Diversion #1: short stories

Once, in nanowrimo, I got stuck on Day 2. Yup, Day 2.

I don't plot in any detail, hoping beautiful ideas will come to me as needed throughout November. But that year, it didn't happen. After a good first day, I found myself stymied. I'd written a promising set up, but couldn't think what to do next. So I deployed this diversion - a short story insert.

It is very, very simple. For whatever reason, the main action of the story takes a back seat and the characters follow a discrete plot line for a while. Then, once it is resolved, they go back to the main story.

When I got stuck, I was writing a hardboilled murder mystery. My over arching plot (such as it was) involved my gumshoe witnessing the murder of a singer and investigating it. Day 1 had been very good - I'd decided that he was romantically involved with the singer, which would motivate his investigation, and had fun with him apprehending a small time blackmailer - which turned out to be one of these random pieces of inspiration that makes freestyling rewarding (see below).

But on Day 2, I stumbled. So I sent my PI back to his office, where someone turned up to hire him for a job. This was the start of my short story, and you can read the result here (1). It isn't a great story and as a mystery it is pretty weak, though mystery buffs will spot that it is a tribute to the Sherlock Holmes story, Silver Blaze.

Point is, it kept me writing, meaning I didn't fall behind in my word count, and by the time I'd finished writing about her family, I knew where I wanted to go with my main narrative.

If you're writing a traditional fantasy story, where the main plot depends on restoring the four parts of the sundered chalice of Warghhu, and your heroes arrive at a village, discover it is populated by cannibals, you're writing a short story insert. Or if the villagers ask them to find a child who has gone missing. Or negotiate a truce with the local Goblins. As long as these events have no direct bearing on your main plot, you're writing a short story, contained within a larger narrative.

The other advantages of short story inserts is that they allow you to work niggling ideas into your story, so they stop bugging you.

The disadvantage is tha sometimes they can break loose, like ancient evil behemoths, and porve uncontrollable. Remember that small time blackmailer I wrote about on Day 1? The plot involving him eventually developed into a full blown, 62,000 word novel in its own right. Little seeds, mighty oak trees, and all that.

1 - If the embedded link doesn't work, try this one: http://writehandpalm.blogspot.com/2007/08/disappearance-of-naomi.html. Or look for 'The Disappearance of Naomi' in the archive (August).
2 - 'The Wyahia,' in the July archive: http://writehandpalm.blogspot.com/2007_07_01_archive.html. This story was written for a weekend challenge, not as part of nanowrimo, but it is written as if it were part of a larger narrative.

Recipe for disaster

Eventually, someone in nanowrimo always does it - they become blocked and resort to writing nonsense. They might have characters tell each other knock-knock jokes for several pages, or discuss their favourite songs, while reciting the lyrics. I don't know if someone's had a character sit down and read the phone book from beginning to end, but it may have happened.

I remember reading a post from someone last year who had made a character recite a recipe to other characters - and then ask the listeners to receite them back, only mistakes were made, so the whole original recipe had to be recited again, and then repeated - and then passed on to other characters. I am not making this up.

People do this sort of thing because they are blocked and terrified of falling behind in their word count. As you may have noticed, I'm big on hitting daily targets and keeping up with your word count. But I beg you all to avoid resorting to silly stunts like these.

My problem is that with writing tripe like that won't unblock you. It might get your through one day's worth or words, but beyond that it will make things worse. You'll hate what you are doing, and that will stifle your creativity. You'll end up repeating the same sort of thing over and over again until the end of November. They won't generate new ideas and will make you hate you're book and characters to the point you don't want to write about them anymore.

You wouldn't want to read pages of people repeating the same recipe, so imagine how soul-destroying it would be to write it.

Everyone gets blocked, or can't think what to do next with their story. In the first case, when the fire's gone out, you need to find a way to spark interest again. In the second, you need to tread water - write some filler that won't damage you plot but will give you time to catch up again - without demoralizing yourself to the point you abandon the project.

Over the next few days, I'll develop some ideas that can be used. These are what I call 'diversions,' as their purpose is to distract you, your characters and your imaginary reader from the fact that not a lot is actually happening. Usually, they are simple scenes or encounters that give the narrative a quick jolt, maybe force me to re-examine my characters and their relationships. The situations are pretty universal - with just a little tweaking, you can probably fit them into any genre or storyline.

For each one, I'll explain what it is, and give you a real example of when I've used the diversion in my previous nano campaigns.

Final advice for Nanowrimo

Last minute thoughts and suggestions for final preparations before you challenge the Nanobeast. Believe me, it is a voracious monster. If you are to best it, you need to be ready.

HAVE YOU CHECKED YOUR CALENDAR? You need to know how many days you'll have available to write. If you are going to lose a week's writing time because of things like exams, family weddings and the like, it needs to be accounted for. No point in writing 1667 words a day if you're going to be on camp for the last week of November. Given that you'll lose some days through illness, natural disasters and the like, make sure you've checked for any scheduled time-outs.

DECIDE ON YOUR DAILY TARGET. This should be something you can write in the time available to you most days, and which is going to get you there ontime. The rule of thumb is 1667 words a day, every day. I aim for 2000 because that way I know I can miss a day without having to stretch to catch up.

HAVE YOU THOUGHT ABOUT THE REWARDS YOU ARE GOING TO GIVE YOURSELF? I'd suggest three rewards spread through out the month, or four if you need extra spoiling. These rewards should be something reasonably substantial, genuine treat, and are NOT AVAILABLE as consolations if you fail to hit your targets.

HAVE YOU INSULATED YOURSELF FROM THE OUTSIDE WORLD? Ensure the time set aside for writing is your time. Consider uninstalling chat devices like Messenger, locking your mobile phone away and giving the key to someone else, basically restricting people's access to you - because, believe me, THEY JUST WON'T UNDERSTAND - and your access to them, because you'll be crying out for human contact, but need to be strong ...

THINK ABOUT YOUR WRITING 'ROUTINE.' I write best sticking to a rigid routine. I usually write in the evening when the brats are in bed. Usually I fool about online for a spell, to get myself into the right frame of mind and catch up with writing buddies. I set myself a time limit, and stick to it. After that, I log off and write.

THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU'LL BE WRITING ON YOUR FIRST DAY. I don't do strict plans, but I like to have a rough idea of what I'm going to be writing about on the first day. Think about how you'll establish settings, characters and atmosphere. How will you start the plot rolling?

IMPORTANT - YOU DON'T HAVE TO START AT MIDNIGHT. Some people make a big deal out of staying up and starting to write as soon as the clock hits midnight. I wouldn't bother with that, because it runs contrary to the idea of establishing a routine. Also, you might be excited and keyed up, but you're probably tired and your creativity is on the wane. Better to go to bed as normal, and start writing the next day.

PLAN, IF YOU MUST. I look on plans with suspicion. I understand, however, that many people like to have a plan of sorts in place. There is nothing wrong with knowing how the story is going to develop. So if you want to plan, there is nothing wrong with drawing up an outline of the acts and scenes of your story. One advantage of this is it allows you to jump ahead if you're stuck at one point, and write the bridge between the two blocks later.

BE FLEXIBLE. If you have a plan, but you get kidnapped by a better idea, don't be afraid to follow it. Even if it turns out to have been a bad idea, you can double back ("Then he woke with a start. He was still hiding in the giant's broom cupboard. Had he really dreamed all that?"). A lot of my practical advice involves inserting scenes and action that might not be in your plan - so you have to be flexible enough for this.

BE REALISTIC ABOUT WHAT YOU'LL ACHIEVE. No-one writes a masterpiece the first time they do nano. In fact, no-one ever writes a masterpiece in Nano. At best, you'll get something that could be hammered (and I mean hammered) into something better, with some work. Even if that doesn't happen, you should still learn a lot from it.

IGNORE THE GREEN BARS! After the first day, some people will be claiming to have written 10,000 words. After the third or fourth day, some people will be claiming they've written 50,000. They might be lying, they might be telling the truth. It doesn't matter. You aren't in competition with them. You're only in competition with yourself and the Nanobeast. Don't get Green Bar envy.

REMEMBER TO BACK UP YOUR WORK. The worst thing that can happen is losing your entire manuscript on the 25th on November because your computer dies on you and you haven't backed up your novel. Think - how are you going to ensure you novel survives flood, fire, hurricane, terrorist attack and computer meltdown? I email a copy to myself every other night - that way it is 'safe', and I can access it from any computer. Other people save it to disk or on flashdrives, but I feel they're too easily lost. But whatever works for you. Just make sure you know how you're going to do it.

Kill your muse

People talk about muses during Nanowrimo. People complain about their muse abandoning them, their muse pestering them with new ideas that they can't accomodate, their muse sitting about looking confused. People have names for their muse and can provide you with detailed physical descriptions and outline their personalities with insight that would put a criminal psychologist to shame. I kid you not.

You hear about muses the most is when a writer has been abandoned by their muse. This happens to everyone - you charge out of a scene, high on having just written 1,000 words of brutal fisticuffs, romantic yearning or snappy dialogue. And hit a wall. You can't think what to do next, or you can but it suddenly seems dull after what you've just written. Your muse has abandoned you, so you stop writing. You visit the "Nanowrimo Ate My Soul" forum and announce that your muse has abandoned you. Immediately, sympathy is offered by the others huddled about, miserable and museless.

Bitter truth: your muse is not your friend. What sort of friend abandons you on the 16th of November, just when you needed them to stick by you? Your muse will never write so much as a word for you in the whole of November. The only contribution your muse will make will be to delay and confound you.

When you're blocked, you need to find a way to carry on writing. In my experience of Nanowrimo, inspiration comes only a few times in the month. The rest of it is a miserable slog in demoralising and infuriating blocks of 10,000 words, when you move characters from one unsatisfying scene to another, forcing them to mouth unconvincing dialogue. No muse will write those 10,000 words for you, but it has to be written. Professional writers don't sit about whimpering about their muse leaving them. They have deadlines to meet, so they find a way to write. You need to find ways to make yourself write, no matter what.

And kill your muse. If all else fails, put him or her in your story and have something dreadful happen. Maybe they are the victim in your murder mystery. Or the third Orc who gets his head chopped off in the fight in the first chapter. Or someone in the background of a scene who gets hit by a car. But kill them, and soon.

Writing is a solitary pursuit

It puzzles me that writers bother to write their autobiographies, and even biographies of other writers. Writers should know better than anyone, that writing is a dull, antisocial activity. The working life of most writers can be summarised something like this:

"He (or she) sat at their desk, and wrote. He/she ignored his/her friends for long periods of time. His/her partners, pets and everyone else didn't understand, and resented the rejection. But he/she wrote anyway."

This is because, to be a writer, you have to write. If you don't write, you don't get to be a writer. It is a cruel truth that, no matter how hard you try, you might not get to be a published writer, but it is an undeniable, hideous fact that if you don't sit down and write, you won't be any sort of writer, good or bad, published or unpublished.

And writing isn't a team sport, or something you can do in a club or society, or job share.

Yes, you can meet up with other writers and share ideas and read each other bits of your works in progress and give each other support and encouragement. That is all good and worthwhile and important. Otherwise I wouldn't be writing this.

But, to write, ultimately, you have to sit down, by yourself, hopefully with some inspiration - or coffee, which is a good substitute - and write. And at that point, you're on your own.

You need to write to win

Here's a shocker - you need to write to win.

No matter how desperate the circumstances, you need to turn up every night, and hit your target for the day. You might be aiming for 1,667 every day, or 2,000 a day, or whatever. But you need to know how much you are going to write and you need to make sure you do it. This may mean not watching TV, or not talking to your partner, or staying up until 3am.

Tough.

If you don't hit that target, you fall behind. And if you let yourself fall behind once, it becomes easier to fall behind again ... and again ... and then you realise you're a week behind, it is the second half of the month and you no longer care if you make it or not.

So, to avoid this, look ahead into November. Think: are there any days you aren't going to be able to write. Will you have visitors staying in November? Holidays booked? Parties, conferences out of town, other stuff that will keep you away from your keyboard?

If so, how many days will you lose and how many extra words will you have to write each day to make up for it? If you identify these hazards in advance, you can put in the extra words before hand. Because there is nothing worse than sinking in quicksand, except perhaps sinking in words. Quicksand will do it in a few minutes, Nanowrimo takes a whole month.