The Office of Letters and Light Blog

“I Sold My NaNoWriMo Novel!” A Q&A with Marissa Meyer

We are thrilled to introduce Marissa Meyer, long-time Wrimo and YA fiction writer, who joins us to talk about her debut novel, Cinder, which came out in January from Feiwel & Friends, an imprint of Macmillan.

Can you tell us a bit about Cinder?

Of course! Cinder is a retelling of the classic Cinderella story, but with a science-fiction twist. Our heroine, Cinder, is a sixteen-year-old cyborg, meaning she’s part-human and part-machine. In a world where cyborgs are considered second-class citizens, Cinder earns her keep in her stepmother’s household by working as a mechanic at the weekly market. Her reputation brings the handsome Prince Kai to her booth one day, and soon Cinder is caught in a political battle of wills between Earth and the Lunars—an evolved species of humans who live on the moon and have developed powers of mind-control and manipulation.

Cinder is the first of what will be a four-book series called The Lunar Chronicles, each of which is inspired by a different fairy tale. Book 2: Scarlet, based on Little Red Riding Hood, will be out in January.

What’s the connection between NaNoWriMo and Cinder?

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Camp NaNoWriMo?! What’s that?

What is Camp NaNoWriMo, you say? Well, I’ll tell you! Launched in 2011, Camp NaNoWriMo is a pared down, camp-themed, non-November version of the 50K-in-a-month NaNoWriMo noveling challenge.

For anyone out there who can’t possibly wait until November to write their next novel—or for whom November is not a noveling possibility—Camp NaNoWriMo provides that same hard deadline and abundance of encouragement to get you from “blank page” to “rough draft” in one month.

Camp NaNoWriMo 2012 is running two month-long sessions for you to bash out the rough draft of your novel(s): in June, and then in August. Pick a month—or participate in both—to write while paddling a virtual canoe or in a web-based cabin, novel next to an invisible bear while eating imaginary marshmallows, or in the middle of a purely fictitious sack race! You can do all this and more at campnanowrimo.org.

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Ten Ways Poetry Can Improve Your Prose

A few years ago, while plodding through a revision of my novel (revisions require the writer’s equivalent of heavy-duty hiking boots), I got bored by my writing. It was too literal, too realistic, too earnest, and too flat.

Most writers are all too familiar with this feeling after a red-eyed reading of a draft. I needed a way to literally jar my narrative sensibility. I needed jazz, punk rock, Jackson Pollock, Merce Cunningham, something.

Around this time, I read a quote by Emily Dickinson that remains among my favorite writing advice: “Tell all the truth but tell it slant.”

I started reading poetry avidly and discovered that by focusing on the exquisite “slant” poetry offers, the “truth” I was trying to capture became more piquant, surprising, nuanced, playful, and meaningful to me.

So, in honor of National Poetry Month and Poem In Your Pocket Day, here are my 10 reasons prose writers should read—and hopefully write—poetry.

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NaNoWriMo 2011: The Participant Survey Results

Over 10,000 NaNoWriMo participants filled out our 2011 survey, sharing the details of their experience with us and offering input on what worked well and what wasn’t quite as attention-grabbing or successful.

Check out this quick-and-dirty breakdown of the results!

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Who puts pep in your step?

It’s time for the great, grand pep talk poll! Has your favorite writer 1) written a novel, and 2) not yet contributed a pep talk? If so, they should totally write a pep talk for the 300,000 Wrimos who will be dashing out the rough draft of their novel this November!

I’ve asked the staff whose pep they’d love to receive (their top picks are below). Now it is your turn to tell us what novelists’ writing advice you’d most love to read.

Take a look at our pep talk archive (and the photos above!) to see who has already written a pep talk in the past. Then post your top picks in the comments below! We’ll do out best to get as many yes answers from your faves as we can.

Here are the staff’s picks:

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February is Pitchapalooza!

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Jane Sevier: A Perspective on Revision

Jane Sevier completed the first draft of Fortune’s Fool during NaNoWriMo 2008. After revision and publication, the novel was a finalist in the Romance Writers Association’s Golden Heart Awards. In this article (originally published on the Moody Muses blog), Jane discusses her post-NaNo process and how she built the book from the bones up. What lessons have you learned from your own revisions?

You made it through NaNoWriMo with your 50K or however many words. Then the holidays came along to distract you and let you recover a little while those words lay fallow for six weeks.

So, now what? If you’re like me, you’re itching to look back at what poured out of you in November. Or what you extracted with forceps and one foot braced against the desk. However those words arrived on the page, enough time has passed to give you a fresh perspective.

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Calling all YA and Middle Grade Novelists!

We just caught wind of a tremendous opportunity for Wrimos who have written a young adult or middle grade novel. And it supports a wonderful humanitarian cause that also champions our shared passion for literacy and libraries!

Thanks to a contest hosted by literacy charity Book Wish Foundation, you could get feedback on your writing from literary agents and renowned authors like Ann M. Martin, winner of the Newbery Honor for A Corner of the Universe, and Cynthia Voigt, winner of the Newbery Medal for Dicey’s Song and the Newbery Honor for A Solitary Blue.

(We’re excited to see past NaNo and YWP pep talkers Meg Cabot and John Green are involved in this project, too!)

From Book Wish Foundation:

Visit http://bookwish.org/contest for full contest details. To enter, write a 500-word essay about a short story in Book Wish Foundation’s new young adult anthology, What You Wish For. Write the best essay about Meg Cabot’s story, and you’ll win a manuscript critique from one of the top YA literary agents. Write about Ann M. Martin’s story and the author of the mega-bestselling The Baby-sitters Club and the Newbery Honor-winning A Corner of the Universe could provide feedback on your NaNoWriMo novel.

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Mark Your Calendars! ABNA is Coming!

On our 2011 edition of the “I Wrote a Novel, Now What?” page, we list a number of free contests and writing challenges that you can enter this year. One of them is the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award, which is accepting submissions through February 5!

Wrimos are no strangers to the ABNA; scores have entered, many have reached the semi-finals and finals, and last year a Wrimo won!

That’s right.

In 2011, Jill Baguchinsky was the winner in the young adult fiction category for her novel, Spookygirl, which she drafted during NaNoWriMo!

This from Amazon:

The Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award brings together talented writers, reviewers, and publishing experts to find and develop new voices in fiction. The 2012 international contest will award two grand prizes: one for General Fiction and one for Young Adult Fiction. Each winner will receive a publishing contract with Penguin, which includes a $15,000 advance.

Open submissions for manuscripts will begin on January 23, 2012 and run through February 5, 2012. If you’re an author with an unpublished or previously self-published novel waiting to be discovered, visit CreateSpace to sign up for regular contest updates. See the official contest rules, or read details on how to enter.

If you plan to enter, share the details about your novel here! We’d love to hear all about your masterpiece manuscripts.

Good luck, novelists! We’re rooting for you!

– Lindsey

Thank You, Chris Baty!

As he’s told you, our own Chris Baty—founder of NaNoWriMo, Executive Director of the Office of Letters and Light, and Supreme Kicker of Pants—will soon be leaving our organization to write (and tend llamas) full-time.

But we can’t just let him walk out the door without another round of appreciation.

We’re compiling a collection of video thank-you’s to Chris for all his hard work and inspiration. Check out the example from OLL board member Jason Snell, and then post your own as a response. (Click on the YouTube comments section, then “Create a video response.” You can also post a text thank-you there if you’d prefer not to film.)

When he’s not collaborating with our new ED Grant Faulkner (or pricing bulk llama feed), Chris will be enjoying your videos during his last days in the office. Thanks in advance for sharing your gratitude!

– The OLL Staff and Board

I wrote a novel. Now what?

My friends, I have got a wicked case of the Decembers.

It happens every year. NaNoWriMo ends, and once the TGIs are all O, I’m left trying to remember how I filled my time when I wasn’t writing a novel. (Or, let’s be realistic, updating my word count on the site, tweeting about my novel, talking to other people about writing a novel, and doing very important things in order to avoid working on my novel. I’m pretty sure I spent more time doing all of those things than I did actually writing in November.)

I always say it’s like riding a really scary roller coaster. When you’re on it, you’re not sure why you thought it was good idea and you’re a little worried you might barf. Then you get off, and your immediate response is, “Oh my god, I’m so happy to be off that crazy thing.” (The “Thank God It’s Over” party is aptly named.) But then you go back to riding the carousel or whatever, and it suddenly seems kind of boring in comparison to the thrills-a-minute near-death experience of the roller coaster.

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NaNoWriMo’s Gasp-Inducing 2011 Stats!

The end-of-event stats blog post has become one of my favorite NaNoWriMo traditions (and I derive great pleasure from looking at these stats posts from years past, too…). I hope you enjoy devouring this year’s numbers as much as I enjoyed compiling them!

General Stats Round Up!

For NaNoWriMo main:

• 256,618 participants, up roughly 28% from 2010’s total of 200,530 writers.
• We wrote a total of  3,074,068,446 words, up 7% from 2010’s collective word count of 2,872,682,109.
• This averaged out to 11,979 words per person!
• We had 36,774 winners, giving us a 14% win rate!

For NaNoWriMo’s Young Writers Program:

• 81,040 participants, up 19% from 2010’s total of 68,710.
• We wrote a total of 368,143,078 words up 40% from 2010’s collective word count of 262,303,074.
• This averaged out to 7,199 words per person.
• We had 16,334 winners, giving us a never-before-precedented 32% win rate!

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