NaNoWriMo: Upon us once again!

Hey.

It’s November.

Didn’t we just do this a year or so ago?

That’s right, kids: It’s the month many a writer circles on their calendar, often with some form of the question, “Do I or Don’t I?”

What are we yammering about? November, of course, is National Novel Writing Month, a 30-day odyssey of word pushing, key stabbing, stress inducing, existence questioning fun in which writer hopefuls block out most if not all distractions with the singular goal of racking up 50,000 (or more!) words toward the writing of a novel.

To be honest, I’ve had a mixed bag of success with this thing. That said, I still tend to be a cheerleader for the program because I do believe it has merit, particularly for the beginning writer. Figuring out how to hit a daily writing quota regardless of other commitments, demands, or distractions just during this one month period is a great learning aid as well as a valuable peek into the real world of a working writer. Even if you don’t hit that magical 50,000-word mark, embrace the opportunity here and all it can teach you.

On a few occasions over the years, I’ve written pieces for my blog and other venues where I’ve been asked to dispense “wisdom” to those attempting NaNoWriMo for the first time. Every writer’s mileage varies when it comes to their individual process and finding time to write in and around other commitments. With that in mind, I’ve always tried to keep my advice general enough so it can be applied no matter the specific situation. In that same spirit, I offer a few nuggets of hopefully helpful advice:

Manage your pace. You’ve got so many words to write, and so many days to write ‘em. Don’t over-think this. Figure out a words-per-day rate, and shoot for that. Take this in chunks, rather than concentrating on the 50k mark. It’ll start adding up pretty quickly. 50,000 divided by 30 days is 1,667 words a day. Sounds like a lot, right?

Now, break that down further. 250 words an hour is a figure I like to use, because that’s an old school measure for a page—give or take a dozen words or so—when you’re using Courier 12-pt font and double-spacing your manuscript. 250 words an hour isn’t a terribly stress-inducing pace, and doing that for seven hours gets you your daily quota and some extra padding, and you can do it in easy to manage chunks that you spread throughout the day. You know, one or two before work, one at lunch, one after work, and the rest in the evening. If you need or want to adjust that number up or down or how you spread it across the day, knock yourself out. The point is to find a pace that works for you on a consistent basis, but doesn’t stress you out while you’re trying to hit it.

Don’t kill yourself. Quit for the day if you hit your quota. If, on the other hand, you get froggy and write way beyond that, then give yourself a break the next day. If you miss a day, then work a bit harder over a few days to get back on pace, rather than trying to gain it all back in one chunk. Or, just recalculate a new per-day rate to absorb the words from the missed day. Again: Chunks. Pace. Consistency. Repeat.

Write now. Edit later. Your goal is to keep pushing forward, every day, all the way to the finish line, and you can’t do that if you keep going back over the stuff you already wrote. We all have an inner editor, wanting us to revise that paragraph or page we just finished, or who keeps telling us that chapter we wrote yesterday needs a rewrite. Ignore that skeevy bastard. This exercise isn’t about having a perfect, polished, ready to rock manuscript at the end of November. That’s what December’s for. So, tell that inner editor to sit down and shut his suck hole until the writing part is over.

My personal take on NaNoWriMo is that it’s a mechanism for instilling some structure and discipline into your writing routine and finding a way to integrate it with all the other demands on your life. As with anything else, it can be as useful or useless as the effort you put into it. This sort of thing’s not for everybody, so if you give it an honest try and discover it’s not for you, then screw it. Find a method that better suits you.

For those choosing to accept the challenge of National Novel Writing Month, I wish you the best of luck!

The writer’s life and the “Freelance Dance.”

I’m often asked – either in interviews or by folks just starting out as writers and still learning “the ropes” – how I’m able to balance so many work-related tasks with personal and family time and other obligations and not go insane…or, at least no more insane than I already am. A flavor of this question came up in an interview I’m in the process of answering.

To be honest, for me it’s an ongoing process, and finding that “sweet spot” can sometimes be difficult.

By its very nature, a freelance career of any sort means that typical work schedules are usually out the window. You can apply a sort of structure, but deadlines are deadlines and sometimes they’re at odds with each other despite your best efforts. Then there’s the rest of your life, which rears its head in frequent and myriad ways. Some of that’s predictable – kid activities, appointments, house and lawn chores, etc – but then there are sick kids, sick spouse, car problems, appliance problems, etc. All of this means that as often as not, you’re working long, weird hours well after friends have reached out and wondered where the hell you are because it’s cocktail time!

Star Trek work means Star Trek cocktails, and you’re damned right I wish I’d thought of writing this.

(And I do loves me my cocktail time, you know.)

Two key traits any successful freelancer simply must cultivate are flexibility and adaptability. You need to be ready to deal with schedule changes, last-minute meetings or other requests, stressed out clients, and any number of other things…often all on the same day. “Roll with the punches,” as they say, while resisting the often and near overwhelming urge to punch back.

There’s another key aspect of navigating this existence that I admit I struggle with: making sure I find ways to counter all of the above with time for me. This includes family time, time with friends, time spent doing fun things away from my desk, my laptop, my email, and my phone. Yes, this may well include friends and cocktails.

The Big Reason for this is that I honestly enjoy what I do. It is in many respects a literal “dream job” and I want to do it well. Further, I want to keep doing it…at least so long as my brain and fingers continue to work. There’s also the element of uncertainty that comes with being a freelancer and not always knowing where the next job is coming from (aka “the Freelance Dance”). So, I’m almost always on the hunt for The Next Thing, and what happens? I sometimes get too caught up in the rush of it all and end up working stupid hours.

Anyway, as I said up top, this is an evolving process, filled with experimentation and refinement, successes and failures, lessons learned and wisdom applied. Your mileage may vary; what works for me or another freelancer might not work for you, but don’t be too hard on yourself if you face similar challenges. Sooner or later, you’ll find your rhythm.

Then somebody will change the song – usually to something that sucks – and you have to start over.

That’s the “Freelance Dance.”

Talking NaNoWriMo and Trek over at StarTrek.com!

Ah, November.

It’s the month writers of every stripe anticipate or loathe; that period of thirty days where many take the challenge of casting aside anything and everything as they attempt to write 50,000 words as either a short novel or a pretty decent chunk of a longer one.

That’s right. National Novel Writing Month is once again upon us.

While I’ve participated in this exercise a few times, myself, this year I don’t find myself in the position of writing a novel during this time of year, and for that I say HUZZAH! Yes, I do have other writing projects on my plate, but they’re smaller efforts which all told will I don’t believe will add up to a 50k, so I can’t even fudge a bit by combining them for NaNoWriMo purposes.

For those of who you are taking the challenge and especially those of you who may be doing so for the first time EVAH, I’ve taken the liberty of pulling together some nuggets of unsolicited writing advice for a new piece posted on StarTrek.com. With that in mind, I’ve included emphasis on how I’ve previously used the NaNoWriMo challenge as a way of logging some serious progress for a few different Star Trek novel projects over the years. The result is a new piece now available for your reading, dining, and dancing pleasure

StarTrek.com: Trekking Through National Novel Writing Month

The fine folks over at the website also posted a companion piece, written from the point of view of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’s Jake Sisko, the resident writer within the Star Trek universe, who also offers a few tips for achieving NaNoWriMo success:

StarTrek.com: Jake Sisko’s Do’s and Don’ts for #NaNoWriMo

Many thanks to the good folks over at StarTrek.com for inviting me to come play in their sandbox for a bit. It’s entirely possible I may be showing up there again in the near future. Muwah-ah-ah.

Talking about writing Star Trek novels with David R. George III and Trek.fm!

For reasons which continue to surpass my level of understanding, people want to talk to me. About writing.

Further, they want to record what I have to say on the subject and make it available for other people to hear. Like it’s some kind of punishment or humiliating task they need to accomplish before they can pledge to a fraternity or sorority or something.

I don’t get it, but here we are. Again.

Sandwiched between the normal news updates and reviews from the world of Star Trek publishing in all its various forms, the latest episode of Trek.fm‘s Literary Treks podcast brings me together with friend and fellow Trek wordsmith David R. George III so the show’s hosts, Bruce Gibson and Dan Gunther, can grill us about the crazy world of writing Star Trek novels.

Let’s face it, calling it “crazy” barely scratches the surface.

Over more than an hour, Bruce and Dan hit us with a pretty wide range of questions about this rather odd niche of writing. We discuss our secret origin stories and how we got into the game, the wickets a Star Trek story must go through from concept to finished novel, the differences between writing media tie-in fiction and original fiction, what “rules” exist when working with someone else’s characters and settings, collaborating with CBS, editors, and other writers to maintain something resembling consistency when working on larger efforts like ongoing series or “event series,” and the challenge a new writer faces when attempting to break into the realm. We even find a moment or two to lament the gone but not forgotten Star Trek: Strange New Worlds writing contest, which we all know holds a special place for me.

Have a listen, if you’re of a mind to do so:

Literary Treks 276: There’s A Line We Can’t Cross

Many thanks to Bruce and Dan for having me on the show once again, and also to David for inviting me to be his wingman for this outing. I hope we didn’t crush too many dreams, but if we did know it was done out of love.

Wait……what?

Today is “National Day On Writing!”

Wait, isn’t that supposed to be every day? Did I get a different memo from everybody else? Hmph.

Launched ten years ago by the National Council of Teachers of English, the “National Day On Writing” seeks to increase awareness about writing and its critical connection to literacy in our everyday lives. As posted on the NCTE’s website devoted to this day:

“You see, people tend to think of writing in terms of pencil-and-paper assignments, but no matter who you are, writing is part of your life. It’s part of how you work, how you learn, how you remember, and how you communicate. It gives voice to who you are and enables you to give voice to the things that matter to you.”

My wife and I are very fortunate in that both our daughters seem to have taken an interest in writing, whether it’s keeping a personal journal or writing stories and other papers for school. They’re also big readers, so you can bet I’m knocking on every piece of wood within reach.

Instilling an appreciation of writing as a necessary skill to navigating life is essential. For kids, this means both in school and at home, and includes challenging perceptions that some writing is somehow “better” or “more valuable” than others.

When you consider how much “casual writing” we all do every day (texting, e-Mail, Tweeting, Facebook, blogs, notes to self or others, etc.), and how much of it is dismissed for one reason or another, it starts to put things into perspective. Learning to appreciate all of that along with more traditional or “accepted” forms of writing as having its place when it comes to developing strong writing skills is important. Connecting it to the ability to read and research and to think and convey one’s thoughts is vital, especially when it comes to teaching our kids the value of writing not just as something “writers do” but what we all do in order to better communicate with others and even ourselves.

For more information about the National Day On Writing initiative and its goals, along with resources such as writing tips and other references and how to get involved furthering the message, be sure to visit their website:

Why I Write.

Oh, and check out the #WhyIWrite hashtag on Twitter to read inspiring (and sometimes humorous) insights from various folks about….well, why they write. Example:

#WhyIWrite

I’ve always loved creating stories. When I was a kid, I made up adventures using action figures. Now I make them using words, and share them with other people. It’s the coolest job ever.

(Okay, I still use action figures, too.)

— Dayton Ward (@daytonward) October 20, 2018

 

So, you know, that’s me. Your mileage may vary. Tell me why! 🙂

Write on.

ReWard: The 7 Phases of Almost Any Writing Project.

Every once in a while, my little blog here strives to be something more than a platform for the shameless whoring of myself and my various scribblings. There are the infrequent reminiscences and ruminations about favorite books, films, or TV shows. On rare occasions, I might see fit to delve into a current events topic. Rarer still are those entries where I try to offer meaningful writing advice, or at least a pithy anecdote gleaned from my time in “the trenches” of writing for a so-called living.

This is one of those pieces.

A couple of years ago, while faced with a deadline to have a post ready for the Novel Spaces writing blog along with being caught up in the grips of a Writing Project That Would Not Die, I came up with a list of things that seem able to confront any writing project regardless of size or scope.

The result made for a handy Novel Spaces column, and now seems like a nice thing throw into this space as a “ReWard” piece, in a desperate bid to make this site look like it’s generating fresh content on a more or less regular schedule.

So, from January 2016, I offer the following:

Another scam targeting writers? An update!

This could’ve been yours…if the price was right. $14.95, as it happens.

So, last night I spent a little time talking about something I along with…conservatively speaking….forty or fifty bazillion people on the internet took to be some kind of possible scam, which if true had apparently set its sights on the oh-so lucrative pastime of trying to separate inexperienced or maybe even desperate writers from their money.

(Would you like to know more? See “Another scam targeting writers?“)

When a fair number of those aforementioned forty or fifty bazillion people–most if not all of them some form of writer just trying to make their way pushing words through this crazy messed up world–took to their blogs or Facebook or Twitter or other venues to report, dissect, condemn, and generally mock the very same email I described in last night’s post, things quickly devolved to the point of absurdity, culminating in what can charitably be described as a dumpster fire shit show train wreck very poor attempt to “set the record straight.”

Presented here, without any edits or changes to formatting, is the *second* email I and most of those forty or fifty bazillion people received from this group:

Another scam targeting writers?

Well, maybe “scam” is too harsh a word.

“Shady,” I can hear one of you saying. “What about ‘Shady,’ Dayton?”

Yeah, we’ll go with “Shady.” For the moment, anyway.

So, I get this email over the holiday weekend:

---

Dear Dayton,

I hope you’re having a Merry Christmas! My name is [redacted], I’m from the NY Literary Magazine.

Congratulations! You have been nominated for the “Best Story Award”.

Visit this page to submit your entry: [link removed]

Submission period ENDS on December 31st, 2017.

Happy Holidays!

The NY Literary Magazine

PS: You can now add to your bio and credentials that you are a Best Story Award 2017 Nominee.

The NY Literary Magazine is a distinguished print and digital magazine.

“The prestige of such literary awards is immense for an author…awards drive up sales” – The NY Times

“Can do wonders for your writing career… one of the best ways to get your writing noticed!” – Writer’s Digest

---

Holy dogshit, Private Joker! I’m a winner! They like me! They really like me, don’t they?

Wait. Hold on a minute. Let’s unpack this a bit.

Congratulations! You have been nominated for the “Best Story Award”.

Um…’scuse me? Hello? There seems to be something missing here. Hang on…it’ll come to me. Just give me a sec to think about it. Oh. Right!

The email didn’t list which story of mine had been “nominated,” or offer any hints that they meant “novel” or “short story” when they said “story.” This would seem to be a an important nugget of information at this juncture, don’t you think? I mean, *I* kinda sorta thought it might have a bearing on the direction of the conversation, and so on and so forth, but what the hell do *I* know?

Strike one.

Visit this page to submit your entry: [link removed]

Being the suspicious curious sort, I opted to click the link and see where it took me. Sure enough, I found myself at the oh-fish-eeee-al website of the NY Literary Magazine. What was waiting for me? The chance to submit a story to one of several categories they’ve identified. There are “only” 200 such “submissions” accepted each month, in each category, so I really needed to ACT NOW IF I WANT TO CLAIM MY SPOT.

Oh, and did I mention there’s a submission fee?

$14.95 a throw. Boom.

Now, there are some legit literary contests and journals that charge modest reading fees – a few bucks or so – to help offset the actual costs of running such competitions. However, assuming these folks get their 200 entrants for each category every month, and there are (at least) eleven categories, that’s a tidy little haul–almost $33,000–every 30 days or so, just for “reading fees.”

Oh, and that $14.95? It was the super dooper special Christmas discount price.

Strike two.

Then, just for giggles, I Googled those quotes listed in the email, like that one from The New York Times. You know, this one:

“The prestige of such literary awards is immense for an author…awards drive up sales.”

I’m happy to report that the quote is legitimate…..albeit from 1992 and pertaining to a completely different thing. So far as I can tell, the NY Literary Magazine‘s available online “archives” stretch all the way back to July 2016, so you know…hmmm…..

Strike three.

With all that said, I can’t come right and tell you conclusively that this is a scam. At best, it looks shady as fuck, and my Spidey sense was tingling the whole time. I therefore opted not to submit any story (duh), and I don’t think I’ll be adding “Best Story Award 2017 Nominee” to my CV.

Oh, and just to tie all of this up in a nice, neat bow, I saw on Facebook and Twitter that a whole lot of people got hit with this same email, which…if you think about it…would seem to sorta dilute the whole “exclusive” nature of the thing. Of course the email’s originators got roasted on those platforms and elsewhere. Meanwhile, a check of the “magazine’s” website now reveals this new message:

Due to technical issues, we are suspending further contest entries till we can resolve them, once our technical support is back to work from their holidays. Apologies, please email our support via our website contact form if you wish to be notified when entries are functional again.

Oh, those pesky “technical issues.” It always amazes me how they’re able to crop up at the most convenient worst possible times. Dang, y’all.

Strike four. Because I’m not the biggest baseball fan, that’s why.

So, if you got one of these emails or something like it from someone else and are understandably suspicious curious, my advice is to avoid this sort of thing with the same determination and zeal you’d exhibit if a horde of fire ants was bearing down on you and trying their damnedest to plant their flag on your taint.

But, I happen to like my taint unsullied by opportunistic fire ants. YMMV.

Write on, boys and girls.

ReWard: Writing for “Exposure?” We’re Still On That?

While culling through this morning’s batch of e-Mail, I came across not one but two — count ’em, TWO — “invitations” to write for someone or something. No payment was offered, of course, and the language of the e-Mails themselves suggested none would be forthcoming. Indeed, perhaps my even wondering about such things might be viewed as a crime against the purity of the written word, blah blah blah.

Yep, you guessed it: I’d been offered the chance to write “for the exposure.”

Setting aside my initial thought that I’d never heard of a) the people sending the e-Mail or b) the publishing endeavor they claimed to represent, I next reaction was, “Are you fucking kidding me? We’re still doing that?”

Of course we are.

A couple of years ago during my stint writing for the Novel Spaces blog, I wrote about the long debated “writing for exposure” chestnut. Rather than regurgitate the gist of that earlier column, I figured I’d just make a few updates and tweaks before regurgitating it in full right here! Read on:

ReWard: “Dayton’s 10 Commandments of Writing.”

In one of the…let’s see, three, four, carry the one…six bazillion Facebook threads or updates I post, or the ones I visit, the topic of my personal writing “rules” came up. I was reminded of an “Ask Dayton” question I answered last year that touched on this very thing. On that occasion, I was asked about my “10 Commandments” of writing. I was also asked about my thoughts about such rules for existing in and moving through a fandom community, but the bulk of my long, bloated, meandering answer to the question was focused on the writing “rules” I was dreaming up.

After the more recent Facebook conversation, I dug up that post from last year, and tweaked the “Commandments” I had devised back then. For this go-around, I’ve removed the parts about “fandom” rules, because now I’m thinking they deserve their own post, too. We’ll see about that.

(NOTE: I thought about cleaning up the language a bit, since this was originally written for my curmudgeonly “Ask Dayton” persona, but I decided to leave it as is. You’ve been warned.)

So, without further ado, let’s revisit “Dayton’s 10 Commandments of Writing.”