Each November, writers all over the world participate in NaNoWriMo, National Novel-Writing Month. The goal of NaNoWriMo is to write 50,000 words on a novel in thirty days. A huge community forms around this shared goal every year, with aspiring authors supporting each other, providing motivation and reference resources and writing tips.

But there’s a problem with it: 50,000 words is a good challenge for a month’s worth of writing, but 50,000 words doesn’t a novel make. Not in the current adult fiction market as it stands, anyway. It’s a good start, but it’s not the whole thing. Especially not if you’re writing only with an eye to word count, which probably means a there’s a significant amount of padding going on. (Expect a post here about padding your word count closer to November 1.)

Pushing out 50,000 words in a month leaves many participants facing December with exhaustion, strained eyesight and fingers, a project that isn’t finished, and little motivation to keep going. Often, there’s no desire to even look at the work-in-progress again for a good long time. There’s a reason why National Novel Editing Month doesn’t come around until the following March.

Writer J.M. Frey (whose forthcoming novel Triptych is one of my current projects!) has suggested a strategy to give NaNoWriMo some closure. She’s proclaimed September 1st to be the start of NaNoWriMo Warm-Up. Her premise: writing 30,000 words over the two-month span of September and October will get writers in the groove for November, and will give them the opportunity to end up with an 80,000-word novel (a respectable length for a completed first draft) when all is said and done.

I think it’s an ambitious idea, but I also think that anyone who aspires to be a professional writer needs to develop the discipline to keep up a brisk writing pace for more than a single month, and needs to prioritize having a completed project above reaching an arbitrary word count. This could be a good exercise toward developing that discipline, and it’s an interesting add-on to the NaNoWriMo concept.

See the link above for more information, and let me know how it goes if you decide to participate!

The mysterious blogger who goes by the name “Authoress” was the first aspiring writer to offer up her work in progress to the infamous Miss Snark for critique. She now runs the successful writing support/critique forum Miss Snark’s First Victim, a blogspace in which aspiring writers can get feedback on their work — both from other writers, and from the volunteer efforts of a different anonymous literary agent (“Secret Agents,” naturally!) every month.

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GH: How would you describe MSFV (Miss Snark’s First Victim) in a few words?

Authoress: MSFV is a place for aspiring authors who are serious about honing their craft. Offering in-house crits, slice-of-writerly-life posts, and the popular Secret Agent contests, it’s more than just a blog–it’s a community.

GH: What inspired you to start running the Secret Agent contests?

Authoress: Well, the blog was brand new, we’d already done an in-house critique session or two, and I realized how much more fun it would be if actual agents were involved. When I came up with the “Secret Agent” name, I felt like I had a winner. The trick was going to be getting agents to say yes!

Was it difficult at first to get agents who were willing to participate? Has it become easier with the blog’s success?

I can honestly say it’s never been overly difficult; for the most part, agents have been open and enthusiastic. It was admittedly harder in the beginning, though, mostly because the blog didn’t have any history to support my invitation, as well as the fact that I was maintaining anonymity. I’m all about treating the approach to agents–whether via query or otherwise–as a simple business communique. So that’s how I set about finding my first Secret Agent. And yes, I’d say it has become easier with the blog’s success. Not only have I received requests from agents to participate, but Twitter has made it easier to network with agents as “Authoress,” leading more naturally to invitations, since they already know who I am.

Who was the first and how did you approach them?

Holly Root was my first (awesome!) Secret Agent. According to my records, she was the third agent I contacted, so really, that wasn’t too bad! Back then, I hadn’t set the limit of 50 entrants. Poor Holly critiqued 114 entries without a single complaint! Limiting the contests to 50 submissions has made it more manageable for the Secret Agents and for me, too.

How has working with agents for the site changed the way you relate to agents regarding your own fiction?

It has humanized them! Which is one of my ongoing goals as Authoress–humanizing agents so that aspiring authors don’t shake in their shoes at the thought of sending that first query. And I’ve had more than one instance where a Secret Agent offered to read my work without even knowing who I was. So I’ve been able to develop my professionalism and communication skills apart from my querying process, and then to apply those things as a querying author.

How many authors would you say have gotten connections, or signed, or published, directly due to your Secret Agent contests?

To date, we’ve had 4 agent signings as a direct result of Secret Agent contests–that is, winners chosen by a Secret Agent who were offered representation by that agent. In addition, I have a growing list of “success stories” from authors who credit feedback from a Secret Agent contest with enabling them to revise their work to the point where it led to representation by an agent. Many of these direct and indirect successes have already developed into book sales.

How much time/work would you say you put into the site per week?

My husband and I would disagree on this. ;) I don’t allow myself to work on the site on weekends, but I spend anywhere from 3 to 10 hours during the week, including everything from answering emails, hunting down new Secret Agents, beta testing the contest submissions process, writing blog posts, and tracking my visitors (yes, I stalk people). Needless to say, contest weeks are more time intensive, though they’re admittedly not as bad now that I’ve got an automated submission system. Prior to that, I had to do everything by hand. And yes, sometimes I got a little cranky.

Have you been able to benefit your own writing through the site, or through connections you make with agents for the site? Do you ever enter your own work in the contests?

Like the other aspiring authors who participate on the blog, my own writing has benefited from reading agent feedback as well as by sometimes submitting my own work to non-contest critique sessions. Because of the Secret Agent Contest’s popularity, I no longer enter. I did have the good fortune of having made a mistake a few months ago, though, and ended up with a blank entry number. Rather than post a blank entry, I grabbed the opportunity and entered my own work.

Best part? An agent lurking about the blog read my entry and wanted to see more. Needless to say, I was a bit sheepish when I told her the entry was mine.

As for connections? Not much benefit. While it may be true that a few of my ex-Secret Agents have been quicker to ask for partials and fulls, it hasn’t impacted me in a huge way. In the end, it’s still about the writing, regardless of how many “connections” one has.

GH: Absolutely. Connections only unlock the door for you. You’re still responsible for opening it, and for what you bring into the room.

Some critics of peer writing groups say that writers shouldn’t trust unpublished authors’ opinions about what it takes to be published. Do you find the authors’ critiques to be generally helpful and constructive? Do you think they guide manuscripts in the right direction?

My take is a bit contrary to that. I believe that just because a writer is published doesn’t mean he’s gifted at giving valuable feedback. While it’s true that a neophyte isn’t going to be as helpful as someone who has honed his craft, I’ve found that valuable feedback is not qualified by whether or not the author is published yet. On my blog, the critiques are generally helpful and constructive, yes. I delete the comments of occasional trolls with glee. And I’d say that, considering the success of many of my readers who give credit to the contests and critiques on MSFV, I’d say yes, the feedback seems to be guiding manuscripts in the right direction.

You bring up an important point: just because a writer gets published, doesn’t necessarily mean that they should be considered an expert in “what it takes” to get published — they could have just happened to hit it right.

That’s kind of a different angle than I usually hear, and I think it’s a great point that’s extremely easy to overlook. It’s easy to take a single experience and generalize it to black and white rules about “how things are,” when the truth is that everyone’s journey to publication is going to be different, and the same rules don’t necessarily apply to every manuscript.

Yes! That’s so true.

The feedback from a neophyte is definitely going to be different from the feedback someone who’s honed their craft, is going to be different again from the feedback from someone who is a professional agent. Have you found that to be true? How would you say that the writer feedback compares to the agents’ feedback? In general, are the suggestions from writers and agents on the same wavelength? Do you ever see writers trying too hard to find something to critique, where an agent thinks a submission is okay?

Another good question! I’ve actually seen it work both ways. Sometimes the critters will have spent a lot of time “nitpicking” an entry only to have the agent come in and say something like, “Love the voice! Would definitely keep reading!” But I’ve also seen entries with a lot of positive feedback from writers get an ultimate “thumbs down” from the Secret Agent. In general, though, I do think writers are paying closer attention to things like “too many adverbs” and “the protagonist’s name is unpronounceable”, sometimes at the expense of missing the big picture that an agent might see clearly.

According to many folks who have entered the contests, though, the feedback from both fellow writers and Secret Agents has been equally helpful. So it’s all good!

What story from the site’s history stands out most in your mind? Of a success, a critique, or anything else?

Wow, hard question! I think, in terms of “big success” stories, the one that sticks out is that of then-15-year-old Steph Bowe, who participated in the Secret Agent contest of September, 2009, with agent Ginger Clark, and then went on to sign with Ginger and sell her novel in rapid succession. (You can read the story here.) On a smaller scale, I’ve been repeatedly blown away by the support and encouragement I receive from my readers on a regular basis when I share bits of my personal journey as an aspiring author. The affirmation and loyalty has been amazing.

Is it difficult to balance your anonymity with your own writing and querying process? Does it make it difficult, for example, if you want to query to any of your Secret Agents? Or do you keep the two completely separate?

Prior to this year, I kept my two personalities separate (that sounds really odd). However, at the urging of industry professionals and a few colleagues, I began to disclose my “Authoress” identity in my queries. And the agents have done a wonderful job of keeping my secret! Aside from my close group of online critique partners, who DO know my real name, I keep Authoress and “real me” as far apart as possible. I’ve gotten frighteningly good at it!

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Authoress writes MG and YA fantasy and science fiction. She has an adoring husband and a stash of organic chocolate that keeps disappearing. (The chocolate, not the adoring husband.) She is also a classical pianist, a trained soprano, and an unabashed foodie.

You can find her at Miss Snark’s First Victim, and follow her on Twitter at @Authoress.

Since the realms of journalism and fiction-writing don’t seem to intersect as often as they should, you may have missed an interesting post this week that asks the question Can Twitter Make You a Better Editor?

We all know that Twitter is a great social media tool, connecting writers with readers and with the publishing community as a whole. But journalist Erin Everhart (@erinever in the Twitterverse) suggests that Twitter can help us actually improve our self-editing. I strongly recommend clicking over and reading her post if you haven’t.

Not only does Twitter force you to condense your thoughts into 140-character chunks, but it makes you narrow your posts down even further than that if you want them to be re-Tweeted without further editing. That means pruning your words down as far as possible, and then a little bit more.

Twitterers tend to go one of two ways: they drift into abbreviations and “text-speak” to fit their words in, or they focus on concision and economy of words and meaning.

I think there’s a blend of both that’s inevitable, but I’d say most people tend naturally toward one or the other. For writers, editors, and others in the publishing field, it’s (thankfully) the latter.

If you tend toward a lot of txt-speak in your tweets, but you want to be taken seriously as a writer, I suggest you get out of that habit. (u kno who u r.)

Since this blog is about strengthening writing, I want to suggest taking it a step further: make use Twitter’s limitations in a deliberate way, and take that 140-character limitation as a challenge. Practice expressing a lot in a single message without resorting to txt-ish shortcuts. Try condensing the plot of a classic of film or literature into a single tweet.

Can you express your story’s elevator pitch in 140 characters? In the process, you’ll be keying in on the heart of its most central conflict, possibly in a more surgical, precise way than you have before. You might learn something new about your story in the process, or just discover a more eyecatching way to express it. That’s something you can use no matter where you are in the writing process: when you’re rewriting your next draft, or when you’re crafting a compelling pitch for your query. And the need for that precision doesn’t stop when your book is published — that’s when it starts. Then you’ll need that concise summary for your marketing material, for interviews and appearances and family gatherings, and any time someone asks, “So, what’s your book about?”

To take it further, there’s a growing trend of fiction in 140: complete micro-mini short stories no longer than a single tweet. For some examples, see:

@arjunbasu
@astoryin140
@midnightstories
@microprose
@motkedapp
@tweetthemeat
@twitterfiction
@veryshortstory

How’s this for incentive? There are even some paying markets where you can submit your own microfiction. See:

@nanoism
@thaumatrope

Thinking in fewer characters can train you to make every word matter in your writing, but that Twitter can be an even better training tool if you’re aware of it and make use of it as one.

A manuscript is not a linear creature. We go back and change things. We revise a sentence. A paragraph. A concept. We reorder chapters. New content integrates with old. Ideally, it does this seamlessly.

However, a manuscript is also not a body of water. The changes made to the pages don’t ripple naturally through the rest of the text. (If only they did!) They need to be caught, by careful eye and hand. The mind is a tricky thing, and it often sees what it expects to see. When your eyes are so familiar with the words that you’re not entirely reading the page anymore, gradual or minor changes are very easy to miss.

Keeping aware of the tendency toward these kinds of mistakes is the best defense against them. Since they tend to creep stealthily into a manuscript, I call them creeps. This post will introduce you to two types of creep and discuss how you can guard yourself against them.

1. Creeping names.

You know this one. Your town starts out as Sullyville and changes to Sulleyville at some point halfway through the book. Character names, place names, and any other invented words are equally susceptible to the mid-manuscript creep.

Simple words, complex words, words with odd uses of apostrophes or hyphens, are all vulnerable! With complexity, however, comes increased vulnerability. You’re more likely to reproduce your choices correctly if you leave little room for variation. This is an especially sticky trap for science fiction and fantasy writers, whose texts are almost certain to be sprinkled with many invented words and unusual character and place names—if not a sampling of an entire invented language!

My defense against the creeping name is two-fold, but simple: I drop any invented name I expect to be seeing frequently into my spellchecker’s dictionary. That way, I’ll have a built-in notifier if any of them decide to evolve and change. I also keep a paper list of character and place names, for quick reference. Sometimes a name will creep to a valid name or word, so the spellcheck method isn’t guaranteed, but it is a great first line of defense. If I’m unsure, I can always glance down at the list on my desk for confirmation. You can avoid creeping names in your writing by doing the same. Storing character and place names in a document is also an option, but you may not always take the time to toggle back and forth between manuscript and file in the midst of inspiration. A written list that you can check at a glance is a simple tool, but an effective one.

2. Creeping NPCs.

NPC stands for “Non-Player Character.” In gaming circles, it’s a term used to indicate those incidental characters who exist only to forward a plot or facilitate a goal. The merchant from whom your characters buy their adventuring supplies, for instance, is probably a walk-on role. Once your characters leave his shop, the reader will likely never see him again. The character’s unseen brother back home, former roommate, ex-girlfriend or old high school teacher, whom he speaks about a few times but who is never seen, also counts as an NPC for our purposes.

The rule for NPCs is an obvious one: Name them once. However, several chapters and several months may go by while you’re working on your manuscript. As you’re working on chapter twenty, you may forget that Jane Doe was mentioned by name in chapter two. Or, conversely, as you’re editing in a personal touch to chapter two, you may forget that you named her in chapter twenty.

Again, a separate list comes in handy. At whatever point in the story you give your character a name, jot it down. Add their title or relation to your primary characters, as appropriate. If you give them any notable characteristics, note those, too. You can even start written biographies of sorts, of your characters, and profiles of your towns, adding to them as you name or describe relevant family members or neighbors. Usually names and vital stats are enough, but the more detail you set down, the easier it is to keep your story straight (so to speak) going forward.

Many of us keep our characters’ backgrounds in little capsules in our heads, pulling out strands or facts as needed. Setting those facts down in an easily referenced way can help the writer, and even inspire ideas for character development or transitionary scenes, and it can help the editor as well. Forward your lists along with your manuscript! If your sister is Jane in chapter two and Susan in chapter twenty, it’ll save both of us a query later on if I already know which name she prefers to go by. Not that your sister is, you know… a creep.

(reprinted from July, 2008)

We’ve all gotten so accustomed to having the Internet at our fingertips no matter where we are, that it’s easy to forget that there are other resources available to us.

One of the benefits of going to the library and looking things up in actual books, is that in the process of doing your research, you may find ancillary information that fits in even better with your needs. Internet research can be almost too direct, at times: ask a specific enough question and you will only receive its specific answer. Sometimes a broader search can highlight options that might be a better fit for your story, or can serve as springboard to launch your ideas or solve something that might have you stuck.

I think that, these days, we’re also conditioned away from asking questions to real live people. Either we’re afraid we’ll look stupid, or we’re too concerned about being a bother, or we convince ourselves (usually for one of those reasons I just mentioned) that we’ll be turned away.

But the reality is that there are people who not only enjoy helping others to find the information that they need, but who have chosen to make a career out of it. Experts in a field will almost always be gracious to a writer who expresses a genuine interest in writing accurately about that field. Librarians are equally gracious about guiding you to the resources you need.

Stern “silence please” stereotypes aside, librarians are, on the whole, friendly and curious people. In my experience, if you present them a challenge and they don’t know how to help you, they will become genuinely interested in finding the answer. They may even adopt your quest for information as their own. They’ll be happy to continue assisting until they’ve tracked down satisfactory resources for you to continue your search, if not an actual result.

When you’re researching, remember to look beyond the Internet to other sources: books, living experts on a subject, and information specialists. Sometimes the network can put too much data at your fingertips, and other resources might provide a faster — or more interesting — path to what you need.

I’ve got a light schedule… which is good, because Dragon*Con is full of things to do and people to see! You can catch up with me at:

SAT Sept 4, HILTON 204, 10:00 AM
Podcasting Authors Roundtable.
Join a roundtable discussion of working writers who utilize podcasting to distribute and promote their work.
Panelists: Scott Sigler, Gail Z. Martin, Michael A. Stackpole, Christiana Ellis, P.G. Holyfield, Gabrielle Harbowy

SAT Sept 4, HYATT Regency V Ballroom, 4:00 PM
5th Annual Parsec Awards
The Parsec Awards recognize excellence in Speculative Fiction Podcasting

Or drop me a line on Twitter or via the contact tab above.

Consider this a demonstration of two things: how slowly things in publishing can seem to move, and how quickly momentum can build. And consider it an invitation to be a part of it.

You’ve been listening to me talk about Geist by Philippa Ballantine for quite a while now. I had the honor and pleasure to work with Pip on the copyediting of this manuscript before it was purchased by Ace, so it’s been very exciting for me to see Pip and the book go through the whole corporate publishing process.

Now, at long last, release date is almost upon us. The book has a gorgeous cover by artist Jason Chan, a compelling story and a cast of unforgettable characters in a world with its own unique brand of magic.

I’ve loved this story for a long time, and I keep falling in love with it all over again. Soon, you’ll have that chance, too. In the meantime, you can be part of the process. Go to Pip’s blog and read this post to learn how you can do your part to spread the word, show the publisher that this book is in demand, and make the difference that will keep the series going until its story is told.

In this new world model of publishing, the traditional gatekeepers — editors, agents, publishers — are finding themselves in a slightly different position. Self-publishing is on the rise, and anyone dissatisfied with “the system” can choose to detour around the gates and the gatekeepers entirely. But that does not encourage the gatekeepers to abandon their posts; quite the contrary, in fact.

Over at Black Gate Magazine, my friend Peadar Ó Guilín explains why the gatekeepers are still with us, and why they’re important.

As a gatekeeper, I can tell you that there is a vast sea of fiction out there that is fantastic, but it’s a drop in a larger ocean of work that is unpolished, not self-aware of the fact that it has flaws, and just not ready to be published. It’s unfortunate that the writers who pen great works are the ones who are self-conscious of their writing and are more prone to be the ones to wonder if it’s good enough, while the ones who have the longest way to go are sometimes the most blind to that fact.

The gatekeepers try to add balance and perspective. Getting rejected is frustrating, but sometimes it’s for a writer’s own good. Working with the system and improving to reach that bar requires learning, dedication, and talent. Bypassing the system perhaps seems easier, and in rare cases it can have good results. But in the long run it isn’t necessarily best for the writer (who loses out on a chance for professional advice and guidance) or for the reader (who must wade through more quantity to find quality).

DESTINY’S BLOOD by Marie Bilodeau (Dragon Moon Press, 2010) is now available from Barnes&Noble.com.

Marie will be officially launching the novel at CAN•CON (Ottawa, Aug 20-22), where she is guest of honor.

Layela Delamores wants nothing more than to settle into a quiet, peaceful life, running a small flower shop with her twin sister, Yoma. But Layela is tormented each night by terrifying visions that she cannot remember when she wakes. When Yoma vanishes, Layela is certain that her nightly visions hold the key – but only her sister’s thieving friend, one of the last survivors of the ether races, can unlock them. Layela suspects that her friend isn’t telling her the whole truth, instead sheltering her from her own visions.

Ripped from the safety of her flower shop into a universe of smugglers and assassins, Layela must pursue her sister across space in a desperate bid to overcome the destiny of destruction foretold in her dreams.

But without full knowledge of her visions, Layela has no way to prevent them from coming to pass. And the fate of a whole world is on the line: the mythical First Star is on a path to self-destruction and the annihilation of all life. Unless Layela finds a way to stop it.

But to stop it would mean sacrificing her sister. Or herself.

Marie Bilodeau loves to make things up, which is why she’s both a performing storyteller and an author. She’s performed in bars, pubs and tea shops across most of Canada, telling modernized fairy tales, myths, and stories of nuns scratching her butt. To breathe new life into her tales and increase their audience, she’s also morphed some of her stories into podcasts. Her published works include a fantasy trilogy, the Heirs of a Broken Land series, and the space fantasy novel, Destiny’s Blood. Her short fiction has also appeared in anthologies and magazines. For more information on Marie and to check out what’s next, go to www.mariebilodeau.com.

The 2010 Parsec Award Finalists have been announced, and I’m quite pleased to see my story “Swimming Lessons” from P.G. Holyfield’s Tales of the Children anthology listed in the Best Speculative Fiction Story (Short Form) category!

I’m up against some serious competition. It’s an honor to even be nominated alongside writers like Peter Watts, Mike Resnick, Scott Sigler and Tim Pratt.

Congrats, also, to all the rest of this year’s nominees!

The Parsec Award ceremony will be held at DragonCon on Saturday, September 4 at 4 PM in the Hyatt’s Regency V Ballroom.