Friday, October 31, 2014
Monday, October 27, 2014
NaNoWriMo
National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) takes place every November. It is a challenge to yourself to write 50,000 words in the month. It is also a great community that is there to support you with reaching your daily word count and ending the month as a winner of NaNoWriMo. You can connect online or meet locals in your area for write-ins and support.
For me NaNo is kicking off this Friday at midnight with a write in. I did not make the write in last year because it was on Thursday and I have a job that expects me to show up and be safe and productive on Friday. This year after taking my kids trick or treating I will be heading to meet my local group and start my novel.
Last year was the first year I participated. Last year I learned that there are many, MANY people who actually plan out their whole novel. They have outlines, written scenes, character descriptions, plot and an ending. These people are called planners. Everyone I met in my local group were planners.
I found this approach amazing. Which is when I learned that I am a pantster. As in fly by the seat of my pants. Doing all that work before starting seems a bit like cheating. I sit down on November 1 and see where my muse takes me. I generally start with a character and as the characters start growing and rounding out they take the story to its conclusion.
I was talking with an author from my writing group today and I think I am going to re-write the first novel I wrote. I am amazed at how much my writing has improved since I started writing a couple of years ago. I think I may even write it from the first person perspective instead of third. Every time I edit the book I just fix some of the grammar but I think scrapping it and starting over will give me the novel I am hoping for. It has received praise so far and I like the characters and the story but I know it can be so much better.
My writing group friend asked if that was okay, using a work that has already been written? I am not going to edit the story. I am not even going to look at it again. I am going to use the characters and the plot. That is sort of like being a planner for this time out. I am still a pantster at heart.
Who out there is joining me in NaNoWriMo? Are you a planner or a pantster?
For me NaNo is kicking off this Friday at midnight with a write in. I did not make the write in last year because it was on Thursday and I have a job that expects me to show up and be safe and productive on Friday. This year after taking my kids trick or treating I will be heading to meet my local group and start my novel.
Last year was the first year I participated. Last year I learned that there are many, MANY people who actually plan out their whole novel. They have outlines, written scenes, character descriptions, plot and an ending. These people are called planners. Everyone I met in my local group were planners.
I found this approach amazing. Which is when I learned that I am a pantster. As in fly by the seat of my pants. Doing all that work before starting seems a bit like cheating. I sit down on November 1 and see where my muse takes me. I generally start with a character and as the characters start growing and rounding out they take the story to its conclusion.
I was talking with an author from my writing group today and I think I am going to re-write the first novel I wrote. I am amazed at how much my writing has improved since I started writing a couple of years ago. I think I may even write it from the first person perspective instead of third. Every time I edit the book I just fix some of the grammar but I think scrapping it and starting over will give me the novel I am hoping for. It has received praise so far and I like the characters and the story but I know it can be so much better.
My writing group friend asked if that was okay, using a work that has already been written? I am not going to edit the story. I am not even going to look at it again. I am going to use the characters and the plot. That is sort of like being a planner for this time out. I am still a pantster at heart.
Who out there is joining me in NaNoWriMo? Are you a planner or a pantster?
Thursday, October 23, 2014
I Write Like...
I recently found a website that analyzes your writing and compares it to a famous author. That sounded like fun. So I gave it a whirl.
I decided to try the story I have on Wattpad. It said:
I write like Gertrude Stein
Here is the link to the story: http://www.wattpad.com/user/KathrynThornton2
I was pretty impressed with that comparison. Then I thought about how much my writing has changed and wondered if my writing style was consistent across my works.
Then I wanted to check my very first novel. The results:
I write like William Shakespeare
Okay, so my first book is like Shakespeare and my latest is Stein so what about my sophomore work.
I write like David Foster Wallace
I belong to a wonderful writing group (CBW-LA) and we published an anthology (Story Sprouts) on voice this year and I had to write a story about a ship wreck. This is not a normal topic for me so I was interested to see what writer this work would be similar to. The answer was:
I write like Ursula K. Le Guin
Here is the link to the anthology: http://www.amazon.com/Story-Sprouts-CBW--Resource-Anthology-ebook/dp/B00NVR5RDY/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1414128353&sr=1-1&keywords=story+sprouts
If you want to check out your writing style you can follow the link below
I Write Like: http://iwl.me/
What's next for me? Well I don't know the last two author's works so it is time to do some research and read some of their books. Maybe brush up on my Stein as well. I was really hoping for Steinbeck so I will keep trying with some of my other work.
Please share your results.
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