#IWSG - BIAW & Me

It's that time again. The 1st Wednesday of the month is Insecure Writers Support Group, the brainchild Ninja Captain Alex J. Cavanaugh

Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!

Thanks, Alex, for starting this group and keeping it going. And thanks to this month's awesome hosts: Jennifer Hawes, Jen Chandler, Nick Wilford, Juneta Key, JH Moncrieff, Diane Burton, and MJ Fifield!

Have you heard of BIAW (Book in a Week)? It’s a challenge like NaNo, only a week long instead of a whole month. The main premise of this challenge (offered by the Kiss of Death RWA online chapter four times a year) is “to get a solid storyline down, a good rough draft of your beginning, middle and ending, and an in-depth idea of your main characters, so by the end of the week you'll have ‘a novel idea’ you can flesh-out and build upon.” It runs for seven days, Monday through Sunday. No word count goals, except what you set for yourself.

In October, I participated and wrote over 8k words. My goal this time was 10k. I wrote over 11,000 words from November 28^th through December 4^th. This was exactly what I needed to give me a good kick in the pants to finish the PI mystery I’ve been dogging around on most of the year. I didn’t do all the advance prep that they suggest since I had a good chunk of the story already written.

I’m not sure why I’ve had such difficulties with this story. It might be because I’m normally a pantser, and I’d figured out the whole story before writing. I knew what would happen in scenes. I knew most of the characters well. Just like a good plotter (even if I didn’t write everything down). Perhaps that was the problem. I’d already “told” the story. There were very few surprises.

Whatever the cause, as you can see off to the right, I’m nearly finished with The Case of the Meddling Mama. Thanks to BIAW.

December 7 Question: In terms of your writing career, where do you see yourself five years from now, and what’s your plan to get there?

What a great question. I’ve planned one year ahead but not five before—although if you treat writing as your business, which I do, you should have a five-year plan. I plan to get one of my books into the Top 100 on Amazon. How? Another good question and the hardest. Active marketing (paid and free) and, most importantly, by writing stronger books.

As you see above, I have the privilege of being one of the co-hosts this month. I’m looking forward to getting around to seeing those on my list, as well as everyone I can get to.

Click here to find others on the Insecure Writers Support Group Blog Hop. Or go to IWSG on Facebook to see who’s blogging today.

Cyber Monday and the Crazies

Have you been going crazy with all the ads and sales? Did you join the frenzied crowds on Black Friday? And here it is Cyber Monday.

I hate shopping. Even more than that, I hate crowds. So I was not one of the frenzied shoppers last Friday or even on Saturday. Today is different. I'll check out the deals on my favorite sites. I already know what I want to give my family members and dear friends.

If you like science fiction romance, check out this site.

http://smschmitz.com/promo

My first published book, Switched, is in the $.99 group. Be sure to check it out.

In other news, I sent out my Holiday Newsletter this morning. If you haven't subscribed yet, email me at dmburton72@gmail.com and I'll send you a copy.

I joined the BIAW (book in a week) challenge that starts today. I have to report my word count each day. Now that's an incentive. LOL The last time I did this, I wrote over 8500 words. My goal this week is to write 10,000 words (that's 40 pages) on The Case of the Meddling Mama. I'll report next Monday.

Have a great week and try not to stress.

Focused Writing

Book in a Week (BIAW). National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). What do they have in common? A dedicated, focused time to write. I’ve read references to the two events, heard people talking about them but never tried them. Do they work?

Is it possible to write a book in a week? 50,000 words in a month? From the popularity of these two events, the concept seems to attract a lot of people. I wonder if it’s the idea of setting a goal and attempting to reach it. Earlier this year, I blogged about goal setting. When I set a goal, write down my intentions, I’m often successful. One thing I never tried until recently was tracking how many words I write each day. That was a revelation. I can tell at a glance my good days. Obviously, I can tell the bad ones, too. Worse, I have a record of the days when I let life interfere and didn’t write at all. Does it help to be accountable for the number of words you’ve written each day? I know I do better when I have something to shoot for.

One of the instructions for BIAW is not to reread what you’ve written. Just keep going forward. For people like me who do circular writing—write, go back, revise/add/delete, write, go back, etc.—BIAW would be difficult. At the same time, it would force me to keep moving the story forward. Sometimes, I can actually do that. When I’m “in the zone”, the words flow. So as not to stop the flow, I’ll write notes to myself instead of going back and “fixing” something. I noticed that’s one of the instructions for BIAW.

When I taught journaling to elementary kids, I told them the pencil couldn’t come off the paper. Even if they couldn’t think of something, they had to keep writing even if it was nonsense like “I can’t think of anything to write” until something came to them. One of the suggestions from BIAW for when you get stuck is to skip to the next scene. Just keep writing. Some of us linear thinkers would have a hard time writing out of sequence. Maybe that’s what we need to get us out of ruts.

Another suggestion from BIAW is to warn the family that you are going to do this. In a perfect world, our families support us. They don’t interrupt our writing time. They handle their own problems without us. Pardon me while I laugh. Oh, they mean well, but apparently you’re the only one who knows where the peanut butter/favorite shirt/homework is. You’re the only one who knows how to cook/do laundry/drive to soccer practice. Our families don’t mean to, but they can sabotage our writing. But what if it was only for a week? Would they treat us differently if they see we’re very serious about reaching a goal? If they can do it for a week, it might be possible to keep their support going.

To succeed with BIAW or NaNoWriMo, I would think you’d need a plan—besides the goal of a book or 50,000 words. I can drive fast on expressways (okay, within speed limits). Just because I can drive 2,000 miles in three days it doesn’t necessarily mean I go anywhere. Because of the interconnectivity of expressways in my state, I could conceivably drive 2,000 miles in giant circles and never leave Michigan. I need a map, directions and the place I want to reach. To utilize the BIAW or NaNoWriMo effectively it makes sense to have a rough plot, some structure. Otherwise, at the end of the week or month, you could have a lot of words, not necessarily a novel.

If indeed you write 50,000 words in a month, you could have the “bones” of a novel. You’ll need to go back and flesh it out—layer in characterization, setting, dialogue, whatever. But you would have a framework, which is more than you had before you started.

So, I’m curious. Have you ever attempted either BIAW or NaNoWriMo? What was your experience?

Tomorrow, I’ll be over at Krystal Shannan’s blog http://krystalshannan.blogspot.com  Stop by and say hi.

On Thursday, Florida author Alexa Grace will be my guest here.