Junowrimo – Camp NaNoWriMo

By noreply@blogger.com (Alexandra Sokoloff)

Junowrimo is DONE!! Just in time for Camp Nanowrimo to kick in. With not a second’s break in between.

Gosh, that’s kind of like… a writing career. How about that? 🙂

So YAY!!! You survived! Or maybe I shouldn’t make any assumptions, there.

If you didn’t finish, which would be ENTIRELY NORMAL, because writing a book in a month is pretty crazy if not outright impossible, then you might think about using Camp Nanowrimo to spur you to the finish line.

Because if you haven’t written all the way to “The End”, then you may have survived, but you’re not done. You must get through to The End, no matter how rough it is (rough meaning the process AND the pages…). If you did not get to The End, I would strongly urge that you NOT take a break, no matter how tired you are (well, maybe a day). You can slow down your schedule, set a lower per-day word or page count, but do not stop. Write every day, or every other day if that’s your schedule, but get the sucker done.

You may end up throwing away most of what you write, but it is a really, really, really bad idea not to get all the way through a story. That is how most books, scripts and probably most all other things in life worth doing are abandoned.

But let’s say you not only survived – you DID get all the way to “The End” and you now have a rough draft (maybe very, very, very rough draft) of about 50,000 words.

Well, celebrate! You showed up and have the pages to show for it.

Then definitely, take a break.

As long a break as possible. You should keep to a writing schedule, start brainstorming the next project, maybe do some random collaging to see what images come up that might lead to something fantastic – but if you have a completed draft, then what you need right now is SPACE from it. You are going to need fresh eyes to do the read-through that is going to take you to the next level, and the only way for you to get those fresh eyes is to leave the story alone for a while.

I’ll post later about rewriting. But not now.

For those of you who did finish, I am finally getting around to a full breakdown of The Silence of the Lambs.

I don’t freaking care what genre you write in – this is MUST VIEWING for anyone who is serious about writing in any genre and any medium.

So this month, since I have just turned in a book and the pilot of the Huntress series is casting (already have the first yes that I have been hoping for!!!!!) I am occupying myself by breaking down what is one of my favorite movies/books, if not the favorite, of all time.

This film is a master class in so many things – just to name one – VISUAL and THEMATIC IMAGE SYSTEMS. Which is just what you people who have just finished a first draft should be thinking about, right about now.

The visual and thematic image systems in this classic are enough to make it worth studying.

But the book/film really is what Michael Connelly has called “a teaching book,” so it may be just what you need to give you something to concentrate on while you take a break from your own masterpiece. That’s what I’m hoping, anyway!

My analysis is already running 30 pages long and I’m not even finished yet. There are a lot of people selling a lot less – and I mean a LOT less – of a story breakdown on Amazon for 3.99 a pop. So I’m not posting it on the blog. If you want it, make sure you’re subscribed to my free STORY STRUCTURE EXTRAS LIST.

Get free Story Structure extras and movie breakdowns

And if you’re just looking for a great crime read –

Thomas & Mercer has put the entire Huntress series on sale so that readers can catch up with the series before Hunger Moon comes out. You can get any book you’ve missed for just $1.99.