A few great posts that came up over the past week (when the flu was keeping me from fretting about NaNoWriMo):

NaNoWriMo: This is how I get it done – doyce testerman  

Doyce has done NaNoWriMo many more times than I, under various trying circumstances (though, to be honest, any circumstances during NaNoWriMo is trying). His advice (RTWT) is:

1. When you’re writing, write. (Vs. researching, Googling, IMing, adjusting your workspace, configuring your writing blog, etc.)
2. Four bites, every day. (Quoting my favorite Zelazy quote. Set time to do it, then do it.)
3. Moods are for sex. Writing ain’t sex. (It’s work. Work at it. If you wait for the right mood, you won’t do it. If the mood is there, faboo. If not, “type and think of England.”)
4. Never stop at the end of a chapter. (If you’re in the writing spot, keep writing. Don’t let your brain build an artificial cliff-hanger it’s not sure how to pound through.)
5. Word processors can suck it. (Don’t let your writing tool distract you — see #1.)
6. Set your Status to Busy. Better yet: Offline. (Don’t let folks distract you through chat. Because they will. See #1.)

You can do this.

It’s not hard. It’s just work. You do work every damn day and it probably isn’t something you love. This is work you love.

I do this, and I am a dopey, lazy, easily distracted, tangential sumbitch.

If I can, you can. I know it.

Good advice.

7 Bad Writing Habits You Learned in School | Copyblogger 

Jon Morrow with some sage counsel on updating your mind map about writing. It seems to be written around blogging, but it can apply to fiction, too. Those bad habits? 

1. Try to sound like dead people. (Trying to be Shakespeare, or Milton, or Dickens, or Austin, or even Hemmingway or Hammett, is a losing game. Be yourself.)
2. Expecting someone to hand you a writing prompt. (You have to make the decision. Waiting for someone to tell you what to write makes it an assignment, not a creation.)
3. Writing long paragraphs. (Short. Punchy. Read some contemporary fiction. The stuff you probably enjoy — and most of thee popular stuff — doesn’t try to fit the entire thesis into the first paragraph.)
4. Avoiding profanity at all costs. (Profanity may have a place in your tale, in your voice. Write what comes. There’s time to edit it appropriately for the market later. [I’ll note parenthetically that inserting profanity at all costs is equally unnatural.])
5. Leaning on sources. (Does the source need to be cited? Really? Especially in a story? Probably not. You’re not trying to prove anything. Even in a blog, citations are useful only for key arguments — what you have to say about those arguments is a lot more interesting.)
6. Staying detached. (Again, this is more blog entry, but it’s worth considering in your fiction writing. Third person omniscient should really sound like the Watcher is dictating a report for back home.)
7. Listening to “authorities” more than yourself. (Especially when it comes to writing. Do what works for you.)

Bottom line: what you learned in school (esp. high school and college) about writing papers? There’s a huge difference between a paper and a story. Again, RTWT.

Sadly, most writers don’t know this.

They labor under the mistaken assumption that there is an invisible standard of good and bad. And they worry that the Writing Police are going to show up at their door any minute, handcuff them, and haul them off to jail for failing to measure up.

If that was true, you wouldn’t see a single writer walking the street without one of those blinking bracelets around their ankle.

The truth is that you’re in charge. You. The blank page is sitting there, and you can fill it up with whatever the hell you want.

So stop sitting there, silly.

Go for it.

TERRIBLEMINDS: Chuck Wendig, Freelance Penmonkey » Writer’s Block Is For Hippies And Slugabeds 

Chuck’s thesis is simple, and circles back to Doyce’s points 1-3. Writing is work. It’s not a matter of being in the mood, or feeling the Muse whisper in your ear, or having your chi in balance. 

If your boss gives you a writing assignment (document this, send a memo to Fred, create a white paper on something), saying you have writer’s block is, well, not going to help you very much.

If you are your own “boss” in writing, why do you cut yourself that same slack.

Chuck’s suggestions for what to do?

1. Do: Write past it. (Write. Write something. Write anything. Get your brain to writing.)
2. Do: Draw a Mind Map. (It’s writing, in a sense, and it helps you see the parameters of what you should be writing.)
3. Do: Write an Outline. (See above. It’s writing at a high level, and it can give you traction on a lower level, by giving your story shape and form.)
4. Do: Take a Walk. (Physical activity is good. It can break your physical, and mental, rut. That doesn’t mean you don’t have to then write; it’s just peristalsis for the mental logjam.)
5. Do Not: Yield. (When you come back from walking or whatever, you still need to write. Putting it off until tomorrow means it didn’t get done. And it makes it easier to skip over it tomorrow, too.)
6. Try: Writing Exercises. (But, utlimately, see #1.)
7. Try: Flip it, Switch it. (Try a diffferent chapter, a different tense, a different voice. Maybe it’s temporary, but it might illuminate something that you’re struggling with from a different angle.)
8. Do: Get shut of it. (Write.)

Think you can’t do it? Stop it. Just stop it. Stop all that crying. Walk it off. You’ll be fine. Can you speak? Yes? Those are words. Speak them, then write them down. Can you move your hands and fingers? Then you have the physical capability needed to actually construct communication with fancy squiggles and hieroglyphics.

Writer’s block is a lie. It has no power over you. Don’t give it special importance. Don’t give it a fancy hat and uniform, because it’ll use it to claim authority and do a little kick-dance all over you. It’s all in your head. You own your head (if you don’t, you really got a bad deal — me, I’d blame Countrywide Mortgage Lenders, they probably did some shit with the fine print on your home loan). And, provided that you do own your head, it’s all yours to do with as you please. Gain control.

They’re just words.

It’s just a blank page.

Put the words on the page.

Hippie.

Slugabed.

And, yes, again, RTWT. My summaries above of each of these gents does not do them justice.

Please note on all of the above: do what I write, not what I do. God knows I’m craptastic at way too many of the items above. But maybe by writing them down, I’ll do a little better at them.

We’ll know soon.