What a Difference a Year Makes ... in the Company of Strumpets

Tough to believe it’s been a year since I kicked off the blog with my first post celebrating our right to bare arms and manly firmness. Where does the time go?

Some of it’s gone into renovations here on the blog. We’ve changed the name and adopted a new identity as Strumpets – which has been loads of fun already. We’ve participated in Brenda Novak’s auction and given away a prize package including a Kindle and a copy of each of our books. We’ve gone to innumerable signings and conferences and festivals, and we’ve all made long strides in our respective publishing journeys.

Time has moved forward, and it’s taking us all with it.

As for me, the one-year mark offers me a chance to get recommitted to my writing. Last month was a thirty-day trial by fire for me. My day job collapsed (a couple of times), my little feline family faced some health crises, and life as a single romance writer threw some major curve balls at me. By the time the month ended, I was exhausted. I couldn’t summon the energy to knit words together into coherent sentences. The idea of writing anything sexy – hell, anything pleasant – felt foreign. Unwieldy. Out of reach.

I didn’t think of quitting altogether. For me, writing is like blinking. If I’m awake, I have to do it, even though it doesn’t feel like I’m getting much of a return. I did, however, think of leaving romance behind. My writing had dried up, leaving behind the sort of desiccated husks that, well, very few people find erotic.

Then I went to The Porches with fellow Strumpets DeniseGolinowski, Sofie Couch, Elvy Howard, and Leah St. James. I’m going to spend more time on my blog describing the place, but for now, let’s just call it Heaven on Earth for writers. (Click Sofie's link -- her pictures are already up.) One weekend there was like hitting the reset button. A brief respite from real life was all I needed to rehydrate the scorched earth that had been June’s body of work. I came away from The Porches with nearly 10,000 fresh words, including an essay on June From Hell, and a shiny new story idea to take up in the near future.

I’m grateful for the escape from reality, but getting away doesn't matter as much if you're not running with the right people. My crew of Strumpets, there in the country and here in cyberspace, offers me a safe spot to renew my creative promises and reconnect to my creative energy. And so here, on the Fourth of July, at the one-year mark, I want to express my gratitude. I’m so happy to be with this group of awesome writers, and I’m thrilled to see where this process of growth and evolution takes us next.

As long as we’re not moving beyond the need for bare arms and manly firmness. That kind of progress leaves a bad taste in one’s mouth. (That's what she said.)

So what’s this year done for you? Let me know what’s up in the comments.

**Alexa Day usually shows up on the first Wednesday of the month, but her blog anniversary fell on a Thursday this month. That’s her story and she’s sticking to it. You can keep up with her on her blog, on Facebook or on Twitter. She thinks you should try Facebook, where her friendlessness reminds her of high school in the worst possible way. Her book, Illicit Impulse, is a Night Owl Reviews Top Pick. You’ll find it on sale at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and other e-book retailers.

Writing a NaNoWriMo Novel From Inside a Video Game

It's National Novel Writing Month and as you can see from our sidebar, the W3 are in full NaNoWriMo mode. With the rise of e-books changing the publishing industry and the rise of gamification changing the workplace, I thought it might be fun to gamify the writing of my Nano Novel this year.

Gamification involves taking elements from video games and using them in non-game applications. In my pre-Nano search for a way to gamify novel writing I stumbled across the 750words site-- think Girl Scout merit badges meets The Artist's Way morning pages. The first few badges I earned at 750Words were pretty easy to win. But there were specific ones, the rooster badge (write three pages before 9:30 am for ten days in a row) or the turquoise pony (write 750 words for an entire month without missing a day) were challenging, but not unobtainable. I'm currently in pursuit of the hamster badge (write 750 words ten days in a row without being distracted once during the writing). That one is proving difficult. And while it's fun to mix writing of a novel with getting badges, I want something more.

Being an explorer of how to gamify novels, I wanted a bigger challenge. I wanted to write my 50,000 words inside a video game. Yep. You read that right. I wanted to write my novel from inside a video game and I wanted to earn badges while I did it. That meant I had to build a writing environment inside a game. So far, I have written 12,278 words from inside my game world. Check out my cool NaNoWriMo War Room.




Now, I want to make it clear that I'm not looking at my avatar locked in a typing animation and calling that writing a novel. I scripted a pixel computer from LindaKellie.com, to link up to 750words.com. Then I type the novel there on the computer made of pixels and save my drafts to the website. I create something real in a world that's not real.

 

That's a closeup of my inworld computer screen. Below is another essential for keeping me on track, a focus timer. I click the button and it counts down 25 minutes and I don't stop for a break until it rings. Well, that's more a goal than a reality at this point.



You can see in the war room picture that I've got a nice big whiteboard to keep track of plot points or tasks. Isn't it amazing the things you can do with technology?

It's not just a gimmicky, geeky stunt I'm trying to pull off here. Outside that virtual window I can see lightning bugs flickering in the grass and a sun set casting a rainbow of color across the pond below my house. The branches of a huge willow tree sway gently in the breeze and I hear the soft ping of wind chimes out on the front porch. When I am at my writing desk inside my game world, tension drains away, my imagination takes over, and words start to flow. If I get stuck, I can create a replica of scene from the novel and work out the details.

If you like experimenting, you can find everything I used to create your own virtual writing space:

The platform for building the world-- Sim-On-A-Stick
The furnishings--LindaKellie.com
The Timer (you can get one of those to work on a real computer desktop too)-- Focus Booster
The White Board (another Tool You can use on an ordinary computer)-- Scrumblr
And of course you can get a free account at 750words.com and motivate the writing of your novel without being inside a video game while you do it.

Happy writing everyone. I need to get back to my novel. My avatar needs to learn to type a little faster if we're going to finish on time.

~~
Nara Malone is an author, virtual world explorer, game writer, poet, environmentalist, and lover of all that is creative or geeky. You can learn more about Nara or the books and games she's written at http://naramalone.com