Writing Unleashed with Laura M. Harkins

Well, I knew November promised a fast-paced insanity. And to add to the enormous pile on my plate, my metaphorical brakes don't work anymore. I just hope my head doesn't spin off into a wall while I try to keep up. Today, I'm interviewing for a freelance copywriting position in King of Prussia, PA (high-end shopping mecca with Lego Store). I'm a bit apprehensive, but curious to see where my writing journey takes me. This month is filled with birthdays, including my own. My schedule is already filled with writing goals, art projects, job searches and holiday planning that squeezing in some gift shopping and a few birthday parties might require some heavy-duty lubricant. Let's see...what else? I replaced my original NaNoWriMo novel with a mystery story, HIDING, I started at the beginning of October. The decision wasn't easy after spending a month prepping the original idea, but HIDING kept pulling at me, so I gave in. My outlook on the crazy month of wri...

November 1, the start of NaNoWriMo, arrives in 11 days. The planning of my amateur sleuth mystery novel gains clarity and complexity with each new technique and strategy Susan Meier presents in her class .  A photograph of the hardcopy of my ideas, notes and inspirational quotes are above. The rest of my scaffolding is sitting on my computer.  There's just one problem...my characters are nameless.  I need help to decide on the best moniker for them. So, I hand over to you, my readers,  the privilege of naming my characters. Of course, I plan to fill my novel with many more characters. These three are the only ones developed enough at this point.  Some quick background: I drew inspiration from two famous literary characters and a notorious historical figure. I've  included important character traits as well as the meaning of each name to help in the process.   Just write your choices for the three characters in the comments below. T...

The orange and red hues on the trees mark the beginning of my favorite season, fall. It also marks the prepping period for NaNoWriMo 2011. I’m excited to start my second NaNoWriMo challenge. Note cards with inspirational quotes and sheets of paper with story ideas and my research list cover every inch of my writing desk. The chaos focuses my attention on writing, instead of staring at the daydream-inducing empty spaces. As November approaches, my blog schedule needs to slow down while I get into crazy writing mode. I will post once a week on Thursdays from now until December. The new NaNoWriMo site  is up. I’m heading over there soon to start inputting my mystery novel info. Stop by and add me to your buddy list, LauraMCampbell . I’m going to need a lot of support to win this year! Now, I leave you with a poignant and funny article by Rebecca Makkai, “How To Find Your Story and Craft a Pitch in 10 Easy Steps (And You Can Even Do It Drunk!)" .   ...

Hi all! I just wanted to update you on Pennwriters upcoming online course. **********  PERMISSION TO FORWARD GRANTED  ********** Pennwriters Inc. brings you... PREPPING FOR NaNo with SUSAN MEIER: Online Course INSTRUCTOR: Susan Meier DATE: October 1 – October 31, 2011 REGISTER: http://tinyurl.com/PennwritersCourse201110     ( LIMITED CLASS SIZE. Enroll now.) COURSE DESCRIPTION: Everybody believes NaNoWriMo ( Na tional No vel Wri ting Mo nth , which runs every November at http://www.nanowrimo.org ) is a race against the clock, a fight with procrastination and inertia. In some ways it is. But once you’re in the thick of things, you’ll discover NaNo is really all about ideas. Writers don’t stall because they’re lazy. Writers stall because they don’t know what to write next. The month BEFORE NaNo, get proven tips from Susan Meier—the author of almost 50 books for Harlequin and Silhouette—and let her take you through several different ways t...

Well, I took a detour from my writing the past week.  The short story I’ve been working on stalled, which brought me down.  Posting on my blog every day became overwhelming and took time away from my fiction writing, bringing me down even more.  So, I turned off my main writing roadway, and had the brilliant idea to get out of the car.  My head, crowded with negative thoughts, started to hurt causing my vision to blur.  I stumbled around for a bit, before I tripped into a ditch.  My motivation to write dissipated, leaving me lying in the ditch for a bit.  I was able to make it to my  Bucks County Writers Group  meeting.  I always feel reinvigorated and motived to write after our meetings.   One of the members  suggested I put the short story aside for a while and work on something else.  Clearly I wasn't getting anywhere trying to force the story.  A simple solution I should have come up ...

Word count: 37, 198 The Winner’s Circle. The adoring fans delight in the triumphant victory as they surround the winner. Cheers and confetti rain down, while the champion embraces their loved ones, accept gifts and gracefully bows to the acclaim. The glory to win NaNoWriMo, unfortunately, was not mine this year. Obstacles of work, holidays, a stomach virus, and exhaustion proved far more difficult than I anticipated. My typing and imagination stalled at 37,000 words and I bowed my head in defeat as the clock ticked closer and closer to 11:59 pm. An admirable attempt I think. I pushed myself to write a novel and I’m almost finished. F irst chapter tie down many writers for weeks, while I am riding the wave of the rising action about to clumsily type the climax and conclusion. In one month, I have come so far as a writer and now hold an almost complete first draft in my hands, soon to be revised. The pride I feel is comparable to the winners. What I learned abou...

Current word count: 24,051 The weekends. A time to sit down, shirk all other responsibilities and write. Let’s be serious. Melting into the couch with my boyfriend Kevin is far more appealing. Although, I found time on Saturday morning while he worked to update 13 more attraction listings for my internship and scribbled a few drab words for my much-neglected blog, but still no NaNo writing. My goal was to reach 20,000 words by Saturday so that I could get myself back on track, but I fell short of my goal. BUT, I did manage to make it up today by writing over 5,000 words! I’m a writing animal. 3,200 of those words were written in two hours at my weekly Write-In at Borders fueled by Alex’s (fellow Wrimo) yummy brownies and chocolate chip cookies that smelled like Christmas and cold-brewed marble mocha iced coffee. As the Write-In came to an end, we discussed our concerns and dilemmas with our novels. Alex asked me and one other participant, Greg, to p...

Current word count: 13,061-17,341 One caveat for NaNoWriMo participants: Avoid bookstores. Seeing the shelves of new writers, wishing my name were there, is defeatist. It leaves you in a desolate place where doubt and fear swallow you whole. Crap. All I have written is crap. Literary junk food is the only level my novel might attain, and literary is overly optimistic. The dialogue is suffocating the narration. There is too much and it’s starting to annoy me. Lexi is a silent main character. No one, including me, knows what she’s thinking. Clearly, balance does not exist in my writing toolbox. Revision is an inaccurate word to describe the next stage once I’ve finished writing. Complete overhaul sounds better. Reading my words brings on fits of despair. Don’t even get me started on the lack of interesting in my sentences. You would have thought I was a first grader just learning to put words together to make sentences. Quantity over quality. Wait,...

Current word count: 12,197 I didn’t get any NaNo writing done until 10 o’clock tonight. I worked on my internship and web design class earlier. Theresa Hegel from The Intelligencer newspaper ( http://www.phillyburbs.com/news/local/the_intelligencer.html ) interviewed me regarding my participation in NaNoWriMo. I’m excited she’s going to plug my blog in the article. Since I waited until the end of the day, I only wrote about 800 words. Fear kept me from writing today. Fear of the words needed to get back on track. How silly. I am truly enjoying the writing experience and the creation of my novel. Fear shouldn’t be able to wiggle its way into my psyche. One attempt to block fear: I place index cards with statements and words of encouragement around my writing area to spur me on. It still finds a way to paralyze my fingers and confuse my thoughts. My inner editor has been whispering through the cracks in the box its been locked in, too. Apparently my charac...

Current word count: 8,076-9,985 Well, I spent an hour and a half completing the murder scene. The victim, Ken, is dead from multiple stab wounds. Those almost two thousand words came quickly. Now, I have to get myself ready to tackle the police investigation scene next. As a former English teacher, my crime scene investigation and police procedural skills are limited to what I’ve read and seen on T.V. It’s really important that it sounds realistic. Barnes and Noble has a set of books on the shelves of the writing/publishing section covering these subjects. I could always go to the police station across the street from me and do some research as well, but I think right now I need to focus on getting the story on the page. Research, although should have been done before the writing and outlining began, will need to be done during the revision stage. I need a break.

Current word count: 5,924-8,076 Well, I have slacked off for the last 3 days. The shame has latched onto my back, pulling me down. Luckily, I met up with a few other Wrimos at Border’s for a Write-In and got myself back on track. We all accomplished 2000 words in the two hours and earned the Socializing badge. Go Team! I find working independently with other writers motivating. It was comforting to share space and talk when moved to, and encourage each other to write. A more productive environment than what is set up at my house. None of us were tempted to putter around on Facebook or e-mail for fear of being caught. We enjoyed it so much we are meeting up again next Sunday. Unfortunately, I am still further behind that I would like to be. I might try to write a bit more tonight before I go to bed, but no promises.

Current word count: 3,269-5,924 I started my day off getting my internship work and web design class completed. Now, I have all day to NaNo write. I feel more rested today, and I have more motivation. I am not working at the moment (won’t last for long), which allows me more time to get my creative flow moving. The other day I went into to my seasonal job, Williams Sonoma, and filled out my rehire paperwork. I missed the warm holiday smells of mulling spices and pumpkin and talking with some of my favorite co-workers. Some of the characters and murder location of my NaNo novel are based on employees and the store itself. Although I might lose time to write, going back might prove helpful for development of details and scenes in my story, and I might earn another NaNo badge if I secretly write at work. So far this challenge has taught me novel writing is extremely hard. After spending two hours of typing, huge waves of exhaustion crash on top of me. Then, the days I can't mu...

I’m really tired today. Writing is very exhausting. Luckily, many of the attractions updates I worked on today for my internship were not in the database. It afforded me more time to get other things done, write more, and see my boyfriend. All my grand plans were thwarted when UPS delivered my greenhouse. I was going to wait to put it together, but my mom offered her assistance. It took us about an hour and there is still one pole that is not completely in its place. It was a bitch to get together, and the frustration made us edgy. Several times either one of us would have killed someone if they stepped too close. My exhaustion rose to a new level. Because I couldn’t find the energy to write, I put my outline and character sketches on index cards. That’s where I left the day, but it a total waste it was not. My boyfriend, Kevin, came over and imparted a few words of wisdom. He told me to write about my fatigue, even if it didn’t have any...

NaNoWriMo started on Monday, and I began with a bit of a rough start. I spent the entire month of October plotting and sketching my mystery novel in my head and jotting down notes everywhere. Halloween night I finally wrote a basic synopsis, showing me the entire story from beginning to end. Then, I created the outline of basic plot points including a few notes on what information was necessary to include in each scene and leaving out any major details. This way I could really experience the creative process. It felt good to have the story staring back at me, but for some reason it didn't feel right. My nervousness began creeping in. The 2,000 words I planned to write on Monday were weighing heavily on me. Questions prayed on my already weakening confidence, leading me to think I wasn't up for the challenge. Does my story make sense? Am I going to be able to make it to the end of the month with 50,000 words written? What if I make it to the end with a terrible st...

A challenge of 50,000 words in 30 days or National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is quickly approaching. November 1st marks the day participants begin writing every day for one month in hopes of completing 50,000 words. The creators of this writing project hoped the dreams of aspiring novelists would come true by writing without inhibitions and putting the internal editor to sleep. Which, right now, is something I struggle with every time I sit in front of my computer. Here's a peek into my daily writing routine: stop every few lines, go back, reread, shift words around, stare at the screen, plan my next move, check email, walk around, and repeat. I end up with more frustration than success. Perfecting an unfinished piece does nothing but waste time. You can't properly revise writing without seeing the whole picture. Yet, I do just that and all I accomplish is a lengthy list of excuses, getting no closer to finishing a project. NaNoWriMo really challenges its partic...