How Do You Cook Your Stories?

I recently had a conversation on Twitter with another writer. NaNoWriMo prompted the conversation. We both had attempted NaNo in the past. (Mine was in May and not part of the official November NaNo.)

The conversation left me pondering the many ways writers prepare--or cook--their stories.

Every writer is different, just as every cook is different.  We each have our preferred methods, our secret ingredients, our own assessment of when it's cooked to perfection.

My stories must simmer, percolate and sit for a spell.  In other words, my stories are cooked in a crock pot, not a microwave.

Oh, how I'd love to crack open a couple characters, drop them into a bowl, scramble up some plot and setting and cook in less than a minute by pressing "1" on the Microwave oven's keypad. I could crank out books like McDonald's cranks out fries.

But no. I cook like Grandma.  Turn the heat on 4.  Let simmer.  Stir.  Add plot potatoes.  Stir again.  Simmer some more. Lift lid and take a whiff.  Needs pepper.  Maybe some oregano.  Back the heat down to low and turn in for the night. The next morning, stir again and serve slow-roasted-story for lunch.

Perhaps some stories need to be cooked differently? But where one measures every 1/8 teaspoon, another uses a pinch.  Where one sets the timer, another watches the oven.  Some folks disappear for hours in a steamy kitchen while others bask in nature's warmth.

Cover with frosting? Baste in a sugary glaze? Bathe it in butter? Oh my goodness, everything's better with butter!

We all want sizzling settings and satisfying stories.   Broil them, broil them, serve them in a stew!  Chill the plot like pudding until it thickens.  Dazzle your readers with distinctive description like seasoning.

But I can't serve them raw! Stories aren't fruit. They need to be prepared.

Regardless of how you cook your stories, cook them well.  Serve them hot and spicy.  Make us come back for seconds.  Fill the kitchen with the aromas only your masterpieces have.  Let us taste your mouthwatering brilliance.

You're the artist, the chef, the baker of the best books in town.


How do you cook your stories?

For NaNo Participants...

Although I will not be "officially" participating in NaNoWriMo this November, I wanted to extend a few words to those who are.

First and foremost, you have my admiration for undertaking this challenge.  I wish you success and will be cheering you along from the sidelines.

Secondly, I wrote this post to provide a little encouragement for each day of the challenge.  I hope it is of benefit.

30 Thoughts for 30 Days

1. A prerequisite of success is believing that you will succeed.
2. Only you can project your imagination's content into mine.
3. You owe it to yourself to prove to yourself that you can do it.
4. The knowledge and experience you gain from this endeavor can be gained no other way.
5. A prolific writer prioritizes writing time.
6. The words you write today may well be someone's inspiration tomorrow.
7. Remember Dune. Fear is the mind killer. Accomplishments breed confidence.
8. This is your story.  Only you can do it justice. 
9. Foster creativity and determination in equal measure.
10. Every word you write is an investment. It's one word closer to finishing the book and to publication. Even words you cut are a learning experience.
11. Your strength as a storyteller builds with every word you write.
12. Discover when you're most productive and make that time available.
13. Spend time with those things (or people) that inspire you.
14. Put away your thesaurus until December.
15. Measure your success by courage and effort, not distance.
16. Achievement without challenge is hollow.
17. Self-discipline is the result of self-determination.
18. A writer's mettle is revealed when the goal seems unattainable.
19. Someone, somewhere, sometime will enjoy the words you're about to write.
20. Inspiration grows best in the soil of desire and determination.
21. Create your world so readers can vacation there.
22. Don't berate yourself for falling.  Falling is acceptable.  Refusing to get back up isn't.
23. Progress (and a novel) is made one word at a time.
24. Words have power. When written, that power is eternal.
25. The only time an effort truly fails is when the effort was never made.
26. Your future is determined by the dreams you choose to pursue.
27. Create now.  Edit later.
28. Accepting this challenge was a choice. Completing it is also.
29. Reward yourself for your accomplishments. You've earned it.
30. Wonderful things begin when writers make it to "The End."

Additionally, I've linked a few of my previous posts that may encourage or aid you in this challenging endeavor.

• How to Train Your Muse
• Thus Saith the Muse  (particularly commandments 1, 2 and 10)
• You Might Be a Muse Abuser If...
• To Blazes With the Formula
• Curse of the Time-Starved Writer

I invite everyone, NaNo participants or not, to add their own words of encouragement to those brave writers rising to this challenge.

NaNo Mid-Point. Argggh!

In the words of so many suddenly-enlightened antagonists, "What have I done?"

I'm post-midpoint now and waaaay below target.  Yes, I've experienced many of the same inconvenient time-sucking hurdles all the other participants have, but they're not necessarily the bulk of the blame.

I've concluded, reluctantly, that I'm not the type of writer who can produce 50,000 words of prose within a month and be able to use any of it.  Just ain't gonna happen.  That's not to say I've not had productive spurts, but the massive majority of what I've written is completely unusable.

If the definition of "rewrite" is restarting from scratch, then what I've written needs to undergo a rewrite.  If the definition is to re-do chapters, sections, characters, plot lines, etc., then a rewrite is not what this manuscript needs.

But this exercise has been worthwhile.

I've discovered characters and fleshed out ones I knew I'd have.  I've learned that some of my original plotting ideas just won't work, but found others that might.  Being that this manuscript could loosely be termed a prequel, I've got new things to enrich my upcoming sequel.  But there will be no "editing" or "revising" of this manuscript.

I intend to continue.  That's how I am.  If I say I'm going to do something then I do my dead-level best to follow through.  (That's why I debate long and hard before committing to anything.)  I'll do so knowing that I'll be sending it off to pixel purgatory when I'm finished, but there is still benefit to completing it--beyond following through on a commitment.

I will discover more characters.  I will be able to further develop plots and subplots.  I will find hidden themes, things I can foreshadow, envision new twists and a multitude of other things I can use.  I just won't be able to use the words and structure I've already got.  I think this is okay.  Much of this is what I normally do anyway, albeit at a slower pace with far less throwaway prose.

Perhaps by month end I'll have refined my target audience with this book.  (It's not that I didn't have one in mind, but the story seems to want to unfold differently.)  And when I begin writing this thing in earnest, for real, I'll have one mighty fine outline and maybe that's the whole point after all.

Have you experienced a NaNoWriMo or similar challenge?  What were your experiences?

Busy Busy Busy

That's me this week.  And last week.  And next week too!

I've fallen behind on my NaNoWriMo word count this week.  Significantly.  Obligations and responsibilities and happenstances, oh my!  At least I can refuse to take credit for the happenstances.

The old computer finally gave up the ghost.  I saw it coming and didn't even need to rely on my astute precognitive prowess to foretell it.  Poor thing had been making an awful racket for quite some time--somewhat akin to the sound a car with a manual transmission makes when the driver doesn't understand the purpose of a clutch.

So, I stripped the old girl of her goods.  I pulled out the three hard drives and plugged them into the new PC I had purchased a while back anticipating her untimely demise.  So I now have 2.7 terabytes of disk space spread out among four internal hard drives.  My USB external drive brings the count to five.  I hooked up the old VGA for a second monitor and am now pondering the next purchase.

Laptop or desktop, that's the decision I now must make.  I love the expandability of desktops, but appreciate the benefits that portable units provide.  And I do have the Orson Scott Card Writing Workshop coming up next month.  (T-Minus 37 days and counting.)

I'm hesitant to spend the bigger bucks on a laptop, however.  There just aren't that many times I need the portability.  My foresight sees only two days in June that warrant one.  And I do have my Android tablet if I were to suddenly be whisked away on a business trip.

But busy pursues me.  My son is getting married Saturday.  Mother's Day is Sunday.  A six-day workweek awaits me beginning Monday.  I have writing to critique.  I have short stories waiting to be finished.  And my NaNoWriMo project refuses to write itself.

And I can't shake that nagging suspicion that busy will be a little less persistent once my NaNo month has concluded.  Is that not the way of things?