On liking, but not “Liking”

If you peek through my blog, you’ll notice I haven’t been as active lately as I was a couple of weeks ago. This is 1.) because I was on vacation and went crazy for awhile there and 2.) I’ve had some stuff going on in the real word, and it’s not the kind of stuff I think you want to hear about. Which brings me to the Like button.

The stuff has kept me busy so I haven’t stayed as up to date on the blogs I follow as I prefer. I’ve spent the last few hours looking through posts, and finally had to stop because they were blending together. During that time, however, I found myself considering reasons not to hit the “Like” button.

Aside from the obvious (“this is a stupid post,” “I hate mayonnaise, so I’m not going to read about it,” and “I have no idea what they’re talking about”), I repeatedly had four reasons for skipping over the Like and Comment sections:

1.) The Depression Journal: Some people write fantastic posts about depression. I’ve enjoyed (and even liked, oh my) a few where the person was trying to enlighten their readers about particular mental illnesses, some of which included depression. I appreciate anyone who is willing to share their story. As a collector of stories (aren’t we all?), I tuck them away and try to remember them when some instance occurs in my life and that story could provide me a little more empathy.

I do not, however, like posts when the writer has “Depression” as a category. Categories and tags are different. Tags are about the topics in a post. I can handle depression as a post topic, but when a person has a whole slew of posts about how their college courses make them want to cut themselves, well… I feel that isn’t my place.

If I thought I could craft a comment that would dissuade a person from self-harm, I’d do it, but I don’t have that kind of confidence in myself. I’m also a cynical person who isn’t sure whether the writer really has a problem, or if they want attention. If I already don’t feel I can make things better, I don’t want my otherwise useless comment or like to encourage anyone, whether they’re making it up or not.

2.) Politics: I went through that phase of my life where I had an opinion on everything and thought everyone needed to hear it.

But they didn’t need to hear it. And most of them didn’t want to hear it. The ones who did didn’t like my opinion so much as they liked arguing so they could hear themselves share their own opinion.

Discussion of politics has its place. I’ll talk to most people about my beliefs, but not on WordPress. This blog is my creative outlet, not a place for me to argue or scare people away from my words. While I’ve read some great posts about political issues, I’ve found that a large number of them are those same people who are writing for the sake of enjoying their own opinion, rather than trying to change anything.

3.) Religion: You’ll also notice I don’t talk about religion. My feelings here are very much like my feelings about politics: I’ll talk to you in person, but my blog is my creative outlet, not a place to debate whose god is right, or wears the coolest outfit.

4.) Diets: I have plenty of admiration for people who take control and make themselves healthier, whether it be by diet, exercise, or other. The problem is that a lot of the people who blog about dieting say things like “I can lose a pound a day if I don’t eat and drink Diet Coke all day.” Since I never know if the writer is a starve-yourself addict who lives off Diet Coke, I skip over these posts as well.

Another important belief of mine is that there’s an exception to every good rule. I don’t believe in absolutes. Today I liked a post that had politic ties, because it was an interesting perspective from a person who felt guilt about the decisions of their local leaders. I also seriously debated commenting on a post where a writer asked “is it okay for Christian writers to swear in their books?”

That was an almost. The answer seemed simple to me, but then again, we tend to find our own beliefs to be the obvious.

What do you think? Should I break my rules more often? Do most people have restrictions about their online presence? 

Oh, you don’t like NaNoWriMo?

With the surplus of Camp NaNoWriMo posts on WordPress this month, several writers have made sure that everyone knows they loathe the event.

That’s fine. Hate it. You don’t have to like it, or use it, but don’t judge the people who do.

Most of the arguments against NaNoWriMo are as follows:

1. A “real” novel is more than 50,000 words

2. Quality writing cannot possibly be produced in such a short period of time

3. A “real” writer doesn’t need a big event to make them write.

Well, you got to say what you think in your blogs, so here’s what I think in mine:

1. No, 50k words is not a novel length story. It’s a novella.

Who. Gives. A. Crap?

Some people go on to write more after the month, some write less. Some write 50k words, feel good about themselves, and stop mid-sentence because they’re so freaking tired of writing. It’s about setting a goal, not producing a publishable novel in 30 days.

2. No, a publishable novel cannot be completed in a month. That doesn’t mean that a great novel can’t be started in 30 days. I knew someone who had a forty page outline written before NaNoWriMo one year. He’d practically written a novel in the planning stages, so hitting 50,000 wasn’t a huge challenge for him. That book was published the next year and I was astonished at how good it was.

Then again, participating in NaNoWriMo also doesn’t mean that the person plans on publishing their novel. I don’t think most people go into NaNoWriMo thinking, “I’m going to write the great American novel and publish it in December and be super rich and famous.” Sure, there will always be some who do, but those people are a minority. If you don’t want to read their unedited book, don’t buy it on Amazon when they rush to print it the next month.

Many go into it with an idea and excitement to be part of a community for a month. Which leads me to …

3. Not everyone who participates in NaNoWriMo is trying to write for a living. It’s a tool that different people utilize in different ways, whether they’ve been plotting a novel for a year and are using the month as a motivator to get started, or they’re a person who always wanted to write a book, and thought they’d give it a shot. NaNoWriMo is about showing that anyone can write a book if they want to. Most of the people I know who have participated felt like they’d accomplished something, and never looked at the book again.

I occasionally use it because I like getting to know people during the month. I went into it once with no plan, and one challenge to myself: write something out of my normal genre. I ended up surprisingly happy with the story I wrote, and two years later, I know it’s not ready for the world, despite multiple rewrites and new drafts. The victory was internal. I never would have pushed myself to write out of my genre if it hadn’t been for NaNo. I only kept at it because of my friends on Twitter, who encouraged me to continue. I learned something from the experience, and then went about my life.

In Summary

Participate in (Camp) NaNoWriMo if you want, and don’t if you don’t. Stop being so judgmental. Why can’t we be happy for people who have found something healthy and legal that makes them happy?

NaNo Update – I didn’t fool myself

When I wrote about starting Camp NaNoWriMo, I admitted that I was trying to trick myself into writing 50,000 words this month by not putting pressure on myself.

I’m not very smart. You can’t fool someone who knows the trick.

The plan was to start writing and see what happens, having no expectation of what I would produce in 50,000 words. I saw it as an exercise to get myself writing again, not as a way to produce a great novel. The trouble with making myself write, however, was that I found myself writing a story that’s been hiding in the back of my mind for the last couple of years.

Write What You Know

It’s the most common, and most controversial, piece of writing advice. I can’t say it’s something I generally follow, but every story I’ve written has had a piece of myself in it.

When I was younger, I had this obsession with individual stories, convinced that every person had a story to tell. To an extent, that’s true. We all have stories worth sharing over coffee, and then there are people with stories with having Leonardo Dicaprio running across a screen as us.

I’m not worthy of Leo. Or a female equivalent (I’d pick Anne Hathaway).

Then again, I’m young. I have plenty of time to hack into government files, start a revolution, or go on an extended crime spree. We’ll see on that part. For now, the best stories I have a lot like everyone else’s: They’re about relationships. I managed to hit all sorts in my early twenties – good, bad, healthy, unhealthy. Sometimes I wish I’d known someone who could relate. In reality, I probably did, but we don’t like to talk about the bad. We don’t like to admit the bad.

Plenty of books explore human relationships. I’m not pretending that what I have to contribute is new, but it’s human, and that’s what I want in a book about people.

The Challenges

My NaNoWriMo novel isn’t my story, but I’m listening to that old advice and writing about what I know. It sounds easier than I’m finding it, and every time I sit to write I find more challenges.

1. This isn’t a novel that I can write by dumping a large number of words on a page without a plan. I’ve dropped my word count goal signficantly. I feel okay doing this because Camp NaNoWriMo isn’t about writing a 50k word novel so much as it is about meeting a challenge.

2. The main character is not me. Megan is a work of fiction, but she certainly has some of my traits and as well as similar experiences. I’m finding myself worrying about every idea, afraid that anyone who reads it will either assume it’s about me, or that my friends/family will assume other characters are supposed to be them. It’s not. They aren’t.

3. She needs to make mistakes. This problem is similar to problem number 2. Megan will not make my mistakes, but it’s hard not to unload those mistakes on her. Similarly, some part of me keeps worrying that, again, a family member will read it and begin to worry about me, assuming Megan is me and that I made those mistakes.

In reality, these aren’t difficult challenges. I know that many writers, especially those who produce a lot of work, face them on a regular basis, and don’t even consider them struggles. The problem is, I’m not a writer. I’m a girl with a blog and a couple of novels she’s written tucked in a trunk in her bedroom. This is all very new to me, especially since most of my past work has been fantasy. It’s pretty easy to say, “Pssssh, she isn’t based on me. She can blow up trees with her brain. I’m not that cool.”

Continuing

Yes, I’m continuing. I should probably update my word count on the NaNo website… It hasn’t been the most inspiring place for me, so I haven’t rushed there every day. My goal now is more to see what I can produce with this novel this month. I want to write every day, as well as plan and develop every day. At the end of the month, I will probably set this story aside and go back to editing my last novel. I have the feeling this one will need to breathe awhile.

 

NaNo Jammin’

Writers love to talk about the writing process, and I love to read about it. One thing I’ve noticed a lot of my fellow NaNo-ers writing about is their writing playlist. I’ve seen everything from metal to classical (and some fun mixes of genres as well). So what’s on my playlist?

Absolutely nothing.

I feel like a horrible person for saying it. Please don’t hurt me! I’ve read interviews with professional writers who talk about their eccentric playlists and I’ve always found them fascinating. Despite that, I don’t consider them necessary.

My last book was primarily written to My Chemical Romance. Today, I couldn’t name a single one of their songs. Hell, I may not have been able to name them then. All I knew was that it was the right noise for that novel. That isn’t happening this time around. Maybe it’s because this novel is so close to home that I don’t need noise. Every topic is personal. I don’t have to block out the world, because my world is part of it.

Is it weird to write in silence? Does anyone else do it? I’m going to keep doing it no matter what anyone else thinks, but I’d still like to hear opinions.

*On an unrelated note, I haven’t looked at sheet music in about nine years, and I wasn’t great at reading it then. I’m sure my drawing looks horrible, and I’m okay with it.

Geekmoon Prep Part 2: To RTX We Go!!

Today is the day! We’re heading to RTX for our Geekmoon (honeymoon).The husband keeps saying he doesn’t know what his dream trip will be after this, he’s wanted to go to RTX so long. We’ve been slowly prepping for months now, planning our evenings away from the convention, setting our budget, figuring our which panels we’d like to visit. The last couple of days have been the craziest.

1.) We cleaned. I already wrote about this, but suffice it to say, I’m nice and worn out from yesterday. The husband too. Don’t think I didn’t put him to work.

2.) We packed. We packed again.

Obviously a lot is missing from this starter pile. You’ll notice the nice groupings of t-shirts. Husband has enough Rooster Teeth shirts for every day of the convention, though I’ve promised we can buy more while we’re there. I only have one, the RWBY shirt in the middle. I packed two other geeky shirts, and was sad to realize that my nerd attire is entirely black or dark blue. We’re going to Texas. It’s going to be hot. Hence the stack of tank tops. We’ve even got some fancy clothes in there.

I thought about packing my “Bow Ties are Cool” shirt, but then I remembered that Ashley Jenkins wears the same shirt in a lot of her RT videos. Ashley Jenkins is a hot blonde who looks about 800x better than me. No need to have all of her fans immediately compare us. I opted for a weeping angel shirt instead.

Other essentials (pictured and not pictured): Lanyards (we bought new ones. Mine vanished when we moved last year). Reading material. A DS, loaded with Pokemon X. My Audible App, with one and a half un-read (listened to) Dresden File books. Geeky necklaces. Comfy shoes. Plenty of SPF.

3.) Leave a note for the house-sitters. I can’t believe how much of a challenge this was. Mostly it made me incredibly aware of how much we spoil our cats. It included lines like “don’t let Kitty #2 in the bedroom alone because she crawls under the fitted sheet and eats the bed topper,” and “don’t let Kitty #1 in the office because she steals Husband’s Halo toys and it makes him sad.”

4.) Setup blog posts to publish automatically. BOOM. If you’re reading this, then step number 4 worked. If not, oh well. I’ll be having too good a time to care much. Once we’re back I’m going to do an incredible amount of reading to catch up on all the blogs I follow. It’s a little scary, but kind of exciting as well.

5.) Stash a new notebook in my purse. It’s still Camp NaNoWriMo, friends. My Day 2 word count was 4826, and that’s what the website will reflect until next week. I’ll be writing by hand while we’re away, which is my preferred method anyway. I only ever type my NaNo stories because it’s easier to track the word count that way.

Have a great weekend, everyone! I’ll be on during down time and while I’m waiting in lines, but mostly I’ll be enjoying my honeymoon. I look forward to catching up with you all next week.

NaNo Beginnings

Hi there fellow NaNo-ers (all non-NaNo-ers). I feel like I’ve had a successful day, and there’s still plenty of day left.

3137 words so far! As you can see, my first drafts aren’t always the highest quality writing, but hell, I’m not a professional writer. My final drafts aren’t either.

Normally I’d like to have more of a cushion the first day, but we have a pretty crazy week already. I’m working on a final checklist of everything we need to pack tomorrow for RTX. I’m also trying to get together a couple of blog posts to schedule to go up later this week while I’m out of town because I won’t have my laptop in Austin and *gasp* I don’t own a tablet.

On that topic, I will be checking the blog via the app while I’m at RTX (geekmoon!) and I’ll put up some small, con-related posts while I’m there. It’s not in the plan to go to any of the autograph signings, so I doubt I’ll have any fun selfies with any of the guests, but there’s always something to photograph at a convention. Be prepared, friends. I’ll keep up on your posts while I’m gone too, but my commenting might be down a little.

NaNo is still on the schedule for tonight. I figure I’ll start again once it’s an acceptable hour to have a glass of wine while I write.

How is NaNo going for everyone else? Stay strong!  In my experience, the beginning seems to be either very stressful, or incredibly easy. Hope you’re all experiencing the latter.

NaNoWriMo and the Honeymoon Collide

I’ve written about both my plans to participate in Camp NaNoWriMo and my Honeymoon Prep. These two events will be colliding later this week. As promised, here’s my most recent business card idea for the convention:

I’ve already promised myself that I won’t stress about writing while we’re in Austin, but I guarantee you I’ll be thinking about my word count during the slow points in the day. What better way to spend long periods of time in line? Playing Pokemon?

Actually, that sounds like a good idea too. Someone remind me to pack my DS. After all, I am…

BOOM. Used a graphic twice. I feel so accomplished.

Good luck to everyone prepping their novels! And to those who will be at RTX, I can’t wait to see you there!

Camp NaNoWriMo – Or, A Fantastic Way to Lose Sleep for a Month

I’ve impulsively decided to participate in Camp NaNoWriMo this year, which is madness, so I’ll wish myself luck.

In case you don’t know what NaNoWriMo is, it stands for National Novel Writing Month, and is held in November each year. The goal is to write a 50k word novel in one month. The “camp” sessions have the same goal*, but take place during summer. I’m planning to join the session that begins July 1.

Now for the madness. I’ve successfully completed NaNoWriMo twice, and while I was quite happy with both novels, I never finished the editing process on either. Two years later, the second is now very close to being finished. It would probably be smarter to dedicate my brain to completing that, but who wants to be logical?

It’s also mad to try and jump in so soon. I don’t have much of a plan, which scares me a little. What if I run out of story too soon? What if I realize halfway through that it doesn’t make sense? Of course, not having a plan could also be a lot of fun. I can make my characters do whatever I want. Outline? What? Outlines are for sissies. It means I’ll spend more time thinking what to write each day than I would if I had an outline in front of me, but  I think it’ll be worth it. The last time I did NaNoWriMo I was in a similar boat, and I was happy with both the result and the experience.

The final reason this whole thing is madness is I’m going on my honeymoon in July. My husband fully supports me doing this, and while we’ll only be out of town for a few days, I still feel guilty that I’ll likely be taking up some of those days writing. He has assured me that I shouldn’t feel guilty, so I’ll do my darndest.

Is anyone else participating? Anyone else nervous? I know that getting through the first two weeks will be the toughest with my schedule, which is a little scary because the first week tends to be the easiest. Knowing that, I’ve decided not to get on myself too hard if I don’t complete the 50,000 word goal. I obviously want to complete it, but I don’t want to spend any part of our honeymoon stressed out.

(Basically, I’m trying to trick myself. If I don’t feel pressure, maybe I’ll speed right toward that goal. Don’t tell me about it. It’s a secret.)

Wish me luck!

 *The camp sessions actually allow you to change the word count goal, but it defaults to 50k. I’ve lowered my goal on the website to 40k to try and allow myself breathing room for that honeymoon, but the goal in my head will always be 50.

Iambic Pentawaaaaa?

Two years ago I decided to challenge myself during NaNoWriMo by writing a novel in a genre outside my norm. It’s the last real piece of fiction I wrote (and also the one I really, really should edit), and it’s my proudest. I don’t know that it’s my best, but I’m happy with what happened when I left my comfort zone. Last week I decided to give myself another such challenge: write a poem.

It doesn’t sound like such a challenge, but if you’d ever seen any of my attempts at poetry, you’d understand. I thought back to the last poem I was assigned to write in high school. We were asked to compose a Shakespearean sonnet, using the same number of syllables as everyone’s favorite Doctor Who character writer.

Thank God she didn’t require us to write that thing in iambic pentameter, I thought, recalling the pride of my classmates when they’d turned in their perfectly flowing sonnets. If someone told me I had to compose a sonnet in iambic pentameter or lose an arm, I think I’d pray they took the left.

Dramatization

As for my poem? I’m 90% certain mine had the right number of syllables.

If you don’t know what iambic pentameter is, it’s a rhythm frequently used in poetry, and Will was a big fan. It’s all based on the stress put on syllables. An iamb is the combination of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. Add in the pentameter part and it’s a set of 5 such combinations. Here’s a really well known line of Will’s (From Sonnet 18):

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?

But you pronounce it…

shall I comPARE thee TO  a SUMmers DAY?

Get it?

Good for you, because I barely do. Which makes my little challenge to myself quite frustrating. Please, no one take my arm. My problem is that I eventually start pronouncing everything oddly, and I eventually can’t remember how words are supposed to sound.

am I doING it RIGHT? ohKAY, how ABout NOW? yeah? NO?  i THINK i’m… NO, wait. BOOK worm PENguin TARtar SAUCE. words. DAMN you 9th grade ENGlish.

And now, my friends, you know why I haven’t posted this week. I think I broke my brain. I also remembered why 9th grade English was harder for me than any English course I took in college. We all have something we never quite got in school. Aside from half of what they tried to teach me about grammar, this was it for me. I think I’m going to keep trying anyway. If one line comes out well, then it’ll be an achievement. Where’s the fun in challenging myself if it’s not a challenge?

Wish me luck , my friends. And don’t worry. I’m not crazy enough to threaten myself with bodily injury.