow in time for Creative Friday!

• Filed under retail therapy, reviews + press, the world around me | 3 Responses