Author: Ramona DeFelice Long
How to Prepare for a Month of Intense Writing
Updating this post from last year, in preparation for NaNoWriMo. These considerations were best addressed in October, but it’s never too late to think about how to prepare for the month ahead.
How to Prepare for a Month of Intense Writing
What can you do in advance to make sure you can focus on the 50,000 word goal ahead of you? Below are some questions to ponder in October.
YOU, The Writer
What physical or personal needs do you need to meet before Nov 1?
What can you do in advance?
What activities will you need to delay or put aside?
What activities help you write?
What prevents you from writing?
Can you give up TV, Facebook, movies for the month?
Do you have a plan for daily needs (meals, exercise?
Do you need to enlist outside support?
Will you need to change your sleep schedule?
Do you need/have a writing partner?
YOUR WRITING
What is your most creative time of day?
Is it practical to work then?
Where do you work best?
Do you have a physical place only for writing?
Can you set one up for this month?
Will you work alone, join others, or both?
Do you have a general idea in mind for your story?
Do you have a daily word count goal?
Do you have a writing buddy to hold you accountable?
YOUR JOB
Can you write around your job schedule?
How will NaNoWriMo impact your job performance?
How will your job impact NaNoWriMo?
Is your employer aware you are undertaking NaNoWriMo?
Can you say no to extra work, overtime, travel?
YOUR FAMILY and FRIENDS
Is your family on board with your commitment to NaNoWriMo?
Can you assign extra duties/chores for this month?
Can you establish a daily “Do Not Disturb, I’m Writing” time?
Can you enlist help from family or friends with meals, childcare, carpool?
Do you know how to use a crock pot and/or order a pizza?
Will you need to take time off to enjoy Thanksgiving?
Will your friends understand if you can’t meet for lunch?
Do you have an end-of-NaNo celebration planned?
How can you use MATH to be successful at NaNoWriMo?
The NaNoWriMo goal is 50,000 words in the month of November. To be successful, I believe you should write every day, but how much?
If you write every day, for 30 days, that’s a daily word count of 1,667.
If you take off Thanksgiving to watch parades, the daily word count becomes 1,725.
If you take off Thanksgiving and Sundays, the daily word count becomes 2,000.
If you need to work primarily on weekends (9 days), the daily word count is 5,555.
How many days do you plan to write? Divide 50,000 by the number of writing days, and you have your daily word count.
Think about your life and how NaNoWriMo will affect it on these levels. Do you need to create a writing nest in your home? Learn to DVR your TV shows and freeze some meatloaf meals? Would hooking up with a writing buddy keep you honest? Practice turning off that inner editor and critic, because in November, she needs to Go Away
How to Prepare for a Month of Intense Writing Workshop
Writing A Novel: You Can Do It!
This four-part series being offered at the Havre de Grace (MD) Public Library reaches out to the brave folks participating in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) in November. Each session will address a specific topic to help writers prepare for the intense writing experience ahead:
Session 1 (Sept 16) – Intro to NaNoWriMo and What Makes a Good Novel?
Presented by Lauren Carr
Session 2 (Sept 30) – How to Prepare for a Month of Intense Writing
Presented by Ramona DeFelice Long
Session 3 (Oct 7) – Settings, Dialogue & Mind Games
Presented by Laura Fox
Session 4 (Oct 21) – Beginnings, Middles & Ends
Presented by Ramona DeFelice Long
All sessions are on Monday evenings, at 6:30 p.m. Registration is required. To register, call 410-939-6700 and/or visit the Harford County Public Library website.
Fall 2013 Courses and Workshops
Upcoming Courses and Workshops
Interview Your Story Workshop
Dates: Sunday, September 8 – Saturday, September 21
Where: Online via Yahoo Groups
Where: Online via Yahoo Groups
Subsidized cost: $35
Open to: Members of SinC Guppy Chapter
The workshop will guide the author in examining his/her story in series of daily Q &A sessions. There are three basic Question areas: The Story, The Storyteller, The Audience. The goal of the course is to allow the author to examine his/her story in great depth. A secondary goal is to help the author articulate what this story is about, why he/she is the perfect person to write it, and identify and write to the perfect reader for this story. Daily Topics below:
Sunday: The Crime
Monday: The Sleuth/s
Tuesday: The Story World/Setting
Wednesday: The Quest and Emotional Journey
Thursday: Theme
Friday: Plot Points and Structure
Saturday: Secondary Characters and Storylines
Sunday: catch-up
Monday: Suspects, Cops, Clues, Red Herrings
Tuesday: Story and Character Arcs
Wednesday: Resolution and Aftermath
Thursday: The Author
Friday: The Audience
Saturday: Putting it all Together
Sunday: catch-up
Writing A Novel: You Can Do It! series
Writing a Novel: You Can Do It! will be offered by the Harford County Public Libraries, Havre de Grace Branch in Havre de Grace, Maryland
This 4-part writing session is offered in advance of 2013 National Novel Writing Month in November. The sessions are free and open to the public, but registration is required. All sessions will be held at 6:30 p.m. on Mondays. To register, call 410-939-6700.
Monday, Sept. 16: Session One, Intro to NaNoWriMo presented by Lauren Carr
Monday, Sept. 30: Session Two, Preparing for a Month of Intensive Writing, presented by Ramona Long
Monday, Oct. 7: Session Three, Settings, Dialogue & Mind Games, presented by Lauren Fox
Monday, Oct. 21: Session Four, Structure: Beginnings, Middles & Ends, presented by Ramona Long
Scene Writing Workshop
This online workshop is sponsored by the Mary Roberts Rhinehart Chapter of Sisters in Crime. To register, visit their website.
When: Sunday October 13, 2013 – Saturday October 26, 2013 (2 weeks)
Where: Online via Yahoo Groups
How Much: $50 for Members, $60 for Non-Members
This course will examine the nuts, bolts, and necessities of good scene writing, addressing questions such as:
- What is a scene?
- What should a scene accomplish?
- What are different types of scenes?
- How do scenes move a story?
- How do scenes work as set pieces?
- How do you write an effective scene?
- How do you insert subtext into scenes?
This workshop will be devoted to understanding, planning, and writing different types of dramatic scenes. The topics will include scene structure; scene goals; working with a scene checklist; and types: romance, action, fight, sex, introductions, contemplation, etc. Although there will be exercises, a work in progress or story idea would be helpful, so authors can work on scenes from their WIPs.
Preparation
This workshop will better serve writers of some experience as opposed to someone who has never written before. However, anyone who wants to learn about scenes and scene structure would benefit. A work in progress or, at the very least, a concrete story idea would be necessary, because this is a hands on workshop. We will discuss the different scene types, and I’d ask students to search within their drafts for types of scenes as examples. If that’s not possible, participants may have to write a new scene for the class.
Literary Reading
Saturday, August 24, 2013 at 1:00 p.m.
Literary Reading at John Dickinson Plantation
Join two local authors representing the Delaware Division of the Arts’ Individual Artist Fellowship Program for a literary reading at the home of one of the state’s most treasured historical figures.
Ramona DeFelice Long of Newark and Russell Reece of Bethel will share stories and discuss the value and impact of place in their writing. Following the reading will be a site tour and colonial craft.
John Dickinson Plantation is located at 340 Kitts Hummock Road, Dover, Delaware.
Directions
The Plantation is located southeast of the Dover Air Force Base on Kitts Hummock Road (County Road 68). Kitts Hummock Road intersects with the northbound side of Delaware Route 9, one-half mile northeast of the intersection of Route 9 and U.S. Route 113.
Contact Information
Phone: (302) 739-3277
John Dickinson Plantation Facebook Page
This program is free and open to the public. It is made possible, in part, by a grant from the Delaware Division of the Arts, a state agency dedicated to nurturing and supporting the arts in Delaware, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts and with support from the Delaware Division of Humanities and Culture.
Back to Basics Workshop
Back to Basics Online Workshop
When: August 4-11, 2013
Where: Online via Yahoo Groups
How much: $25/30
Sponsored by: The Mary Roberts Rinehart Pittsburgh Chapter of Sisters in Crime
Back to Basics Workshop is about writing efficiently and effectively. It will combine a daily lesson with both original exercises and exercises applied to your own work in progress. This workshop is open to new writers, or to writers who want to sharpen their skills. It’s also open to all genres.
The schedule of topics will be:
Sunday – Point of View
Monday – Passive vs. Active Writing
Tuesday – Show Not Tell
Wednesday – Strong Word Choices
Thursday – Managing Backstory
Friday – Delivering Dialogue
Saturday – Creating Conflict.
Each morning I will post a lesson, with examples to illustrate each point, and exercises to practice the lesson of the day. In workshop mode, we will exchange and review the exercises day by day.
For more details and to register, visit the Pittsburgh Sisters in Crime website.
Award Winners XIII
The Biggs Museum of American Art is hosting an exhibition–and two parties–to promote the work of the Delaware Division of the Arts’ 2013 Individual Artist Fellowship Winners. Seventeen Delaware musicians, painters, sculptors, dancers, folk artists and writers will share museum space to highlight their work. The Award Winners XIII exhibition will run from August 2 to October 13, 2013.
The exhibition will open on Friday, August 2, with a First Look pARTy. If you are hanging out in, around, or you can find your way to Dover, stop in!
Upcoming this Summer: A Workshop, an Art Party, and a Reading
Three big events will dominate the summer of 2013 for me: an Art Party to open the exhibition of works by fellowship winners; an online workshop on writing basics; and a literary reading at an historic plantation. Check them out below!
Event #1
First Look pARTy! at the Biggs Museum of American Art
Friday, August 2, 2013, from 5:00 to 7:00
Be one of the first to see the works of this year’s DDOA Individual Artist fellows at the Biggs Museum of American Art in Dover, Delaware. This year’s Award Winners XIII exhibit will feature works by the seventeen Delawareans honored with IAF grants from the State of Delaware in 2013. Each IAF artist will have a spot in the exhibit. From the Biggs Museum’s Exhibition calendar:
Award Winners XIII: August 2 – October 13, 2013
For thirteen years, the Biggs Museum has partnered with the Delaware Division of the Arts (DDOA) to showcase the artistic talents of Delaware in an annual summer exhibition. The annual Award Winners exhibition features the talent of the current Individual Artist Fellows of the Delaware Division of the Arts (DDOA). Delaware artists: painters, photographers, sculptors, writers, musicians and craft artisans, have the honor of winning the DDOA’s annual distinguished fellowship prizes. The fellows are chosen by jurors from hundreds of entries. In a partnership with the DDOA, the staff of the Biggs Museum invites each year’s Award Winners to the only group exhibition honoring their combined accomplishment.
The annual Award Winners exhibition is one of the most important annual projects at the Biggs Museum in carrying out its mission to celebrate artistic diversity, provide public educational access to Delaware’s fine-arts community, and to bring more awareness of both the museum and art to the community. Award Winners traces the evolution of the local art scene in Delaware and is presented to the public with hopes of encouraging conversation, comparison, debate and reflection of the diverse nature of work being created in Delaware.
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Event #2
Back to Basics Workshop
Online workshop running from August 4 – August 11 (one week) sponsored by the Mary Roberts Rinehart Pittsburgh Chapter of Sisters in Crime. The workshop is both a beginner and refresher course and is open to any writer. From the chapter website::
When: August 4-11, 2013 (1 week)
Where: Online via Yahoo Groups
How Much: $25 for Members, $30 for Non-Members
This is not your Grandma’s Grammar class, folks. This is about writing. This is about writing efficiently and effectively.
This workshop is designed to be both new for the beginning writer, and a review for the more experienced writer. Each day will be a lesson on a specific writing topic: Point of View; Passive vs. Active Writing; Show Not Tell; Word Choices; Backstory; Delivering Dialogue; Creating Conflict. I will post a lesson, with examples to illustrate each point, and exercises to practice the lesson of the day. In workshop mode, we will exchange and review the exercises day by day.
Preparation
This workshop will be of particular use for beginning writers, to learn some fundamentals. For writers with some or more experience, the daily offerings on writing topics could serve as a review or a new approach to basic skills. No draft is necessary because I will be offering unique exercises. Writers can apply the lessons to their work, but it will be a how-to each day.
About Ramona
Ramona DeFelice Long works as an author, independent editor, and instructor. As an editor, she works with private clients, primarily in the genres of mystery, women’s, and literary fiction. Her clients range from well-published to new writers and young writers. She has edited several anthologies of short fiction for chapters of Sisters in Crime as well as private writing groups. As an instructor, she teaches courses online and craft workshops (Scene Writing, Short Stories, Story Q&A) and intensives (Self-Editing) at writing conferences. As an author, she’s been published in fiction and non-fiction in a variety of publications. She is also a regular at free writes and Open Mics in the great state of Delaware.
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Event #3
Literary Reading at John Dickinson Plantation
When: Saturday, August 24, 2013, at 1:00 p.m.
Where: John Dickinson Plantation, 340 Kitts Hummock Road, Dover, Delaware
What: Literary reading
Join two local authors representing the Delaware Division of the Arts’ Individual Artist Fellowship Program for a literary reading at the home of one of the state’s most treasured historical figures.
Ramona DeFelice Long of Newark and Russell Reece of Bethel will share stories and discuss the importance of value and impact of place in their writing. Following the reading will be a plantation tour and historical demonstration.
The John Dickinson Plantation is a working 18th century plantation complete with a period farm complex and the beautifully restored home of John Dickinson. One of American’s leading patriots, Dickinson w
as called “the Penman of the Revolution” for his eloquent and passionate writings about liberty. The John Dickinson Plantation is supported through the Delaware Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs.
This event is made possible, in part, by a grant from the Delaware Division of the Arts, a state agency dedicated to nurturing and supporting the arts in Delaware, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts.
New DDoA Artist Pages Posted
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I am happy to share the Delaware Division of the Arts new 2013 Individual Artist Fellowship pages. Take a look at the painters, composers, writers, and musicians selected this year to represent the state’s commitment to supporting and promoting art and artists. I am honored to be among this group of 17 artists selected for 2013.
I had the pleasure of being interviewed (again) for the page by Christopher Yasiejko. Our 
conversation focused on my particular discipline, Creative Nonfiction, which is my writing focus this year as I pursue my grant project on writing about how the various places I have lived has influenced me as a person, a citizen, and an artist. I am enthusiastic about this genre which allows a writer to research like a reporter and write like a novelist.
My work sample is in the interview taken from “Getting to Grand Isle,” a piece published in The Arkansas Review in 2012.
Delaware has a fine track record for supporting the arts. As part of the IAF program, en dach of the artists featured in the pages will give a public performance or viewing of their work. I will be presenting in August, with fellow Delaware writer Russell Reece. Our literary reading will be at the John Dickinson Plantation in Dover, on August 24. We will read and share a colonial craft and tour of the plantation. We hope this reading at an historical site will be the start of a literary series set at places important to our state’s history.
4 Post-Conference Tasks
This weekend I had the pleasure of attending and teaching at the Pennwriters annual conference in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It’s always a joy to head back to Pennsylvania, where I lived for a number of years. Pennwriters is an excellent resource for beginning and experienced writers. The community is generous, savvy, smart and fun.
Now it is post-conference Monday, and my follow up list is calling my name. What do you do the day (days, week) after a conference?
It’s all about NOTES.
1. Thank you notes: Send a few words to express your gratitude to the organizers and volunteers who made the conference happen. For a big annual conference, you can bet the coordinators donated a year of their lives to ensure the 2-3-4 day event went smoothly. A brief email or written note will show your appreciation for their efforts–and they’ll remember your graciousness.
2. Congratulatory notes: Was there a lifetime achievement award? A writing contest? A volunteer award? Did the luncheon speaker’s message move you? Being feted in front of a big group is great, but it is often a blur. A day or so later, when this person is still in the glow, a “Hey, I think you’re wonderful!” message extends the glow. Do that for someone.
3. Decipher your notes: I taught two workshops and attended 6 or 7 more. My brain is all a-jumble, but I took copious notes. I’ll let them sit a day or two before converting my handwritten scribbles to a file of useful tips and questions. I organizes notes by topic, so for each workshop I attended, I’ll add what I want to remember in files: Short Story Notes; Character Notes; Goal-Setting Notes: Why Donald Maass Thinks We Should Write Good Books Notes. If you have a question about something you jotted down during a workshop, or can’t read your own chicken scratch, try sending a brief email to the instructor to ask for clarification. You might send a note of thanks if the workshop was useful.
4. People notes: I collected a stack of business cards and book marks from the freebie table. I made connections with some lovely people, but am I going to remember what we talked about if I run into this author, agent, editor next year? Will I recall what they’re writing? Probably, but maybe not. On the back of business cards, jot down a reminder: Writes literary short stories…. Is writing a cancer memoir…. Loves Dr. Who! It’s lovely to be remembered, and no one will ever know if you used an aid to help your memory.
Good manners go a long way in this world, but it’s also good business to be gracious and show your appreciation after a successful event. And the Pennwriters conference was definitely a successful event!
Ramona DeFelice Long 