Day One of NaNoWRiMo

I got up at 7:15, started to write at 7:45. An hour into it and I have only 700 words. (It took a few too minutes to find the right manuscript template.)
And I am stopping too many times to check stupid stuff like Twitter and Facebook and how many followers Jian Gohmeshi, or however you spell his name, has lost in the last few hours. I really need to get moving. It's like exercising, those first few minutes of warm up are killers.

Off to get coffee.

By the time my stomach said it was breakfast, I had written 1350 words.
Now, don't worry, I won't be giving this much minutia everyday, but I will give you a peek into the life of a writer getting her first draft down.

So, it's now 12:30 and I have hit my stride. I know where the next scene is going and am starting to get a feel for the characters. I am not the kind of writer who knows her characters before she writes about them. Just a general feel, but as I write, their personalities begin to blossom. My neighbour dropped by to borrow something after breakfast. She's dressed and has been to the market, while I am shuffling around in a housecoat.

I need to get out of my pajamas for more than one reason. I have a meeting at 2 p.m.. I may not get back to this manuscript later today, so I am recording my new word count. 3099.

National Novel Writing Month

November might be Movember to some of you with facial hair, but to me, this year, it's National Novel Writing Month.
Take a look at NaNoWrMo.

Yup, we have our own crest. All I can say is that thank God coffee is on it!
Anyway, I've signed up and tomorrow, I start my novel. I have a very scattered, badly written synopsis done, and some character arcs, my faithful, Goal, Motivation and Conflict charts, plus Chris Vogler's The Writer's Journey,

and I will soldier forward first thing in the morning. My goal is 50,000 words. I'm going to chronicle my progress.

Good or bad.

So bookmark me and check back daily to see how (or if) I am writing today. And comment with encouragement or mockery. Your choice.

Bake, Love, Write and win prizes this Hallowe'en!

For those of you who like dealing with spooky, why not join us and do something cooky? (That's cook-y, not kook-y!) And at the same time, peek into our absolutely delicious treat we have for you!

Bake Love Write

From October 6th through the 23rd, over 30 authors are hosting a Halloween Scavenger Hunt. Participants visit each site to find a Halloween graphic.  Right here at my blog, I have hidden a spook-tack-u-lar Hallowe'en graphic, so start scrolling for it now. And the great part is that the more sites you visit, the more chances to win! There are over 60 prizes, and multiple winners each day! 

Go here for the list of all the participating authors!

So, on October 6th, visit Sloan McBride's blog, where Sloan will give you get all the fun details, including links to the authors' pages, and a link to a sheet to type all the answers. It should be wicked fun! See you there!

A Little Riffling Fun

Riffle and I are having a bit of fun. And in order to share this fun, I have lowered the price of 

All For A Good Cause to 99 cents. 

Now Riffle is a bit like Goodreads and a bookstore with great prices. I like it better than Goodreads because it's easier to follow and write a review, check out recommended books and read honest reviews. And hopefully, you'll see All For A Good Cause there Oct 1st.

For those of you with Kobos and Nooks, I have the same price here:

http://store.kobobooks.com/en-CA/ebook/all-for-a-good-cause.

Don't have a Kobo account? Don't worry, use 

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/238949

Use coupon code: PK62D when you go to the checkout so you can get the same book for only 99 cents. This code expires Oct 5th, so don't delay.

Integrating Research into Fiction

As a writer of historical fiction, or, hey, a writer of any sort, I am especially interested in research. Here is an interesting article by Nikolas Baron from Grammarly, about research. He offers some tips on making your research come alive for your fiction story.
Barbara

Integrating Research into Fiction

Charlie never inherited a chocolate factory. Mr. Darcy never fell for the charms of Elizabeth Bennett. Darth Vader is not really Luke’s father. Fiction is, by definition, an untrue story. The characters are imaginary. The plot is contrived. Nothing about it is real… or is it? Some fiction writers like to introduce a little reality into their novels. They include real people, places, events, and facts. However, this practice is risky. Most fiction readers are not history buffs and do not have scientific minds. An in-depth explanation of the properties of water or the storming of the Bastille may turn the average reader off- even if you feel the research is essential to the plot. How can you tell the truth without angering fantasy-hungry readers? 

In my work at Grammarly, I have read articles that successfully incorporate real-world information and the boring kind that I abandoned in the first few paragraphs. I made it my mission to see how to do this right. Here are three pieces of advice based on my discoveries:

(1) Don’t wear smarty-pants that do not fit! John Grisham writes incredible courtroom dramas because he worked in the law profession. He knows his stuff! Readers crave his insider’s view to legal processes that are normally out of range for them. So ask yourself, if you could be a fly on the wall at your job or in a university class, what would you be interested in seeing or discovering? If you had truth serum, what questions would you ask historical figures? Share this intriguing information with your readers. If it is not your area of expertise, find a content area expert who can share something that readers want to know!

(2) "Dumb it down" a little. Do you read medical journals for fun? Even if you do, most of your readers do not. If Robin Cook’s medical thrillers include minute details of diseases written in medical jargon, they would probably not be bestsellers. Assume that your reader is not currently an expert in any field. Provide the information that you want to share in a simple way. One popular strategy is to weave it into the conversations that your characters have.

(3) Real means real! If you are going to talk about Watergate, make sure you get the facts straight. Double-check your facts using well-established sources. If you mistakenly assert that President Hoover was impeached, you lose credibility with the readers who know the truth. With the readers who are not history savvy, you teach them lies that might later cause them to lose thousands on a game show. Do not take this chance! Additionally, make sure your grammar and spelling are impeccable. That impeached president’s name may sound like “Nickson” but that is not how you spell it. If you run your work through an on line spellchecker, you will see a red squiggly line under that particular proper noun. 

Do the readers need to know? Upon further consideration, have you noticed that the fly on the wall is asleep during your university lecture on mega-hog farming? Leave the boring and non-essential facts out of your fiction. If the information you want to share really is spell-binding and essential to your plot, use the three tips above to make sure it is worthy of your storytelling. 

If you do the job well, your readers will not be able to tell fact from fiction.

By NikolasBaron

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Bio:

Nikolas discovered his love for the written word in Elementary School, where he started spending his afternoons sprawled across the living room floor devouring one Marc Brown children’s novel after the other and writing short stories about daring pirate adventures. After acquiring some experience in various marketing, business development, and hiring roles at internet startups in a few different countries, he decided to re-unite his professional life with his childhood passions by joining Grammarly's marketing team in San Francisco. He has the pleasure of being tasked with talking to writers, bloggers, teachers, and others about how they use Grammarly online proofreading application to improve their writing. His free time is spent biking, traveling, and reading.