Facing my writing fears...

Last week on the Throwing up Words blog, Chris Crowe did a stint as guest blogger and wrote this post about writing as an act of faith and then there was a fabulous writing exercise about what keeps us from writing. Here is my response which, crazily enough, actually includes Chris Crowe as someone who helped me to face my writing fears. Crazy!

I used to believe that "life" kept me from writing. There just wasn't enough hours in the day to do everything I needed to do to survive and to write.

First there was college, where I had to write all those required papers and read all of those books. How was I supposed to write what I wanted and do well in school?

After a bachelor's degree came an LDS mission to Spain, a teacher's license and a master's degree, a husband, a teaching career, and three sweet little boys. Those things took up all my time and energy; how was I supposed to write?

I'd write a little. A poem or two here. A chapter or two of a novel there. I wanted to write. I yearned to write. It's what I needed to do in order to be truly whole. But I never really dedicated real time to the endeavor. It was something I wanted to do--when I had the time.

Then, in the summer of 2009, just a couple of months after TSH's deployment, Chris Crowe talked to us about his writing process. What I took away from his presentation was this: If you really, and I mean really, want to write, you will do whatever you have to to in order to write. You will make the time to write.

No excuses.

When Chris Crowe had a young family and was teaching high school full time (and maybe even after when he became a professor as well), he would get up at 4 o'clock in the morning to write!

4 o'clock in the morning!

In the months following that presentation, I thought about that. I started writing more. My TV was turned on a little less. In fact, now, my TV viewing time is so much shorter than my book-writing and book-reading time.

Last year, in November, Amy Jo and I decided to do NaNoWriMo. And it was hard. TSH was still gone and the time I had to write was in the evenings after my children had eaten dinner and done their homework and gone to bed.

But it was totally worth it.

What did I really learn from NaNo last year? I learned that I did have the time to do everything I needed to do and to spend some serious time writing.

So Chris Crowe and NaNoWriMo are to blame for what I've done: One NaNo novel partially completed (70,000 words and counting), another NaNo novel in the works right now, and the first draft of another novel completed in 6-7 months.

What was really holding me back, I discovered, wasn't not having enough time. Instead it was my idea of what I needed to be a successful writer.

I don't need a great computer and a nice desk; all I need is my netbook with an old version of Word and a placed to sit and write (preferably my bed or someplace quiet with yummy treats).

I don't need 8 hours a day to write. I need whatever time I can scrounge up.

I do need friends who write and family members who support me. And I have those.

How about you? How have you faced your fears and conquered your dragons this year?

NaNoWriMo Day 12: An Update

It was day 11.

I had 22, 673 words written.

That's 80+ pages.

And I hated my NaNo novel.

That was last night.

I was tired of writing it and I wanted to start all over.

On the 11th day of NaNoWriMo (someone should make up a 30 days of NaNoWriMo song).

Here's the problem: I was bored. I was writing probably what should have been a thrilling scene. Bones were being unearthed. Boys were being sneaked into bedrooms. It was incredible.

Not.

So this is what I was thinking about as I drove into work today: How do I salvage these 20,000+ words? (If you remember, driving in the car and taking a shower are the times when I get my inspiration.)

And *bing* I realized what I needed to do.

I need to take out an entire sub-plot of my novel. I'm still really fascinated by it, but it just isn't working. I'll put it in the back of my head for another time.

I'm changing it from part first-person narrative/part third-person limited to entirely first-person, although I'll have first-person coming from two different people.

I'm cutting out a character sooner than I'd planned (she was going to be kicked out of the school anyway; I just hastened her departure).

I'm changing a character who was a Ms. to a Mr.

And I'm doing it right in the middle of my 50,000 word goal. Crazy? Perhaps. But it was the only way I could see to get through the rest of November.

So, essentially, what I am doing is taking this square peg, see? And see this round hole over here? I'm JAMMING this square peg into that round hole! And I'm excited about what I'm writing again.

But I'm going to have a huge mess to clean up from all of this square-peg jamming at the end of the month.

So, how is your November going? If you're doing NaNoWriMo, tell me how you're managing so far. If you're not, I'd still like to know how you're doing. :)

So, have you heard this one?

Thank you for coming to our celebration giveaway blogpost! Before we start tonight, I thought we'd have a little entertainment, brought to us by the fine children who send in jokes to Laffy Taffy. Here we go!

What pounds in your ears? A drum! Ba-dump-dump-ching!

What? An encore? Okay, here you go, kids!

What bee does well in school? A spelling bee! *wild applause*

Thank you! Thank you! And now, to reveal the winners of the 200th blogpost giveaway. I was going to have a few superheroes pull names out of a hat, but they're all in bed now. (Some wild trunk or treating will exhaust even the stoutest of comic book characters.) So, instead, I used Random.org. And here they are!

#1: The winner of the signed paperback copy of The Adoration of Jenna Fox, the $10 Barnes and Noble gift card, and the cute little notebook made by moi is...

Kendra Leigh! (Remember that water fight in Alicante? Yeah, those were good times.)

#2: The winner of the signed copy of The Dark Divine, $10 Bath and Body Works gift card, and the cute little notebook made by moi is...

Whirligigdaisy! (Remember when you were the cool teacher's assistant who got to sit right next to Sara Zarr and I was in complete and utter awe of you, because, well, you sat right next to Sara Zarr and you made the entire class those adorable book marks? Yeah, those were good times.)

#3: The winner of the signed copy of The Princess of Glass, the $10 Applebees gift card, and the cute little notebook made by moi is...

Donnetta! (Remember when you gave birth to me and raised me and became my friend when I stopped being an annoying teenager? Yeah, those were good times.)

Hooray for you all!

Please email me at laguapatona [at] gmail [dot] com with your addresses and I will send these out this very week. Seriously. I really will. I won't forget to send them. And I won't lose part of it between now and then. (Kind of like I did with those sexy magnets, Kendra. I lost the y, and I wasn't comfortable sending you, well, you know...magnets without a y.)

Oh, except for my mom. I'll probably just bring yours over to your house. That's not a problem, is it?

Okay, well, there it is, folks!

For those of you who didn't win, don't give up hope! There will be more blogposts, I promise. And more contests too!

And maybe, if you're really lucky, more jokes from the back of my pilfered Laffy Taffies.

NaNoWriMo Tip #1

You have a couple more days to enter the 200th blog post contest. If you haven't done it, do it now, and then come back here and read this post.

Have you done it? Okay, here's the deal: NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) starts next Monday, November 1st. You only have a few more days to decide if you're going to do it. And you're going to do it, right? Good. Well, since you're going to do NaNoWriMo, I'm going to give you some helpful tips I've learned from NaNoWriMo and from writing in general to help you out.

Tip #1: Get a plan, Stan.

Even if your name isn't Stan, getting a plan is a good idea. There are several things you want to plan for during NaNoWriMo; thinking about these things now will help you avoid some (as in a teeny-tiny bit) of hair-pulling later on.

• Get a novel journal. I use a journal/notebook for each of my novels to keep all of my ideas in. This works much better than sticky notes for me or any other method. Mostly because I have a two-year old who likes to eat sticky notes.
• If you are the kind of person who plots out your novels, do that now! If you're not that kind of person (like me!), just sit back and enjoy the ride.
• Plan to write crap. Seriously. If you're planning on writing the Great American Novel in one draft, NaNoWriMo may not be for you. But if you're willing to write some garbage, you'll discover diamonds among the word refuse.
• Plan your word count. Are you going to be able to write every single day in November? If so, you should be writing 1,667 words a day. However, if you are planning to take a day or two off for Thanksgiving, or if you'd like to spend more time with your family on the weekends, you will need to take that into account. Figure out now how many days you will be able to write and then divide 50,000 by that number. Easy-peasy, lemon-squeezy (as my child's kindergarten teacher would say).
• Plan for the unexpected. Your child gets ill. Your significant other takes you away to a secluded cabin for the weekend. Your brother wants you to move all of his furniture. These are things that may hinder your 50,000 words. Plan for these things now. Give yourself some leeway so that you are not scrambling to get your 50,000 words at 1o o'clock at night on November 30. That is stressful. I know. I did it last year.

So, that's how I suggest you start out. Get lots of sleep this weekend, because you won't get much in November. I'll be back next week with another tip. After I finish my 1,667 words for the day first, of course.

200th Blog Post Giveaway Extravaganza!

Woohoo! It's finally here! My 200th blog post and giveaway. I hope the sheer awesomeness of the giveaway will make you forgive me for making you wait since July for this post. Yes. The awesomeness will bring me forgiveness.

So, there are 3 giveaways. They are equal in their awesomeness and yet unique in their coolness.

1. Signed paperback copy of Mary Pearson's The Adoration of Jenna Fox; $10 Barnes and Noble gift card; and a nifty little Alice notebook made by moi.

2. Signed hardback copy of Bree Despain's The Dark Divine; $10 Bath and Body Works gift card; and a nifty little Alice notebook made by moi.

3. Signed hardback Copy of Jessica Day George's Princess of Glass; $10 Applebee's gift card; a nifty little Alice notebook made by moi.

I KNOW! You're about to faint from the awesomeness and coolness of these giveaways. But don't faint yet. Leave a comment first. That's all you have to do to win. Have you left a comment? Okay, you may now faint.

The contest will go until October 29. At midnight, I will pull names from my magic witch's hat and post who won the amazing giveaways!

199 Posts on the blog...

199 blogposts. Take one down, pass it around. 198 posts on the blog!

Whew. 199 posts. I've been blogging for over 2 years now and my next post will be 200. Stay tuned for a fun giveaway that includes artsy stuff, gift cardsy stuff, and a signed YA novel.

First, though, Carol is having an awesome contest on her blog (maybe even a little cooler than my 200 posts giveaway). I mean, she's giving away ARCs for Matched and Torment. I want them both...

Okay, since the next blogpost is going to be a contest/giveaway, I'm going to write 199 things you don't know about me on this post.

Ha. No, I'm not. I'm not sure I know 199 things about myself. Instead, I'm going to post my top ten favorite posts. Here they are, although not necessarily in order of favoriteness.

1. The Top Ten Worst Excuses for Not Doing the Dishes

2. To the Real Me...


3. All I Really Need to Know...


4. The Island of Yesterday


5. To Me From My Shadow Self


6. A Dear John Letter to A Soda Pop


7. What I Learned about Life from NaNoWriMo


8. 30 Things I Believe


9. Bucket List #55: Flamenco

10. Naming Ourselves

There you go: 10 blogposts that don't totally stink. If you have a few minutes, I'd love for you to read some of them.

What is one of your blogposts that you're proud of? If you leave a comment with a link to the post, I would love to read it!

Got my blanket and my book...

So I'm ready for the Once Upon a Read-a-thon!

I loved read-a-thons in elementary school. Who doesn't, right? So, I decided to join in on this one. It's from July 12 to July 14. They're even going to have some activities and *crossing my fingers* some prizes! Woohoo!

Here are some of the books that I'll be reading (hopefully it will be more; it just depends on how crazy the next few days are):

Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl:

Once Was Lost by the lovely Sara Zarr (truly, she's a lovely, amazing person as well as an incredible writer):

I know you want to join us. I mean, doesn't a read-a-thon just shout "super-cool"? I think it does.