Category: Musings

Well the first full week of 2014 NaNoWriMo is in the books for me. As of this posting I’ve written over 12,000 words. Pretty great start especially compared to last year at this time when the first couple of days were really rough for me.

During this week I earned two of my milestone rewards. By Monday I earned my first reward at 5,000 words: a couple of cupcakes from a local, award winning bakery. Food is a powerful motivator for me.

By the end of the week I had earned my next reward at 10,000 words. For that milestone I get to buy a puck from our local hockey team. I’m a woman of simple pleasures.

Having a list of affirmations embedded into my word count spreadsheet has contributed to me keeping my sanity and energy up. Admittedly it has been hard for me to follow my own rule of just stepping away from my work for the day and relaxing. My brain is still amped up from writing that after a short break I find myself wanting to go back. But then my right wrist and fingers start hurting reminding me that physically I am done.

I’m feeling much more comfortable, calm, and relax this year which has had a huge impact on my productivity. My word count has also benefited from being more prepared and organized. So far I’m loving my spiral bound index cards as I have found that flipping through it each day to pick a scene cuts down on trying to figure out what to write. It’s also helpful because if I’ve feel pressed for time I can pick a shorter scene.

Since I’m trying this new system out, I haven’t tackled anything requiring me to look at my research. This upcoming week, though, I’m planning at least a couple of scenes that require reviewing research next week. Ideally I’d like to get as many of those scenes done before Thanksgiving week.

At this point I’m feeling pretty confident going into week #2. My upcoming goals, besides meeting the 25,000 words milestone, are to go to at least one of the NaNo write-ins in my area. I’m also going to make myself do more activities outside so as to clear my mind and just enjoy myself.

Here’s hoping that everyone else participating in NaNoWriMo is having a good week. If not then there’s still plenty of time to get going. Even if you don’t finish the book this month, just try to get to that 50,000 words mark.

In 2013 I participated in my first ever NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). I won it which means I completed the challenge of writing at least 50,000 words during the month of November.

In the year since I’ve learned a lot not just about the craft of writing, but about my own writing process. For example, after letting that first novel sit for a few months I decided to revise it. However, in the course of that painful process I discovered instead of revising I wound up writing another novel. Equally crappy and confusing as hell as the first book leading me to wonder what exactly was I thinking.

For a while I stressed over the fact I hadn’t revised my NaNo novel. I mean, wasn’t I supposed to be doing that for the early part of 2014? How can I learn about novel writing if I don’t revise the bloody thing? Finally I determined that both my 2013 NaNo novel and its supposed rewrite-turn-another-novel were just those fabled practice novels one writes but leaves it in the metaphorical drawer never to be touched again. Realizing those manuscripts weren’t worth the effort to fix is also part of the novel writing process.

Another epiphany came regarding my writing process. Apparently for me I do things differently depending if I want to write a novel versus a short story. When it comes to short stories I write in order from point A to point B. When it comes to writing a novel, though, I wrestled a lot with forcing myself to write in order even though there were days I wanted to work more on the middle or ending. It’s not how I think of the story at all. When the ideas and characters come to me they don’t come in a neat line; they’re all over the place. I think in non-sequential scenes so why should I force myself to write that way? After all, last year I typed up each day’s work into its own separate Word file and then combined it into one monster mess of a file.

So this year my strategy and preparation are different from 2013.

Firstly, I am determined to write the historical fiction novel I have researched extensively and have had the story and characters with me for years. I’ve dusted off said research and have been furiously working with Scrivener setting up folders to dump it into so that it’s all organized.

Secondly, I read The Writer’s Compass by Nancy Ellen Dodd and it gave me a lot of good tips that boosted my confidence not only in the story I want to write, but also loads of analytical questions to ask of my story and characters. It’ll be interesting applying this knowledge to the revisions.

Thirdly, this year will be completely different because I won’t be in the middle of selling a house, flying across the country to buy a house, arranging a massive move, and trying to write a novel. I bit off more than what was probably healthy but my hope with NaNoWriMo 2013 was to take my mind away from the real world. I should have known, given my personality, it would add to my stress level. Probably why I wrote a Steampunkish novel using a character I’d previously written about in a short story.

Fourthly, as I mentioned above, I think of stories in non-sequential scenes. This is how I’m going to write it. Each day will be one scene. I’ve been jotting down scenes and hope to have at least 30 scenes to work on. If I come up with more, that’s great because I know this book will be well over 50,000 words. Instead of focusing on a specific word count each day, like the main purpose of NaNo is, my goal will be to get one scene done a day. Once I’m done with all the scenes I’ll compile them into their approximate order before revision.

Fifthly, I am going to try to be much kinder to myself in all areas. If I feel a meltdown coming on I will allow myself to have it. Physically I will make more of an effort to keep up with my exercise routine adding going for a walk around the neighborhood to relieve stress. Mentally I am going to add in a lot more time to just decompress. If I feel like taking a nap after I’ve done my scene or if I’m stuck, then I’ll do that. I’ll play video games without guilt. I’ll read non-historical fiction books in November. In short, I’ll allow myself to just be.

Lastly, one of the more fun aspects of prepping for this year’s NaNoWriMo has been to determine what my rewards will be. I’ve written these down in the Excel spreadsheet I’m using to keep track of my word total. I’ll see these every day as well as a short reminder list of things like ‘Breathe’ and ‘Once done with a scene, just chill for the rest of the day’ on it.

I know the rough draft will be garbage. I know I will miss a ton of details, but the main point is to get the skeleton of the story down. Revision is for slapping the veins, arteries, muscles, tendons, internal organs, and skin onto the skeleton to make it complete.

Pen names. The official definition of a pen name is a pseudonym adopted by an author. Reasons for doing this vary; some authors choose them for pragmatic reasons, some due to societal or cultural standards, and sometimes just for the fun of it.

The history of the pen name is fascinating. In some cultures it is considered egotistical to sign a piece of work with your own name so either you don’t or you create another name. This may make it difficult to trace the original author, but in a way it’s a great idea. It draws attention to the work rather than to the author. Might also make it easier to deal with criticism if no one knows you really wrote it.

For other cultures it is standard to assume a different identity. For example, Japanese haiku writers adopt a haigo (pen name) which can change over time. In other parts of the world, an author’s pen name is added to the end of their real name so that when they publish it is a distinction between the person as an author vs. the person in their everyday life.

Below are more common reasons why a person may choose, or be forced to choose, a pseudonym.

Job restrictions: Sometimes an author has the kind of job that if he or she were to publish a story under their own name they could face being fired. Say you work for the government and want to write fictionalized accounts of corruption and decide to use people you work with as the basis for characters. Others, by the nature of their jobs, are simply flat out restricted from publishing a book regardless of subject matter.

Gender: Unfortunately, this mainly applies to women. For a long time women were barred from publishing under their own name as it was felt no one would buy books written by a woman. Something about not having the intellectual capacity or that it would be wrong for a woman to earn money on her own. A few examples include Mary Ann Evans, better known as George Eliot, and the Bronte sisters who all used Bell as a last name and more masculine versions of their first names.

For other female authors the choice to use a pen name comes down to genre and subject matter. S.E. Hinton, author of The Outsiders, probably would not have been taken seriously if a book about a group of teenage boys and their rough upbringing had been published under Susan Eloise Hinton. D.C. Fontana, one of the writers for the original Star Trek series, as well as other shows, wrote science fiction, a world that was and still is, male-dominated. J.K. Rowling was convinced to use her initials because it was felt the Harry Potter books would sell better if readers weren’t aware a woman had written stories with a young male as the protagonist.

Yet occasionally a woman is allowed to publish and succeed using her own name. Mary Shelley’s name was attached to Frankenstein in the second edition published in France in 1823. Granted, when it originally came out it in 1818 it was published anonymously although Shelley and her husband had written an introduction for the book.

Multiple genres: In an effort to not be pigeon holed or affect sales of other works, an author sometimes will choose a pen name for each genre they publish in. Usually this is a decision made ahead of time between the publisher and the author for fear if the author’s new genre doesn’t sell well it could negatively impact sales of the author’s other, more successful genre. For example, Henry Turtledove writes science fiction but for his historical novels, he writes under H.N. Turtletaub.

Or the author simply wants to try something new. C.S. Lewis used Clive Hamilton to publish his poetry and N.W. Clerk to publish a book dealing with bereavement.

Misc. reasons: Unbeknownst to some parents, there already exists an author with the same or a similar name to the one you just bestowed on your future scribe. Not your fault; how were you supposed to know? In order to avoid confusion a writer can simply pick another name. The great Prime Minister of England, Winston Churchill, wrote under Winston S. Churchill because at the time, there was already a well-known American novelist of the same name. Amazing. I bet most people didn’t even realize there was an author named Winston Churchill.

Other writers decide to use a pen name because their regular name doesn’t sound appropriate for their chosen genre. Western writer Zane Grey’s real first name is Pearl but he knew no one would buy a western written by Pearl Grey hence the manlier sounding Zane.

Some writers, a small group, like to have multiple names because they wish to get published more within the same genre but don’t want to appear to be greedy taking up all the available space even if the reality is they are doing just that.

Then there are those cheeky people, like Benjamin Franklin, who just seem to like to publish under a variety of names. Franklin alone had 9 pseudonyms including 3 female ones. Not to be outdone by a founding father, Dean Koontz has 10 pen names in addition to publishing under his own.

Finally, some just choose a pen name just because. In my case I chose the name DH Hanni because my actual name is really long. Danielle Huffman-Hanni on a book cover would probably pose a lot of problems for a publisher; it limits title length and perhaps even the cover art. Plus, some people might view my name as pretentious and assume I write like that (which I don’t). Lastly, should I ever obtain the kind of level of success where I’m asked to sign books, DH Hanni is so much easier and faster for me to write and make moderately legible.

I will leave you all with this existential question: Is it the author that makes the name or the name that makes the author?