What year(s) did you participate in NaNoWriMo?
2011

Tell us if you won or not, and what you learned from the experience
Yes, I won with a word count of 51,000+ and the title was Bound By Cotton. It was my first experience, so I did learn a LOT. First, if you plan to write a historical (as I did), or any other project – that requires research – do as much as possible before November 1st. Research eats up so much time! This will require an outline, which I did not make last year. Chapter by chapter, outline (even roughly) how your book will evolve and do all the research you can think of beforehand, have it printed out in tidy worksheets or however you do your organizing. Second, back your work daily. I cannot emphasize this enough. (My computer crashed and I lost my winning manuscript.) Third, write every single day! Even if it’s not the word count you intended to reach, write every single day. This may involve keeping a notebook with you at all times so you can write in the car, waiting at the doctor’s office, on the school bus – or why not utilize your notepad in your cell phone? Fourth, make yourself a chart used to keep track of your word count. (I’ll place a pdf of the one I use on my website for free) Fifth and finally, have fun with this and tell people what you will be doing. It will not only place accountability on you to DO IT, but they won’t be calling/stopping by as much so you can reach your goal.

What specific advice do you have for someone attempting NaNoWriMo ?
Follow my advice from above

In your opinion who do you think is a good fit to do the challenge and who is is *not* for.
If a person wants a challenge, this is it. Unless a person is really ready to commit to writing at least 1670 words each and every day for a month, NaNo is not for you.

Author Bio:
Robyn’s historical fiction, Summer Rain: Getsikahvda Anitsalagi (The Removal of the People), based on Cherokee life prior to and culminating with the Trail of Tears,was released March 2012. Currently finishing the first of the “Rebellion” trilogy, a historical fiction series based on the Wet Mountain Valley in Colorado. 2012 NaNoWriMo will produce a YA novel, A Dolphin For One. Other projects include a contribution to the book, Rich Fabric-An Anthology, available on Amazon; proceeds of this book are donated in full to the Twilight Wish Foundation. For any other information, please see author blog/website.

Website(s)
Author Home Page Link
Link to your author page on Amazon:10
Link to author page on another service

Social Media:
http://www.goodreads.com/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&query=robyn+leatherman
https://twitter.com/RobynLeatherman

Originally posted 2012-10-16 02:29:56.

What year(s) did you participate in NaNoWriMo?
2011

Tell us if you won or not, and what you learned from the experience
I won. I wrote just over 50,000 words during the month of November. I highly recommend doing this if you want to write any sort of book. It’s a great motivator. My teen-aged daughter and I both did it. We challenged and encouraged each other! She was able to write two 50,000 word books!
What I learned was that with a little discipline, it is absolutely possible to complete a novel in 30 days. In fact, I was able to complete one and start another. However, it does take discipline–daily word count goals and a good working plan.

What specific advice do you have for someone attempting NaNoWriMo ?
I’m not a ‘pantster’ writer. I can’t just sit at a computer and bang out a story that is worth reading, especially one that’s 50,000 words! My advice is to get a working outline of specific plot points in your story before November. Of course, you can change it, but an outline to me is like a map, point A to point B, or scene A to scene B to scene C. Know your characters. It’s okay if they change something on you. Don’t edit!!!! You just don’t have time. A great book (and blog) is Story Engineering, by Larry Brooks. His blog is storyfix.com. As much as possible, try to write every day. If you write roughly 1800 to 2000 words per day, you won’t have any problems finishing by Nov 30. Keep believing in yourself. This is great fun.

In your opinion who do you think is a good fit to do the challenge and who is is *not* for.
Our family homeschools, so that makes our time much more flexible. Some things will have to wait, but you don’t want to make your family your enemy. This should be fun. You may have to get the children to help with dinner. I think anyone who is a competent writer can do this. However, good typing skills is a must. It’s not a good fit for people who can’t carve out time. Also, good coffee is very helpful!

Author Bio:
Christina Li, BA, MA, is an author, journalist, inspirational speaker, and wife and mother of five. She homeschools her three children and two teenagers. Recently, she and her family relocated to the Northwest suburbs of Chicago to join the ministerial staff of The Life Church of Des Plaines. Besides writing, Christina enjoys a great cup of coffee, fresh roasted by her wonderful husband! Find Christina on FaceBook: www.facebook.com/ChristinaLiBooks. Check out her blogs! For encouragement and book excerpts: www.ChristinaCLi.wordpress.com For inspiration and information on writing and publishing your own books: www.ChristinaLiBooks.wordpress.com

Website(s)
Author Home Page Link
Link to your author page on Amazon
Link to author page on another service

Social Media:
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4625749.Christina_Li
http://www.facebook.com/ChristinaLiBooks

Originally posted 2012-10-18 01:57:18.

What year(s) did you participate in NaNoWriMo?
2010 and 2011

Tell us if you won or not, and what you learned from the experience
I won both times.

I learned that it is very difficult to discipline yourself to write 50,000 words in a month but very doable…

The best tool is writeordie.com it makes you write.

It is better to go into the competition with a solid outline, solid characters and a real idea of what you’re going to do and how you’re going to do it….even if you are drafting.

It was easier for me to convert Relentless in to a book than to convert my second book which will require more cutting and pasting to finalize. Not impossible but time consuming. Things kept opening up because I wasn’t as tightly organized.

What specific advice do you have for someone attempting NaNoWriMo ?
Start outlining now. Work on characters. Know what you are going to do before the contest. It makes it much easier.

And don’t be worried if you have to drag yourself to the computer – even if you love writing that’s part of the whole thing.

I always listen to classical music when I write. It’s like Pavlov’s Dog – the music goes on I start writing.

Try to be regular during the competition. If you write best in the morning then if you can write when you’re fresh.

Truly writeordie.com is your best friend.

In your opinion who do you think is a good fit to do the challenge and who is is *not* for.
I have no idea who’s a good fit. If competition drives you you’ll probably do well. I like taking classes or participating in competitions because they provide me with more motivation than normal….But I write several thousand words a week every week anyway so it’s not difficult….and I still get really resistant some days.

Author Bio:
Joan Meijer is the author of over 20 books and 60 short stories under several pen names plus numerous magazine and newspaper articles and stories.

Her novels include:
“Relentless: The Search for Typhoid Mary,” “The President’s Dirty Little Secret,” “The Initiative,” and “Provenance”…. all available on Kindle and Nook.

Non-fiction includes:
“Date Rape It’s Not Your Fault,” “How To Write A Book That Positions You As An Expert In Your Field,” “The Character Book” also available on Amazon and Nook.

Co-Authored with Suzy Prudden books include:
“MetaFitness: Your Thoughts Taking Shape,” “Change Your Mind Change Your Body,” Starting Right,” “Suzy Prudden’s Itty Bitty Weight Loss Book,” “Suzy Prudden’s One Stop Diet Revolution.

Website(s)
Author Home Page Link
Link to your author page on Amazon
Link to author page on another service

Social Media:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Joan-Meijer-Author/172083459484702?ref=hl

Originally posted 2012-10-15 03:50:27.

What year(s) did you participate in NaNoWriMo?
2009, 2010, 2011

Tell us if you won or not, and what you learned from the experience
Yes, I have won every single year that I’ve entered the contest. Interestingly, every year I’m over-confident going in, and write quite a lot on the first and second days. On day 10 I feel like I’ve used up my ideas. On day 15, I’m typically struggling and writing just to fill my daily word quota, all the while thinking, “Why did I undertake this?” or “This sucks” or “I don’t think I want to write this story any longer.” Every year it takes some severe soul-searching (and reaching for every last personal and creative resource) before there comes a moment when I understand what the novel is really about… and then I write feverishly to the end, usually catching up fast for any deficit of words. Sometimes that has started to happen on day 20; sometimes on the 25th. But if I hadn’t continued to “clock in” every day to add to the word count, I would never have crossed the finish line on the last day. (And then, of course, had a first draft to start polishing within a couple of weeks of the end of NaNoWriMo.)

What specific advice do you have for someone attempting NaNoWriMo?
As a yoga teacher and as a writer who’s completed several NaNoWriMo novels, here are my suggestions for peak performance, from most important to least important:

1. Sleep well. Sleep better and longer than usual. Whether you’re a morning person or a night owl, allocate more time for sleep and you’ll find your brain not only less fuzzy but also filled with the sometimes surprisingly good ideas arising from that helpful co-writer, your subconscious. And yes, the premise of NaNoWriMo is that you’re writing a novel in addition to the million other things you’re doing in your daily life; and how can you do those, write the requisite 1700 words a day or so and allocate more time for sleep? Part of what a focused endeavor like this does is force you to live a more mindful life. You have to make moment-to-moment choices in terms of your time and activities; and maybe, just maybe, that level of greater consciousness might mean that paradoxically, you actually have more time in your day. Use that extra time not just to write in a balanced fashion; use it to sleep well.

2. Watch your posture. Sitting in a position that only after a few hours is noticeably uncomfortable is a sure way to make you tired, diminish your concentration and literary output and start a subtle association between exertion and your writing endeavors. It doesn’t have to be that way. Change positions often, play around with standing while writing (a la Hemingway), use an inflatable ball as your chair, switch things around with a posturepedic chair or just be sure to stand every ten minutes, even if for a couple of seconds, to reset your sense of how you’re breathing and how you’re positioning your body relative to your writing tool. Double all these suggestions if you’re using a laptop.

3. Get extra exercise everyday. The level of endorphins, physical energy, and ideas generated will make the time spent exercising a worthwhile, productive side endeavor. Dance, walk, run, swim, lift weights, do yoga – whatever gets your body physically balanced. No time to exercise? Forfeit cars, elevators, any form of motorized transportation that you can avoid. Sure, it takes 30 minutes to walk someplace that you could drive to in ten (if you figure parking and traffic lights in the equation), but by walking, have you lost 30 minutes or gained 10? I think of it in terms of the latter. If you already exercise daily or almost daily, congratulations. Don’t let it lapse: stick with it to derive even greater benefits than usual.

4. Eat well. Easier said than done, right? In the midst of adding a new thing into our lives, where do we find the time for anything other than take-out or frozen dinners? I’m the first one to concede that there’s nothing like the convenience of both of those, but it’s not “brain food” – stuff that nourishes both your body and your mental acuity. The solution? Make your own take-out. Once a week (especially during those times when your plot seems to go nowhere, or your characters are in mutiny against your well-crafted plan) cook a large batch of several dishes, package them, and make it simple for you to reach into the fridge and grab something that nourishes you. Junk food tends to be consumed first perhaps more on the basis of the convenience than their junky-ness; so make it convenient to eat good, tasty, balanced, whole-food items that nourish you and your creativity… and require no more effort than the less beneficial food.

5. Speaking of junk food… It’s easy to go overboard on the treats. If it’s hard to break the habit of reaching for something whenever you get to the point in the story where things seem flat, consider switching the sugary, carb-full treat for vegetables. It’s mindless eating, right? Since you’re mindless here, might as well make it mindlessly good for you. Or just get up and go do those other tasks from daily life and then come back (more in point 8 below).

6. Stay off the coffee. Sure, it may give you the necessary buzz to crank out a few extra hundred words, but coffee ultimately dehydrates you and takes its toll on your adrenals and the rest of your system. I’m not suggesting you quit coffee during NaNoWriMo, just that you don’t lean on it. If it’s a caffeine lift you’re after, try green tea instead – it’ll be easier on you and also give you a boost in the free-radical fighting department.

7. Restrict your media intake. You are breathing the rarefied air of the world your characters inhabit. News, TV, email, Twitter, Facebook updates and the like may be fun and entertaining, but they also split off your creative energy and crowd out the part of your brain where your characters live and develop. Each writer is different, of course, so this suggestion could not only not apply to you but be counterproductive if you’re the rare writer whose creative style thrives on overstimulation. But you might err on the side of less media, or being very specific about which media you choose, in order to give breathing space for your characters to develop. Creative media, on the other hand, may help to stimulate the imagination. The right music, the right visuals, the right book that you’re also reading, can be a source of what Julia Cameron, in her fantastic book The Artist’s Way, calls “adding to the well of creativity” – so we’re not just drawing out of the well, but also putting into it.

8. Find compatible and complementary activities for writing. Yes, dinner needs to be cooked, or the laundry needs to be done, or your child’s diapers need to be changed. Fantastic. Let the story and the characters continue to brew in your head as you take care of life’s details and then come back to where you were. Frequent mini-breaks can let your subconscious do the work for you. The key is to find compatible activities. For instance, for me getting lost in Wikipedia is not compatible with my writing: just like other media in the above point, it crowds out my creative impulses and tends to put me in a passive “entertain me” mode rather than the active involvement that creating requires. So the question is to welcome “no brainer” activities from your daily living that permit the story to continue to write itself in the background of your awareness so when you return to the keyboard, you have new things to say.

9. Other “take good care of your writer” areas include… drinking plenty of water while writing (it’ll keep you and your brain hydrated and will force you to change posture every now and then by running to the bathroom); using a neti pot on a daily basis (it’ll keep you breathing better and hence give you greater mental focus); eating a higher protein to carbohydrate ratio (it’ll keep you more alert and less prone to get the post-meal lazies); meditating (it’ll clear your mind and relax your eyes); and not making the novel-writing endeavor your be-all and end-all for the month: yes, you can get there, but with a mix of your other responsibilities, enjoying your friends, other good books, and life in general.

Does this sound like a lot to do on top of writing a novel (and leading your regular life)? Maybe. Do as many as you think you can incorporate with balance. But writing a novel in a month whether you’re doing it as part of NaNoWriMo or on your own, is the Olympics of Literature, and you’ve got to keep yourself fit in every area in order to get the necessary edge to compete and win.

Except in this case, it’s a competition against yourself, against a deadline, and against a specific word count.

In your opinion who do you think is a good fit to do the challenge and who is is *not* for.
Everyone can do it. But you need to be strategic about it and realize that you’re a better writer when you take better care of yourself.

Author Bio:
Ricardo das Neves is a screenwriter, novelist, and yoga teacher. At the tender age of 18 months he hinted his desire to be a writer when he reached for his father’s fountain pen and inkwell… And spilled the inkwell. The huge blotch he left on the table may be the only lasting mark he leaves on the planet.

Three years later he foreshadowed his lifelong spiritual quest when he demanded to know who this God person was… and has been fine-tuning the answers he got ever since.

In the interim years his talents have come to straddle the world of writing and the world of yoga. He’s a graduate of the University of Washington’s screenwriting program and has seven screenplays to his credit. He’s also the author of five novels blending spirituality and his own brand of quirky humor, and has published over thirty articles on humor, spirituality, and yoga. His most recent book is a light-hearted look at the world of yoga with Unenlightened: Confessions of an Irreverent Yoga Teacher. (www.UnenlightenedBook.com)

Website(s)
Author Home Page Link

Social Media:
https://www.facebook.com/ricardo.dasneves.1
https://twitter.com/spirithumor

Originally posted 2012-10-15 04:10:39.

What year(s) did you participate in NaNoWriMo?
2011

Tell us if you won or not, and what you learned from the experience
I successfully reached the 50,000 word mark–and then did a sort of half-NaNo to write another 26,000 words in December, to have a completed first draft by the end of the year. I’d say I had two big take-away lessons.

One, I CAN keep writing if I set my mind to it. I’d frequently hit a point in the day’s writing when I felt like I had written “enough,” i.e., I’d used up that day’s inspiration. But if I was short on words, I’d grit my teeth and keep going–and I’d generally hit a new rhythm to continue.

Two, inspiration will come when it’s needed. I usually have some “Eureka” moments in writing a draft, when a plot point falls into place or I figure something out about a character. Since it usually takes me much longer to write a novel, these tend to be spread out–but in the compressed format of NaNo, the Eureka moments came faster too.

What specific advice do you have for someone attempting NaNoWriMo ?
Find as much community as you can. I had some friends who were also doing NaNo. The message boards are also a great place to hang out. I used them as small breaks between bursts of writing–just don’t get caught up surfing the boards instead of writing! But it really helps to know other people are doing this crazy thing too. It helped me keep writing when I was getting stuck some evening–sort of a “everyone’s doing it” mentality, which meant I could too. The boards also have lots of great advice, from strategies to meet the word goals to specific points on plots or character issues.

Second piece of advice: trust your characters. In the loopy, crazy world of NaNo, I began to feel more and more that my characters were the ones deciding what ought to be happening–and things went best when I went with what they suggested. It helps to have some kind of plan, but don’t be afraid to change things up as the month goes on.

In your opinion who do you think is a good fit to do the challenge and who is is *not* for.
You really have to love to write. Writing became my life during NaNo, and I expect that to happen again this year. I have a job, I have a social life, but anything unimportant got shoved aside for a month while I focused on the writing.

You have to care about your goal. Whatever you’re trying to do in November, it has to matter to you because it won’t always be easy. I don’t think you have to be trying to write 50,000 words, though. That’s the main focus, but I really think it would work as well to have a different goal. Maybe you just want to write 10,000 words. Maybe you just want to finish a short story. NaNo is a great community of writers who are setting themselves goals in writing. Figure out the goal that counts for you–but it has to be important to you.

You have to care about your product. There’s no “reward,” so if you’re planning to pound out 50,000 words of complete nonsense just to say you passed the goal, don’t bother. The reward is the accomplishment, and the written product that you have at the end.

Author Bio:
Cheryl writes YA fantasy, and is planning to launch on her second NaNo this November. She blogs at Tales of the Marvelous (http://marveloustales.wordpress.com), sharing book reviews, writing, and discussions on books. She blogged throughout her NaNo experience last year, sharing the ups and the downs and even novel excerpts (all available in the blog archives), and plans to do so again this year.

Website(s)
Author Home Page Link

Social Media:
http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/9813065-cheryl
http://www.twitter.com/marveloustales

Originally posted 2012-10-15 03:35:32.