Writer’s retreat accountability update for week 1

Well, it looks like I wasn’t good at updating every day, but I’ve been working hard!

Tuesday: Finished scene: 550 words.

Wednesday: Started a scene outline for generation ship novel. 7 scenes, 267 words

Thursday: 5 more scenes for outline, plus a prompt question. 189 words

Friday: Outlined 8 scenes, 249 words
Revose for 2 scenes on Magic Milkshakes

Saturday: Finished revising third scene for Magic Milkshakes.
Questions for the end of the outline

Sunday: Finished draft for the outline. (Revisiong from earlier versions. 279 words, 11 scenes)
Started second new scene for Magic Milkshakes: 317 words

Will be starting on my week 2 progress today! 🙂

Writer’s Retreat Accountability, Day 1

Well, it’s Tuesday morning, but I do have progress to report from Monday. I started a revision of my “Magic Milkshakes” story; starting in the middle, because I’m a little blocked on the new beginning, but I got 404 words written, (not feeling lost at all 😉 ) and like the scene so far!

I also sat in on the first day of critiquing for the Young Gunns writing workshop, (not a “short story workshop” as Chris M said, though short stories are the format he uses to teach writing,) and gave critiques for three stories which were well received I think.

Today I’ll be auditing less, (though James Gunn is doing some talks that I want to attend,) so hopefully I’ll be able to keep writing more for this story! Will keep you all updated.

Writer’s retreat and accountability progress

Hey friends and followers–I know, long time no blog. It’s been a kinda busy time–a few publications, starting a podcast, and so on. But here’s a new thing!

I’m on my way to Kansas again, this time for a four-week writer’s retreat. Well, to be precise, I’m writing this post from a motel room in Bloomington, Illinois, which was about halfway between Hamilton and Lawrence. I’ll be auditing one workshop in the first two weeks, and participating in an alumni novelist workshop in the last two weeks, but compared with other workshop programs, I’m going to need to push myself to get writing done.

Nanowrimo spotlight: N.A. Barber, Author of Resonant Frequencies: A Time Travel Thriller.

Hello! I haven’t had that many volunteers for spotlight interviews this year, which is probably good as I’ve been so busy with writing my own word count and taking care of ML duties, but there’s been one author I do want to shine the spotlight on! Here’s Nancy, you can find her as scout.girl on Nano, or at her own website: http://nabarber.com/

Nancy, how is November going for you so far?
Word counts and keeping up with life, they are juxtaposed and tied together this month.
This is my second nano and I’m not sure how I found out about it. I must have wandered upon it because I wasn’t at all prepared. I won, in 11 days, but I wasn’t prepared. I wrote a big chunk of my first novel last year, and am doing so again on the sequel.

What are you writing about this year?
I am writing the sequel to last year’s nano Resonant Frequencies. This year’s title is Torsion: The Book of Seventy Two

Where are your backup files, and why?
On my documents, a zip drive I can carry anywhere or rescue quickly and on Drop Box. But the most secure is when I email to my father to keep the files on his computer. No chance of him changing them there.

What advice would you give to all your fellow Wrimos?
Keep it simple. If you’ve never written a book and the thought of “craft” is too much to do before you get your story on the page, just write it out. Here’s a simple and easy way to start. Write 3 sentences describing your story, beginning middle and end. Write a paragraph describing each of those 3 sentences. You now have an idea, a synopsis and when you write 3 hundred words for each one of the paragraphs, you then have a complete plot. Your story line is done in enough detail that you should always know where you are going, and the end is in site the entire time.

There is so much made of ‘craft’ and how first drafts are ‘crap’. I don’t understand why writing to get a word count is more important than telling the story. If this happened in the first chapter, what happened next. Write it down. If you sit at a campfire to tell a story, do you fill it with words to make it longer or do you use words to move it along to completion.

Katytastic has a 3part, 9 section and 27 chapter outline that she covers in a video. I used that to ‘rechart’ the hero’s journey and then wrote my story. It helped with visual organization and made the story structure easy to track and follow. I’d recommend it to just about anyone.

Sneaky Ninja question! Out of your favourite fictional characters, who’d make the best sneaky ninja?
I’m not sure what a sneaky ninja is , but Undine Sprague of Custom of the Country can and will do just about anything to get her way and she is one sharp woman.

Whenever the fate of humanity is at stake, Satan is there. With a woman.

Phoebe doesn’t believe in time travel. She’s never evaded a SWAT dragnet, been hunted by drones or sold for half a kilo of cocaine. She’s certainly never met a God-hating Angel. She’s just an orphaned nobody from an L. A. girl’s home. But on her eighteenth birthday the rich, the powerful and the perversely demonic come to vie for her ancient magick and for what lurks in her DNA. When evil forces kidnap the wrong women, Phoebe launches a mission to the bowels of the earth, where she finds the Chamber and an evil hidden for 13,000 years.

While the fabric of time hangs in the balance, she fights her own demons and discovers enemies, allies and where in time she’s safe from the vengeful Watchers. Phoebe must prevail over evil, before something decides to eat her.

Thanks for sharing this with us, Nancy!

Nanowrimo spotlight: Jean Davis – Author, Blogger, NaNo Participant

Programming note: I’m still looking for Spotlight interviewees for this year! Post a comment or email chriskelworth at gmail dot com if you’re interested.

Good afternoon! I’ve been too busy to post this spotlight for a little while, but–here’s Jean! Jean, tell us a little about your Nano experience:

2016 will be my 11th year participating in NaNoWriMo, and my 8th year serving as ML for my region. Shortly after finishing my first novel (which took double digit years). I heard about NaNoWriMo from a writer on a fan fic site on which I was participating at the time. Writing a novel (albeit a really rough draft) in 30 days seemed like an outrageous prospect given my prior experience. As it turns out, that was, in fact, possible! After proving to myself that I could churn out a really rough draft in a month, I decided to start taking this whole writing thing seriously – joining a critique group, learning a whole lot about writing, and later, getting published.

The only year I did not reach 50K, was the one year I was building a house and I knew going in, that year wasn’t going to be a winner. However, I always enjoy spending time with my local NaNo community, which is by far, the best part of the whole challenge, so I dove in anyway. I also spent several years doing the Young Writers Program side of NaNo with elementary students. Thankfully, my children grew up and though one stopped participating, the other one has joined the adult program, allowing me to spend much more time with my adult participants and my own writing.

What are you writing about this year?

This year I’m writing the second half to a YA Sci-fi novel I started once during NaNo as a short story that panned out into a bigger idea, and again last year as novel but then set aside to write another novel because the middle of the plot wasn’t quite clicking with me yet. I have notes this time (I’m not usually a planner), so that should help keep me on task. My daughter should too, she really wants to read the finished book. She wasn’t at all happy with me when my novel intentions got hijacked last year.

Where are your backup files, and why?

If you’ve ever lost a even a day’s worth of writing, you’ll back up all over the place. The loss of your creative efforts is a severe motivation sucker. Recently an unexpected windows update and a Word auto-save malfunction caused a week’s worth of editing to vanish into the ether. I was most displeased. No one wants that any time of year, but especially not during NaNo when you’re pushing yourself so hard. Protect your words! My writing is now auto-saved to Google Drive. I also do a back up to a flash drive and a network drive every couple days.

What advice would you give to all your fellow Wrimos?

Commit to writing your novel. Which beyond making time to write every day means: Get yourself some support, either from family and friend. Get involved with your region for more support and motivation. Log in to the NaNo forums or your regional forums and glance at all those progress bars to see where yours comes in. Set up a reward for yourself when you reach 50K as extra motivation. This could be a winner shirt, guilt free time for a game, movie or show you’ve been wanting to watch/play, or dinner at your favorite restaurant.

Sneaky Ninja question! Who is your favorite author ever – you have to pick just one!

This answer would change widely depending on when in my life you asked the question, but at the moment, I’m going to say George RR Martin for the simple reason that even though it’s been so many years since the last book, I’m still anxiously waiting for his next one.

I recently published my second novel, Sahmara, which was my first NaNo novel in 2006. It is available in print and ebook and currently free with Kindle Unlimited.

Busy with their own war, the gods of Revochek lose control of the destinies of their people. The gods aren’t the only ones staring at defeat. The country is in ruins, its people killed or prisoners. If all of Revochek falls, the balance of the gods will be broken, paving the way for Ephius, the god of Atheria, to plunge the entire world into war.

One young woman escapes her Atherian captors only to find herself alone, unarmed, and starving. Torn from her life of privilege and the arms of her ma’hasi lover, Sahmara is unfit for life on the run. The well-being of her family is unknown, and if Zane hadn’t been killed, he is a slave. No one is coming to save her.

Desperate, Sahmara prays for help. She does not expect her prayer to be answered by an ancient woman with a thirst for blood or that her single desperate plea might be the one that rescues them all.

You can find more from Jean at her blog. Thanks for sharing this with us, Jean!

Nanowrimo spotlight: Listening to your book

Good morning! I’ve got a new spotlight for you, from Mariah. Here’s Mariah talking about her Nano experiences:

I believe I’ve participated in NaNoWriMo every year since 2005 or so I believe. A couple years were on accounts that have been long since lost to the ages, a couple without even using the NaNo site. Most years I’ve won. I usually do pretty well with front loading, I write a lot up front and then start to slack as the month goes on. Sort of the opposite of what I see from most people.

I had a couple epic failures, one where I spent the entire time designing a solar system, all the math included. A couple successes too, Dangerous Metal was the book I wrote in 2014, which was a from scratch rewrite of a book I wrote in 2013. The rewrite on it was basically throwing out the plot, and a couple of the characters, and the genre. So I had the main character and her background and a few side characters. Everything else was rewritten for that one.

What are you writing about this year?
I’m doing another rewrite this year. The novel I wrote during Camp NaNo a couple years ago is an urban fantasy story. I really think it is strong, but I need to make some changes to match up with the second book I wrote last NaNoWriMo proper. I’m currently calling it the fantastically catchy title of “Jenna’s first book”. It is a story that needs a character cut out (sadly the love interest, but he just didn’t bring enough to the table), another character amped way up (he’s the one who always should have been the love interest, why was I holding them back!), a different kind of try fail cycle on a few things, and much more background. I’ve been toying with the idea of not just rewriting from scratch, but I do think that I’ll create a better end product if I just start over entirely. We’ll see how long that lasts though.

Nanowrimo spotlight: This Boy’s Mind – Q & A with Rising Author Joshua David

Good afternoon! Today’s spotlight is on Joshua…

What are you writing about this year?
This year I’m working on a novel that will mark a major milestone in my writing career. Not only will there be the challenge of achieving my 50,000 word goal this year, but I’m also challenging myself to finally finish a novel that I’ve been holding off on writing for over 10 years now. It’s titled “This Boy’s Mind” and it is essentially one of the first books that I had the idea for. However, it has always seemed like such a daunting project that I’ve never given it the attention that it requires. Last year I wrote “Nowhere” which at the time was just there, 100% in my head and ready to come out. This year I’m tackling my mountain, and if I succeed, I know it will be huge.

This Boy’s Mind is the story of a boy named Christopher who is propelled into an alternate dimension and meets the Great Birdman, Falgeron. Falgeron informs Chris that the Dark Lord, Veo has commissioned his evil minions against Christopher in an effort to destroy him before Chris can become the Hero described in prophecy. The chief evil pursuing Chris is a giant, undead, possessed wolf named Legion. Meanwhile in the real world, an evil presence has found a way to cross over and begins wreaking havoc on a small Colorado town. The small town Sheriff , Woodfellow T. McElroy and an FBI Agent, Trent Upton must figure out how to stop the creature before it brings about the end of the world.

Where are your backup files, and why?
For the past four years or so, I’ve stored all of my backups at Dropbox.com. Recently, however, I’ve been told by several artists and other authors that Dropbox may not be the best place to be. Something about how the files aren’t encrypted and can be vulnerable, so I’ve begun the task of switching all my files over to the site pCloud.com . I have to report, so far so good. I enjoy having additional data storage space also. Some of my covers can be sorta hefty on the data side.

What advice would you give to all your fellow Wrimos?
Try to keep in mind that Nano is a personal goal. Try to view Nanowrimo for everything else it is and not just a wall of 50,000 words that you have to try to climb. If you don’t achieve the 50K it’s not the end of the world, it doesn’t mean that you’re a bad writer or that you can’t ever be a professional. Trust me, I’m no professional, but I’m one of the slowest writers you’ll meet. I’ve failed to achieve my Nano goal before, but looking back, I know that it was Nanowrimo that propelled me into writing tens of thousands of words for my novel that didn’t exist before. You will not regret the time you devote to your writing this November, use Nano as the tool that it is, try to focus on your project, but ultimately keep it lighthearted and don’t let the 50K keep you from continuing or even from trying.

Sneaky Ninja question! What’s your favorite midnight snack?
Doritos makes a flavor of chip called “Flamas”, and they are crazy good. I don’t know if they’re more of a local thing down here in Texas, or if they’re nation wide. That’s gotta be my go to snack. I like having some wine when I write, but that’s more of a weekend thing.

My name is Joshua Ashburn, but I write under the name Joshua David. I’ve been writing since I was about 15, but even before that I was imaginative and liked to read.
Right now, the challenge for my writing is that I don’t have much free time. I have a family ( a wife and four kids), two jobs, various extracurricular activities (cub scouts, soccer, cheer camp, etc…)
Sometimes when I get home I feel so drained that I can’t seem to get any words out. My sacred writing time is on my lunch break at work. I eat quickly and then get about 30-45 uninterrupted free minutes to write. I can generally produce about 500 words a day this way.
Nanowrimo for me isn’t so much about getting the 1667 words per day as it is staying afloat with about 600-800 words per day and then catching up on the weekends.
My project this year is a novel called “This Boy’s Mind”. It is my second major Nanowrimo project. I’ve also done Camp Nanowrimo twice. I keep my readers informed through my Blog: https://joshuadavidblog.wordpress.com/
The main thing I’m looking for right now is honest feedback from my readers. I would love to hear some comments on my blog or reviews on my Amazon page. That’s what I crave as an author…:)

Thanks so much for giving me the interview, Joshua! Wishing you all the best for November!

Nanowrimo spotlight: M.L. Millard on Nano Light

Good morning everybody! I have a familiar face coming back for our first spotlight interview of the season: M.L. Millard, who was also in the spotlight back in 2014. M.L. is participating in Nano for the fifth time this year, and this time she’s a rebel… Welcome back, M.L!

What are you writing about this year?
This year I’m finishing my Littlefoot series. Well, really part three of one book. I put the first part on Kindle, but when I’m finished with this last part I’ll put them all together on CreateSpace. I loved writing part one so much, but now I feel like I’m having to force it. I hope it’s funny anyway! Littlefoot finds herself in all kinds of mixed up fairy tale situations. In part one she was a Rapunzel with normal-length hair, a Cinderella who didn’t want to go to the ball, and more. Part three involves Jack and Jill, Camelot, and a Grimm’s fairy tale that you probably haven’t heard of but would give away my ending if you looked it up. I’m a rebel this year, only aiming for about 12,000. But I really want to finish Littlefoot!

Where are your backup files, and why?
Funny you should ask. Did you have the same Windows problem I had earlier in the year? I lost everything. Luckily I had emailed myself my fiction, but I lost, among other things, my Littlefoot Part Three notes and my list of which agents and publishers I’d already sent queries to for two of my non nano books. I really need to get one of those automatic backup plans.

Looking for Wrimo Spotlight interviews for 2016

Okay, let’s do this, one more time! The Nanowrimo website has refreshed, and I want to do some more interviews with people who are doing Nano here in my blog.

The interviews will start going up as soon as I can get them coming in, and will run through November 30th. If you’re interested, either leave a comment (with an email address I can use to get back to you,) or email me at chriskelworth at gmail dot com!

What’s involved? I’d like to get a little background from all of my interviewees about their level of Nano experience. I’m going to ask a few standard questions in each interview, along with one sneaky ninja question to try to take you off guard. 😉 I’d also like everybody to include up to 200 words to tell us about yourself, your Nano novel, or something you’re interested in, or shamelessly plug your website, your book, your twitter feed, or whatever. For extra visual appeal, you can include a small image (400*400 pixels, or I’ll shrink it down myself) to serve as a visual aid to your answers, help you promote something, or share a picture because you think it’s cool – but no photographs of yourself, please. Think outside the box! Pictures and 200 word blurbs are not required.

If you’d like to take a look at some of the interviews from last year, you can find them here.

You can take some time to answer your questions over email, but hopefully you can get back to me within a week of getting the interview. You don’t need have your own blog or link back to me; if you’re doing Nano and interested in filling out the interview, I’d love to spotlight you. Thanks all, and I’m looking forward to doing this one more time.

(And yes, this post is 98% recycled content…)

A few quick announcements!

First off–I sold a story! “Love is a Masterpiece” is going to be released in the next few weeks by the Gallery of Curiosities podcast. There are a few more details over at the author blog, and stay tuned there for further announcements.

Secondly, I’m doing the A to Z challenge again in April 2016, focusing on my drawings, so go and subscribe at my drawing blog, Drawing Teddy Bears, for all 26 drawings!

Hope 2016 is treating you well.