I know that second weeks of NaNoWriMo months are harsh. They’re kinda notorious for being as difficult to get through as swimming through molasses. That’s why all of the encouragement we get from the organizers in week two features some version of “Hey it’s okay to struggle. You’re far from the only one, so just keep chipping away and things will get easier.”
To be honest, though, I thought I’d skip the difficult second week. Not because week one was epic (and it was), but because I’m in the final sixth of my book. These are the final chapters leading up to the climactic point and the last ones to finish the book off.
They write themselves.
They always have.
Usually when I hit the last quarter of a book, I can easily write up to 6k words in a day. (My record is 10k in a single push.)
But what I didn’t count on was that, when I threw a huge curve ball at my characters, they would retaliate with a massive one in return.
You’d think, after having about six iterations of this same event in my draft novels without much of a dent, nothing would change when I let the same thing happen now.
Boy, was I wrong.
Because I hadn’t taken into account one major thing: Every time before, the thing happened early in the story. This time, it happened near the end.
And because of everything that had happened before the event, the characters were now armed with a set of information that pointed to something I hadn’t even looked at.
Et voila.
Devastation.
I’ve been struggling to write even 1000 words a day since Tuesday. The moment I get to scenes around this event, my unwilling fingers slow down to a drag and I want to burst into tears.
But hey! Drama’s good. So I can’t complain too much.
I just have to get over this.
And hopefully my poor readers will cry just as hard when they hit this scene. I’m not going to say what it was, but… I think you’ll know when you see it.
How are you doing? Have you ever had a character spring a whole new world of pain on you? How did you recover?
Hey all! Before I get into today’s post, I just wanted to remind you guys of my new Before and After feature. It could be a way for you to get your hands on a really inexpensive custom design, so if you haven’t yet, go check out my announcement.
Okay! Time to get into the post. This is last week’s vlog that went live a bit too late, which is why it’s only being put on my blog today. As always, the script follows the video, but if you choose that, you’re missing an awesome Vader impersonation…
Show don’t tell. Never stop writing. Only write when you’re feeling inspired. Never start with a dream sequence. Never use a narrator. Never use prologues. Always plan ahead of writing. Never plan ahead. Edit as you write. NEVER edit as you write.
That’s only a small sample of the writing rules that one can get out there. And as you can see, a lot of it is contradictory. So what’s a writer to do?
In my sixteen or so years of writing stories, I’ve managed to develop a way to approach writing rules that makes it all… well… make a bit more sense. And since I’m awesome, I thought I’d share the tips with you.
Yes, I’m aware that this is a tip vlog about understanding tips, but there you go.
Let’s just get into it.
Tip #1: Before you even start researching writing, it’s a good idea to develop your own set of best practices first.
The truth is that it’s a mad, senseless writing world out there. It seems like every writer has “advice” out there, and as someone who’s been around the block, a lot of advice out there is patently bad.
Terrible. Terrible advice.
And if you go into your research armed with your own personalized knowledge of what already works for you, you’re not going to be confused into the dark side all that easily. *Insert Vader Breath Here.*
Seriously though. If you know what works and someone’s acting like you’re doing it wrong, you know to roll your eyes and disregard at will.
Which brings me to my next tip.
Tip #2: If someone’s trying to convince you that theirs is the only, best way… they’re giving you bad advice.
I don’t care what they’re saying. If they start off from the point of view that there is no other way to succeed at writing, you can’t trust the rest of what they’re saying. The guys that seem a bit hesitant, usually prefacing with a disclaimer of “I know other people do things differently and it works for them, but I find that…” usually are the ones that are worth listening to.
In particular, and this is a sad thing, there are some big names out there that try to sell themselves and their writing by making themselves seem like these literary geniuses that have the soul true knowledge to writing success.
DON’T LISTEN TO THEM.
Another bonus rule of thumb: If someone sounds like they’re talking out their arse, they probably are.
Tip #3: Understand why something is considered to be a rule.
Despite everything, some writers have a real, legitimate desire to help others, but because they’re not that experienced yet, they don’t quite understand what they’re saying. So their response is to come across as being dead certain about absolutes.
Never use adverbs.
Never start with dream sequences.
Never open with prologues.
Always do this.
Never do that.
The problem with subscribing yourself to these absolutes is that you’re actually limiting your own writing. But at the same time, those “rules” are there for a reason. So if you know those reasons, you’ll also know when and how you can bend the rules.
And that neatly brings me to my final tip.
Tip #4: Treat writing rules not as the x number writing commandments, but rather as guidelines.
As I said before, a lot of the “rules” out there are considered to be such for some really good reasons.
That does not mean you’re doomed to always follow them slavishly. You’re the writer. You’re literally the master of your own story.
And if you say that rule doesn’t apply to you, that rule doesn’t apply to you.
Just remember, though, that if veering off from the rules results in bad writing, your readers will kick your ass for it. So don’t be irresponsible either.
And that’s basically it for me. Next week, I’ll share my own list of off-the-beaten-path writing rules that you might find useful. In the comments, let everyone know, which writing rules do you often disregard?
You might have picked up that I’m starting to be more active on my social networks, including this blog. And the thing is that I’ve been wanting to get back to my usual MWF posting schedule again.
But man.
Today is just crap.
Have you ever felt like someone put your life on slow mo while time just marches on?
That’s what my day was like today.
It seemed simple enough.
Wake up. Wash the floors. Move the horses. Write a vlog post. Write today’s blog post. Record vlog post. Move horses back. Edit vlog post.
How did it go?
Woke up.
Wash floor, only to be told we have to move the horses now and oops! We and all the dogs are over the wet tiles.
Move the horses. Takes longer than usual.
Return to floor. Wash it a second time.
Brother and dogs walk over the floor again. So I hand him the mop.
Sit down to write vlog post. Get called to early lunch.
Sit down to write vlog post. Remember admin stuff I have to help my brother/assistant with.
Sit down to write vlog post.
It’s time to move the horses back. But this time, they have to put on blankets, which they DO NOT LIKE. This takes two hours.
Return to record vlog post. 1) It’s dinner time and 2) Battery’s dead.
Charge battery.
Record video. Keep forgetting what I want to say, making me take twice as long to record because I keep having to check the script.
Download video.
“Open” video editing software. The program and the others in its suite need to update before I can open and use it.
It’s 10 p.m.
*headdesk*
But at the same time… I have so much to be grateful for.
For those of you unfamiliar with the Insecure Writer’s Support Group… A couple of hundred writers from around the blogosphere have signed up to this bloghop, which is hosted by Alex J. Cavanaugh. Then, on the first Wednesday of every month, we share our insecurities and/or encouragements.
Surprisingly well, money wise. I basically started from scratch in September. And in January, I’ve made my country’s minimum wage for the first time.
Which is AMAZE-BALLS. You guys can’t imagine how happy I am with that.
Except.
Most of that money’s coming from me freelancing as an editor/formatter/cover designer (which I totally see as writing skills, because all of the above are needed for me to make it as a writer.)
Not so much from selling books.
But that’s okay, because I always knew I should start of making money as I can and spending money on marketing etc for my books in order to grow my readership.
Here’s the thing, though… Growing my readership will actually happen when I have my next book out. Which I can’t get to when my freelance list fills up out of nowhere.
And I can’t market my old books until I have them updated. Which some of you might now be chortling about, because I’ve been saying I’ll update the books since May last year. And the cause of the delay?
Newsletters. Website. I have no money to pay someone to design either, and because people are hiring me for a ton of stuff they don’t have time for, I don’t have the time to do either of those two myself.
And I can’t link to them unless I have them set up. So I can’t update my books to include the links.
See? One giant bowl of I-really-have-no-time spaghetti.
So now, I’m trying to make writing time, which is making me feel bad, because the whole reason why I decided to go full-time was that I WANTED TO HAVE TIME TO WRITE!
*gasp gasp gasp*
How do you deal with everything trying to steal your writing time? Any advice for me?
