A Writer on Thanksgiving

                If you're like me, you hate telling people what your book is about while you're still in the first drafts, making Thanksgiving a minefield of well-intentioned relatives. Maybe it's because your book sounds too dark just by the synopsis (this is my problem, since I have never written a book where someone isn't dead, missing, and/or crying in the first couple of pages). Or maybe it's not of a subject that you really want to be discussing with grandma over turkey. The truth is that many of us (especially with Nanowrimo coming to a close) are in a stage where our plot could change (and hopefully will) any day now and are not ready to make any promises. So here are some ideas of vague topics to tell your extended family this Thanksgiving.*

1. "It's a coming of age story"

2. "Your classic boy-meets-girl story with a twist"

3. "It's the anti-[insert popular young adult series here]"

4. Or, if you are feeling particularly confident, "It's the next [insert popular young adult series here]"

5. Use some literary-sounding term like "post-modern" or "stream of conscience"

6. Along those lines, "Well, it's really more of a character study"

7. "It's a book that all takes place in one day/month/year"

8. "Have you ever read [insert obscure novel here]? Oh, it's not going to make sense if you haven't read [insert obscure novel here]."**

                And ta-da! Your great-aunt is moving onto your cousin's high school batting average and you are free from any awkward explanations.

*If you ever say any of these to an agent or someone who actually matters in your literary career, I will personally hit you upside the head with the biggest, heaviest book I can find.

**Options include The Metamorphosis, The Catcher in the Rye, Hamlet, or any book your uncle hasn't read in the 40 years since high school.

How to Finish NaNoWriMo (with as little crying as possible)

We are already halfway through November! Thanksgiving is just around the corner, but more importantly, so is the Nanowrimo deadline. Since I've won three times, I thought I would offer some advice on how to crawl, claw, and drag your way into the winner's circle.

1. Now is not the time to fall behind.

I know weekends are a Nanowrimo procrastinator's best friend. But that is a luxury you are quickly losing, with only two Saturdays and one Sunday left in November. Shove aside all possible responsibilities to keep up with your word count even on the dreaded weeknights.

2. You don't have to wrap up your plot in 50,000 words.

Winning Nanowrimo is all about the word count. So don't rack your brain trying to figure out how to string together every plot hole in the 16,660 words you have left (because you're totally caught up, right?) Ending your story after 50,000 words should be part of the post-November edit. You know, after you go into creative hibernation for the next four weeks.

3. Here's what to do if you finish your plot in under 50,000 words.

This happened to me my second time doing Nanowrimo. I find stretching out your ending is difficult and time consuming, so it's better to go back and add somewhere in your story. I went for a character-development focused flashback. It can be placed nearly anywhere in the story and is less complicated than an entire new subplot. Or maybe you want to add a new subplot, just remember tip #2 and stop after 50,000 words.

4. If at all possible, finish early.

For a non-techie person like me, the submission process is a nightmare the first time around. It literally brought me to tears (I was fifteen, but still.) Finishing early offers you the breathing room to know that you won't lose because you can't figure out Microsoft word or your computer dies or any number of non-writing related problems. Plus, you get to lord over all the other participants who are scrambling to finish on November 30. It's a delicious feeling, my friends.

5. I believe in you.

But not as much as you should believe in you. You've come this far and you're almost there. There are few greater feelings in November than seeing your word count bar turn green and holding your winner's certificate hot off the printer. Hold on to those images and get that 50,000.

My #1 Nanowrimo Advice: Free Yourself from the Cycle of Deleting

                I'm not doing Nanowrimo this year, but like a nutritionist snacking on curly fries between appointments, I'm going to give those of you who are some advice.

Don't ever delete. Ever.*

                You know what you do. You're typing along and suddenly an imperfection in your previous paragraph catches your eye, like a tiny pimple on an adolescence's face. Then you rewrite one or two sentences and it's still not right. Suddenly you're highlighting the entire paragraph and *click* it's gone forever.

                This is a bad idea for first drafts because, well, all first drafts are one big zit. But it's an especially bad idea for Nanowrimo when every deleted word sets you farther back from your goal. If you're not careful, you could get caught in an endless cycle of typing and deleting, until you're so frustrated that you give up on Nanowrimo all together.

                So breathe. Accept that your writing is a blemish now but you have so much time to fix it. This time is for pure, messy, ugly, wonderful writing. Free yourself from the cycle of deleting.

*Small grammatical and spelling changes are fine. Otherwise you might obsess over them. Just draw the line at fixing a misused or misspelled word or two, not rewriting an entire sentence because it doesn't sound right.

To Nano or not to Nano?

     I'm about to drop a bomb on you guys. I'm a procrastinator. Sit down if you need to. Here's a glass of water. A teenager with procrastination issues? Somebody call the Times.

     But what I'm really terrible about is procrastinating with writing. If I get to writing at all, it's always an hour before I go to bed. I put it off and put it off and before I know it's 11 o'clock. For God's sake my url is a joke about me procrastinating on writing. I'm putting it off right now.

     That's why National Novel Writing Month is perfect for me. NaNoWriMo is an online challenge to write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November. It's based on the idea that writers are so afraid of failure that they end up not writing at all, so it's better just to get words on the page. 30 days, 1667 words a day, no excuses. I've done it for the past three years and it's been amazing every time.

     But this year I'm having second thoughts. Thoughts beyond the usual "I don't have time to write an entire novel in a month what am I thinking oh my god." I've just started a new novel and I don't want to abandon it to work on another project. NaNoWriMo has a way of completely wiping your brain clean from the shear immensity of the work and that's not the step creatively I need to be taking now. But I also know that after three years, I would feel weird not doing it this November.

     So here's the compromise. I will write every day in the month of November. It doesn't have to be 1667 words, but it must be something. No excuses, no procrastination. Emma write already.