NaNoWriMo Daily Cookies: 30 days of support & encouragement

[Sommer Leigh]

Day 28.

One of the best resources I’ve ever found for writing is a site called Magnatunes.

( http://www.magnatunes.com/ )

You might be wondering, A music download site is your best resource for writing? And the answer is yes. I love having music playing in the background when I’m writing, especially if it sets the atmosphere for a scene I am writing, but it cannot have lyrics. There are two reasons for this: 1) I can’t concentrate on my words when I’m filled with lyrics and 2) If it is a song I like I can’t stop myself from singing along, which totally breaks my concentration. (Also I am an embarrassingly bad singer.)

Magnatunes is a fantastic resource that is sort of like iTunes for artists who aren’t going through big production companies to put their music out there. You can listen to all of the music on Magnatunes for free and if you want to download the music, have limited licensing use of the music for things like book trailers, and the ability to embed the music in your website/blog, the subscription is pretty reasonably priced with a 7 day free trial. But like I said, you don’t have to pay for a subscription to just listen to the music, which is what I’d done for a long time before I decided I wanted to download it. Also, the artists get a huge chunk of royalties for their music, more than they might get with producing music in the traditional way.

Their tag line is “We are not evil” and that is kind of awesome.

Most of the albums have no lyrics and are incredibly ambient. There is a huge range of music from relaxing forest sounds to beautiful classical pieces to lyric-less rock’n'roll.


I discovered Magnatunes after playing the Xbox arcade game Braid, a platform puzzle game by Jonathan Blow. It is one of the most enjoyable, philosophically intriguing video games I have ever played and it shows how much you can do with a tiny budget and a passionate one man staff. Braid has a very haunting, emotionally spellbinding soundtrack and it can only be found on Magnatunes. I listen to it a lot when I’m writing.

(I have sample music embedded on my blog if you want to listen that way, or just follow the link to their website. I couldn't embed here. http://www.sommerleigh.com )

Braid Soundtrack: ( http://magnatune.com/artists/albums/braid-soundtrack )
Another more upbeat and cinematic album is Circles by Darko Saric: ( http://magnatune.com/artists/albums/darkosaric-circles )

[bcomet]

Sommer,
These posts have been G.R.E.A.T.
Thanks so much!

As I stand here on the brink, at 47,010 words, I realize I have you to thank a LOT for making it this far.
Also, I realize (like so many of us) that before the first draft is complete, I will still have a good 40,000 words to go after Tuesday's end.
I am trying to plan and pace a schedule of a more modest size for that: 700 words a day,(i.e. a minimum of two pages or one scene, whichever is longer) Monday-Thursday, starting in January for the "completion." (I also realize, that schedule might have to go at the most, through March, which, in the scheme of writing a novel, is still a relatively short span for a first draft.)

If you're game...
go for coaching that too!!

But for all you've done here: Thank You!

bc

[Mira]

I agree - I continue to be so grateful for these tips. I'm not doing NaNo, but I'm finding alot of them really helpful.

You are so AWESOME, Sommer!! Thank you.

[Sommer Leigh]

Day 29.

When NaNoWriMo is all over I'm going to redo my office.

For the past month I've been camped out with my laptop at the coffee table in the living room because books have overwelmed my office writing space. I decided though that after a month of blogging about NaNoWriMo every day and actually writing for NaNoWriMo every day, I deserve to fix my writing space.

So because I'm starting to burn out and because I'm so looking forward to redecorating my office, I want to share with you writing spaces to drool over courtesy of SaucyDwellings on Livejournal ( http://community.livejournal.com/saucyd ... tag/office ). If you have a particularly awesome space, please share!

You've done a lot of work and you totally deserve a prize. How are you going to celebrate finishing NaNoWriMo?

-------------------------------------------------------------------

[Sommer Leigh]

Day 30.



On the final day of NaNoWriMo I want to share with you my hero. I discovered his writing through a comic book/graphic novel series he wrote and from there I gleefully hunted down his novels, his weird and wonderful graphic novels, and all of his brilliant essays. I chased down hard to find novellas on ebay and I devoured every word he ever wrote. He was the sort of author I wanted to emulate. His dark, beautiful world was the sort of world I wanted to play in. I wanted to try out a hundred different forms of storytelling, just like him.

( http://www.neilgaiman.com/)

Neil Gaiman is a legend. He's done comics, essays, movies, novels, sequels, children's books, plays for voices, and television shows. He's collaborated with musicians and artists, sculptors and producers. He's brilliant and funny and humble and real. He gives great advice.

His essay Some Strangeness in the Proportion: The Exquisite Beauties of Edgar Allan Poe ( http://www.neilgaiman.com/p/Cool_Stuff/ ... Allan_Poe. ) is about the way Poe influenced and mesmerized him which, as it turns out, is nearly word for word the way I've felt about his own writing since I was a teenager. I think we all have author heroes, authors we want to be like, and they invite us to experiment with words and worlds and ideas in a way we may not have ever given ourselves permission to do without them quietly influencing us.

Maybe this would have been a good cookie to start out with on November 1st, but what I think we really need is to give ourselves permission, and find inspiration, to continue exploring the boundaries of our talents and ideas and to push beyond November. NaNoWriMo may be over, but the spirit of creation and imagination doesn't have to be. Give yourself permission to tap into the excitement of November whenever you need to. Give yourself permission to be awesome. Give yourself permission to suck. Give yourself permission to just see what happens.

So I'll leave you with Neil Gaiman reading his poem "Instructions" about how to make it through a fairy tale (advice I think we could all use), and his essay on Poe, and it may inspire you or it may not. If it doesn't, I invite you to find something of your own author hero and post it here. Share with everyone what inspires you so that it might inspire someone else.

I'll see you all at the finish line at midnight tonight.

-Sommer Leigh


Poe's stories -- even his humourous tales, even his detective stories -- are populated by amnesiacs and obsessives, by people doomed to remember what they desire only to forget, and are told by madmen and liars and lovers and ghosts. They are powered by what remains untold as much as by what Poe tells us, each of them split and shivered by a crack as deep and as dangerous as the fissure that runs from top to bottom of the gloomy house inhabited by Roderick and Madeline Usher. -Neil Gaiman



Never tried Gaiman before? Here's some good places to start:
The Sandman series - for great storytelling and awesome artwork
Two Plays for Voices - These are on CD
Neverwhere - a beautiful, terrifying story of the world beneath London
American Gods - religious mythology woven into a very modern fairy tale
Mirrormask - a movie by Gaiman about strange circus people, evil queens, and a world that can give Tim Burton a run for his money
Coraline - children's novel, graphic novel, and movie. Possibly one of the creepiest stories I've ever read.
The Graveyard Book, Anansi Boys, Good Omens, Odd and the Frost Giants, Adventures in the Dream Trade, Fragile Things, Smoke and Mirrors, Stardust, The Tragical Comedy or Comical Tragedy of Mr Punch, Violent Cases, and so many more.

[bcomet]

Woo Hoo! Did it. 50,000 words in one month.
Completely insane.

Thanks, Sommer! You are Awesomely-Awesome!