What is NaNoWriMo and Why Should I Care?

NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. Professional and amateur writers from all over the world come together every November to write a designated amount over a 30 day period. “National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30.” Anything over 40,000 words is a novel according to the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. “Valuing enthusiasm and perseverance over painstaking craft, NaNoWriMo is a novel-writing program for everyone who has thought fleetingly about writing a novel but has been scared away by the time and effort involved,” says the site.

Why do it? If you’re a writer—well, if you’re human—then you know about procrastination. NaNoWriMo is all about the magical power of deadlines, to help writers achieve their goal of completing a work. Their rationale for participating in this whirlwind month-long marathon is sound:

I Love New York: BEA and Lightning’s Espresso Book Machine

I came to NYC recently to promote my new writing guidebook The Fiction Writer, at Book Expo America (BEA), North America’s largest book fair. The Fiction Writer was showcased along with other new books for 2009 at the BEA, which was held at New York’s Jacob K. Javits Convention Centre, located in the heart of Manhattan with a view of the Hudson River.

The fair was huge and I was enthralled, if not slightly overwhelmed. I’ve been to several World Science Fiction and Fantasy Conventions; but this trade fair was ... well… HUGER (is that a word?). Over 1,500 publishing houses, retailers, printers and associated industry people displayed exhibits at the book fair. Upcoming titles (like The Fiction Writer) in all kinds of formats and genres were showcased. As I entered the Javits Centre, feeling like a character in one of my SF books, the floor buzzed with the frantic energy of industry representatives.

The “Aha” of the “Aha From a Science Fiction Writer’s Workshop”

A short while ago, I gave a writing workshop at the local library to an interesting group of writers. Participants ranged from budding writers interested in creating short stories to established writers of non-fiction. Entitled, “A Writer’s Toolkit”, I entertained them with my misadventures in the publishing industry and then launched into a “show and tell” using a bazillion examples, many of which appear in my latest writing guide, The Fiction Writer: Get Published, Write Now! by Starfire World Syndicate.

For instance, one example in the book (in Chapter R under the heading “Something Worse Than Rejection”) relates the story about my multiple submission of the short story, Angel’s Promises. Here’s an excerpt:

The Novelist: Finding Your Muse

O Muses, O high genius, aid me now!
O memory that engraved the things I saw,
Here shall your worth be manifest to all!—Dante Alighieri, Canto II of the Inferno

As a published author of novels and short stories I often get asked how and where I draw my inspiration from. How do I find my muse? And how do I keep it? (i.e.,, how do I defeat “writer’s block”?).