books on writing, part 1

During the TGIO, the subject of writing books came up. (Yes, I’m very slow. I have much to catch up on this month.) I’m working on a longer post with my personal reactions and favorites, but there are a lot. Every now and then, I even come across one on my bookshelf that I’d forgotten I had.

While you’re waiting, I suggest you check out the past book reviews in Vision, one of my favorite e-zines. Full disclaimer: I’ve written a few of those reviews.

Do you have a favorite writing book? Or one that just didn’t work for you at all? Tell us about it in the comments!

What if you write short fiction?

I’ve sold a few short stories, and at the TGIO party, I was asked about how to get started with that.

What Not to Do During NaNoWriMo

NaNoWriMo

Here is a list of things you should not be doing if you would like to do well during the insane writing flurry that is National Novel Writing Month (in no particular order):

1. Read about how to write
2. Play online games (like FETD 2 @ Casual Collective)
3. Neglect your blog
4. Spend too much time maintaining your blog
5. Nap
6. Drink too much caffeine (the crash hurts)
7. Don’t drink enough caffeine (see #5)
8. Forget to feed your cat
9. Watch movies (time suck)
10. Look at other people’s word count if you are prone to Word Count Envy
11. Neglect the NaNoWriMo Forums
12. Spend too much time at the NaNoWriMo Forums
13. Forget to attend a write-in where caffeine is present (see #7)
14. Edit (I’m stealing your Backspace keys if you do)
15. Read this list instead of writing.

Now go, shoo! Write!

NaNo for the New and Insane

I’m a member of the Forward Motion for Writers community, and the owner of the site wrote a book a few years back titled NaNo
for the New and the Insane: A guide to surviving NaNoWriMo(SM). You can download a PDF copy from her website, Zette’s site. It’s available in one of the right-hand columns. It has a lot of advice, and I really recommend it.

Also, you have to love a book that includes woodle pooves.

Methods of Plotting

I promised to post some thoughts about plotting. This is really more of a rogues’ gallery of plotting methods, and it’s a bit long.

Plotting vs. Pantsing

There are two basic types of writers: plotters and pantsers. Plotters need to know where they’re going; they need an outline, a roadmap, before they start. Pantsers work by the seat of their pants (hence the name); if they have an outline, they figure the story’s already written and they lose interest.

Some people are hybrids of these. For example, they may know two or three main points of the plot before they start, or just have an idea for the climax scene they’re working toward. Some may even just make notes on the next few scenes or chapters, and stop to figure out where they’re going from there after they get those scenes written.

There is no right or wrong. There is only what works for you.

If you already know what works, terrific! Go forth and write.

If not, we’re going to write some posts exploring the main working styles and suggesting ways of implementing them. Okay, at least that’s my plan for the plotting. Nicki’s writing the post or posts about pantsing, and I have no idea what, if anything, she has planned.

I hope to have some thoughts up about plotting Monday or Tuesday. See you then.

NaNo in the Cloud

I’m talking about the cloud that is the logo of The Office of Letters and Light, right? No, wait…that’s a speech balloon. Rainbows and ninjas? Not quite.

Working, or living “in the cloud” is the new term for doing everything online. Almost all of us have email accounts at this point, and maybe a few of us are using tools like Google Calendar or MobileMe to keep track of our schedules online.

And the great part is, even though it sounds really hard and high-tech, anyone can do it. In fact, you could even write your novel in the cloud this year!

The new best alternative to Word and Excel seems to be Google Docs. Not only is it free, it offers the amazing convenience of being available wherever you are writing. No more emailing your files back and forth to yourself from work to home to the library. You don’t need to worry about making sure the most up to date version is on your computer – it’s always online.

Check out this article about the five million students who, when they go back to school this year, will be “going Google”. Heck, if it’s good enough for Temple and Notre Dame, it’s good enough for me!

Okay, so there is a downside – if you don’t have an Internet connection, you don’t have your novel. You can’t write in Google Docs just with your battery during the worst leaf falling storm since 1890.

*insert screeching tire noise here* Wait! You can access your Google Docs offline – by clicking the Offline link on the top right of your Google Docs screen, Google Docs will sync your docs to your computer. When you don’t have an Internet connection, you can still make changes to the files that are on your computer. When you have your Internet connection back, Google Docs will synch the changes to The Cloud, and you’ll be ready to computer hop in no time.

Do you know of any great word processors that are completely in The Cloud, freeing you from being anchored to one particular computer or operating system? I’d love to hear about them!

Welcome!

The Lehigh Valley National Novel Writing Month participants are now blogging!

And we’re Tweeting, too! That’s right – co-Municipal Liasons Erin and Nicki are going to be blogging and tweeting as well as posting on the boards.

Are you addicted to your RSS feed reader? Subscribe to the RSS feed, and be kept up to date on events throughout November, as well as before and after.

Can’t get enough of Twitter? Find us on Twitter and look for last minute updates, meet-up tweets, and new posts here!

And of course, after the October 1st Forum Wipe at NaNoWriMo.org, you will be able to find us in the Lehigh Valley forum.

I’m already psyched for November to hit. I hope you are, too!