November 14, 2008

Although Week Two on NaNoWriMo is generally more difficult, I found it much easier than last week. Both computers functioned without a hitch, so other than residual pains in the neck (literally), it was a smooth week. My sleep cycles are still haphazard, leftover from the marathon computer-fixing weekend, so most days I was awake before 3:30 a.m.

Since I had committed to writing my NaNo words first each day, I have finished my writing before breakfast all week. Talk about a high! After writing 2,700 new words this morning, breakfast was fun. At 6:30 I dawdled with muffins and a new Charles Todd English mystery, while most of the world was still asleep. (Of course, I’m asleep by 8 p.m. these days, which makes me even more of a party pooper than usual. I’m hoping to correct that in Week Three.) As of this moment, I have logged in 22,692 words for November.

Part of NaNoWriMo’s encouragement comes through email letters from veteran writers during the week. I want to share excerpts from two such letters below. These are words of writing wisdom useful for your entire writing life.

First is an excerpt from Philip Pullman. (Pullman is the award-winning author of the His Dark Materials trilogy. You can learn more about him and his work at his website.)

“The second thing you need to remember is that if you want to finish this journey you’ve begun, you have to keep going. One of the hardest things to do with a novel is to stop writing it for a while, do something else, fulfill this engagement or that commitment or whatever, and pick it up exactly where you left it and carry on as if nothing had happened. You will have changed; the story will have drifted off course, like a ship when the engines stop and there’s no anchor to keep it in place; when you get back on board, you have to warm the engines up, start the great bulk of the ship moving through the water again, work out your position, check the compass bearing, steer carefully to bring it back on track … all that energy wasted on doing something that wouldn’t have been necessary at all if you’d just kept going!

“But if you’re not a lover of stories, a passionate and devoted reader, don’t expect your novel to please many readers…On the other hand, if you do love reading, if you cannot imagine going on a journey without a book in your pocket or your bag, if you fret and fidget and become uncomfortable if you’re kept away from your reading for too long, if your worst nightmare is to be marooned on a desert island without a book—then take heart: there are plenty of us like you. And if you tell a story that really engages you, we are all potential readers.”

Second is an excerpt from Katherine Paterson. Katherine is the author of Bridge to Terabithia, Jacob Have I Loved, and The Great Gilly Hopkins. You can learn more about her and her work by visiting her website.

“I live in Barre, Vermont which calls itself the “Granite Capital of the World.” Outside our town are enormous quarries, so when I speak in local schools every child has a mental picture of a granite quarry. “You know how hard it is to get granite out of the quarry,” I say. “You have to carefully score the rock and put the explosive in to make the great granite block break loose from the face of the stone. Then you have to attach the block to the chains so that the cranes can lift it slowly out of the hole and put it on the waiting truck. That’s the first draft. It’s hard, dangerous work, and when you’ve finished, all you’ve really got is a block of stone. But now you have something to work on. Now you can take your block down to the shed to carve and polish it and turn it into something of beauty. That’s revision.”

Where do you find YOUR encouragement to keep on keepin’ on?

4 Comments »

1. 

   Glad to hear your week two went well! Mine was not as good, since I had a minor file crash and lost about 700 words. Luckily for me, I had backed up recently and it wasn’t much worse.

   This week I realized my story wasn’t interesting me very much, so I took a detour and dabbled in a sci-fi sub-plot(I was writing a murder mystery). After a couple thousand words, I returned to my novel and feel very refreshed. Maybe I can still bring it back to life, and edit out the detour. Or maybe this novel is beyond hope. But I continued, and that was all that mattered.

   Comment by Alice — November 14, 2008 @ 7:00 pm

2. 

   Yes, Alice, continuing to write is what matters this month! I know myself well enough to know that I don’t do well without at least a skeleton outline. Next week I will be into a plot section that is definitely more “murky,” so I will be interested to see how it goes then! I’m glad you came back to it refreshed.
   Kristi

   Comment by wpadmin — November 14, 2008 @ 10:17 pm

3. 

   Wow, Kristi! Over 2,000 words BEFORE breakfast? I’m impressed! You go, girl!

   Suzanne Lieurance
   National Writing for Children Center
   http://www.writingforchildrencenter.com

   Comment by Suzanne Lieurance — November 14, 2008 @ 11:17 pm

4. 

   Hi, Suzanne, I was just telling my daughter today that I might give up running in the mornings. I skipped it this week to write, and I have so MUCH more energy and the writing flowed so well. I am rethinking my entire exercise schedule now. I always ran first to get it out of the way and before it got too hot, but I didn’t realize how much energy it sapped. Live and learn!
   Kristi

   Comment by wpadmin — November 14, 2008 @ 11:27 pm

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