The Joy of Writing: How to Keep it During NaNoWriMo

The Joy of Writing? During National Novel Writing Month? You’re kidding, right?A 55K word novel in a month?You’re fretting, nervous, sweaty.

Performance anxiety in excelsis?

Brain block? What brain?

Writing should be fun and NaNo is your opportunity to have a ball. To help get you in the mood, I’ve asked some experienced writers to talk about the many pleasures of writing.

Grace Burrowes

Grace Burrowes started out as a tech writer, switched to law, but millions of readers know her for her USA Today and NYT bestselling romance novels.

There are so many joys to writing, at least for me. I love—

• The research, which connects me to people I’ll never know in person, but can appreciate even from a temporal distance.
• The author community, which is full of the most knowledgeable, generous, creative, insightful, interesting people ever to take time from their busy lives to believe in something so much more compelling and rewarding than simple profit for its own sake.
• The readers, about whom, I cannot say enough good things
• The keeper authors whose stories have inspired me through so many tight knotholes and six-hankie billing cycles
• But mostly, I love the process of creative self-expression. Our culture doesn’t make much space for honoring each person’s story, but as an author, I get to focus on that story in its fictional incarnations. I can sit with it, shape it, recast it again and again, and then set it free to entertain and be enjoyed by others. I have the best job. I find myself over and over in the context of love stories, and each time, the sense of joy and homecoming is new all over
  again.

Joe Konrath

Noted blogger and ebook guru, Joe Konrath has sold over 3 million books worldwide and writes in the thriller, horror, erotica and comedy genres.

• What I love about writing is the same thing I love about reading a good book; disappearing into the story as it plays out in my head. There is no other media that uses so much imagination, and creating worlds and characters is a reward unto itself. Honestly, if the federal government knew how much fun writing was, they’d tax it or make it illegal.
• NaNo can be challenging, difficult, and even daunting. But if you aren’t having fun, maybe you should spend your time doing something you’d enjoy.

Consuelo Saah Baehr

Multi-faceted bestseller, Consuelo Saah Baehr has been published in hardcover by Delacourt and Simon & Schuster, and as an indie in ebook format. Consuelo is now a Montlake author. (Montlake is an Amazon imprint…Anne)

• Having a deadline will make you write like a sonofagun.
• I’ve become a more facile writer from being a regular blogger. The discipline of making the ordinary sound interesting has given my writing muscles a workout and I’m accustomed to finding the best way to present an idea.
• Grace Paley once said “If you want to write better, write truer.” It works. If you find the truest sentence about a scene or idea, the rest will flow very nicely.
• In my current book I had allocated some space for two minor characters. They have insinuated themselves into all the major plot points. They will probably run away with the book without my permission. Sounds crazy. Really happens.The above pushy duo have created intrigue and plot twists I never intended but make for a more interesting book. I, the writer, would never have thought of the things they do.
• When I need a good idea for a new scene or passage, I ask my mind (out loud) to think about what I need and then present the answer to me. Always works. (Saying it aloud might help).
• When I’m out of the house and get an idea, I write in longhand on the back of a flyer and get some wonderful and sound writing done. Longhand has a little magic attached to it and also a different locale that is quiet seems to work, too.
• I’ve been published by several of the big six and only once did I have a bad editor. I was thrilled to be edited by the smart experienced editors assigned to me. Michael Korda was a great editor. Jackie Farber who edited Daughters was a great editor. A great editor helps you shape the manuscript and focus on the story instead of the writing.
• It takes a day or two to adjust to good editorial suggestions. Just do the work. They are almost always right. I had a bad editor once and I could not see his point of view. Later I realized I was not alone in this.
• Getting in the zone takes devotion and time. If you become immersed in your characters and their story for several days, the writing will flow. DON’T let anyone or anything lure you out of “the zone.” Any diversion of more than a couple of hours makes you lose concentration and you have to build it up again.

Vanessa Kelly

USA Today bestseller Vanessa Kelly is a hybrid author who publishes traditionally for Kensington and Grand Central, and as an indie. Vanessa, known for her Regencies, is one of the “stars of historical romance” and, as V.K. Sykes, she writes contemporary romance.

The character who comes alive:

• • This happens at least 50% of the time for me, and that particular kind of character is often inspired by a TV show or movie.

For instance, the heroine of my current WIP is based on a character from the hit TV show Strike Back. She’s a total badass spy who is skilled in hand-to-hand combat, and she basically runs rings around her male colleagues. It would be easy to translate that sort of heroine into a romantic suspense or even contemporary romance, but this is for a historical romance. Not too many female spies who knew martial arts in Regency England.

So, her insistence on starring in one of my Regencies isn’t very convenient. Still, this kind of character can really shake things up, which is certainly the case with my current book. She inspired me to look at the story—and also the hero—in a different way. I ended up writing a 130K first draft in just three months, partly because I enjoyed writing her character so much.

When the idea strikes:

• Often in the shower or in the middle of the night, which is massively inconvenient. Since I have the worst short term memory in the history of the world, I have to leap out of the shower or get out of bed to scribble the idea down before I lose it completely.

Getting into the zone:

• I often do a short meditation before I start writing to clear my head and tap into my creative well. But nothing works better than just sitting down and starting to write. I usually set a goal of hitting at least 1500 words, and I keep at it until I reach it. Even if the words are crap, I just do it. Once you have a first draft, everything gets a whole lot easier.

Khaled Talib

Khaled Talib is a Singapore-based journalist and member of the British Crime Writers Association. Khaled is the author of The Little Book of Muses, a collection of personal muses for writers and aspiring authors and author of the thriller, Smokescreen.

• Let me start by telling you that I’ll never run through the streets naked crying “Eureka! Eureka!” the moment I discover a red herring while writing a manuscript. So what would my reaction be if not like that famous Greek mathematician?
• Just between you and me — and this doesn’t leave the room — I’ll do a happy tribal dance when that compelling moment a plot twist I didn’t even see coming pulls the rug out from under me.
• The moment when everything falls into place is like getting a sugar rush over and over again. Think a plate of baklavas, chocolates and an assortment of savories at one go.
• The excitement just doesn’t fade — it gets better. I find myself being taken on a roller coaster ride. The buckling in, the nervous anticipation, the wild wind in my face as I type the words out, making sure every sentence is cleverly executed to catch the reader off guard.
• You want everything to be perfect, like a never been done before magic extravaganza. I find my emotions switching from excitement, nervousness to anxiety and back. And then, when I’m done, I smile to myself, amazed by my own accomplishment. Ah… that feeling.

Lindsay Buroker

Lindsay Buroker was a lifeguard, a fast-food-flinger, a network administrator, and a soldier in the U.S. Army before she turned to writing full time and became a bestselling author of indie fantasy and sci-fi romance.

My favorite thing about writing is coming up with fun characters and writing dialogue for them. I love banter. (If my shy, introverted self could have handled Hollywood, I might have gotten into screenwriting.) Everybody from soldiers to sentient swords to dragons get humorous lines in my stories. My readers may joke that I’m known for including lots of action, explosives, and crashes in my stories, but those crazy events just gives my characters more to talk about.

My tips for writing banter your readers will enjoy:

• Give your heroes some interesting quirks. Not only does it make them feel unique, but it gives other characters something to tease them about! (I have a dragon that eats cheese and a heroic military pilot who won’t go into battle without rubbing a lucky charm.)
• Give your heroes very different backgrounds as that gives them room for interesting misunderstandings and conflicts that go beyond the overarching story conflict (I have an assassin who was raised to be an emotionless killer — those who dare tease him get some great lines out when they’re riffing on that.)
• Create unusual situations for your heroes to endure (imagine two manly men who are always butting heads sneaking into a bad guy’s house, only to end up hiding under a bed together)
• Take stereotypical situations and stereotypical sayings and break patterns for an unexpected twist (Remember that moment in Shrek when Donkey was about to get eaten by a fire-breathing dragon, and it turned out to be a girl dragon who developed a crush on him?)
• Have fun with your characters and your writing (If you’re having fun with the writing, your readers should have fun with the reading!)

Anne R. Allen

My most excellent blog partner, Anne R. Allen

• There is nothing like being in that “zone” and feeling the story flow through your fingertips. There’s no high better than that. It doesn’t always happen, but when it does, it makes all the other aggravation worth it.
• But I also love when that first idea hits. Somebody tells a funny story, or I’m kvetching about something stupid that happened that day, and I’ll realize…that’s a great opener for a novel! Or an idea will just drift in while I’m reading a magazine. Flipping through magazines while I’m only half-paying attention is one of my greatest sources of inspiration. I suddenly get a little “zing” and know I’m onto something. That is so fun.
• Or sometimes a scene will just spring into my head. Last night, as I was trying to get back to sleep while all the monsters in my anxiety closet were fighting to keep me awake, I had a sudden picture of my character Ronzo, who’s a tough guy from New Jersey totally out of place in a laid-back California beach town. He was reading tarot cards for an ditzy lady in Camilla’s bookstore. He turned over the Death card and said, “fuhgeddaboudit.” I have no idea what it means, or how that scene going to fit into the next Camilla book, but it will be there. And yes, I finally got back to sleep.
• I’ve had characters jump into a story and take it over. That happened with my first novel Food of Love. I needed a hairdresser in one scene. I wanted her to be a little unusual. So I made her bald. I figured a bald hairdresser was good for a few laughs. Then I remembered a bald woman I met once who said she’d lost her hair due to some chemical she was exposed to when fighting in Iraq. So the bald hairdresser went from comic relief to a warrior. I named her Athena and she took over and changed the whole direction of the book. What a thrill it was to meet her and realize what a great character she was.

Ruth Harris

As for me, when I was a kid, I was a modestly talented but seriously dedicated figure skater who got just good enough to compete in regional competitions. Learning to do an axel and stick the landing was—and probably still is—one of a young skater’s milestones.

I spent lots of time practicing in cold rinks, lots of time learning the axel, much of it flat on my butt. The reward of a well-executed axel, though, was the paradox of feeling in complete control at the same time that I was—literally—flying. Writing catapults me into that same joyful zone.

The same word applies to axels and writing: Magic.

by Ruth Harris @RuthHarrisBooks October 15, 2015

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Ruth Harris is a NYT million-book-selling author and former Big 5 editor. She posts here on the last Sunday of every month.

What about you, scriveners? What aspects of writing give you the most joy? Is it the first moment of inspiration? When things start to fall into place? Do characters jump into your story and take over? Are you planning to join in the NaNoWriMo marathon, or do you prefer to work at a steady pace all year round? 

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