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Episode 8 - Jeff Cannata

We had an excellent time talking to Jeff Cannata on the show! We went everywhere from his early days as an actor, to improv, to how to raise kids in today's world. It was a super fun interview and we think you guys are going to love it!

DLC SlashfilmCast

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NaNo Coach: What's In Your NaNo Emergency Kit?

This season we’ve brought on published authors to serve as NaNo Coaches to help guide you to reaching 50,000 words. Our first week’s NaNo Coach, Teri Brown, shares her words of wisdom below:

I’ve done NaNoWriMo three times, and won all three times (two of those NaNo drafts became published novels). To say that I love NaNoWriMo is an understatement: I love the concept, the camaraderie and the challenge. But, despite all this, it is still a huge undertaking—you need to be prepared. So I have assembled a NaNo Emergency Preparedness Kit. If I’ve left anything out, let me know:

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NaNoWriMo 2014

This year, I'm making it happen. So I made it happen last year also, but i actually didn't finish the book :(. I'm kind of depressed about that, but I know what my problem was. I got to 50k words, but I hit a major roadblock in how to make progress. I didn't have my A -> B -> C progression in place before starting.

I knew how I wanted the book to end, but I had no idea how to get there. I threw in too many characters with too many side stories and it got heavy and confusing very quickly. I know I can always go back and fix it, but I made the mistake of not getting through a rough draft during the feverish NaNoWriMo.

This year is going to be different. I've cracked the secret for success when it comes to writing a 50,000 word story:

****OUTLINE****

I need a full, detailed outline in order to succeed. I had a small beginning of an outline for my last book, but not enough to carry me through the heavy parts of the book. This time, I'm detailing every beat to the story. When I hit a roadblock there, I'm going to force myself through it. If I can't get every beat of my story written out in an outline, then how the heck do I expect to get it written out with full on paragraphs, dialogue, and all the other parts of a story.

I'm up to a major part in the story so far and I think I've got a good chunk of it in my mind and ready to go into the outline. We'll see how it goes. I'm excited about the story and the characters, and that's usually half the battle anyway.

I'm pumped this year! Let's do this!

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How I feel about heartbleed. KAHLIMAH!

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"Dude, sucking at something is the first step towards being sort of good at something"

Jake - Adventure Time

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20k!

I managed to hit 20,000 words the other night and my mind was just a bit blown. I'm having so much fun writing this thing! It's taking much longer to work my way through some of the story than I expected, but it's also given me a lot more opportunity to flesh out the characters and really get into what makes them tick.

The challenges I've faced so far have been voice for the most part. I can't decide how to represent the dialect of one of my main characters. I want it to have flair, but I don't want to make it unreadable. I also need to go back and straighten up some of the motivations behind one of them. My own personality is being reflected in more characters than I'd like. I really need to find a way to break away and make one of my characters more of a scoundrel than he currently is.

It's all working out really well though. I'm coming up on my main plot device, and I'm still struggling a bit with what my "mcguffin" is. It's either a person, or an ancient artifact. I'm leaning toward using a person, but that does complicate things by adding an additional character to my already full list. I think I'm just going to man up and write him though. It makes for a better story.

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This is amazing.

Okay, I admit to laughing while making this one.

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Wow

I have never called myself a "writer." I'm more like "a guy who occasionally writes." Though this whole NaNoWriMo thing is starting to make re-think some of that.

When I was younger, I was told by teachers to never stop writing. Apparently, they saw something in my stories about giraffes that ate too many sandwiches, and cat's that stole tuna from the grocery store. I was just a kid with a wild imagination. The sad part was that it took a homework assignment to get me to write anything. There was no better way to get my fingers on the keys, or pencil on the paper, than to put a deadline and a grade on the line. Those assignments were never a chore at all, but they gave me something to shoot for.

I was terrible at self-motivating and I still am. it's just the sad truth of my personality. You put a swinging axe over my neck, however, and I gleefully will write a story centered around whatever subject you pick.

My fourth grade teacher told my mom, shortly before our move to WV, to let the school know that I needed to keep writing. I still remember that day when she said that. My nine year old self was so proud of what she thought of my stories, and it did wonders for my self-esteem, but it only lasted so long. I was easily distracted and my teachers in WV would never really be told how awesome my stupid stories were. They would find out on their own once I started writing for their assignments.

I don't say all this to toot my own horn or anything. Having not flexed those writing muscles for YEARS has really put a damper on things. I'm started to get the engine kickstarted again, and I think I might actually be able to pull this story away from the miserable start it had. My confidence is returning, my characters are starting to take shape, and I am honestly surprised at what I've been able to achieve so far.

Thanks, NaNoWriMo, for bringing me back to the world inside my brain that I had long forgotten.

11391 words down. Let's do this.

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Day 3

I have never in my life written anything that's over 8000 words and was all part of a single story. I have no idea what I'm doing, or where it's going, but I'm excited about it. It's actually not very good at all, but I'm avoiding reading back over it. That's what the second draft is for.

So far I've introduced three of my main characters, and established at least one of their conflicts. I'm still hard at work on developing the McGuffin for the whole crew of Crooked Fellows, but it's taking longer than I expected. I'm just counting on it reading faster than it's written. I keep thinking I'm moving things a little slowly, but when I read it back, it goes pretty fast. I haven't read anything major, but I have read a paragraph here and there just to see how the pacing feels.

This has been awesome :). I can't wait to see where it goes!

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Day 1

I officially met my quota for the day and then some! 2,368 words down, only 47k more to go! I'm actually really happy about this and it didn't take too much time. i struggled through a little bit, but I think I can do this. Getting the first day down is a pretty good motivator to get through the rest of it. It's not the best writing I've ever done, but then again the first draft isn't supposed to be. I have all the time in the world to go back and spice it up once I'm done.

I hope everybody else is getting through it as well!

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I thought, okay, maybe it's time for a list of "25 Things" to do with writing a novel. Specifically. The other lists apply, of course -- plot, character, storytelling -- but this one about the mech...

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Caffeine and Alcohol

I'm pretty sure the only way that I'm going to survive the NaNoWriMo event coming up in a few days is through a lot of either caffeine or alcohol. There really isn't a lot time left for me to defeat some of the writers block monsters that are trying to kidnap my brain. I'm working through a few things, but I'm really just going to rely on my characters to get me through some of the tough parts.

We'll see how it goes!

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I found this browsing reddit the other day. What better way to motivate you? :)

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Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout with some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand.

George Orwell

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I make things up and write them down.

Neil Gaiman

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Good Old Fashioned Rest

One thing I know I'm going to need during the fast paced and crazy month of November, is some good sleep. I have a tendency to stay up too late, wake up too early, and by the end of the week I'm a zombie being kept alive by small amounts of caffeine and willpower. That's not going to cut it when trying to blow through 2000 words in a day...every day.

Even tonight I'm sitting up past my bedtime trying to just get in some writing before the day is done. I feel like I need to get used to typing things every day in order to be prepared for the word sprints I'll be doing in that first week. It's kind of like needing to stretch before you go for a run.

All this being said, I need to go to bed. I have a lot I want to say this evening, but I have an even bigger need to shut my eyes and dream about characters for a while.

[stevehnh]

“I write to give myself strength. I write to be the characters that I am not. I write to explore all the things I'm afraid of. ”

Joss Whedon