Laura Thomas's Blog: Self-Publishing: A Mean Old Dog (who loves to cuddle) (and might just make you rich) - Posts Tagged "nanowrimo"
The Birth of “Shadow Swans”
Lotsa people ask me how I decided to write about New York’s “Mole People,” and what process I used to write “Shadow Swans.” So I’ll tell ya.
First, the genesis of the idea: A few years ago, I saw a fantastic documentary called “Dark Days” (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0235327/), a documentary by Mark Singer that profiles an entire population of people living inside New York’s subway tunnels. These outsiders are called “Mole People,” and they live on the fringes of society, begging and scraping together bit jobs just to get by. At the same time, they are able to construct actual HOUSES in the tunnels, with electricity, beds, televisions, lamps, carpets… Like the “Shadow Swans” protagonist Ruby, I was transfixed by the notion of people living apart from society, but still with some of the “comforts” of modern life (not that the Mole People’s lives are at all comfortable).
After seeing “Dark Days,” I bought the book “Mole People” (http://www.amazon.com/Mole-People-Lif...) by Jennifer Toth. Toth spent a year interviewing people who lived in the tunnels. She was in constant danger, and was nearly killed at least once, but she met some extraordinary, complex, and endearing people (along with some entirely un-endearing people). She discovered that some of the Mole People align into loose communities, giving distinct roles (nurse, teacher, protector) to individuals based upon their skills.
One day, I suddenly decided that I would write a novel about the Mole People. And when I say suddenly, I do mean suddenly. Like, one day I had never thought of writing a novel, and the next I was totally obsessed with the idea. Immediately upon deciding to write a novel, I got in the shower (where I do some of my best thinking), and by the end of the shower, I had written a general story outline in my head. In the end, “Shadow Swans” actually adhered to that shower outline.
Once I knew what the general story would be, I spent a week or two writing a detailed story outline, as well as further researching the Mole People (a term that the subway population does not use, which is why it doesn’t appear in my book), and preparing to put pen to paper.
And then I signed up for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month - http://www.nanowrimo.org/). For those of you not familiar with NaNoWriMo, it’s a free online community of writers who commit to writing 50,000 words in the month of November. Each member has a personal web page, and every day, you enter the number of words you’ve written, and your “buddies” check in with you, encourage you, and vice versa. I signed up to do NaNoWriMo with a couple of friends, but by the end of Week One I was the only one still plodding forward, because it is INTENSE.
For that month, I would work at my day job (I research documentaries) from 8 – 5PM without a break, and then I would write from 5PM until midnight. No socializing, no breaks. I loved it. I felt like I was on crack every day. I don’t think anything other than recording an album has ever made me feel so high and so strong and so authentic. The characters just busted off the page – I didn’t direct them, or force them to do anything, but they leapt out of my head before I even knew what they were going to do. I know this will sound eye-rollingly cheesy, but Ruby and Den and Ben became my friends. I actually cared what happened to them, and when their lives were difficult, I cried with them. I believed that the world I created for them might actually exist. Writing “Shadow Swans” was both cathartic and magical, because my life ceased to exist for that month, and there is something really beautiful about stepping outside of your own life entirely. It was like a vacation from Me.
Anyway, by the end of November, my head had nearly exploded, but I had written 50,000 words! Of course, 50,000 words is not a full manuscript – that’s only about 200 pages.
So, the next November, I geared up for another head-blasting month, wrote 30,000 more words, and edited the full 80,000-word draft.
Woohoooo(ish)! It was done, but it was painfully mediocre. I sent it to a few agents, got some really fantastic constructive feedback, realized that my main characters were one-dimensional, and Ruby was far too morose and potty-mouthed, and the story wasn’t well-constructed. [Sad face] Then I abandoned the manuscript for a couple of years, until I broke my wrist in early 2011. Unable to rock climb, or play music, or do much of anything, I plunged my head into editing my manuscript (one-handed). And I loved the editing process as much as I had loved the writing process. After another intense month of editing, I had created a manuscript that I was actually happy to share with other peeps.
So now, as you already know, I’m slogging through the world of self-publishing, and although the book industry is giving me a permanent emotional migraine, I absolutely loved every single second of the writing process. Novel Number Two is in the works, and writing starts NEXT WEEK! DOUBLE YAY.
Thanks for reading mah blog people. I heart all of you, with all my teency little heart.
First, the genesis of the idea: A few years ago, I saw a fantastic documentary called “Dark Days” (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0235327/), a documentary by Mark Singer that profiles an entire population of people living inside New York’s subway tunnels. These outsiders are called “Mole People,” and they live on the fringes of society, begging and scraping together bit jobs just to get by. At the same time, they are able to construct actual HOUSES in the tunnels, with electricity, beds, televisions, lamps, carpets… Like the “Shadow Swans” protagonist Ruby, I was transfixed by the notion of people living apart from society, but still with some of the “comforts” of modern life (not that the Mole People’s lives are at all comfortable).
After seeing “Dark Days,” I bought the book “Mole People” (http://www.amazon.com/Mole-People-Lif...) by Jennifer Toth. Toth spent a year interviewing people who lived in the tunnels. She was in constant danger, and was nearly killed at least once, but she met some extraordinary, complex, and endearing people (along with some entirely un-endearing people). She discovered that some of the Mole People align into loose communities, giving distinct roles (nurse, teacher, protector) to individuals based upon their skills.
One day, I suddenly decided that I would write a novel about the Mole People. And when I say suddenly, I do mean suddenly. Like, one day I had never thought of writing a novel, and the next I was totally obsessed with the idea. Immediately upon deciding to write a novel, I got in the shower (where I do some of my best thinking), and by the end of the shower, I had written a general story outline in my head. In the end, “Shadow Swans” actually adhered to that shower outline.
Once I knew what the general story would be, I spent a week or two writing a detailed story outline, as well as further researching the Mole People (a term that the subway population does not use, which is why it doesn’t appear in my book), and preparing to put pen to paper.
And then I signed up for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month - http://www.nanowrimo.org/). For those of you not familiar with NaNoWriMo, it’s a free online community of writers who commit to writing 50,000 words in the month of November. Each member has a personal web page, and every day, you enter the number of words you’ve written, and your “buddies” check in with you, encourage you, and vice versa. I signed up to do NaNoWriMo with a couple of friends, but by the end of Week One I was the only one still plodding forward, because it is INTENSE.
For that month, I would work at my day job (I research documentaries) from 8 – 5PM without a break, and then I would write from 5PM until midnight. No socializing, no breaks. I loved it. I felt like I was on crack every day. I don’t think anything other than recording an album has ever made me feel so high and so strong and so authentic. The characters just busted off the page – I didn’t direct them, or force them to do anything, but they leapt out of my head before I even knew what they were going to do. I know this will sound eye-rollingly cheesy, but Ruby and Den and Ben became my friends. I actually cared what happened to them, and when their lives were difficult, I cried with them. I believed that the world I created for them might actually exist. Writing “Shadow Swans” was both cathartic and magical, because my life ceased to exist for that month, and there is something really beautiful about stepping outside of your own life entirely. It was like a vacation from Me.
Anyway, by the end of November, my head had nearly exploded, but I had written 50,000 words! Of course, 50,000 words is not a full manuscript – that’s only about 200 pages.
So, the next November, I geared up for another head-blasting month, wrote 30,000 more words, and edited the full 80,000-word draft.
Woohoooo(ish)! It was done, but it was painfully mediocre. I sent it to a few agents, got some really fantastic constructive feedback, realized that my main characters were one-dimensional, and Ruby was far too morose and potty-mouthed, and the story wasn’t well-constructed. [Sad face] Then I abandoned the manuscript for a couple of years, until I broke my wrist in early 2011. Unable to rock climb, or play music, or do much of anything, I plunged my head into editing my manuscript (one-handed). And I loved the editing process as much as I had loved the writing process. After another intense month of editing, I had created a manuscript that I was actually happy to share with other peeps.
So now, as you already know, I’m slogging through the world of self-publishing, and although the book industry is giving me a permanent emotional migraine, I absolutely loved every single second of the writing process. Novel Number Two is in the works, and writing starts NEXT WEEK! DOUBLE YAY.
Thanks for reading mah blog people. I heart all of you, with all my teency little heart.
Doin’ my own NoWriMo
Ok! Novel Number Two is currently just a little zygote and it needs to be born, so I’m going to do my own NoWriMo from Feb 16 – March 16! Join me yay!
NoWriMo – qu’est-ce que c’est? The famous awesome national version (during which I wrote “Shadow Swans”), NaNoWriMo (www.nanowrimo.org) is an online community of writers that comes together every November, and they all commit to writing 50,000 words in a single month. Every day, each writer enters into his/her profile the number of words written, and they check in with each other to make sure they’re on track. It’s fantastically motivating and inspiring. It’s also f’ing HARD if you have a day job (which I do), because that means you have to basically spend every waking minute either writing or bringing home the bacon. But it’s totally possible.
But I wans’t able to do this in November 2011, so this year, I’m gonna do my crazy intense inspiring writing month from Feb 16 – March 16 (just because that’s when I can do it). I would LOVE to have partners in this endeavor, so please email me or reply here if you want to do it too.
What it boils down to is that I (or we) will have to write about 1,700 words per day. This blog only has about 300 words in it, so it’s a pretty hefty undertaking. But once I (we) get to 50,000 words, I (we) will have over half of a novel draft written! (In case you’re not familiar with novel lengths, I can tell you that Shadow Swans was about 80,000 words and 280 pages. That’s on the shorter side for a novel, but it’s long enough to be a novel rather than a novella)
So, now I just have to refine the story outline for my new story, and maybe I’ll share some deets from that soon if you’re interested. My main issue now is that I have so MANY novel ideas, but I obvie can’t do them all at once, so I’m settling on one, and I think it’ll be a killer adventure. Me so excited.
I heart you!
NoWriMo – qu’est-ce que c’est? The famous awesome national version (during which I wrote “Shadow Swans”), NaNoWriMo (www.nanowrimo.org) is an online community of writers that comes together every November, and they all commit to writing 50,000 words in a single month. Every day, each writer enters into his/her profile the number of words written, and they check in with each other to make sure they’re on track. It’s fantastically motivating and inspiring. It’s also f’ing HARD if you have a day job (which I do), because that means you have to basically spend every waking minute either writing or bringing home the bacon. But it’s totally possible.
But I wans’t able to do this in November 2011, so this year, I’m gonna do my crazy intense inspiring writing month from Feb 16 – March 16 (just because that’s when I can do it). I would LOVE to have partners in this endeavor, so please email me or reply here if you want to do it too.
What it boils down to is that I (or we) will have to write about 1,700 words per day. This blog only has about 300 words in it, so it’s a pretty hefty undertaking. But once I (we) get to 50,000 words, I (we) will have over half of a novel draft written! (In case you’re not familiar with novel lengths, I can tell you that Shadow Swans was about 80,000 words and 280 pages. That’s on the shorter side for a novel, but it’s long enough to be a novel rather than a novella)
So, now I just have to refine the story outline for my new story, and maybe I’ll share some deets from that soon if you’re interested. My main issue now is that I have so MANY novel ideas, but I obvie can’t do them all at once, so I’m settling on one, and I think it’ll be a killer adventure. Me so excited.
I heart you!
Novel Zygote Formed; Writing Begins!
Ok, finally, I begin! My own personal NoWriMo starts tomorrow, Feb 27 – gonna try to push it all the way through March. Weehoooooo yay GAH terrifying! I don’t want to reveal too much about the novel just yet, but I can tell you that it has to do with a neo-Mayan cult, a kidnapping, and some very important seabirds. And it’ll take place in Utila (Honduras), Chicago, and an off-the-map island.
My goal is to write 1500 words a day, which means that just about every minute I’m not working at my actual paying job, I’ll have to be writing. Help me help me I need writing buddies! Dana – are you still in? ☺
I’ve got an outline written for the novel, and the main characters are more or less developed. Personally, I like to let the characters develop fully during the writing process, so I don’t always know exactly how they’ll turn out. I’ve written a basic history for each of them - where they come from, what their motivations are, and how they might relate to each other. But one of my favorite favorite favorite things about writing is when my characters do and say things that surprise me; when they reveal something about themselves of which I wasn’t previously aware. Man, that’s cool. When a character comes alive all by herself, I feel like I’m wrapped up in some wizard’s spell, like my story is being directed by a mind other than my own, a mind from another dimension, spinning its tale inside through my hypnotized fingers. I looooove that!
I’ve done a decent bit of preliminary research about the ancient and modern Maya, and I’ll probably do some more along the way. I’m curious if others of you who are writers do ALL your research beforehand, or do you do it as needed, while you’re writing? For “Shadow Swans,” I did most of it beforehand and then added to it as I went along, and that seemed to work well. This novel will require more research than “Shadow Swans” and I want to make sure I get it right, but I also don’t want to get so bogged down in research that I can’t start writing… Thoughts?
I’ll post periodic updates about the writing process and obstacles that I encounter along the way. Please float me some inspiration! I will catch it!
My goal is to write 1500 words a day, which means that just about every minute I’m not working at my actual paying job, I’ll have to be writing. Help me help me I need writing buddies! Dana – are you still in? ☺
I’ve got an outline written for the novel, and the main characters are more or less developed. Personally, I like to let the characters develop fully during the writing process, so I don’t always know exactly how they’ll turn out. I’ve written a basic history for each of them - where they come from, what their motivations are, and how they might relate to each other. But one of my favorite favorite favorite things about writing is when my characters do and say things that surprise me; when they reveal something about themselves of which I wasn’t previously aware. Man, that’s cool. When a character comes alive all by herself, I feel like I’m wrapped up in some wizard’s spell, like my story is being directed by a mind other than my own, a mind from another dimension, spinning its tale inside through my hypnotized fingers. I looooove that!
I’ve done a decent bit of preliminary research about the ancient and modern Maya, and I’ll probably do some more along the way. I’m curious if others of you who are writers do ALL your research beforehand, or do you do it as needed, while you’re writing? For “Shadow Swans,” I did most of it beforehand and then added to it as I went along, and that seemed to work well. This novel will require more research than “Shadow Swans” and I want to make sure I get it right, but I also don’t want to get so bogged down in research that I can’t start writing… Thoughts?
I’ll post periodic updates about the writing process and obstacles that I encounter along the way. Please float me some inspiration! I will catch it!
First Week of Novel Writing Month = Not-Yet-Exploded Head, Whew
Ouuuuch mah li’l head is spinning. I am seeeerious delirious after a week of intense work, both at my actual bringin-home-bacon job (and of course this past week has been the busiest so far this year, whatthafaaaa), and at my fake novel-writing job. I’m not quite where I wanted to be one week into my Novel Writing Month, because on Monday of last week I had to put in about 14 hours for the bacon job, and then I had no brainpower left over for the fake job. So I got a day behind. But I’ve officially written 9,000 words of the new story, which is about 10% of a novel. And if I can keep this up I should be on track for 50,000 words by the end of March, provided my head doesn’t actually explode into a zillion gooey bloody bits all over my MacBook Pro.
Then, of course, I’ll have to find another month to torture myself working and writing the second half of the novel, and then ANOTHER month to torture myself working and editing the novel, so I really have several marathons left to run (*anxiety wells in stomach*) but whateva. 1,500 words per day for one month, that’s what I’m focused on for now.
In general, I’ve found that some days I can knock out my 1,500 WPD in 2 hours, and sometimes I feel like I’m walking through knee-deep half-dry cement, and it takes me more like 4 hours.
I have no idea if this draft will be worth more than a sack of flour, but it’ll at least be a pretty solid start! I’m becoming attached to my characters, which I think is a good sign, no? One of my characters, who I love love love, has Asperger’s, and I want to find someone out there with Asperger’s who can eventually read my draft and tell me if any of my characterizations are off, or too stereotyped, or offensive in any way – let me know if you or someone you know might be interested! I’d give you a big fat “thank you” in the book’s acknowledgements.
Another of my characters is an underdog, thrown into an impossible situation with no previously-honed coping skills for such a situation. I love me an underdog. Especially an underdog determined to rise above.
The story so far is exciting if maybe a bit dark. I’ve discovered that what inspires me most in any story is the magic and beauty that can arise from difficulty. Hopefully that magic and beauty will shine through in the story so it won’t get mired in the difficulty.
Ok, now I need to go take a nap. Or watch an episode of HOMELAND, which OMG I CAN’T…STOP…WATCHING…AND IT REALLY IS NOT HELPING WITH THIS CRAZY SCHEDULE PLEASE LET IT END IS BRODY A BASTARD OR NOT I HAVE NO IDEA GAHHHHH MUSSSTT FINNND OUTTTTTTT.
Then, of course, I’ll have to find another month to torture myself working and writing the second half of the novel, and then ANOTHER month to torture myself working and editing the novel, so I really have several marathons left to run (*anxiety wells in stomach*) but whateva. 1,500 words per day for one month, that’s what I’m focused on for now.
In general, I’ve found that some days I can knock out my 1,500 WPD in 2 hours, and sometimes I feel like I’m walking through knee-deep half-dry cement, and it takes me more like 4 hours.
I have no idea if this draft will be worth more than a sack of flour, but it’ll at least be a pretty solid start! I’m becoming attached to my characters, which I think is a good sign, no? One of my characters, who I love love love, has Asperger’s, and I want to find someone out there with Asperger’s who can eventually read my draft and tell me if any of my characterizations are off, or too stereotyped, or offensive in any way – let me know if you or someone you know might be interested! I’d give you a big fat “thank you” in the book’s acknowledgements.
Another of my characters is an underdog, thrown into an impossible situation with no previously-honed coping skills for such a situation. I love me an underdog. Especially an underdog determined to rise above.
The story so far is exciting if maybe a bit dark. I’ve discovered that what inspires me most in any story is the magic and beauty that can arise from difficulty. Hopefully that magic and beauty will shine through in the story so it won’t get mired in the difficulty.
Ok, now I need to go take a nap. Or watch an episode of HOMELAND, which OMG I CAN’T…STOP…WATCHING…AND IT REALLY IS NOT HELPING WITH THIS CRAZY SCHEDULE PLEASE LET IT END IS BRODY A BASTARD OR NOT I HAVE NO IDEA GAHHHHH MUSSSTT FINNND OUTTTTTTT.
50,000 words DONE, head ‘sploded
Ohman I’ve finally succeeded in writing my 50,000 words, which is about 200 pages, but my head is truly about to ‘splode. In many ways I’m monumentally pleased about all this, but what I have now learned (actually I learned this during my previous NaNoWriMo experience, but I’d forgotten it) is that if you write 50,000 words in a month (well ok it was a month and a week, but whatevs), those will NOT be quality words. They will be hasty, and they will lack elegance, and they will not be words that you want anyone to read as-is. But I figure, at least I’ve put the plot down on paper, and I can go back later to polish the language so that it’s delightful to the mind’s ear.
The good news is that I’m supa-happy with the new novel’s plot. It’s complicated and bizarre and fast-paced. It’s all about worldwide droughts, ritual human sacrifice and scientifically tagged seabirds that travel all across Central and South America. And it keeps changing and evolving way beyond what I had originally intended. Originally I was going to write the whole thing in first person past tense from the perspective of one protagonist, but it turns out I will have three completely distinct protagonists, and each will tell one big chunk of the story.
Before I continue with the book-writing (I think the novel will be a total of about 100,000 words), my next step is to edit the first 50 pages of the story so that it’s presentable to agents/editors. Later this month I’m going to my first Writers’ Conference and I need to have somethin’ new to present to any agents/editors I meet. Really, I shouldn’t be going to a Writers’ Conference until my new novel is FINISHED, because from what I understand, agents/editors aren’t much interested in unfinished works. But I figure I can give them a copy of Shadow Swans and a copy of the first 50 pages of my new novel, and then hopefully I can convince them that I have a killer “platform” (I just learned what this word means, and I’ll write about it in my next blog post) and we can all make gazillions of dollars from my future endeavors (of course, gazillions of dollars in the publishing industry is more like a couple thousand dollars, but I’m going to push for gazillions).
So this means that I need to learn how to prepare a “pitch,” and polish my “platform.” I’ll work on that and get back to you about what the F that means. Meanwhile, have a beautiful inspired riches-filled week. Melovesyou. ☺
BTW, for anyone who missed it, my last 3 blog posts contained the first 5 chapters of Shadow Swans. Here are the links:
Chapter 1: http://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_...
Chapters 2 and 3: http://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_...
Chapters 4 and 5: http://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_...
Amazon link for Shadow Swans: http://www.amazon.com/Shadow-Swans-eb...
The good news is that I’m supa-happy with the new novel’s plot. It’s complicated and bizarre and fast-paced. It’s all about worldwide droughts, ritual human sacrifice and scientifically tagged seabirds that travel all across Central and South America. And it keeps changing and evolving way beyond what I had originally intended. Originally I was going to write the whole thing in first person past tense from the perspective of one protagonist, but it turns out I will have three completely distinct protagonists, and each will tell one big chunk of the story.
Before I continue with the book-writing (I think the novel will be a total of about 100,000 words), my next step is to edit the first 50 pages of the story so that it’s presentable to agents/editors. Later this month I’m going to my first Writers’ Conference and I need to have somethin’ new to present to any agents/editors I meet. Really, I shouldn’t be going to a Writers’ Conference until my new novel is FINISHED, because from what I understand, agents/editors aren’t much interested in unfinished works. But I figure I can give them a copy of Shadow Swans and a copy of the first 50 pages of my new novel, and then hopefully I can convince them that I have a killer “platform” (I just learned what this word means, and I’ll write about it in my next blog post) and we can all make gazillions of dollars from my future endeavors (of course, gazillions of dollars in the publishing industry is more like a couple thousand dollars, but I’m going to push for gazillions).
So this means that I need to learn how to prepare a “pitch,” and polish my “platform.” I’ll work on that and get back to you about what the F that means. Meanwhile, have a beautiful inspired riches-filled week. Melovesyou. ☺
BTW, for anyone who missed it, my last 3 blog posts contained the first 5 chapters of Shadow Swans. Here are the links:
Chapter 1: http://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_...
Chapters 2 and 3: http://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_...
Chapters 4 and 5: http://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_...
Amazon link for Shadow Swans: http://www.amazon.com/Shadow-Swans-eb...
Self-Publishing: A Mean Old Dog (who loves to cuddle) (and might just make you rich)
Self-publishing allows an author ultimate independence and total control. It also allows ultimate invisibility to mainstream media, and a total lack of support from traditional publishing resources. I
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