NaNoWriMo and Me

Liana Gardner — Fri, 01 Dec 2023 01:38:58 +0000

As November draws to a close, so does the quest to win NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). I put win in italics because the prize is primarily self-satisfaction or bragging rights. Many writers participate the month was designed to get people to put words on the page. Any words toward the goal of writing a novel. The basic premise is to take a blank sheet of paper (or digital variation thereof) and have a shiny bright new idea, and starting November 1st write 50,000 words (averaging 1,667 words a day) by the end of November 30th—a daunting, but theoretically achievable task.

HUGE SHOUT OUT TO ALL PARTICIPANTS THIS YEAR! I SALUTE YOU!!!

In the past, I have enjoyed cheering on anyone participating in the event. I missed checking up on how people were doing against their goal this year and hearing the excitement as everyone discussed their ideas with such enthusiasm. On November 1st, surrounded by boxes everywhere, I gave a brief thought to those who were dashing off their first words followed by a pensive pang because I'd miss all the excitement. I knew I wouldn't participate this year because the cross-country move I made mid-November put paid to any hopes of completing the task. I'm not an active participant in NaNoWriMo in any year … the self-inflicted pressure of writing a certain number of words or falling short of a goal halts my writing process … but I do enjoy cheering everyone else on.

As a writer, I don't have a daily (or even weekly) word count goal—either when drafting or editing. It may drive my agent crazy, but my process simply doesn't function that way and setting those concrete goals can put the creative brakes on more than it will ever spur me to achieve the goal. So how do I finish anything? It's all about knowing who you are as a writer and being true to your process.

Depending on the book, my process can either be fast or slow or somewhere in between. It depends on the story, the complexity of the plot, and primarily the characters and how well they communicate the story to me. The book I'm editing for what feels like the 3,000th time, South of Happy (Katie McCabe, Book 2), I wrote in 3 weeks, but it took me nine or ten months to complete the first draft edits. While the words simply flowed out of me and I wrote on average 5,000 words a night and between 10k-15k on the weekend days, the resulting manuscript had the makings of a story, but technically it was a big lump of clay that I'd thrown at the wall. A lot of clean up work had to be done to shape it into the story it is today.

By contrast my current WIP (Work in Progress), The Secret of the Red Key (Homeless Myths, Book 1), is taking longer for me to write than any other book I've written. Why? In an odd way, it is taking longer because I have learned more about the craft of writing and am far more deliberate about what I'm doing as I put words on the page. But that also means there will be a lot less mess to clean up when I'm done.

When writing South of Happy, I only knew it was a sequel to the first book, Rain Falling on Embers, and since I had lived with the characters in my head for a while, I merely had to plug in my headphones and turn on my music and the words simply gushed. At that point, I had no idea the story would develop into a five book series.

With The Secret of the Red Key, I have known from almost the outset that it will be a five book series. I don't know the characters quite as well yet, and the plot of this one is far more complex than with the Katie McCabe series. I absolutely love what is going on the page, the characters who keep popping up while I'm in progress, and the direction for the series, but since I'm getting things in a piecemeal fashion instead of linear, it is going to take longer for me to write. But it will be worth the wait.

Congratulations to all who participated in NaNoWriMo 2023 and best wishes as you complete your novel and polish it 'til it shines.

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Editing in the Slow Lane

Liana Gardner — Sun, 28 May 2023 21:09:52 +0000

In a world where we keep spinning at an ever faster pace, I am slow. And I'm okay with that … especially when it comes to writing.

There are writers who set word count goals to accomplish each day. For example, Stephen King has a goal of 2,000 words a day, and I laud those who can set goals and keep them. My process lends itself more to there being some days 200 words on the page might be a win, when another day might bring 5,000 words and I stop only because my hands cannot keep up. While I do outline prior to starting any work, once I'm actively writing something, I let the characters guide me.

I received the manuscript for South of Happy back from the editor a few weeks ago and have been working my way through the comments. (HUGE shoutout to Christopher Brooks!!!) My editing progress may be even more erratic than drafting progress. A good editor (and Christopher is excellent) challenges the author to stretch and points out things they have been blind to, no matter how many times they have revised the manuscript.

South of Happy edits are no exception to the rule—which means some sections I can breeze through, but others stop me in my tracks and I need to think things through. I enjoy the introspective deep dives that happen during this editing pass because the result is a much richer result for the reader.

I'm like the turtle, slowly moving through and stopping occasionally to take in the scenery. Sometimes, the editorial notes are about one thing, and I have an epiphany about something else. Case in point (and the inspiration for this blog post):

The editorial notes had to do with a scene where two characters are walking along a road and then move into the woods lining the road. The comments were about clarifying the setting details. But while focused on the setting, a question arose. WHY were they walking? In the normal course of events, neither character would have walked to school, so why were they walking home?

Then I wondered whether Agatha Christie had a similar moment, and whether a single question had spawned an entire novel in, Why Didn't They Ask Evans? The single question stopped me in my editing tracks and it led to several other questions I needed to answer.

The amazing thing is that I had all the elements to hand in the story not only to answer the question, but to help me provide better context and a lusher experience for the reader.

If I had been pushing myself to race through the edits with the primary goal of simply getting through them, I'd have missed the lack of motivation on the page. Yes, there are times I may despair that I'll ever finish, so want to blast through to the end, but something usually crops up to make me extremely glad I took the extra time.

Photo by Jose Aragones

No one who has read the manuscript to date, not even my editor, raised the question or noticed the lack, but I'm so glad it caught my attention—this time. I take a great deal of pride in polishing up a manuscript until it shines and love the occasions when something jumps out at me, even if it takes revising multiple sections of the work to get it right. So I'll continue turtling along in the slow lane, and when I get to the finish line, I'll have an even greater sense of fulfillment knowing I did my best.

One additional bit of information … the title for the book has changed from Winds Blowing South of Happy to South of Happy because South of Happy simply suited it better and I am even happier with the title than I was before. Hopefully, we'll have a cover soon.

The picture at the top is a visual for my editing process … coming out of the dark into the light, but up ahead is the unknown.

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NaNoWriMo and Me

Editing in the Slow Lane