Writer Thoughts-Thursday: NaNoWriMo

Late in October at one of the Halloween Readings that I organize, I listened as several fellow writers and friends discussed plans to partake in this year’s NaNoWriMo. Never heard of it? It’s like a month-long marathon for us writers. It stands for National Novel Writing Month. Think of it as a writing spirit quest if you will. A writer commits to the challenge of writing 50,000 words in one month’s time, therefore writing an entire (or most of) one book. In order to accomplish this seemingly Herculean effort, a writer must write at least 1,667 words a day to finish on time.

However easy it might seem, there is something that we writers seem to excel in all the better: procrastination. It’s one of my top ten talents actually. I didn’t decide that I was going to join the scores of writers participating in NaNoWriMo until 9 days into the month. I should have had 15,0003 words written. Here we are now 19 days into the month and I still have less than 10,000 words. I’m supposed to be more than 1/2 way completed by now.

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Snow-pocalypse: Winter Storm Writing Fun

So, if you live in Maine (or anywhere in New England for that matter), this picture above probably describes how you felt today. On three separate occasions today, I spent time digging out my door from impending snowdrifts, and even futilely attempted to dig out the staircase at ground level before the wind filled it all back in again.

Doing all that work in the bitter cold and cutting wind was, however, a welcome experience for me. Why? Because as I’ve now sat down with a nice hot cup of tea, I’ve returned to an apocalyptic story set during the Maine winter that I’d begun a couple years ago and lost my focus on. The characters have been speaking to me for a while as I’ve been working on other projects and I know I can’t ignore them any longer. I feel as though I’ve found the right mood, the right voice, and the right way to tell this story now and I can’t wait to really buckle down and work on it.

Inspiration Through Music: Dead Island Soundtrack

In last week’s Inspiration Through Music post, I talked about being able to identify with characters based on other emotions they might be feeling. Especially while writing horror or apocalyptic fiction, it is sometimes easy to skip over the idea that a character has entered a completely different world, one where the old rules don’t apply. It’s a jarring and often horrifying experience, but also very sad. It can also be hard trying to get into your characters head, trying to decipher what their reactions are toward what’s going on. My advice, in this instance, is to always look toward your own life. What is your normal routine? What are the things you look forward to everyday? Now imagine that those things are no longer here. Imagine there is no conceivable way you’ll ever get them back. Scary, isn’t it? I find it’s easier to imagine this if you have some piercing emotive music to listen to, something that really hits you. That is why I’ve chosen this week to share the Dead Island Original Game Soundtrack with you.