The pen is still mightier

The recent tragedies across the nation have been the top subject on the internet, social media, and almost every conversation I've had or overheard. While I find the blog posts of Robison Wells and Dan Wells moving (and I agree wholeheartedly with their sentiments) I'm not going to add my own thoughts on the tragedies themselves. I've never lost a child or a loved one in a senseless act of violence or had a violent mental illness. I've had suicidal depression, but it was never to the point that I wanted to hurt others, so while I can sympathize, I can't empathize. However I can borrow the wise words of others.

And of course, this:

We have the power, the infinite power of language at our mercy, and it's our duty as wordsmiths to use it responsibly. We don't have to threaten people. We can get our message across without igniting a fiery debate. Starting arguments only creates more anger which than results in more unnecessary violence and I for one have had enough. There is too much ugliness in the world as it is. Arguing this way or that only adds to it. I suggest that instead of picking fights with our friends on Facebook over subjects like gun control, we listen to the admonishments of these gentlemen by making good art. As writers we can create a beautiful fairy land for people to escape to while they cope with the horrible reality that has been thrust upon them. We can likewise create a dystopic future that illustrates the consequences of inaction and apathy.

You can do more good with an allegory than you can with an argument.

Hitler used the power of language to inspire and motivate a nation to do terrible things. However we, as writers, can inspire a nation to be more kind, more generous, more understanding, more forgiving, more loving, more cooperative, more calm, more peaceful...and I think that's wonderful.

So, how about it?

Let's make the world a better place through good art.

Together we stand, together we fall

Ahh, December. That wonderful time of year when good (and not so good) boys and girls start flooding Santa's inbox with requests for the funds to attend all the wonderful Cons, workshops, and seminars that will take place next year. If I can put my two cents in, anyone that is serious about writing should seriously consider going to the Superstars Writing Seminar. I know I've talked about it in the past but I can't emphasize enough how much I learned and gained from this seminar. If my previous post about it (To the Stars and Back) wasn't enough to convince you than perhaps a couple videos will persuade you.

This seminar isn't just for those who have already published a work or two. This is for everyone who wants to make a living as a writer. Need to revitalize your career as a mid-list author? Go to Superstars. Want to know how to make money without being screwed by a big publisher? Go to Superstars. Want to be inspired? Go to Superstars. Want to make friends in the industry? Go to Superstars. Want to be surrounded by familiar faces at WorldCon? Go to Superstars.

This isn't one of those seminars that hammers information into your brain and leaves you scared and exhausted at the end of the day. This is a friendly seminar. Don't mistake me, they do cover a lot of topics in a short amount of time. Brandon Sanderson likened it to drinking from a fire hydrant and he was right. I'm still digesting the information in the copious amount of notes I took. My point is that no one there is judgmental. When I signed up last year I was invited to join the Facebook group so not only were the returning attendees already acquainted, but new attendees like myself were as well.

The whole point of this seminar is to strengthen the writing community by gathering together writers of all walks of life and experiences so that we can learn from each other and be better -- better writers, better businesspeople, and more well connected. Because after all, we are colleagues. If we're going to survive in this ever changing market and keep it alive, we have to band together.


                                                      So go ahead and sign up already!

Click to register

NaNo 2012: A.K.A. a lesson in masochism

Phew! NaNo is finally over! Huzzah!

My word count for the final week was 1400 on the novel and 1600 on the novelette. That's kind of lackluster for a final push but there were a couple days where I wasn't able to get much if anything written. Tuesday I went to Seattle for the launch of Jim Butcher's new book, Cold Days. The drive time meant that I didn't get much done on Tuesday and the subsequent road trip hangover made it near impossible to get anything done Wednesday.

Now, I know some of you are wondering if I reached my goal?

No. I didn't. But I got pretty darn close. Out of the 13 K I wanted to do on the novelette I wrote 8513. On the Novel I did 8281 of the 10K I set for myself. So out of the combined 23K I managed 16,794 words. I think that being a little over 6K from the finish line was respectable. Especially since my calendar looked like this:

                                          (Why yes, that is a Schlock Mercenary calendar.)

Add a 40 hour work week on top of that and yeah, that's a lot of commitments for any given month. But for NaNo it borders on the insane since, as I mentioned before, a few of those commitments took me as far as Seattle.

So what did I learn this year?

Two NaNo projects is CRAZY!!! Yeah, I am not doing that again. I'm not going to stop bopping between projects the rest of the year -- it helps me clear my brain -- I'm just not going to do it during NaNo. I do have to admit that there was one good thing about doing two projects. Normally I get burned out on the book about halfway through the month. Last year I actually resented the fact that I couldn't take a break from the novel without losing precious time. That was one of the reasons I did two  projects this year and while I didn't feel any of that resentment this year, I did have to continually readjust my brain for the different styles of the two stories. The protagonist's voices in each story are very different so I had to give myself time to push one out of my mind and pull up the other. If I spaced it out (worked on one in the morning and the other in the evening) it wasn't so bad but it still took a toll. I think it wore me out faster.

The other lesson I learned from this year's NaNo was that if I know my schedule is going to be that busy (like I did this year) than I'm going to postpone NaNo until December or January so I can focus on it more. I'm determined to make goal one of these years. As Hero Boy would say, "I will succeed!" And one day I will.

Oh yes, I will.

I hope all of my American readers had a happy Thanksgiving.

My word count was much better last week. I managed to get 2200 on each project despite Thanksgiving, working on black friday, a couple of killer headaches, and The Civil War game. That's still 300 short of my weekly goal on the novel and 800 short on the novelette. I think it's safe to say that I've found my word threshold when it comes to doing two projects at once. They're still good words, they just took a little more effort than normal.

Over the years I've discovered that I can't write when I'm sick, but I can push through a tension headache. I don't like doing it, but I can if the occasion calls for it like it did last week. In addition to becoming a victim of the attack of the killer headache, it was also the Saturday after Thanksgiving which is always a crazy day at work since it's Small Business Saturday, and it was the day of the Civil War Game. So, how did I manage it?

Sheer. Willpower.

When I got home from work I just wanted to curl up in bed, watch the DVR'd game, and be comatose for a few hours. Unfortunately, I also knew how far behind I was (I didn't get nearly as much done Thanksgiving day as I would've liked). So instead of getting comfy I took some painkillers, powered up the laptop and pounded out another 600 while I watched the game. Normally I can't write when the TV is on. It's too much of a distraction. But this time it worked because I could completely focus on the book when the enemy had the ball and take a short break whenever my team had the ball. I may have to employ this technique next year. That way I can watch all of the live games.

Tired writer is tired

Last week's word count took a dip. I focused more on the novel since that's where I've been lacking and managed to get 2400 words. Not bad, but on the flip side, I was only able to get 760 words on the novelette. Granted, part of that was that I had two social engagements. All right, they weren't so much social engagements as they were "oh my gosh, I can't pass up on this" activities. (I told you that not even NaNo would make me pass up something like this.) Friday night was Brom's signing at Powell's and since I was in the area, I had dinner with Lee Moyer and the lovely Venetia. The night before, I drove out to St. Helens (the city, not the mountain) for an evening of music and merriment with Ken Scholes. Yes, both nights took me away from writing. Yes, they were fun and I don't regret taking the time off, but it shouldn't have decreased my word count that significantly. After all, I spent every spare moment in the preceding days bolstering my word count.

The wrench that really threw a monkey into my week was the day job. Holiday sales have begun and therefore, Kim is a very tired bookseller. It killed my word count last year and its done it again this year. There are few things that can hinder my wordcount faster than fatigue. However, I plan to soldier on. In the immortal words of Superchicken, I knew the job was dangerous when I took it. I rested up yesterday and for the rest of the week I will drink my supersauce (Dr. Pepper and/or Twinings English breakfast tea) and see if I can do better (Thanksgiving withstanding).

If there's one thing I've learned from past NaNos is that when the words don't come as fast as you need or want them to, you can't stress about it. Stress only makes it harder and you spend more time and energy worrying than you do writing. Yes, the deadline is coming and at this rate I won't finish (especially since I've got a day trip to Seattle coming up) but I'm going to ignore logic for the moment and believe that I can because if I push hard I can still do it.

Cattle prods and penmonkeys

So far I've been doing reasonably well on my NaNo. My benchmarks for each week are to write 3K on the novelette and 2500 on the novel. Since the first week of the month was short I only shot for 1K on the novelette and 500 on the novel. I've made the mark or exceeded it on the novelette both weeks. The novel however has fallen short by about 300 words each week. I am a little disappointed that I haven't made the mark but the words I've put down are good words and I can be satisfied with that.

I know everyone says that it doesn't matter if the words you write during NaNo are crap. It's just a first draft. Well, for me, my first draft isn't just words thrown onto a page. I hate wasting time and I hate wasting words. I want every syllable I put on the page to be the best that I can make it at that particular moment in time. Sure, some of it is lost in the various editing passes that I do before I kick it out of the nest, but about 75% of them are still there. That includes what I write during NaNo. It's another reason why I can justify doing my own thing every November. Yes, my over word goal is half of what everyone else is doing but what I'm writing is good (for the most part). I don't see the point in writing 50K in a month if only 10K is going to survive the first edit. If I was going to do that, I may as well twiddle my thumbs for three weeks because I'd have just as much work to show for it.

However, even with a combined word count goal of 23K for this month, I still have problems staying focused. There's some very important PAC-12 games this month and my DVR can only hold so many TV programs before its little circuits explode. Plus, when you spend every hour that isn't tied up in the day job or in some other vital daily task, you get tired of it. Not in the "I never want to do this ever again" kind of sense but in the "I still like this cereal but I really want bacon for breakfast today" kind of way. To keep myself motivated I parcel out my programs and such as treats. When the writing is going well, I'll reward myself with a TV show while I eat dinner or a chapter from whatever book I'm reading (right now it's Poison Flower by Thomas Perry). If I make my benchmark for the week then I get to watch a football game Saturday night. However, if the writing isn't going well than I have to sit at my computer and forgo social activity and entertainment in favor of writing.

In addition to that I also have little daily reminders that I am capable of doing this. These reminders aren't sweet and fluffy motivational posters. They're more like cattle prods. I have two or three images that the very talented and lovingly fowl Chuck Wendig did for some of his blog posts. If you haven't checked out Chuck's website than you really should. He's awesome. He has a knack for removing all of the bull shit and getting down to the point. He's also a lot more blatant than I dare to be, which I admire.

The handful of images I have I use as my desktop background and rotate through them during the month (I've also been known to do the same when I've got a deadline nearing). It gives me the daily poke in the butt that I need during NaNo to keep me focused on what I really need to be doing. Writing.

With that in mind, I'll bid you adieu because I've got words to make. Good luck fellow NaNo participants!

All is fair in Love and NaNo.

First off, my Halloween costume was a huge success! No one recognized the uniform but I expected that. It's an oft overlooked show. Some of the finishing details on the great coat weren't completed in time but I'm ok with that. It's still pretty darn awesome.

As for my NaNo, so far so good. I've set a bit of a crazy goal this year. I want to write 10K on the WIP (which shall be henceforth known as the Cyberfunk book because cyberpunk-that-wants-to-be-a-thriller is far too long) and a complete first draft on a novelette (I estimate that it'll be around 13K) that's been brewing in my brain since July. The novelette is in part a sequel to the piece I submitted to Writers of the Future but it's also the completion of that same piece. I'm not going to go into detail as to why that is because I can't talk about it freely until the judging for that quarter has finished. What I will go into more detail on is my NaNo process.

I know I've talked before about setting goals and that I like to do my own thing when it comes to NaNo. What I haven't spoken about yet is how I break it down. On November 1st I write my starting word count at the top of my calendar so I know exactly what mark I have to hit. Then I break down how many words a week I need to complete in order to make my goal. Since I have two projects this year I've got two benchmarks to reach every week. I haven't set daily word count goals just because I know that with the holiday season starting, if I have a crazy day at work I won't have the energy to get much done. I also have a few fun things planned this month that'll cut into my writing time: a much needed makeover, black friday sales, and attending book signings for Brom and Jim Butcher. With the exception of work day fatigue, I can budget my time in advance in order to get it done.

That may make me look like an anal retentive control freak -- which I'm not -- but that's what I do. I like being (somewhat) organized and knowing where I stand in every aspect of my life. Why should my writing be any different?

Some of you have added me to your NaNo circles on G+ and for that I thank you. I love being a part of the writing community and hearing about everyone's struggles and successes. I need a steady stream of reminders that it's not just me that's having a hard time with ___________ on any given day. If you, dear reader, haven't added me on G+ or FB, feel free to post updates about your NaNo progress in the comments of this or any post for this month. I'd like to know how you're doing.