Author Ryan Schneider's Blog

Day 30 Yay! I wrote a lot and reached 74,802 words when it was time to validate the manuscript on the NaNoWriMo website. I actually signed up for NaNoWriMo this year on November 3rd, three days after it began. I therefore wondered if I could continue NaNoWriMo for an additional 3 days, writing until December 3rd, which would give me a chance to actually complete the novel.  My first goal was to write 50,000 words. My second goal was to reach 60,000 words. My third goal was to complete the novel. I'm very close. So those three days would've helped a lot. I therefore contacted Grant Faulkner on Twitter. Grant is the Executive Director of NaNoWriMo. I figured he would know. So I asked him if the three-day rule would apply (start from the bottom): Grant was very gracious and of course the whole thing was very tongue-in-cheek. Thanks, Grant, for being a good sport! So, the writing continues. I didn't get started writing today as ...

Day 29 6000 words today. Trying to get the book complete... so trying... was up til 4:00 a.m. again. Still tomorrow... Still tomorrow... Still tomorrow.........

Day 28 Yesterday was an interesting day of writing. I didn't get started as soon as I would have liked, but I still managed to get 4859 words, bringing the novel's total to 61,054. That means I accomplished my goal of reaching 50,000 words. I also accomplished my goal of reaching 60,000 words. My final goal is to complete the novel. I have no idea how many words the completed novel will come out to. Doesn't really matter. I'm thinking maybe  another 15,000 - 20,000. The question now is if I can complete the story between now and tomorrow. Because as stated above, the goal was to complete the novel during NaNoWriMo, to see if I could do it. I had to stay up til 4:00 a.m. to accomplish yesterday's writing session. And I've written about 2000 words so far today. But it's no longer about word count so much as it is honoring the wishes of the story and its players. So two days left in this year's NaNoWriMo. I hope yo...

Days 26 & 27 This will be a quick blog post. We should all be putting the majority of our time, thought, focus, strength, courage, belief, and love for what we do into our story, for we have THREE more days, including today. The past two days have been good days of writing; 5000 words both days. My word count is now 56,195, so once I've uploaded the manuscript it will qualify for "winning". Yay! But my goal was to not only write (at least) 60,000 words but to also FINISH my novel during NaNoWriMo. That remains a possibility. Hence the brevity of this post.  Three days... Less than 4000 words to reach 60,000... But the story definitely won't be complete in 4000 words. Maybe 14,000. Maybe. Probably more like 24,000, which would require 8000 words each day for the next three days.500-1000 words per hour means that would require 8 to 16 hours of writing per day. That's a lot. How many words do you have remaining? Do the math; divide it by three...

Day 25 First, HAPPY THANKSGIVING if you're in the USA. For those outside the USA, HAPPY HOLIDAYS, HAPPY AUTUMN, HAPPY THURSDAY! Second, NaNoWriMo2015 is quickly wrapping up.Less than a week to go. I hope everyone is on track to reach 50k. I'm still aiming for 60k. We'll see what happens in the coming days. My goal is to finish this book and have it be 60,000 words. But we'll see what the story dictates, as the story is ultimately the final arbiter of word count. I don't believe in artificially-imposed word counts based on industry standards. If your YA Romance is 130,000 words and the plot and story and characterization are solid, then there's no need to edit your manuscript down to 80,000 words merely because of the perception that young adults aren't capable of reading anything longer than 80,000 words. That is stupid. Order of the Phoenix is quite long. That's only one example. But at this stage, don't worry or even think too much ...

Day 24 Holy schnikeys, day 24!!! Wow. It was just day... 5 not that long ago. Writing today was good... 2119 words, which brought me to 42,523. Not as far along as I'd hoped, but still ahead of schedule. There were several days of research, a lot of listening to music and reading about music, mostly from the 80s, and trying to get the prose just so. Today I finally pushed past that chunk of research-dependent story and wrote the next scene, which at first I was thrilled and frightened by, and which I then questioned if it should even be in the story at all, but which I went ahead and wrote. Lo and behold I am amazed at what took shape. Not yet sure how it's all going to fit together, but that's not something to fret over now. Now is the time to go for it, to let the story rip, to push through the dreaded middle everyone is always whining about. I don't want to get into all that. Focus on having fun and continuing to follow your characte...

Day 20 Yesterday was another fun day. Mostly research. A LOT of research, as I was trying to get one passage fleshed out. As such, my word count was around 1300. Not so hot. But the fun I had doing research and the satisfaction of spending a good 6 hours getting the prose assembled offset the lower word count. I also cut the tip of my middle finger while making dinner and couldn't type with a bandaid on my finger. That was interesting trying to type without my middle finger. At any rate, just 10 days remaining in the month. Time to get it in gear and finish strong.

Day 19 Yesterday was a fun and interesting day. Life stuff. When I finally got my butt in the chair and began to work, I found myself spending most of my time doing research in order to better inform the scene I was working on. It was a lot of fun. But the word count came up to 996 words. <insert fart sound here> It happens sometimes. Some days, your fingers fly and you write 3500 words without even trying. Other days, you're building your foundation, planning, and preparing for one of those 3500-word days. It's all part of the ebb-and-flow. Roll with it. Don't beat yourself up. Doing so merely stifles creativity. Stay positive. Have fun. Enjoy the process. A big part of why we write is because we enjoy the process of discovery. Sometimes we discover 3500 new words. Sometimes we discover a bunch of cool stuff that we weave into the story. It's all gooooood. Continue writing. TEN DAYS TO GO. Time to throw yourself into the ...

Day 18 Yesterday was a good day of writing. 3576 words. I need to attain at least 2272 every day for the next 11 days if I'm going to reach 60,000 words, which was my goal when I began this experiment 16 days ago on November 3rd. In terms of craft, yesterday was interesting because I found myself writing by the seat of my pants as opposed to planning. Functioning as a Pantser and not a Planner. The reason is because I needed to bridge the story between where I was and where I wanted to go. I have some major events already outlined but it felt like it was too soon to have them happen. So I needed something in between. Lo and behold a whole bunch of cool stuff transpired. I found myself genuinely enjoying the events of the story as they unfolded, as well as being amazed at how the themes and backstory continued to weave themselves into the new plot. That's the magic of writing: when stuff like that happens. And remember that whenever you're in this situati...

Day 16 So we've reached the proverbial halfway point. I'm at 28,000 words. I've been writing more than the required 1667 words each day, which has allowed me to stay on track on days I didn't write much or at all, and there have been a few, particularly over the weekend during which we had some family celebrations, along with other stuff aka Life. I'm on track to hit 50k words on November 29, which is all right, but I feel I need to step it up a notch and write more, as my goal for this book has always been to surpass 50k words. I'm looking for this novel to be at least 60k. That's a nice, quick read. And for this type of material I think it's an appropriate length. I've seen some fellow NaNoWriMo-ers on Instagram say that this is the point when they usually quit or give up each year. To that I say, "What?!!!" Don't give up. Don't quit. Keep going. The days are going to pass anyway. You may as well have the 50k words to s...

Day 9 A good day of writing today. Almost 3000 words. I planned out the scene and everyone’s role in it and then went back and wrote it, fleshing it out in prose, naming characters, filling in details. The use of detail is one of the secrets to creating a powerful and memorable story. Remember that. Hopefully your project is coming along and you’re reaching your word counts and then some. If so, continue writing. If your characters are talking and you’re there, with them, wherever they are, stay there and follow them around and see what develops. And if the words aren’t flowing, that’s okay, too. Every writer is different in their approach. And every book is different, even for the same writer. Every project is likely unique. It’s important to hone your technique to see what works for you. But at the end of the day, you must write. You can’t simply spend all your time saying you’re blocked. Ten years will pass and you’ll still be on chapter 7 of your WIP....

Day 8 Not quite as much writing today as I’d hoped, but it’s Sunday and I finally managed to squeeze in a workout for the first time in four days. And football was on. 1230 words, bringing my total to 15,906. So, I’m still ahead of schedule. Tomorrow will be a marathon day. I also contacted my cover designer so we can begin planning out the cover. Looking forward to the final product.

Day 7 Today was not as productive as I’d hoped it would be. Probably because it’s Saturday. Only 2140 words written today, bringing the total to 14,676. Hopefully more tomorrow. (Except that football is on…) Also, there was a really “awesome” spreecast today hosted by NaNoWriMo Executive Director  Grant Faulkner in which he interviewed successful YA author Marissa Meyer, who wrote CINDER and has the final book in that series, WINTER, coming out Tuesday 11/10. Here’s a screenshot I took with my phone: Marissa shared that her NYT bestseller CINDER was written as a NaNoWriMo novel. So that should motivate you for sure! Marissa also matched the donations today with $5000 of her own in order to help fund this massive NaNoWriMo endeavor which has more than 400,000 writers participating, more than 2000 schools which have received Young Writers kits, and more than 1000 libraries. There are actual real meetings with real live people all over the place. You...