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Join me for today's NaNo update over at the Mid-Willamette Valley RWA blog.

Today's topic is, NaNo Day Twenty-Something, "Motivate Me!".

NaNo Day 20, In Which I Do...Research

First, a quick update from Day 19. I did write on Day 19--about a page--but, to be honest, I spent a large part of my free time perusing the blogosphere trying to understand the sturm und drang surrounding Harlequin Enterprises announcement regarding their new vanity publishing division, Harlequin Horizons. If you're a writer, published or still aspiring, I believe it's important to be informed as to what's going on (even if you don't write in the Romance genre) and why RWA and SFWA (and potentially MWA in December) have declared Harlequin an "ineligible publisher" over this. After reading many reasoned and passionate blog posts on the subject, the most concise and straightforward information that I found was in Jackie Kessler's Blog. Specifically (so far), the following posts:

Jackie Kessler's Blog Post of 11/19/2009: Harlequin Horizons versus RWA "So you may have heard about this thing called Harlequin Horizons, and RWA’s response. But if you’re not in the publishing industry, you may not see why this is a big deal — and why RWA did the best possible thing any author organization could do."

Jackie Kessler's Blog Post of 11/20/2009: The Day After: Harlequin Blinks "Just because your book wasn’t good enough for Harlequin to pay you for it, that doesn’t mean it’s not good enough for you to pay us for it!"

Jackie Kessler's Blog Post of 11/21/2009: Answering Your Questions "By mentioning Horizons in every form rejection letter it sends out, Harlequin is encouraging authors to use Horizons. By linking to Horizons on its website, Harlequin is encouraging authors to use Horizons. Advertising Horizons in its rejection letters and its website is a huge conflict of interest."

Read them and be informed.

Back to NaNo Day 20. I gave myself permission to goof off on Day 20. You know, step away from the keyboard and go out and have a little fun? There's a new movie theater in town — one of those places that serves food and beverages to you while you watch your movie. My husband and I decided to try it out for a late lunch and matinee. The movie we chose to see? 2012.

If you've read my blog, you probably know I'm an apocalypse junkie. So you know that I was prepared to enjoy 2012 no matter how, er, lame the plot might end up being. I mean, come on, John Cusack and the End of the World as We Know It? Roland Emmerich Blowing Stuff Up? How could it miss?

John Cusack could stand in a field and read the phone book and I'd watch him do it. However...I'm eternally grateful we saw 2012 in a theater where we could order wine. A couple of glasses of Shiraz definitely made the movie easier to swallow. I can't help thinking back to other movies that we waited to rent and see at home, rather than at a theater, simply because we knew after watching the trailers that only copious amounts of alcohol would make them watchable. No longer! Even the most craptastic film (2012) can now be enjoyed in the theater, the way it was intended (well, almost).

Yet even while goofing off, NaNo wasn't far from my mind. At various points in the movie, my thoughts would stray to my story. When I thought, "Jeez, Roland, pacing!", my thoughts immediately shifted to wondering if I had enough action planned, even in the first part, to hold readers' attention. And when I admired the special effects and the sheer audacity of destroying the world, my thoughts strayed to my current opening scene and wondered if an explosion would help.

I guess I wasn't goofing off as much as I thought!


NaNo Day 20 Words:  0
Total NaNo Words:  12,746

NaNo Day 19, I Declare Posting Amnesty Day!

It isn't that nothing happened on Day 19, it's that I've been taking a break today (actual day 20) and just didn't get around to posting (and I'm too tired to do it now).

I'll post tomorrow about Day 19 and 20. Until then, I'm signing off and (shocker) going to bed early.

Catch you on the flip side...


NaNo Day 19 Words:  225
Total NaNo Words:  12,746

NaNo Day 18, Characters Come and Characters Go

On NaNo Day 18 I said good-bye to two characters that I'd been clinging to through the changes I'd been making to the story. I realized that they were completely superfluous to the plot and would only serve to distract me. Eventually, I knew I'd end up cutting them anyway, so why wait?

Honestly, it wasn't too hard to bid adieu to Howard Alcott. Poor old Howard didn't have much of a presence in the first version of the story as it was. He was there to provide financial backing for the family business (and, okay, he was the heroine's step-father), but he wasn't going to get much more than a mention here and there. He certainly had no POV scenes that I needed to worry about. So long, Howard, you shadowy-figure-at-best, you.

The second character was harder to delete. Lily Palmer was my original antagonist. Not so much a villain, as the (remote) villain's henchwoman with the power to make her own decisions. She's a morally ambiguous character with a lot of charisma and a sense of humor, but not, ultimately, a heart of gold. Lily is out for Lily, period. If what she wants happens to coincide with something you're after, she'd have no problem teaming up with you--just watch out for the time when your goals diverge and be ready to duck if you actively get in her way.

Lily has great potential, just not for this story. Not the new direction the story's taken, anyway. I have faith that Lily will eventually get her story. Who knows? Maybe she'll end up being the heroine. With Lily, you never can tell. And that's exactly the way I like it.

I may have said good-bye to Howard and Lily (at least temporarily), but I also said hello to three new characters. Well, maybe it's more acurate to say it's one new character and two changed characters. The new character is the alternate universe (AU) version of my heroine's father. The two morphed characters are the AU versions of my heroine's mother and maternal grandfather (who are now deceased in her world). They play significantly larger roles in their new (improved!) versions and I'm enjoying getting to know them.

Ah, the strange peoples inhabiting my head, let me show you them!


NaNo Day 18 Words:  300
Total NaNo Words:  12,521

NaNo Day 17, The Domino Effect

Yesterday, I mentioned that I didn't get time to write on Day 16, but that I still considered the day productive because of all the thinking about the story that I'd done. On Day 17, that thinking bore edible fruit. I wrote out the descriptions of the plot points that I'd hastily scribbled down the day before and, with a little further brainstorming, those plot points led to even more changes and surprises. The whole thing reminds me of one of those designs made out of dominos, where you tip over the end domino and they all topple, one after another. Remove one of the dominos and the effect stalls out.

Writing is a lot like those dominos, isn't it? Sometimes you get to a point and realize you're missing some dominos--character goals or motivation or something else--crucial to moving your story forward. If you're lucky, you're able to figure out how to make things work. You slap in your brand new dominos and away you go.

If you aren't so lucky, you re-examine the dominos you've already put in place, see which ones might just be defective. Or, in my case, discover that the dominos you used are all spaced too far apart. And...okay...that's as far as I can beat that analogy to death (whew!).

Hopefully, you get the idea. I plead being punchy from lack of sleep. The cats decided that 3am was a great time to chase each other all over the house, making one hellacious racket in the process. My husband, of course, slept through the whole thing. Me? Not so much.

And, hey! I've passed 12,000 words! Go me.

NaNo Day 17 Words:  382
Total NaNo Words:  12,221

NaNo Day 16, Cogitating and Ruminating

Day 16 was one of those days. You know the kind I mean. Days when you're itching to get to the keyboard, ready for the words to pour forth like a flood. Only to have one thing after another prevent that from happening--not the words, but the getting to the keyboard part.

It wasn't even the comedy of errors I sometimes experience, where strange things happen--big, odd things--and I'm left wondering whose life I just stepped into. Nope, this time it was just normal, everyday little things that cropped up one after the other (unexpectedly), as well as having some things from the Day Job demand my attention.

Usually when these kind of days happen, I can just wait til the end of the day and write before going to bed (late). Unfortunately this was one time where I was just too pooped to do that. Maybe I'd stayed up late too many nights in a row, but I could barely keep my eyes open after dinner, let alone string more than two words together in a row. Sometimes it's better just to bow to the inevitable.

Even so, I thought a lot at odd times during the day about the new direction my story is taking. I even came up with a couple of twists for the plot, jotting them down in my own cryptic shorthand so I wouldn't forget them. I'm still pleased with what's happening with the story.

I may not have written any words on Day 16, but I still count it as a productive day.

NaNo Day 16 Words: 0
Total NaNo Words: 11839

NaNo Day 15, Suddenly Productive Again

The unexpected writing productivity experienced on Day 15 directly stemmed from realizing on Day 14 that certain aspects of the story weren't working and then mulling over my options. While most of what I wrote yesterday is new (and improved!) backstory, some of it is descriptions of new plot points.

I felt energized as ideas came faster and faster until my fingers couldn't keep up with my brain. I wrote in a fever, the words just pouring out as if I'd uncapped a hidden spring. I know that I was at least as productive in the first blush of the original story, but this feels tighter and more focused. I'm hoping that means I made the right decisions. Only time will tell if this new direction will be the one the makes it to The End. I'm not worried, though. I continue to learn valuable lessons, no matter how it all turns out.

How productive was I on Day 15? In a little over two hours I wrote 2098 words! When things are clicking, the words come easily.

NaNo Day 15 Words:  2098
Total NaNo Words:  11839