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NaNoWriMo advice

November 2, 2012

As someone who has finished (sort of) a novel recently, I find the entire concept of NaNoWriMo very frightening. Writing a novel in a month? Oh. My. Gosh.

But, as you might remember from this video I made, first drafts are the most difficult, and NaNoWriMo puts you on strict, disciplined schedule to getting it done. And you are really the only one holding yourself accountable for it, which is pretty true for writing in general. Basically, the concept is pretty sound.

NaNoWriMo has never really worked for me, because November is always super busy for those of us going to school, but also because I have a perfectionist gene that rears its ugly head at inopportune moments. NaNoWriMo is not the place where lovely first drafts are born. It is the place where hasty first drafts are born, the kind of first drafts that require so much revision it actually makes you grimace. And for those that are writing a novel to say that they wrote a novel, that’s fine. For those of us writing a novel with the hopes of doing something with it someday, that is too much to undertake in a month.

So here’s my advice. The first bit comes from the great Maureen Johnson herself, and it is this: give yourself permission to suck. First drafts are meant to be, excuse my language, shitty. Anne Lamott told us that a while ago. Even if you weren’t writing it in a month, you would have to do another draft before you wanted to show it to another human being.

Second piece of advice: don’t stress yourself out over it. If you don’t complete the novel within thirty days, oh well. You can always make it a goal to finish it this year, or be satisfied that you wrote part of a novel. Either way, this is an accomplishment that you undertook on your own, so be proud of that.

For practical tips, see the NaNoWriMo website, where they have character sheets and such. For a pep talk that is more thorough than mine, see Kristina Horner’s video.

For a song about NaNoWriMo to distract you, watch this:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78mvUeBw7MM&w=560&h=315]

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life writing

coffee struggles

September 27, 2012

Those that know me well will tell you that coffee is my drug of choice. I drink one or two cups in the morning, another big one if I have class or work that is going to last after about eight in the evening. There are, by my estimation, four different coffee shops in Chicago that recognize my face when I walk in. This has become worse recently because my new coffee pot has been acting up. I haven’t been able to use the pot long, so this makes me especially upset.

I’ve been doing a lot of reading, revising, and homework in coffee shops. It’s easier for me to concentrate in that environment than in my own apartment a lot of the time. This is partially because my apartment is perpetually a mess. And not a pretty one. Cleaning the living room/bedroom part of a house or apartment has always been my least favorite part, and I no longer have roommates that enjoy that more than cleaning the kitchen or bathroom.

Oh, woe is me, the woman who has to actually clean up after herself. I know; I’m pathetic. But let’s move past that. On my original point, I’ve been spending even more time than usual in coffee shops, particularly around my neighborhood. I’ll make the trek seven blocks to the next shop if mine is full without qualms, because I know it’s my best bet to be productive. And get a solid cup of coffee, since my machine is mad at me.

I don’t even want to think about how much money I spend on coffee and tea each month. The number has to be insane.

lovely weather, right?

Lately though, the weather here has been gorgeous. Just chilly enough to make you want a warm drink, but sunny enough that walking around feels like a privilege. This won’t last long, as Chicagoans know, and they are taking advantage of it. I approve of that, except now it seems to mean that they crowd ALL of my coffee shop options.

I do live in a pretty we-like-to-go-out-neighborhood. The night life is active, the afternoons are crawling with kids and parents, and the days are pretty full with college kids trying to do exactly what I am (i.e. survive school and make enough money to eat). But still. I am ready for the dedicated coffee drinkers to be the ones that I interact with.  I appreciate the fair-weather folks, but I am really tired of passing up four different coffee shops, from small mom-and-pop operations to Starbucks and Caribous, without finding an empty seat for me to read at.

And I don’t take up that much space.

If you live near a coffee shop with more empty space than mine, drink a cup for me. I’ll probably end up at Phoebe’s Cupcakes again, eating a cupcake with my coffee even though I really shouldn’t. (Forget the calories; this can’t be good for my teeth!) Take care of my coffee shops, fair-weathered drinkers, because I will wait you out.

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life writing

investing in yourself

September 5, 2012
LeakyCon2012

an example of why I need a haircut?

As a writer and singer, it sort of makes sense that most of my shelf space in my apartment is taken up by books, and most of my computer space is taken up with music. Don’t get me wrong, I give plenty of computer space to my creative writing and videos, and my shelf space also has a fair amount of junk and electronics, but most of it can be boiled down to movies, books, and music.

I have always seen these things as investing in my passions or hobbies or fun. Sure, they cost me money and I’m broke, and looking at these unread books on my shelves makes me a little sad sometimes. But they have potential.

Recently, my mother called me to tell me to get a haircut and buy a new outfit. I see these things as frivolous, somehow. But I haven’t had a haircut in about nine months, and I haven’t bought a new outfit in over a year. Most of my clothes are worn out things I bought while in high school and undergrad, and they aren’t going to be very helpful when I head out into the real world to get a job, which I’m sort of trying to do now.

When my mom called me to tell me to do these things (i.e. haircut and new clothes), I reluctantly said all right, and she said, “Jenna, you’ve been investing in your writing for a long time. Now, it’s time to invest in yourself.”

Once, when I was in high school, I dated a boy that was much, much smarter than me. He actually chose potential girlfriends based on their intelligence-factor to guarantee he wouldn’t get bored. One of those guys. Anyway, we were sitting by a lake one night, talking, and he asked me to describe myself in one word. I was a junior, and I was only just beginning to deal with some of the heavy stuff in my life and figure out who I was, so I answered, “Writer.”

He told me that was what I did, not who I was. (Of course, he also demanded I create a poem on the spot, which I found unfair, particularly because I wrote novels for fun, not poems.) It was awfully hard to separate the two then for the same reason it is now: I let that define me. I’ve never been good at the other stuff, the relationships and whatnot. Perhaps it is time to change that.

So maybe investing in skincare products and clothes is really just investing in more stuff, but it’s a different side of myself than I’ve ever invested in before, and I’m ready to get started.

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life movies writing

on Young Adult

April 23, 2012

There is something about Young Adult that is obsessed with the formative years, the years when children try to be adults without all the responsibilities. I am, of course, referring to the movie Young Adult, not the category of literature.

I had to watch this movie based on nothing other than the fact that it was about a YA author who was obviously at a low point in her life. Within the first ten minutes, Charlize Theron’s life is painted in a bleak picture; her apartment is empty but for her dog and clutter, her book series is being cut off, and she has at least two one night stands. She looks tired; she drinks alcohol like it has an expiration date; she avoids her small hometown and all the people in it because she believes that they’re all suffocated there, trapped.

Basically, and I say this with a fair degree of hyperbole and self-derision, it’s my future. This woman all alone at 37 and floundering, wondering why everyone else is so happy–that sounds unfortunately like me. Though hopefully I won’t be drinking like a sailor on leave.

The good news is, that’s where the storyline in this movie and my life part ways. See, in the movie, Theron returns to her hometown in hopes of winning back her old beau from high school, who is happily married and a new father. She is manipulative. She is crazy. She is a bitch without any sense of compassion for others and unapologetic about it. (Of course, she’s also beautiful, lonely, and confident.)

To be honest, there isn’t much about this character that’s like-able. I won’t pretend that likeability is essential to a good story, but a turn-around of sorts is often wanted. In the end, Theron’s character drives back to the big city, her book series finished, and will return pretty much to the lifestyle that she ran from. Big whoop.

When I finished the movie, I felt somehow twisted. I couldn’t pinpoint it. The music was well used, the characters believable, the scenery lovely, the town painted perfectly. I did feel a little strange about how selfish the main character was, but we’re all inherently selfish (though hers does seem more blatant) so I let that slide.

But then I realized: it was the bits where the writing of the novel kicked in. It isn’t that the prose being read was terrible, or that it was perfect. It wasn’t even how the writing closely mirrored the situation that Theron’s character was in, though that made me a bit queasy as a YA writer. I’ll go one step further and say that it wasn’t even the timeline of how she wrote the book–which seemed like it took place over a week.

The problem was the ending. The sense of hope that was supposed to be instilled was just… so apathetic. There is nothing hopeful about this movie in any sense. And, again, that’s fine, but paired with the novel ending that was being read, I suddenly thought Theron’s character was so incredibly manipulative. She read exactly what she wanted to out the situation. The ending impression was that ALL young adult authors were obsessed with their high school years, forever trying to relive them, and that they just kept writing more books so they could keep tweaking the ending.

I heard in writing panel once that YA authors write from a time in which they are stuck. The fact that my main characters tend to be 16, naively so, is supposed to indicate that I’m stuck there in some fashion. I’m not sure if I believe that, but I’ll go with it much more than the idea that Young Adult seemed to harp on. Because, trust me, I have no desire to relive my high school years. AT ALL.

It’s sort of like Will Shuester said in Glee (I know, not a great authority on the subject, but go with it): teachers choose to suffer the torture of high school all over again every day, some of the worst years of their life. They do it so that they can make a difference in the kids they meet. I personally think YA authors do the same thing.

So perhaps my life will be a bit like the Theron’s from Young Adult, but it will be making more of a positive difference on those around me. Or at least I hope so.

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writing

AWP lit magazine haul

March 27, 2012

AWP bookfair is legendary amongst conference-goers. It’s a set of rooms filled with editors of literary magazines and independent presses. Not to mention school programs, with their faculty and famous writers. It is the perfect place to scope out magazines for their potential to house your own work.

Literary magazines are still important to writers because they provide potential publishing credits. Sort of like working an unpaid job so you can put it on your resume, having publishing credits is one way to possibly impress an agent or editor when querying them because you’re trying to publish a book-length work. This is true across genres. Being involved in the literary community is very important. It proves to these potential agents that you don’t just say you’re a writer; you’re really doing something about it. It makes it active and less in-your-head.

Below is a list of literary magazines that I picked up while I was at AWP this year. Check them out. Support them. Submit to them. Decorate your coffee table with them so people think you’re savvy in the field of contemporary literature. Use them to fill in gaps on your bookshelf or create an art piece. Whatever. But definitely look them up.

Fairy Tale Review – It’s a magazine dedicated to fairy tales. What is there to not love about that? They label their issues by color (i.e. the brown or gray issue). This issue is pretty thick because they only publish once a year, but it’s all quality. The next issue is yellow, and that’s the theme they’re sticking to this time around, and the submissions for that close on in May, so get going!

Make Magazine – This is a Chicago based literary magazine, which means I’m a little biased. But let me tell you, I was first drawn to this magazine because it is so beautifully designed. It’s actually magazine-sized, which isn’t too common among literary magazines. And it integrates the work with images in a seamless way. It publishes fiction, nonfiction, reviews, interviews, and poetry in its biannual issue. On first glance, it is clear that the editors are all right with disjunctive, experimental, or more traditional forms of writing. It literally has it all. So lovely. And, like many other literary magazines, it often tries to keep each issue feeling like a complete whole by declaring a theme, so be on the look out for that.

Unstuck – Another annual journal that publishes work that is literary, but gives a nod to genre. They like it weird, and we like reading it. They respond to submissions really quickly, but considering they have people like Aimee Bender and Lindsay Hunter contributing, it’s hard to get in.

Hoot Review – a literary magazine done entirely on postcards. It’s brief, but each one of these “issues” is gorgeous. Plus, the people at the booth were super nice.

Camera Obscura – I picked up this magazine because it’s gorgeous. I’ve yet to really read it. They go for prose ranges from 500-8,000 words, and they are one of the only magazines willing to publish a novella, if you’re so inclined.

Artifice – non-profit literary magazine. I think they’re from Chicago, but I am not completely positive about that. The editors were, again, very nice and helpful. I haven’t really read an issue yet, but I’m very excited about it. I’ve got a friend that’s obsessed with this magazine, and she has great taste in contemporary literature. I’d say that’s a good recommendation.

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