"Adrenaline" by Morgan Barnhart

As writers, there are few times when we get to feel the adrenaline kick in. Let's face it, sitting in front of the computer screen/note pad isn't life threatening. Unless the computer decides to short circuit or your pencil breaks and the lead flies into your eye, or heaven forbid you get a paper cut, those things hurt!

My point is, when a deadline is approaching, I become my strongest. Of course it's better to play it safe and just write as many words a day as needed or get it done early so you don't have to worry about it later, but where's the fun in that?

For example, it's the end of November and my NaNo is only at about 10,000 words. That's pretty pathetic considering I only have eight days left to get to 50,000 words. I've won NaNo in many different ways, but the way that has been most effective, year after year, has been when I'm down to the last few days of the month and I need to kick out 30,000 words. A bag full of sugar to my left, coffee to my right and iTunes geared up; I'm ready to kick some novel butt.

Nothing can top that kind of rush.

While some may argue that writing under that kind of "stress" causes your writing to falter since you just write down whatever is on your mind whether it has to do with the story or not, I beg to differ. Writing under that kind of pressure releases new ideas in which you never would have thought of under a calm mind set.

This technique may not work for everyone considering everyone handles pressure in different ways. You also have to be disciplined enough to actually push yourself to that limit and get the writing done no matter the cost.

So let's get that adrenaline pumping!

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Ray Bradbury on Writing Persistently

I'm a firm believer that you can accomplish almost anything through persistence and a little humility.

Ray Bradbury claims that a short story based on a very personal event was his first great work. He calls it "writing from his interior" rather than from the exterior.

And it is hard to expose our interior for criticism and rejection. Who wants to take an honest look at those thoughts and feelings and then type out a permanent record whether masked in fiction or otherwise thinly veiled?

Writers do. Every piece carries some revelation about the writer. Non-fiction work also reveals the author's interests. Given that this is the case. I encourage everyone to take Bradbury's advice, dig a little deeper, and dredge up your truths.

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"The Easy Way to Keep Track of Your Characters," by CEBailey

How hard is it to keep track of characters in your Nanowrimo novel when your fingers are flying over the keypad and word count is the only rule?  Difficult, but not impossible.  You can use a Quick Table to help.  No matter what word software you write with, there are simple tables available.  “Insert” a table into your word document periodically when you add new characters.  Highlight an entire row or column to add more or delete them.

Answer the important questions like who, what, when, where, and why for each character as you go.  Then as you are writing you can go back and add new attributes. These simple tables help you recall where items and even characters are located.

Here’s an example of one for my Nanowrimo novel:

Who	Where	When	What	Why
Indigo	Outside Melbourne	Chapter One	Suede Jacket, age 13	Main Character
Farmer Eldrich	Eldrich Farm	Chapter One	Hunchback	Owns Indigo’s contract
The General	Town Square	End of Chapter One	Fat, horse, light green robes	Buys Indigo’s contract for his service
Piper	The Manor	Chapter Two	Sandy hair, freckles	The General’s charge
The Cook	The Manor	Chapter Two	Scar, former solider	Loyal servant

Once you have these tables in place, you'll save time re-reading and never drop a character or forget about a potential plot device.  Your writing will never suffer from inconsistencies.  More than that, with the information visible and organized, you can pound out a few hundred words confident that you haven't missed a beat.

Have I actually used this table?  No, no, this is what organized people do.  I waste hours re-reading and avoid mentioning specific characters and their possessions for pages, because I can't quite recall when or where I wrote about it.  Or, I write another lengthy word document full of lists and random descriptions rather than tables.  You know the kind, the short and dull novel about the novel...yes, I do that.

However, it is a nice table and were I the organized type of person I dream to become, I would use it.  Plus, it only took a minute or two rather than the hours that slip away when I write the novel's companion. 

Do you have any time saving tips that you use or wish you did?

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