Lessons from NaNoville

On Thursday night, I reached an official total of 50,279 words. Yay! Thank you thank you thank you to all of you who supported me this month. You are the wind beneath my wings! I would have given up a long time ago without your constant encouragement, prayers, e-mails, and face book encounters.

So, what did I learn? Well, first of all it's nice to say that now I've actually done everything I tell you guys to do on a constant basis. Write. When it sounds stupid, write. When it doesn't make any sense, write.

I had some moments where the words just flowed and they actually made sense when placed beside one another. Other times, there was no flow, just a barrage of seemingly disjointed thoughts that may, in the most abstract sense, go together if the planets are aligned exactly right.

If you stop when your writing feels like you're walking up hill in the snow with no shoes, then you will never crest that hill and enjoy the times when writing is like sled riding down the hill. Every time you start, you'll still be at the bottom of the hill.

At the very end, once I had reached my epilogue and I still had over 2,000 words to write, I just started making things up - telling stories that were very verbose and didn't really belong there. I decided to give up on my entire plot and just write to get the last words in. Guess what happened? The very last sentence of my crappy epilogue is one of my favorite sentences. I think it's going to be the first sentence of the book. So, Natalie Goldberg is right when she says to burn through first thoughts to get to the good stuff. If I had given up or waited until I had something fabulous to say, I never would have discovered the gem that is the last sentence.

I didn't know what was deep down inside of my mind until I got rid of the shallow stuff on the top. If there is a story living inside you, sit down and start writing. Give yourself fully to the story and it will write itself. Your characters will lead the way - they are waiting to amaze you with the adventures in their lives.

If the Lord has called you to write, what are you waiting for? He will equip you, but you have to take the fist step in faith. Set goals, sit down, and write.

Do you have any writing ah-ha moments that you would like to share? Any tips for what to do when the going gets tough?

What?

The Challenge
For the past 2 weeks or so I have been pounding away at my keyboard, trying to reach my goal of 50,000 words for the month of November. My current word count is 21,115. I have procrastinated and now I must write at least 5,000 words a day in order to make my goal. It takes me approximately one hour to write 2,000 words if I write nonstop.

The story
Two teenagers - Sam and Zoe stumble upon a box filled with their late mother's journals. They dive into her writings and discover a woman they never knew. Unlike her conservative adult years, her college days were replete with sex, drugs, and rock and roll. As their father continues to ignore them and drown his sorrows in a bottle of scotch, the siblings ban together as they travel down their mother's dark and bumpy road to hope and healing.

It started as a coherent thought. I was very excited about the beginning. On day one, it just flowed. Now, weeks later, it resembles something a preschooler might turn in as a first draft. I haven't gone back to re-read the entire thing and I dare not - it might be my undoing.

Nevertheless, I am thrilled to have a goal to push toward. Be silent self-editor! I have no use for you. Writing so rapidly has been a very freeing experience. I can now stop slogging through the muck of edit-as-I-go. I am able to fly above it and zoom through the clear air. Will you spread your wings and come on up with me?

Has the Lord been encouraging you in your writing lately? How so?

Economical Writing

Turn off the flashback-machine that's showing your boring Economics class; that's the wrong Economical. This article is about writing that avoids waste, and that applies to all subjects. Here are the bullet points; dive in for more details:

1. Always ask "so what?"
2. Always ask "how do you know?"
3. "Fluency can be achieved through grit."
4. Guard your inspiration and "clean up in a dull moment."
5. Don't skimp on supplies.

Although the author's main audience is actually economists, it's straightforward to apply these to other disciplines.

1. For non-fiction, you can right the best treatise in the world, but if there's no point to it, why would people read it? Why should they? For fiction, why does this story need to be told? What makes it compelling to those in your audience?
2. For non-fiction, don't just state something; make sure you know why it's true and be sure that's communicated to the reader. For fiction, the same holds for characters: why do they do what they do? Does it make sense for them to act and react as you've written?

There are 26 more rules outlined in the actual book, including:

• Avoid Words That Bad Writers Love
• The Order Around Switch Until It Good Sounds
• Speak to an Audience of Human Beings

These chapter headings alone have propelled this book onto my Wish List.

Writing Opportunities

I just discovered NaNoWriMo.org! November is national novel writing month. To celebrate, there is a competition of sorts on nanowrimo.org. It's free, but you have to register. It's a challenge to write a novel in 30 days. You can have an outline and character sketches done beforehand, but the novel has to be totally written from Nov1 - Nov30. I'm going to give it a shot. Who's with me? For more information go to http://www.nanowrimo.org/

Here are a couple of really great sites to get your writing going:

www.faithwriters.com - they have a weekly writing challenge, message boards, a critique circle and so much more.

http://www.wakeupwriting.com/ - thank you Cindy! They have a daily writing exercise.

Does anyone else have a source that they would like to share?

D.C. Awakening

There is a revival going on Oct 5 - 11 in our backyard. It will be a week of prayer, praise, and worship around the clock. This is our chance to stand up and be counted.

On Thursday, Oct 9 instead of having group, I would like to go to DC and join with brothers and sisters from around the world in crying out to God. If you would like to join me, please let me know. Check out the website: http://www.thedcawakening.com/ for more information.

9/11

Ashes to ashes
Dust to dust

Daggers of steel
Daggers of fire

Thousands lost their lives.
Thousands died.

Whatever happened to the ones who survived?
The ones who risked their lives?

They are needing to be set free.
Free from the agony
Free from the memories.
Free from their own grief.

Too many innocent lives.
Too many had to die.

I don’t understand, can’t comprehend.

You say you work everything for the good,
Who am I to argue?

I know You were there,
There in the midst of it all.

You were there weeping for them.
You were there weeping with them
You were there comforting them.

Jeff Watkins

A beautiful light,
Shining bright.
Gone from this world,
Gone from this world.

But, there will be no more pain.
You are given a new name.
A body complete.
No more suffering.

No more pain.
It’s gone away.
No more tears.
No more fear.

Welcome to paradise.
A world without end.
You, a son of the king.
Such joy you will bring.

Running, jumping in the streets of gold.
Such joy untold.
Seeing all there is to see.
Your body truly being free.

Free to worship.
Free to jump and run.
Free, at last.
Free!