To Read or Not to Read?

Sometimes people find it hard to read a book and to work on their own story during National Novel Writing Month. I completely understand why, reading a book while you are writing your own story can cause you to mimic it and that can be problematic, but reading can also be a learning experience.

If you do choose to read while working on your NaNoWriMo novel, read books that are completely different from what you are writing about. If you are writing a Sci-Fi war novel try reading a period romance novel. Let the other genre inspire you to get more creative. You should also read books that were horribly written so that you can learn what not to do. Fifty Shades of Grey is one I recommend for reading when you want to see how not to do dialog tags or repetition. It's also a book that proves you need to do more research if you are writing about something that you have little knowledge of. 

I would suggest limiting the amount of time you read during NaNoWriMo. A good book can be hard to put down so you should really focus of your own story during November and only read when you need to take a break from writing. 

Tomorrow I will post some writing prompts to give you some inspiration. Have a great day!

Write What?!?

So, you have decided to dive in and take part in National Novel Writing Month, but what should you write about?

The answer: ABSOLUTELY ANYTHING!

You can write from the usual genres, like sci-fi or romance. You can dip you fingers into memoir or erotica. You can mesh genres together and come up with something completely new and unique. You could even go old school and write a verse novel (think the Iliad or the Odyssey.)

You could try to take a page out of Once Upon a Time's book and rewrite a fairy tale, modernize it or maybe explore a character that isn't part of the main story. Or rewrite history or show what the history books leave out. 

Honestly, you can write about whatever your heart desires. My only piece advice would be to write about something you love or something you are interested in learning more about because writing about something you are not passionate about is miserable. 

Tomorrow I will be discussing whether or not it's a good idea to read while trying to write your own story.

Why NaNoWriMo?

Why should you participate in National Novel Writing Month this November?

Well, do you want to be a writer? If the answer is yes, then NaNoWriMo is definitely for you.

The way I see it, if you want to be a writer, you have to write daily. Since, NaNoWriMo requires you to write at 50,000 words in 30 days, you will have to write every day, and while 50,000 words in 30 days sounds like a lot, it is only 1,667 words a day.

Also, since you only have 30 days to write those 50,000 words, you have no time to edit. I know, that sounds crazy right? But honestly, it is actually the best thing about National Novel Writing Month. It forces me to stop self-editing as I go and to write all of my thoughts down with reckless abandon. Normally, I write a paragraph and edit it a million times before I move on. Not only is that counter productive, it is actually crazy. Writing without editing allows me to get my story down on paper completely without forgetting things because I was too busy fixing spelling and punctuation. 

The number one reason for participating in NaNoWriMo is that at the end of November you have your first rough draft of your story. Yes, it will be extremely rough and definitely not ready to send off to publishers, but you will have a good start to what could be a great novel. When November is over, take a break and enjoy your achievement. When you're ready you  can finish the story if 50,000 words wasn't enough and you can start editing it. 

Bonus Reason: If you reach the 50,000 word goal you reason some awesome prizes, and one is typically some form a free self-publishing so you can have a copy of your novel (beware, if you want the novel published later by an actual publisher this could make an agent/publisher decline to make an offer on your story, but some companies do purchase books the were originally self-published.) For more information about the prizes please visit: The Winner's Goodies Page.

Tomorrow I will be discussing what you can and can't write during National Novel Writing Month.

Countdown to NaNoWriMo

In about 25 days National Novel Writing Month will begin and I can't wait! For those who don't know what NaNoWriMo is, please, let me explain. NaNoWriMo takes place during November, from November 1st to the 30th you are to write with reckless abandon in order to reach 50,000 words. While there are technically no rules you shouldn't write the same word 50,000 times and it is recommended to start on a whole new story, but that isn't to say you couldn't start outlining a story in advance.

Throughout the month of October I will be blogging tips and tricks for prepping for and making it through November.

If you are interested in more information about National Novel Writing Month or would like to sign up to participate (it's free and there are some cool prizes for completing) please visit: http://nanowrimo.org.

Tomorrow I will be discussing why you should commit to 30 days of craziness even if you don't think you are a writer!

Words of Advice and Truth from Lemony Snicket (Pen name for Daniel Handler)

Lemony Snicket is a genius with words. His words have inspired so many people, and rightly so, for they shine a light on the things we normally turn our heads away from. I hope you find these quotes from Lemony Snicket to be just as awesome as I do:

• Wicked people never have time for reading. It's one of the reasons for their wickedness.
• If writers wrote as carelessly as some people talk, then adhasdh asdglaseuyt[bn[ pasdlgkhasdfasdf.
• All the secrets of the world are contained in books. Read at your own risk.
• If you are a student you should always get a good nights sleep unless you have come to the good part of your book, and then you should stay up all night and let your schoolwork fall by the wayside, a phrase which means ‘flunk’.
• No matter who you are, no matter where you live, and no matter how many people are chasing you, what you don't read is often as important as what you do read.
• The burning of a book is a sad, sad sight, for even though a book is nothing but ink and paper, it feels as if the ideas contained in the book are disappearing as the pages turn to ashes and the cover and binding--which is the term for the stitching and glue that holds the pages together--blacken and curl as the flames do their wicked work. When someone is burning a book, they are showing utter contempt for all of the thinking that produced its ideas, all of the labor that went into its words and sentences, and all of the trouble that befell the author . . .
• Sometimes words are not enough.
• There are many, many types of books in the world, which makes good sense, because there are many, many types of people, and everybody wants to read something different.
• If we wait until we're ready, we'll be waiting for the rest of our lives.
• There are few sights sadder than a ruined book.
• I go to bed early and rise late and feel as if I have hardly slept, probably because I have been reading almost the entire time. 
• Literature doesn’t exactly have a strong mental-health track record.
• They didn’t understand it, but like so many unfortunate events in life, just because you don’t understand doesn’t mean it isn’t so.
• When trouble strikes, head to the library. You will either be able to solve the problem, or simply have something to read as the world crashes down around you.
• Do the scary thing first, and get scared later.
• There are those who say that life is like a book, with chapters for each event in your life and a limited number of pages on which you can spend your time. But I prefer to think that a book is like a life, particularly a good one, which is well to worth staying up all night to finish. 
• Writing is a dying form. One reads of this every day.

Writer's Wanted

I am currently interning at New Letters the international magazine of writing and art, published by the University of Missouri-Kansas City. The magazine is accepting submissions for its annual literary awards. 

$4,500 in awards for writers | Deadline: May 18, 2016

The $1,500 New Letters Prize for Poetry 

for the best group of three to six poems.

The $1,500 Dorothy Cappon Prize for Nonfiction

for the best Essay. 

The $1,500 Alexander Cappon Prize for Fiction

for the best short story.

GUIDELINES

Upload your writing online by midnight Monday, May 18th. Entries sent after midnight May 18th cannot be considered or refunded. Please read guidelines carefully to insure best service.

Postmark by May 18, 2016.

Mail Entries to:
New Letters Awards for Writers
UMKC, University House
5101 Rockhill Road
Kansas City, MO  64110-2499

Enclose with each entry:

• $20 for first entry; $15 for every entry after. If entering online, add a $5 service charge to entry fee.  A one-year subscription, renewal, or gift subscription to New Letters, shipped to any address within the United States, is included in the price of the first entry.  (Subscriptions mailed outside the U.S. require a $15 postal surcharge.)  Make checks payable to New Letters.
• Two cover sheets: the first with complete name, address, e-mail address, phone number, category, and title(s); and the second with category and title only.  Your personal information should not appear anywhere else on the entry. 
• A stamped, self-addressed postcard for notification of receipt and entry number.
• A stamped, self-addressed envelope for a list of winners.  This is optional.  Please send only one envelope if submitting more than one entry.

  RULES AND NOTES

  • Simultaneous submissions of unpublished entries are accepted with proper notification upon acceptance elsewhere.
  • All entries will be considered for publication in New Letters.
  • Fiction and essay entries should not exceed 8,000 words.  A single poetry entry may contain up to six poems, and those poems need not be related.
  • Multiple entries are accepted with appropriate fees.  Please make cover sheets for each entry of fiction, essay, or group of poems.
  • Manuscripts will not be returned.
  • No substitutions after submissions.  No refunds will be offered for withdrawn material.
  • Current students and employees of the University of Missouri-Kansas City, and current volunteer members of the New Letters and BkMk Press staffs, are not eligible.

    TIMELINE

    • Finalists are notified in mid-August, after preliminary judging.
    • Final judging selects one winner and one runner-up in each category, announced the third week of September.
    • Judges have the option to select work for second runner-up and honorable mentions.
    • All finalists are listed in the New Letters issue in which the winners are published.
    • These and all other entries will be considered for publication by the New Letters editor.

      HISTORY OF THE AWARDS COMPETITION

      New Letters established its Awards for Writers in 1986 to discover and reward new writers and to encourage more established writers to try new genres or new work in competition.  The contest is open to any writer.  In order to assure fairness throughout the decision process, all judging is done anonymously and by writers outside the New Letters staff, with two rounds of judges making finalist and winner decisions.
      You can also enter online by going to http://www.newletters.org/writers-wanted/writing-contests.
      
      

Beautiful Words

These beautiful words should be used more often...

Petrichor - the smell of earth after the rain

Opulent - lush, elegant

Ineffable - unutterable, inexpressible

Conflate - to blend together

Effervescence - bubbles in water

Ephemeral - lasting for a short time

Sonorous - an imposingly deep and full sound

Logophile - a person who loves words

Aquiver - trembling

Supine - lying face upward

Finifugal - hating endings

Oblivion - the state of being unaware of what is happening around you

Lacuna - a blank space, a missing part

Catharsis - the purging or release of emotional tensions