Roll Them Bones: Indie versus Traditional Publishing

By: Aaron Michael Ritchey 

So Donnell Bell is to blame for this post.

No, blame me. I can take it. 

Donnell suggested I write about the benefits and drawbacks of Indie publishing versus Traditional publishing. I’ve published independent books and I’ve published through small presses (and WordFire Press, a medium-sized publishing that is gaining ground). 

One of Donnell’s many friends published through a big publisher and her readers found some typos. The friend asked her big publisher if they could be fixed, and the big publisher said, “Sorry, girlfriend. Your book is what is. We’ve moved on.” 

If the friend had Indie published, she could make the changes and re-upload. So, yeah. But before we go any further, I have to be clear. I could write FOREVER on the different avenues and mouse holes and mazes and labyrinths and bear-traps of the publishing industry. 

But I will say this…. 

In this day and age, it takes about fifteen hundred dollars to publish a book and do it right. When I say that, I mean you pay for several rounds of editing and you pay for professional cover art. You can do it cheaper, and there are no rules. You could publish your book for free and do it all yourself. Some people warn against this, but I think they’re Nervous Nellies who are terrified that people might laugh at them. Be brave. There are no rules. And if you publish junk, oh well. Lots of junky novels do really well. No one knows anything for sure.

So, if you have $1500 in the bank, and if you are willing to risk it, I say Indie publish because you have creative control, you’ll make more money, and this is the big thing: EVEN WITH A TRADITIONAL PUBLISHER YOU WILL MOST LIKELY BE DOING ALL YOUR OWN MARKETING ANYWAY!

Notice, MOST LIKELY, I emphasized in all the capital letters because if you get a huge, big, huge publisher (huge), there is a chance the will choose your book to push. If they choose your book to pour the marketing dollars into, then you’ll get a ton of help and you win! Hurrah! 

But most likely, you’ll be doing it yourself. So, dude, if you are doing all the work, why pay

some nameless corporation 90% of your total profits? And you have to jump through their hoops, follow their rules, and you become a line item on someone’s to-do list. Most likely, no one at the house will care about your book as much as you do. 

There is the whole status thing. I’m published with Random House. Look at me! 

Yes, you win the status thing and people will say your name in awe. Wow, she’s a Random House author and she has huge distribution into bookstores. Okay, but how many people are buying books at bookstores? 

I don’t know. 

So if you can afford it, and if you are willing to do the work, going Indie seems like the best bet. 

Unless… 

Unless you a can find a publisher that will “help” you market your books. 

Notice, “help” is in quotation marks. Many will promise to help and won’t. Others will do a few things and call that “help.” Warning! The level of help will vary!

I love WordFire Press because they help me market my books by setting up massive booths at comic cons where I can harass crowds until they buy my stories. And I love WordFire because really, it’s a coalition of Indie authors backed by industry professionals with the best contract I’ve seen in the publishing world. Walking away is easy. Staying is even easier.

What really makes the most sense is playing the publishing game like craps.

In craps, you have all these different bets you can make on the next roll of the dice. If it comes up a six, you’ll win. If it comes up “snake eyes,” you’ll win. If you hit boxcars, bam, winner, winner, chicken dinner. 

Placing your bet on traditional publishing is betting on the long odds, the weird roll of the dice that hits it just right. Yeah, you might get screwed on a cover, and you might have typos, and you might have issues, but you can manage some of that. Every single time I’ve worked with a publisher, I’ve used my own line editors along with the one the house provided, to make sure my document is as clean as possible. And I went in with open eyes. I’ve talked with other authors at the publishing house and learned what their experience was. 

I will say this, if you find a small press that will publish your book and they don’t offer any kind of marketing, what’s the point of publishing with them? You can do it yourself. Email me. I’ll set you up with my vendors. If you have $1500 to spend. 

So there are no easy answers. Being a hybrid author, independent and traditional, makes good sense. I get to place lots of bets for every roll of the dice. 

And the querying process is good for my spirit. It keeps me hopeful and it keeps me strong.

If you want an easier industry, I’d go into health supplements. You’ll make more and it’s easier. But if you love stories, if you are called to write books, then you have a duty to get those books out into the world. 

By any means necessary.

About the Author: Aaron Michael Ritchey is the author of The Never Prayer, Long Live the Suicide King, and Elizabeth’s Midnight. His fourth novel, Dandelion Iron, the first book in The Juniper Wars series, is available now from Kevin J. Anderson’s WordFire Press. If you like the first one, Killdeer Winds, the second book in the series, just hit the streets. In 2015, his second novel won the “Building the Dream” award for best YA novel, and he spent the summer as the Artist in Residence for the Anythink Library. He lives in Colorado with his wife and two ancient goddesses of chaos posing as his daughters.

For more about him, his books, and how to overcome artistic angst, visit www.aaronmritchey.com. He’s on Facebook as Aaron Michael Ritchey.

Quote of the Week and the Week to Come

Editor’s Note: Since our inception, we’ve tried to coincide authors’ quotes with their birthdays. This is becoming redundant. Therefore, Writing from the Peak is switching to great, inspirational quotes about writing. Such as this one . . .  

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

Source: Wikipedia 2007 King at Comicon

This Week on Writing from the Peak:

Oct. 17          Indy v. Traditional: Roll Them Bones       Aaron Michael Ritchey

Oct. 19          Buzz Words: RUE                                  J.T. Evans

Oct. 21          Sweet Success, Ann Myers & Barbara Nickless           

Sweet Success Celebrates Catherine Dilts Stone Cold Blooded

By Kathie Scrimgeour 

Congratulations to Catherine Dilts on the publication of her new mystery novel, Stone Cold Blooded – A Rock Shop Mystery (ISBN: 10: 1-893035-34-4 / 13: 978-1-893035-8, 325 pages, paperback and ebook, adult), was published October 10, 2016 by Encircle Publications LLC. It is available on Amazon.

When rock shop owner Morgan Iverson’s reclusive neighbor is blown to bits, she doesn’t believe his violent demise was accidental. Her hunt for clues collides with an invasion of alien hunters, and the heated campaign for a small town city council seat.

In book three of the Rock Shop Mystery series, a Triceratops brow horn may hold the key to solving a prospector’s Stone Cold Blooded death.

Catherine Dilts is the author of the Rock Shop Mystery series, while her short stories appear regularly in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine. With a day job as an environmental regulatory technician, Catherine's stories often have environmental or factory-based themes. Others reflect her love of the Colorado mountains, fishing, and running.

Visit Catherine’s website at: http://www.catherinedilts.com/ or contact her via email at: catdiltsauthor@gmail.com

Are you a Pikes Peak Writers member and have something to celebrate? Big or small, we want to hear from you. Contact Sweet Success Coordinator Kathie Scrimegeour at ppwsweetsuccess@gmail.com

Why I Love History

By: Jason Evans

For my second blog for Pikes Peak, I thought I would share why I love history so much. This might take a while, so be patient. To be fair, I think my love of history was originally an infatuation with trivia and quirky events that evolved into love, then obsession.

In 1984 I entered Mr. Perdy’s 7^th grade World History class at Woodrow Wilson Jr. High, in Pasadena, California. (Does anybody remember Jr. high school?) Mr. Perdy was this really cool guy. Older, jovial, and full of jokes, he had great classroom management and taught really well. We were about six weeks into school, learning about the ancient Romans and Greeks, when he brought a film for us to watch; Cleopatra, starring Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor.

I had never seen a film in class before, and this film was epic. The costumes, the plot, (the overacting), I was completely hooked! I think that was the first time I realized that history was about people. Real, flesh and blood people, who dreamed, became jealous, failed and succeeded.

For the rest of that year, my number one question in class was: why? Why did the Romans declare war on Carthage? Why did European Christians start the Crusades? Why would anybody live that way? . . . Why?

 

Many years later I was at community college, hanging out with the misfits in the cafeteria, when I discovered that a bunch of them worked at the Southern California Renaissance Faire. At my faire, the actors are divided into social groups named after saints. The military guild was called the Guild of St. Michael (patron saint of soldiers). The Queen’s court, (it was an Elizabethan faire,) was named the Guild of St. George (patron saint of England).

So my friends were in the Guild of St. Andrews. They played Scots & Irish. Now for some reason, this 350 pound black man was always infatuated with kilts and bagpipes. So I begged and pleaded to be an actor at faire. Long story short, I worked faire for seven years. These people were my friends, and my family.  

They were also really into peer pressure.

See, you had to know your history to work the Southern Faire. (That’s what we called it because there was a Northern Faire in the Bay area.) I was given a freakin’ bibliography of books and was told to read them. Now, no one was going to kick me out if I didn’t read, but I learned quick that the ignorant were mocked.

I also learned that every group specialized in its own history. That people would get into heated arguments about fabric fibers, blade lengths, historical dyes, and the political motivations of monarchs dead centuries.

Faire impressed upon me a second time that history was about people; how they lived, what they did, and why they did it.

In 1994, I got accepted at UC Santa Barbara. (Home of the Gauchos!) While applying, I discovered that being a double major was pretty simple. I also discovered they had a Renaissance Studies major. So guess what I did?

Yup, I doubled majored.

Now Renaissance Studies was an interdisciplinary major, meaning I could take classes in

theatre arts, history, art history and English. I took about four history classes for that major. I also took two theatre classes (on costuming), two art history classes on Dutch painting, a classics class and an English class on Renaissance Theater. I read the revenger’s tragedy and the Spanish tragedy, among other plays. (Both had plots and characters Shakespeare lifted from Romeo & Juliet and Hamlet.)

Both majors reinforced what I already knew; history was about people. What UC Santa Barbara did was introduce me to their words. I read Shakespeare, Daniel Webster, and Frederick Douglass. I read speeches Vichy French politicians gave imploring their fellow leaders not abandon France to the Nazis. I held an original pamphlet declaring South Carolina’s secession from the United States. I read the Sykes-Pico Accords, which laid the foundation for the Mideast as we know it today.

As I finished my studies and graduated from college I realized I had something more important than a bunch of facts in my head, or the ability to write killer essays. I realized I could now envision how our world got to the place it is today. More importantly, I knew why.

History is important because it answers that question. Why is the world in the state that it’s in? Why does our government implement the policies that it does? Why are some groups disadvantaged while others flourish? Why do we have an electoral college, instead of direct elections for President? Why?

When I’m sad or lonely or angry about an injustice, I’m comforted by the fact that I am not the only one who has felt this way. Teenage boys in ancient Egypt mooned over girls they would never kiss. English nobles frequently got in trouble with banks, and that in spite of their profound faith, the Puritans were wracked with guilt and fear, just like some of us.

  

Understanding that we express the same hopes and fears for our children, make the same mistakes and carry the same kinds of prejudice somehow makes me feel better. Like I’m not alone. History makes me feel like we are all in this together.

And, if you’re really wise, then you can learn from history. Learn that courage is not the absence of fear, but acting in spite of it. That things could have been different if this person had gone left instead of right. That the world we live in was built by courageous, imperfect people who worked hard for what we have today. That at the end of the day, we are all human. Flawed and petty, but full of hope.

And THAT, gentle reader is why I love history. Now tell me why you love history? Leave your stories in the comments section below.

About the Author:  Jason Evans always wanted to be a writer, he just didn't know it. He grew up in Pasadena, California, in the 1980s where he watched way too much television, but was introduced to literature by his grandfather and his favorite middle school and high school teachers. He wasted his youth working at the So Cal Renaissance Faire (a dangerous place because it’s the gateway drug to other historical costumes,). In his leisure time he’s an educator, a writer, and a bon vivant. He is a graduate of UC Santa Barbara, with degrees in History & Renaissance Studies, a teaching credentials from CSU Los Angeles, as well as a graduate degree from the University of Colorado, Denver. He currently resides in Denver with his wife, the fetching Mrs. Evans, their three dogs and a mischievous cat who calls him his thrall. Find out more about him at www.jason-evans.net @evans_writer

Meet the Member -- A Chat with Margo Catts

By: Kathie Scrimgeour

This month, in Meet the Member, I have the pleasure of talking with Margo Catts. On September 1, 2016 she had the nervous pleasure of typing those two little words, The End. Her novel, Among Lesser Gods, is now in the hands of her editor. Margo and I recently had coffee and she told me her story about the inspiration behind this book.

~~Give us a quick overview about Among Lesser Gods.

PPW Member Margo Catts

After starting a deadly fire as a child, Elena Alvarez is now paralyzed by fear, unable to face adult decisions and consequences. To put adulthood off longer, she agrees to spend the summer in Leadville caring for two children whose mother has recently died. In the damaged children, the intertwined community, and her own family's history, she finds echoes of her own troubles, which help her discover the truth of the terrible burdens we take upon ourselves, and the way tragedy and redemption are inevitably connected.

~~What inspired you to write this book?

A few unrelated things went into the stew that came together as this story. Many years ago I saw a newspaper story about a wildfire that said in a single sentence in the final paragraph, “The fire is believed to have been started by children playing.” I started to wonder, what happens to those children? They will spend the rest of their lives knowing that their actions were responsible for people losing their homes, for the destruction of landscape, and possibly, the loss of lives. Their interpretation of what that means will change as they grow, so they may process the experience over and over in the years ahead. This formed the backbone of the story.

On a separate track, I’ve always been struck by the way people tend to judge their child selves through their current adult eyes. Any other child gets an indulgent eye roll, or perhaps a laugh, for the same thing over which we call ourselves stupid. Perhaps our own growth is so incremental that we never achieve the separation from our child selves that we apply to the way we look at other children. Particularly in cases of abuse or horrific accidents, adults have a hard time forgiving their child selves for behaving as children, rather than doing what an adult might have done—and what they, therefore, wish they had done—to overcome the situation. What does it take to lay aside the burden for what can’t be changed, and to see yourself as innocent rather than undeserving?

And finally, a mystery book I’d read as a child included something about a missing horse, and finding the remains contributed to solving the mystery. I can’t remember the story any longer, but the poignancy of a tragedy unwound decades later stayed with me. As an adult I fused that concept with my own parent-fears of losing a child, imagining how horrible it would be to have a lost child go unfound, the wound that would never close. How could or would someone ever move on from that? What would the parent’s life look like years later, through the eyes of someone in the present who stepped backwards into the story? 

I had already started work on the story about the lost child when I realized that the story on the back burner—about the child who set the fire and couldn’t forgive herself—was connected. They shared themes of loss, regret, and the role of blame, and what it takes to make a life after tragedy. I could see the protagonists of the two stories had things to give each other. The child who set the fire—now an adult—moved to the front, and unwrapping the separate tragedy of the lost child became key to helping her let go of blame and fear.

~~When will this be released?

The book is scheduled for release in May, 2017.

~~Who is your editor and how have they been helping?

My editor is Chelsey Emmelhainz at Skyhorse Publishing. When she purchased the manuscript she wanted to cut down the length, and suggested a few general areas that might benefit from tightening. In each case, I wound up much happier with the new version. I’d known there was more to do, but my agent and I were too close to the project to see anything further. Chelsey’s fresh eyes and clear vision of what the book could and should be have been invaluable.

~~How did you find her?

I first found my agent, Sandra Bond, at a conference, where I learned when I checked in that I had a pitch appointment I didn’t recall signing up for. My manuscript was less than half done at the time, but I heard others suggest using pitch appointments as practice, so I went for it. Sandra was interested, and after I finished she offered to represent me. When she felt the book was ready to send to publishers, she identified Chelsey as one of her top picks. At the time, Chelsey was at Harper Collins and said she loved the book, but it wasn’t right for their list. Three months later, she had made the move to Skyhorse and called my agent to ask if the book was still available. 

Are you a member of Pikes Peak Writers? We would love to learn more about you and your writing experiences. Contact Kathie Scrimgeour at ppwsweetsuccess@gmail.com

About the Interviewer: Kathie Scrimgeour writes under the name K.J. Scrim and has been a member of Pikes Peak Writers since 2013. She has volunteered at the last two PPW conferences and coordinates the Sweet Success column. Kathie is a self-taught writer who delves into fantasy, fiction, and historical fiction. Her debut fantasy novel,The Manx, is scheduled to release later in 2017. She lives outside of Denver with her family, two dogs, and a crazy cat.

Quote of the Week and the Week to Come

“I’m not a very good writer, but I’m an excellent rewriter.” ~ James A. Michener

Source: Wikipedia Michener in 1991

James Albert Michener, born Feb. 3, 1907 – Oct 16, 1997 Michener's prodigious output made for lengthy novels, several of which run more than 1,000 pages. The author states in My Lost Mexico that at times he would spend 12 to 15 hours per day at his typewriter for weeks on end, and that he used so much paper, his filing system had trouble keeping up.

Michener had numerous bestsellers and works and was also known for his meticulous research behind the books. Among his myriad fiction and nonfiction work, Michener's novels include Tales of the South Pacific, for which he won a Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1948. Hawaii, The Drifters, Centennial, The Source, The Fires of Spring, Chesapeake, Caravans, Alaska, Texas and Poland. His first book was adapted as the popular Broadway musical South Pacific by Rodgers and Hammerstein, and later a film by the same name, adding to his financial success.

This week on Writing from the Peak:

October 10   Meet Pikes Peak Writers Member Margo Catts by Kathie Scrimgeour

October 12   Why I Love History by Jason Evans

October 14   Sweet Success Catherine Dilts  

Pikes Peak Writers October Events

  Are you entering?

The Zebulon is Open for Business 

Closes November 1

https://www.pikespeakwriters.com/contest/

Colorado Author Signing – October 8

Cottonwood Center for the Arts

427 East Colorado Avenue

Colorado Springs, CO 80903

11 AM to 2 PM  

Come mingle with Colorado authors in an art gallery setting! Admission is free and open to the public. Visit with authors of fiction and non-fiction, representing Mystery, Thriller, Science Fiction, Romance, Horror, How to, Cooking, Coloring, and more. 

Write Brain – October 18

Library 21c, 1175 Chapel Hills Dr. Colorado Springs, CO 80920

6:30 PM to 8:30 PM

What:  Punch Up Your Prose with Comedy
Who:  Theresa Alan & Sara Jade Alan
When: October 18, 6:30-8:30 pm
Where: Venue@21c (upper floor, to the right if coming in the upper entrance) of Library 21c, 1175 Chapel Hills Dr. Colorado Springs, CO 80920

More Information: Adding humor can bolster your fiction no matter what your genre. Comedic dialogue can relax readers after an intense, suspenseful scene, or demonstrate friendship or burgeoning love between two characters. Using the tips and tricks of improv comedians, stand-up comics, and humorist essayists, participants in this workshop will learn how to make dialogue move along quickly and develop characterization. Co-taught by bestselling author Theresa Alan and professional improv comedian Sara Alan, two sisters who live and create with the philosophy that “Anything in life, any obstacle or challenge can be made better with humor.” (Quote by Amy Poehler.)

About the Presenters:

Theresa Alan is the bestselling author of seven comedic women’s fiction novels and three novellas. Her first novel, Who You Know became a bestseller in 2003, and her novella Santa Unwrapped was in the New York Times bestseller Jingle All the Way (2004). Theresa was named the Colorado Romance Author of the Year in 2004. A graduate of the University of Iowa and the University of Colorado at Boulder, Theresa lives in Denver, Colorado.http://www.theresaalan.net

Sara Jade Alan has performed in hundreds of comedy shows and has taught numerous workshops to all ages over the course of 20 years. Sara was a cast member of Impulse Theater in Denver for five years, and she currently coproduces and performs in an original comedy show about writing and publishing—The Novelistas. Her young adult fiction has won the Pikes Peak Writers Conference Contest, the First Coast Romance Writers Beacon Contest, and the Writer’s Digest “Dear Lucky Agent” Contest.

Open Mic Reading – October 21

Location: Rosco's Coffee House, 432 W Bijou Street, Colorado Springs, CO. 80905

What: Open Mic Night
Who: All of you!
When: Friday October 21st, 6 pm-9 pm
Where: Rosco’s Coffee House, 432 W Bijou Street, Colorado Springs, CO. 80905, 719-238-1947

More Info: Let’s get together, relax, and share our work. Open Mic Night is intended to offer a comfortable atmosphere for writers to read a portion of their work. Be prepared to read some of your poetry, non-fiction, short fiction, flash fiction, or at least the first page of your manuscript, depending on the number of attendees wanting to participate, or a selection from further in. We will determine how long each reader has based on participants, and will leave feedback as an option based on the same circumstances. Free and open to all. This event is part of Arts Month.

BYOB: Alcohol is not served from the business, but we have been given permission to bring alcohol with us, as long as we don’t sell it. So feel free to bring wine or the like, but be sure to keep the rowdiness down to a minimum.

Free Writers Night – October 24

Location: Kawa Coffee

Address: 2427 N Union Blvd, Colorado Springs, CO 80909

Fourth Monday of every month

6:30 – 8:30 p.m.

Join fellow writers for PPW Night on the fourth Monday of every month.

PPW Writers’ Night is two full hours of discussion, laughter, and fun with other local members of Pikes Peak Writers.

Kawa Coffee stays open for our gathering when they would normally be closed. We understand if you can’t afford a coffee or a snack, but please don’t bring outside food and drink into the coffee shop. Thank you for your understanding.

The direction of the meeting is decided by the participants and can include discussions about query letters, obtaining and working with an agent, writing conferences, or other specific points of the craft.  If nothing else, we talk about books!

If you have any questions, or if there is a specific topic you’d like to get on the agenda, send an e-mail to the host, Deb Courtney, or call her on her cell phone at 719-337-9049.

Meetings are scheduled to start at 6:30 and run until 8:30. These are drop-in meetings, so feel free to attend all or just part of them.

See you soon!

Local Author Meet and Greet & Book Signing

Pikes Peak Writers, don't miss an opportunity to mingle and support your fellow authors. 

Saturday, October 8, 2016, 11AM-2PM

The Gallery at Cottonwood Center for the Arts
427 E Colorado Ave., Colorado Springs CO 80903 

Presented by Jmars Ink and Courtney Literary

in conjunction with Indie Author Day

Writing Alone Together

By: Deb McLeod

NaNoWriMo is mere weeks away. I use the annual contest as part of my process and I recommend it to all my clients, as long as they recognize it’s only a part of the process and not the end game. There will come a time in your writing life when you can write a pretty decent draft in thirty days, but unless you’ve been doing this for a while, you’re likely not there yet. But that’s fine. Because NaNoWriMo can create the foundation for your project, if you do it right.

Why NaNoWriMo works

There are a bunch of reasons why NaNoWriMo can work in your writing process. It works because it:

• Gamifies writing
• Provides a taste of the writer’s life
• Grants a breather from the infernal internal editor
• Is only 30 days long
• Creates The Zero Draft (Chuck Wendig’s words for it)

Gamification works. I didn’t realize it until yesterday, but the online coaching environment I use with my clients gamifies writing. We don’t earn badges (though maybe that’s a good idea). What we do earn is a seat at the exclusive, invisible, real writer’s table and stories that get finished, along with these addicting daily green checkmarks. I knew what I was doing was working for my clients. I just didn’t realize it was called gamification.

Gamification motivates, rewards, produces results, gives competitors competition, gives self-competitors measurements, and shifts the participant’s attention to focus on the parts, while achieving the whole. In novel writing, I think the ability to focus on the parts rather than the whole is the key to the kingdom.

For writers, gamification works in part because most writers enjoy certain things that make up The Writer’s Lifestyle. Take this little quiz to see if you agree:

• Did you enjoy (derive satisfaction from) starting and completing large assignments when you were a kid in school? Did you like getting those As on your papers? 
• Do you like solitary working within a group? Like reading together with someone who’s also reading? Or, writing at a table alone but together at Starbucks? Does it bring you joy to take your laptop to the library to work? 
• Do you like crossing things off your list? Are you someone who will write something down just so you can cross it off? 
• Or are you (like me) a process person? A habit person? Do you break things down into their processes and check them off as you move through them? 

All these things are parts of a writer’s lifestyle. Setting goals. Finding a way to achieve those goals, daily, whether you feel like it or not so you can create something from nothing. If you have any of these traits you might be looking at ways to capitalize on them, if you want to write. Participating in NaNoWriMo every year can help.

NaNoWriMo offers a break from the internal editor

When you don’t have time to pay attention to the naysayer inside, can allow yourself the freedom to create, and know how to read what you’ve created properly, you can use your NaNoWriMo Zero Draft as the foundation for your project.

If you’re familiar with the process of freewriting, if you’ve tried and succeeded at it, you already understand there is a natural resistance to corralling your thoughts and getting them down. Freewriting works because the timer is ticking and if you’re doing it right (pen to paper and don’t stop writing until the timer goes off) you will push your way through those pockets of resistance, usually to find there are golden thoughts or images on the other side.

That freewriting resistance is the same resistance you might feel about getting to the chair every day. Only chair resistance is a whole lot bigger. And I contend it exists because you’re looking at the whole and not just a part.

Gamifying writing offers a tool to break resistance and get you to the chair and to get words on the page no matter the quality. When you participate in NaNoWriMo and your goal is 1667 words per day, you don’t have time for internal editors.

I know from working with my clients in the gamified environment I’ve created for them, that the more often you break through your internal editor’s clutch on your creative life, the less power the editor has over you. My clients report a shift in their relationship to resistance. My own writing has deepened, and speeded up considerably since I began to use this gamification method.

NaNoWriMo is only 30 days 

Writing for thirty days straight is a challenge to most people who haven’t yet made their writing a daily habit. Imagine if you wanted to compete in an athletic event and you had to get in the habit of training. If you could get through 30 days of training every single day, you might continue once the 30 days were up, wouldn’t you? Having come that far in training your body, would you quit after 30 days and become a couch potato again? Let’s say you did quit, well, you might not meet your overall goal, but having done those 30 days you’d know what it takes, wouldn’t you?


It’s the same with NaNoWriMo. Once you’ve gotten through the 30 days, whether you accumulated 50,000 words or not, by the time you reach November 30th, and if you gave it your best effort, you would know what it takes to really have the writer’s lifestyle.

And whether you win or not, you will walk away knowing you can do it. There will have been a measure of days you spent achieving your writing goals.

For this alone, if you want to write, you should consider doing NaNoWriMo.


The Zero Draft (Chuch Wendig’s expression to describe the NaNoWriMo draft)

If you focus on NaNoWriMo as a way to create a foundation draft, every November can become the month you carve a great big chunk out of the process. Both goal-oriented and process-oriented people will succeed at using NaNo as a tool to get the work done. Editor-less, the draft you produce during NaNoWriMo will hold the gold of your finished product. Just don’t be fooled that that draft is the finished product. It’s a giant step forward in the overall my-book-is-finished process.

Enemies of NaNoWriMo

These are the things that might make your experience misery:

• Not making time every day
• Not having a place to write
• Not preparing your family
• Facing a blank page

Break down how many words you’ll write every day. Know where you will write and when you will write. Talk to your family about it and get their support. Some families don’t support a long-term writing habit, but most families will support a writing contest that will take you away a few hours every day for only thirty days. And the contest-nature of the event usually gets everyone rooting for you.

The best way to approach NaNoWriMo

This will be my sixth year using the annual contest to create my zero draft. This year I will work on book two of my 90-day Romance project. My trick to making the most of NaNoWriMo every year is preparation.

But the most important advice I can give is to prepare before November starts. Use October as NaNo Prep month. The blank page will invoke your internal editor like nothing else. If you have something to write about, you can do 1667 words a day for 30 days. I’ve seen NaNoWriMo change a writer’s life, time and time again.

Note: to the end of helping writers succeed, I offer a free 14-day NaNo Prep Countdown in the two weeks before NaNoWriMo starts. You can check out the 14-day NaNo Prep Countdown here.

Note two: for those of you who were following my 90-day Romance challenge, I finished in 82 days. Stats are available here.

About the Author: Deb McLeod, MFA, practices novel research immersion. For her novel, The Train to Pescara, Deb journeyed to Sardinia to study ancient goddess worship and spent time in the Abruzzi village her great-grandparents left in 1905. Her metaphysical knowledge for the Angel Thriller, The Julia Set, culminates from four years of studying and teaching meditation, clairvoyance and chakra healing. For over fourteen years, Deb McLeod has been a creative writing coach helping other writers to embrace their passion and get their words on the page. For more, seewww.debmcleod.com.