My muse enjoys dancing in the rain

In typing in the title for this post, I now have the song “Singing in the Rain” on high volume slamming around my brain. And I think some memories of middle school chorus are trying to push to the front of my memories. Oh my!

It’s amazing what the writer’s mind does with words, isn’t it? And that leads into my topic today.

Intense rain storm and flooding

I’ve discovered that my muse is very active and vocal on rainy days more than any other type of day. In fact, just saying ‘rain’ gets her doing jumping jacks.

She feeds me a lot of character dialogue in no particular order or manner, and seldom related to a single story. On the day I took this intense rain photo (in July ’08), Ms. Muse had all sorts of things to say, including children’s dialogue as they played at the beach, dialogue from animals (a la Dr. Doolittle) relocating from the country to the busy city, and dialogue from two 20-somethings trapped at the top of a local mountain in a blizzard.

Glorious sunshine

On sunny days, my muse is open to exploring the outside world in search of new ideas. In a way, she likes to sun herself and take it easy. She lets the world be her cabana boy and serve ideas to her instead of going out to find the delectable fruits and seeds of ideas herself. (And, yes, sometimes she falls asleep in the sun without sunscreen on, which brings a lot of adjectives out.)

Snow and Sunshine

On snow days, she likes to gander at the landscape and wonder about the critters and people moving around ‘out there.’ She feeds me ideas about how the birds don’t fall out of the trees (after all, they can get a lot of snow on their shoulders!), and wonders if all the chipmunks found their way into a hole safely (and have enough food for their families to survive behind underground for a few days). Eventually she thinks about humans getting outside and unburying their world. More poetry flows through my muse on mornings like that, than prose.

On dismal, cold days, I’ve discovered my muse likes to play around with dark fiction and suspense, anything that gets my heart rate up. It must have something to do with the brisk air. She’s very ‘sharp’ on cold days, especially evenings. Everything is pointed (like icicles), brittle (like wind chill), and dark (like the short days). She brings me a lot of visuals, movies in my mind. There’s always an over abundance of activity with the characters that I can’t possibly keep track of everything, but I do end up warming up.

During the fall and spring, when a breeze can kick up a lot of scents (I love the lilacs right now!), my muse enjoys reminding me about such things as being in my grandmother’s kitchen while she was baking, being at the sea shore, and the moment I reach the peak of a mountain after hiking through the woods. A lot of journal writing pours out of my fingers at these times.

Now I have “America the Beautiful” on a loop in my head.

Does your muse react differently to the weather and temperature?

Lisa J. Jackson loves working with words in her own work and with businesses. She also loves New Hampshire and is focused on completing several 5Ks in 2013 as a way to get off the couch consistently. You can connect with her on LinkedIn, Biznik, Facebook, and Twitter. 

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Different ways to get your story started

Writers (of fiction, non-fiction, online, print, and so on) know that beginnings are important. Without the right beginning, the chance for retaining a reader declines rapidly.

So, what type of beginning is best? There’s no perfect answer, of course, but do you have a habit of starting stories, articles, or blog posts the same way? If so, or if you’re unsure, now is a good time to evaluate your writing and see if there’s a way to refresh your beginnings.

Exercise: Pull out a few stories, articles, or blog posts you’ve written recently. Note how you started them. Did they start with the same part of speech? Do you lean on nouns, verbs, pronouns, or adjectives every time?

If not, you already have variety in your beginnings. Bravo!

But if you notice a tendency to open with a certain part of speech  (I favor starting with ‘The’), consider trying something new with the next piece you write.

Here are some examples of ways to start a sentence:

• Adjective – Bright lights can show more than you want seen.
• Article – The best way to manage your time is to schedule it.
• Adverb – Sometimes clients know what they want, but not what they need.
• Conjunction – But you may not find the answers if you don’t ask the questions.
• Gerund - Crossing your arms is a sign of disagreement.
• Noun - Jess made her way to the stage to accept her award.
• Preposition - On the ropes, the boxer glanced at his girlfriend and winked.
• Pronoun - She bought the antique clock after taking its measurements.
• Verb - Start now and celebrate the milestones.

Practice opening your sentences in different ways to see if anything new works for you.

Give it a shot, there’s nothing to lose, and only refreshed writing to gain.

Lisa J. Jackson loves working with words in her own work and with businesses. She also loves New Hampshire and is focused on completing several 5Ks in 2013 as a way to get off the couch consistently. You can connect with her on LinkedIn, Biznik, Facebook, and Twitter. 

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Hands-on research for local journalists and mystery writers

If you write about your community, or if you’re a mystery writer, a great resource (if you have it) to gain insight and make contacts is to take advantage of a local citizen’s police academy.

Last fall I participated in a 10-week program in my current town. I’ve also participated in 2 prior academies in a town and city I lived in before. The experiences and connections are priceless.

I’ve found that academies are generally offered in the fall, but depending on the size of the community(ies) the academy is focused on, there could be multiple offerings during a calendar year. A neighboring city offers them twice a year, for instance.

Start with the Web: visit your local police department’s (PD) website to see if there is an academy. If you don’t find any information, give the department a call on its business line and ask.

Procedures vary, of course, but I’ve always had to go to the PD to fill out an application. Each time it has been a regular job application that wants high school, college, areas of study, job history (complete with start and end dates and hourly wage) – you know the type – 4 pages with lots of boxes to fill in. Applying can be intimidating if you over think it. Filling in the basics is good enough, since you are not applying for a job.

You also have to sign a form allowing the PD to perform a criminal background check.

Academies are generally capped at about 30 people, depending on the size of their conference room I think! But, most academies like to offer hands-on classes and want to keep the classes manageable. The last academy I attended only had 11 participants. The earlier academies had 30-35 participants. It’s great to have a small class because it gives everyone more time for hands-on work (there is usually a lot of show and tell) and also more time to ask questions.

All academies I’ve participated in have been no cost to participants, are offered one night a week for 8-12 weeks, and run for 2.5-3 hours each evening. It’s common for participants to volunteer to bring in goodies each week to go with the PD’s offering of coffee, water, and candy – one academy always had Dunkin’ Munchkins on hand.

During the weeks of the academy, you will meet officers at all levels of experience: newbies as well as those ready to retire. You’ll meet beat cops and detectives, lawyers, child advocates, emergency responders, volunteers, clergy, and more. You’ll learn various behind-the-scenes procedures and processes, and sometimes, if you’re lucky, get to participate in ride-a-longs with an officer on duty.

I particularly enjoy learning forensic processes (small towns don’t have a lot to work with), meeting canine officers and seeing how they work, and I love going to the shooting range for target practice. (That’s me during my 2002 class.)

Citizen police academies give you a different perspective of your community and can add depth to your non-fiction or fiction writing.

Have you ever attended a citizen police academy? 

Lisa J. Jackson partners with businesses seeking to express themselves with words. She loves New Hampshire and is completing several 5Ks in 2013 as a way to get off the couch and away from the screen. She wasn’t a runner until now, and is thinking that someday she wants to complete the Alcatraz Triathlon. You can connect with her on LinkedIn, Biznik, Facebook, and Twitter. 

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Tackling a 24-hour short story contest entry

I like to enter writing contests now and again, and in general prefer not to enter any that have a fee. I tend to like money coming to me for writing rather than away, which I’m sure you can relate to.

But there’s a short-story contest that caught my interest a few years ago that I like to enter, even though it has a fee. It’s the Writer’s Weekly 24-Hour Short Story Contest and it’s put on 4 times a year. The fee is $5 to enter.

There are a few reasons why I like this contest:

• There are more than 85 prizes available
• Top 3 prizes include cash amounts of $300, $250, or $200; and publication. Incentive!
• It’s limited to 500 participants — 17% of total participants can win something (but, not all 500 submit by the deadline)
• I don’t know the topic or word length until the bell rings – no stress over the prep
• All participants have the same 24-hour period in which to write and submit
• The rules are spelled out in detail and communicated on the website, in a downloadable PDF upon registration, and again at the start of the contest
• Even though a prompt is the base of the contest, you don’t have to use it verbatim
• There’s a lot of writing freedom
• No specific genre
• Encouraged to think outside the box
• Tips are shared (i.e. it doesn’t impress the owner to have a character with her name or location in your story; put a title on the story; put your contact information at the end of the submission, and so much more)
• If I end up not submitting, I don’t feel guilty over the $5 spent
• I have time to write a draft and then step away from it (usually sleep on it), and then refine the piece before submitting
• There are more than 85 prizes available (oh, am I repeating myself?) That’s a LOT of opportunity to win something!
• It’s been around for quite a while
• It’s always on a weekend (Saturday 1PM EST to Sunday 1PM EST)
• The contest date It’s always announced weeks in advance, so I can schedule the time
• When winners are announced, a summary of all entries is shared – common themes and endings – as a learning tool
• It’s fun!
• It’s a great break from ‘regular’ writing
• I’ve placed in the contest a few times – and continue to strive for Top 3 at least once.
• It’s good exercise for the muse
• It’s a milestone to look forward to
• Winners are announced when promised (generally within 6 weeks)

Okay, so that’s more than a few, but I haven’t come up with any reasons not to enter. There’s really nothing to lose, and only some spur-of-the-moment writing-to-a-prompt experience to gain (at a minimum).

My method for tackling the entry is: read the prompt and word count limit as soon as the e-mail arrives. Scratch out initial thoughts. Go out for a walk or get lunch and think about the prompt – think about what the ‘typical’ responses might be (the 1st 6 or so that come to mind should be ignored or twisted into something new). Do a free write without worrying about spelling or word count. Pull the nuggets out from the free write. Write a ‘real’ story. Step away from it. Read it. Step away again. Tweak it. Sleep on it. Make final revisions and submit a few hours before deadline.

This past weekend was the Spring contest. The Summer contest is going to be on July 13, and is now open for sign ups. Yep, I’ve already reserved my seat.

Do you have a favorite contest, or one that you find worthwhile? I’d love to hear about it.

Lisa J. Jackson makes a living helping businesses express themselves with words and writing about NH. She has decided to complete several 5Ks in 2013 as a way to get off the couch and away from the screen. She drinks iced coffee year-round, and needs a stash of Peppermint Patties in the fridge at all times. You can connect with her on LinkedIn, Biznik, Facebook, and Twitter. 

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Open-Focus Writer

Sometimes, in the course of reading in my capacity as a life coach, I come across something that really benefits the writer in me. The Open-Focus Brain: Harnessing the Power of Attention to Heal Mind and Body, by Les Fehmi, PhD, and Jim Robbins, is definitely on that list.

Dr. Fehmi’s book is about different styles of attention. He states: “the issue is not what we attend to. Far more critical is how we attend, how we form and direct our awareness, and how we adhere—rigidly or flexibly—to a chosen style of attention.”

He makes the point that we, as a culture, spend almost all of our time in narrow-objective focus, which is a style of attention that is “an emergency mode of paying attention.” Lions on the savanna are in narrow-objective focus when they are stalking prey. There is another style of attention, called open-focus, which is the style of relaxed attention that lions spend most of their time using—unlike us. We spend the majority of our time in narrow-objective focus, despite the fact that it is a very costly way to pay attention, in terms of energy use and stress levels.

So what does this have to do with writing?  People who are in open-focus are more creative, less anxious, more confident, and less “blocked.” That’s how I want to feel every time I sit down to write.

Dr. Fehmi says you can train your brain to spend more time in open-focus. I’ve been practicing and have found some of his exercises to be very helpful, especially when I have a writing deadline or when I feel pressured to write really well—which is all the time.

Here is one exercise adapted from The Open-Focus Brain.

Sit upright in a comfortable position and close your eyes. Consider the following question:

Can you imagine the space between your eyes?

Once you have spent at least 15 seconds considering this question, try the following exercise, spending at least 15 seconds on each step:

• Focus on an object in front of you. Concentrate on it so the object becomes the foreground and everything else is the background.
• Now, without moving your eyes, expand your awareness to include everything around the object. Let your peripheral field of vision widen to take in everything around the object.
• Now, allow everything that is part of the visual background to come forward and become as important as the visual foreground (the object). Allow the background and the foreground to become equally important or interesting.
• Now, without moving your eyes, bring the object back to the foreground and allow everything else to become background.
• Again, without moving your eyes, expand your awareness and allow the visual background to come forward and become as important as the visual foreground.

My open-focus practice has resulted in productive, creative, and satisfying writing sessions. I recommend the book highly—It’s a fascinating read. Give this exercise a try and let me know what you think.

Diane MacKinnon, MD, is a master life coach, writer, mom, and family physician. You can find me at www.dianemackinnon.com and you can find my life-coaching blog at www.dianemackinnon.com/blog.

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Hanging out with writers is exhilarating…and exhausting

Writing can be a solitary life, right? Even when working in a noisy cafe, I can encapsulate myself as I focus on my work – be with/around people, yet still alone.

So when I purposely join a group of writers for a couple hours or more, it’s a bit of a emotional overload. I go from my own thoughts to learning about other writers, what they’re passionate about, what they enjoy reading and writing, and what they are currently working on.

And at those times, I wish I was a sponge and able to absorb *everything* and review it later. I do the best I can, of course, and scribble notes when I have the chance.

I attended a full-day writers’ conference on Saturday and am still recovering. I got there early and met several people right away.

• A neurologist who writes about addiction and recovery; he blogs and speaks to people who need his expertise – turning medical terminology into layman’s speak. And he’s 2/3 of the way through a book on the same topics he speaks about.
• A career-long technical writer adjusting to writing historical fiction and finding it challenging to shift away from linear writing with rules to the freedom that fiction allows.
• A newly published author who was attending the conference for the second time. Last year, her book was in process and after last year’s workshops and networking, the book has been published with a second scheduled with a publisher.
• A local radio personality who enjoys meeting people and coming out from behind the microphone is now transitioning into the writing world.
• An almost-MFA-graduate who was there to practice pitching a YA fantasy novel and to hopefully find leads into teaching opportunities.

Andres Dubus III was the keynote speaker. I’m not familiar with his work, but after hearing him speak, I want to learn more about his work. He was very down to earth and direct. I found it refreshing and motivating.

The workshops I took gave me new ideas for works in process and works not yet drafted. My workshops focused on characters, YA (young adult) & MG (middle grade) fantasy writing, and using maps as stories.

I also got to network with people in my area. It’s so nice to find local-to-me writers interested in getting together for coffee, or better, a writing group. It’s hard to find each other when we’re at home hiding behind our screens!

Bottom line is that I came away from the conference exhilarated with an abundance of information to evaluate. I recorded the workshops, but not my conversations, and it’s usually the conversations that have the priceless ‘nuggets.’

Back to my sponge analogy: after days like this, if I were a sponge, I could wring my thoughts into a bucket and take time to see what I captured. As it is, I usually need food to re-energize, and then quiet time to let everything settle — keeping a notepad and pen nearby to write down the thoughts that bubble to the surface.

Do you take time the same day to capture your ideas/thoughts after going to a workshop or conference? Or do you give yourself a day or more to let things settle?

Lisa J. Jackson makes a living helping businesses express themselves with words and writing about NH. She has decided to complete several 5Ks in 2013 as a way to get off the couch and away from the screen. She drinks iced coffee year-round, and needs a stash of Peppermint Patties in the fridge at all times. You can connect with her on LinkedIn, Biznik, Facebook, and Twitter. 

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Crafting a story from scratch

Everyone has a different process, but I thought today I’d share how I create a story from scratch.

Sometimes I use a phrase, a feeling, a color, a photo, anything that crosses my mind or line of vision does the trick. This examples uses a word prompt — my favorite word, “ponder.”

When using a word prompt like this, I visualize my favorite snack, a s’more.

The graham cracker, the crunchy shell of the treat, is the prompt (in this case, “ponder”) and it can be both the start and end of the story, or either. The marshmallow and chocolate melt together and like the inside of the treat, the words that come from this exercise are the delicious melted insides of the story. So, here is a look at how I would take this prompt and run with it.

Here is my stream of consciousness thinking on “ponder” today:

• Ponder — popular with Winnie the Pooh — Pooh Bear likes to ponder whatever he encounters before it ends up getting him in trouble — ponder is fun to say — I’m pondering what to write — what if Mickey Mouse were to ponder? Can trees (or any plants) ponder? If I were a tree, would I ponder what it would be like to live on the other side of the street, the other side of the hill, in a different country?
• It would be a strange world if trees (or any plant) could actually ponder anything. Now the trees come alive. They have feelings. Is this a science fiction world coming into the forefront? Is it cartoonish? Maybe I’m pondering a cactus instead of a tree. Or how about a car (any vehicle) having the ability to ponder. Now I’m in the world of Transformers.
• I loved Beast Wars:Transformers, a cartoon where the robots transformed into animals. The Maximals and Predacons certainly pondered a lot of things. Rattrap certainly had ‘tude and was always certain he was going to die. I had a bit of a crush on Cheetor – he was just handsome as all get-out and knew how to flirt. He was also a bit naive and innocent and that attracted me too.
• I’m going to draft a story about a character similar to Cheetor and see where it takes me.

So that was how I worked with the prompt of “ponder” today (I’ve done it a few times and it’s different each time).

The brainstorming helped me get to a story idea and so, from here I would set a timer for 20 or 30 minutes and write. No editor, no thinking, just writing what comes to mind to develop the story idea.

That’s how I go about creating a story from scratch.

On a walk I had the other day I found a penny and a marble, in two separate locations, but during the same walk. The question bubbling around in my head since that walk has been “what do these two things have in common?” I’m going to go capture my thoughts now…story ideas just keep coming!

What do you do to start a story from scratch?

 

Lisa J. Jackson is a New England-region writer and a year-round chocolate and iced coffee lover. She loves working with words and helping others with their own. As Lisa Haselton she writes fiction, co-blogs about mystery-related writing topics at Pen, Ink, and Crimes, has an award-winning blog for book reviews and author interviews, and is a chat moderator at The Writer’s Chatroom. Connect with her on LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter. 

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Reenergizing after a writers’ conference

I’m just returning from 3 fabulous days in Dedham, MA at the 2012 New England Crime Bake mystery writers’ conference where Joseph Finder (he’s a really nice guy) was our guest of honor for “A Deadly Busine$$.” It’s a joint effort between New England chapters of Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America.

I’d been looking forward to the weekend since LAST year’s conference. It’s just a con that I love to attend. Mystery writing is in my blood (ha! a pun!) and talking murder and plotting scenes without getting sideways glances from people who overheard the conversation, is freeing.

Me and my friend Maureen at Crime Bake 2011

This year, I was the conference registrar as well as an attendee and first-time banquet attendee. So I did a lot of moving and talking.

Each year I meet new people – writers, readers, NYT best selling authors, agents, editors, booksellers, librarians – and I learn so much. This year was no exception and I am now happily exhausted. I need a vacation to recover from the writer’s conference.

I haven’t yet discovered the trick to re-energizing after a conference. Whether it’s a half-day or multiday con, I’m always dealing with coming down off a ‘high’. Being with other writers, which I know I’ve talked about on this blog before, just recharges my batteries (even if my batteries aren’t low).

Of course, as writers, we should be writing and not spending a lot of time not writing, but writing is solitary most of the time, so I splurge on at least one conference a  year.

I have a lot of notes and some audio I want to transcribe, but I need to rest first and let my muse relax a bit. She’s feeling a bit overwhelmed right now – a bit like a child who has snuck a little too much candy out of his Halloween basket.

I’m already anticipating next year’s conference and that excitement will keep me going for the next 12 months. Did I mention I really love this conference?

How do you ‘recover’ after a writing conference? What do you do with that energy, especially if you have to get back to your ‘real world’ right away?

Next year I’m going to take Monday off — keep the calendar clear and enjoy letting all my thoughts play together and wrap themselves up.

Julie and Diane – how are you doing today? (They were with me at the conference.) Were you able to sleep in, or did you have to get back to the real world?

Lisa J. Jackson is a New England-region journalist and a year-round chocolate and iced coffee lover. She loves working with words, and helping others with their own. As Lisa Haselton, she writes fiction, co-blogs about mystery-related writing topics at Pen, Ink, and Crimes, has an award-winning blog for book reviews and author interviews, and is a chat moderator at The Writer’s Chatroom. Connect with her on LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter. 

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When you’re ready to quit

I recently retweeted a quote someone posted:

When you’re ready to quit, you’re closer than you think.  ~Avinash Wandre

There’s also one considered an old Chinese saying:

“The temptation to quit will be greatest just before you are about to succeed.”

I lived this quote (either version works) years ago and it’s something that has become part of me and I can relate to just about every aspect of life – definitely writing.

It was in the mid 80s and I did my first hike up Mount Washington with my boyfriend. It was a beautiful August day, sunny, blue skies, and we had an early start.

We made it to the treeline (when the mountain turns from forest to rock face). Everything was going well. Then, when were at the point half-way between treeline and the summit, the weather changed – and not gently. Mount Washington is known for having the ‘world’s worst weather.’ One minute it was blue skies and butterflies, the next it was thick mist, drop in temperature, and then as we got chilled, the wind picked up.

Decision time. Neither of us wanted to head back – we’d come so far already. We kept moving upward.

Cairns exist above treeline (small piles of rocks that mark the path), and there were painted markers on the rock face, too, every 20 feet or so. However, we couldn’t see more than two feet in front of us at a time.

This is a rock face, but not the ‘rock face’ referred to here.

Yep, we got lost. No idea where we were other than still on the rock face, and we could tell up from down, but knew there weren’t any trails into the treeline, if we were lucky enough to find treeline before a cliff.

Long, miserable, story cut short…I finally sat down on a rock and said “I quit.” I’d had enough and felt continuing to walk in the cold mist and ridiculous wind was pointless.

Seconds. Literally seconds after I quit, the wind eased, the clouds parted, and, no joke, I was sitting within feet of the Mount Washington Observatory. I could almost reach my arm out and touch the bottom of the building.

It was that moment, the moment of utter quitting due to so many physical and mental elements, when I was closest to my goal. I’ve never forgotten that.

“When you’re ready to quit, you’re closer than you think.”

It’s when you think you’ve pushed yourself as far as you can go, and that another step, or another word is not going to get you any closer, that you’re on the brink of reaching your goal.

If a story isn’t working for me (or, rather, if I’m not listening to my characters), I can push away from the keyboard or toss the pen and notebook onto the floor and suddenly know exactly what it is that I need to put on the page. I don’t recommend waiting for that moment or expecting that moment to happen, and I can’t imagine it happening too often, but, for me, things have worked out just after I reach the breaking point.

Have you ever had that invisible wall push you so hard that you quit — just to discover the solution to the challenge was “right there?” It’s quite powerful.

Lisa J. Jackson is a New England-region journalist and a year-round chocolate and iced coffee lover. She loves working with words, and helping others with their own. As Lisa Haselton, she writes fiction, co-blogs about mystery-related writing topics at Pen, Ink, and Crimes, has an award-winning blog for book reviews and author interviews, and is a chat moderator at The Writer’s Chatroom. Connect with her on LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter. 

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Shutting off the internal editor for 30 days

Oops, I did it again! Signed up for National Novel Writing Month, that is. How could I not? It’s addictive knowing I can get 50,000 words down in 30 days.

I’m an official ‘participant,’ and on or before December 1, I plan to be an official ‘winner’ for 2012.

If you have any inkling at all about wanting to get a story out of your head and onto the page, I recommend NaNoWriMo. Even if that dark voice in your head starts whispering things like:

• You don’t have the time
• You’re already over worked
• You haven’t found time all year for your writing so what makes you think now will work?
• Ha! You think you have a good enough idea for a novel?
• There’s a long holiday weekend in November and you have to cook, clean, travel, visit, watch football, or be a couch potato.

What I love about participating in NaNoWriMo is shutting up that dark voice – and I bet you can turn off your internal editor, too.

I visualize my ‘dark voice’ as a yard gnome (I have nothing against yard gnomes in the real world), and stomping it with a large boot. But like the googly-eyed talking Twinkies, er, minions in the movie Despicable Me, (or the upcoming Despicable Me 2) my imaginary yard gnome doesn’t shut up, no matter what I try — EXCEPT during November.

In November, there’s some type of force field that separates me from the dark voice in my head when I’m writing fiction. And I think it works for a lot of other writers, too.

This is directly from http://www.nanowrimo.org:

National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing on November 1. The goal is to write a 50,000-word (approximately 175-page) novel by 11:59:59 PM on November 30.

Valuing enthusiasm and perseverance over painstaking craft, NaNoWriMo is a novel-writing program for everyone who has thought fleetingly about writing a novel but has been scared away by the time and effort involved.

As you spend November writing, you can draw comfort from the fact that, all around the world, other National Novel Writing Month participants are going through the same joys and sorrows of producing the Great Frantic Novel. Wrimos meet throughout the month to offer encouragement, commiseration, and—when the thing is done—the kind of raucous celebrations that tend to frighten animals and small children.

NaNoWriMo is free and you can be as involved as you want with other Wrimos (the name given to other, um, crazy people who have signed up) in your area or online.

You can try “word wars” where people agree to start writing at a certain time (top of the hour, quarter past, half past, etc.) and for a certain length of time (15 minutes, 30 minutes, etc.) At the end of that time period, post your total words, and see how you compare to other writers. Competition can really kick those endorphins into high gear.

Honestly, there is just a feeling of freedom knowing that the internal voice has no power and that the words can flow onto the page. Editing can start in December, but for November, how about joining me in getting at least 50,000 words down?

Lisa J. Jackson is a New England-region journalist and a year-round chocolate and iced coffee lover. She loves working with words, and helping others with their own. As Lisa Haselton, she writes fiction, co-blogs about mystery-related writing topics at Pen, Ink, and Crimes, has an award-winning blog for book reviews and author interviews, and is a chat moderator at The Writer’s Chatroom. Connect with her on LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter. 

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