National Novel Writing Month Underway Worldwide

The beginning of November marks a number of different occasions – Election Day, the end of daylight savings time, the prelude to the holiday season. But for many writers, November has come to mean one thing: National Novel Writing Month.

National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo for short, started in 1999, with less than two dozen writers. Within a couple of years, they built a website (www.nanowrimo.org), and as bloggers began to spread the word, the number of participants grew exponentially. This year, they’re expecting 500,000 writers around the world to join what they call “the largest writing event in the world.”

The purpose of NaNoWriMo is to write 50,000 words of a novel, during the month of November. Anyone who is inspired to write a novel is welcome to join in – no experience necessary. Looking strictly at the numbers, 50,000 words translates to writing about six typed pages each day. If you write six pages a day for 30 days, you’re going to end up with close to a 200 page draft. Not a bad start.

There are a number of ways to participate in this event. There is an official website that allows you to register, create your own profile, and track your progress – all for free. You even have the opportunity to communicate/commiserate with other would-be novelists. There are local NaNoWriMo events all over the world, including right here in Monmouth County, New Jersey. Local events include “write-ins” – free writing sessions at libraries and places that sell caffeinated beverages.

There are some mixed feelings on the idea of writing a novel in 30 days. First, it’s highly unlikely that anyone is going to write a polished, completed manuscript in 30 days. In fact, I’ll go as far as to say it’s impossible. So if you do give it a try, it’s better to approach NaNoWriMo as the first step in the long process of writing a novel, and not the entire path to the bestseller’s list. There will be less anguish, to be sure.

I know many writers – including a few published novelists – who take issue with the timing of the event. Somehow the founders decided that aspiring novelists have nothing else to do during the month of November. Obviously they don’t cook for Thanksgiving Dinner or start their holiday shopping until December 1.

Still, there are good reasons to tackle NaNoWriMo. When you participate in the local or even the online events, a certain camaraderie develops. There is value in simply meeting other writers also trying to accomplish this seemingly insane and impossible goal. Just make sure you’re spending most of your time writing and not just talking about it (a common trap).

But the most valuable reason to write a novel in 30 days? At the end of the month, you will be in the habit of writing every day – which is what you need to do if you’re going to write a novel. You do get better with practice.

A New Year’s Revelation: Ways to Discover Your Passion

It’s January 10 – how many people have already abandoned their New Year’s resolutions?

New Year’s resolutions date back to Ancient Rome and customs related to the god Janus, the two-faced god of doorways and beginnings, as people hoped that the new year would mean better times ahead.

There is a lot of pressure surrounding New Year’s resolutions. First, there’s the idea that you have to break a bad habit just because January 1 has come around again on the calendar. There is also a tendency to set unrealistic expectations and expect instant results, so that by January 15, when you haven’t lost 30 pounds, or your closets are still overflowing, you’re ready to give up. To make matters worse, we’re bombarded by media hype about resolutions. On New Year’s Eve, network TV hit most of the big ones: lose weight, quit smoking, shred paper …

I started thinking that maybe the problem with the concept of New Year’s resolutions is that there’s too much focus on stopping the negative or breaking bad habits. What if we resolve to do more of what’s working, to fuel everything that’s good – a “New Year’s Revelation,” if you will. Instead of finding a habit to break, resolve to create something or focus on what you’re passionate about – what inspires you, what brings you joy. If you’re not sure what it is, perhaps resolve to identify that.

Find some solitude – no company, no computer, no smartphone – and take some time to consider what drives you, what makes you feel great in your gut, in your solar plexus. Trying brainstorming. Maybe you’ll steer yourself toward something you haven’t tried but are interested in – a new type of cooking, or dancing, or a new language. Most community colleges offer short session courses that fit a variety of interests designed to help you get your feet wet.

Perhaps you’ll find that what makes you feel great is helping others – volunteering for a favorite cause, sharing your knowledge with peers, or acting as a mentor toward someone are all great ways to give back to your community.

If you already know what your passion is but feel it’s a bit anemic, find a way to create some new spark. Most creative people –  writers, musicians, artists – go through a period in which they’re no longer sure what inspires them. Try creating in a different than usual manner. For instance, if you’re a writer or a musician, try your hand at visual art, either painting or drawing, or even making a collage. If you’re a visual artist, try writing some song lyrics or a poem.

The key is to reinvigorate yourself. Resolve to make 2012 your best year ever – not because you finally managed to drop those last 10 pounds, but because you have tapped in to something that makes you feel grounded, connected, alive. Take advantage of the “New Year, New You” movement you are being bombarded with, but refuse to focus on the things you shouldn’t do or can’t seem to quit. Set your sights instead on expanding something rewarding, expressing that unconventional urge, nudging yourself in a new direction.

Because the media and the pundits have it wrong. One doesn’t emerge fully formed as the “New You” on January 1 – that unveiling will most likely surprise you sometime mid-summer. This month is for the looking inside and taking that first step on your journey, that slight change in your course that brings the fun back into the trip. Push your boundaries, express your gratitude, reach a little for that dream – you have a whole year to work on it.

In Appreciation of the Android

Much to my dismay, I have become one of those annoying people who are dependent – okay, addicted – to their smartphones. For years, I made fun of my “Crackberry” friends, but now I am one of them, although for a number of reasons, Android is my smartphone of choice.

Only a few months ago, my phone was a simple LG EnV3. I could make phone calls and text my husband and kids. That was it. Very basic. But then…May 2011. I was due for a phone upgrade. There was a Mother’s Day special…from that weekend, I was hooked.

All joking aside, as the co-owner of a writing and editorial services business I realized that regardless of how much I liked my basic cell phone, it wasn’t going to cut it anymore, and I would need to make the smartphone leap. If it was all about e-mail, I would have gone with the Blackberry. But I chose an Android because it seemed to have more of the features that I would need to access certain things quickly. I knew that beyond e-mail, I would need to quickly access and view web pages as well as documents at any given moment. Plus, my husband, a technophile who is not fond of the iPhone, already used an Android, so it made sense for me as well.

Even though my experience with my Android hasn’t been completely trouble-free (particularly when I had to switch from a Samsung Galaxy S to a Motorola Droid after a software glitch), I am still quite satisfied with my Droid. (In my experience, the Droid is superior to the Galaxy S when it comes to calls and battery life.)

But even beyond phone calls, e-mails, viewing documents and web browsing, I’ve discovered a number of apps that are particularly useful for writers, freelancers, small business owners or any combination of the three. Plus I’m accumulating a list of interesting looking apps that I’d like to test drive when I have the time.

In case Santa brings you an Android phone or tablet, here are some of the apps that I’ve found to be most useful:

•  Evernote – for ideas, notes, photos, anything you want to save. On my laptop too.
•  Color Note – great for a quick note or reminder. Can place them on your home page.
•  CamCard and CamScanner – The first is a business card reader that can add the person’s information into your phone. A bit tricky but still a time saver. CamScanner scans documents and can convert them to a pdf.
•  K-9 Mail – much better than the default e-mail on my Droid. I like the fact that I can access all of my accounts from one screen. Plus it’s free.
•  Out of Milk – my preferred grocery shopping app.
•  Seesmic and HootSuite – More useful than the regular Twitter app.
•  Get It Done – This is based on David Allen’s Getting Things Done book/system, which is widely recommended for freelance writers. Promising, although I am still getting the hang of it. Also on my laptop.

There are several other apps that I’ve read about that I’m planning to try. These include:

• Thinking Space – a mind mapping app.
• Droid Room – for saving plain text files.
• Time Tracker – for tracking time spent on projects and generating time sheets.

In the meantime, I am still searching for a good project tracking app for PC and Android, similar to Manymoon, which is not available for Android.  If anyone has any other recommendations, please let us know.

Why You Can’t Rely On Spell Check

On her “Copylicious” website, Kelly Parkinson uses the phrase “eyeball speed bumps,” a term which I will happily misappropriate. She’s referring to elements that create in the reader the desire to “communicate immediately.” I aver instead that they are errors or elements that slow the reader down, causing him or her a moment of “Huh?” You’ll get no argument from me that any element in a piece that makes the reader puzzle over what was just read is a not a good thing. What I want to address today, however, is typos, misspelling and why you can’t rely on spell checkers.

For me, and probably for many, typos and misspellings function as eyeball speed bumps. It stops me from chugging along comprehending what you have written and replaces it with an “Oh, no.” Let me clarify for one moment – your reader cannot usually tell a typo from a misspelling. Granted, if you were typing the word “boxcar” and it came out “bsxcar” or “bpxcar” instead, then yes, I would assume that you had inadvertently hit a wrong key. However, if you type “bixcar” “or bozcar,” I will wonder first if you are using a word that I’ve never heard of, and then I may shrug it off as a typo.

However, if you type “meat” when you meant to type “meet,” I will question your intelligence. “Unfair!” you cry. I can hear you all clamoring to make the argument that one letter is one letter and that the error is still a typo. Perhaps. The problem is that the one letter in question results in a different word. The wrong word. That’s not a speed bump –it’s a traffic accident. Whether it’s a fender bender or a head-on collision depends on the particular word in question.

There is a tremendous difference between the right word and the almost right word. In a recent post I typed “fuselage.”Mary Ellen called and asked why I was writing about airplanes. I wasn’t – or at least I hadn’t meant to. The word I wanted was “fusillade.” Close (at least to my harried ear), but not right. Over the years, I have learned that I spell by sound, and that I have tremendous difficulty spelling a word I can’t pronounce. Six years in the Pharmaceutical industry taught me to look up the generic drug name every time, because I could not mentally pronounce it. I could get close, but you can’t count on close. “Intravenous” and “intervenous” are NOT the same thing, but I’ll admit at first glance I suspected typo. The program in my word processor even offered to fix it as I was typing it here. If you have any familiarity with prefixes you know “intra” and “inter” are pretty much opposites. Our doctors know the difference between these words, lay people may or may not. Herein lies the danger of spell checkers. The program wants to change “intervenous” to “intervenes” or “intravenous.” And that would be about as wrong as you could get.

Like any overly-helpful relative, spell checkers want to make your life easier by enabling you to take shortcuts. When you complete a document and run through the program, it will offer suggestions for words it doesn’t recognize – helpful right? Yes, if you are paying attention. Under no circumstances should you ever let it automatically fix whatever it wants. Unlike the previous example, this can sometimes result in humorous errors. I am thinking of one website in particular whose principals claim to have graduated from Fairly Dickinson University. I am sure they meant Fairleigh. I even believe they typed “Fairleigh.” I think the spell checker was being it’s uber-helpful self and they just hit “accept change” and moved on. Sad to say, so did I.

Fighting the Time Bandit

We were in the car last week when my nine-year-old son asked what the date was.

“July 21^st? How can it be July 21^st?” He was incredulous. “The summer is over!”

Much complaining followed, even though I explained that there’s still six weeks left of summer and that he needed to relax.

“Six weeks is nothing,” he sighed.

I have to admit, that on my more pessimistic days, it certainly does feel like time just continues to pick up speed – another summer, another Christmas, another decade over and done in record time.

Since said nine-year-old is, well, nine, I resisted the temptation to say, “Yep. That’s it. Summer’s over. Might as well go buy your school supplies now.” Instead I countered by saying that we have plenty of time left to do things this summer – the entire month of August, for example.

According to self-improvement books, six weeks is more than enough time to establish a new routine such as committing to an exercise program or quitting smoking. Six weeks is enough time to reorganize your basement or garage (if my husband reads this, he will need six weeks to stop laughing). According to NaNoWriMo.org, it’s possible to write a novel in a month, let alone six weeks.

I think the key to tricking yourself into thinking that time isn’t really sailing away is to make your time productive. The idea of making every minute count by having a goal and a plan is, at least, a start at providing some direction as to how you want to spend your time. Just don’t get so caught up in making the plans that you never actually get around to doing anything (and I’ve fallen prey to this more than I care to admit).

 How do you create and implement the important plans your life? If you’re a writer, do you follow a writing plan? We will compile some of the answers in a subsequent post.

Summer Strategies for Writer Moms (and Dads)

The weeks between Memorial Day and mid-June, at least in my house, are overrun with activities that mark the end of the school year. With a college student, a 16-year-old and a nine-year-old in residence, this means simultaneous and nearly constant last minute projects, school parties, book fairs, sports banquets and final exams.  And then suddenly, it’s the last day of school.  The whirlwind stops, and I can breathe again. Until 8 o’clock the next morning, when I hear, “Mom… I’m bored.  Can we make crayons?”  And so the refrain begins, at least for those of us who work from home and have to regroup because for several weeks, our school-age children are with us for most of the work day.

I’ve been working from home since 1995, so I’ve had some time to adjust to the juggling act. But I still give into temptation and let the schedules ease during the first week or two of summer vacation, mainly because of that May-June frenzy. But once the Fourth of July holiday is over, it’s time to get back to more diligent scheduling. Between business and family responsibilities, I’ve always had to do some fine tuning to make time for my personal writing (as opposed to writing and editing for business). If you are looking for ways to boost your writing time, here are some ways to get started:

• Wake up a little earlier each day. Even 30 minutes can get a jump start on the daily word count.
•  The reverse would be true for night owls (just be sure you do maintain a bedtime for the kids).
•  Carry a notebook with you at all times to record anything from article ideas to character sketches. Tuck a small notebook into your beach bag, diaper bag, or handbag so that you’re ready to write wherever your summer family adventures take you.  
• Take advantage of the hours your kids are in camp. The hours my nine-year-old son is in camp are platinum territory. Instead of using these hours to run errands, to paraphrase one of my favorite quotes on writing, from author Elizabeth George, find some “chair glue” — and write. 
•  Use the summer months to nudge your family into becoming a little more self-sufficient. Keep snacks and drinks handy for who are old enough to serve themselves.
•  Enlist the family in helping with more household chores. You may find that it’s easier to assign new chores or give the younger ones more responsibilities during the summer so that they have an opportunity to get accustomed to them while there’s no homework, soccer practice, etc.  Keep the tasks simple and direct so that they don’t need to keep interrupting you to find out what they need to do next.
•  Give the kids tools and items to keep themselves busy. Before summer vacation began, my writing partner put together a craft box for her nine-year-old daughter. She and her daughter visited a crafts store together and created an inexpensive mixture of activities that she can pull out and work on by herself. My son does the same thing with art supplies, Legos and other building kits.
•    If you need to finish a piece on deadline, have your child work on enrichment assignments, summer reading, or workbook pages.  If you need to coax your children into reading, have them join a book club at the library or even through a bookstore. 

Remember to take time for a little summer fun though. After all, there should still be some perks for working from home.

The Hat Parade

Sometimes it appears that the piece of furniture that gets the most use here at The Write Room is the hat rack. Certainly we spend a fair amount of time at our desks and computers, but the advent of Summer has stepped up our need to switch hats. Often.  Sometimes without warning.

Yesterday, the hat parade went something like this: editor, mother, dog walker, gardener, short order cook, marketer, collaborating partner, cook (again), chauffeur, bookkeeper, counselor, housekeeper, nurse, cook (dinner this time), dishwasher, daughter, laundress, mother, wife, and finally, writer. I suppose I got off easy – the grocery shopping was done, and the children kept the dog busy so I did not have to chase after her to retrieve a slipper or the TV remote. Still, I counted it a full day, and at the end of it I was weary.

As the nature of the job, a parent must learn many functions and be adept at switching from one to the other. Although I knew that starting our own business would likewise involve many functions, I did not expect such similarities. I’ve had enough years as a mom to take the jump from one role to another in stride, but I am finding the midstream switch from marketer to bookkeeper to designer and back to be both exhilarating and jarring.

Moving from one role to another certainly keeps things interesting.  And, as we continue to “furnish” The Write Room, there is always some new aspect we can be working on, something new to learn. I’ve had to modify my pre-work routine (what some of my family calls “fixing to work”) so that I can be more agile. However, I find that I still do best at those high-focus jobs when there are no distractions, no other hats to wear but the pencil behind my ear. That and I’m naturally a night person. My best writing seems to happen after dark, and having a space like The Write Room allows me to take advantage of that proclivity. It seems I’ll be installing a lamp… right next to the hat rack.

Rearranging the Furniture

Some time ago, I purchased a domain name, thewriteroom.com. Originally, this website was to be a virtual companion to a very real writing studio that I was hoping to create with the intention of sharing with other writers. I envisioned a calm and uncluttered space with no distractions and lots of natural light. The furnishings would be simple – a few desks, one or two comfortable reading areas, perhaps some plants. Unfortunately, the reality of leasing an uncluttered space with lots of natural light in central Monmouth County, New Jersey would prove to be an expensive proposition, and sadly, my shared writing studio did not materialize.

However, since I was not planning to part with my domain name, I simply threw mental dust covers over the desks and reading areas. And then I waited. An opportunity was bound to present itself.

Spring 2011: An opportunity arose from pivotal circumstances, over a cup of tea. It was finally time to raise the blinds, and pull the muslin from the furniture. My friend and I, weary from denying our craft for the purpose of career and family, have set about refurbishing the dream deferred. Through numerous hours of brainstorming, crash courses in software and marketing, and forays into the surprisingly balmy waters of networking, we have arrived at our launching point. Redefined, The Write Room is now open.

We are both graduates of Drew University, Madison, N.J., completing studies in English Literature, Fiction and Non-Fiction Writing, and an extended and multi-faceted stint in the college paper, which in some ways taught us more about the real-world application of writing than our classes. As for the Real World, together we have more than 40 years of writing and editing experience.

We’re looking forward to engaging in lively conversation here at our blog, because at any given moment, we find that we are identifying ourselves in remarkable new ways. Writers and editors, certainly. But we are also women.  Entrepreneurs. Mothers. Confidantes. Collaborators.  Our hat rack is quite full.

Thank you for joining us here, in the annex of The Write Room. We hope you enjoy the company and the conversation.