Tips on Finishing Your Novel from the NaNoWriMo Writers Board
Do the characters in your unfinished novel haunt your dreams? Does your incomplete story call your name from its dusty place in your “drafts in progress” folder? Introducing #NaNoFinMo (National Novel Finishing Month)! Our newest track for April’s upcoming Camp NaNoWriMo session is jam-packed with fin-tastic resources to help you finish your novel.
We asked our talented Writers Board to share some tips for finishing first drafts. Read on to discover what these authors have to say!
Sarra Cannon
Sometimes what holds us back is that all we can see is this huge gap between the sucky draft we think we've written and the masterpiece we want our novel to be. Stop looking at the gap and thinking about how impossible it feels. Instead, take it one word, one scene at a time. Finish it piece by small piece. Each step of the way, a little bit more of that masterpiece you're writing will reveal itself. I promise. There are things about your novel you can't see from where you're sitting, but a few steps forward and suddenly, there's a bit more clarity. Stop expecting yourself to make an impossible leap, and instead, show up every day and take a single step forward. You can do this.
Aya de Leon
One step at a time. I start by going through my draft and finding all the places where I wrote things like "DESCRIBE THE CAFE" in all caps. Once I've filled in the gaping holes, I read it through the whole book and edit the things that seem off. If there are bigger issues that seem to need work, I keep a separate running list of those. Then I go back and address those bigger issues. Then it's time to get someone to read it, to see what it needs next!
Susan Dennard
Don’t worry if your ending—or your middle or your whole book!—is a mess. Revision is the next step of the creative process, no matter what, but you can’t revise what you don’t have! So just get words down and worry about making them good later.
Grant Faulkner
The irony of the moment when you think about giving up on your novel is that it can also be a moment that’s ripe with opportunity if you just keep going. After a lapse, it’s important to forgive yourself, readjust your goals, and give yourself a fresh start so that a bad week of writing doesn’t lead to a bad month of writing, which then turns into a bad year of writing. I pick a “milestone day”—the first day of a new month or a new week—and start again. It’s all about designing your life around the things you rationally want to achieve instead of sinking into the powerful claws of more impulsive needs (such as quitting).
Life goes by too quickly to wait for next year or our next novel. I don’t want to die with a list of all of the novels I wish I would have finished. The main thing about any achievement isn’t necessarily starting it, but restarting it over and over again.
Mignon Fogarty
Find someone who will hound you mercilessly until you finish.
Kami Garcia
Even if you only write one page a day, at the end of the year you’ll have a book. Books aren’t written in first drafts. They’re written in revisions. But you can’t revise unless you finish.
Hugh Howey
If you are having a difficult time finishing your novel, try writing the final chapter! Too often, we get lost in the middle of our books, unsure of where we are heading. Create that final destination, then go back and write scenes that get you a step closer. Don't worry, you'll clean it all up in the revision process. The important thing is to have a rough draft with a complete story.
Mary Robinette Kowal
I always bog down at about the 3/4 mark, when I'm switching modes from opening questions to closing them. Now I treat that as a feature, not a bug, and take time to reread what I've written. I make notes of major dangling plot threads and then start giving my main character some wins as a way to start tying up threads.
Mur Lafferty
The first badge of a writer is writing an awful lot. NaNoWriMo winners have done that. But the next badge is finishing something. Storytellers of old didn't just get up from their campfires in the middle of their stories and wander into the woods.
Or, pithier:
You're not a storyteller if you don't finish your stories. Don't be a Storyte
Devi S. Laskar
Alas, it involves math! Make a list of all the items you have left to write (scenes, bits of dialogue and/or description) to complete a draft and then divide by thirty. Then you will know how many you have to tackle each day for the month. The keys are to keep the goals small (doable) and to set aside a bit of time to do these tasks every day!
Marissa Meyer
Remember that it's okay to skip scenes, chapters, even whole sections! If trying to write the middle of the book has put me in a slump, and I'd rather jump straight into the big, exciting finale, I'll do it. Once I've hit "the end," it helps motivate me to go back and fill in those empty spaces.
Emily X. R. Pan
Truth or dare! I'll go first.
Truth? Okay: Even as a professional author, every novel I write is a terrifying new challenge—I never know if I'll reach the end. But I do know that the books I don't finish are never going to be published.
As you might have discovered in November, it’s about figuring out how to keep going.
Here’s how I fight the overwhelm: Stop worrying about the whole book. Break it down into bite-sized pieces. Can you just write the next paragraph? Can you just write for fifteen minutes?
Do it today. Do it again tomorrow. Do it the day after. I dare you.
Linguistics in the Public Ear: Outreach via Podcasts and Radio panel at LSA 2018
We were very pleased to bring together a range of linguistics podcasts and hosts at the annual meeting of the Linguistic Society of America this weekend in Salt Lake City, Utah. Here’s our panel description from the program:
More and more people are listening to linguistics as they exercise, commute to work, or do household chores. The number of Americans who listen to podcasts has doubled since 2013, and a growing number of these podcasts are about linguistics. Being able to download an episode to your phone or computer, listen to it anywhere (often while doing something else with your hands), and even pause and come back to it, has created a surge in the popularity of audio. Even radio programs have been putting their shows online to attract more listeners after airing. While language is often a popular topic on general interest shows, there are now enough dedicated linguistics podcasts that we've put together a whole panel of them for the first time in LSA history.
This panel brings together the hosts of both well-established and up-and-coming linguistics podcasts, which combined reach hundreds of thousands of listeners around the world. The podcasts encompass a wide range of formats: some also exist as radio shows while others run entirely on the internet; their run times range from 4 minutes, to 30 minutes, to a full hour; and their institutional support ranges from public radio, to private podcasting networks, to solo enterprises funded by listeners. Their founding dates range from radio in 1998, the first podcast wave in 2006-2009, and the second podcast wave in 2012-2016. Hosts range from academic linguists with a commitment to public outreach to professional communicators with a commitment to doing the research.
The panel is of interest to a variety of levels, from linguists who were barely aware that podcasts even existed and now want to get the lay of the land, to dedicated podcast listeners who want to get a glimpse behind the scenes. Panelists will provide practical advice about starting one's own podcast, being an effective guest on an existing podcast to share one's research, linguistics podcasting as a career path, and using podcasts in the linguistics classroom, as well as broader take-home messages about effective linguistics public engagement in general.
Although a few speakers ran into weather issues and had to send in their contributions remotely, it all came together in the end! Here’s a link to all the podcasts, in order of appearance, with cohosts who weren’t present in parentheses:
Grammar Girl, Mignon Fogarty
Lexicon Valley, John McWhorter
The Allusionist, Helen Zaltzman
That’s What They Say, Anne Curzan
The World in Words, Nina Porzucki (with Patrick Cox)
Talk the Talk, Daniel Midgley (with Ben Ainslie and Kylie Sturgess)
Lingthusiasm, Lauren Gawne and Gretchen McCulloch
A Way with Words, Grant Barrett (with Martha Barnette)
We were also excited to have at the panel The Vocal Fries (Megan Figueroa and Carrie Gillon) which didn’t even exist when we were putting the panel together. It’s great to see the linguistics podcast sphere continue to grow!
Many thanks to everyone who attended the panel and especially to those who livetweeted #LinguisticEar, asked questions, and came up to chat with us! Do check out the other podcasts on the list if you’re looking for more linguistics-related things to listen to.
Review: The Grammar Daily: 365 Quick Tips for Successful Writing from Grammar Girl: 365 Quick Tips for Successful Writing from Grammar Girl
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 5 out of 5.
The Grammar Daily: 365 Quick Tips for Successful Writing from Grammar Girl: 365 Quick Tips for Successful Writing from Grammar Girl by Mignon Fogarty
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I absolutely loved the update to this edition of The Grammar Daily! You get Grammar Girl’s wit and expertise, a variety of puzzles, and many drawings of Aardvarks. My one complaint is the layout of…
Grammar Girl Presents the Ultimate Writing Guide for Students - Mignon Fogarty | A Book Review
Grammar Girl Presents the Ultimate Writing Guide for Students - Mignon Fogarty | A Book Review #BookReview #BookBlogger #Writing
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From the Lost in a Story blog:
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