These videos should look more polished in the future as I learn just what the hell I’m doing. In the meanwhile, it’ll be a good vehicle for connecting with this great community and destressing during the next month of caffeinated marathon writing.

I’ll soon be making more frequent posts as I start writing again. NaNoWriMo is fast approaching. It’s about time I start preparing for that, even if it’s a long way away.

In the meanwhile, I’ll be writing new stories to send off to The Writers of the Future Contest. In listening to the recent interviews with the winners from Adventures in Sci-Fi Publishing, I’ve discovered this could be a great deadline for me to write at least four big stories a year. This is just the sort of mind trickery I need to write more.

For now, I’m off to work. I’ll be back soon.

I don’t have a regular schedule.

I know it doesn’t sound like much, but I thrive on being busy. This may be why NaNo works so well for me. When there are too many things to do in the few hours of the day, I feel as if some sort of time warp happens and I get more time than I would ever have on a lazy day.

It looks like school will be great for me this fall. I will definitely be able to warp up some hours for writing even if I can’t during this free, lazy summer.

This video made me feel better about still sucking a year into my creative writing career. My taste, as Ira Glass puts it, allows me to recognize my difficulties and make things better. This is all necessary. Thank you Ira Glass, and Mur for sharing it with your readers.

NaNoWriMo is all about finishing a 50,000-word novel manuscript in 30 days. If you break it down, that means 1,667 words each day, which doesn’t lend itself to reading a lot of the time. Therefore, I can only make one recommendation that’s specific to the challenge itself. I’ve still got a bunch of book recommendations available via the tag of the same name. Those should grow in the near future.

The one book I’ll recommend is written by the creator himself, Chris Baty. It’s No Plot? No Problem!. It takes you through a bit of preparation that you should read before the month starts, then gives weekly pep talks and advice. This, along with the web site’s weekly e-mails, should keep any floundering writers going.

Otherwise, I’d not encourage too much reading during the month of November. Writing really should rule that month completely. Good luck to any fellow participants. I’ll write more on this subject as November approaches.

In the past week, I’ve started and stopped on my current writing project. It’s finally time to start drafting, but I’m quite honestly frightened about the prospect. Whenever I didn’t do any planning, it was a lot easier to just throw worries out of the window. The Inner Editor is now hounding me horribly. The extensive plans I’ve made for this novel elevate the ideas just a bit too high for me to not worry about the actual production.

Any advice?

It’s been that way at my house for the last month or so. I’ve been able to come to my university and leech some internet, but I’m getting very tired of it. This afternoon, I’ll be gifted with my own connection. Thank goodness.

I’ve been neglecting my writing, and I can feel the withdrawal. With previous arts, I’ve never felt quite this way. After a few days without touching my most recent project, I tend to get moody beyond reason. I guess that’s a clear indication I’m supposed to do this.

Today I was reminded of a certain aspect that NaNoWriMo burned into my forehead. For the unaware, NaNoWriMo is short for National Novel Writing Month. During November of every year, thousands of people write (or attempt) a novel of at least 50,000 words. That’s a ton of words in 30 days. I’ve only “won” (conquered the challenge) once, but I’m enormously proud of myself for participating these five years.

In order to complete the challenge, writers have to conquer many demons, including the Inner Editor and the Naysayers. This is a great feat for any writer to accomplish. Still, I’m left with a bizarre side effect of completing a novel at such a breakneck speed.

Taking any writing slowly is a struggle for me now. In this year’s attempt at a second draft/novel, I’ve decided to go slowly and plot out as much as possible. Even in this, I’m bucking a bit by writing further elaborate summaries instead of wordmaps, idea bubbles, or any other ridiculous practice. I feel like I’m making progress now by just sitting with my words and writing at least 250 more each day. Writing a novel in a year is not a ridiculous concept.

Reading Bird by Bird has opened my eyes a bit. The synchronicity of reading it and writing this slow novel is just too coincidental. I’m learning a lot about myself as an artist, writer, and person. The following quotation from E.L. Doctorow has helped me come to terms with the idea of slow progress as an organic writer:

“It’s like driving a car at night. You never see further than your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.”

Writing shouldn’t ever cause you to feel bad about yourself, whether for the reason of bad criticism, the dreaded block, or even not writing at all. If you start to associate negativity with writing, the problem will just persist. At least, that’s been my experience.

I’m not gonna sweat not writing on this vacation. It’ll be over soon. Besides, I’ve been reviewing outlines and thinking about my characters this entire trip. That’s enough in my book.