Caroline Starr Rose

picture book and middle-grade author

Five Things I Learned From NaNoWriMo

12 Comments

Here’s an oldie but goodie for those of you in the NaNoWriMo trenches. Enjoy!

It was with a bit of reluctance I decided to join in this year’s National Novel Writing Month. For those of you unfamiliar with NaNoWriMo, it’s a month-long challenge to produce 50,000 words on a new piece of writing. I’d tried NaNo in 2009 and failed miserably. I never, ever was going to do it again. But things came together for me this year in a way that joining in made sense:

  • BLUE BIRDS was off with my editor
  • I was at the point with my research for a new novel that I was itching to get started
  • I read this blog post by Darcy Pattison
  • My critique partner, Valerie Geary, promised me peanut butter cookies if I made it through

I didn’t sign up officially. Instead I created a contest of one I called Fake-o NaNo, where I aimed to write 1500 words a day six days a week. I missed one day, had a good number of sessions I didn’t hit 1500 (and a couple I wrote more), and felt finished with the draft a few days before Thanksgiving — the exact day BLUE BIRDS “flew” back to me in a big padded envelope.

Here are five things I learned from the experience:

  1. Slow and steady has been my writing mantra this year. But sometimes fast and furious is just as important. Typically, I write verse novels and picture books. It’s a sloooow process, especially when I’m initially drafting. But with this new novel, I’m trying my hand at prose, something I haven’t poked at for seven or eight years. Throwing words on a page was a very liberating, non-committal way to reintroduce myself to this form. With my first NaNo attempt, I got stuck during the first week and decided to stop. This time around was no different. I faced the same impossible rut one week in. But I kept moving, mainly by sticking to the next lesson I learned.
  2. Sometimes you just have to write about the writing. While I’ve kept a journal for this book since April, I still have a lot of exploring to do. Many days I found myself writing about what was working in the story and what wasn’t. Things I’d have to look further into, characters I needed to add, relationships I needed to develop. Really, the draft became a running commentary, an in-the-moment chance to reflect on my ideas (or lack of them). I know this will be invaluable when I return to the book in a few months.
  3. Practice holds the fear at bay. I’ve written here a lot about how much angst is bound up in my first drafts. The creative process is a scary thing for me, and beginning (and finishing) a first draft is my biggest challenge. By holding myself to a daily goal, I was able to break through some of that fear by simply showing up and doing the work.
  4. Embrace the mess. The “draft” I finished with is quite possibly the messiest, worst thing I’ve ever written. But it’s been such a great experiment in getting words down, feeling out characters, and sometimes learning exactly what I don’t want to write about (by first doing just that). Knowing I could toss it all took me in some directions I might never have discovered if my approach had been more careful.
  5. Did I mention the cookies? Committing out loud to a friend kept me honest. And the cookies were a great pay off!
Are any of you participating in NaNoWriMo this year? What has your experience been like?

 

(BLUE) BIRD BY (BLUE) BIRD: On Small Writing Goals and Big Change

11 Comments

In 1998 I showed my sixth graders at Southwest Middle School (Orlando, FL) a video about Roald Dahl. In it he discussed his writing habits — how he always used a yellow legal pad, stopped when the writing was strong (so it would be easier to pick up the next day), and wrote two hours a day, whether he had something to say or not.

For years I’d talked about writing a book. After watching the video, and with summer just a few weeks away, I decided to give it a try. I checked out a dozen or so books on the Oregon Trail, researched for two weeks,* and started writing.** Dahl’s advice to write for two hours a day felt doable. It’s been a pattern I’ve kept up ever since.

Except when I haven’t, which is most of the time.

It’s far too easy for me to get distracted by the computer, life responsibilities, and the like. This spring, while researching my second book for Putnam, I realized I needed to be better about using my time well. The idea of juggling two books at once was an overwhelming one. I needed a plan, something simple, like Dahl’s two-hour approach.

I started by simply writing down the amount of time I was researching each day. It was frustrating at first to see exactly how much work I was (and was not) doing. But it was a good, honest start.

When working on editorial revisions for BLUE BIRDS, I had the luxury of ten weeks to get my first round done. I aimed for three to five hours a day, five days a week. When the amount of work necessary to pull the book up to what it needed*** felt insurmountable, I tried to remember the small, daily work would lead to something better in two months’ time.

The act of writing down my hours each day pushed me to keep moving. On days where writing was cut to just a few hours or squeezed out entirely, it was also good to refer to my calendar. I had meetings, a boy with a broken wrist, and a retreat to pull together and facilitate in August and September. Seeing those full days helped me chill out a little. I wasn’t eating bon bons or wasting my time. I was busy living life.

If I commit to doing the work, it will get done.

What strategies do you use to meet writing goals?

* do not try this at home
** terrible manuscript but great learning experience!
*** it’s not there yet, but it’s closer

An invitation to look beyond ourselves

6 Comments

In April I learned Blue Birds was a finalist for the New Mexico Press Women’s Zia Award. I wasn’t able to attend the event, so I sent along a few words to be read on my behalf:

It is an honor to have Blue Birds considered for the Zia Award.

A young reader sent me a letter not long after Blue Birds released, telling me how much she enjoyed the story. Her words have stayed with me because they speak so clearly what I hoped the story would convey:

“When Alis and Kimi met, a whole new world was opened to my eyes. They didn’t look at each other like strangers; they looked at each other like best friends would, despite appearances.”

Alis is English and Kimi is Roanoke. The girls share no language. They are meant to be enemies. Yet these things aren’t a barrier to the friendship that grows between them.

Blue Birds is my hope-filled attempt to show we can be bigger than the biases — known and unknown — that we hold. It is an invitation to look beyond ourselves with the curiosity that comes so easily to children, to believe that when we truly know another person our lives are forever changed.

I’m happy to share Blue Birds is the first runner up for the Zia Award. May Alis and Kimi’s story continue to speak into the lives of readers as they have mine.