Script for My Second YouTube Vlog

Hello, and Welcome again to my vlog.

If you have been following me through blogger, you’ll know that I talk a lot about something called NaNoWriMo.  This stands for “National Novel Writing Month.”  NaNoWriMo (or Nano) takes place every November.   The goal for Nano is to write 50k words during the month.  Which works out to be 1667 words a day.  I have done 10 years of Nano, and 5 camps so far.  Even if you get behind, it's not too hard to catch up.  You take what you are behind number wise, and divide that by the remaining days.   Adding that figure to 1667 will become your new daily goal.

It isn’t hard to make it to the 50k...several of my friends have done it in one day.  My record is 16 days.  But that was really pushing myself, and I wasn’t finished with the first draft (though I finished it that month).   Is this a complete novel?  No, it’s a rough draft for one.  It needs polishing until it gleams bright.  You don’t want to publish it until it goes through the rewrite/revise process.  As someone once said, “First draft is for telling yourself the story.”

The people who bring us that month of writing bliss/insanity, also do something called Camp Nano.  There are 2 camps, April and July.

The main difference between the Camps and Nano main, is that you can set your own goals.  It can be as little as 30 words (which is new, I believe it used to be 10k), or as much as a million.  If anyone wants to set that as a goal...let me know, will try to talk you out of that.  But also, you can change your goal up until the beginning of validation.  More on validation later.

The other difference is that you can join a cabin, or create a cabin for you and your friends.  I think the limit is 20, but I could be wrong.  I’m bad about keeping up with my cabin, as I have a hard time being away from facebook.

Tools to help you get to that 50k (or whatever goal you set), are easy to set up.  You don’t need mass quantities of time.  Sprinting or Word Wars, help .  What these are are timed writing.  Some people go for 20 minutes, some 30, some even an hour.   You push yourself to write as many words as you can in those periods.  It helps if you do these with other folks, but you don’t have to.  Have a timer with an alarm set (phones are good for this).

To help get those words, you can use sprinting type programs.  I love “Written Kitten,” but there is also “Write or Die.”  The former uses cat pictures for each number of words you write (you select what that is).  And with the latter, there is one setting that I can’t take.  It freaks me out, and sets me on edge.  This is the Kamikazee mode (which eats words if you don’t keep typing).

There are communities of writers who do the November Nano at least.  You can find out if your region has a group led by one or more facilitators called “Municipal Liaisons.”  These folks are volunteers who set up the kickoff/closing ceremonies meetings, plot ins, and write ins.  You can meet up with other participants at these gatherings.  There is a Twitter presence and Nano has a fb page.  There are a lot of groups that are out there that can help with reaching your goals.

You can write everything from a first draft, revise, or do poetry if you like.  They have come a long way from being pretty strict with it being new words.

So the last thing I want to discuss is validation.  The Nano and Camp nano sites start validation on the 20th day (it used to be day 25).  You copy and paste your piece into the box on the validation screen.  It counts the words and then makes them disappear.   You can use the program Ipsum Lorem, which is creates words in gibberish latin, and then copy paste them. Ipsum Lorem has a 10k words at a time; so you have to copy and paste 5 times (plus I pad my word count some.  Some word processors counts are different from the Nano site.  

Once you have validated (and have reached either the 50k or the goals), then you get a bragging rights, certificates as well.  But on top of that, you can get cool writing goodies like Scrivener, Aeon Timeline and various others.  Usually 50% off if you make goal, though they offer a 30% if you don’t (at least November does).  If you don’t make it, someone who did can give you their coupon codes.

I highly recommend Nano for any writers out there. Whether you are trying for that first novel, short story, or epic poem, NaNoWriMo, and Camp Nano, is a lot of fun, camaraderie, and making new friends too.  Plus get well on the way to publishing.  To close here is a list of books that were Nano novels.  I’ll post the links to the various tools, and the websites below in the comments.  Plus various links to my blogs on Nano 101 subjects.

There are actually 474 of them, but I’ll point out some of the bigger ones.  

Amelia Atwater-Rhodes

Persistence of Memory

Debbie Manber Kupfer

P.A.W.S.

Erin Morgenstern

The Night Circus

Sara Gruen

Water for Elephants

Thank you for joining me.  See you next time.

Thank you for joining me.  See you next time.  

National Novel Writing Month:

https://nanowrimo.org/

Camp NaNoWriMo:  You use your Nano site login credentials to get in here.

https://campnanowrimo.org

Write or Die:

https://writeordie.com/

Written Kitten:  (If you like dogs, horses, dragons etc...you can change the “kitten” part to dog/horse/dragons), and it will feed you pictures of that instead.

http://writtenkitten.net/

http://velvetdelenn.blogspot.com/2016/03/happy-birthday-to-me-and-time-to-start.html

And a blog to hold all the Nano blog links.

http://velvetdelenn.blogspot.com/2015/08/table-of-contents-nano-related-blog.html

There is a lot of other good stuff on my blog, so feel free to sign up, and become a minion er I mean follower.  

Upcoming Publications

Hey there, just an upcoming publications list.  No release dates as of yet, but keep a look-out for them.

First up should be "The Longest Night Watch Vol. 3."  This is the anthology that I was part of for Volume 2.  In honor of Terry Pratchett and Gene Wilder Vol. 2, Vol 1 is for Terry Pratchett.   If you want to catch up on the series.  Links below.

Vol. 1

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B016LI20WA/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

Vol. 2                 

https://www.amazon.com/Longest-Night-Watch-Alzheimers-Association-ebook/dp/B01LXWB3BX/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1519258013&sr=1-1&keywords=The+Longest+Night+Watch+Vol.+2

Next:

Submitted the introduction to "Drowned by Moonlight."  This is a project dedicated to the memory of Carrie Fisher.  It will benefit research into Bipolar disorder, which Carrie suffered from.  I also have a relative that has it, and it's a horrible mental disease.

Next:   Cracks in the Tapestry; this is an anthology that I am in the process of writing a story for.  Deadline is coming up soon.

May 11-13, 2018

Marcon 53, Hyatt Regency Columbus Ohio.

I will be on some panels hopefully.  Will let you know as soon as I know.  Marcon is something I was involved with for several years.  Though I had a hiatus until Marcon 50. 

http://marcon.org/

The last thing is I will be finishing the first draft of Stormwolfe (which is the second book in a series).  This way I can see what all needs to be added to the first book Stormraevyn.

Hoping to have Stormraevyn done and out later this year.  But life keeps throwing me curveballs!

Thank you for being part of my journey!

My Intro Video on YouTube Channel

Yes, it's arrived, I've been building a YouTube Channel!  Here is a link to that, and a link to my intro video.


https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCO5ZGzQiOZ__tlnE5RhOiVQ?view_as=subscriber

Feel Free to Subscribe and share it far and wide :) 


Intro:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HTuw0mLt9Q

Thank you for being part of my journey!

What's in a "Pen" Name? (Possibly my shortist blog to date!)

     This is one subject that comes up pretty much, on a regular basis for most writers groups I am in.  Do I use one? Is the most asked; followed closely by "Do I use a variation of my name?" 
     I think you need to answer the following questions:
     "What kind of writing do I do?  Would I want my parents/family to know that I'm writing this?"  If you are an erotica writer, it can be important to have a name that sounds like this genre anyhow, a pen name is not absolutely necessary.  However, if you answered "Yes," then you may want to have a pen name.  And preferably one that is far from your legal name. 
     Another question is, "Is my name hard to spell or say?"  If it is, from the standpoint of Google searches, you may want to have a pen name.  It could be a different spelling, or shortening your name.  That is if you don't care if your friends/family know you are writing in a genre that is possibly embarrassing (and this can include others besides erotica).
     One of the other important reminders is to do a Google search to see if someone else already is using it.   You could do a variation of that possible pen name.  For example, "Smith," could become "Smyth." 
     So I know you are probably saying, "Is L. Anne Wooley a pen name?"  Well, yes, and no.  This is a variation on my name.  And no, not saying what it is...even if it is a common enough name, I'm still not putting it out there. You can't make me!  I'm debating on using a totally different name for erotica, as I also write that from time to time. 
     Whatever you decide on doing, make sure you weigh the pros and cons unique to your situation.  You can have more than one name as well.  If you write different genres, it can be helpful to have one for each genre.  Just make sure you don't name yourself Stephen King or Anne Rice, and you should be fine. 

Helpful Links:

https://www.name-generator.org.uk/pen-name/

It suggested "Doris Catherine Barker." 

How to Find an Idea. Part 2

       The time of NaNoWriMo is fast approaching.  Do you have your idea?  Do you have any ideas?  Maybe you are going to finish off another project, edit one?  I've done both within the month.  I don't really recommend doing that; because my brain does not like it.  Not one.little.bit.   But I also have done short stories, and also blogs to fill out the 50k.   I'm what is called a "rebel."  But I also am a "Plantser."  I am a hybrid between planning and pantsing.   Planning being the outlining of your idea so that you know what will happen during the novel.  Pantsing is just taking a vague idea and rough outline (that you won't stick to), before writing.
          There are people that are good at preplanning everything.  I am not one of them.  The only time I tried (NaNoWriMo 2012), it failed miserably.  My story did not want to follow the beautiful outline I had written painstakingly out.  And not only that, the structure is totally different than what I had imagined.  The problem I don't have is finding Ideas, it's going through the rest of it that has me going crazy.
          Basically, to flesh out an idea, I do what is called the "What if?"  I'll illustrate below using a familiar story.

What if there is a boy left on his relatives steps and finds out later that he is not ordinary?

There is my basic idea.    And yes, it should be obvious what story I'm using to illustrate this.

So then I go into the flesh out phase.

Q. What is not ordinary about this boy?

A.  He's got magic powers.

Q.  Why was he left with his relatives?

A.  Because he can't be where he was before.

Q.  Why can't he be where he was before?

A.  Because an evil wizard tried to kill him and failed.

So then you could go on from there to flesh it out even more, (now it is time for him to go back and learn magic so he can fight the evil Wizard).

I am not sure this is what JK Rowling did, but that is probably how I would have done it (though not the same probably).

Ideas are everywhere, as I've said before.  You may be even able to combine multiple ideas to make one story.   Finding ideas can bring more ideas to mind, it's easy once you get into the practice of doing it.  Prompts are great for generating ideas.  I had a new SNI  (Shiny New Idea), just today from a prompt.  It's going to be one of the stories that go into my Nano project. 

Note:  This blog was completed after Nano was over.  But you can use the info contained here at any time. 

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L. Anne Wooley is a writer located in Columbus Ohio.  She has been published in numerous places, and can be seen in the upcoming anthologies "The Longest NightWatch Vol. 3"  and "Drowning by Moonlight."  Both are for charity.  She lives with two roommates, two dogs, a very noisy obnoxious and evil Bird named Bryn Terfel, and a cat which is her constant writing companion.   She can be found on FB and Youtube. 

Happy New Year! Setting Goals

First of all, Happy New Year for all my readers/followers.  Hope you have health and happiness in the new year!   And speaking of the New Year, it's time to do our resolutions...or as I call them, my goals.  Goals are important for writing, as they shine a focus on what we want to do with our writing.  Words don't just come out of the blue (at least they don't for me).  And I also tend to take on a LOT of projects...too many in fact.  So goal setting is really important if I want to succeed in writing.  This is for any kind of artistic endeavor though.  You can apply the tools that I've spoken about here for whatever you do artistically.

Step 1:  Writing down your projects.  (This is a list of all your projects.)  So here is mine: 

Anthology pieces due:

Drowned by Moonlight rewrite mine as a memorial/introduction.

The Longest Nightwatch V3

Stormraevyn

Stormwolf

Daily Sticky Note Haiku book

10 short stories began last years NaNoWriMo.

Only have like 3 so far.

Writers Retreat story for their Anthology

(Fairytale mashup).

As you can see, there are a lot of them.  And I may have forgotten one or a gazillion.  But these are the main ones.  Some of them are in various stages of completion already.  But still, have a way to go before they are published. 

Step 2:   Prioritizing the goals.   I try to do this by a deadline date.  The closest due date will be my first priority.  This can be more complicated, as you may not have deadlines/due dates for the project.  For anthology pieces, contests, and publications, there usually are dates that work is due by.   But here is how I prioritized the above list:

Drowned by Moonlight, the revision needs to be done first.

The Longest Nightwatch V3 (have not gotten my edits back yet.

Writers Retreat Fairytale Mashup fixing/going over maybe adding stuff.

Stormwolf first draft needs to be completed, because of some stuff in it, needs to be added to Stormraevyn.

Then add or correct to incorporate those changes into Stormraevyn

Daily Sticky Note Haiku book (is already in process, but needs to be laid out and the poems moved to where they need to go.

10 5k word short stories last years Nano, need 6 more stories I believe.

In the above, "The Longest Nightwatch v3" is second, as I haven't received my edits back yet.  I have finalized the beta read though, but now am waiting for the editing phase.  So while I'm waiting on this, I've decided to do "Drowned by Moonlight," first.  This is in my revision stage right now, so I'll be fixing it up.  It's going to be the introduction to this anthology (decided after it had been submitted), so I have to fix it to make it more introduction like.

So Step 3:   Making a "To do" list.

I actually have a form that I made up for my writer's group on Facebook.  It's below so you can copy and paste:

Note:  This form is basically used with a buddy system, an accountability buddy if you will.  If you have another writer willing to do this with you, you would just fill out the form and send it to them (so they can keep you honest).   And they would send theirs to you.  This can be done via pm/email or even teleconference (Google Hangouts or Skype).   But you can use this solo, to keep yourself in check with your goals.  You can consider it a checklist too.

Also, make your goals realistic and measurable.  Deadlines that you make on your own, set them with enough time between each step of the project so that you aren't flustered if you miss one. 

*******************************************************************************

Each sheet is per project.  If you have more than one project, print out, or use a separate sheet.  This is what you are going to send to your buddy (if you don’t have one, or just don’t want one, but want to use this form, that is okay too).  You’ll have one for your needs and your buddy’s needs one to help check in on how you are doing with your goals.

I also have put notes to give instructions on how to use these, you can erase my notes prior to use if you wish.

You can also change goal numbers if you need more than one sheet.  Alter this to your needs if you also don’t like this format.  

Though you *could use each goal as a separate project as well, just add the “Project Title”  Which might be good to have all your project deadlines on one, and use another form for the individual projects.

Lastly, you can break down your project into separate goals.  For example:

Goal 1 Outline, Goal 2:  Character sheets, Goal 3: world building  Goal 4: research (though I usually do this step after the first draft as I’m not sure what I will need research-wise).   Goal 5:  First draft Goal 6: editing/2nd draft. Etc.  

Project Title:   Introduction for Drowned by Moonlight Anthology

Goal 1:  This is where the first step in what you need to do with your project should go.  i.e finish first draft (or any part of planning your project).

The first draft was finished, but that was before I was told I could write the introduction.  Needs to be more introductory-ish

Goal 1 Deadline (this is the date you would like your goal to be met, give yourself enough time if this is a NaNoWrimo or Camp Nano project, you could put the end of the month).

January 2018

Goal 2:   

Goal 2 Deadline:

Goal 3:

Goal 3: Deadline.

  

"Roles:" an Autobiography

      I have often thought of the saying, to paraphrase  "All the worlds a stage and all the people actors."  I thought that statement was stupid, I didn't connect to it.  But then I was working on a talk about roles, that I was going to give in conjunction with a project I've been working on for around 20 years.

      The project was a book (nonfiction), about being a survivor of a sexual abuse/assault.   The book would include others who have lived through such ordeals.   This would also include incest survivors and include help for men as well as women.  So for book publicity, I would have a little speech prepared, and it would go a little something like this:

      In life, we play many roles.  When we are children, we are son's, daughters, brothers, sisters nieces, nephews, grandsons, or granddaughters, and students.  When we grow up, our roles change.  We become mothers and fathers, Aunts and Uncles.   Grandparents later on.  Teachers, Doctors, Lawyers, Firemen... And we dream about these roles when we grow up.  What we want to be when we "Grew up."  

     Nobody ever says, "I want to be a rape survivor when I grow up."   Yet that is a role that Robert Patton forced on me at knife-point in November 1994.    It's a role that makes one of my many catastrophic changes in my life. What he did to me, can never be undone, I will always be this role.   

     However,  now I do not let it define me, it is in my past.  What got me to this point, was the day I stood in court, giving an "impact statement."  This is when a survivor (or someone else) can read to the court, before sentencing.    I stood up and told Patton exactly what he did to me, and how he changed me for all time.   Then I read a poem that told him in part that I had been in a prison, the poison of what he did trapped in a wound that nobody else could see.   Yet, now he would be the prisoner, and that I was free.   With those words, I was free.

    That day was 12 years ago, and so much has passed.   Both of my parents are now gone, but I'm so happy they were there that day.   What happened to me, also forced roles on them.  Roles that they were not prepared for, parents of a rape survivor.  That night, was only the second time that I ever saw my dad cry, and it would be the last.   I felt worse for my parents that night in the hospital than I did for myself.  I had to put aside my pain and fear to help them.   The guilt that they didn't keep me safe, haunted them for a long time.  I didn't get that at first, but after a time, I grew to understand somewhat.  But it didn't make it any easier for me to cope with that knowledge for a long time.

      I was not alone in bearing this role, I had 36 other women who bare the same scars.. my sisters, linked by a role not everyone can understand.   Rape takes away everything, your sense of safety, sense of self.  Security is gone, and you look over your shoulder and become over sensitized to sounds, and casual touch becomes like a brand.  PTSD is real for us.

     But once I gave my impact statement, I was free from his shadow, his presence.    While I can never forget or forgive, I can cut that binding of power that he held over me for 10 years.   I do not feel a damned thing for him now.   I'll never forgive him, but I've let go of the anger.

      I've never identified with the role of victim, but I feel more powerful being called a "Survivor," for that is what he didn't do to me, he didn't define me.  Once he left that night, I won.