Author Notes 4: NaNo, etc

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One response to “Author Notes 4: NaNo, etc”

1. Rachel

   2009-10-29

   Official rules of Nanowrimo are:

   * Write a 50,000-word (or longer!) novel, between November 1 and November 30.
   * Start from scratch. None of your own previously written prose can be included in your NaNoWriMo draft (though outlines, character sketches, and research are all fine, as are citations from other people's works).
   * Write a novel. We define a novel as a lengthy work of fiction. If you consider the book you're writing a novel, we consider it a novel too!
   * Be the sole author of your novel. Apart from those citations mentioned two bullet-points up.
   * Write more than one word repeated 50,000 times.
   * Upload your novel for word-count validation to our site between November 25 and November 30.

   This doesn't exclude sequels. You can write sequels within the rules. Most people in the rebel section break 2 and 3. Flushing the file usually isn't so bad in the end. I've done that and haven't failed Nanowrimo once. 5 time winner 5 time runner. Most of the time the scenes I have get better when I flush the file anyhow.

   Side note:
   Beta readers are good for 4 things:
   1. Ego Boost.
   The Ego booster isn't to tell you how wonderful you are and not so much the story, but the person who can see the core potential of the story and bug you endlessly for more of it and if you don't type it up, they will be disappointed, because they really want more and they can so see it published, so stop lolling around. That type. Not the Mom type where everything is perfect. Also the motivator type. If they are good they will also pick up gross errors in your story and be good for the average reader pick up…

   2. Story flow/story.
   Two types, the average reader and then the writer.

   The average reader will be able to pick up trends in your writing, themes, and also tell you what your readers will pick up versus the writer. They are the "on the street, I have no clue who you are" person to go to. The person that wanders into a book shop and discovers you. They won't have a lit degree or be a writer, but they can get into your story. You need this type because they don't understand how a story works, and they won't pick up on things like some of your more subtle foreshadowing that the writer might be able to catch wind of. You need these people for that reason.

   A good writer at this stage would be able to tell you precise story mechanics. They can tell you all the types of foreshadowing, how to use them, how to apply them, examples of this, and in writer jargon (not English Professor Jargon.) They won't preach how they write stories, but they will able to help you with prevention for the future, tell which story mechanics work and don't work and most importantly, if you prompt them exactly why it doesn't work. They also should be able to show how to spot it in the future as well, rather than just for your story. If you find someone like this, it's very, very useful, because some writers don't understand to that level until much later.

   I'd also say in both categories you need fresh new readers to read your stuff because sometimes people get used to your errors and start to fail to pick them out…

   3. Expert Advice.
   This is after research, incorporation, mining them out for information when writing a story. This stage is more for getting the jargon right in a certain field or back tracking if a certain part is too insensitive. For example, I wrote an architect into a story, I'd mined out architects for information about personality and so on, but I back checked the book for expert advice by giving the completed book to an architect again. Sometimes I just give a section of the book to check, like for my gay characters, if it's not bad, I ask someone whose gay if that's too insulting just for that section. That sort of thing.

   4. Grammar check/wording.
   I do my own grammar checks between Beta type one and Beta type 2 for readability since it's hard for people to get story flow when the grammar is getting in the way. Incidentally Beta Reader Type 1, tends not to care much about spelling or grammar. But these Beta usually don't really care about your story overall. I tend to choose self-proclaimed grammar nazis, English majors, Lit majors, English professors, editors, and writers who specialize in this area. I find it amazingly difficult to find someone who will do this for me. But that might just be me. This is tedious and takes the longest time.

   I do it in that order most of the time. Big picture to smaller picture Betas. I don't think there is anything wrong with choosing your Betas for different reasons, but I think one should be clear with the Beta what you're looking for in feedback from them.

   I'd have called, but that silence that doesn't tell you if you are recording or not scares me–I don't know when to start. (Be nice if the voice mail had an introductory message instead of silence… which is apparently an inherent flaw of the system) And also my audio equipment is through Murphy's Law number 20-something. And I'm out of cash to fix it. (There is the crappy headphone mike, but I've been avoiding it…)

   Oh and I noticed the Gadget Freak wasn't bought…