library joy

So if you’re like me you have a book problem. I’m greedy about books, not only reading them and buying them and taking them out from the library but also just hunting for them and thinking about what else I want to read in a way that many would deem obsessive. Alas, recently I went on an Interlibrary loan binge where I just kept coming across great books I wanted to read and I kept ordering them willy nilly through interlibrary loan and now – WHAM! – they’ve all arrived at the same time, at two different libraries. Yes, I know this probably makes me pretty irritating to ILL Librarians, and I apologize profusely, but it’s just that I love the work that you do. I can’t buy every single book I read or I wouldn’t have money to eat; and I can’t let anything curb my reading habits, no no (or my eating habits for that matter, as I enjoy that, too). Here’s a glimpse into my bibliophile-gluttony:

The Broken Citadel by Joyce Ballou Gregorian (I’m reading this now and it’s wonderful. I highly recommend it for fans of Madeline L’Engle)
Codex by Lev Grossman
Lucia, Lucia by Adriana Trigiani
The Talisman by Peter Straub and Stephen King
Monsterumologist by Richard Yancey

There are others of course, but these are at the top of the teetering pile. Here’s hoping I can get some extensions – especially considering I’m trying to write this new draft.

In other library news, I was thrilled to see that my branch library has re-opened! The hours are limited but I was just so happy to walk into that warm, wonderful little library again. I had to stop myself from visiting the stacks.

library love, etc.

I had every intention of picking up a book appropriate for the holiday season (I like seasonal reading, as you’ve probably noticed) but then I randomly picked up The Broken Citadel by Joyce Ballou Gregorian in the library, and it is wonderful! This is one of many things I love about the library (in addition to free access to information which is important for society): there is a random selection of books that you would never find in a big bookstore. Maybe in a used or independent bookstore, yes, I like those, too.

Other news? As we’re heading into the chilly season, it’s both cold and dark when I get home. I feel like I need something to distract me from the pre-winter quiet, so I’m working on another first draft. I think of it as a first draft, even though I started this project after I finished The King’s Rose. After a few false starts (maybe more than a few) I’ve decided to revisit the project. I’m waiting to hear back from my agent about my current work in progress (the book I’ve been fretting about) so I need a distraction from that, too.

Must go now. Pumpkin cookies to eat.

What I learned from Nanowrimo

I have a lot to learn about writing books. I’ve written two of them, but that doesn’t seem to matter. Each book has its own unique challenges, and learning how to write is an ongoing process. Speaking of which, I’ve learned a lot from this November writing journey. Some of it new, some of it familiar but easily ignored.

* Write Every Day. I don’t usually write every day, but Nanowrimo is an exception. It helped me stay connected to my project and maintained my momentum. Even if you only get 50 words down—that’s 50 words closer to your goal. Taking little nibbles on a regular basis is a more low-impact approach to writing a first draft.

* Beware of Writing Yourself Out. Do you have a long, luxurious stretch of time this weekend that you plan to spend hunched over your computer? Tread carefully. I’ve fallen into this trap: forcing myself to work on something for long stretches, I squeezed a lot of the fun out of it and made myself sick of the project by putting so much pressure on these writing binges. Also, it’s good to stop writing for the day when you still know what might happen next.

* Indulge. Writing your novel while sitting on the couch under a blanket is not a lazy thing to do. No one will judge you.

* Do stuff. Raking leaves first thing in the morning (or other exercise) is a good precursor to writing. Get a little fresh air in your lungs and sunshine on your face before you hole yourself up in your office to write.

* Goals. A word count goal is motivating. Having people know about your writing goal is also motivating. Especially if these are people who will shame you if you fail. Even better: get a friend of yours to offer you a prize if you meet a particular goal. You love prizes. You know you do.

* Deadlines. The deadline is also motivating. Don’t look back. Don’t second-guess. Don’t waste time worrying about transitions or setting. Just write. Forge ahead.

* Don’t go it alone. Having other people around you also engaged in noveling was hugely motivating. A solitary experience was suddenly communal; a private lunacy suddenly shared by others.

* Expectations. The goal is not “I am going to write a publishable manuscript…the best thing I’ve ever written…every word perfectly chosen.” The goal is simply 50,000 words. Don’t make it more difficult than it needs to be.

* Don’t whine. Not to say that you whine, but I do: “I’m not inspired. I don’t know where this is going. I don’t know if it’s any good…” There’s no time to whine. Write.

I’m hoping to employ what I learned here toward future first drafts, even if they don’t happen take place during the month of November. And I’m already looking forward—with some trepidation—to NanoEDmo in March!

book trailer!!

I think my laptop and I have NANOWRIMO hangovers. Caffeine is helping me conquer mine, but sadly by Compaq doesn’t drink tea. I’m hoping she starts feeling better, soon.

In the meantime, I got this lovely review from blogger and book reviewer Aik Chen in Malaysia. It’s amazing to think of my book reaching people all over the world, in places I’ve never visited! That Catherine Howard is quite the world traveler: http://aik-friendsnfamily.blogspot.com/2009/11/book-review-kings-rose-by-alisa-m-libby.html.

And now for some good, bloody fun: my long-overdue book trailer for The Blood Confession. Yahoo!! The background music is Mozart’s Requiem Mass, which I listened to a lot while writing the book.

“It began with the prophecy on the day of my birth: I am the girl whose days will end quickly, or whose days will have no end…”

50,039

Yay! 50,039 words of a first draft. Yay, again!

Tonight I was going through my draft and looking for places to add a word here or there, or maybe add a paragraph or two. Those last 500 words were killer. It didn’t help that I kept checking my word count. I know it sounds silly, but having that word count goal was so motivating that reaching it was really important to me.

When I finally checked my word count and saw that I had passed my goal, I gasped with excitement. Hooray!! I immediately grabbed my phone to text Tom. Then I paused: I saved my draft to my computer and to my flashdrive. Then I texted Tom.

When I looked back to my draft, my computer was frozen.

Luckily, crisis was averted. Let this be a lesson to us all – keep up your word counts, and get thee a flash drive! And always pause to save before you celebrate your accomplishments.

lots of noveling

I’ve been doing a lot of noveling lately (first drafting, to be exact) and not a lot of blogging. Or doing laundry. Or much of anything else.

Nanowrimo is an exercise in optimism, in big dreams and big plans. On the horizon of this 50,000 word project there lingers that unanswered question: will I return to this draft and revise it, try to make a novel out of this confused pile of words? I hope that I do. At the very least I’ve enjoyed this project and found it invigorating to bust through this draft without taking the time to question whether it’s good. There’s no time to question things during a first draft – especially if you’re only taking a month to write it.

Speaking of which, the motivation to get to that goal of 50,000 words has been key. My writer friend Anne challenged me that if I finish the 50,000 words by this Friday, I’ll get a prize.

I love prizes.

wolves

Yesterday my sister and I visited Wolf Hollow in Ipswich, Mass. It’s a wolf sanctuary for wolves living in captivity. They have four wolves and one wolf-dog hybrid. This gray wolf reminded me a bit of Kyzoni…though Weeble had a surprisingly sweet face.

It seems like wolves have had a bad rap for the past few hundreds years – the big bad wolf, witch’s familiars, that sort of thing – and it hasn’t done wonders for wolf populations. Maybe it’s for the best that I didn’t visit real wolves while writing The Blood Confession, as I may have felt guilty about contributing more bad press. You know, Kyzoni being connected to the devil and all.

happy birthday, Abigail Adams

November 11, 1744 was the birthday of Abigail Adams, wife of John Adams and the second “first lady” of the U.S. I’m not terribly well-versed in the history of my own country (sorry, Tudor England won me over) but Tom is a huge fan of President Adams and his amazing wife. John and Abigail kept extensive correspondence during their marriage when politics kept them separated. He frequently sought his wife’s advice on various political matters, which is remarkable, considering that women were considered unfit to be involved in politics at the time.

So, three cheers for Abigail! And if you happen to be in Quincy, Mass, you should definitely visit all of the Adams landmarks. It’s pretty cool. Plus, the Boston Public Library has John Adams’s library in their collection.

Rocking with Nano…but how do I keep it up?

This has happened before: I get all jazzed about a project. I write up my outline (generally of just the first half of the book). Then I start turning out pages, and while it’s not that what I’m creating is golden, at least I’m creating something to work with. I’m being productive.

And then and then and then…I hit a wall. A stone wall, to be exact, void of any ivy that might cushion the blow.

I fear I’m hurtling toward that very wall with my Nano book. Why? Because I’m cynical. You need a better reason? Because I’m running out of outline and I have to figure out what happens next and next and next. I have to figure out how this draft will end. And I think I still have to figure out the middle part, too.

Until then, I’ll try to keep writing. That’s all that I can do. And maybe I should trust the Nano way this time and forge ahead even when I don’t know where I’m going. I’m always very concerned about knowing what’s ahead, where the whole journey will end. Maybe this time I have to trust that it will end somewhere – hopefully somewhere around 50,000 words.

Nanowrimo begins!

Well, it’s day 4 of Nanowrimo and so far I’ve written every day – though I’ll admit that my initially impressive word count has begun to slip a little bit. My first drafts are relatively lazy and impatient creatures. I think this is because I’m working from an outline and because I am a lazy and impatient creature. The transitions are inelegant and the voice is uncertain, but I’m eagerly moving from one scene to the next, no time to stop and take care of things like rambling dialogue or description or any of that. But I think that shows I have some momentum moving me forward. All of the other details are things I usually fill in during revision.

I’m really enjoying the excitement of writing a brand new draft of a brand new thing. It’s making me think about other projects that I’ve let languish, untouched, for months – I wonder if I could turn this same bang-it-out-fast approach to them, and then have something to work with, to revise? This thought (along with having a Gogol Bordello song in my head) kept me wide awake last night. My enthusiasm for this whole first draft business will wane in a week or so, but at the moment it is invigorating.

So – how are my fellow Nanowrimo-ers out there fairing thus far?