Camp NaNoWrimo 2021: 31 Prompts for 31 Days

 

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Who's up for Camp NaNoWriMo? Me, for one! I can't believe I'm saying this, but come July I'm going for it. I am so ready for a new writing project, especially because my WIP novel, Ghazal, will be officially, completely, finally FINISHED and fully edited on July 4th. Yep. Fireworks, watermelon, silly hats--I want it all because the journey (at least until I begin submission and publication) is over. So where better to celebrate than camp?

The nice thing about Camp NaNoWriMo is you can set your own goals: 50K words for the month, 100K, 30 pages, whatever feels right. This year I am foregoing word and/or page quotas and simply choosing to write, by hand, for 30-60 minutes a day. Nice and simple and very relaxing.

To make the experience extra easy and fun, I've created my own list of prompts that I'm happy to share with you. Feel free to use any or all of them, in any order, or even shake them up with your own ideas and additions. Here we go:

Camp NaNoWriMo 2021 Writing Prompts

1. My favorite prompt of all time is from Natalie Goldberg, so it's the perfect place to start: Freewrite from the words "I remember" using your main character's point of view.

2. Develop a back story for your primary antagonist or villain that has made him/her who they are today.

3. Write a scene that includes the arrival of a puzzling gift from an unknown source.

4. Write about your characters' relationships to food.

5. Create fictional homes and neighborhoods for your characters. Include maps for extra credit.

6. Write about something your main character avoids doing and why.

7. Write about your characters' worst fears. Make note of how these could appear in a big way at the end of your story.

8. Write about a serious misunderstanding your main character has with a family member.

9. Your main character has to travel somewhere they don't want to go to. Choose a destination and write a scene where they are a fish out of water.

10. Write about your main character's favorite childhood memory and why it's important to your story.

11. Write about your main character's worst holiday experience. Now do the same for your antagonist.

12. Put your character in a natural setting, a park, a nature reserve, a lonely forest. Why are they there? What are they doing? How could this develop your plot?

13. Research an unusual profession and then find a way to include it in your story.

14. Go somewhere and observe a stranger. Create a role for this person in your story.

15. Write a scene where your characters who have been friendly with each other are now beyond furious.

16. Find a painting you love and write about why your main character loves it too. Turn it into a metaphor that can be used in your story.

17. Write about a terrible encounter your main character has with an animal.

18. Write about your main character or antagonist suddenly encountering a family member they didn't know they had.

19. What is the emotion your main character is terrified of expressing? Write a scene where they have to express it or lose something or someone important to them.

20. Make a word pool. Cut out 30 interesting words and headlines from magazines. See if you can use any as prompts for today as well as any future writing sessions.

21. Write a scene where your main character suddenly falls ill. What's wrong with them? How could this affect your story?

22. Write a letter from your main character to someone they miss being with.

23. Write about a memory your main character has never shared. Why is it so painful or private?

24. Write a scene with your main character set in a moving car or truck. Where are they going and why? Now do the same for your antagonist.

25. Create an imaginary still life from objects in your main character's house. Write about each object and the memory associated with it.

26. Write about your antagonist visiting a cemetery. Who have they gone to see and why?

27. Write a scene that involves your antagonist spying on your main character. What do they see, hear, do?

28. Write about a special event your main character doesn't want to attend. Why don't they want to be there? Send them anyway.

29. Write about your antagonist's happiest day.

30. Write the full ending to your story, even if you have 300 pages left to go.

31. Cut out five magazine images (people, places, things) and see where they could fit into scenes you have already written to give added depth, description, and value.

Tip of the Day: Most of these prompts are springboards to dig into characters' backgrounds, motivations, strengths and weaknesses. My plan for when I'm finished is to take what I discover and then create an outline for a full-fledged plot. That way, come November 2021, I'll be thoroughly prepared for, you guessed it: NaNoWriMo 50K! See you in the craft room.

#AtoZChallenge, E is for Endings

Endings come in all shapes and sizes: from "happily ever after," to "Gosh, am I ever glad that's over." Your art journal is the perfect place to explore, record, and re-imagine a wide variety of endings in your life.

Some of the questions and topics surrounding the theme of "endings" can include:

• Taking a good, long look at endings you've never quite been able to accept: the sudden and unexpected end of a job or relationship; moving from a much-loved home or city; losing a loved one.
• Endings that need closure so you can move on to enjoy and more fully appreciate your current situation.
• Areas in your life that need to end in order to keep your health and sanity, for instance a toxic friendship; a dead-end, low-paying job; an organization that requires far too much of your time with little return or appreciation.

On a lighter note, endings, can also be something to celebrate, especially when the end of one chapter opens the door to a new and brighter future. For instance:

• Graduations.
• Retirement.
• Getting out of a thankless situation.
• Selling a home or business.
• Leaving a job to become self-employed.
• Significant birthdays.
• Moving.

All of these experiences make good fodder for collage, artwork, poetry; creative work that goes a long way toward accepting and even thanking the endings in our lives.

Tip of the Day: If the idea of working with real-life endings sounds too painful right now, or you're just not ready to go there, try this: Consider all the fictional endings you've either enjoyed,or have been disappointed in. What are your favorite book endings? What movies left you saying, "Huh? What just happened there?" How would you change them to create a more satisfying conclusion? And don't forget about all those non-conclusive fairy tale endings. What if Snow White and Cinderella decide they don't want to marry princes after all, or Little Red Riding Hood is really the wolf's accomplice and it's all just a big set-up? Have fun!

Revision, Revision, Revision

I am in the middle of moving. I am in the middle of renovating the house I am moving to. I am also in the middle of a major manuscript revision. It feels like I've been in the middle of all these projects for a long, long time, and I can't wait for them to be over, as in Happily-Ever-After over.

One thing I can be assured of, though, is that if I stay with the work, chipping away on a consistent basis I will very soon be a) able to move into a nice house, and b) have a submission-ready manuscript to put in the mail. Because as disgusting as tearing out old carpet is, or how painful cutting pages and pages of first draft writing can be: once it's gone, only the new and better can fill it's place. But I have to do the work first. 

Right now, I'm lucky in that my husband is handling the majority of the heavy renovation work. My part is mainly to drive to Lowe's and try not to complain/worry too much. In many ways my manuscript is a life-saver because it gives me something to concentrate on when I'd rather be screaming. And the best way I can sanely write and revise is to:

• Avoid editing anything while writing a first draft--including the first draft of any new and/or revised section or scene. Just keep writing until you reach the last page or paragraph. (For some extra help with that last page, check out  my earlier post on writing your endings first.)
• Once you're ready to read through your initial or discovery draft, try to read without a pen or pencil in hand. Be a spectator rather than an editor.
• The second read-through is the time to make notes. Aim for order: chapter-by-chapter, line-by-line. Keep everything together in a special manuscript binder, preferably one with dividers.
• Once you've finished writing your editorial notes, switch to right-brain mode and journal out your feelings and overall impressions. What did you like best about your manuscript? What do you feel is missing? Do you need to write any new scenes? Did any parts of the story bore you to the point you didn't want to read them? (Extra tip: be ruthless--cut out anything you don't enjoy. Readers won't like those sections either.) Make a comprehensive to-do list for your next draft.
• Examine the chapter arrangement. Are the chapters in the right order to tell the story most effectively? What about the chapter lengths? Are some chapters too long, while others are too short? While it's not essential to make your chapters always the same length, you also don't want to throw your reader off balance with too much variation unless it's intentional.
• Look at POV (point-of-view) use. Have you gone for single or multiple POVs? Have you kept them consistent? If not, make your changes now.
• Read the manuscript aloud whenever possible. Reading to your critique group can be helpful.
• Create a style sheet to record important story details, e.g., correct spellings of characters' names, their dates and places of birth, the floor plans of their houses, a map of their city streets. I like to make a list of their wardrobes and other belongings--items in the story that will appear more than once. For instance, if I've said my heroine lives in a one-story house, I don't want her to ever go upstairs unless she's visiting someone who lives in a multi-level dwelling; or have her receive a compliment for her lovely green dress after I've dressed her in shorts and a T-shirt.
• Use your computer's "search and replace" function to weed out repetitions and buzz words. For instance, how many times have you used the words "suddenly," "actually," or "really," or had your main character bite his lip, run his hand over his hair, or drink a cup of coffee? Or used a word like "enthrall" too many times?
• Once a draft is finished, put it away for a while and work on something new. Two to four weeks between drafts is usually long enough to let a manuscript "rest." Follow the guidelines above and you may only have to rest two or three times before you're ready to submit your work to a publisher.

Tip of the Day: More than anything, revision is a process to help your words shine on the page (or e-reader device). Your goal is to make the manuscript flow--not to strangle the life out of it. Remember to take your time and stay true to your original vision--whether it's your screenplay or your new backyard--make it the one that pleases you, not someone else, the most.

Happily Ever After--Write Your Ending First

Ready for NaNoWriMo? Here's a tip to make the next month easy on your time, planning, and imagination: Write your ending first.

Writing the end of my novels and short stories before I write my first page is a trick I've been using for years, and I love it. It's especially helpful for someone like me because I've never really been either a total pantster (someone who freewrites her way through a manuscript as opposed to persnickety planning), or an obsessive outliner. I've always preferred a combination of the two. 

For instance, I like to know who my characters are and what makes them tick in advance of writing a full manuscript, but to get there I still have to freewrite what those traits and motivations are going to be. If I have a pre-written ending that tells me where my characters will be on the last page, complete with dialogue and action, I'll know exactly what they need to do, be, and feel to reach that point. 

Writing my last three to  five pages first has saved me a lot of worry. Here's why:

1.  Writing your ending first gives you a life raft to swim toward. You will always know where you're supposed to go, giving your scenes a sense of forward movement.

2.  When somebody (like an editor) asks what your WIP is about, you will instinctively know the answer based on the tone and mood of your ending.

3.  Many writers (like me) love to write back story, but so often we're told "no back story allowed!" I think this is because so often back story is inserted into the wrong places where it slows the plot down. However, if you have to write your story backwards to explain how you reached your ending, you get to write all the "back story" you can think of--and it's always in the right place because it IS your story!

4.  Writing "The End" first means that technically at least, your manuscript is finished; a nifty psychological ploy to keep you from feeling overwhelmed on the blah-days when it seems your book is going nowhere fast.

5.  Which creates confidence--you know in advance that your story has a strong and satisfying conclusion. No more unfinished manuscripts piling up in your filing cabinet, no more excuses for not sending out those query letters!

Tip of the Day: Even if you have no intention of participating in National Novel Writing Month this year, take some time on Friday November 1 to sit down and write the last five pages of either a new work, or something you've already started. The first time I tried this exercise was with a novella I was playing around with just for fun. What I discovered from writing that final scene before I'd even written Chapter Two completely turned the book around from being a superficial light comedy to a serious story about aging and accepting mistakes with grace. Wow--who'd of thunk it? Happy Nanowrimo-ing!

Bride and Prejudice

I don't usually write movie reviews--in fact, I don't think I've ever written a single one, but I couldn't resist blogging about how much I enjoyed watching "Bride and Prejudice" two weekends back.

Made in 2004 and directed by Gurinder Chadhu of "Bend it Like Beckham" fame, the movie was one I've wanted to see for some time but never seemed to get around to it. Recently, however, I've been on a bit of a Jane Austen tangent, so when I was at the library the other day and saw the film on the DVD shelf, I knew it was the right time for a little fairy tale fantasy.

It turned out to be a serendipitous choice--I absolutely LOVED this movie. For those of you who haven't seen it, it's a modern-day version of Pride and Prejudice set in rural India. Aishwarya Rai (aka "the most beautiful woman in the world") and Martin Henderson play the parts of Lalita Bakshi and Will Darcy, or as we might recognize them from the original Austen text: Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy.

Moving the story up a few centuries and taking it from the English countryside to Amritsar was an incredibly clever interpretation of a much beloved classic. The Bakshi family was the perfect remake of the Bennets; Will and Lalita were just as conflict-ridden as their original counterparts; and the chemistry between all the characters--including Jaya (Jane) and Mr. Balraj (Bingley) was almost better than the book!

I've always been a big fan of Bollywood: lots of bling, embroidered silk veils and saris, singing and dancing for no reason whatsoever, dreamy couples who seem to have all the money and time they need to fly around the world to gaze wistfully at sunsets and each other, and of course the 3-hankie happily-ever-after ending. Bollywood is the ultimate escapist, love-conquers-all movie moment. "Bride and Prejudice" was no exception.

Which got me thinking about what makes a great romance book or movie. And this is what I've come up with: two strong, intelligent characters overcome their very real differences so they can learn to work together. Yep, it's all about work. Kissing is the easy part. Getting to the altar takes courage. And a lot of singing and dancing.

I've always thought Pride and Prejudice is essentially a story about marriage. The relationship between the parents--the Bennets in Pride, and the Bakshis in Bride--truly intrigues me. Mismatched on the surface but made for each other; their bond is what has made Jaya and Lalita the heroines they are. My favorite line from "Bride and Prejudice" is when a distraught Mrs. Bakshi is scolding her daughters on being so concerned about marrying for love. She turns and points to a sheepish-looking Mr. Bakshi. "Where was love in the beginning?" she chides. Where indeed? And yet here she is, with four pretty girls, a home of her own, and a husband who obviously cares for her. Awww. As the girls sing after dinner with the endearingly awful Mr. Kholi: "No Life Without Wife!"

Tip of the Day: Watch this movie! Afterward you might like to think about your other favorite romantic films or books. What makes for good chemistry between the characters? Anything you want to change in your own writing? And now it's time for some more singing:                                                                   





Stay Creative Every Day Tip #9: Finish What You Start

Big news: I'm moving! I'll still be in Albuquerque, but I'm trading home ownership for apartment living with more time for writing and art, not to mention a swimming pool. It's a major change, for sure, and as much as I will be glad to leave yardwork behind, the one thing I know I'm going to miss is my little at-home studio. However, in its place I'm getting industrial space with lots of room to go wild with clay, paint, and all the glue I can spill. Watch out Etsy!

In preparation for packing, I've taken stock of my works-in-progress shelf and files and realized that besides my bulging "idea file" I have no less than 22 manuscripts in various states of completion. For some people this may seem an excessive (and frightening) amount, but to me it signifies productivity and never having to say I'm bored. It also means I'm going to be extremely busy for the next few years if I want to get these works into print and/or up for sale. So if my math skills are correct, here's the line-up:

• 5 screenplays. 1 at 3rd/final draft stage; 2 have reached the full first draft stage; 1 is halfway finished; 1 is still incubating.
• 9 novels. 1 is finished and ready for submission; 3 are full first drafts; the other 5 are pretty well outlined considering I'm a dedicated "pantster."
• 4 books of poetry. All complete first drafts.
• 2 short story collections. All complete first drafts.
• 2 non-fiction manuscripts: 1 is a complete first draft, 1 is approximately 200 pages of notes. (Does that qualify as a draft?)

Which brings me to Stay Creative Tip Every Day #9: Finish What You Start. Do your best to not leave any piece of work unfinished. Unfinished work is usually about not knowing what to do next. To find the solution, try being playful: add a new character; paint red squiggly lines down the middle; paste on some text cut from a magazine. If you really dislike a piece and don't want to finish it, stop and consciously throw it away and don't think about it again.

In my how-to book, The Essential Guide for New Writers, one of the most important points I teach is that the only manuscripts that sell are finished manuscripts. Even if you're lucky enough to pitch and sell a 10-book series to an editor by sharing a few ideas scribbled on a dinner napkin, at some stage you will have to write and finish those books to get your full advance and avoid a law suit.

So how to stay motivated and on track even when you've added all the red squiggly lines you can? The top 4 ways I know for completing any work-in-progress are:

1. Be organized. Keep well-labeled, clean, orderly, and attractive WIP files and binders for everything from character wardrobe sketches to marketing plans and multiple drafts. Personalized binders that are easily accessible and a pleasure to work with can help you to stay focused and able to switch between projects if necessary.
2. Make a priority list. What is your most important project and why? For instance, do you have a contest you want to enter? Did you meet an editor or agent at a conference who asked for a partial? Is one of your manuscripts more timely than the others? Or maybe you just want to give books as Christmas gifts, or have them to sell at a book festival. Whatever the reason, it's helpful to have self-imposed deadlines and reasons for completing your work.
3. Keep a log to know where you are with each piece. Give yourself the equivalent of a gold star for every day you achieve your daily or weekly writing goals and quotas.
4. Know you endings in advance. A fun trick is to write your last page or scene first (which is precisely what I did for Overtaken. The last page was written in an intensive workshop taught by author Emily Hanlon, and I've never been more grateful.). I've mentioned this tip before, but it's one of the most helpful ways I know for getting a book sealed, signed, and delivered.

Tip of the Day. I heard a good piece of advice on NPR regarding creative goal-setting: instead of using the words "I hope," try replacing them with "I intend." For instance, instead of saying "I hope I can finish my novel by Thanksgiving," try, "I intend to finish my novel the day before Thanksgiving." Or, instead of "I hope my book finds a publisher," try, "I intend for my book to be published by June 2014." It's an important distinction, and one that I've found keeps me working toward my goals in a more professional and meaningful way.

Nanowrimo Week 4, You Can Do It!

Yes, really! 

Nanowrimo Week 4 can be a difficult time: Thanksgiving, Black Friday, all the temptations to sleep in, goof off, and enjoy the start of the holiday season with friends and family. And here you are, having to churn out X-amount of words for Nanowrimo. Fun, isn’t it? 

Three years ago I had the worst ever last week of Nanowrimo. My beloved calico cat, Mitzi, aka Princess Mizzy, suddenly became ill from an undiscovered tumor the day after Thanksgiving. She was 16 years old, and the time for her to leave us was of course inevitable, but I just wasn’t ready for it now. Especially as on Thanksgiving Day she had been jumping around grabbing tofurkey off everyone’s forks; leaping from the back of the couch cushions; slamming through her kitty door to skid around on the icy patio. She’d always been a live wire, and that particular Thursday was no different than any other. But the next morning, she was still and quiet and apparently in great pain. It was awful. By the time we could see a vet, the consensus was that there was nothing we could do but say goodbye. 

I was devastated. Over the previous eighteen months I had gone through that same depressing vet visit with my two other cats. Both of them, like Mitzi, were senior citizens who had simply succumbed to age-related illness. With Mitzi now gone, though, I was without any pets at all, and I can tell you, the last thing I wanted to do was write 1400 Nanowrimo words that would take me to the 50K mark. 

When we came home from the vet that evening, Mitzi’s lifeless body wrapped in a little quilt I’d brought for her, it was snowing and dark. My husband went to bed, the strain and stress making it impossible to eat dinner or watch TV. My response was to go into a cleaning frenzy: laundry, scrubbing floors, rounding up cat dishes and toys and food for giveaways to the neighbors. By the time I was ready to go to bed I still had a few hours before the clock struck midnight and Nanowrimo 2007 would be over for good. I only had 1400 words to go. It was hard, but I wrote them for Mitzi. 

It was a fitting tribute. Mitzi had been my writing partner in one way or another ever since she came into my life in Carrollton, Georgia. A pregnant stray, no more than a kitten herself, she was desperate for food and love, and she literally jumped into my arms the day I found her. The two years I wrote a pet-astrology column, "Zodiac Zoo" for the now defunct online site, Baku’s Zine, I gave her a byline of her own, deciding she had contributed as much as I had to the writing. Ah, Mitzi.  Bunny and Poppy too.  I miss them terribly. And I still have Nanowrimo pages to write. 

When I sat down to write this post, I hadn’t expected to write so much about loss—this was actually meant to be an inspiring “pep talk." Maybe it still is. Because what I just want to say here is that life rarely offers up the “perfect moment” or time to write. Sometimes it seems all we have is the page, the pen, the typewriter or computer screen, and a backdrop of absolute chaos, despair, and worry behind us. Sometimes it seems impossible to turn our faces in the other direction and just write. But you know, you can do it. You really can. 

I hope your week is a good one, and that you are not going through any kind of serious difficulties or problems. But if you are, I send you my most sincere best wishes for strength and healing, for patience, and the ability to overcome. There must be a good reason Thanksgiving falls during this last week of Nanowrimo—maybe it’s just to be thankful for all the goodness that writing and creativity brings into our lives. So let's be thankful, and let's write. 

Tip of Day: Life happens. Not just during Nanowrimo, but all year long. What seemingly insurmountable obstacle is keeping you from writing? Maybe the best thing in the world is to write about it, and then write some more. You can do it.

Finishing Line

One of my favorite classes I teach is called “Write that Novel (and Finish it Too!)". It’s always been a strong belief of mine that the only books readers want to buy and read are the finished ones, and that probably holds true for agents and editors as well. But like many writers, I have to admit that not every one of my manuscripts is finished. And guess what? They’re the ones I haven’t sold.

The problem came home to me the other day when I was inventing excuses to explain my reluctance to work on the current WIP and wondering if I really had to write it (you mean I do have to figure out those old family connections and why my MC is so terrified of change and…?). Well, you get the picture. After the heady fun of first draft write-whatever-comes-to-mind, second drafts can feel like pure slog and I wasn’t in the mood for work.

While I was wishing the manuscript would write itself, I suddenly thought about my most embarrassing unfinished project to date; not a manuscript but a sweater. Some time before Christmas I started to knit for my husband a fairly simple (or so it seemed) pullover. And then some time before New Year’s I stopped; the reason being that I didn’t know how to begin decreasing for the sleeves. Every time I tried to read the instructions in the knitting manual the words just turned to squiggles and I couldn’t understand any of it. It was as if the entire pattern was written in secret code and I didn't have the code book.

Thinking I would return to it "later," I left it neatly folded on a chair. Except later never came and even with my husband making little jokes: “Is that a cat or a sweater on that chair?” (we don’t have a cat) I managed to avoid any knitting whatsoever until I got stuck on my manuscript.

Last Sunday while I was trying to decide what to do with 200 pages of what seemed like sheer drivel (throw it in the trash?) I thought I should take a look at the sweater—I was that desperate to avoid writing. I went to the chair where it had been folded for a good two months and discovered a spider had taken up where I had left off, weaving an incredibly complex and strong tubular web right across the entire top row. Fitting right in with the whole abandonment metaphor, the web was empty, the spider having moved on and by the dusty look of it, a while ago.

I stood there with what in truth was a very nice and neatly knitted piece of the back and decided that I simply had to find out what to do next. I thought if I began now I could have the sweater finished by the start of next winter, oh happy thought, or worse case scenario, next Christmas. Yes, I would do it.

It took a morning of bright light, strong coffee, and utter silence, but in the end I successfully deciphered the pattern and knitted to the point that my confidence returned and I was able to complete nearly six more inches. Strangely, my manuscript also became a lot more attractive to me. When I put my knitting down and returned to the computer, I was able to see a way out of my current chapter dilemma and how to get back on track.

Later that day I went to my writer’s group and on the way driving there I realized the main reason we leave things unfinished is because we don’t know what to do, and not knowing what to do leads to fear, mainly fear of failure. With that is the unreasonable notion that we’re supposed to figure it all out by ourselves or by magic, a kind of ta-dah moment when everything becomes clear with no effort or research on our part. To understand my knitting pattern I had to take the time to be quiet, read the directions, and experiment until I got it right. The same goes for my manuscript. It’s impossible to know whether Chapter Five should be Chapter Seventeen or vice versa if I don’t try putting those arrangements down on paper. And if I’m stuck or need help, all I need to do is ask—either a writer friend, or look up my question on-line or in one of the several great how-to books I own. There are no secret codes. All it takes is a little effort and a whole lot of willingness to be wrong for the answer to appear, usually right on the page in front of us.

Tip of the day: What creative project or manuscript have you left unfinished, and why? Go dig it out of its hiding place and resolve to make a fresh start. If you’re stuck, don’t be afraid to ask for help. Once you have some answers and solutions, dive back in as soon as you can.

Who Are You Writing For? Nanowrimo Week 4

I hope the answer is that you’re writing for yourself.
Because unlike the rest of the year, for one entire glorious month Nanowrimo gives us permission to abandon thinking about “the market.” Instead of worrying about query letter techniques or whether Aunt Edna will be offended when we use bad words in our manuscript or whether vampires are still “in” or if anybody is reading family sagas these days, we can let go and write what we darn well please. Nanowrimo is your free pass to find out what you and only you love to write about.

The other night when I was struggling to bring my word count to a reasonable level before getting too far behind, my husband asked me if I “really needed another manuscript.” Well, of course I don’t. I’ve got manuscripts coming out of my ears, closets, and overstuffed filing cabinets. Having another manuscript at this stage of my writing life isn’t the point. What I do need to learn and be reminded of is that I have the self-discipline and desire to write at all. With Nanowrimo I have the opportunity to fall in love with writing all over again because in many ways it is the writing closest to my heart.

One thing I am certain of is that if and when I reach the required 50K mark to “win” Nanowrimo this year, my story will be far from finished. I don’t just mean that it will need a complete revision and ruthless editing; I mean I won’t be writing the words “The End” at the close of November 30. The main reason for this is it has taken me most of the month to discover and learn what the heck I am doing when I sit down for my daily writing sessions. When I started this crazy Nano journey, I had a rough vision that my plot would involve the theme of symbolic life doorways and the passing of time and what it means to live a life worth living.

With the best of intentions I dutifully picked up my pen and began writing on November 1 about a character named Robert Moreno and his family’s love of tamales. Don’t ask why—it just happened that way. Maybe because there was a Mexican restaurant in the airport where I was writing at the time. From there I followed Robert until for some bizarre reason I ended up at a convent and nuns doing laundry. The manuscript got sillier and sillier, more like a comic farce than the literary masterpiece I was aiming for. But then out of the blue I started following the thread of a story about one of the young novices and my original blueprint came back to me. Everything started falling into place as I began to explore in depth what it means for a young girl to go against her parents, society, and to break away from everything she has been raised to respect and believe in. Finally, at Week Four I can say I am engaged with both my manuscript and my characters and yes, I do need them very, very much.

2010 is going to be a crazy year for me as I suspect it might be for you too. I have a new book scheduled for publication in the summer and two manuscripts I want to get into serious shape for submission. But sneaking in through the back of these plans I know I will also be working on finishing Ghazal at the same time. I’m excited that this story came into my life. Even if I don’t reach my 50K, I’ll have gained much more than I could have imagined. I’ll have gained Robert Moreno and Hillary Stuart and the kind of insights into life and love that can only be gained by writing about them.

So to those of you still pounding away at your keyboards or refilling your fountain pens, I salute you. And to those who have perhaps drifted away because you have become a little fearful or tired or bored or feeling defeated, come on—back to work! The goal is still in sight, and believe me, it’s not the 50K. It’s that wonderful story that only you could write and it’s hungry for your attention.

Tip of the day: No matter where you are in your word count, don’t give up. Your story needs you and you need your story. It just takes one word at a time and I know you can do it. Let’s go!

New Year, Blank Page

What do you think of New Year’s resolutions? Personally, I like to make them, and I like to make them into goals for things that I really, really want to do.

2008 was a great year for me, and I did achieve most of the resolutions/goals that I had set for myself on January 1, 2008. But I want to do something different for 2009. I want to regard my goals for this year as things already accomplished.

I got the idea when a friend recently told me she had trouble writing the endings to her stories. She enjoyed writing the beginnings and middles, but the endings kept eluding her.

Endings have never bothered me for one simple reason: I write them first! Which made me think that’s how I want to approach 2009: by writing down five goals I want to think of as “finished.” With that done, I can then move on to let myself be surprised by whatever happy discoveries come my way in the pursuit of these goals.

For example, rather than saying I want to publish three books in 2009, I’m going to say, “I published three books in 2009.” Instead of, “I want to have a full sketchbook of new ideas,” I’ll write: “I have a full sketchbook with enough ideas to last me well into 2010.” Somehow, looking at my resolutions this way takes the pressure off; they’re already a given and I can spend more time doing what I love best—moving forward and exploring unknown creative territory without the need to always “get it right.”

Tip of the Day: Write your endings first. If you’re writing a novel, write the last five pages. For a short story or an essay, write just the last page. Screenplay—write the last scene. Poetry—the last line. And give yourself a reward afterwards. Let me know what happens. Happy New Year!