It’s very easy to accidentally get off track and not even realize it’s happened. Like, when I first started developing DIY MFA, I was all mixed up about the brand and the tone of the project. It took a savvy group of critique partners to help me focus and find my true DIY MFA voice. These critique partners, aside from giving great advice, were also caring enough to give me “tough love” when I needed it. After all, critiques that are only glowing and positive can only take you so far. A true friend is not afraid to tell you when your project is not working. They just know enough to say it in a kind and constructive way.

What about you? Where has your writing journey taken you this year and what have you learned from it?

I encourage you to do a short free-write to think on this subject. Use the questions below to prompt your writing.

Where Have You Been?

• What obstacles have you faced over the past year? How did you deal with them? Who was there for you to help you on your way?

• What about your victories? What were they (be specific)? Did you celebrate them (even the small ones) in some meaningful way? Who was there to help you be your best self?

• Did you face any disappointments in the past year? Any people you thought were in your corner but they let you down? Can you think of ways to salvage these relationships? And more importantly, what will you do to nurture yourself and help yourself heal?

• Finally, what is the most important thing you learned from your writing experiences this past year? How will you use this knowledge to fuel your writing next year?

Where are You Going?

Now that you’ve taken stock of where your writing journey has taken you, it’s a good idea to make a plan of where you want to go next. Every few months, I do an exercise called a Goal Search where I look at my long-term goals and try to develop a series of steps to get me there. This is an exercise I learned from Julia Cameron’s Supplies, a must-read for any artist facing creative difficulties.

The first thing you need to do in a Goal Search is figure out your destination (I call it my “Holy Grail.”) Julia Cameron calls this same concept her True North. Whatever name you give it, the idea is the same. Goals can be vague like “I want to write a book” or “I want to be a writer” so you need to narrow it down to a specific goal. A True North. A Holy Grail. A Destination.

Going back to that journey metaphor, overall goals are like saying “I want to take a road trip out west.” But what is “west” exactly? It could be Santa Fe, San Francisco or Seattle. You need to specify exactly where you want to go. The difference between overall goals and a specific destination is exactly that: the first is a vague sense of direction while the latter is a specific thing you want to achieve. Once you know your destination, you can plot out a series of milestones and a specific route that will get you there.

Goal Search

1. Where are you going (in general terms)?
2. What’s your specific destination?
3. Now map out your route: Take out a piece of paper. On the far right, write your destination. On the far left, write down where you are right now. Starting from your destination, work backwards, step-by-step, mapping out each landmark you’ll have to hit to get you to that destination.
4. Baby steps: Take the landmark immediately following your starting point and focus just on those two steps. Break those steps down into baby steps.

Example:

General goal: “I want to be a writer.”
Destination: “I want to publish my book.”
Mapping the route: (Major landmarks working backwards)

• Launch book 1
• Get contract for book 1
• Sign with agent
• Send queries and pitch at conferences
• Edit manuscript, implementing suggestions from Betas
• Get comments from Beta Readers
• Etc. (continue working backwards until you get to the starting point)
• Starting Point (Finished rough draft of manuscript)

Baby steps: For the purpose of this example, let’s suppose the writer has a finished first draft but has not started editing. The next big milestone is to send it out to Beta Readers, but there are plenty of baby steps in between. These steps might include:

• A first read-through
• Editing for character consistency
• Editing for plot and structure
• Polishing and fixing nitty-gritty details

Note: Each of the above steps can be broken down further: chapter-by-chapter or scene-by-scene.

I often find looking at all the steps between me and my destination to be overwhelming. Instead, I like to focus on the baby steps between me and that first landmark. It makes the process seem much more manageable.

If you like, please share in the comments a little about where you’ve been with your writing this past year as well as some of the steps you’re planning on taking toward your Destination.

The post Why You Should Review Your Writing Year appeared first on DIY MFA.

Sound intimidating? Over 300,000 people have participated in the past several years and the average percentage of winners lingers in the mid-teens. Now that you know the details, let’s get back to that question for a moment: Should I do NaNoWriMo? Well let’s break this down:

The Pros of NaNoWriMo

1) The community

I have been participating in NaNoWriMo since 2008. One of the main things that keeps me coming back is the huge community that surrounds this challenge. The NaNoWriMo website has forums where you can connect with other writers participating in NaNoWriMo, as well as get inspiration and encouragement during the month itself. You can find and join your local region that will connect you with your municipal liaisons (ML) who is in charge of meet-up events in your local area. The website itself also has a ton of other goodies, including creating your own profile and becoming friends with other writers so you can all keep an eye on each other’s word counts. There are also daily emails from published authors that are encouraging and inspirational (and often funny). And really, I always personally find it rather mind-blowing to know I’m writing alongside ~300,000 other people.

2) The rules

Every writer knows that sometimes it’s hard to actually make time to sit down and write. What’s great about NaNoWriMo is that it sets November aside for writing. This keeps you from being what they call the ‘one day’ writer, (“Oh, I’ll get around to writing, one day.”) and basically tells you to get your butt in the chair and write some words.

Not only that, but it gives you some rules so you have structure around how you’re writing. (Oddly enough when I went to look for the rules they weren’t super easy to find on the website I had to google. So here’s a link.)

Basically, write 50k words into a novel form between Nov 1-30 all by yourself. (Notes and character descriptions count). It’s also perfectly fine to skirt the rules a bit too. Most years I start writing before November, but I only validate the 50k (or so) words that I write during the event. It can often times be easier to write when you give yourself some structure and NaNoWriMo takes care of that for you.

3) The challenge

Part of doing a writing challenge like NaNoWriMo is just that: the challenge of it. You may succeed, you may fail, but I bet you learn something about your writing during this time. You could learn that with a little structure you can really crank out the words. You might also learn that writing that much every day is way too draining. Both outcomes are great, because it’s better than looking at this challenge and deciding you can’t do it before you even try. Either way, you will have more words by the end of the month than you had at the beginning AND you will have learned something about who you are as a writer.

The Cons of NaNoWriMo

1) The rules

Yes, that’s right. I put the rules on the pros list and the con list. Some writers will lose the excitement of a new project if they have to wait until November to start. Some writers have current projects they’re working on that they don’t want to, or can’t stop working on. And let’s not forget the little niggling fact that 50k words does not a novel make. So in some cases the rules actually will hold you back. This is generally only an issue if you already have a developed writing habit, though.

2) NaNoWriMo is not for everyone

A lot of people get super excited about NaNoWriMo. You may have friends who are encouraging you to participate. You may want to try it because you’ve never written that many words on one story before. What happens if you give it a try and you fail? Does that mean you’re not a writer? No.

There are as many types of writers out there as there are stars in the sky, and some people do not mesh well with the ‘write every day’ writing style. That doesn’t mean you’re not a writer, it means you’re not that type of writer.

So …should I do NaNoWriMo?

I’m going to be completely straight with you. If you’ve never done NaNoWriMo before, then do it. Throw yourself at it and try your absolute best to win. Then, when the month is over, sit back and evaluate how it went for you.

If you have done NaNoWriMo before, then your question should be closer to: ‘Did this style of writing work for me?’ and that is not a question I can answer for you. If you can’t remember it being terrible, then give it another go. If it feels more like an interrupt to what you’re already doing, then keep up with your current writing habit. Or shift the rules so it works for the writing habit you have, which is basically what I do every year.

On the path to becoming a better writer, you’re going to find just as many (if not more) ways of writing that don’t work for you as do. The way you reach mastery in anything is to continually challenge yourself and then evaluate how it worked and how it didn’t. Then you keep the things that worked and discard the things that didn’t. Over time, this is how you will develop your writing process. So get started with NaNoWriMo.

I’d love to hear about your experiences, good or bad, with NaNoWriMo and what you’ve learned about yourself as a writer as a result.

Laura Highcove has a degree in computer science, which is obviously why she is a fantasy writer. She has been influenced by anime, table-top gaming, and Norse mythology, in no particular order. When she’s not writing she enjoys spending time with horses, playing video games, and looking at pretty men (both real and imaginary). Her psychic abilities have not yet developed, but she remains hopeful. Visit her website or follow her on Facebook to learn more.

The post #5onFri: Pros and Cons of NaNoWriMo appeared first on DIY MFA.

One of the fundamental concepts behind DIY MFA is that the program starts with you. All the creativity, effort and success comes from and goes back to you. Sure, I can show you some options or suggest some places to start, but ultimately, you are the driving force behind your own DIY MFA experience. All I’m doing is helping you get started, setting you on the road to your destination. You have to drive the car.

And that can be kind of scary.

After all, it’s easy to follow instructions and work within an established framework, but do-it-yourself doesn’t work that way. It can be terrifying to forge your own path, and sometimes structure can be comforting, even for us free-spirited creative types. So what do we do when there is no structure? We develop a writing habit. And how exactly do we develop and nurture this habit? Here are some easy tips:

1) Take baby steps.

Try not to push yourself too hard at first because if you do, you’ll be more likely to face burnout later on. The goal is for your writing habit to be sustainable in the long run, so don’t go for a huge overhaul. Instead try to make a handful of small, significant changes that will make a big impact on your writing down the road.

2) Give yourself permission to make mistakes.

Building a habit is like being a constant newbie at something. After all, as soon as you get comfortable, you take another baby step toward your goal. This means resting on your laurels is never an option, which is why it’s so important to allow yourself the freedom to make mistakes. Remember that mistakes are inevitable so you might as well learn how to bounce back.

3) It’s OK to have fun.

Many of us have had the idea crammed into our heads that writing is “hard work.” And, that can be the case sometimes, but more often than not, writing is just plain fun. This is why when we start having fun with writing it’s hard to believe we’re actually working. But we are; we’re just having fun at the same time. It’s OK for writing to be fun and just because it feels more like play than work doesn’t make it any less worthy than other vocations. Like fixing plumbing, or doing brain surgery or whatever else.

4) Real writers write when it’s hard.

Writing when it’s easy is, well… easy, but when it stops being fun, you still need to write. The thing that separates true writers from the wannabes is what happens when the writing becomes tough. Wannabes quit when it stops being fun, true writers work through the pain. And when they come out on the other side of the hard times, these true writers are stronger for it.

5) When you fall off the horse, dust yourself off and try again.

Don’t waste precious energy beating yourself up for missing a few days of writing. Just tell yourself “it’s a new day” and start fresh. In the words of the ever-wise Yoda:

All his life has he looked away, to the future, to the horizon. Never his mind on where he was. Hm? What he was doing. (from The Empire Strikes Back)

The point is, if you’re always focusing on yesterday or tomorrow, you can’t focus on what you’re doing right now. Rather than wasting energy thinking about writing that could have been or is still to come, just think about the writing you need to do right now. Write. Now.

6) Find out what’s causing writer’s block.

If you have a string of bad writing days, take a few moments to reevaluate and figure out why that might be happening. Maybe you’ve been over-stressed or over-tired. Maybe you’ve got a lot on your plate right now. Think about how you can adjust your writing habit to account for the hurdles you’re facing. Once you’ve come up with a plan, let go of the past and move forward toward your goals.

7) Take the day off, now and then.

And when you do, don’t spend the whole time feeling guilty because you’re not writing. If you need a day off, make a conscious decision not to write, then go about your life.

In the end, it’s all about being a more mindful writer. Don’t let the past and future moments dictate whether you’re able to write in the present. Learn from past experiences or mistakes but don’t let them haunt you.

When you’re writing, write. When you’re not writing, live your life.

The post How to Build Your Own Writing Habit appeared first on DIY MFA.

I have nothing to share about writing that is earth-shattering. What you’ll read here you probably already know. But as it works with all important aspects in our lives, it doesn’t hurt to hear certain bits of wisdom more than once. Here goes:

Often writers are told to be well-versed in their genre. This is excellent advice, but reading shouldn’t end there. Picking up books in genres other than your own brings freshness to your writing and strengthens what you ultimately create. This nourishes you as a reader, too.

None of us ever arrives. Our writing will improve if we continue to read craft blogs and books and take advantage of classes, critique groups, or conferences. Here are a few books I’ve read recently, am working on now, or plan to pick up this next year:

• The Art and Craft of Writing Historical Fiction by James Alexander Thom
• Second Sight: An Editor’s Talks on Writing, Revising, and Publishing Books for Children and Young Adults by Cheryl Klein
• Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Mass
• Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them by Francine Prose

Take time away from writing

Make sure you are doing things outside of writing. Now that I write full-time, it’s very easy to stay detached from the rest of the world. Make an effort to engage your surroundings, whether that means tuning in to nature as you walk the dog or making a point to get involved in a new activity. I signed up with a tutoring program this year, and every week I participate, I’m again astounded at the way children work, the change that simply believing in a child can bring, and the fresh insight I get into humanity at large.

Play with words

I find first drafts terrifying. One way I ease in is to tell myself I’m simply experimenting with language. Give yourself permission to approach writing playfully, whether you’re working on a “real” piece or simply collecting words that pique your interest. Enjoy the rhythm of words, poke at meaning, stretch old metaphors into something new. Your writing will benefit from it.

Avoid the comparison game

This is probably one of the hardest bits of advice to follow but one of the most beneficial to your writerly well being. There are so many ways to get sucked into comparing, from measuring the number of blog followers you have against a friend’s to tracking the amount of time it took others to secure agents. It’s easy to think once you’ve “arrived” with a book deal, these worries fall away, but they don’t: there will be friends with bigger deals, with more push from their publishers, or better reviews and general buzz. Envy finds us at every level.

Choose to see your writing journey as yours alone. It’s not something anyone can do for you; there’s no way your experience will mirror another’s. Just like we all have something unique to contribute to the literary world, we all will go through different struggles and triumphs.

The only thing you will get out of the comparison game is disappointment.

And to negate everything I’ve said above…give yourself permission

In a world where instant information is available at all times and opinions are everywhere, you’re bound to come across conflicting advice on how to draft, edit, revise, submit — do anything in relation to writing. For some of us, this becomes paralyzing. Even if your style works for you, you might worry that you’re not doing things right.

Give yourself permission to approach writing in a way that works for you, whether that means writing daily or just on the weekends, editing as you go or waiting until your first draft is done. Though some advice seems to dictate otherwise, there’s no right way to write. Give yourself permission to alter the way you write if what you’re doing now isn’t working. Your patterns, needs, and abilities could change from manuscript to manuscript. Or they might not. And that’s okay.

Want to write to the market? Go for it. Want to try a story that can’t be categorized? Give it a try. You have permission to do as you wish with your writing. While there is no promise of success with this approach, there’s tremendous liberation in letting go of the “rules” we’ve absorbed consciously and subconsciously.

You’ve got a new year ahead of you. How will this affect your writing?

Caroline Starr Rose spent her childhood in the deserts of Saudi Arabia and New Mexico, camping at the Red Sea in one and eating red chile in the other. As a girl she danced ballet, raced through books, composed poetry on an ancient typewriter, and put on magic shows in a homemade cape. She’s taught both social studies and English in New Mexico, Florida, Virginia, and Louisiana. In her classroom she worked to instill in her students a passion for books, the freedom to experiment with words, and a curiosity about the past. 

The post Make the Most of Your Writing: Guest Post by Caroline Starr Rose appeared first on DIY MFA.

These creative monsters can take many forms.  That boss who conveniently remembers to give you an assignment just as you’re getting ready to leave so you can go home and finish your book… that’s a creative monster.  Another is the friend who keeps asking when you plan on getting published, even though you’ve been querying diligently and feel like you’re making good progress.  Or the spouse who calls you with a crisis just as you’re making an important discovery in your novel’s plot.  The one trait these figures all have in common is their uncanny knack for attacking right when you’re about to make some sort of creative breakthrough.

Don’t get me wrong.  Sometimes the boss really does have an important assignment to give you, your friend is probably just curious about how the writing’s going and your spouse might actually be having a crisis.  These things might actually all be real, but don’t be fooled.  Just because these are real, that doesn’t make the words or actions that accompany those reasons any less damaging to your creative progress.

So, how do we deal with these creative monsters?

Here are two tricks and one treat I’ve picked up over time for dealing with my creative monsters.

1) Recognize that it’s not you, it’s them.

99% of the time, the reason creative monsters attack is because they’re feeling threatened.  Sort of like a wild animal, actually.  If you mind your own business, they’ll usually stay away but if you accidentally invade their space, they’ll gnash their teeth and start roaring.  Creative monsters make a lot of noise and a big spectacle of it all, but usually they only lash out because your creative progress has threatened them in some way.

Wait, what?  They’re feeling threatened?  But they’re the ones attacking me.  This makes no sense.

I know it doesn’t.  It seems like you’re the one being vulnerable by spilling your words on the page, but the truth is that when you start getting creative, you threaten the fragile world-view of your creative monsters.

For these people, the world makes sense as long as everyone fits their neat little roles.  Suppose you’ve always been a lawyer or a teacher or a full-time mom or whatever, but then you decide to add writing to the mix.  Suddenly you’re threatening the world-view of the creative monsters around you.  Because you’re making changes in your life, you’re forcing them to change as well.  They have to accept this new way of perceiving you and in some cases, they’ll even have to change their routines if they want to spend time with you now that writing is worked into your schedule.

Not to mention that people who are closest to you are often the biggest creative monsters of all because your creative progress causes them to change the most.  Some friend you rarely talk to except through holiday cards will likely not be threatened by your creative growth, but someone who sees you everyday and suddenly has to adjust their needs and requirements so you can have writing time… they’re much more likely to feel threatened.  Ultimately, you can’t control how others see you, but you can control how you let their words and actions affect you.  By recognizing that it’s not you–it’s them, you can start to learn how to evade their attacks.

2) Avoid giving them ammunition.

If someone falls into that creative monster category, don’t complain to them about how hard writing is.  Come to think of it, don’t tell them anything about your writing.  Trust me on this one.  Even if something really exciting happens (like you get a positive response from an agent or you finish a first draft), don’t share that information with creative monsters.  You can share it all you like with trusted writer-friends.  After all, they’ll not only understand how huge these milestones really are, they also won’t pester you about them after the fact.  But creative monsters will latch onto this information and keep bugging you about it.  “Is the book done yet?”  “Have you signed with that agent yet?”  “When will you start actually making money from this writing thing?”

Don’t get me wrong, it’s often quite tempting to share these milestones with creative monsters as a way of validating your progress.  But it’s a trap.  The truth is, they won’t understand what these milestones really mean and the frustration you’ll deal with afterwards is not worth the one minute of satisfaction in sharing the news with them now.  Instead, find a couple of like-minded writer friends who will offer support and be excited for you.  Tell them.  But when it comes to the creative monsters, zip the lip.

3) Treat yourself to something nice to celebrate your victories.

Since you often can’t rely on the creative monsters close to you to treat your writer-self nicely, you’ll have to do it yourself.  Find ways to celebrate when you make really good progress or hit a major milestone.  I give myself stickers whenever I make a breakthrough in a writing project.  My drafts and journals are covered in gold stars and smiley-faces.  When I hit a milestone, I treat myself to something small but meaningful to my writing: a notebook, a couple of colorful pens, or maybe a book on writing craft.  Learn to celebrate yourself and you won’t have to depend on other people celebrating you.

This Halloween, think about how you can trick (or treat) your way out of your creative monsters’ radars.  Any techniques you’ve found particularly effective?

The post Creative Monsters appeared first on DIY MFA.