A Pause

So I was reading this article (which is better than anything I could every write, so you should totally go read it) and thinking about writing and how the greatest thing anyone’s ever said about my work was someone who read my poem and said, “this is life here.”

And it flattened me

to think that I’d caught something. I wasn’t even sure what I was trying to catch, but I caught it. If I somehow write something that makes someone else think that those are the words they were trying to say, then I’ve done my job. Because I’m not trying to write me. I know myself, and I’m not all that interesting. I’m trying to write you. I'm trying to write this whole beautiful, messy world beyond the boundaries of me and all I ask is to hold it for a moment before I let it go.

How to Write a Novel (In Three Days) Part Two: Why?

In this second bit of advice, I’d like to address why. Why would you possibly want to write a novel in three days? It’s insane, and hard, and it means you don’t get to do anything cool like go to an amusement park during your labor day weekend. For the love of all things bookish, why would you do that to yourself?

• To say you did it. Imagine the scene, you’re talking to your friend who spent their weekend tanning by the pool and they ask, what did you do with your labor day weekend? Nothing much, you say, I just wrote an entire novel.

• For the head rush. The thing about writing a novel in three days is, you completely immerse yourself in your novel. You don’t just take a few brick out of the dam of reality that holds back your creativity. You blow that motherfucker up with dynamite.

• To enter the contest. Okay, okay, the odds are against you winning, but there’s still a CHANCE you could win and get all published-face, and isn’t that an awesome feeling? I mean, to submit your manuscript in and know that somebody else is reading it? Isn’t that the best?

• And, for the most important reason, you’ve got a story to tell and this is an effective, if messy, way of getting it out. There’s no time to second guess yourself or let your self doubt and inner editor gnaw on your soul. There’s just you, the story, and the writing. That’s all you really need.

How to Write a Novel (In Three Days) Part One: What?

As promised, my trying-to-be-professional-and-helpful blog post series!

For the first installment in my series, I feel like I need to explain what 3-Day is. The 3-Day Novel Contest is a writing event that happens every year on labor day weekend. Hundreds of crazed novelists enter and write like mad for three days to churn out a novel. This novel is then submitted and judged.

Of course, I’m not here to insist that you pay the fee to enter officially, though I do think it helps with motivation. It can be just as fun to write a novel for yourself and not submit it anywhere. In fact, feel free to write a novel in three days on some other weekend. (There was this guy? With this blog? And he wrote, like, twenty-four three day novels in a year.)

The point is, writing novel in three days is awesome.

MIND, I’m using the word ‘novel’ loosely. Most three day novels come in around one hundred pages, which is really more of a novella. But three day novella doesn’t have quite the same ring to it. Anyway, this is really more of an extremely rough first draft. Don’t try to publish this novel the day after you finish. Please.

Anyway, 72 hours. Write a story from beginning to ending. Sound good? No? Tomorrow I’m going to tell you why you should consider it.

Exciting Days

I'm not one of those people who hides my writing. I don't know what shame gland is missing from my insides, but I am the kind of person who gets giddy about other people reading the things I wrote. All this is to say, my poem is up on The Camel Saloon! YAY!

It's just crazy because it's like, there's someone else who liked something I wrote enough to put it on their website thing. Isn't that crazy?

Anyway, dear invisible readers, if you want to read it, click here.

The poem is "Cliches Get Stuck Under Your Fingernails." It's my "Clod and the Pebble" homage. See, I once wrote this entire paper about "The Clod and The Pebble"? And I still can't remember where the 'the's go? Anyway, it's a poem I really like, so my poem is sort of like my own version of the idea, quoting No Exit instead of Paradise Lost.

Yeah, I just made it sound like I wrote the poem all deliberately, but that's a total lie. The first draft was just brain dump, but after that I was all, oh, this poem could be this, and then I layered it a little. SEE HOW COMPLEX I AM?

I should probably stop talking about my own poem before I come across as a crazy egomaniac.

So... other things. I'm reading Fall For Anything and it's completely BLOWING MY MIND. Courtney Summers is rapidly becoming one of my favorite authors ever.

The Day of No Surrender

Doesn't that sound all dramatic and stuff? Seriously, though, I have PLANS. First, from 9-11 p.m. is now officially my writing time. Why yes, that is right now! THIS TOTALLY COUNTS, OKAY?

Secondly, I am getting crazy excited about my 3-day novel! I have all sorts of ideas and I've begun my research! It's going to be epicsauce!

Thirdly, my sister says I need to be more professional. She's such a bossy marketing consultant. So in order to become all helpful and marketable to appease her, I'm going to start my very first blog series!

It's going to be "How to write a novel (in three days)." That's right, I'm doing a series on 3-day! Yay! Tomorrow's entry will be, "Why 3-day?"

Maybe. I haven't actually written anything yet.

I'M SO WINNING AT BEING PROFESSIONAL.

Camp Nano Day Eleven: Whee!

BE EXCITED! I officially know what I'm writing for three day! (Oh, please, self, don't change my mind.) So, it's pretty much Gossip Girl in Hollywood. Mostly because I've been wanting to write a Gossip Girl-ish story for forevers and the idea of the Hollywood setting has gotten stuck in my head and won't let go. So there you have it. The title is Throwing Stones in Glass Houses and the main character is Birdie, a movie stars daughter who's struggling to get through high school without wrecking her mother's image. So naturally there's this boy messing it all up.

Anyway, I'm pretty psyched about it. Also exhausted from working a nine hour shift. Who came up with this whole nine hour shift thing, anyway? My feet want to die. Or maybe just cry in a corner.

Camp Nano Day Eight: Anxiety

Someday I will write a decent post for this blog. That day is not this day.

So I lied in my post yesterday. For some reason as soon as I commit something to a post, I immediately contradict it. Maybe I should post that I'm not going to write five thousand word today to drive myself to do it. Anyway, I reread Tidal Wave last night. It's a bit of a mess. Revising it is going to be so much work that I'm totally not going to work on it right away. Hear that, contradictory self? I'm going to put off getting around to these revisions.

Does it still work if I know I'm doing it? Oh well.

Oh, right, this post was supposed to be about anxiety. So I'm expecting a response back on a poetry submission today, and it's driving me CRAZY. I keep checking my inbox every five seconds. I'm not sure what the point of this was supposed to be. I'm terrible at waiting for things?

EDIT: I got the acceptance email! And now I just want to stare at it. *stares* *stares some more* *reserved victory dance* *yes more staring*

Camp Nano Day Seven: Committed

I have commitment issues. Also, I was trying to pun off being committed to an insane asylum. I don't think it worked. After running away, running back, running in circles, crying a little bit, and throwing my arms up, I am finally forcing myself to buckle down and commit to my regency book. Maybe.

I'm really terrible at this. Write On Con is coming up next week and I wanted to get Tidal Wave ready for that, but I've found I'm still not ready to look at Tidal Wave. I know, I know I need to go fix it up and trudge through revisions, but I still need a little time, okay? Geez. Give me a break.

Anyway, might just set Tidal Wave aside while I work on the regency book for a while. Then come back to it in September when I take a breather from the regency. Sometimes I feel like writing a book is like baking cookies. See, my mom always bakes hundreds of cookies for Christmas? And she doesn't eat them because she says she's spent so much time baking them that she can't stand to look at them. Writing a book is like that. I need time away so my book doesn't make me barf.

Wow, this is a terrible post. I'm going to go pretend to be productive now.

Camp Nano Day Three: Stalemate

And now I'm at the point where I don't know what to do next. Having ditched my other ideas, I've now got nothing. Or at least, not much of anything. I still have Tidal Wave revisions to work on, but I want a new project to write on. I'm just not sure what it should be.

The old time Hollywood thing has really caught in my brain and I've been thinking about it, but I'm not sure. If I run with it I'll definitely come at it from the angle of old sci-fi movies, because, come on. Is there anything better than an old sci-fi movie? No, there really isn't.

But I don't have a plot. A few character ideas, maybe, but no plot. Should I make it a murder mystery? Drive it with character drama? Should it be the story of the main character imploding? Oh, I do love a good implosion.

Oh, I don't know. I'm going to have to sleep on this one. And then do some research. Not, like, useful research, but, like, awesome research about what kind of sunglasses they wore. Okay, I'll admit it. The only reason I want to write about Hollywood is the sunglasses.

Camp Nano Day Two: Reverse It

So remember that thing? Where I was going to write a regency romance? Yeah, that's not happening anymore. Not right now, anyway. It turns out, having read a bunch of regency romances isn't really enough research to base my world building on and I got kind of confused and collapsed. So I just started writing this other thing today. No idea what it is or where it's going, but I kind of like it. Thoughts?

Rule number four hundred and twelve of living with Maria Strong: Never date a dead boy. Seriously. They follow you EVERYWHERE and are impossible to break up with. You know how you had to wait a week to dump your boyfriend because his dog died? Try dealing with the ultimate trump card: your mom just killed me. 

I bang my head against my locker. Maybe if I achieve unconsciousness I won't have to listen to Gary prattle on anymore. 

"So then I spread peanut butter on the bread, but the knife wasn't curved right so it squiggled instead of swirling..."

I'm not blacking out fast enough. I can't remember why I ever went out with Gary. Okay, that's a lie. I went out with him because I was leading him to mom and his untimely death and he asked me out for coffee. What was I supposed to say? No? I didn't expect our date to be important enough to bring him back from the afterlife as a ghost.

"But then the jelly got all gloopy everywhere so I thought, I'll go see Kiera!" 

He smiles at me. I manage to stretch my mouth up in what I hope looks like a smile but probably bears a closer resemblance to a crazy woman with a knife. 

"So what do you think, Kiera? Should I add more jelly, or try to scrape it off?"

Oh. Dear. God. "I don't know, Gary." I bite my lip as if I'm seriously considering his question. "Maybe you could ask me when I'm not about to be late to class?" I shuffle my textbooks for emphasis. Who am I kidding? I'm already late. The hallway emptied out five minutes ago. That's me, Kiera Strong, model student extraordinaire. 

"Sorry!" Gary throws up his hands. "You didn't look busy, so I thought-"

"No, it's fine, Gary. Why don't you go ask my mom?" It would serve her right to get haunted. Why don't any of her victims ever fall in love with her?

"Don't worry, sugarplum. I'll wait." He stands beside my locker, grinning inanely. He's really going to wait, isn't he? 

I slam my locker shut. "Bye, Gary." I wave, hoping he'll take the hint. No such luck. I head down the hall to my class room and he follows me. That's it. I'm never helping my mom lure in people to eat again.

Camp Nano Day One: Gorillaing Around

I have a problem. I have the attention span of a monkey eating bananas laced with crack. See that? I don't even know why I took that metaphor so far. Did it add anything? Probably not.

And so. I've made a new blog. I blame my sister. I would stop and explain but NEXT TOPIC.

It's the first day of camp nano! You can find the super awesome description of the novel I'm writing here. Also, I just realized I named my main character Nellie. That's a terrible name. I'm changing it. 

NEXT TOPIC. Owlbears. Best monster ever, or made up at 11:58 p.m. when the deadline was midnight?

Edit: 11:32 p.m. I wrote 991 words! GO ME. None of them are any good, but they are words and I wrote them!