Writing Sprints!

No 'Lessons from Anime' today because its taking me much longer to write that anime nihilists post than I thought. And I've been writing other stuff lately. Namely 19,000 words of the fourth book in the HOUR OF MISCHIEF series in the last three days. And since NaNoWriMo is coming up, I figured this would be relevant.

I basically write via sprints. I'm not a slow and careful drafter. I attack the draft with all of my terrible first sentences and messy plot mistakes and useless dialogue and I just let it fly. Better to get everything down and edit it later than risk losing interest in the story. But writing sprints can be hard for some people, especially writers with perfectionist tendencies who like to edit as they go. If that method works for you, that's fine, but if you find yourself never finishing anything because you keep getting bogged down in the details, maybe its time to switch it up.

Writing sprints involve writing and absolutely no editing. They can help you finish a draft, even if its in an extremely rough form. But drafts are never final and it doesn't matter how many times you have to edit it. You can edit the book when its complete. You can't edit words that aren't there.

So here are some tips for NaNoWriMo and writing sprints and general!

1. Don't read. At all.

I know you might want to go back and read your work. Don't. Unless you forget if you mentioned an important plot detail earlier or not, don't. If you go back and read, you'll feel the urge to edit and you'll break your pace. If the last section you wrote is crap, you can edit it later.

2. Don't get bogged down in difficult sections

Having trouble with a scene? Let yourself breeze past it in a paragraph and keep going to more interesting stuff. You can even skip over the scene and go back to write it later. One of the hardest thing in writing sprints are transitions between scenes. Don't stress over them. Just go.

3. Outline

Not everyone is an outliner, but I always sprint best when I know where the plot is going. That way I can set goals and I've already envisioned scenes in my mind before I write them. When I finally sit down to type it out, it flows much easier.

4. Bribe yourself

If you're settling down for a big writing sprint, bribe yourself with rewards. I once bought a bag of starburst jelly beans and ate one for every 100 words I wrote. This makes the process of writing fun and tasty. And if you're good at writing sprints, kind of bad for you.

5. Don't Give up

If you get behind during NaNoWriMo, don't be disheartened. There's plenty of time to catch up. You might have a day you just can't write, but maybe you'll write 3,000 words easily the next day. Its a whole month. Don't beat yourself up about it, even if you ultimately fail. Writing sprints are a difficult thing to learn, and ultimately, as long as you get to the end of the draft, its still a win.

And that's just five tips to make NaNoWriMo easier for you! Get out there and write :)

Edit 1: Plot and Story Structure

Well, since I just did a post about my 10 round editing system and I'm now implementing said system on my manuscript, I figure I might as well blog about it as I go. If I do one edit a week, my manuscript might be well edited by spring. And when it comes to the smaller edits, I can probably do multiple in a week. So let's get this MS into shape!

Today's edit focuses on Plot and Story Structure. As mentioned in my previous post, this is the most involved edit of the story. It involves adding scenes, deleting scenes, switching scenes around, and even restructuring the entire plot. How well the plot is thought out to begin with determines the difficulty of this edit.

In my case, this edit isn't as difficult as it could be, mostly because I'm a die hard outliner. I outline before I ever start writing and usually my plots stay about the same. I don't start writing unless the plot seems feasible and is well paced in my head. So I usually don't have to restructure a lot of the meat of the story.

With the exception of openings.

Oh openings. You devils you. I cannot for the life of me write you well the first time. There is nothing more difficult to me than writing an opening that is well paced and gives just enough information to hook in a reader. The only time that I have written an opening that I have liked from first draft to last is in HOUR OF MISCHIEF. I guess its no wonder that's the book that got me my agent.

I'd been hoping for the same magic with the sequel, but nope! It looks like I'm going to be doing a lot of fixing and restructuring on the first fifty pages. I guess I should be used to it by now.

Me guzzling water and pretending its alcohol. Cause I can't drink...yet

This edit will also involve me adding scenes because at only 58,000 words, the book is shorter than I want it to be. Adding is almost as difficult as cutting sometimes, so I'll be combing through and seeing where I can add scenes and character developing moments. Though I'll focus on the latter more in my character developing edit.

So what about all of you? Which parts of your manuscripts always need the most reworking when you edit? Anyone else hate openings like I do? Let me know in the comments and happy editing!

The Joys of Outlining

I'm a happy writer today, because last night I got a pretty detailed outline written for book 3 of my HOUR OF MISCHIEF series. Which is good because for awhile I only had a vague idea about what was going to happen. And since outlining has put me in such a good mood. I think I'll write a post about it today!

I think I've written about outlining many times on the blog in various other posts, which might put a few pantsers off. Hey, I respect pantsers. I have NO idea how they can start a story and just write without knowing the ending. This is a foreign concept to me. And honestly, if pantsing works well for you, go for it.

But today I'm going to talk about all the things outlining is good for and why I am such a die hard planner. So, let's jump in!

1) Outlining lays down the track

This is an obvious one. Outlining gives you a path to follow that will take you to where you're going. And for fast drafting especially, I find this useful. If I know where I'm going, I know where to focus in early scenes and it helps me pace my story better from the get go. That way there's a lot less huge structure edits to do after the first draft is done. Because structure edits are hellish. It also helps to see the end goal, It makes me power through the words, even when I'm hitting a block. And speaking of which...

2) Less writer's block

It helps to know what scenes you need to write because then you're not left sitting at your desk wondering 'what am I supposed to do now?' True you might be stuck at your desk one day not wanting to write anything even if you KNOW what's coming, but at least you know what you have to do. You aren't lost in the black pit wondering if there's even a story to tell. I know that feeling. That's why I vowed never to start a story without an outline again.

3) Outlining helps with Story Structure

You've probably heard of a lot of different structures. The three act structure, the heroes journey, there are a lot of ways to pace your novel, but really only a few that work really well. Even if you are a pantser, when it comes to editing, you really need an outline to figure out where your major story events stand. Does your inciting incident come to late? Is there enough build up to the climax? Do you have a lowest point? Does your middle have a lot going on or does it drag? These are all questions that need answering, and whether you choose to do it in the first draft or second is your choice. Though personally, I think its easier to tackle in the first draft.

However you write, outlines will always come back around. And while some may choose not use them, I think they are one of the most valuable tools in a writer's arsenal.

I guess it doesn't hurt that outlining makes me feel really organized and happy. But that's just personal.

Happy Writing!