When you know you are a Serious Writer

Here is a fun read to welcome in the weekend. From the folks at Writer’s Relief, an agency that helps writers prepare and submit their work, here is something so true, you cannot help but laugh.

Here are some other telltale signs that you’re a creative writer who is determined to make it:

1. You know what NaNoWriMo means.

2. Your pockets/purse/car caddy are overflowing with scribbled napkins of dialogue.

3. You surreptitiously check out other people’s bookshelves instead of their medicine cabinets.

4. You’ve turned the woman down the street into a hit man’s wife in your head/novel, and now you’re scared to walk past her house.

5. The “t” and “r” on your keyboard are pretty much toast.

6. The people who work at the local bookstore know your name. And you’ve been reprimanded more than once for moving your own books to more prominent locations.

7. You’re frequently spotted staring off into the distance with your lips moving and your eyes slightly crossed…

8. You find a copy of your paranormal erotic romance novel at the nursing home when you visit Grandma.

9. Your work clothes consist of sweatpants and bunny slippers, and your commute is about twenty seconds from coffeepot to computer.

10. Your mail carrier gets nervous when he sees you running toward him each afternoon…in sweatpants and bunny slippers.

11.You’ve been banned from the local coffee spot for stealing pens and eavesdropping on conversations.

12. You find yourself considering copyrighting your emails and Twitter posts.

13. Your family members no longer consider your writing to be a “phase.” Best of all, Aunt Judy has finally stopped asking when you’re going to get a real job.

But when it comes down to it, Stephen King has it right:

Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work. —Stephen King

 Hope you have a relaxing weekend. Thank you to everyone who has made the launch month for Ashbar – Wycaan Master Book 3 such a success. If you have read it (or any of my novels), please take a few minutes over the weekend and leave a review on Amazon.com. Reviews are an important component in Amazon’s ranking. Thank you.

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Alon Shalev is the author of the 2013 Eric Hoffer YA Book Award winner, At The Walls of Galbrieth, The First Decree, and Ashbar – Wycaan Master Book 3, all released by Tourmaline Books. Shalev is also the author of three social justice-themed novels including Unwanted Heroes. He swears there is a connection. More at http://www.alonshalev.com and on Twitter (@elfwriter).

National Novel Writing Month

It was early November and I went to the coffee shop in a Borders (RIP) to write. I immediately saw that something was different. During the week, the tables were usually occupied by nursing students with huge, backbreaking text books and blank facial expressions.

This Saturday, it was a different crowd and I could feel the silent tension screaming.  Half the tables were occupied by writers (don’t ask me how I know), but when I took out my laptop to write, one leaned over and asked, her tone conspiratorial: “How many words so far?”

I glanced at the novel that I wasn’t far off completing and told her that I was at 72,000 words. She stared at me. I didn’t understand it then. I do now.

National Novel Writing Month is: “a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel-writing. Participants begin writing on November 1. The goal is to write a 50,000-word (approximately 175-page) novel by 11:59:59 PM on November 30.”

I have never felt the need to participate. It seems to me that this challenge is for those who need the adrenaline rush and/or discipline demanded from ‘NaNoWriMo’. I am blessed (or cursed if you ask Mrs. Left Coast Voices) with the ability to sit anytime, anywhere and write. I write my 90-100,000 word novels in four months. I work, sleep and write. 

Valuing enthusiasm and perseverance over painstaking craft, NaNoWriMo is a novel-writing program for everyone who has thought fleetingly about writing a novel but has been scared away by the time and effort involved.

But for those who don’t howl at the full moon, this sounds like an amazing opportunity and I think I am somewhat jealous of the camaraderie that develops for those people who congregate in sacred and frantic silence. 

“Wrimos meet throughout the month to offer encouragement, commiseration, and—when the thing is done—the kind of raucous celebrations that tend to frighten animals and small children.

In 2011, we had 256,618 participants and 36,843 of them crossed the 50K finish line by the midnight deadline, entering into the annals of NaNoWriMo superstardom forever. They started the month as auto mechanics, out-of-work actors, and middle school English teachers. They walked away novelists.”

Good luck, NaNoWriMos’ May the Muse be with you.

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Alon Shalev is the author of The Accidental Activist and A Gardener’s Tale. He is the Executive Director of the San Francisco Hillel Jewish Student Center, a non-profit that provides spiritual and social justice opportunities to Jewish students in the Bay Area. More on Alon Shalev at http://www.alonshalev.com and on Twitter (@alonshalevsf).