Please Don’t Feed the Writer

Fellow writers, it’s that time of year again. Time to commit to be committed and sign up for NaNoWriMo 2007. for those who don’t know what I’m talking about. November is National novel Writing Month, or NanNoWriMo. a wildly popular yearly event that urges writers to attempt the incredible, writing 50,000 words in 30 days.

The theory behind NaNo is simple… Just write it. don’t stop, analyze, or worry where the story takes you. Just dive in and crank out 1,667 words per day for 30 days. The goal is to increase the speed at which you write, and perhaps to spawn one or more story ideas along the way.

Sound impossible? It did to me, too. Last year I entered and only made about 12,000 before life, the universe and everything else got in the way. By the time the month was over I would have sworn it was a completely impossible task.

I’ve since found facts that prove it isn’t.

You see, as the owner of 5 different blogs, I write every day on one or another, if not all of them. My posts average about 550 words per blog per day, which totals to something like 2,750 words per day. There are days when these numbers are considerably less, of course, but then there are days where they are considerably higher than 500 words. (The cooking blog averages about 1,000 per post, since recipes tend to require a few more words to get things right.) So it seems that it is in fact quite possible to write 50,000 words in one month. I’ve been doing it myself since January 2007, and I see no reason to stop now.

Will I be a part of NaNo this year? Unfortunately, no. This year I’m participating in NaBloPoMo, a 30 day event aimed at blogging once a day, every day for one month. (You may find me and friend me here, if you’d like!) That to me would be quite an accomplishment, especially for a cooking blog, which is the blog I’m participating with.

What’s the challenge there? you say? Let me tell you. While it’s true that everyone has to eat every day, it’s also true that humans are creatures of habit, and we tend to eat what we like, which means there’s nothing new to blog about if I’ve made another batch of tomato basil soup. It’s still gonna be the same soup, unless I get in and get creative, and let me tell ya, sometimes I just want the same thing I had last week, with no changes!

So, if you’re a glutton for punishment and you think you can tell your story from start to finish in 30 days, hop on over to NaNoWriMo.org, sign up, and crank out that great American Novel you’ve had simmering on the back burner of your mind for the past few years. Who knows, you may just surprise yourself, get the story written and become the talk of your family, friends and the New York Times best seller’s list!

What!?! It could happen! I have complete faith in you!

Oh, and for those of you who think I’ve been blowing smoke up certain orifices that you most likely possess, the final word count for this post, including this line, is 576 words.

If I can do it, so can you! Go on.! Join in the madness. If it doesn’t kill you, it only makes you stronger!

As an editor and copywriter, I have personal pet peeves.  Words that drive me crazy, especially if used improperly.  Yes, I know I’m not perfect, but no one is.  Think about the irritating girl in class who used to snap her gum all the time or the “I’m not touching you” jibe your irritating little brother used to throw your way. 

What works for some does not work for me.  I can ignore and/or easily correct some things: a lot being spelled as one word, anyways as a word (it’s anyway, if you’re interested), or informal IM conversations that have l33t strewn throughout (LOL for example).  What really burns my bacon or chaps my hide is the misuse of Your, You’re, It’s, and its.  So lets discuss:

Your refers to something belonging to you.  Your car needs an oil change.  You left your purse in my car.  Your dog is quite the yipper.   

You’re refers to the contraction: you are.  You’re going crazy!  You’re very sure? 

If the word you’re can be subsitituted with “you are”, then it needs the apostrophe. 

It’s  refers to the contractions: it is and it has.  It is NOT used as a possessive spelling.  It’s raining outside.  It’s going to be a long day.  It’s been a long time. 

If the word it’s can be subsitituted with “it is” or “it has”, then it needs the apostrophe. 

Its refers to the possessive use of it.  The dog lost its will to live.  The sun turned its face from the world. 

Soapbox rant over. 

We’ve all heard that we only have the first three chapters to capture an editor’s attention. While that’s all well and good for a novel, it’s not going to get you anywhere with a short story.

You’re going to have to catch the reader with the first line.

I feel that this applies to any work of fiction, but the short story or novella relies on this principle even more heavily than a full length novel. With a short piece, your reader expects to be immersed in the tale quickly, which stands to reason, since the story is going to end pretty quickly.

Honestly, I sit around just thinking up first lines for stories. My wife is a writer as well, and her notebooks are full of lines I’ve blurted out while watching T.V. or working on another writing assignment. She’s using at least three of them as a basis for stories of her own right now, and has kindly asked me to sop distracting her until she’s finished something.

Say you’ve decided to write a story about an outbreak of zombies in a small Georgia town. There are a lot of ways to open a tale like this, depending on the tone you’d like to set. Let’s assume that we’re going to go with something a bit campy, since the zombie genre is a bit flooded, and hey, what’s more fun than poking fun at zombies, they’re not exactly the brightest bulbs.

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Music is, and has always been, interpreted individually. It is not necessary to follow someone else’s recommendation as to the music that fits the mood. It is, in fact a pointless endeavor. The way I view a mood is not dictated by the advice of someone else. It held true of our musical tastes vs. our parents tastes, and it holds true of our tastes vs. our peers. We just all feel the music differently.
I could blithely sit here in my megalomania and suggest that the best way for you to write a piece set in Barcelona that you should take the time to go and buy several CD’s by Andres Segovia or get a copy of Vinnie Moore’s “Never been to Barcelona.”

While I heartily recommend both pieces of music, the question I have to ask is this:
Are they going to help you write what you want to write?

The answer, most likely, is no.
So I present to you, gentle reader, the advice that I would use myself. Perhaps it isn’t rocket science and I doubt it will change the way you write. It is, however, the best way I know to set a mood with music.

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