The Comic Sans Experiment

It's the first of November so once again I will be participating in the annual madness that is National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo. I've written other posts about NaNoWriMo in the past but for those of you who aren't familiar with it, NaNo is when writers across the globe come together and cheer each other on as they attempt to write a 50,000 word novel during the month of November. It's both insane and fun. Yes, I understand that I may have a somewhat skewed interpretation of the word "fun" and yes, I know there are people out there who routinely write more than 50K words a month. NaNoWriMo isn't for them, it's for the rest of us.

However, this year I am going to change things up a bit. Recently, one of my friends shared a post on Facebook about how writing using the Comic Sans font can make you more productive. Screen shots of the post are shown below:

I even did an internet search on the phrase "does using Comic Sans make you more productive." The first page of results was nothing but article after article stating that yes, it does.

In a way, it makes sense. Times New Roman is very formal and is The Official Font of Everything. Editors and publishers want our manuscripts in Times New Roman (double-spaced, thank you very much) and, during my almost thirty-four years as an employee of the federal government, Times New Roman was a requirement for all of our official correspondence. I suspect the same is true for most private organizations as well. Comic Sans is a more laid-back font, the type of font willing to kick back and watch the games with you on the weekend. So, when we're typing in Times New Roman, as I am now, our subconscious knows that whatever we're working on, even a rough first draft, must be a Big Deal so we are mentally typing at attention, second-guessing each word and self-editing ourselves to the nth degree. To me, it seems only logical that using a less formal font such as Comic Sans let our subconscious know that hey, this isn't the be-all-end-all, it's okay to just relax, be creative, and let the words flow.

So, during this NaNoWriMo, I'm going to conduct The Comic Sans Experiment and see if it really helps me be more productive. If it does, I'll probably do all of my writing in Comic Sans from now on. After all, it's easy to change the font of a document before submitting it. I'll post an update on the outcome next month.

Have any of you tried using Comic Sans to improve your productivity?

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Who's in Charge Here?

The insanity of National Novel Writing Month is over and I am pleased to announce that for the first time in four years, I achieved a win! I crossed the 50,000 word threshold on November 29th - one day early. This year was really important to me. After struggling for so long, I needed to prove to myself that I can still do this writing thing and I did. Go, me!

I was what would be classified as a NaNo Rebel, which is appropriate since I tend to be a bit of a quiet rebel in most aspects of my life. As a rebel, I didn't spend my month working on one novel. I actually worked on two! The first 20,000 words I put toward finishing the long overdue first draft of Dances with Werewolves, the second full-length novel in my Kudzu Korners sweet paranormal romance series. The last 30,000 words were put toward the first draft of a stand alone fantasy romance, Blood Lines.

I am not an outliner and never have been. Even in my school days, I never understood how I could be expected to write an outline. I mean, how am I supposed to know what I'm going to write about until I write it? I call myself a plantster - a combination of the words "plotter" and "pantser." A pantser writes by the seat of their pants. I don't go into a story completely blind though. For me a story usually starts with the title. When I start writing, I know who my main characters are, how the story begins, how it ends and a few random scenes in the middle. The rest of the story unfolds as I write which mean that the characters occasionally throw me a curve. When I was writing Dial V for Vampire, the hero suddenly offered the heroine a job. It wasn't what I had intended but I made it work, and honestly, it was better that what I originally intended.

After spending the last couple of weeks working on Blood Lines, I have decided that I am not in control of this story at all. *facepalm*

It all started with a secondary character. He was supposed to start off as a jerk but I expected him to grow and be the gruff guy with a heart of gold. I even had a big role for him to play in the story. It turns out, he's not just a jerk, he's both a complete a**hole and the antagonist. Not what I expected but okay. There was another character who could play the role I expected of him. The only problem with that was... she died. Seriously?

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Don't get me wrong. I actually enjoy the unexpected twists and turns that happen while writing. It was just the sheer number of twists that were popping up that was getting rather amusing. I have no doubt that whatever the characters throw my way, the story will be better for it.

On another note, my husband doesn't understand how this happens at all. "What do you mean? These are your characters. You created them. How can they not do what they are supposed to do?" I have explained that it's like having kids - you give them life then they go off and do their own thing. I even showed him this quote to prove that it's not just me.

Now, it's time for me to keep the momentum I started in November going into December and beyond. Wish me luck!

Until next month, Happy Holidays!

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NaNoWriMo and the Monster Within, Part II

For my very first post for Fire Star Press I wrote about National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and why it works for me. Once again, NaNoWriMo is upon us and I am busily pounding out words, determined to hit the 50,000 word goal for the first time in several years. Therefore, in the interest of time, I am borrowing a post from my personal blog and updating it a bit. I hope you enjoy!

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As defined on the official web site, “National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to creative writing. On November 1, participants begin working towards the goal of writing a 50,000-word novel by 11:59 PM on November 30.” It is a completely insane idea that is also completely doable. This marks my eighth year of participating in the chaos that is NaNoWriMo. I “won” in 2011, 2012, and 2014 completing 50,000 plus words before the November 30th deadline. The other years all fell short for various reasons.

I'm a huge fan of NaNoWriMo and probably make it sound like it's all unicorns farting rainbows. Alas, it is not. All these years I have harbored a deep, dark secret. I thought that I was the only one until I saw the following tweet from Derek L Reiner (@DerekReiner) on November 16, 2014:

#NaNoWriMo turns me into someone I don’t like. I doubt I could write professionally as the deadlines would turn me into a monster.

I could have hugged the man. I am not alone! I could finally air my dirty little secret – NaNoWriMo turns me into a monster. There. I said it. For thirty days, my world revolves around reaching the 50k goal and heaven help those who get in my way. In order to write 50,000 words in thirty days, you must write an average of 1667 words per day. Life being what it is, I don’t get to write every day which means that I have to double up on other days. I find myself struggling to be nice to those around me. Heaven help my hubby if he invites me to go to a movie, or something else equally innocent.  He deserves better than the response he receives. I snarl at him, my newly grown NaNo fangs dripping venom: “A movie? Are you kidding me? It’s NaNoWriMo – I’ve got 2000 words to write! I don’t have time for a movie.” He slinks off to hide in another room while my claw-tipped paws return to tapping out words.

Okay, that may be a slight exaggeration, but only just. Most of the time in November I seem like a normal, friendly, middle-aged woman. Most of the time I manage to keep my sarcastic replies locked away inside. On the outside I say “A movie is a wonderful idea! What would you like to see?” while on the inside the NaNo monster howls and threatens to burst out of my chest and rampage through the Nostromo, sparing no lives. Wait, wrong monster. Any way, you get the idea.

To make matters even worse, November is when we celebrate both Thanksgiving and my birthday. The past few NaNos have not gone well for me. November turned out to be the month when an elderly parents health began to fail or one of them passed away. Now that they are no longer with us, my husband has stepped up to fill in the gap and will be having surgery on the shoulder he damaged while we were getting our house ready for Hurricane Michael. So, now that I think about it, may the real monster is November. It senses my determination to compete and throws obstacles in front of me - occasionally insurmountable ones.

However, I'm entering this year's NaNo with a different mindset. Yes, I would like a successful year to prove to myself that I can still do this. However, the past few years have taught me that it's okay to not "win" - it's not the end of the world. So, win or lose at the end of the month I will have quite a few words written that I didn't have before and I'll have a novel ready to go into revisions. So, whether it's a "win" under NaNoWriMo guidelines or not, it will still be a win for me.

Do you NaNo?

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