NaNoWriMo: The Log Line
You saw my sprawling blurb earlier, which needs lots of work. Â A blurb is critical in the success of selling a story. Â A log line is also extremely valuable. Â I’ve bought books more than once on the power of the log line alone. What is a log line? Â It’s the one sentence description better known in movies. Being able to sum up your plot in one sentence that has the hint of a unique and interesting plot gives you a fast way to connect with readers. Â The ability to write a pithy one line is also great for author bios and tweeting. Â It’s not a skill that comes naturally to me! Here is a good overview of writing a log line for a novel. And here are some examples of book log lines that I think are really good. These have gotten me to click on the link...
Read MoreNaNoWriMo: The Biggest Challenge
What is the most challenging part of NaNoWriMo for me? Â Letting the writing be bad. There are two major ways that people write. Some push themselves to write a first draft very quickly, turning off the inner editor and letting the writing be bad until they can polish it later. Others have a hard time ever getting a book written because they can’t move to a new section until what they have is completely perfect. Most of us, I think, fall somewhere in the middle of this. I know I do. Â I produce a fair amount of writing, I don’t have trouble finishing books. Â Yet I also polish a little bit as I go. In a day I might write a couple new scenes and also revise and polish some other scenes. To get the crazy word count of NaNoWriMo, one needs to be able to set...
Read MoreNaNo By the Numbers
Even though I’m not good at math, I still love to measure progress with numbers. Â It motivates me and excites me to break down my writing into word counts. So, my personal goal for NaNo is 80,000 words. (That is more than I’ve ever written on any project. My novel (W)hole is 65,000 and that’s the longest I’ve ever written). I have an outline with, as the moment, 95 scenes. That means that if every scene were of equal length, they would need to be: 843 words, which is about three pages. Â To make sure I have enough words, I’ll probably work to try to get every scene at least that long. Â Three pages is a lot for me, though, so I might try to break down the outline into more basic scenes, see if there’s anywhere that I’m...
Read MoreNaNoWriMo: Software
Before I started NaNo this year I did some reading about what other people are doing with it. One thing I cam across was a software recommendation. Writing novels in Word and most word processing programs is very difficult. They really weren’t designed for writing and keeping track of 300 page documents. Â Though I follow an outline, I don’t write linearly at all. Â In fact, having an outline allows me to write any scene or part of the story that interests me at the particular moment. Â Trying to organize a novel that you’re writing non-linearly in a word processing program is quite a headache! I’ve been doing it for years, though. Â It’s always how I’ve written (by the way, in January I’m going to have a free book available...
Read MoreNaNoWriMo Inspiration
In researching people to help me produce more professional books, I discovered Tirzah and her book covers.  I am mesmerized by her skill! I love to read her blog and learn about graphic design and see the cool covers she comes up with.  http://acleverwhatever.blogspot.com Last month she posted an offer to throw together a free cover for NaNoWriMo projects.  I jumped at that!  Within a couple hours of me posting my blurb at her site, she had created me a cover. It’s done entirely with free images and isn’t the image quality that a real cover would be, but it is for me to have some visual inspiration as I write.  I really love what she came up with.  I have a friend designing the cover for this novel when it comes out in the spring, and I have no idea...
Read MoreNaNoWriMo: My Plot
This month I am writing the first draft of Parallel Loves: a story across universes. It is a science-fiction romance told from four points of view. Â I’m still trying to get a blurb written. All my attempts focus too much on the characters and not enough on the plot, but here is my current attempt: When Talia sees a man who isn’t quite there, she worries about her sanity right before a big promotion. He keeps showing up, claiming to be from a parallel universe. Â According to him, she shouldn’t be able to see him. No one else in her world does. Â Trent is determined to prove that he’s real and to figure out why Talia can see him. He is fascinated by the impossible and the device he uses to travel between universes was stolen from a...
Read MoreProgress Trackers
At proofreaders; available for pre-order
What Is Meant To Be
Second draft
Homework & Homicide (working title)
Second Draft
Book Montage
RFW winner October 7, 2011
