Fan letter to Ani Difranco

In Austin Kleon's book Steal Like an Artist, he suggests writing a public fan letter to one of your artistic heroes. I actually have several and I like the idea of creating blog posts for each one eventually. I'm starting with one of my earliest.

I discovered Ani Difranco when I was in high school. Her self-titled debut album was acoustic singer-songwriter perfection. Her music challenges sexism and war and the status quo as well as tackling love and heartbreak. I'm grateful to have found such a powerful role model in those years when many girls are making do with female pop stars who conform to some pretty gross social standards.

Over the years, she has experimented with different musical styles but her lyrics continue to knock me out. As a writer myself, I am so impressed by her ability to capture a feeling in a few words, to convey the most complicated emotion in a three minute song.

This month, I've been struggling with my current WIP as I participate in NaNoWriMo. I have five characters whose narrated chapters overlap as the story moves forward. Last week, I was feeling a bit stuck when I thought of a lyric from one of my favorite Ani songs, Overlap:

i search your profile for a translation
i study the conversation like a map
'cause i know there is strength in the differences between us
and i know there is comfort where we overlap

I felt these familiar lyrics in a new way, more like confirmation than inspiration. I felt like: oh yeah, that's what I'm doing. As if part of me had known it all along.

As I kept listening to the song, I heard something else that resonated:

i build each one of my songs out of glass
so you can see me inside them, i suppose
or you could just leave the image of me in the background, i guess
and watch your own reflection superimposed.

Switch out the word "song" for "book" and you've got me. Although I write fiction, people who know me well will find pieces of me throughout my stories. And, hopefully, readers discover something meaningful about themselves, too.

Winning!

Finding Charlie has been selected for publication by KindleScout and I'm over the moon. The journey toward publication can get grueling at times and this feels like the culmination of a lot of hard work - and not just the last 30 days with the campaign.

I am so grateful to everyone for their support - their votes and facebook shares and retweets and thread bumps and good vibes!  I am lucky to have amazing people in my real life and a writing community that means so much to me. Through this process, I really felt like ya'all had my back. Thank you so much.

In the coming days, I'll be writing an article about what I learned from the KindleScout process for my fellow writer friends eager to give it a try.

For the fans: Thanks for the votes! I'll let everyone know when the book is out and for those of you who get advanced, free copies, I hope you'll leave a review on Amazon. It's the best way to spread the word.

At some point, I'll get back to my NaNoWriMo project. I'm about a third of the way through and feeling a new burst of energy from this win. Finding Charlie was a Nano project from 2013, so it's proof that it works.

NaNoWriMo 2015!

This is the third year I'm participating, and like the other two, I'll be a "nanorebel". I'm less focused on meeting the 50,000 word goal and more on setting aside writing time every day. I've started with a project that already has 18,000 words and I added 1,000 words today. If I keep up this pace, I should finish with a solid first draft.

My last novel, Finding Charlie, was my nano project in 2013, so I know it works.

Looking back over previous blogs, I found these helpful tips for time management:

• Skipping the news: I'm kind of obsessive about this, so it is going to free up a lot of my time, but it's also going to be really hard. I'm alerting all those close to me that I'm going to need an email or phone call if some huge news event happens. I already don't have cable so I got all my news off the internet.
• Pajamas all day: Okay, not every day, but some days. I'm kicking off day one in my yoga pants... that I slept in.
• Easy dinners: I don't pretend to be a fancy cook, but this month I'm going even more bare bones. No cutting meat or chopping veggies. If the recipe requires more than 20 minutes of prep, I'll save it for December. 
• No more reading: I finished a book yesterday that I may blog about, but that's it. 

That's a good list to start. I just reactivated my account at nanowrimo.org and may have to limit the time I spend there. They have forums and twitter links and pep talks and notices for local events. It's like Facebook for writing nerds. You can connect with me there- I'm Katie78.

Nano - The End

If there had been one more day in the month (like I thought there were) I would have finished with 9,501 words. While that means I didn't meet my goal, it's also nothing to sneeze at. When I add the 10,000 words I started with, that's almost a third of a complete novel. I call that success.

Realistically, I won't be adding to the word count this month because I'll be busy with the holidays. Like the last two years, I'll be scouring the internet for American-made gift ideas and I'll be sharing what I find.

I'll get back to a writing routine in January.

Nano - Week Three

So you may notice I never did a blog for week two. My parents came for a visit and I took the week off from writing. And I never did that research. And I broke one of my Nano rules and started reading a novel: Daughter's Keeper by Ayelet Waldman. It's good.

But it's okay. Because, although I didn't add to the word count, I did spend that time thinking about my story and when I sat down to write yesterday, I knocked out 930 words. Now, that does not meet my self-imposed daily quota, but they were good words. And when I read over what I'd written last week, I could see what I had. The distance was good for me.

So I have written 7,931 words in the first twenty days. In the next eleven days, I plan to set aside writing time every day, but I'm still not putting pressure on myself to meet a certain word count. I'm satisfied with the progress I'm making.

Nano - Week One

So I got it in my head that 1,000 words a day was a good target. Seven days later, I have 7,000 words which feels great, but the story is coming out very dialogue driven - like a skeleton that will need to be filled in later with the flesh and guts and meat of the story.

Also this week, I had to read through the proofs for A Long Thaw (which my publisher is releasing in January) and it confirmed for me that the heart of a good story is in the narrative.

So in the interest of finding a balance, I'm releasing myself from the pressure of daily word count requirements. I'm going to spend the next week doing research and letting it all ruminate so I can figure out who my characters are at a more reasonable speed. Anyone can write 50,000 word in thirty days. Making them words someone will want to read is trickier.

I'm not quitting Nano. For me the best thing about it is that I've made time to write every day, and I will continue to do that. I'm going to spend the next week writing more the way I typically do and then I'll compare at the end.

How's your Nano experience going?

NaNoWriMo 2013!

For those of you who don't know what NaNoWriMo is, check out this post from the first year I participated. Let's just say, it's going to be a busy month of writing.

Like the last time I did this, I'm not following the rules. I'm starting with a novel I've already begun and I'm not worried about getting exactly 50,000 words in 30 days. For me, the object is to get writing. Last time, I got a little over 11,000 words. If I can double that this time, I'll be psyched.

To that end, I'm changing a few of my habits this month.

• Skipping the news: I'm kind of obsessive about this, so it is going to free up a lot of my time, but it's also going to be really hard. I'm alerting all those close to me that I'm going to need an email or phone call if some huge news event happens. I already don't have cable so I got all my news off the internet.
• Pajamas all day: Okay, not every day, but some days. I'm kicking off day one in my yoga pants... that I slept in.
• Easy dinners: I don't pretend to be a fancy cook, but this month I'm going even more bare bones. No cutting meat or chopping veggies. If the recipe requires more than 20 minutes of prep, I'll save it for December. 
• No more reading: I finished my last book and review for the blog last night. 

That's a good list to start. I just reactivated my account at nanowrimo.org and may have to limit the time I spend there. They have forums and twitter links and pep talks and notices for local events. It's like Facebook for writing nerds. You can connect with me there- I'm Katie78.

So if I write fewer blogs this month, it's because I'm busy writing my next novel.