This was the opening line for the novel I started writing on November 5, 2007 for National Novel Writing Month. I started another story on the first of the month, but 6800 words into it, I discovered that it wasn’t worth telling. So on day five, I started from scratch.

For those of you who aren’t aware, National Novel Writing Month is a yearly challenge for writers all over the globe to write 50,000 words of manuscript in 30 days. That amounts to about 1,667 words per day. Participants are encouraged to pound out a manuscript without editing, to leave their “inner editors” behind for one month while they focus on just finishing a first draft.

The good news is that I finished 50,000 words; so, technically, I won NaNoWriMo. But the bad news is that I haven’t finished the manuscript . . . nor do I intend to.

Although I ended up falling in love with my characters, I don’t feel that the story itself is worth telling without some major revisions that I don’t have the energy to make. It would be easier to start from scratch.

My current plan, now that I’ve gained a much greater appreciation for leaving my inner editor in the dust, is to finish up a manuscript that I’ve been working on for a couple of years. I’m already 54,800 words into the manuscript, and the story’s been begging to be told.

I have no choice. I have to tell it.

Wish me luck!

I’m excited and a little nervous about the whole shindig: excited for obvious reasons, but nervous because I still have absolutely no idea what I’m going to write about, so I might have to resort to my backup strategy.

My preferred strategy for NaNoWriMo is to have a plan, and possibly an outline for my book before November 1 arrives, but it’s starting to look like that’s not going to happen. So my backup strategy is just to start with a character in a ridiculous situation and go from there, writing without a plan. This strategy can definitely be fun. It’s exciting to have no idea what lies around the next corner. But it also makes me a little nervous.

Either way, I’m really excited about November, even though I won’t have much of a social life for 30 days. Anyways, if you’re doing NaNoWriMo too, drop me a line and keep in touch!

So there couldn’t be any worse time for me to stack something else on top of my plate, but that’s exactly what I’m going to do in the month of November. As many wannabe writers know, November is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). In November, psychotic writers all over the globe commit to writing 50,000 pages in only 30 days. (Why couldn’t they have picked a month with 31 days??) That amounts to over 1600 words PER DAY!

NaNoWriMo encourages writers everywhere to stop making excuses and start writing! It also encourages you to ignore your “inner critic” for 30 days and avoid doing any editing at all cost! After all, editing is what draft #2 is for! Will NaNoWriMo result in a literary masterpiece? Probably not! But it will get you started in the right direction.

So if you need a boost, check out nanowrimo.com and join the masses of writers who have decided to stop making excuses. The website has a great community forums section, where you can keep up with other writers who are taking the challenge. The forums are a great source of motivation for everyone crazy enough to put themselves through the ordeal!

So go sign up today and look me up! My user name is craigsoup.

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Find a passage of prose from your favorite author and copy it down onto paper. As you’re doing so, take note of the way the sentences are put together. (Don’t worry, I’m not going to ask you to diagram them — although that wouldn’t be a bad exercise.)

After you’ve copied the passage down, I want you to copy it again. But this time, I want you to change all the words while keeping the sentence structure intact. This might be especially useful if you find a passage of similar length from some of your own writing and then rewrite it using the EXACT same sentence structure as the paragraph you’ve just copied. This means it will have almost the exact same number of words, the exact same punctuation, etc. But it will be a completely different story. Here’s an example of a sentence altered in this way:

Original sentence (from Moby Dick): “Now, in calm weather, to swim in the open ocean is as easy to the practised swimmer as to ride in a spring-carriage ashore.”

Exercise sentence: “Now, with rock-bottom interest rates, to invest in the real estate market is as accessible to the novice investor as to participate in an IRA.”

Notice there are some small differences in sentence structure, but the structure of the sentence as a whole remains intact. If you try this technique out with an entire paragraph, you’ll be surprised at how much you can learn!

As you have probably noticed, website updates have been infrequent lately. This is because I’m currently wrestling with a full time job while trying to build up a freelance web design business. And I’m doing all of this in an effort to pay off some high-interest credit card debt. (Credit cards are evil, ladies and gents, don’t be deceived!)

This doesn’t leave much time for writing.

Now, if one of you had said this to me, this is the point where I would jump in and tell you that if you really want to write, you’ll stop making excuses and DO IT. Even if it means only writing a couple of pages per week, you must do something.

And that advice is perfectly sound.

So I’m calling on YOU GUYS to help me! Whenever you get a chance, drop me an email by going to our contact page. Check up on me, tell me to get busy, motivate me, inspire me, tell me why you love to write . . . anything to give me a good, solid kick in the literary rump.

And I’m always here to do the same for you.

P.S. And if you’re feeling extra generous, feel free to explore the “click here to donate” button on the right side of the page.

1. Spend some time there yourself. Whether your story takes place in a real place or an imagined universe, you need to set a solid foundation for your setting. You can do this by spending time there yourself. If the place you’re writing about is real, go there. If you’ve never been there, or if you can’t afford to go, you need to either change the setting or do a lot of research.

If the place you’re writing about doesn’t exist, then your job is a little bit easier. You won’t have to deal with all the locals who complain that your descriptions aren’t accurate. On the other hand, you job can also be a lot more difficult, because even though the place doesn’t exist, you have to make it seem so.

So spend some time there. Close your eyes and walk through the forests, wander up and down the streets, shake hands with the locals, visit all the local sites. Pull out a pen and paper and draw detailed maps. Immerse yourself in the environment until you almost start to believe it’s real.

2. Don’t get too caught up in details. It’s important to know and understand your setting, but don’t get caught up in explaining every street crack, every tree and rock, and every stop sign. In the course of your writing, include only the things that the characters would notice.

3. Include all of the senses. If your character is wandering through a suburban neighborhood on the 4th of July, what kind of things would he see, hear, taste, touch, and smell? He might smell fireworks or barbecue. Maybe he sees kids running around and hears laughter and fireworks going off. If it’s a typical 4th of July in Texas, then he probably feels the heat of the sun baking the back of his neck. Including the senses can add a whole new dimension to your narrative.

4. Has it been invented yet? If your story takes place in 1930, make sure your character isn’t carrying a gun that was invented in the 1940’s. Little details like this can destroy your credibility as an author for any of your readers who are picky enough to catch your inaccuracies.

5. Is that what it really looks like? If you’re writing about a place you’ve only seen pictures of, then interview someone who’s actually been there. At the risk of being annoying, ask them very specific questions about WHAT they saw, how it made them FEEL, what they might have noticed that you would only notice if you’ve been there.

There is plenty to consider concerning your plot. Don’t sell a potentially great story short by neglecting to understand and build your setting properly. Remember, your environment is almost another character in your story. Think about how this idea relates to movies such as The Princess Bride, Ocean’s Eleven, Hidalgo, and Star Wars. If the time and place for any of these these stories were less specific or poorly thought out, then the entire story would be remarkably different.

So before you send that manuscript out, take a moment to consider your setting. Have you given it the attention it deserves?

You see, both of the aforementioned friends have Mac laptop computers, and I’ve got a bulky HP that sits more than an inch high when the screen is closed. At our little Starbucks table, my laptop takes up most of the table top real estate. (As a side note, that’s one reason I’m trying to switch to Mac.)

So, what does that have to do with writing? Well, it’s been a while since I’ve gotten any real writing done, but when I DO write, I usually pack up my laptop and head out to the nearest Starbucks, away from the distractions of home. I know a lot of writers prefer to be hermits, locked away in a dark corner of their houses, but as I mentioned before, in my full-time job, I work from home, so by the end of the day, I need a change of scenery.

Anyways, if you’ve ever tried to pack up a 17″ HP Pavilion zd7000 laptop and take it to Starbucks, then you know what a hassle it can be. By the time you’ve packed it up at home and unpacked it at Starbucks, you’ve wasted a good 5 minutes that you could have spent writing. Now 5 minutes may not seem like much, but when you’ve got as little free time as I do, 5 minutes is a treasure!

If only I had a Mac Book Pro! They’re so much lighter and faster and easier to transport!

So, what’s my point? Am I trying to get everyone to buy a new Mac? No, of course not! My point is that when you’re writing, you need to examine all of the things that hinder you from getting that done . . . no matter how small they may be. If there are any little things you can do to increase your productivity, it will definitely be worth it in the long run to get rid of those obstacles. Even if it just gives you 5 extra minutes of writing time, won’t it be worth it? Think about it, if you write 5 days a week, then adding 5 more minutes of writing time per day will give you 25 extra minutes per week, 100 extra minutes per month, and 21 EXTRA HOURS of writing per year!