Hot NaNoWriMo Tip #6

We’re closing in on two weeks. Where should you be right now? Ideally, you should be around 25,000 words.

Reminder that every writer will be in a different place. If you haven’t reached 25K yet, that’s fine. If you’ve written anything, if you’ve devoted time to a new project, if you’ve carved out time in your busy day to be creative…you’re on your way to success. One word at a time.

Here’s what’s helped me in the past get motivated. Think about your project during the day. Jot down ideas. Create a playlist you can listen to at work or on your way to class that specifically reminds you of your story. Dream cast your characters on Pinterest. Do anything that gets you excited about telling your story.

You’re the ONLY person who can tell your story the way you want to tell it. You just have to start doing it!

“The five Sullivan Brothers, all of whom were lost in the sinking of the U.S.S. Juneau, November 13, 1942.”

The five Sullivan brothers (Albert, Francis, George, Joseph, and Madison) served together as shipmates aboard the cruiser USS Juneau after requesting special permission from the Secretary of the Navy. The Juneau was sunk on November 13, 1942, off the island of Guadalcanal by Japanese submarine I-26. 

Tumblr: *rolls out “best stuff first”*

My blog:

on the one hand this is a joke post because lol i have never made a good post in my life, but also, if i hadn’t made the connection between this update and my sudden nosedive in activity, i would have been really fucking discouraged about all the shit i’ve been working on lately. i guarantee there are people on tumblr right now who haven’t made that connection, and who are trying to figure out why suddenly no one likes anything they’ve made. and that fucking sucks.

Reminder to go into your settings and turn off ‘Best Stuff First’ because my activity’s tanked a couple days ago for no reason so this stuff IS happening.

You WILL miss content with that setting on.

i ain’t joking when i say that my activity looks JUST like this too and i wasn’t sure why

I can only find the option on the app under Settings > Dashboard Preferences.

To support content creators do us a favour and turn off “Best stuff first”. Open the tumblr app (Android or iOs) and go to “Settings > Dashboard Preferences. And please reblog this post, so that everybody will see this. Thank you very much!

holy shit

It only seenmns accessible under phone tumblr app (settings >dashboard preferences>best stuff first) for me, so I don’t know if that affects my dash outside of the app.

But given that a lot of the blogs I love have more modest readerships (whether artists or medblrs), I decided to turn it off.

My own notes are slightly less important (though anecdotally also decreased), but I hate the idea of it recycling the most popular stuff and ignoring the rest, when I followed people to enjoy their stuff.

Today is November 11, 2017. The 99th anniversary of the end of World War I.

For NaNoWriMo 2017, I’m writing the first draft of my Great Depression/Dust Bowl Downton Abbey AU (As the Wind Blows). However, for NaNo two years ago, I wrote a World War I AU for Agnes and Victor in Mr. Selfridge called As the Music Plays On.

I told myself a while ago, that I would, preferably, post the last chapter of As the Music Plays On on the 100th anniversary of World War I (November 11, 2018) … or at the very least, I would post the first chapter of that story on that date.

That’s in exactly one year from now.

I’m only on the third draft of it.

Excuse my language, but …

FUCK.

My plan as of right now is this:

November 30th, 11:59 pm: Write As the Wind Blows

December 1st, 12:01 am: Revise As the Music Plays On

Between 1919 and 1945, Germany Lost a Lot of Land

Major land losses followed losing WWI, and more was ceded after losing WWII.

Hot NaNoWriMo Tip #5

Make yourself comfortable before you start writing. Take a shower, get dressed, eat a hot meal. Make sure your work space is clear and you keep a notebook nearby. Jot down any notes about your story or ideas for later chapters.

If you have time this weekend, reflect on what you’ve already written. Take another look at your outline and reorganize. Where do you want to go from here? 

Good luck & have a great weekend!

NaNoWriMo Tips: Where Should My Story Go Next?

During NaNoWriMo, pacing is usually the first thing that suffers. You want to get to a specific word count and you need to do it quickly. Maybe you’ll rush through the middle. Maybe you’ll skip fleshing out really important moments.

I’m here to tell you that’s okay!

What you’re building right now is the skeleton of your story. You can add meat to the bones later, but you’ll still need a solid start to make sure it doesn’t collapse. 

Here are a few tips to decide where to go next with your story:

Every story needs highs and lows

Not everything in your story should be the end of the world and not everything should be GREAT all the time. If your story has no conflict, there’s no point in telling your story. You need to space out ups and downs in order to a cohesive story and keep your readers interested. Pacing also depends on what type of story you’re telling. The pacing of a thriller will be different from the pacing of a dystopian novel. Know what you’re writing and become familiar with the genre.

What does your character want?

Motivation is everything. Take a look at your protagonist. What do they want? What will help them get there? What obstacles stand in their way? If you’re having trouble with deciding what to write about next, analyzing your protagonist’s motivations should help get you there. Everyone wants something.

Where can you add tension?

A story is nothing without tension. There will come a point in your novel when your protagonist needs to make a critical choice or a crucial decision that will determine their fate for the rest of the story. The moment that leads us into the rest of the novel cannot be left up to fate or chance; it must be a decision that character makes. Thing about what this might be and what can lead up to it. Get your readers excited to find out what happens next.

-Kris Noel

Never forget, never forgive! 

On the night of November 9, 1938, violence against Jews broke out across Nazi Germany. It appeared to be unplanned, set off by Germans’ anger over the assassination of German embassy official Ernst vom Rath in Paris at the hands of Jewish teenager Herschel Grynszpan in revenge for the deportation of his family members who were living in Germany. 

In fact, German propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels and other Nazis carefully organized the pogroms. In two days, over 250 synagogues were burned, over 7,000 Jewish businesses were trashed and looted, dozens of Jewish people were killed, and Jewish cemeteries, hospitals, schools, and homes were looted while police and fire brigades stood by. The pogroms became known as Kristallnacht, the “Night of Broken Glass,” for the shattered glass from the store windows that littered the streets.

The morning after the pogroms 30,000 German Jewish men were arrested for the “crime” of being Jewish and sent to concentration camps, where hundreds of them perished.

I would like to add: Using the term “Kristallnacht” in Germany today is considered a sign the speaker is a neonazi glorifying the pogroms. The Nazis used euphemisms to make their ideologies and actions seem less sinister. They created this term when referring to the night of Nov. 9. The term used today is Pogromnacht (pogrom night), the other term is always set in quotation marks in educational contexts and not otherwise used.

Hot NaNoWriMo Tip #4

Think of your NaNoWriMo draft as your “zero” draft. You’re writing a lot in a short amount of time. When you’re finished, it’ll just be a skeleton. A road map for where to go next. Don’t get discouraged if your NaNoWriMo draft isn’t everything you hoped it would be.

You’re building the blueprint now, so you can shape your story the way you want later. This step is absolutely necessary. Manage your unrealistic expectations (if you have them), have FUN (if you’ve been stressed out), and write that novel that’s been sitting inside you for too long (we NEED your story).

This is the first step on a long and rewarding journey. This is where it all starts. Success, for the most part, isn’t exclusively about talent. The most successful people in this industry are the ones who didn’t give up. You got this!

Second Week: NaNoWriMo Tips

The second week is super important during NaNoWriMo because it could either make or break your writing goals. Even if you didn’t have a good start during the first week or have somewhat fallen behind on your word count, please don’t throw in the towel now. Actually—never throw in the towel during NaNoWriMo. Any progress you make is a success. It’s something you’ve added to your story that wasn’t there before. Embrace any amount of progress and work from there.

Here are a few tips to keep you going during NaNoWriMo:

Take a look at your outline

Now’s a great time to check out your outline and readjust your outline’s direction. There’s a good chance something has changed in your story that you didn’t plan for, so figure out how your outline should change based on that. Is it up-to-date? Does it help you reach the next day’s word count? Take a look and see what will help.

Create more realistic goals

If your goal was to write 75,000 words and you’ve only reached 1,000 so far, it’s safe to say you need to be more realistic about your goals. Unless you’re planning on rallying for the next couple weeks and you know that’s a possibility for you, then go for it. If not, try to hit something more manageable. That doesn’t mean you’ve failed in any way, it just means your goals might have been too lofty to begin with. Remind yourself of your progress and keep going!

Familiarize yourself with what you’ve written

If you’re having trouble building on what you’ve written, maybe take some time to read it over. Familiarize yourself with how you started and decide where you’re going to go next. Take notes. Look at your outline. Know your characters. You can’t build on something that you can’t remember. Sometimes taking a step back will help you move forward.

Have a writing marathon!

Don’t forget to have fun and plan something exciting! Get together with a friend and work on your projects. Stay up all night and let your writing take you to new places. If you work and you can swing it, consider taking a personal day that’s all about you and your writing. I know a lot of people feel weird about doing that, but it’s nice to do things just to treat yourself. Keep it fun and enjoy the process as much as you can.

-Kris Noel

Posted this a couple years ago, but still applies! Let’s tackle the second week of #NaNoWriMo!!

There’s no such thing as the “perfect” job

You may have a job that you LOVE, that you enjoy going to and working at, but it will never be 100% perfect. Because there will be days, every so often, when you are knocked down a peg or two, when you receive criticism, when you are told you need to improve on something that you don’t feel you did wrong, or where you just feel momentarily overwhelmed by all that you have to do.

For some people, a job is a “calling”–you feel called to do the type of work that you do. But there will be moments when you find yourself questioning that call, questioning your skills, and even doubting yourself to the point of thinking “oh my gosh, all that education and experience I endured for so many months/years was all for NOTHING! I’m TERRIBLE at this, what was I thinking!?”

Stop.

Stop right there.

There will be bad days.  There will bad periods.  There will be moments of doubt.  And that will be true wherever you go, so don’t think about throwing the towel in just yet.

I had such a moment recently. To the point where last night I questioned my calling and wondered “maybe I’m doing something wrong with my life?” But this morning, after sleeping on it and letting that depressing cloud dissipate a little bit, I remembered why I do what I do, why I love what I do, why I want to do what I do…and gosh darn it, I AM GOOD at what I do, even if others don’t always see it.

That’s true for you too.

No job will ever be “perfect”, and what seems perfect over there, you’ll soon discover has the same issues that you’re facing right now. But if you love what you do, if you feel called to what you do, then believe in yourself and say “HELL YES” I am good and these people/this workplace are fortunate to have me.

special thanks to @zip-goes-a-million for her own uplifting words that I found when I woke up this morning :o) thank you very much, my friend!