Na No Writing,

I don't do Na No. I used to but after the site jamming two years in a row, I don't go back. That's not to say I don't use some of their ideas and yes four years ago I did do Na No and completed the story one day after.

So what lessons did I learned.

1. Have a partner to write with.
2. Each day exchange you word count and did or did you not make your goal.
3. Sit your bottom into that chair and write.
4. Life often intrudes but stay focused this is a commitment.
5. Reward yourself with little milestones. You can do this.

These Na No goals can be used with any manuscript. Let those lessons carry you on and over to the next level in your writing.

Free Yourself and Write Drunk in November!

In November 2005, I learned to write drunk during my first year as a National Novel Writing Month participant. Don’t get the wrong idea. This doesn’t mean I downed martinis the entire month, winding up sloshed. It means NaNoWriMo 2005 was the first time I attempted to push through, to get my story out of my head and onto the page without worrying about revising until later. Coming from a writer who normally agonized over every word, and wasted months re-writing the same scene before moving on, I found the process of letting go completely liberating.


I spent the whole month, learning about my characters, interviewing them about their deepest, darkest secrets, testing them with great challenges, and probing their psyches to explore what makes them tick. After NaNoWriMo ‘05 was over, I had the seeds of my first novel. After the month of writing drunk, I sobered up for the big revision. I admit, I reverted to my old ways of agonizing over every word, the structure, and plot holes. I tweaked, enhanced characterizations, rearranged chapters, scenes, paragraphs, wove in subplots, and more.

All of the hard work has paid off. Double Out and Back a novel that grew from my very first NaNoWrimo draft is available NOW from www.RedRosePublishing.com and other outlets. I’m currently shopping my now-completed second year’s NaNoWriMo work, have finished the latest round of revisions to manuscript number three, As I embark on my fifth attempt to write 50,000 words in thirty days, my fourth NaNoWrimo winning manuscript is awaiting my attention.

It’s November 2009. Raise your glasses and toast the occasion! I’m in the midst of my first week of writing drunk, again. You should try it! It works!

It's National Novel Writing Month, Make it a Habit!

If you do something for thirty days, it becomes a habit. National Novel Writing Month (NaNo) is specially designed to foster good writing habits in authors who say they can’t find time to write. True, between our day jobs, families, friends, and the dozens of other commitments we’ve pledged our minutes toward, it’s tough to squeeze in writing - something most of us consider a hobby.

But I have a plan. I tell people I work two jobs. When they ask me about my second job, it’s great publicity for my books. But it also establishes limitations on other people’s expectations of me, and sets the proper tone in my own mind.

Let me explain how it works. My family has become accustomed to my locking myself in the home office (spare bedroom/Tiki bar) evenings and weekends. I’ve stayed home from non-vital events, and let my family give the excuse, “Laura’s working today.” And truthfully, the stress of facing a deadline would make me an unpleasant party-goer, anyway.

When we’re at gatherings, I have an excuse to be the first person to leave. “I’ve got a lot of work to do tonight.” People nod, and pack me off home. At community and club meetings, I’m never asked to volunteer any more. They’ve all heard my “two job” apology already.

At my day job, I spend my lunch hour doing maintenance work (website updates, book research, ordering promotional items, etc.) and have eschewed my long-time lunch friends in favor of one bonus hour to work my second job.

As for setting the tone in my own mind, when I see my writing as a real job, I’m focusing on my goal of making it my full-time occupation. And that’s incredibly empowering. I have the opportunity to direct my complete energy on the rewarding talent that lurks inside me - writing fiction. Isn’t that exciting!

And whether you participate in NaNo or not, I encourage you to take your writing career very seriously. Make it your job and your responsibility to nurture your talent, and find the time in your busy life for the avocation that makes you so very happy.

Laura
LauraBreck.com
The Roses of Prose, Authors of Women’s Fiction and Romance

EXCERPT DAY AT ROSES OF PROSE!

I'm so excited to share a little taste of my new novel, Double Out and Back. Critics are calling it,

“highly addictive and engrossing. … a deeply incredible story and one that will keep you up late into the night reading. ... not only captivated my heart, but also tugged at my heartstrings.”

Café of Dreams

“a fantastic story that I would recommend to any mother, any mother to be, or really anyone out looking for an entertaining read.”

A Journey of Books

I hope you enjoy it, too!




Chandy’s parents were both Jewish, of Eastern European descent. Diogo embodied the great melting pot of Cape Town, South Africa. His mother – Tessie’s daughter – had married a half-Portuguese and half-black man, the son of a native tribal woman who had married a fisherman who came to port.
One day, while Bubba was baking and Diogo and Chandy were playing, Chandy asked Bubba, “What was it like here in the olden days?”
“Tell us, Bubba,” Diogo urged.
Bubba wiped her hands on her apron and sat at the table to answer their
question.
“When I first came to Cape Town, we moved to a small flat on the same street as the Garden Shul.”
“Garden Shul? You mean the Great Synagogue?” Chandy asked.
“Oy, yes. They built the original building, the Garden Shul in nineteen-oh-five. I was a kinder in Lithuania back then. When we moved to Cape Town, we were welcomed by none other than Rabbi Alfred Bender. A Friday morning, and he showed up at the door with some candles, a bottle of wine, and a beautifully braided challah, so Zayda and I could welcome the Sabbath.
“He served as Rabbi for more than forty years, may he rest in peace. Back in ’twenty-five, when I moved here, he had already been here for thirty years. He was the glue that held this community together. We all just loved him, even Diogo’s other grandma, his Papa’s mama, a gentile. She loved that rabbi.”
Just then, Ita Leah’s daughter, Miriam, walked into the flat with an armful of bundles.
“Chandy, have you finished with your lessons?” Miriam asked.
“Yes, Mama,” she answered.
“I only had to help her a little,” Diogo said, giggling.
“Oh, Diogo, I’m glad you’re here. I have something for your mother.” Miriam put the bundles down on the table in front of them. She wiped her brow with the back of her hand after releasing the heavy bags.
“The days are getting shorter. I saw old Mr. Phillips making his way down the street, lighting all of the street lamps,” she said as she took out a long, narrow, newsprint-wrapped package. “It’s a good thing too, because, I needed the extra light to find my way to the fishmonger. I picked up this Cape Salmon to make lox.”
“Yum,” Chandy said.
“I stopped by the new dress shop, the one Zodwa, just opened. I saw a beautiful skirt for your mother and brought it home for her. Will you give it to her for me?”
“Yes, ma’am. I need to go home for supper soon,” Diogo answered.
Miriam stood taller than expected, having squat Bubba for her mother. Her height allowed her to tower over Bubba. Next to Bubba’s round shape, Miriam looked rectangular – broad shoulders, thickened waist, narrow hips, and elongated torso. If Zayda were triangular, they could have had a real mélange of geometric characters in the family – a whole new meaning to the adage, people come in all shapes and sizes.
Miriam finished putting away the packages and sat at the kitchen table to go through the post. Bubba could tell something was wrong, because her daughter’s chin scrunched up, her upper lip tightly pressing down onto a protruding, but tense lower lip. Under stress, the whole lower half of Miriam’s face creased the same way many people’s brows furrowed.
Bubba stood even in height with her seated daughter. She touched Miriam’s hair, which was colored darkest brown. It fell in short ringlets, with perfect sections in front of each ear that curled upward like crescent moons illuminating each of her cheeks.
Bubba looked equally rattled as she read over Miriam’s shoulder.
“This is a nightmare. It’s the next step, isn’t it?”
Miriam shook the paper.
“They can’t do this!” The skin on her chin puckered as her lips tightened to near disappearance.
“Let me see,” Bubba requested. Miriam passed her the paper. It held the official seal of the South African government.
“They can, and they are.” Miriam’s voice trailed off.
Bubba’s eyes traveled from top of page to bottom absorbing the official letter’s contents. As of that date, under Population Registration Act No. 30, passed by the nation’s legislature, Bubba would be required to register all babies she delivered under one of four distinct races: Black, White-Afrikaans, White-Other, or Colored or mixed race.

Does this make you want to read more? If so, you can purchase an e-book download at http://redrosepublishing.com/bookstore/product_info.php?products_id=402

Best to you.
Lisa Lipkind Leibow
Roses of Prose, Authors of Women's Fiction and Romance
http://www.llleibow.com/

Notes for National Novel Writing Month

NaNo 2009 and a month of literary abandon officially launched yesterday. Over 100,000 writers signed up to take the 50,000 word challenge. I thought I'd share some of my notes from last year from this month's Romance Writers United's "Write Right" newsletter.

*If anyone would like a copy of this month's informative RWU newsletter, contact me at amber@amberleighwilliams.com. I will be happy to forward!*

It’s November again and writers everywhere are gritting their teeth and downing copious amounts of caffeine. Why? Because November 1st marks the first day of National Novel Writing Month, otherwise known as NaNo.

2008 marked my first NaNo year. I hadn’t written a full-length novel in over twelve months so NaNo seemed like the perfect way to get my muse back in shape. When November 1st rolled around, I was feeling a mix of high anticipation and impending doom. I’d never pantsed a day in my life. The goal is to write 50,000 words in one month. Whether I knew my next plot point or not, I had no choice. I had a loud cricket on my shoulder guilting me out of procrastination and back to my new MS Word document. I just barely scraped by that 50,000 mark at midnight on November 30th. I fell behind in the third week thanks to the first holiday rush at my day job. With the help of Jiminy and a husband who offered to sling wet noodles whenever he saw me slacking in my free time, I came out of NaNo victorious!

I’ve met quite a few writers who are doing NaNo for the first time this year. The last 2009 count for NaNo was 78,000 and growing. I thought I’d share a few notes-to-self from the trenches to help get first-timers in gear:

#1 – You must write 1667 words today. If you don’t, you’ll be forced to write 3334 words tomorrow. And while NaNo’s website claims 1700 isn’t physically impossible, 3334 might just be.

#2 – It helps to have a coach. Prior to this year and last year’s NaNo, I asked my husband to keep me on my toes. I gave him a title, too, which he seemed to like: The Muse-Buster! First though, I warned him I might hate him at some point. Also bought him a hard hat and some Kevlar.

#3 – Be prepared to live, breathe, and eat your characters. Okay, well maybe not eat – but you know what I mean! You go to bed thinking about them and the story and wake up the same way. You dream about them—more than you already do. Your fingers will do the typing motion in your sleep. If you’re desperate to get away, you must remind yourself that procrastination won’t come until December 1st – and oh how sweet that day will be if you’ve got those fresh 50,000 words under your belt (or on your back-up hard drive) and you’ve silenced that cricket on your shoulder.

I gathered more advice from veteran NaNo writers around the web. Here’s some of their advice:

Pace yourself. Daily word count is 1667 - if needed do it in 10 minute increments throughout the day.

- Delilah K. Stephans

Plan easy meals for your family. Realize they will survive without you for a month. Remember it is only 1667 words a day.

- Jill James

Write at the same time, for the same amount of time, every day, and eliminate all distractions.

- Kelly L. Stone

If anyone else has any advice or thoughts on NaNo, email it to amber@amberleighwilliams.com. I’ll add it to weekly encouragement posts at The Cozy Page (http://amberleighwilliams.blogspot.com) throughout the month of November!

Here’s to literary abandon!

Happy Reading,

Amber Leigh Williams

http://www.amberleighwilliams.com/

The Roses of Prose, Authors of Women's Fiction & Romance

Having a heat wave....

Roses of Prose have been discussing heat ratings this week. I have to admit I have mixed emotions on the subject, being mislabeled once and loosing sales.

Readers need to know what they are buying. Each and every epublisher should place on their web site what their ratings are. Sometimes a visitor must go to submissions to find it. Often, its because of an afterthought or returns. Let's face it, when you go to McDonalds or even a movie theater you have a list of what's available and under categories. Which is another thought probably for another day about what books belong under what genre. Ok, back on target, ratings.

I'm no prude. I mean I like good sex but not sex for the sake of selling a book. I think another writer or commenter having to put sex in so that the book would be more attractive mentioned this idea. I had that asked of me and did so not sure it helped. It felt forced and unnatural. Sex is a part of life. Even in the bible they mention generations of folks, well they had to get there somehow. Song of Solomon has some pretty racy stuff too. But, when handled with dignity to both parties involved it works, which is why ratings are so important. YOUR reader deserves the dignity.

I am slightly offended when I see sensual rating that include sex toys, or violence toward women even paddling for me I would want my money back if that was "sensual". No not for me. Sensual sexual contact should be warm, gratifying for both partners, caressing, intimacy, use of sexual terms but not toys or other things invading - no, that's more on the erotic side.

As an author, I've learned I want to be specific with exactly what's in my book. If I don't know if the publisher I'm submitting too would be offended. I offer to send with the submission the most graphic love scene I have and a paragraph why I think it fits their "sensual" category in ratings.

Once bitten, I don't want the backlash.

SOME LIKE IT HOT. SOME SWEAT WHEN THE HEAT IS ON.

“Is it warm in here?” I ask, tugging at my collar.


Heat ratings? You want me to write about heat ratings?

I guess lovers of women’s fiction and romance have different senses and sensibilities. They take pride in their love of a good book, but have prejudices when it comes to what satisfies, frustrates, or embarrasses them. But I’m not sure I’m the right one to discuss this subject. I’m having trouble, and I’ll tell you why.

First, so far, the stories I’ve written fall outside of the romance genre and classify more as mainstream fiction with strong romantic elements. Therefore, the ratings that romance publishers are setting don’t really apply to my work. Although, Double Out and Back contains a couple of sensual scenes that are integral to the plot. After all, Double Out and Back takes readers on a roller coaster ride women dealing with infertility. Characters striving for fertility must have sex, sometimes!

Another reason I’m troubled by having to write about this topic is that it pushes me up against my ongoing battle as a recovering attorney. Writing about heat ratings puts me at risk for falling off the wagon. I’m fighting the urge to write a legal memorandum, explaining how this smacks of censorship and infringes the First Amendment right to Freedom of Speech. I’m tempted to recognize the opposing argument that publishers aren’t governmental entities and can restrict and define speech anyway they wish, but if a public library is the one restricting the speech, we might have a case.

I’m on the verge of discussing the elusive definition of obscenity, and quoting Justice Potter Stewart’s 1964 definition of what is hard-core pornography, "I know it when I see it."

I’m in danger of explaining to you in detail the three-part obscenity test we have today, as decided in Miller v. California (1973):

a) whether the average person, applying contemporary community standards would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest ;

b) whether the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by the applicable state law; and

c) whether the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.



However, I’m NOT going to do that. I’m in recovery, after all. I must find an Attorney’s Anonymous Meeting, really!

EEK! Help me!

Let’s shift gears for a moment. Instead of from a legal perspective, let’s look at this issue from a consumer’s viewpoint. How can the publishing industry assist their customers (readers) to know what they are buying through a ratings system?

My observation is that different publishers seem to use different ratings. This is where I feel the problem lies. If, before they open a novel, readers wish to know what might lie within its pages as far as sex, nudity, and violence, then I think publishers should be striving for an industry standard.

This is one area that the publishing industry can look to other entertainment industries such as movies, music, and video games for examples. Each of these industries utilizes ratings that are the same regardless of the producer or manufacturer. For example, moviegoers need not educate themselves on the ratings of Paramount and of MGM. It doesn’t matter who made the movie, R-rated means R-rated.

However, one thing that these other rating systems do that I have not yet seen in the world of romance publishing is to carve out specific reasons for the rating. The flame ratings for romance and erotica can be misleading and turn readers on or off a particular story for the wrong reasons. Giving a story 3 flames or 5 flames, and providing a laundry list of all situations that would place a story under that category, without stating which of these scenarios is part of the particular story is an over-broad definition. This system is likely to result in disappointed readers at either end of the spectrum.

Consider that movies are R-rated for any number of reasons: adult-content, nudity, violence, sexual reference, language. Individual viewers have access to reasons for the rating. Some viewers may not enjoy watching violent movies but don’t mind a few cuss words or a glimpse of a nude body. Others might want nothing to do with sex on the screen, but love a gory battle scene. This is why providing reasons for a rating would be a good idea. For example, four flames for several sensual or graphic consensual sex scenes-M/F would appeal to different readers than would four flames for M/M sensual romance.

If publishers are to assign heat ratings, I urge them to move toward an industry standard and to make them clearly and flexibly defined so as not to mislead readers.

Okay, that conclusion sounded like it was in legalese. To help me retreat from the frightening, lawyer-like feeling, today’s topic gave me, instead let me leave you with this quote, “Some like it hot, and some sweat when the heat is on.” and a link to The Power Station's digital remaster of this song! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgYqIvnPvqQ

Enjoy!

Best to you,
Lisa Lipkind Leibow
http://www.llleibow.com/
The Roses of Prose, Authors of Women's Fiction and Romance