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How to Work on Your Book Without Actually Writing It

One of my goals for November 2017 was to participate in NaNoWriMo for the first time in at least five years. The month is nearly over, but it’ll be awhile before my story is. Here are just a few reasons/excuses why:

  • Writing fiction is more daunting than I remember (not counting working on the life-changing webcomic Produce High!). Was this always the case, or am I just out of practice?
  • I’m murky about the story’s timeline and other important details. I’m almost afraid to think about the story when I’m not writing it, as if some part of me doesn’t think I can come up with a good plan.
  • My characters are ghosts of characters past. Another pitfall of not thinking about the story: Everyone in it becomes a stereotype and it’s a huge bummer.
  • I’m writing the story using methods that are entirely new to me. In order to break through my fear of writing and get a sense of momentum going, Pine Cone advised I tape a piece of paper over the computer monitor so I can’t edit while I write. Then I just go to town, free writing/babbling in thirty-minute increments. I’ll be in the middle of a thought and change directions completely, but I can’t back up because I can’t see the screen, so I just plow ahead, creating absolute chaos. Everything is completely out of order because I’ll skip around when I get stuck.
  • I’ve never written a mystery before, so I’m not used to thinking like a detective. I don’t even have a terribly firm grasp on what my mystery is, yet I’m 10K words in. (After a summer reading the first twenty Nancy Drew Mystery Stories books, I decided to try my hand at writing my own, making it take place in present day and adding in a dash of murder, which had been woefully missing from the series.)

Maybe it’s just too much too soon. Still, regardless whether I finish by Nov. 30 (I won’t but), NaNoWrimo has still given me a shove in the right direction. I discovered how much I’ve always enjoyed making headway on a story or a novel. I used to feel so accomplished when I’d make progress with my writing. Even just updating my journal gives me a rush of productivity and a sense of fulfillment unlike any other. (Writing a substantial amount of anything also makes any time afterward spent goofing off feel truly earned and thus that much sweeter!)

One of my fav wastes of time

But even when I would power through writing novels (during a time when I was single and underpaid/unoccupied at work), a great deal of procrastination still took place. This procrastination still resembled productivity and being creative and is what I refer to as working on the book without actually writing it. Okay, I mean, you’re going to have to actually write it eventually, but there are some tricks that would inspire me to write—and serve as future guides that can be used to shape my vision correctly when Hollywood showed up, begging for the rights.

Now I share these tricks—when I should be writing about Nancy Drew solving a murder—with you for the first time! Who knows? Maybe they might actually work for you!

Make an Outline

Most teachers and professors (probably) agree: Thinking about the progression of your story will make it easier once you actually attempt to write it. Because you’ll already know what you want to say, you’ll be able to focus your energy on how you want to say it.

Writing your outline is a great way to kill time in any unproductive work meetings you don’t truly belong in, and it used to totally be the way I rolled. This year, I’m working without an outline, and it’s 476423453734 times harder. I have no idea where I’m going with the story, so when I set the time for a half hour, there several minutes of me panicking about the totally blank slate in my head.

Cast Your Characters

Basing a character on someone else helps me stay focused on what the character would or would not do. “No, Angela Lansbury would never eat a blueberry muffin!” (Side note: Why is Angela Lansbury the first celebrity I thought of?!) Doing so also helps me visualize and describe their physical appearance more effectively. Plus, it’s super fun to imagine your story as a movie.

Example: In high school, I started a novel about Tetra and me two Mary Sues who were forced into a living arrangement with the dudes we liked three fine and completely random guys. To make it more creative and less like creepy fan fiction about people I actually knew, I started basing the characters on my favorite celebrities. Claire Danes and Leo! Josh Hartnett and Nadz Imbruglia! And even—Jesus Christ—Jacob from the amazing boy band O-Town! Truly an all-star cast!

I’d even made a logo!

Develop a Character Description Form and Fill It Out

When my mom got her first computer, I would log into AOL and pop by the Teen Writers section to glean tips and ideas. It’s likely there where I first came across templates for character descriptions. They resembled MySpace questionnaires that we all used to fill out when we were bored in 2005.

Remember that Fallen Angels story I was writing my freshman year? Here’s a sample of one of the character description sheets—every character even got their own song!

LOL @ “Lonely. Quiet. Serious. Pariah.” BTW: Remember Eve 6? I just did. How cray.

Now you can download a sample character description sheet in Microsoft Word doc format, like I did in 1998!

Write Your Back Cover Blurb/Author Bio

Some samples of the author bios I wrote over the year, for better or worse:

Lux Zakari is the author of several novels, and her work has been published in anthologies (Best Bondage Erotica, Best Women’s Erotica) and on websites (For The Girls, The Erotic Woman).

Very professional! But then:

When Lux Zakari was thirteen, she had so many BOP posters on her bedroom walls that she had to change her clothes in the bathroom because there were too many eyes on her. Now she’s arguably grown-up and works as an editor/librarian somewhere in the Mid-Atlantic, but she’ll always have a soft spot in her heart for bubblegum pop music made by cute boys.

Lux Zakari is an erotica-writing, heart-breaking, gun-jumping, opportunistic, ink-stained wench masquerading as a librarian in the United States. A Renaissance gal who is always both playing and working, she is interested in a variety of mediums, including music, painting, sewing, illustration, photography, and graphic design. More often than not, she gets carried away with an idea—and takes everyone else along for the ride.

Some of her claims to fame include reading the entire Sweet Valley High series, completing Rock Band 2′s Endless Set List and almost winning a few hula hooping contests. If her heart had a voice, it would sound like a Florence + the Machine song. She is currently working on an album, as well as her next novel.

When Lux Zakari isn’t writing dirty stories, she’s practicing and instructing yoga, eating obscene amounts of snacks, and planning her next big adventure and idea.

Lux Zakari is already a legend; the unwashed phenomenon; the original vagabond; the girl on the half shell; the hardest of hearts; the red light special; the American woman; the stupid girl; your favorite mistake; a karma-karma-karma-karma-karma chameleon. She has one hand in her pocket and is walking in the spiderwebs ‘cause, baby, she was born this way.

Some of those made me legit el-oh-el.

(I guess I really ought to talk about this Lux Zakari alter ego of mine at some point, shouldn’t I?)

Take Your Author Selfie

♪ Put on your makeup, turn up the eight-track, and pull the wig down from the shelf: Suddenly you’re the Nobel Laureate of Literature, and you ain’t never, you’re never turnin’ back! ♪

That photo on the back cover or back flap of the dust jacket isn’t going to just take itself, you know. Here are two author selfies I took during a bout of dickin’ around, incorporating a liberal use of wigs and false eyelashes!

What a ham sandwich!

Make a Soundtrack

I used to go to the gym, put my earplugs in, and then zone out on the elliptical, imagining the music that would be playing in the background as my characters did stuff like blow up buildings, enter rooms in slow motion (like The Craft!), and, of course, go to Bone Town. (I used to write and publish erotica, but more on that another day.) When I’m not working on a story, the gym gets boring, which is probably a reason why I stopped going altogether.

Putting together a soundtrack can help clarify what kind of vibe you want the story to have, as well as nail down the time period. I’ve started listening to Portishead while writing my Nancy Drew story. And when I wrote a story set in 1974 and 1975, I put together the following track list to help groove my way through its inception:

Create Your Book Cover

Photoshop skills help here, but do what you can. Check out any of the following royalty-free stock photo sites to find appropriate book cover images and cobble something you’d be excited to see on Amazon.com:

That list should keep you too busy to work on your book for a while!

Scour Tumblr for Quirky Characters, Things, and Settings to Plop in Your Novel

I have two secret Pinterest boards: one for Story Pieces, which include settings and props and random thoughts, and one for Characters, which is comprised of a bunch of images of people I don’t know but kind of wish I did. I like to look through these boards on occasion, usually while inhaling a bowl of Annie’s mac and cheese, and think, “Oh, I wish all these things were in my life!” But if that’s not possible, I’ll make them a part of my life by adding them to a story, which is a huge reason why I write in the first place: It’s a way of collecting things and experiences and making them mine.

A collection of curiosities!

In conclusion, a reminder for you (and myself too): Try not to stress yourself out about not being motivated to write. You’ll write when you’re ready. Or rather, you’ll write when you finally get sick of not writing, inspiration be damned!

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