If you don't have time to read, you don't have the time (or  the tools) to write. Simple as that. 

- Stephen King

Prepare, For NaNoWriMo is Coming…

The Write Way Café welcomes Jami Gray to remind us to pencil-up, November is National Novel Writing Month.

Did you see that blur? Were you able to make out the bits of green of Spring? Or the shimmery waves of heat of Summer?  Did you miss the burnished coppers of the impending Fall?  I sure did and not just because Arizona doesn’t understand the concept of Fall.  As a matter of fact, when I bothered to poke my head up lately, do you know what was staring back at me?

The impending month-long battle of writer versus blank page, also known as National November Writing Month.

It goes by many names—NaNo or NaNoWriMo or Wordsmith Hell—but no matter what it’s called, don’t mistake it for anything other than the opening skirmish in one of the toughest battles you’ll face.

As I write this post, I can hear the two college males tormenting each other with battle cries of “This is Sparta!” and “It’s just a flesh wound.” as they face off in their Cave of World Domination in my modest homestead. 

I find both very apropos so I shall steal their hard-earned wisdom and share it with you as you begin this intimidating journey into NaNo.

(Bear with me because I’m going to channel a few classics here…)

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to write 50,000 words in thirty days. This means a minimum of 1666 words every damn day for the entire month of pre-Christmas shopping and stuffed turkey family gatherings of November. (I could set it up like a math problem, but then I’d start to cry and walk away.)

Remember, this is a challenge, something you’re going to have to suffer work through, to achieve, otherwise how will you garner the lovely glow of accomplishment by battle’s end, instead of preparing for a padded room and a white suit with buckles? Granted, the second option may be looked upon with more favor as November 30 creeps closer on your horizon.

For writers who have mastered the secret of super-gluing their butts to the chair and their fingers to the keyboard for the other 335 days of the year, they may gaze out of the window perched above their holiest of holies, wearing a beatific smile as they wave to the churning mass of insanity boiling below. All because November is just another month in their collection of months as they birth their brilliance, year by year.

For the rest, you’re just gluttons for punishment. Not that I have a leg, or foot, or toes, to stand on, since I’ve done my time in the NaNo arenas. Granted, I haven’t always emerged victorious.

Let’s review my erratic history with the gods of NaNo shall we?

Year one my grand total was 18,480, which you won’t see on my nanowritmo.org profile because well, I messed up my author profile and it got deleted. (It was an accident, I swear!)

Year two I hit the 50K goal with 50,870 and most of those words are still part SHADOW’S MOON, but trust me, the original composition was very different than the final product.

Year three was a doozy as I was in serious recovery from a horrendous October when NaNo took the field, so I had to beg off.

Year four I rejoined the ranks of Word Warriors and got 38,944 towards eminent victory by dragging SHADOW’S CURSE along for the battle.

Year five I came back with a vengeance and kicked butt with 56,921 while MARKED BY OBSESSION fearlessly fought off the pesky imps of procrastination.

Year six I retook the field with grim determination and dominated at 60,510 while SHADOW’S DREAM hunkered down and sharpened my weapons.

I decided to retire from the field the following year as my word carnage count was built throughout the year to ensure the dreaded Business Plan did not come back with demands of forfeiture and my Muse decided she needed a vacation. Which seems to be the same cycle occurring this year.

So while, I’ll cheer you all on from the sidelines, I encourage those who are looking for that swift kick in the keister to carve the habit of a daily word count bone deep to take up the pen and craft your own battle cry. May I share a few enduring words of wisdom for consideration, so on November 30th, your celebratory dinner doesn’t turn into the Red Wedding scene from Game of Thrones.

Do not mount your trusty steed without making sure you have your armor, weapon and sacrificial page…planning is the key to winning the war.  Make sure you know which characters will be accompanying you on this journey and why they’re here in the first place.

Once engaged in the battle, do not look back! Not that you’ll turn into a pillar of salt but if you dare to glance behind you, I promise the big, sneaky guy on the black horse will wallop you upside your helmeted head and leave a dent.  Remember, the purpose of this particular battle is bring forth the words. Write them, don’t worry about how tense they are (there will be time to relax them later) or how they lose track of their spots. Get them down and keep going.

There will be days, hours, nay minutes where you will be besieged by warty little gnomes of doubt. Ignore them. They’re just insecure and in need of OxyClear. If they manage to snare you in their tangled skeins of mischief and keep you from your pen, come at them from a different direction—use one of your other characters to set the scene or sound the warning. Switch your voice, it will confuse them because again, warty little gnomes of doubt do not deal well with change.

Write.
Write.
Then write some more.

When the battle is complete, remember, it is a small, but necessary part of the war.  If, by the end of November, you have 50,000 sparkly new minions, I salute you, but you are not yet done.  If your minions are less because you lost some to the dreaded turkey feast and Christmas shopping, fear not, you too, are not finished.

This is a battle, not the war. Take a day, maybe a week, but not more than a month, to celebrate the win of getting your pieces into play. When you come back, revisit your strategy, embellish, kill a few unnecessary characters, bring others into the spotlight…

Tweak.
Tweak.
Rewrite.
Add to your word tally.
Set it aside.
Come back.
Rewrite.
Breathe.

Now that you have won the Crown of Pages, you are ready to take on the Quest of the Writer.

I bow before you and wish you Godspeed.
May the Muse be with you!


Jami Gray is the coffee addicted, music junkie, Queen Nerd of her personal Geek Squad, Alpha Mom of the Fur Minxes, and award-winning author of the Urban Fantasy series, The Kyn Kronicles, the Paranormal Romantic Suspense series, PSY-IV Teams, and her latest Romantic Suspense series, Fate’s Vultures. She writes to soothe the voices in her head. 

If you want to hunt her down, she can be found lurking around the following cyber locations:

Website        Amazon Author Page         Facebook  

Goodreads        Twitter    

You can't think yourself out of a writing block; you have to write yourself out of a thinking block.

- John Rogers

Protect the time and space in which you write. Keep everybody away from it, even the people who are most important to you.

- Zadie Smith

Ignore the Fear and Write by Jami Gray

The Write Way Café welcomes Jami Gray,  an award-winning author with a reminder to send all voices but your characters' to go play in the other room when you sit down to write. 

We all face it, that frightening moment when our flying fingers pause mid-motion over the keyboard. Wait, was that the wrong tense? Did I say that before? Is that a realistic reaction from my character? Oh pink elephants, that’s too predictable!

Suddenly we’re frozen as the barrage of multiple lines of advice rain down upon us, making the thought of typing another word, hell, another letter, an unforgivable sin.

Writers are wonderfully supportive, so much so that we tend to share advice as freely as we’d share a cup of coffee. (Well, some of us might pause before offering our motivating elixir, but…) As receivers of that glorious advice, we drink it up until we’re running to the restroom like we’re training for the Olympic sprints. Yep, even me.

With the amount of learning a writer undergoes, sometimes their internal storyteller will be unintentionally drowned out by the older fable slingers. As we begin to hone our craft we hear all the rules regarding voice, tense, showing versus telling, character arc, story arc, and the list goes on until it has us backed into a dark, distressing corner where we question every word we write.

How do we escape?

Write.

Simple, uh? But it’s true. Write through your fear. Who cares if the tense is wrong? It can be fixed later. Worried your plot is predictable? Guess what, if you keep writing, you might get smacked upside the head by your character who has a better idea for the situation. If you’ve hit on a phrase you just can’t stop using, use it. It’s why we edit afterwards. Thing is, you can’t edit what isn’t written. So write.

Don’t let the fear of worry stifle your story. The wonderful thing about stories, they’re ours to tell.  Each of us uses a unique voice to share, and some of our voices don’t fall neatly into “typical” roles. Advice is a beautiful thing, but writing is an art, not a one-size-fits-all sort of thing. Art, at its core, is a form of individualized expression, so go forth and express your story. Delve deep, take on those difficult subjects and characters. Don’t stop because your main hero is going to do the unforgiveable, or your plot is getting twisty, don’t cheat yourself or your readers from what’s in your heart. Share it, write it down, let it roam free.

When the story’s freshly etched, then you can go back and polish that ragged corner, or trim down those rough sections, but that’s okay, because the story that lit your heart on fire LIVES, in all its courageous glory.

Here’s the hardest thing to accept, and I won’t lie to you, it’s a doozy. Your readers will either love it or hate it, but either way, they’ll feel something because of what you shared. In the end, that’s what a writer should take encouragement from—their readers’ reactions. Positive or negative, if you managed to evoke an emotional response from your readers, you’re doing it right.

So, listen to the helpful pieces of advice from those who’ve gone before you, but remember to let all those voices go play in the other room when you sit down to write. When it’s you, a screen and a keyboard, the only voices allowed to rise should be your characters.

Write on!


Jami Gray is the coffee addicted, music junkie, Queen Nerd of her personal Geek Squad, Alpha Mom of the Fur Minxes, and award winning author of the Urban Fantasy series, The Kyn Kronicles, the Paranormal Romantic Suspense series, PSY-IV Teams, and her latest Romantic Suspense series, Fate’s Vultures. She writes to soothe the voices in her head.

If you want to hunt her down, she can be found lurking around the following cyber locations:

Website       Facebook       Twitter       Goodreads       Google+       Amazon Author Page

Independence Day

Let us dare to read, think, speak and write.

- John Adams

When you write, you're telling yourself the story. When you rewrite, your main job is taking out all the things that are not the story. 

- Stephen King

There is no rule on how to write. Sometimes it comes easily and perfectly; sometimes it's like drilling rock and then blasting it out with charges.

- Ernest Hemingway

Write what disturbs you, what you fear, what you have not been willing to speak about. Be willing to be split open.

- Natalie Goldberg

How Not to Become a Fiction Writer... by Michelle Lord

The Write Way Café welcomes Michelle Lord, who shares her bumpy road to writing fiction.

I’m a writer and have been for years.  Whether it was school essays, letters to persuade a person or company to do what I needed, or nonfiction how to - that was something I could write well.  Though, after years of writing nonfiction I really wanted to write fiction.  I love good stories, action, mystery, thriller, whatever, that was the type of fiction I wanted to write.  I can tell you within the first 15 minutes who really was the bad guy or how things would end up, sometimes a red herring got me, but most of the time I was correct.  So when it came time to start writing fiction, in theory I should have been able to sit down and start writing.  Well, three years later I am still struggling to write fiction.  Why you may ask, well I’m trying to figure that out myself, and hopefully keep you from doing the same thing.

At first, I would start with a blank screen and try to be a “pantser” and just let my mind go.  Guess what, I would write a couple of sentences, get myself all confused and stop.  I would do this several times over the course of several months and realized that is never going to work.  So, next comes plotting.  I read books, took courses, asked other writers what they do and I was told to make an outline.  You need to know what happens at the end so you know where you are going.  That made sense, so I tried to plot.  I tried the Snowflake, Hero’s Journey, 3 act, 4 act, plotting wheel, whatever else I could find and I was getting nowhere fast.  I would sit and go blank.  So another year goes by and I still have nothing but starts of stories with no endings. I asked other writers what to do, as I couldn’t get past the first paragraph.  I would read it, then rewrite it, and rewrite it again and give up. They told me everything from drinking before I start (but I don’t drink), to just type and don’t worry about it, and then maybe fiction writing isn’t for me.  Talk about encouraging…

I then started getting emails about these premade plots.  They had a beginning, middle and end.  They had characters already thought out and all I have to do is change names, locations, and make a different twist or such and I could finally write fiction.  You just follow the plot and write.  I would go in and setup the plot to where I had separate pages for each chapter.  I even got those super “perfect” plots that break each chapter down into scenes to where you basically just write by numbers.  I can do that.  I used to do the paint by numbers so I should have no trouble writing by plot points.  Well, I felt too tied down by this method.  I would try to follow the story as it was outlined, but I just felt trapped.  My characters wanted to go one way, and I was trying to take them another.  Now another year has gone by and I have spent way too much money on premade plots, courses, books, etc., and I still have nothing for someone to read.

This brings us to now, the year 2016, the year I turned a speed limit – 55.  You know the speed no one can drive?  I have finally come to the decision that I either make this work or go in a different direction.  After analyzing where I was and what direction to take I realized I need to write short fiction, at least for now.  I’ve been studying the Lester Dent method of writing – pulp fiction – action, action, and more action and then the end.  Writing fiction is actually starting to click now.  If I can write several short stories, then I will have titles to publish, and finally start seeing results.

So, what is my point after all this?  Find what works for you and write.  Don’t buy every new “shiny thing” that comes along thinking you will find a shortcut.  If you need to, buy a couple sets of premade plots to get ideas flowing, but don’t buy every set that comes out, as you will never use them all and they will just get you confused.  Make time for writing, every day.  No excuses.  If you are staring at a blank screen and have no idea what to do start typing about anything.  Your day, your wishes, venting about something that is bothering you, whatever, just write.  Once you have all the mess out of your head then you can start to focus on your story.  Again, find out what works for you and do it.  If you need an outline, make one, but don’t spend so much time on it that you never write the story.  If you are pantser, maybe you just need to make a short outline of just how many chapters, where you are starting from, and then where you hope to end up.  You don’t have to end up there, but at least you have started writing.  The main thing is to quit making excuses.  Excuses of why you can’t write, don’t have time to write, or whatever else you tell yourself that keeps you from writing. Don’t be like me and waste years hoping to write fiction, remember to BIC HOK TAM, which means butt in chair, hands on keyboard, typing away madly… till next time.

Amazon author page        Blog


About Michelle:
     Writer, fiber artist, and Renaissance woman, that is how you would describe Michelle Lord. Born in Bloomington, Indiana, but has lived in Texas since 1976. She considers herself a Texan, even though her husband says you have to be born in Texas to be a Texan...oh well...
      Michelle is known for her art dolls, purses, and other fiber art projects. Her eclectic style comes through in her writing. She is currently working on a series of books on making an art doll from start to finish with Doll Artistry and Tips, Tricks, and Tools for Doll Making ready. She also has two different embroidery motif books, a other assorted nonfiction and in the near future fiction books in her portfolio.

The bigger the issue, the smaller you write. Remember that. You don't write about the horrors of war. No. You write about a kid's burnt socks lying on the road. You pick the smallest manageable part of the big thing, and you work off the resonance. 

- Richard Price

Thanks, Mom!

Mother’s Day is fast approaching, and I have my mother to thank for being a booklover. 

My mom has always fostered my love of books.  In grade school, I remember my siblings and I being really excited whenever we brought home a Scholastic book order form.  Mom always allowed us to choose one book to order.  It seemed like it took forever for the books to arrive, but when they did, whichever book I had ordered was usually read within a day or so.  At that rate, Mom couldn’t afford to keep buying me books.

Library cards came to the rescue!  Public library cards, school library cards…I think mom figured I couldn’t exhaust my choice of books if I had both.  The public library allowed us to check out books for up to 2 weeks. I don’t remember what the maximum number of books was that we were allowed to check out, but I never went home without a stack of them.

My dad gets a little bit of credit, too.  When we were kids, he would load us up on Saturday morning and drive an hour or more to a used bookstore he had discovered.  If I close my eyes, I can still conjure up a vision of that big white building, filled with rows and rows of bookshelves stuffed with paperbacks.  I can still smell the slightly musty odor of old books.  I miss those days…

Somewhere along the line, I started writing.  Mom found a folder of those early writings awhile back and gave them to me.  I flipped through the folder, rediscovering two of my favorites: a story about wild horses, and a class assignment in which we had to “travel” through history as a car with each historical event represented by another type of car.  That was a fun assignment that taught me a little about perspective.

I remember penning short stories and poetry before I discovered romance novels.  I told Mom I wanted to be a romance novelist and she encouraged me.  We talked about how much fun we would have traveling together, with me writing and she helping me do research for my books.  The best laid plans…

I still write and Mom still encourages me, but I’m sorry to admit our plans to travel together never materialized.  Our lives got in the way.  Mom is no spring chicken but she still reads and we share books we love and talk about our favorite authors.  I wish I would have pursued that dream much earlier in my life, so Mom and I would have had that time together.

Books are an important part of my life, and I am thankful my mom introduced me to them.  Maybe for Mother’s Day this year I will take her to the bookstore and return the favor.  She doesn’t need more “stuff” in her life, but giving the pleasure of reading is something she can keep or pass on as she chooses.

Has your mom influenced your love of books? Share? 

It’s none of their business that you have to learn to write. Let them think you were born that way.  

- Ernest Hemingway

Write while the heat is in you. The writer who postpones the recording of his thoughts uses an iron which has cooled to burn a hole with. He cannot inflame the minds of his audience.

- Henry David Thoreau

I write to give myself strength.  I write to be the characters that I am not.  I write to explore all the things I'm afraid of. 

- Joss Whedon

If we don't risk it all, we may as well not write at all. 

- Anne Stewart

When we read, we start at the beginning & continue until the end. When we write, we start in the middle & fight our way out.

- Vickie Karp

One must be a little crazy to write a good novel.

- John Gardner

I want to write books that unlock the traffic jam in everybody's head.

- John Updike

Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self. 

- Cyril Connolly