Author Archive
Posted on January 24, 2012 - by Nicole Humphrey Cook
Write Creatively:Think Positive, Look Past the Negative
Face it, negativity surrounds us whether we want it to or not. It’s part of life.
Years ago, I took great measures to cut out as much negativity from my life as I could – which basically means I don’t do drama, I avoid it all costs and rather than seeing that proverbial glass as half empty, I will always find it half full, even when there is only a sip remaining. Obviously – negativity still surrounds me, there is no way to completely avoid negative things from happening.
In fact, the past couple of weeks have been challenging. While filled with some super positive things, it feels as if for every single positive thing that comes my way, at least 5 negatives drop in to say hi around the same time.
They say bad things come in three’s. I don’t agree. I used to, but not anymore.
With all of the negative things that have happened, I have had to spend a great deal of time focused on thinking positive. Finding good things even in those bad things. Thinking good thoughts can do a lot to change your attitude.
The problem is really in that people don’t really know how to see the positive. I wake up every morning and remind myself I’m alive. That might seem silly to some of you, but it IS a positive. And each time I tell myself something positive, I feel better.
I also try to surround myself with positive people. If you’re negative most of the time, chances are I won’t spend much time with you. That’s not to say that I don’t recognize that everyone has a bad day now and then, and I would never turn my back on someone in need. Ever. I’m not talking about those people or those situations. I’m talking about the ones that just tend to be very bitter and everything seems like a catastrophe.
It’s time to stop thinking that way. It brings to mind the overused metaphor “find the silver lining”. But really, do it. It just feels better looking for the good things in life. So maybe you spilled coffee on yourself this morning, and you didn’t have time to change and so now you feel like your day is ruined, but it isn’t. There are so many other things in your world that are beautiful and wonderful.
Do you have children? That’s a beautiful, precious gift. Even when they are acting nutty, crazy, crabby or any other fun adjective you’d like to use.
Do you have enough to eat? With our economy the way it is, that is a blessing. Don’t look past what it is.
Do you have a roof over your head? Again, there are many who do not. It is another gift, don’t forget to remember it.
The point is just, that for every negative thing that comes your way, if you look hard enough, there is a positive that is lurking. You just have to learn how to look through new eyes and find the happy, beautiful, perfect moments and cherish them – your new way of thinking will bring on a happier, brighter attitude.
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Posted on January 20, 2012 - by Nicole Humphrey Cook
Funny Friday: The Real Story of the 3 Bears
Now before any of you tell me that I’m so clever and an awesome storyteller (because I am, you know) – I did not write this. I wish I had, but I did not. Maybe I’m not that clever, afterall. I got this forwarded to me, and normally I delete everything but this was so cute I thought I’d share.
Besides, it’s true!
The True Story of the 3 Bears
A far more accurate account of the events of that fateful morning….
Baby bear goes downstairs, sits in his small chair at the table.
He looks into his small bowl. It is empty.
‘Who’s been eating my porridge?’ he squeaks.
Daddy Bear arrives at the big table and sits in his big chair. He looks into his big bowl and it is also empty.
‘Who’s been eating my porridge?!?’ he roars.
Mummy Bear puts her head through the serving hatch from the kitchen and yells,
‘For goodness sake, how many times do I have to go through this with you idiots? It was Mummy Bear who got up first. It was Mummy Bear who woke everyone in the house. It was Mummy Bear who made the coffee. It was Mummy Bear who unloaded the dishwasher from last night and put everything away. It was Mummy Bear who swept the floor in the kitchen. It was Mummy Bear who went out in the cold early morning air to fetch the newspaper and croissants. It was Mummy Bear who set the table.’
‘It was Mummy Bear who walked the dog, cleaned the cat’s litter tray, gave them their food, and refilled their water.’
‘And now that you’ve decided to drag yourselves downstairs and grace Mummy Bear with your grumpy presence, listen carefully, because I’m only going to say this once….’
‘I HAVEN’T MADE THE FREAKIN’ PORRIDGE YET, SO BITE ME!”
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Posted on December 19, 2011 - by Nicole Humphrey Cook
The Gift of More Time to Write
I try to make my posts over here as inspirational and as positive as I can. This one however, might just be the exception to that r
ule. But how can it be, when I title it like that? More time to write? That is a gift!
Except when you do it like this:
Yes, my leg says “Yes”. Why? I had surgery Friday and they do that to make sure they have the correct limb. Because you know I woulda been pretty mad if I had woken up and they had operated on my perfectly good right foot.
So I’m sure you’re wondering what I did. Oh how I wish I could tell you I did some awesome thing like Skiing or Dancing With the Stars (that would be a terrible sight btw, so maybe it’s a good thing I don’t have such an awesome story to tell).
No. Here’s what I did, and what happened afterward.
Last Friday night (I did not dance on tabletops, I may have maxed out credit cards with an ER bill, but I did not go streaking in the park – sorry for Katy Perry reference, but man oh man, that was what I hear in my head after I typed that haha)
ANYWAY.
Last Friday night, Dec. 9 at 6pm I was dropping one of my daughters off, to do this: (see photo on right)
During the month of December, my kids participate in Christmas Traditions on Main Street in St. Charles. Year round they are in a Fife & Drum corps. and we travel all over, but come Christmas time, they lead the parade down main street every single Friday, Saturday and Sunday followed by all kinds of cool Victorian characters and carolers and Santa’s from all over the world.
So last Friday, my daughter (who is visible in the background behind the flag), was heading down to play her fife for the evening crowd of shoppers that swarm the streets at night. The rest of my kids had opted out of that night and were returning home with me after we dropped her off.
We had to park a bit further away than usual, so we had to cross over a street to get to the cobblestones. See the cobblestones they are walking on? They are so pretty. It’s one of the things I love about main street and my town. You have to be careful when walking on cobblestones though, they are uneven and certain shoes can be detrimental to your health. I strongly recommend NO high heels, and I shake my head when I see people down there in them. So unsafe. Anyway.
That’s not the point. But anyway, here’s a blown up picture of the cobblestone. (see photo on left)
See, uneven, as I said. But again, that isn’t really the point here. So already I’m cautious when I’m down there. After we crossed the street, there is a step up onto this sewer before you get to the sidewalk to walk along. Well, anyone who’s ever seen a sewer knows that in front of it, is usually a dip where the water collects to fall down into it.
When there’s cobblestones involved, the dip is larger than normal, and WAY uneven. I stepped down into the dip and my foot decided it liked that spot so it stayed put. I fell forward while my foot stayed totally straight and wedged into this little dip. I heard a snap, I felt a snap and my kids scrambled to help me up. What I can remember is that my foot didn’t actually dislodge from its location until after I began to get back up. By then the pain was excruciating and I knew this was not a simple sprain. In fact, I guessed at the time that I had torn at least a ligament if not two. I knew it wasn’t broken, or at least I assumed it wasn’t. It took me about 5 minutes standing on one leg and balancing on my daughter to work up the nerve to hop back to the van. I sent my fifing daughter on her merry way to go fife the night away, telling her we’d be back in a few hours.
I won’t lie – I was wondering how I was going to manage coming back to get her, but I was thanking God, literally that it was my left foot and not my right.
Did I happen to mention that my husband was out of town for this? Yeah. Like 2000 miles away in Portland, OR for work.
So I’m not sure how I did it, but I did manage to drive us the 20 minutes home. Hobbled into the house with a lot of support from my kids and crashed on the couch trying to figure out what to do. It took me 15 minutes to work up the nerve to actually take my shoe off because the pain was so bad.
I took some Motrin, put some ice on it and come 8:00pm I hobbled out the door to get my daughter from main street, making a brief stop at Walgreens to see if they had a brace of some kind. They didn’t. But I did pick up some crutches because there was no WAY I could get around without them.
By 11pm I knew I had to go to the ER. My foot & ankle were swollen about 3x’s the size they are normally. Taking my two oldest with me, we headed down to the ER.
Three hours later I was on my way home with a partial cast, a diagnosis of a sprain, a prescription for Vicodin and a follow up appointment requested for Monday with an Orthopedic Surgeon. That probably should have been my first clue something was amiss.
Monday morning I was calling the OS and they didn’t understand why the ER doc would have me follow up with an OS for a sprain. I couldn’t really answer that. At all. After several hours and many phone calls later, and everyone being booked until after Christmas, my mom called and remembered my OS’s name that we used when I was a kid. What are the chances he’s still practicing? He is! This was good news. I loved him. He reminds me of Albert Einstein. I’m not sure why though 
Do you happen to know?
Anyway. Appointment was scheduled for Tuesday, which was good, because my ankle was looking REALLY bad. And it only seemed to keep getting worse. The pain was awful. This photo was taken on day 3.
Anyway, after only 10 minutes with my Orthopedic Surgeon, I was scheduled for surgery for that Friday (which was this past Friday). Turns out, I didn’t sprain my ankle or my foot. In fact, what I did was apparently much worse than that. Ready? I ruptured my Achilles Tendon. In layman’s terms, I snapped the damn thing in half. Yep. Not connected. At all.
Don’t even get me started on how irritated I am with the ER for not seeing this in the 3 x-rays they took, or for not calling in a specialist. My OS said I should’ve had surgery that night.
So Friday I had surgery and I have been told this is going to take 12 weeks to heal. The pain sucks, the Vicodin doesn’t seem to work for very long and I don’t like taking it, and I’m tired of sitting still and not being able to do anything. (yes, I’d like some cheese to go with my whine). I’m allowed to whine – you don’t want to even know what this feels like.
However, as everyone keeps reminding me, I do have more time to write. Yes, I suppose I do.
Except this is not how I wanted it.
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Posted on November 17, 2011 - by Nicole Humphrey Cook
7 Simple Ways Writers Can Pay It Forward
There has always been a camaraderie in networking with other authors and writers. I’ve been around a long time now, and it’s just common knowledge that we can all learn from each other. We’re all in this together, we’re all aiming for the same goal, and there is plenty of room for all of us. Right? That’s what I’ve always thought.
Until recently. Don’t get me wrong, I still think this way. Every day I look forward to networking and chatting with the other writers I’ve met on Twitter and on Triberr. (and quite occasionally on Facebook but I really, really hate FB now.) Networking with my friendly, fellow writers, is still very much a part of my day.
However, I’ve noticed something more recently. I had the unpleasant experience of congregating with a bunch of authors that don’t see it like I do at all. In fact, they come across as arrogant, self promoting, and with an in it for themselves only attitude. This makes me sad. Aren’t we all focused on the same goals and dreams? Aren’t we all looking for exactly the same outcome? Or at least similar outcomes? This post isn’t about this group of angry/self promoting authors though, this post is about how you can pay it forward, and keep helping others if that is what you really want from this too.
1. Retweet other writers. This is such an easy one. It requires a click of a button. Hit that retweet button and show the love. When you see a post that is helpful or just really good, go ahead, retweet it. It takes a second. I’m always surprised when someone I don’t even know RT’s my stuff, but I have made many a friend this way.
2. Shoutout their accomplishments. Don’t keep it to yourself when you are impressed with something. If you admire a writer or author or you are particularly proud of their accomplishment or maybe you just want to say hi, then for goodness sake, shout out to them. “Hey @irishwords, I am so proud of you, 1000 words on your WIP is simply awesome!” If you remember NOT to put their twitter id first, others will see this go through your stream and perhaps maybe that person will gain a new follower out of it. (Sorry Declan if you don’t get any new followers out of it! ha)
3. Talk about them. I swear, with as often as I talk about some of my great twitter friends, you’d think I meet with them several times a week and have coffee. My children know several of my twitter writer friends by name, because I talk about them so often. But I don’t have coffee with them, I have never even met most of them. But I talk about them anyway. Guess what happens when I do that? Friends and family get curious, want to know more, and often times wind up buying their book. Yes, it has happened several times.
4. Refer others. Yes, I know in some ways this is the same as #3, but it’s not. I’m talking about referring strangers. Example: Recently I was in B&N and there was a lady looking for a new book to read. She had just asked the store clerk if she had any recommendations. The store clerk gave her titles to big name books and went on her merry way. I made my way over to her and gave her several suggestions of some fantastic books, and assuring her I had read them and they were good.
She bought two from one author and one from another – based on MY suggestions. (@joannaslan – it’s easy to sell your books, they take place here and us locals like books that are … local. 
Plus they are just plain good.) (@sarahdessen – she said she’d already read one by you and picked up another, go figure – you’re an amazing author) … So see, I was able to sell three books to a stranger because I took the time to tell her about them. For the record, I talked about several authors, those are just the books she chose to get. I’ve done this on twitter and Facebook too, and definitely in person on many, many occasions. P.S. Results are not typical (I don’t ALWAYS get them to buy the books I suggest, I got super lucky that day)
5. Buy their books. If you are a writer, you have to be a reader. I know I tend to pick up books by my twitter friends, much more frequently than I pick up the newest New York Times Best Seller. I like supporting them. I like reading them. Plus, you can get books for fairly cheap on Amazon a good majority of the time. Support fellow authors, because I bet if you do that, they’ll support you right back.
6. Review them. If you read the book, review it. You can either write a short blurb on Amazon, Goodreads or even write a blog post about it. Or write a blog post about several recent books you read, offering a short review on each of them. But at any rate, write something about them, it gets others curious. Reviews are like gold to an author. Especially one just starting out.
7. Make friends. This seems like such a simple idea. The problem is, there are so many writers out there that are all about self promotion and not interested in making friends and networking. I think that is sad. So make friends, network with them, toss around ideas, learn from them. It’s not difficult. It’s so easy.
What do you do to spread the love and pay it forward?
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Posted on November 7, 2011 - by Nicole Humphrey Cook
Bonding With Characters by Melissa Foster, Author of Come Back To Me
I am so honored to have award winning author, Melissa Foster guest posting on my blog today. I’ve admired Melissa for a long time, and I’m so blessed to call her friend. Her newest release Come Back To Me, is so beautifully written and such an amazing story of love, hope, courage and strength. It is a must read. Don’t miss this beautiful book, and be sure to check out her first two books, Chasing Amanda and Megan’s Way. Click here to purchase Come Back To Me from Amazon. Also be sure to check out her raving reviews, yes I posted one!
Bonding With Characters, by Melissa Foster
November 2011
You would think that creating a character would be like designing the perfect person. You, the writer, have full control of everything from the looks, personality, and style of this new person to when you will allow them to speak and what you will allow them to say. Given the nature of control that you have over your characters, you would think that liking or hating them would come easily. As an author, I don’t necessarily think that is true.
There are many times when I’m developing a character with one personality in mind, and something happens—the character speaks to me and tells me I’m wrong, and they’re allowed to create themselves, so to speak. This happened with the creation of Alice in COME BACK TO ME. When the story began, Alice was set to be a stoic, conniving woman with no ability to bond with others. I expected her to remain that way throughout the book. She had other ideas.
What happens next in these situations always takes me by surprise. I end up bonding with the characters I thought I would not. They take over more of the story, weaseling their way into the hearts of the author (yeah, that’s me), and when the writing process is over, I find myself thinking about them and their pasts, what made them the way they were.
It would be interesting to create a whole book one each character’s backstory. Yeah, I get a little too bonded to my characters. They never seem to go to sleep!
As a reader, do you put characters away easily or do you bond with them?
 Melissa Foster is the bestselling, award-winning author of three novels, Megan’s Way, Chasing Amanda, and Come Back to Me. She is the founder of the Women’s Nest, a social and support community for women, and the WoMen’s Literary Cafe. Melissa is currently collaborating in the film production of Megan’s Way, and hard at work on her next novel.
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| My Review of Come Back to Me By Melissa FosterHaving read her previous two books, I was excited to sit down with this one, hoping Come Back to Me would draw me in the way that they did.
In no time at all, I was hooked and had a difficult time doing anything else, besides reading. Come Back to Me is a story full of love, loss and a determination that is unbeatable, a faith unwavering and a beautiful ending that you didn’t really see coming.There were definitely some tears that fell during several parts of the story as Ms. Foster brought her characters to life. It was easy to feel the emotions and see the struggles and challenges that they endured. I connected to this book in a way I haven’t connected to a book in some time. The story is a story of the unending love shared between Tess and Beau. There was never a question in how much these two loved each other. It was right there in black and white through the entire story.When Beau heads off to Iraq for a short photography job, Tess tries to talk him out of it, but Beau assures her, he will be safe and this is just the thing that will launch the career he has always wanted. She relents and supports him. During his trip she discovers she is pregnant and cant’t wait to share the news with Beau who is miles away via a video chat so she can see his face. Tragedy strikes, as you suspected it would and Tess keeps her undying faith that Beau will come back to her. There are plenty of interesting twists and turns along the way that will keep you wondering if Tess will remain faithful in her knowing that Beau will return. So does he? Let’s just say the story doesn’t go the way you thought it would, but that isn’t bad, not at all. It was beautifully written and you will need to read the book to find out more. Definitely a fantastic book! The thing I love most about Melissa Foster is her writing style, the way she weaves the words together to create an emotional connection immediately with the characters, the setting, the story. Not only was this book amazing the first time, but I actually read it a second time because I was planning to write this review. I loved it even more the second time, and I didn’t think that was possible. Please be sure to check out her other books, Megan’s Way and Chasing Amanda. You will not be disappointed. |
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Posted on November 6, 2011 - by Nicole Humphrey Cook
Dear Muse: a NaNo Letter
Dear Muse,
Look here. I am seriously getting annoyed and it only seems to be getting worse.
When I said I was going to participate in NaNoWriMo, I meant it. Throwing curve balls in my plans and making unexpected events show up, is not working for me.
When I said I was going to win, I meant it. That means there is no throwing these plot holes into the mix. Keep them at bay and allow me to keep writing freely.
You are not making things any easier by constantly hurling my mind into oblivion or cases of writer’s block.
I don’t mind when you have my characters decide what they want, but then you darn well better have an idea of what happens to get there.
And for goodness sake, quit, and I mean quit, causing me to edit everything. I need these words. So shud up! Please!?
On a normal day, my mind usually works faster than my fingers. However, lately it seems my fingers are flying and my mind isn’t quite catching up. I get all these words written and then I have nowhere to go with them.
So, let’s make a deal. You have got to be more supportive. I will promise to follow your lead, if you can keep everything flowing. After all, I only have twenty four days, fifteen hours, sixteen minutes and twenty eight seconds left to complete it.
Signed,
Nicole, who refuses to lose her 8th year of NaNoWriMo
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Posted on November 1, 2011 - by Nicole Humphrey Cook
Types of NaNo Participants
I did not write this, but rather stole borrowed it off the NaNo forums a few years ago. It is a compilation of people’s ideas of the various types of people that participate in NaNoWriMo. Too funny! It makes me laugh every year. Sadly, I resembled a few of them in past years. Maybe this year will be better? haha
Ahead-of-Themselves Worrywarts: People who are way too worried about what publishers will accept, and whether they’re going to get in legal trouble for some part of their story. Can I use names of real people? Is it okay if my character blows up a McDonald’s? Can I use X word in my YA novel?
Anachronistic WriMo: who insists on writing out their novel on paper before typing it and therefore has to first write fifty thousand words and then type them all in order to get validated. This person can usually tell you exactly how many words can fit on the average college ruled piece of paper.
Annoying WriMo Who’ve Won Every Year Since 2003 (or earlier if you like) And Finishes Around Week Two With Little Apparent Effort: Self-explanatory.
By-the-Book Writer: This is the writer who has read all the “How to Write” guides ever published, and pays attention to all the “rules” in these manuals — unless they contradict each other, in which case s/he goes looking for which author is more popular/successful, and listens to them. This person lives to scream about how you mustn’t use adverbs, how you mustn’t be cliché, how your every sentence must be as they read it should be in Orson Scott Card’s guide to writing sci-fi and fantasy, or Stephen King’s “On Writing,” or “Bubbles the Retarded Chimp’s Guide to Writing Dreck,” or whatever.
CareFree WriMo: someone who decided to do this just for the heck of it. The CF type has no conscience qualms about abandoning the housekeeping chores to other family members who are not doing NaNo this year. Because of this, and because his or her standards for “what makes a ‘real’ novel?” are ridiculously low, the CF has no trouble getting a lot of writing done. This WriMo doesn’t worry about ANYTHING–whether it’s shamelessly drawing people and incidents straight from real life (including real names, locations and dates–such details can be very therapeutic for a WriMo who is trying to make sense of his or her muddled life by doing a massive journaling experiment disguised as a novel), or maintaining some kind of recognizable plot line. They snicker to themselves when anyone asks, “Do you think you’ll ever publish this?”–WriMos in this category not only don’t plan to publish their work; they may not even plan to edit it. It is nothing more nor less than 50K words of fast-paced writing practice for them.
Clueless: They have no idea what NaNoWriMo is, even though the name is on every page, they never bothered to read ANY FAQs, they don’t look at the stickies, but they still manage to sign up for a user id in spite of all of that, just to post in the “Suggestions” forum: “What is NaNoWriMo?” and mean it.
Cranky Old Wrimo: He/she often gets annoyed with all the other types of WriMos.
Drama Queens: People who revel in how difficult it is and how much coffee they’ve drunk and how they’ve had no sleep since Nov 1st and their laptop just ate their novel and they are 10k behind and are thinking of giving up (they’ve been thinking of giving up since 1st Nov.)
Drunk NaNoers: who can only write while under the influence (but they have a really great time, at least until the hangover!) Many of these people are single or childless, and a lot of them smoke. They’d make Hemingway so proud.
Easy Peasies: People who knock off two thousand words a night, every night, from their meticulous outlines despite the fact they have five kids, two jobs, seven cats and their in-laws are visiting. They don’t drink coffee. They get eight hours of sleep a night.
FanNoWriMo Crowd: Easily confused with the Slashers, these authors find it fun to dive into a prepublished world and wreak some unholy havoc. They have an addiction that can not be satisfied solely by the published material in their favorite story, so they write … more. A lot more. Hey, at least they know there’ll be a good audience!
Focused Bast***: This one writes, writes constantly, lets nothing distract him/her for long, and is often rather smug about that.
Forum Addict: They refresh the site on September 30th in the hopes that the forum will open early. When the site crashes on October and November first and is slow for the first few days of both month, the veteran addicts will refresh the site frantically until the site is back up, not realizing that they are in fact adding to the problem. They take a lot of pride in their post count and will compare it to that of other participants, trying to get a higher post count than other participants, and will often be disappointed when they don’t. These participants are often seen in the Games and Procrastination forum because of the potential for post count gain, but Forum Addicts can be seen all over the site because they want to show off their post count by making as many posts as possible. They are typically part of huge discussion threads that few people participate in due to intimidation by the Forum Addicts who invade it by their own conversation. Forum Addicts visit the site year-round and can be seen until the closing-down of the forums, claiming the Last Post and trying to kill the Thread Killer thread.
Fretters: People who fear that everything they write is breaking some kind of carved in stone NaNo rule and they won’t be able to validate. Or that it’s a big problem that their WP program is different than the NaNo word count. Or that they can’t validate because they can’t scramble their text. Or that they can’t validate because they don’t use Word or… you get the picture.
Frequently Asking Questioners: People who ask questions that are covered in the FAQ, in stickied threads, in the About NaNo page, in the next post down in that forum…
Fun Seeking Wrimos: The opposite of the Drama queens. They can’t wait to make funny posts about disasters like exploding laptops. They sit hiccuping behind their computer about their own and everyone else’s typos. The first threads they check is the Nanoisms, followed by the Sporks, tissues and You Know Nano Ate Your Soul…They find their own story too boring and rather hang around here.
Gender-Confused WriMo: can be found posting threads in various lounges about the difficulties of writing men or women. The Gender-Confused WriMo panics at the thought of writing a person of the opposite sex and posts asking for advice on how men or women “think”. Although the thought of writing an opposite sex character terrifies them, they do not have any apparent issues when writing ninjas, pirates, penguins, aliens, robots, etc.
Genre Fretters: They don’t know what genre their story should be in. And they fret about it. Related to general Fretters, just more “single issue”.
Gremlin-Stalked NaNoers: who are either really technologically inept, owners of crappy hardware/software, or victims of extreme bad luck. Because their computers inevitably crash and destroy a major chunk of their novel, throwing them seriously off their stride, and the backup somehow gets wiped or corrupted as well.
Grim WriMo: sits down each day to write with a scowl. Pounds out words with sullen determination. Must…finish, must…win. It’s a question of honor.
Hat Constantly Flung Over the Next Fence Nano: Also known as “make it harder on yourself, why don’t you?”
High On Wordcount NaNoers: This species gets so hooked on NaNoWriMo that they not only want to do it again, they want to up the ante. Like writing 100,000 words in a month. Or more. Or doing the same thing repeatedly, 12 months out of the year. Or signing up for that 3-day noveling contest.
High Word Count – Just Not in the Novellers: People who write hundreds of words a day on the forums, their blogs, in emails and IMs about how low their novel word count is and how hard it is to find the time to write.
How To NaNo-er: They’ve never written romance, so they create a thread asking how you do it! Or maybe they only have a character and a setting, so they ask how they can incorporate them into a plot. Better yet, they ask how to write a novel, in general. It never occured to them that they’re supposed to just put their fingers to the keyboard and type.
Hyper Thread-Starting Nanoer: This sort of Nanoer wants to be the first to post all the awesome threads every year, like Nanoisms, or the book swap thread.
I Just Joined This Year Wrimoer: These are the people who think that they’re royalty just because they’re new this year.
It’s November TWENTIETH Already? Novelist: The one who doesn’t update at all for the first two or three weeks then goes into a frenzy trying to get his or her wordcount back on schedule.
I Would Do NaNoWriMo, But I Want to Put Real Thought into a Story: This wrimo-er isn’t exactly a real wrimo-er! You tell them about NaNoWriMo, and they say ‘Oh, I would LOVE to, but I want to put real thought into my novel.’ They watch your wordcount increase and they might read your NaNo, then you might get it published and it might become a bestseller, but that story that they wanted so badly to put tons of thought into just never seems to get on paper.
Lazy Wrimo: The ones who eye their computer and say…I really ought to write…But I don’t want to….
Latecomers: It’s 21st of November. They just heard about NaNo last night from some guy at a party. Could they still get the 50k? Everyone tells them yes, sure you can! They do. Grrr… I mean – HOORAY!
Luddite: This wrimo comes in many forms. it might be the one who is wed to his typewriter, or the one who only gets on the computer once a year, so can’t figure out how to use it. It could be the devote pen-and-paper-er. This wrimo shuns technology, or just plain doesn’t get it.
Lurking Wrimo: the lurker who posts occasionally, but is more interested in what other posters have to say.
Mary-Sue-phobes: Those people post a lot of threads going “here’s a Sue — there’s a Sue — this published author is jampacked with Sues,” and they also put all their characters through the Mary Sue Litmus Tests online, they have long discussions about whether their characters might be too Sue-ish, and so on and so forth.
Modest Finisher: This WriMo doesn’t like to announce the number of words they wrote or when they finish. They figure they can tell everyone when their book is published and/or when their editor is finished with it…and when their friends and family figure out what their pen name is or when they figure out why the “school project” is 100+ pages.
“My Characters Won’t Obey Me” NaNoers: whose imaginations run wild to such a degree that their characters become uncontrollable. Then they post a lot of threads wailing, and begging for help with keeping their unruly plots on track.
Non-Participating Participants: NaNo veterans who remain at 0 / 50,000 all month but who cannot resist the energy of NaNoWriMo and the call of the forums. They might even start some of their own threads in Character and Plot Realism Q&A… because when else do you have nearly 100,000 other knowledgeable writers at your disposal?
Not in a US Time Zone Type: They miss all the excitement and come along when it’s all over and everyone has gone to bed.
Obsessive Researcher Authors: who ask oodles of questions for verisimilitude and surf Wikipedia for hours, but it takes them forever to actually write their novels.
Oh God What’s Happened I Guess I’ll Keep Going Anyway WriMo: Technical difficulties, plot failure, death in the cast … they keep going anyway. And learn a bunch of dirty tricks on the way.
Oh wait, I CAN do this! Wrimo: A first timer who spent the first 23 days wondering what got into her to even sign up and wondering if she should give up writing all together because everything comes out wrong (but frets silently)…! And then on November 23rd suddenly decides “Well damn you all to hell, I’m doing this for me and no one else so let’s go for it…!” and within a matter of days managed to work away a pretty big word gap. And then realization dawns “Wait.. I CAN do this!”
Old-School WriMo: These WriMos remember the ‘old days’–before Young Writers Program, before WrimoRadio, before the Newbies and All-Ages forums, and before Pencil Guy. They remember when Cybele was the only forum moderator, when NaNo had phpBB forums, or even the Yahoo! groups. Sometimes they even remember busty lesbian cabbage pirate ninjas and writing enemies. This is fine and dandy, but they always have to point it out in forum posts and comment on why the old way is always better than the new way, and it confuses or annoys newer WriMos.
Overachievers: Anyone with a higher word count than yourself.
Pace Yourself WriMo: Plugging away at almost exactly 1667 words per day.
People Who Have No Real Life, But Still Are Only A Tiny Bit Aheaders: These are the ones that manage to get a few words ahead of the daily word count, but they have absolutely no life, so they should be a lot more ahead, but they’re not, for whatever reason.
Pleasantly Surprised Returning Wrimo: This is the wrimo who has done this before and, expecting the battles and hardships of writer’s block, found themselves pleasantly shocked when…miracle of all miracles…the story cooperated and came along easier than ever before.
Prolific WriMo: Does NaNoWriMo, but also April Fools, Script Frenzy, JulNo, AugNo, SeptNo, JanNo, NaNoEdMo, NaNoFiMo, and just about every other WriMo out there. Laments a month that’s interrupted by vacation and/or sickness; if there’s an online community, there’s a way!
Shadow WriMos: They posted in the forum a few days, you see them in a few different forums…and they have 0 words. And all their posts date to October 31st, or November 1st. They gave up without even starting.
Shoutout Superstars: Everything they type warrants a shoutout thread. 500 words! 1000 words! 2000 words! 26,319 words! Let’s make another thread about word count! And then let’s make ANOTHER!!! Because if there’s anything better than a shoutout thread, it’s a HUNDRED shoutout threads!!
Silent Wrimos: They join, they type their novels, and they rarely post anything. They frequently win.
Slasher: All (or most) of their characters will be gay or bisexual, far more than you would ever see in any real-world situation. Even if they are writing fanfiction in a fandom where it’s been firmly established that Character X is solidly straight, they are suddenly bi or gay — and often for reasons that a soap opera writer would be ashamed to write. And if anyone calls the Slasher on to the carpet over the ridiculous number of gay/bi characters in their novel, or the violations of established sexuality in a novel-length fanfic, that person is immediately labeled a homophobe.
Slow and Steadier Wrimo or a Tortoise Wrimo: See Pace Yourself WriMo.
Social WriMo: Is always comforting others, handing out sporks and tissues, pep talking and helping out others with new plots. Then he or she realizes the month is almost done, their word count is still pathetically low and there are no plots left. But…they can always write a NaNo Self help book.
Speedsters: Those who reach 50k within the first 5 days much to the disbelief of everyone else.
Sticky Addicted: A much rarer breed of Hyper Thread Starter, the Sticky Addicted is obsessed with putting stickies up so that people can reach common information more easily, and not clog up forums with similar topics.
Successful Procrastinator: Those who spend what seems to be their entire time procrastinating, making forum post after forum post, making sure they’re up to date on everything in real life from homework to their job, barely spend much time writing at all, yet somehow are days or weeks ahead on the word count, or have been finished for over a week already.
Thanksgiving Marathoners: Those of us lucky U.S. WriMos who have no Thanksgiving travel, work, or responsibilities beyond contributing a batch of mashed potatoes to Thursday’s dinner (and profiting in leftovers). We sit in our pajamas from Friday through Sunday and add masses of words to our blue bars as we race toward the finish line.
The Thankful: Everyone outside of the US who is not missing an entire weekend of writing because of Thanksgiving.
Those Who Aren’t Really Writers For the Rest of the Year, and Their Procrastination Is Most Likely Carrying Over From Their Art Classes, In Which They Always Waited ‘Til the Very Last Minute to Even Start a Painting: Self-explanatory.
Threaten to Give Up All The Time Nanoer: They drive people nuts by whinging that they’ve lost 5000 words and and that they couldn’t do it. They decide to keep going and then finding another reason they should give up. Their friends would’ve been happier if they had just given up altogether and shut up.
Vitriolic Rule Monger: Their responses to people are along the lines of “if you don’t follow the rules exactly you should not be on the forums or waste the nano resources by, horrors, daring to validate your word count!” Plus snobbery and holier-than-thou attitude.
Voyeuristic Guests: They are not technically NaNoers, bur more NaNoWannaBeish. They sit at home, lurking on this site, anonymously laughing, crying and poking fun at our collective triumphs and woes. More than likely, they are cutting and pasting these threads together to make one heck of a novel.
I have always thought this was hilarious. I hope you do to.
Now quit reading and go Write, Write, Write!!
Popularity: 11% [?]
Posted on October 31, 2011 - by Nicole Humphrey Cook
10 Quick Tips for First Time NaNoWriMo Participants
I try to post this a few days before NaNoWriMo begins every year, and this year I forgot, but it’s not too late. It might be the day before, but it still will help any new participants. Enjoy! And feel free to add any advice you have in the comments field.
National Novel Writing Month is quickly approaching and as the event has grown, there are bound to be many more participants than previous years. Each year the community grows in leaps and bounds. Here are some tips to make your first time (and even subsequent) NaNo experience a little easier.
1. Stay Focused, Don’t Stress - It is supposed to be fun. You know that right? So don’t stress out if you haven’t met your words for the day, or if you wind up with a totally messed up case of Writer’s Block. It’s happened to all of us, even those of us who have won! Stay focused, calm and stay positive. The better your attitude and the more fun you are having while you are doing this, the better chance you have of being successful.
2. Make a Schedule - If you mark off a chunk of writing time each day, you are far more likely to get your words in. If you cannot set aside time every day, then at least make time a few times a week to do serious writing. If you find yourself with an extra 5 minutes before you leave the house, boot up the computer and write until you leave. Stick to a schedule of writing and you will win.
3. Download a Calendar - There are calendars available for downloading in the forums and using as desktop wall-paper. This can help because you have a visual reminder of where you should be each day of the month. I can tell you I didn’t use one the first two times I participated (2004 and 2005), I used one in 2006 and I won. No idea if that is a coincidence or not, but it has been quite a big help, plus its a great motivator.
4. Get Ahead - If there is every a day or time that you can get yourself ahead in words, do it. It can help a lot on a particularly busy day or on a day where you are having trouble figuring out where you are going with your story. Getting ahead assures that you can take breaks when needed.
5. Obtain a Writing Buddy - It helps, I promise. Befriend someone on the forums, and challenge yourselves together. You could even befriend another new NaNo participant and go through the growing pains together. When you get stuck, he or she might help you out of it. Of course I also recommend befriending someone who has experience with NaNo. This is good because when you have a question or concern, this new friend can help you along.
6. No Plot, No Problem - When you get stuck, don’t stress. It happens to everyone – new or old. Sometimes our characters aren’t cooperative. The best advice I can give, is to press on. Don’t stop. Just keep writing, even if it doesn’t mean anything and won’t be used. It’s still ideas pouring out of you. Ask yourself questions if you need to. Type them out on the page. “Where is this story going? Why is she all of a sudden in love with him again? Why can’t he kill her?”, etc.
7. Remember This Isn’t a Final Manuscript - Every good author knows that their first copy is exactly that – a draft. It is a rough output of the story. Editing can take place later, hush your inner critic during November. You have time to change anything you want later. If you see a problem with something you’ve written, don’t go back and fix it. Put a star by it and then put a few notes. “Not sure this is working.”, “Need to find a new location where they met.”, “How can he be so cheerful after her death?”, etc.
8. Quantity Vs. Quality - Of course when you are after a best selling novel, you are definitely interested in Quality. But please remember that the goal of NaNoWriMo is to produce 50,000 words, while writing a novel in one month. This means you have to forgo quality and worry more about how much you are producing. There is time later to go back and edit, as I’ve mentioned above.
9. Take Breaks, Rejuvenate - Be sure to take frequent breaks to get up and walk around. Go outside and breath deep breaths and enjoy being outside for a bit. Read a book, watch a television program, talk to a friend, call your mother – whatever, but be sure you have contact with the outside world or you have a greater chance at succumbing to Writer’s Block at some point. Also, be sure and eat healthy snacks and keep a water bottle handy. Enjoy your coffee, but be sure to drink lots of water to combat the exhaustion that happens after several hours after drinking it. Plus you want to keep yourself rehydrated. If you can, prepare meals ahead of time and freeze them. Keep simple ingredients in hand that are healthy and high in protein.
10. There are of course two things that happen at the end of NaNoWriMo. Either you win or you don’t. The goal you are aiming for is 50,000 words. If you don’t make it, don’t get upset. Many new NaNoers don’t make it their first year. And then many do. So if you do happen to win, and you pass that 50,000 word mark, don’t stop – keep going if you can. And celebrate! Pick up your winners badge and certificate, brag about it to anyone who will listen and remember that you have the start of an actual novel. Have fun!!
Popularity: 7% [?]
Posted on October 27, 2011 - by Nicole Humphrey Cook
Backwards NaNo – The Reward System
I discovered a new method of doing NaNoWriMo last year. In previous years, I just did what everyone else did and plugged along at my 1667 words a day. Sometimes it was more, and that was great but by the end of the month, I was always struggling to finish because there are always days you fall behind and then catch up is more difficult than you think.
I was talking to some people last year on the boards and a girl shared a plan she had to do a sort of reward system NaNo. I dubbed it the backwards NaNoWriMo last year, but it’s still the Reward System and it worked for me beautifully last year. I actually finished early which was a goal I had set before the month even took off. So what is the reward system and how does it work?
The premise of the Reward System is only having to write one single solitary word on day 30. Yep, you read that right. One word. How does that work?
Well, you will see (or if you have participated before you will know) that you usually start off quite strong in your writing. The words seem to flow, your story just seems to write itself. But somewhere around the third week, things seem a little less exciting. All of a sudden, you are seeing plot holes or you wrote yourself in a corner or you’re just plain sick of spending so much time in front of your computer (or notebook, or journal or alphasmart, etc. etc.) and now you’re really struggling to formulate those 1667 words everyday.
With the reward method, by the time this whole feeling kicks in and you’re struggling (day 16 or so) you are already writing less words than everyone else who is doing NaNoWriMo. Why is that? Because you got the vast quantity of words out during the first two weeks. Let me show you a break down of how many words you write each day on the reward method.
Word Quotas
Week One
- Day 1: 3346 (It’s day one! Just do it! And you can and will!)
- Day 2: 3216
- Day 3: 3101
- Day 4: 2986
- Day 5: 2872
- Day 6: 2757
- Day 7: 2642
Week Two
- Day 8: 2527 (This is the hard part. Week one is out of the way, but you’ve still got some painful quotas left. Just do it!)
- Day 9: 2412
- Day 10: 2298
- Day 11: 2183
- Day 12: 2068
- Day 13: 1953 (Almost there…)
- Day 14: 1838 (Almost there……)
Week Three
- Day 15: 1724 (Halfway point! After this, you’ll be writing less every day than everyone else! This is the time where you need this!)
- Day 16: 1609
- Day 17: 1494
- Day 18: 1379
- Day 19: 1264
- Day 20: 1150
- Day 21: 1035 (Less than a thousand words a day after this! And everyone else is struggling to catch up and still write their 1667 words per day!)
Week Four (best time to enter all the word wars you can get, because they will come in SUPER handy with these word counts!)
- Day 22: 920
- Day 23: 805
- Day 24: 690
- Day 25: 576 (That’s a single good Word War! Feel free to laugh at the people with over three times this quota today!)
- Day 26: 461
- Day 27: 346
- Day 28: 231
Week Five
- Day 29: 116
- Day 30: 1 (Aww yeah! One word left! Make it a good one! )
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Posted on October 24, 2011 - by Nicole Humphrey Cook
To NaNo or Not to Nano, That Seems to be the Question #nanowrimo
Every year around this time, I start noticing a trend in tweets and facebook status’ and blog posts, with people wondering what all the hype is about National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and whether they should participate or not. Well, to figure out the hype, go here to learn more about what it is.
In a nutshell, it is writing a 50,000 word novel in a single month. The month of November. Every year since 1999.
Can it be done? Yes, this will be my 8th year participating and if all goes well, it will be my 7th year winning. Yes, I did let one year go by where I just couldn’t make those 50,000 words and I refuse to “pad” so it just wasn’t going to happen.
Everyone wants to write a book. Many never will, some will attempt it and still fewer will finish and publish.
There are plenty of reasons why people choose not to participate in NaNoWriMo. Some just don’t get it. That’s okay. Some people are afraid they don’t have the time to devote to it. Some are afraid that they won’t be able to write 50,000 words in 30 days. Some people even have both issues, as well as other things that cause their mind to doubt their ability to be a NaNoWriMo winner at the end of November. Thankfully I will be providing tips for all of those excuses, so that you are left with none. Yes, I really want YOU to NaNo with me this year.
I will be the first to tell you that without time, you probably won’t be able to do it. But there are ways to find time, and I will help you with that this week. Even if you can devote a whole day here and there though, you can still finish. That was me two years ago. And last year I really needed to have it finished up before Thanksgiving. I was close. I was able to pull a single all nighter just after the holiday to finish before the end of the month. I also did it backwards last year… 1 word on day 30 (though that wasn’t completely accurate since I had to finish before then) – for me there was no 1667 word goal each day. I’ll explain how to do that too, because I’m pretty sure I’m doing it again.
It can happen and it will if you believe it will. Believe in yourself. Don’t allow discouragement to wreck what you can do. Quiet your inner editor, quiet your doubtful mind and just let the word flow as they will. Also, consider planning a little. That helps too.
As far as not being sure if you can come up with 50,000 words in a single month – you can. If you write blog posts, you can. If you write anything, you can. Just think of it as a super long fictional blog post. There you go, that’s the key to winning right there. (kidding, of course)
When you get stuck, don’t just stop (unless you actually need a break) – try freewriting what comes to mind. For instance, if you are stuck in a plot hole, write through it. Just write the problems you are facing with it, write ideas of where you want it to go. You can always fix that part later and if you write some of the scene, even if it is distorted or doesn’t flow, it’s still part of your word count (unless you are simply rambling to ramble, and then that’s called cheating). Also, don’t feel like the book has to be written from cover to cover, because nobody says it does.
If you’re stuck on a certain part, hop ahead a little and write another scene or even a whole chapter or even the whole rest of the book. You can always come back. Always. Sometimes, just getting out of that little hole you created, can make the whole thing more clear about what should or should not happen there. Bounce back and forth, I did it all the time. Just don’t edit. Never edit. You need all those words. The book will be edited later – December, January, some other time in the future because you find yourself really sick of the whole thing – okay, so yes that happens too.
I’ve been doing this a long time. I wouldn’t say I am an expert, but writing is my full time job. Yes. I know I’m lucky, but I worked hard to get here. With that said though, while I have finished NaNo every single year but the first, I have six manuscripts that are in various forms of rewrites. Not a single one is finished. Actually I lied, I have 5 manuscripts that are in various forms of rewrites. That other one, we won’t talk about that one. It’s bad. It’s REALLY bad. It’s…. I really had a hard time coming up with a plot and I just wrote this weird series of events that connects via characters and makes very little sense at all, bad. Yep, that’s how bad it is. So we’ve scrapped that one. We pretend it doesn’t exist. Moving on.
So are you doing NaNoWriMo this year? If so, what year are you on? If not, why not?c
What are your thoughts and feelings on NaNoWriMo and if you’ve done this before, what tips can you share?
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