Jan is Jan Fields, moderator of this interview/workshop, and Web Editor of the ICL Web Site. While red signals our guest speaker's responses. Green shows names or usernames of people and the questions they asked of our speaker.

Jan: I want to welcome author Ann Gonzalez. We're looking forward to hearing all about her National Novel Writing Month experience and how it turned into a book that will be coming to stores in 2009. Welcome Ann, thank you for sharing with us, and let the games begin!

Ann: Thank you, Jan. I don't know about everyone else, but I find writing to be incredibly difficult and emotionally demanding work. If it weren't for fellow writers who understood how challenging it can be, I'd be lost. Any and every opportunity I have to return the support and encouragement I receive, I'm there, or here, as the case may be. Write team! Write! (Okay, I never was a cheerleader, can you tell?)

Jan: That would be fine...cheerleaders always made me nervous....so much energy. I like a comforting, warm cookie bearing support type. Glad to have you with us.

Ann: Oh good. Tea and cookies I can do.

Jan: I love hearing about books coming out. It's like a quick secret peek. Can you tell us about yours?

Ann: Of course, of course...I'd love to tell you about my book. :) Running for My Life is the story of a fourteen-year-old girl, Andrea McKane, who is trying to reconnect and find joy in her life in the days, weeks and months after being attacked by her schizophrenic mother.

Ann: Kirby Larson does a much better job of exciting people about my book than I do...here's what she had to say: "In RUNNING FOR MY LIFE, 14-year-old Andrea McKane earns medals for courage and strength from her therapist as she deals with her schizophrenic mother. I would bestow similar medals on writer Ann Gonzalez for presenting Andrea's tough story with honesty, grace, hope and even humor. The crisp writing and authentic voice immediately drew me in but it was Andrea herself -- as well as her good friends -- that captured my heart. This is no "problem novel" but the frank and fearless story of a great kid who overcomes the unimaginable. I will be thinking about Andrea for a long, long time." Kirby Larson, author of Newbery Honor Book, Hattie Big Sky

Ann: I don't yet have a pub date, although I expect the book to be out in early spring next year. It'll be in the first line of books published by WestSide Books, a publisher dedicated to publishing young adult and middle grade stories.

Jan: Wow, it sounds really cool...exciting and intense. And being part of a publishers first line...that's kind of exciting and scary at the same time.

Ann: Ha, you've got that right, Jan. It's both exciting and a little scary to be the first off the press for a publisher. WestSide Books is a really interesting company though. Their sister company, EverBind Books has been "pre-binding" books for schools for over 30 years. (They take paperback books and hardbind them for use in schools.) WestSide Books was born so that they could venture into selling original works as well as rebound paperbacks.

Ann: It'll be interesting to watch them develop because they have a large sales force, already in place, for selling to schools. It's very exciting to me. I love the idea of classrooms of teens reading and talking about the issues raised in my book. I mean, seriously, what more can an author hope for?

Ann: This was my first book, written as my thesis for the first graduating class of the first MFA program to be offered by a collective of writers outside of a university, and it'll be published in the first list of a brand new publishing company. It sounds like a lightening strike to me!

Jan: For you personally and your book, what do you feel was the greatest benefit of NanoWriMo? The pressure to produce? The support of others? If you had to rank the good stuff about it, what would you say was some of your top spots?

Ann: For me the most difficult aspect of writing is putting my characters, the young people that I love so much, through hell. I recognize that for the story to be good the main character typically has to suffer. (Don't you just hate that?) I have a tendency to write up until conditions get too painful for my main character and then I, predictably, get stuck. The greatest benefit of nanowrimo, for me, was that it gave me encouragement and support to write through the crisis for my character. I was all ready to give up when Christopher Batty, the nano creator, sent out an email saying, "Whatever you do don't quit this week. If you want to quit, quit next week, but not this one." So I wrote through the most difficult week and section of my novel and everything got easier after that.

Ann: For me, that is the gift of nanowrimo. Writing is a lonely and difficult profession -- all that we can do to support each other is a great gift as far as I'm concerned. Nanowrimo is a crazy event that brings thousands and thousands of writers together to support each other through the telling of a complete story. It's wild fun.

Ann: George, you've identified one of the great challenges of being a novelist. It is, in my opinion, extremely important to get someone you trust as a reader to read the whole work and give you revision notes. For me revising my own work is like looking at the pyramid puzzle where the word THE is repeated twice. I know the work so well, no matter how hard I try I'll never see that second "the."

Ann: With Running for My Life, I was fortunate in that I was a student in the Whidbey Writers Workshop MFA program, and I was required to produce a publishable manuscript as my thesis. It seemed the stars came into full alignment for me when Kirby Larson became my thesis advisor. After nanowrimo I took critique notes for some of the chapters and did a full revise of the entire novel. Kirby then read the revised version and gave me notes. I revised and she read it again. And, I think I did one more iteration before we called it good.

Ann: I think all writers benefit from having a reader or readers that he/she trusts to honestly and critically respond to the work. I would suggest novel exchanges with another writer in your critique group who also writes novels, or forming a novel critique group where full-length ms are reviewed, or hiring a reader. Many writers will agree to read and give revision notes on a ms for a fee. That's another benefit of nano -- you'll be in touch with thousands of writers who might be up for a novel exchange. : )

Ann: We could talk a great deal about revision. Revision is the thing that scares me the most, but it's also the most fascinating. What fascinates me about revision is how one can revise paragraph A and it solves the problems with paragraphs c, f, l, d, and z. The editor may have pointed to the problems in c, f, l and d, and as a writer my job is to understand how to address those problems in the most effective and cohesive manner. Revision makes me anxious, but I love it at the same time. There is a wow factor when you are able to make changes to your ms and you can immediately see and feel that the story works much better. That's the greatest feeling...as good as any endorphin rush.

Ann: I found out about Nanowrimo in August of 2006. I'd never heard of such a crazy thing before that time. Stephanie Bodeen was an instructor at the Whidbey Island Writers Workshop MFA program, where I was a second year student. Stephanie told us about nanowrimo and how she had written a young adult novel (previously, she'd written and published picture books) sent it to her agent and he sent it back with a ton of rough revision notes on it. When she had the strength to face the manuscript again, she found that only about 10 pages of it were useable... however, the story, the characters, the structure were all good to go. She revised, and revised and ended up getting a two book deal when she sold the final version. (You can buy The Compound, by SA Bodeen at your local bookstore.)

Ann: This is all long winded, but in Nov. of 2006 those of us in the MFA program signed up to do nanowrimo. Almost everyone in the group wrote 50,000 words and "won," except me. I didn't make it. But, as I said earlier, I did write a complete story. I'm unusual in that my first drafts are usually shorter than my revisions. I'm one of the few writers I know who uses too few words the first time around.

Ann: I'd never written a novel before so I was completely stunned by the realization that I'd just written one. Honestly, I couldn't believe it. I believe that it was nanowrimo that enabled me to write the whole story from beginning to end. As I've said, I tend to get discouraged in the hard parts. I will always be a nano evangelist because it, literally, made my career as a writer.

Ann: I took that 2006 nano novel and revised it as my thesis in the MFA program. Regina Brooks an agent and owner of Serendipity Literature Agency came out to Whidbey to give a presentation and heard me read the first chapter of my nano novel. She asked to see the rest when it was done. By April of 2007 she'd signed me, and by August she'd sold the book.

Ann: I did nanowrimo last year but I was having health problems and I didn't write 50,000 words, nor did I finish a complete story. But, I had fun and I have no regrets about setting out to write another novel. And, of course, I'll be back at it this year. I can't imagine why I would ever choose not to participate in nanowrimo. There's nothing to lose and everything to gain by signing up.

Ann: Many writers write 50,000 words and don't end up selling their novel...at least not that one. Writers are all different...and some write, and write, and write just looking, and waiting for the story to emerge. Others, can't or don't write until the story has been completely imagined in their unconscious minds and then they sit down and channel the stories. It's all good and all right.

Ann: Yours is an interesting question. I'm not sure that I do prepare myself. Recently I was diagnosed with Juvenile Macular Degeneration. (It's called Juvenile because I'm too young to have regular macular degeneration.) I haven't lost any of my sight, yet, and really this discovery was a lucky thing as now I can monitor my eyesight and take action before things progress badly. Needless to say I've been thinking a great deal about blindness and vision and eyesight. As a result I'm going to write my nano novel about a teenage girl who blindfolds herself. (At least I think I am.)

Ann: The only preparation I've made is to think about blindness and to touch things in my house with my eyes closed. (This is a really good idea for writers anyway... it helps put more texture in your writing to have more felt sense, to balance out the visual.) I guess I prepare myself by paying attention to the story that I'm most interested or in need of writing and giving myself permission to write it.

Jan: What kind of pre-writing did you do before you launched into your Nano-novel? Outlines? Character sketches? Anything like that?

Ann: Oh, oh... already, I have to reveal an embarrassing secret. I used nanowrimo to write or finish a book for which I'd already written the first two chapters. Technically, the nano guidelines suggest starting fresh, with a brand new project in November. I didn't, although I did use a book that I had just started to write in mid-October.

Ann: I know writers who write character sketches and have ideas about the book before November, some even plot or outline their books, although that's discouraged. Again, nothing bad happens if you approach nanowrimo in the manner that is most comfortable to you as a writer. The most important thing is for you to get as much out of the experience as you can.

Ann: The main objective of nanowrimo is to get writers to write from their unconscious minds. Too many writers are discouraged and silenced by over-thinking and over-analyzing their words. Writing is tough enough when we aren't standing over our shoulders and telling ourselves that we are making a mess of everything and what we've put on paper is terrible. The goal of nano is to give yourself 30 days of well-supported, uncritical, and fun writing. See where you go when you give yourself that kind of vacation.

Ann: When I was writing my book, there were many days when it seemed like I was reading what I was typing as I was typing it. Meaning, the narrator of the story was Andrea McKane and I was simply transcribing her story. Each day, when I sat down at my desk I didn't know where the story was going to go, I just started writing, and Andrea told me what happened to her one event after another.

Ann: That's what I mean when I talk about writing from the unconscious. Try getting into your main character's body and let him or her tell you where he/she lives and what's going on in his/her life and what's important. Don't have the answers, view nanowrimo as an opportunity for the part of you that is often silenced by the editor for not being as well-spoken or as refined to have his or her say. My book began with the main character not feeling safe to speak, and it ends with her having found her voice. For me, it was nanowrimo that created the environment for me to allow the part of me which had been sworn to secrecy and silence to have her say.

Ann: Some of the funnest days of writing for me, were when I was surprised by what Andrea said, did or where she went. It happened fairly frequently, and it's kind of fun when you are eager to sit down to write because you can't wait to find out what happens next.

Ann: A good story usually requires or involves pain and suffering for the main character. One of the hardest things to do as a writer (I think) is to make your main character, the one you love so much, suffer. In my opinion, for this reason, more than any other, writing is really, really difficult.

Ann: I've interned in a couple of graduate, writing for children, craft classes and one of the most common "problems" with students' stories is the main characters are often shielded from experiencing real pain. Even Kirby Larson had a character in the first draft of Hattie Big Sky that she had to remove (and he was a character throughout the book) because she realized that the only reason he was there was to protect and support Hattie. As long as he was in the book then things would always be okay for Hattie, and that just wouldn't work.

Ann: I don't think I ponder more when a particularly difficult scene is coming up, but I have a general feeling of, "I can't, I can't, I can't." It's before writing a challenging scene that I'm most likely to feel that I should give up writing and become a crosswalk guard. It's at those moments that the support of other writers mean the most to me...because without the understanding of others I surely wouldn't be able to go forward and write my way through the sad parts.

Ann: Zebrakitchen -- You bet. It was a great, great feeling when I finally wrote through the climatic scene where the main character was in the greatest danger, and the tension was really high. I went into that moment thinking I wouldn't be able to write it, and wanted to quit, but the support of other writers, and nano just helped me to keep writing. I kind of closed my eyes and wrote. (Thank goodness I can still touch type.)

Ann: As I said elsewhere, I think for a story to be satisfying to the reader there has to be a great deal at stake for the main character. There's no way around it. In the book I'm working on now there's a lovable, wonderful dog. When I read the first chapter to my former classmates they were all, "You can't hurt the dog. Don't make anything bad happen to the dog." And Kirby Larson shook her head, and said this is Beth's story. If her dog gets hurt, or dies, that's what Beth has to deal with and you can't change the narrator's story just because it is too sad for you to write. (I think I'm being long winded...I'm just trying to agree with what you said. Books work because the reader relates to the experience or the feelings of the main character. The harsh reality is that children and teens experience very difficult things, and my hope is that I'll give teens books that will help them thrive through those tough times.)

Ann: With regard to nano -- I was focused more on the story than I was word count. So, I didn't worry that I was behind in word count, but I did worry that I wouldn't have the guts to write the "bad" parts. As it turns out I wrote very short through those chapters, so my word count was down, but I felt elated because as I was writing I saw what was going to happen and how the book was going to end. Nano was a help to me because it gave me an excuse to write day after day, and because it gave me permission to inhabit the world of the novel.

Jan: Can we touch a little more on the process of revision since a book written in a month is going to need revision - even rewriting. What do you suggest as helps to get the Nano novel into publication shape?

Ann: I am a firm believer in critique groups. Every writer I know, from the award winning to the "just starting out", belongs to a critique group. Some groups develop as an offshoot of a class, or develop out of relationships made here at ICL, or SCBWI or other organizations catering to children's writers.

Ann: Taking classes is another way to receive critical feedback on your work, develop your craft, and form important relationships with fellow writers. It's important to cultivate relationships with other writers. Publishing is a tough business with many rejections, delays and demands -- fellow writers are the only ones who really understand what it's like to write. Most non-writers think it's easy to write a picture book and have no idea that they typically take years longer than any novel to write.

Ann: While you may workshop chapters of your novel in your critique group and revise based on the feedback you get in your group, you'll want to find someone who will read and give you feedback on the novel as a whole before you mail it off to an agent or an editor. I know writers who belong to "novel" critique groups where only complete works are shared. Participating in a novel exchange is another possibility -- you swap complete manuscripts with another writer. Lastly, you can hire a writers or editor to read your ms and give you revision notes.

Ann: It's also important to realize that the benefit of the nano experience isn't always in the pages you write during November. As I mentioned, Stephanie Bodeen had only 10 pages of usable text from her nano manuscript, but she had a character and an idea, which she later turned into salable manuscript. (When she allowed her editor to supervise the rewrite.) Ultimately, nano may not give you a story but it may reveal to you patterns in your writing, weaknesses or strengths, or give you kernels of ideas that you'll develop in a completely new manuscript. No matter what you're very likely to get something out of the experience -- a ms, new insight into yourself as a writer or a 100,000 new writer friends.

Editorial Anonymous: ColoradoKate: How did you attack NaNo? Did you do 1,667 words every day, or did you have to catch up after some days with fewer words? And did you really turn off your internal editor 'til after November, or did you do some editing as you went along? This is my first year for NaNo, and any practical tips will be much appreciated!

Ann: Welcome to the nano experience. I think you'll enjoy it, and for sure you'll write more words in November than you would have without it. As to your questions, I am not disciplined enough to write a set number of words a day, plus I was working at the time and wrote more on the weekends than during the week. I also have a very difficult time writing the emotionally difficult sections of my books...you know, the part where the character that you love so much has to go through hell...and I didn't write for days when I came to those points.

Ann: There was a time when I considered stopping nano and it was at just that time that I got an uplifting email from one of the nano cheerleaders saying, "If you want to quit, quit next week. Do not under any circumstances quit this week." It cracked me up, and I kept going.

Ann: I did not edit at all. I shared some of my chapters with my critique group, but kept their comments for December. Some people feel nervous, but nothing bad happens if you drop out or don't "succeed" in writing 50,000 words. The worst thing that happens is you have a much better start on a novel than you would've if you'd never joined in on the fun.

Ann: Some writers are very structured in their approach to nanowrimo. They have an idea, and they write character sketches in October...and set out to write at least 1700 words each day of November. Since the goal of nanowrimo is to allow your unconscious to write without censorship from the editor on your shoulder, the organizers discourage too much pre-planning and forethought for the experience. They encourage writers to just get in there and write and see where their story goes. That style happens to work for me...so, I feel tremendous relief writing during Nanowrimo. Other writers like Elizabeth George, for example, might have to adopt the rules to fit their styles. Elizabeth George spends a year pre-planning and doing background work on the characters and places in a novel, and once she has every last bit of information mapped out -- she writes.

Ann: Elizabeth George wouldn't necessarily benefit from nanowrimo, but then again she's not your average writer. Most of us do well to have 100,000 lunatic writers urging us on.

Ann: Ah, yes, Kate, often deals have to be negotiated between the editor and the writer. I don't know if you've done nano before and 1600 words was the longest period of time that you could get your editor to take a break...if so, I understand. Some editors simply refuse to take any time off.

Ann: For newbies to nano, though, I would encourage them to really try and give themselves 30 days of unedited writing time. Some internal editors are satisfied with the promise that they'll get the 50,000 word debacle (as they view it) on Dec. 1, and that it will be entirely up to them to make it a masterpiece.

Ann: We don't want to lose our editors because it is the editor that makes our work great...but, it is helpful to get them to take a vacation long enough so we can get a rough draft of the story down on paper.

Ann: Oh, you have one of those editors. Seriously, though, the most important thing is that you have fun doing this crazy exercise of writing like mad through the month of November. So, if your editor is really upset about getting 50,000 unedited words, negotiate with her. (No one will harass you for editing your work as you go. I am sure there are many, many writers who have the same, uh, dedicated editor as you.)

Ann: My intention was just to point out that most of us know how to write with the editor helping us as we go. That's common...the editor sits on your shoulder and shakes her head and says, "Ugg, no, no, ooh change that," as you write. Nanowrimo is a crazy, wild ride that tries to create an environment where you write differently, with less self censorship. Maybe your editor would be appeased by getting to blog with all the other out of work editors about how terrible your nano novel is without her expert advice, and how difficult it is going to be to fix it on Dec. 1. Or, you can just let her edit it as you go...you know your editor better than anyone.

Ann: PennyM, you aren't alone. Sometimes I think that the support role that nano plays is to be a diversion and give an outlet to all the stymied editors in the group. The nano blogs and support threads are kind of like virtual bars where all the editors go and drown their sorrows in conversation with each other. They laugh at what their writers are creating, and poo-poo the whole process, while you are back at your desk writing, writing and writing. Don't worry, your editor will have thousands of other editors to commiserate with.

Ann: My advice is to go into nanowrimo with the intention to give it a try and see what you can do given your time constraints. The most important thing to understand about nanowrimo is that its one and only purpose is to encourage writers and writing. If you find the time to write 10 more words in November than you would have if 100,000 writers hadn't been cheering you on, then you are a nanowrimo success.

Ann: Last year there was a family of 5 and everyone in the family participated in nanowrimo. The eldest girl actually wrote 2 50,000 word novels. The kicker was that they only had one computer. They created a schedule of writing shifts in order to give everyone equal time at the computer. Some people do really well if they give themselves a writing hour every day... some steal time when they can. What will work best for you really depends on what type of personality and writer you are.

Ann: A friend of mine with a husband and three children has a nano meeting at the end of October. She then lays out that mom needs an hour and a half each day for writing time, and she gives everyone assignments that they'll be responsible for in November. She's a very structured writer and she writes to a daily word goal. That's not me at all.

Ann: You have nothing to lose by going to www.nanowrimo.org and signing up. If you try and have to give up because your non-writing life interferes, no one will harrass you, or make fun of you...in fact there will be a 100,000 + writers who totally understand and will encourage you to try next year. The bottom line -- try it; it's fun.

Ann: I want to acknowledge how emotionally, physically and time demanding it is to care for a disabled person. I can understand why and how you might not feel like you have enough time or energy to write considering your responsibilities. Of course you should do what is best for you to care for yourself as you're caring for another. Sometimes it is simply not the right time to write, and this may be one of those non-writing, processing times for you. (Those times are equally important to the writing process. We don't always have to be putting words on paper to be writing, that's for sure.)

Ann: I'd suggest signing up this year even if you decide that your goal will be 10 words, or 100. Give yourself a goal that you are completely comfortable with and just check out what the experience is like. So often when I talk to writers about nanowrimo they feel nervous about the commitment. What I want to communicate is that there's no need to worry about it because there isn't any expectation that every person who signs up will succeed in writing 50,000 words. The goal is to write without editing and censoring oneself. The founders of nanowrimo have found the way to get the editor out of most people's ways is to set a crazy, high word count to achieve in a short period of time. That's all it's about. Anyway, it might help to just get a feel for it even if you decide not to participate this year. There's no cost...you just sign up on the web site.

Ann: (Is now a good time to confess that I didn't reach the 50,000 word goal?) My novel was only 42,000 words when I finished it at the end of November. But, I was happy because I had a complete story arc, I had all the characters and their personalities, I had everything I needed. On revision my book got longer and it's now over 50,000 words. The reason why my first draft was so short was because I raced through that challenging, suffering section. During nanowrimo I didn't dwell on how bad things were for my character...I kind of said, "And things got really bad for Andrea," and went on from there. Chris Batty told me I couldn't drop out that week and I couldn't figure out how to go forward so I wrote a placeholder. We always do what we can do, no more, no less.

Ann: no matter where you live, there are local groups that spring up to provide the day to day, week to week, support during Nov. In our group last year there were several who didn't write 50,000 words...but we all had fun. We were teasing the guy who wrote 50,000 words in two weeks. We said he was a freak. (All in good fun of course.) So, you see you can actually have more fun not being "successful" than just sitting down and writing the 50,000 words. It's all about the process.

Ann: Thanks, George. You've pointed out nano tip number 2. (Remember tip #1 was to create lists.) Tip number 2 is to have extravagant characters, which require a great deal of description, walk on scene. (Remember the friend who had a clown with a rainbow umbrella enter her novel.) If you are desperate to up your word count you can always have a character enter the novel who has a medical condition that causes him or her to repeat everything he/she says. All of these strategies and more will be discussed and suggested by fellow writers, particularly those who must reach 50,000 words.

Jan: Can you give us some tips on altering Nano goals to meet whatever we actually write?

Ann: Nanowrimo (National Novel Writing Month) is extremely flexible; at it's core it is over 100,000 writers getting together to support each other in reaching an almost impossible writing goal. If one writes picture books or short stories then my suggestion is to set a goal of 15 picture books or 30 short stories. "Ahh, no, that's not possible." you want to scream. I understand. You may not succeed, and you most likely won't get 15 publishable picture books out of the deal. You may get ideas for one, or two, however, and that would make the month of November deserving of the happy dance for sure.

Ann: Whatever you want to write you have permission to write. Whatever you set as your goal is acceptable. I love nanowrimo and I haven't won the "You're a Winner" certificate, yet. George seems to love nanowrimo and he's won it twice. I guess you love it whether you win or not.

Ann: Nanowrimo was started by a group of friends who realized that they were always sitting around saying, "I want to write this novel..." One day they agreed they would do it -- they would write the novels they'd been threatening to write. They decided to take the month of November to do it and nanowrimo was born. Not all of them succeeded in completing their novels, but they all had fun. It's been an annual event ever since. It gives us all a great writing excuse...it's the one opportunity we have to tell family and friends that they come second to writing. It only happens once a year...

Ann: That's perfect, Jody. Having a first draft of a novel is a fantastic reward; I can attest to that. After I finished my novel, I printed it out and could not believe what I had just done. It was an amazing feeling.

Ann: I wouldn't work on two at the same time. I think you're right that would be scattered. I can't speak for everyone's experience, but with the fast-paced writing style of nano, many writers feel like they've entered their characters world and they are living and breathing the novel all through the month. (When they are writing and when they aren't.) It would frazzle my brain to try and occupy two worlds at the same time. If you finish one though and still have 15 days to go...well, we'll be here to urge you to write another if that's what you'd like. (We'll drink champagne with you if you'd prefer to laugh at us for the last fifteen days, too.)

Jan: So what do people need to do to get involved in this year's Nano?

Ann: It's understandable, you're a little nervous, you're not sure you'll have the time, you're worried that what you produce will be absolutely terrible. It's okay...everyone is feeling the same way. (Except maybe George -- he sounds very relaxed.) Step by step, that's how you get through the anxiety.

1. Sign up at www.nanowrimo.org (In case you get stuck on the acronym, think of it as National Novel Writing Month. It took me a long time to stop calling it nonanowrimo. Unconscious negation I think.)
2. Make buddies out of your friends here at ICL.
3. Bookmark the ICL chatboard so that you can come here often and give your internal editor a chance to vent with all the other stifled internal editors.
4. Gently let family and friends know that you are going to be doing this thing in November and you may disappear for periods of time, and that they should watch out for smoke coming out of your ears... douse as necessary.
5. If you are a planner, think about what story you'd like to write. If you are a Virgo planner, write up character sketches or do other background prep work. (Really, no slight meant to Virgos. Believe it or not, I'm an un-prepped, and disorganized Virgo.)
6. Check out the nano website for local writing events.
7. Set your countdown clock to Nov. 1 and try to clear your desk of as much "other" work as you possibly can.
8. It's more exciting than Christmas -- sit and wait.

Jan: What do you suggest for writers who feel guilty for taking that much time for writing? Clearly a novel in a month is a lot of writing

Ann: Many nano writers struggle because writing so intensely for a month feels "selfish." I suppose in a way it is. Writing is, however, both an amazingly unselfish and selfish act. Nano gives you permission to give yourself more guilt-free writing time during November, than most will allow themselves during the rest of the year. When you feel guilty, just remind yourself that this is only once a year and your writing is important...it is what you are meant to do.

Ann: Katie Mullaney is the young woman who wrote 101,000 words during November of 2006. I don't know her personally, I only read about her and her family on the nano website. It said she wrote 2 novels.

Ann: Every year nanowrimo tries to improve their web page. In 2006 you didn't post your novel, you just posted your word count. It was an honor system more than anything. Now, you can post your word count, or the novel, or neither...there are many who participate without posting their word counts. Remember, the important thing is the writing...no one will tell you that you are doing it wrong no matter what you do. : )

Ann: I did a presentation at SCBWI last year before nano. Here's another interesting piece of statistical info I found out about nanowrimo:

• 1999: 21 participants and six winners
• 2000: 140 participants and 29 winners
• 2001: 5,000 participants and more than 700 winners
• 2002: 13,500 participants and around 2,100 winners
• 2003: 25,500 participants and about 3,500 winners
• 2004: 42,000 participants and just shy of 6,000 winners
• 2005: 59,000 participants and 9,769 winners
• 2006: 79,000 participants and 13,000 winners
• (last year over 100,000 people participated.)

Ann: In 11/2006 the Washington Post had this to say about nanowrimo: "If this growth rate is constant and participation is cumulative, then every American will be writing a novel in November 2027. We'll be a country made entirely of boozing, tortured authors." Isn't that cynical? We aren't all boozing...some like tea and cookies.

Ann: Just to tell you another nano tidbit. They have a strong school program, and teachers kits and other things to help teachers engage young writers to participate. One first grade teacher was doing a version of nano with her students -- their goal was to write 2500 words as a class in the month of Nov. She talked about how counting words was a real challenge for her students, as they were in the basic counting stage.

Ann: At the same time that the teacher was doing nano with her class she was also writing, or trying to write, 50,000 words for herself. Midway through November one of her first-grade students asked her how many words she'd written. She answered 27,000. He said, "You're making that up. That's not even a number."

Ann: There's a place on your nano home page to put an excerpt of your novel (or the whole thing if you'd like.) The word count section scrambles the novel because some writers don't feel comfortable with their work being posted on the site. (These are typically raw, raw, first drafts after all.) If you want to use the word count from your word processor, that's fine too. You don't have to post your work in any form, scrambled or not.

Ann: I'll give everyone a nano tip. Many writers give their characters lists of things to do, or buy or see. The purpose of the list is to require committing a great number of words to the page, and in so doing easily meeting a daily word count. Even this inane strategy though yields interesting ideas. At some point you'll want to go back and look at the things that made their way onto the list...you'll be delighted, surprised and you may have an object or an idea that you want to include in the final version of this novel or the novel your nano experience inspires.

Ann: We spend too much time stifling our natural writing styles because we expect to write perfection in the first draft. It just doesn't work that way. All great works are made great in revision, and are barely recognizable as writing at first. Anne Lamott calls her first drafts, vomit drafts. I'm repeating myself because the point is so important. We are the ones that keep ourselves from writing...nanowrimo gives you permission to get out of your own way and write a crappy novel without any comments, insults, or critiques from your internal editor. Of course it will be bad...but that's okay...because the editor will get her chance to take a bad novel and make it great starting in December. Everybody wins.

Ann: I'd written and published a few short stories, but felt overwhelmed by the idea of a novel. As I've mentioned previously I tend to write short and use few words, so the way I looked at things was I just had to find someone who would publish a 4000 word novel.

Ann: My nano novel, which is about a teenage girl with a schizophrenic mother, is a work of fiction, however, my mother was schizophrenic. One of her phobias or issues was that she didn't want any of us, my brother, sister or me, to write. She told me once that if I wrote I would destroy the English language because my writing was so horrific. Heady stuff for a ten year old. I think that's why I write short...I still have a timidity when it comes to words on paper. I haven't yet succeeded in writing 50,000 words during nanowrimo...but, I've had the pleasure of writing a whole novel without being concerned whether or not the English language would survive my efforts. And what I've learned is that many writers have some version of my mother sitting on their shoulders. During nano we get to commiserate with each other.

Ann: Oh, man, that's rough if you write using pen and paper. I don't know any way to make that easier except to, for sure, get yourself pens that you really like that have good grip. (I've heard the fatter pens are less stressful on the hand.) Also, ice your hand or give it a hot water bath or do something so your hand knows you really, really, really appreciate what it is doing for you.

Ann: I appreciate your question about what subjects are popular for today's young adults, the problem is even if I could answer it definitively I'm sure interests will change over the next year, months, days, hours. If you want to write for young adults my advice is to write the story that comes from your gut or your heart. Write the story that grabs your innards. The reason I say this is because teens are generally very emotional and I think they like books that connect with the intensity with which they live their day to day lives.

Ann: Your question about what topics are out of the question for young adults is also a good one. I'm working on a book now that is about a teenage girl questioning her sexuality. Brent Hartinger has written about gay teenagers and his books have been both successful, and banned. It's frustrating to hear about the rigid rules applied to books for teens. Susan Patron's Higher Power of Lucky won the Newbery in 2006, however there was a huge controversy because the word "scrotum" appears in the first chapter. In my opinion, that's ridiculous...teenagers live in complex and violent, fast paced world, and we have to find ways to connect with and write for them. I often struggle with the decision of whether or not my character will swear in a given situation. Teens swear. If I'm writing an authentic novel for a modern teen I need to have the characters swear on occasion...but there is very little tolerance for it from some of the school boards. I don't want to make a decision that will keep my book from being read by teens, so it is a factor I have to seriously consider. (But, not during nanowrimo. That's an issue to be thought about during the revision process. During nano my characters often swear up a storm.)

Ann: As to the character question, the answer is simple...steal people from your life. I've met so many characters in my day, and I decide that I liked Billy's shock of red hair, or the way Sarah chewed her pencils or whatever. It's good to give the characters in your novels unique characteristics and mannerisms. Doing that alleviates the pressure of having to identify them by name every time they walk on scene. Plus, there are many people who have name recognition problems (I'm one of them) and if the only thing that distinguishes characters one from the other are their names...I'm going to have a hard time following the story. Readers are relieved when they can easily tell characters apart in speech patterns and mannerisms. If you are feeling stuck developing a character, go write in a local coffee shop or something. They're everywhere.

Ann: You're exactly right to say that all it takes to participate in nanowrimo is to start writing on Nov. 1. However, you can sign-up at www.nanowrimo.org and make people here your buddies, and ICL will have a nano thread going through November to talk with other writers. Even though the main thing is the writing, the better part if nanowrimo is that you are a member of a group that is made up of thousands and thousands of good-hearted and determined writers...and they know how to make writing fun.

Ann: My book hasn't yet come out, it comes out next year...even so, you're right it is exciting, and emotional. Last year, I was interviewed on a local radio program called Sound Focus. I was nervous about being on the show because as I've mentioned elsewhere I grew up with a great deal of censorship around speaking and writing, particularly about my mother and her mental illness. I did the interview and it went fairly well; I didn't make a complete a** of myself or anything, and I was relieved. That was on Wednesday and the show aired on Friday. When I heard it on the air I started shaking, and feeling incredibly nervous. I was actually speaking on the radio about my mother and my book.

Ann: I expect going to a bookstore and seeing my book on the shelf will be a lot like that. (I'll probably have to take anti-anxiety medication the first week the book is out.) There's a way in which it doesn't seem real right now...but, it will.

Ann: I hope you find that Running for My Life is a good resource for your students. In it the main character, Andre, sees a therapist; I admit one of my intentions was to hopefully remove some of the stigma associated with therapy, and to make it interesting. So many teens feel so alone with their pain...I just hope that they find someone to talk to about their suffering.

Ann: Nano Evangelist is a nickname for anyone who goes out encourages others to sign up for and participate in Nanowrimo (National Novel Writing Month). I guess the name came about because so many of us that talk up nanowrimo sound like we are asking you to make a leap of faith, asking you to trust us when we tell you it is fun. Not everyone I've encouraged to do nano has written 50,000 words, but they've all come back for another go at the thing because they did, in the end, really like the process.

Ann: I understand that fear that you'll write a novel and then work it and work it but never get it quite right. That's one of those internal editor fears. We develop it because we have editors that want us to write masterpieces and only masterpieces. Editors often forget how novels looks like garbage piles before they become rich, fertile compost. How long it takes you to revise your novel and what kind of feedback you get on it is the next stage of concern after writing the novel. (Really, it's a fear to keep you from writing, so ask it to take a 30 day vacation and you'll give it some attention after Dec. 1.) Almost all writers worry that they won't be able to get their manuscripts into submission form. Months ago I received a revision letter from my agent that put me into a writing slump for months. It was written by a new reader and it didn't pump up my fragile ego. It took me an embarrassing long time but I'm over it now and I'm finally able to pull out the revision notes that are important to my manuscript.

Okami: How did you handle the revision process?

Ann: With regard to the revision process, I was fortunate to be in a graduate writing program at the time and I had a thesis advisor (Kirby Larson, author of the Newbery Honor winner Hattie Big Sky) help me revise the work. She'd read the whole thing and make comments as to what was working and what wasn't and then I'd take the whole manuscript and go through it looking at and considering her notes. What I found most interesting about revision is that I learned that you can change a novel at point a and it changes it significantly at points k, m, p and z. Revision is a little like getting water to take a particular shape. If you push on it at one point, water levels will rise at other points...The only way to get the water to cooperate is to make the container the shape you want.

Ann: Revision is very important, as are getting good readers and critiquers. But, really, those are worries for Dec. 1. The only thing you should be worried about right now is being able to find solid chunks of time and space to sit down and write, and write, and write. You'll have lots of time after November to evaluate how much work it will take to get the story you most want to tell into submission shape. Remember, Stephanie Bodeen only used 7 pages of her nano novel, but her book, The Compound, is available on bookshelves now. I used considerably more than 7 pages of my nano novel, and revision was fairly rapid. Still, those are worries for Dec. Right now, enjoy first draft writing.

Jan: Wow, thank you, Ann, for sharing so much with us about Nano - you're definitely a great Nano evangelist. I can see a lot of enthusiasm around here for giving it a try this year.

Ann: Thank you, Jan, and all you nano writers for letting me chat nano up with you these past few days. I'm looking forward to hearing what you first timers think of National Novel Writing Month as the month of November moves along.

Ann: You all have great energy, and a great community here, so I'm sure you, or we, will all have a great time. It takes a writer to understand what a writer goes through composing that manuscript, revising it, sending it out, waiting, and dealing with a few acceptances in a field of rejections. Writing is very difficult, but without other writers to commiserate and celebrate with, I dare say writing would be impossible.

Ann: It's wonderful that ICL exists and offers writers such a peaceful and joyous place to meet. It's been tea and cookies here the past few days and I've really enjoyed myself. Now, I'm back to revising my second novel so I can get it off my desk by Oct. 31st. Happy writing!