Had an unscheduled hiatus due to some familial duties. I’ve still been reading though (and updating my 2010 reading list if you’re curious), just haven’t been blogging about it.

Slowly things are getting back to normal so the blogging should pick up soon.

I had planned to do the 24 Hour Read-a-Thon this year—even had a book pool filled with books perfect for this Halloween season picked out—but I’d thought it was tomorrow. Turns out I was wrong and it was today. To all those officially participating in the read-a-thon, I’m there with you in spirit, reading unofficially. Press on, have fun, read lots.

For the infinitely curious, here’s a small sampling of my planned pool:

Plus a few short stories thrown in for good measure, selected from Nightmares & Dreamscapes by Stephen King.

And can you believe it’s October already? That means NaNoWriMo is less than a month away. I thought about whether I’d like to participate this year, and the answer is of course yes. It’s simply too hard to resist.

Although I’ve been feeling the creative juices lately, I hadn’t been writing as much. I’d jot a quick note here or there, or a sentence or two, but nothing serious. Instead I’ve been working mainly on short stories or outlines for longer stories. NaNoWriMo will give me an opportunity to take one of those seedling ideas and transform it into a shitty first draft.

Again I plan to use the Liquid Story Binder software. (Jesse might even give the same 50% discount throughout the month of November that he did last year, so if you haven’t already, it’s time to set your sights on it.) Although I have a fairly good system worked out for new novels, I’m planning to tweak that system to incorporate more Builders (which I absolutely love for writing short stories).

But, for the non-writerly types, I plan to keep this blog mainly about books and my readings and other musings and keep all my writing and NaNoWriMo stuff to my actual writing blog (which is in sore need of an update or three).

Finally, this has been clunking around in my head for some time now, but I’m planning a number of changes around the blog. The first of which might be the design. Although I’ve grown quite fond of it, I think it’s about time to change the look, especially since I’m planning to expand the blog a bit.

Which brings me to my second point: I’m planning to expand the blog a bit. Right now I have a sidebar which lists the books I’m “currently” reading and books which I’ve “recently” read, but they’re dreadfully out of date. Rather than fight with them every so often, I plan to move the “currently” reading section to its own page where I’ll just list my entire TBR pile. I’ll keep the recently read section and update it periodically.

Also, I’ll be starting up a Comment Rewards program. Basically, I have a ton of books which need new loving homes. Some I’ll inevitably donate, but I figure my readers might enjoy some of them. So I’ll set up a comments rewards bookshelf where I’ll select a commenter at random once every couple of weeks to choose a book from the shelf.

All commenters are eligible (as long as a valid email address was provided during commenting), past or present or future. More comments equal more chances to be chosen. That’s it. Assuming all goes well, it will become a long term feature of the blog. I’ll make a formal announcement post when I’m rolling out with it.

And that…is the update.

It’s Thursday and you know what that means…another edition of Booking Through Thursday is here.

This week’s question is: …do you have any grammar books? Punctuation? Writing guidelines? Style books? More importantly, have you read them? How do you feel about grammar in general? Important? Vital? Unnecessary? Fussy?

This is a subject near and dear to my heart. I could go on forever, but I’ll try to restrain myself.

To answer the first part of the question, I do. While I was organizing and cataloging my books, I decided to organize and catalog my writing, grammar, and style guides separately and learned I had somewhere around twenty (not including books on the craft of writing or storytelling). And yes, I’ve read them. In fact, I refer to some of them on an almost daily basis.

To answer the second part of the question, yes, I do feel grammar is important. It’s more important than some people realize because we often don’t notice it until it’s egregiously bad. Good grammar helps convey a message with ease. Poor grammar, however, stymies it.

With the proliferation of texting, instant messaging, tweeting, and other mediums which limit the amount of time devoted to crafting a grammatically correct message, it’s as though we get to watch grammar die a slow and painful death at the hands of technology.

People may say grammar doesn’t matter as long as the point gets across, and to a degree that’s true. Grammar doesn’t need to be perfect all of the time (and I’ll be the first to admit I have my moments), but it’s important to be mindful of how your grammatical choices enhance or detract from your writing. It takes more mental power to process a passage that uses poor grammar than one which uses good grammar.

The NaNo board still isn’t complete; it’s only halfway done, but I figured I might as well post up a progress report.

In case you’re wondering, yes those are pictures of Paul Walker. I was watching Into the Blue the other day and all of a sudden, I jumped up and screamed, “OMG! It’s Rick! It’s Rick!”

Of course, now my craziness is showing, but to explain, Rick Dawson is one of the main characters in my NaNoWriMo novel and he goes through many, many changes in the story; I needed someone who could visually pull it off. Paul Walker goes from a sweet pretty boy (upper left corner) to a gritty bad boy (bottom right corner) just like my MC.

Unfortunately, I still haven’t found the perfect visual example of my leading lady and I’m afraid I may have to break down and draw her, but I’m keeping hope alive. (If you know of any young biracial models or actresses, please let me know.)

In the center of the NaNo board, I have the calendar that I printed from deviantART and colored in with water colors.

To its left is my Magna Carta I, all the things I like in a novel, and to its right is the Magna Carta II, all the things I dislike in a novel.

I still need to include the mind map cloud thing because it would be much easier to look up at the board for reference rather than dig through my notebook. Goodness willing I’ll get that finished and glued on there this afternoon.

All right, since this is technically my book blog, I’m going to return it to discussions on books and reading. I’ll continue my NaNoWriMo ramblings over at Today, I Wrote…. The goal is to update every other day or so, but at very least, once a week.

(P.S. This is also the reason there was no Sunday Sketch yesterday.)

In the meantime, I’ve already set up Liquid Story Binder XE for my newest novel by resetting my global work logs from last year’s and preparing my Planner.

I’m doing things a bit differently by incorporating Builders. The reason is that this time around, I’ve actually prepared a mind map for this particular novel—something I didn’t have last year (I flew by the seat of my pants).

Right now I hope to write as much as possible because I want a nice comfy cushion when those lean writing days arrive…and I know they’re coming.

I’d also like to keep a daily writing journal and post over at Today, I Wrote… (which is desperately in need of some love) as I go along. I hope I won’t become too preoccupied.

If you’re also participating in NaNo, buddy me. You can never have too much support.

In less than a week, the mass month-long caffeination of hundreds (possibly thousands) or writers worldwide will begin. Yep, I’m talking about National Novel Writing Month, aka NaNoWriMo, where the participants are asked to complete a 50,000 word novel in 30 days’ time.

Impossible, you say? Not so. Last year I won, even if the 50,000 words I managed to churn out amounted to nothing more than a coaster made of recycled trees. (Yes, I really am using last year’s novel as a coaster right at this very moment.)

But learning from past experience, this year, I’m going in with (more of) a plan.

My brain likes structured chaos—you know, the stuff that looks like a hodgepodge but is really organization in disguise—and highly visual stuff—big and colorful so I can’t miss it.

The light bulb flickered on for me when I saw the extra 24×36 in. poster frame I had stashed in the corner of my room. I thought, “Hmmm, that’s big enough to fit a whole bunch of bright colorful stuff on. (sound of mental gears grinding.)” Story collages, mind maps, the magna cartas, inspirational quotes…a calendar…all smooshed together.

BAM! The NaNo board idea was realized.

With the easy part out of the way, it’s a matter of figuring out how to implement it. (Wish me luck.) Here’s the blueprint so far:

• Epicenter = mind map. A few months ago I came up with a story idea and drew up a mind map on an 9×12” sheet of paper.
• Calendar below. I was going to create my own, but finding a link to all the NaNoWriMo calendars on deviantART saved me the trouble. (I printed out a fun one with coffee stains and quotes.)
• Magna cartas on either side. No Plot? No Problem! (links to my review) discusses creating two magna cartas (aka lists), one detailing everything you like in a novel and the other detailing everything you hate.
• Inspiration on the fringes. Pictures, other images, and words that relate to my story and help keep me in my inspired happy place while writing. (In other words, shinies in collage form. Looks like all those magazines I’ve saved since 2006 will finally come in handy.)

During the next few days, I hope to finish, in addition to the chaotically structured  NaNo board, my novel folder which will include character dossiers, location samples (i.e. maps, descriptions, random town facts), and fleeting bits of dialog.

When it’s all set up, I’ll be sure to take pictures and update.

Meanwhile, I need writing buddies. Hit me up please.

That’s the site where I will publish all of my writing book reviews, software tutorials, work flow examples, and other random bits of stuff about writing in general.

If you’re interested, please feel free to pop in and say hello and subscribe to the feed.

Sorry for the brief interruption; I now return you to your regularly scheduled book reviews.

1. Open the closest book to you, not your favorite or most intellectual book, but the book closest to you at the moment, and turn to page 56.
2. Write out the fifth sentence, along with the following two to five sentences.
3. Pass this along to five blog friends. (What kind of meme would this be if you didn’t require the (un)willing participation of others?)

At this time, there are approximately 18 books within arm’s reach (yes, literally), but the absolute closest book to me at the moment is Self Editing for Fiction Writers by Renni Browne and Dave King.

Opening the book…turning to page 56…aha…here we are…(I’m going to count from the first complete sentence, just so we’re clear)

Well, not often, since at the very least it risks literary transparency. (sentence 5)

If you have an overriding dramatic mood for the scene that doesn’t really belong to any of your characters, then you might want to try this approach. The key element in Hoffman’s scene is the way the two sisters’ lives collide at this moment, and for that to work, Hoffman needs to create a genuine sense of what each sister’s life is truly like. She can’t do this from a single point of view, since at this stage in the story each sister seriously misunderstands the other. She can’t write brief, separate scenes from the two points of view, since that wouldn’t let her build to the climax of Jimmy’s body. She has to jump from head to head. (sentences 6-10)

By the way, if you are a NaNoWriMo participant and you intend to continue working on your novel, then I highly recommend Self Editing for Fiction Writers as a companion to No Plot? No Problem! (read review)–it picks up right where that book leaves off. And while I’m on the topic of shamelessly recommending books for NaNo participants, grab a copy of James Scott Bell’s Plot & Structure, which will help you flesh out your novel’s arc and transform a languid plot into an enthralling one.

Now it’s time to recruit some participants. I think I’m going to play it safe like Jace, while also subscribing to the spirit by tagging a few people and hoping they do it.

• Ms. Bookish, I’m positive you probably have some tantalizing piece of literature sitting right next to you at the moment.
• Brie, I’m equally positive that you have something just as tantalizing sitting by you at the moment. (By the way, love the new design.)
• Jackie, if not for tantalizing reading, then surely there is something interesting in all the word’s various definitions.

And anyone else who wishes to participate. It’s a party and everyone’s invited. Feel free to leave a comment to get some link love.

LSBXE is a full featured program created specifically for writers–all writers, but especially fiction writers. It’s perfect for NaNoWriMo because it allows you to create goals (time and word count related), take notes, add pictures, playlists, and dossiers to keep you focused and inspired, all within the program.

To make an already great program even better, it also has a Work Log. This log keeps track of your writing progress on a per book basis. It tells you how long you’ve had the program active and how many words you’ve written for that day. It also tells you your total word count, calculates your daily average, and offers up the longest time you’ve spent writing and the most words written in a day.

As if you needed more incentive, after you’ve finished writing your novel, the program will allow you to easily compile all the chapters into a manuscript ready for intense editing, printing, or distribution.

Writing Your Novel

The first time you launch LSBXE, you will be overwhelmed; that’s pretty much a given. But once you ease into it, you’ll find it to be incredibly flexible. What you need to keep somewhere in your mind is that you can start writing right away while learning to use additional features and tools little by little as your need arises. I repeat, you do not need to use every one of LSBXE’s features from moment one. In fact, that’s why this little tutorial came into being. It is the bare minimum to get you writing your NaNoWriMo novel with a few helpful tips. I hope you find it useful and helpful.

Create a New Book

To start off with some semblance of organization, you’ll want to create a brand new book. You’d be wise to name this book NaNoWriMo.

Creating a new book is simple: Select “Library » Create New Book” from the menu. This new book should automatically open when you’re done.

When the box opens up, type the name and you’re done.

Tip: Avoid typing any chapter titles in your book when you’re creating it. Use the planner which you’ll learn about in the next step for this.

Create a New Planner

In keeping with the goal of organization, your next step is to create a planner for your current NaNoWriMo novel. You can name this planner after your novel if you already have a name or use something ambiguous.

To create a new planner, select “Planners » New Planner” from the menu. Your new planner window should automatically open.

When the window opens up, type the name of your novel.

Tip: Make sure to include the year in the planner title. This is helpful if you intend to participate in NaNoWriMo next year and in the future. It simply becomes a matter of adding a new planner for each year’s novel.

Create Chapters and Write

The hard part is done, now it’s time to start writing your novel. The beauty of using a planner is that you can write nonlinearly. With a traditional word processor, such as MS Word, you write in one straight line. If you want to skip to another scene, you’ll need to remember where the giant gap is in the document to fill it in later. Not exactly the best for sanity. Using a planner in LSBXE allows you to write your story as individual chapters or scenes which can later be easily rearranged.

Adding new items to your planner is as simple as clicking the third icon down from the top or choosing “Items » New Item” from the menu or hitting Ctrl+Ins on your keyboard.

When the new item appears, it will just be a blank row. Give it a name and description using the boxes at the bottom. The top box is used for the name of the chapter (example: “Lovers Meet”) while the box below it is like a sub title (example: “The main character…”).

Tip: Avoid using titles like “Chapter 1″ or “Part 1″, it may hamper your creativity and flexibility later if you wish to rearrange the order of your chapters. Instead, use descriptive names like “Lovers Meet” or “Dragon Battle” with the subtitle as a brief description of the action that takes place.

To create a new chapter and start writing, double click on the planner item. It will ask you if you wish to create a new chapter, say yes, and you’re ready to start writing.

A Couple More Tips

Take some notes. Add a notepad for your novel by selecting “Create » New Note” from the menu. When the window opens up, type Year Novel Notes (replacing the word ‘year’ with the actual year of your novel).

Use this notepad as a place to store your fleeting ideas and random dialog that doesn’t fit anywhere just yet. Reference it as needed.

Characters from thin air. When you’re hung up on a character name, you can use the random character generator built into LSBXE. To get to it, select “Tools » Character Generator“. Play with this and have some fun, but don’t use it to procrastinate. Write.

Leave yourself internal notes. Using the notepad feature is great for abstract ideas and thoughts that really don’t belong anywhere in any chapter just yet, or other things you need to remember, however, you can use notes within a chapter to mark content you need to fill in later or additional research you need to make. To create a line note, precede the paragraph with two periods (..). And don’t worry, line notes aren’t counted toward your word count totals.

You can read more helpful tutorials at the Black Obelisk website or join the Yahoo! Group if you wish to ask questions directly.

Back Cover of No Plot? No Problem!

You’ve always wanted to write, but…just haven’t gotten around to it. No Plot? No Problem! is the kick in the pants you’ve been waiting for.

Let Chris Baty, founder of the rockin’ literary marathon National Novel Writing Month (a.k.a. NaNoWriMo), guide you through four exciting weeks of hard-core noveling. Baty’s pep talks and essential survival strategies cover the initial momentum and energy of Week One, the critical “plot flashes” of Week Two, the “Can I quit now?” impulses of Week Three, and the champagne and roar of the crowd during Week Four. Whether you’re a first-time novelist who just can’t seem to get pen to paper or a results-oriented writer seeking a creative on-ramp into the world of publishing, this is the adventure for you.

So what are you waiting for? The No Plot? approach worked for the thousands of people who’ve signed up for NaNoWriMo, and it can work for you! Let No Plot? No Problem! help you get fired up and on the right track.

Three Quick Points About No Plot? No Problem!

• Point 1: This book is hilarious. The advice is laced with fantastic, sometimes sarcastic wit which makes the reading a lot easier, smoother, and more fun.
• Point 2: It’s an excellent distillation of what you need to know to get a novel written in a limited amount of time. Not being a step by step, this is how you do it manual, it makes it very easy to be a quick reference when you need a nudge in the right direction or bit of quick advice.
• Point 3: I suspect that Chris is addicted to coffee and sugar-laden foodstuffs. An entire section of the book is dedicated to treating yourself with wonderful yummy treats and I’m thinking the word coffee has come up in every chapter.

Full Review of No Plot? No Problem!

If you already get the gist of what this book is about, skip the synopsis and go straight to the final thoughts.

No Plot? No Problem! Synopsis

No Plot? No Problem! is basically a book of inspiration and advice for those wanting to complete a novel in a month’s time. Of course, time is somewhat determinate based on length. That said, for the purposes of NaNoWriMo, the length of a novel is 50,000 words (about 175 pages).

The book even explains why 50,000 was the magic number:

I’d like to say that NaNoWriMo’s 50,000-word threshold was achieved by a scientific assessment of the great short novels of our age. The real story is that when I started this whole month-long noveling escapade five years ago, I simply grabbed the shortest novel on my shelf–which happened to be Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World–did a rough word count of it, and went with that figure.

And while the choosing of the word count seems random, it’s a good number. There are quite a few great novels written that are within the 50,000 word mark penned by such great authors as F. Scott Fitzgerald, J.D. Salinger, Mark Twain, John Steinbeck, among others.

The book is divided into two sections: Preparation and Writing.

The first section is all about what you need to do before NaNoWriMo actually starts to prepare yourself for the month ahead.

Chapter 1: Secret Weapons, Exuberant Imperfections, and the End of the “One Day” Novelist

Chapter 2: Time-Finding, News-Breaking, and a Step-by-Step Guide to Transforming Loved Ones into Effective Agents of Guilt and Terror

Chapter 3: Noveling Nests, Magical Tools, and a Growing Stockpile of Delicious Incentives

Chapter 4: Cruising for Characters, Panning for Plots, and the First Exciting Glimpses of the Book Within

Despite the vague chapter titles, they do contain helpful information. The first chapter explains the necessary mental attitude you need to have in order to complete your novel and the importance of having a deadline, plus gives you the tools to get yourself into that place mentally. The second chapter is all about squashing any excuse involving not having enough time to write. This section is invaluable when it comes to revamping how you spend your time and planning your novel around your current schedule. The third chapter deals with preparing your writing space, getting the proper tools for writing (i.e. the magical pen–it can’t be just any pen), and what rewards you should shower upon yourself when you complete your goals. The fourth and final chapter in the first section is all about coming up with ideas for characters, plot elements, and outlining your book before NaNoWriMo begins.

The second section is where your pep talks for the actual writing begins.

Chapter 5: WEEK ONE: Trumpets Blaring, Angels Singing, and Triumph on the Wind

Chapter 6: WEEK TWO: Storm Clouds, Plot Flashes, and the Return of Reality

Chapter 7: WEEK THREE: Clearing Skies, Warmer Weather, and a Jetpack on Your Back

Chapter 8: WEEK FOUR: Champagne and the Roar of the Crowd

Chapter 9: I Wrote a Novel. Now What?

Chapters 5-8 are really about the ups and downs of writing during the month of November (or whichever month you choose to write your novel). It starts with the honeymoon period where the words flow endlessly like ambrosia from mythical fountains straight through the period of doubt when your story seems to be going nowhere (along with your word count) and finally to the end. Tips are provided for each juncture in the road. The final chapter is all about polishing up your novel. Now, don’t assume this final chapter is a step-by-step guide to proper prose and clean grammar–it’s not. The final chapter gives you an overview of what you’ll need to do if you wish to get your novel ready for publication.

Final Thoughts On No Plot? No Problem!

Chris’s high energy permeates throughout this book. It has this magical way of flowing from the book into your hands and straight up to your head. Before you know it, you’re following the exercises and you’re anxious for November to start just so you can begin writing. And that’s basically what it’s all about, isn’t it? Writing.

The first section of the book contains a ton of great instruction and exercises, such as creating a Magna Carta I & II so you can write a novel you’ll actually enjoy writing and how to create a “time-finder” chart so you can block out the ideal times for writing. The second chapter is especially important if you’ll be writing with children or have a usually tight and busy schedule.

The second section is everything you need to keep you going through the hump week when you feel like you have no more words left in you. Each week is filled with tips to help you ignite your imagination (or keep it burning).

It’s incredibly easy to read and can be finished in a single sitting rounding out at about 170 pages of content. In the back, there’s also an index which means you don’t need to decipher the cryptic chapter titles and thus makes it a pretty good reference.

On a final note, it’s also important to remember that this isn’t a technical writing manual. It’s wonderful motivation to keep you writing, but you should also have your favorite style guide handy as a reference. (Though, really, the style guide can wait until you’re ready for editing…in other words, December.)

Rating: Worth every penny (?)

Get No Plot? No Problem! at Amazon.com