Iris Harper

Tamarind at Righteous Orbs has started a new blog transmitted disease that keeps on jumping and infecting all too willing blogger victims. The basic idea is this:

It’s basically a blog-content gift exchange (and it really needs a catchier title), and here’s how it works. If you’d like to play, leave me a comment and in return I’ll give you a subject, or ask you a question … and then you go away and blog about it. It doesn’t have to be a whole blog post, this is meant to be low pressure gift-exchange, but, you know, a comment or a paragraph, or a corner of a post (or a full post, if you want to really indulge me, or feel inspired). And if I suggest something crap or boring in which you have no interest, you can look at it as the equivalent of a pair of novelty socks, say “thank you very much, Tam” and throw it away entirely, and I’ll pretend not to notice and make a mental note not to get you novelty socks next year.

And then, if you feel like it, you can throw it open on your own blog, inviting people to comment if they’re will to blog on a subject of your choosing (and I promise I’ll come and do the same, thus offering blogging gifts of my own, instead of just demanding blog gifts frome verybody else) … and thus the blog-content gift exchange programme will spread … like a disease … the nice sort of disease … kind of like syphilis in the 17th century, when it was viewed as evidence you had Done Sex Properly. I think I just failed singularly to sell this plan.

I personally caught my embarrassing problem from the wonderful Tami (yeah, I am lucky like that), and she asked me to confess what I learned from this year's NaNoWriMo. Well, could have been worse. *grins* 

To be honest, I learned so many thing in this one month I can probably blog for an year just on this topic. But will try to share a short version, my top lessons from the one month of writing extravaganza and torture.

1) Write! Simple as that. You might think it is crappy, you might think no one will ever want to read it, you might think that you are murdering every syllable in a particularly cruel fashion by committing it to your page. It doesn't matter. Keep writing.

While this sounds like something very particular to NaNoWriMo, it is, in fact, not. Take the last chapter of Feather Path. When I wrote it, I hated every word. Felt forced, felt false, felt weak, and I almost scrapped it oh so many times. But I finished it instead. And then a week later, when my nausea at the thought of it had faded, I came back and edited it, and some people told me this was my best writing to date. Get it on the page, you can fix it later!

2) Kill your spell- and grammar-checker. Apart from the red squiggles being the most distractive and muse-destructive thing ever, maybe it is time to learn spelling without its help? *wink* Writers should be able to spell!

As for the grammar-checker, don't know about other ones, but the Word one is simply bad. Fragments can be okay sentences, damn you! *rages*

3) Build anticipation. Tell everyone you can that you are writing a novel. Tell them just a bit about it, enough to whet their appetite. Ask them to be your test readers. Make them want to be your test readers, poke you to ask about your progress, be excited. Once you do that, you cannot give up - too many people will be disappointed! Make it hard on yourself to be a slacker. *wink*

4) Have a daily/weekly goal and outdo it. Not have a goal and keep it. Outdo it. It is a great feeling to be ahead of your game, to do more than expected, to be more productive and creative than necessary. Funnily enough, the more you out-do yourself, the more you will out-do yourself. Because the feeling of success is a great writing aphrodisiac.

5) Take a notepad and pen everywhere. I wish ingenious ideas were so accommodating as to come to me just when I am sitting at the computer with a Hiro-like expression of insane concentration, and trying to conjure magic with words. Alas, it doesn't quite work like that. Most of the breakthroughs in my NaNoWriMo novel happened when I was taking a break from writing, whether to take a shower, shop, or *gasp* see some friends. And memory is an unreliable thing, believe me. So carry some handy note taking equipment with you.

On this note, dear Santa, I want water-resistant paper and pen for Christmas, please. Thanks, yours truly, Writer.

6) Writing buddies are priceless. I don't think I would really have made it without all the support, fun chatter and sprinting madness in the Saucy Wenches channel. It was great, and I am sad it is over.

Love you Bre, Kestrel, Krizz and Anna.

7) This is just the beginning. So you have a complete first draft? Congratulations! Open a bottle of champagne, dance a jig, spill the champagne in the process, be silly, be giddy. You did it!

Done yet? Great. Now, sit down and start making plans for rewriting this mess. *grins*

Truth is, your first draft sucks and so does mine. That is okay. That is their role. You have the bones of a story, beginning, middle and end, and this is what matters. But if you love your story and want it to ever go somewhere, you will have to commit to the long and arduous process of editing. I have not gone there with my beloved novel yet, we are "taking some time off" until New Year, and re-evaluating our commitment to one another. But my brain is already filing the pieces I need to rewrite.

First draft is called first for a reason. Be ready for it.

Offering a free BTD, any takers?

If you would like to take a part in the Christmas gift that keeps on giving craziness, leave a comment, and I am sure I will think of something embarrassing to ask you. *grins*