NaNoWriMo 2015 Winner! by Regina Kammer

Once again I am a NaNoWriMo Winner!

This was my 10th year participating in National Novel Writing Month. I wrote the foundations of The Viscount and the Veteran: An American Federalist Tale, the follow-up novel to The General’s Wife: An American Revolutionary Tale.

If you can't wait until The Viscount and the Veteran is completed, edited, submitted, and published and need your bisexual male/male romance fix now, I've got you covered with "Winter Interlude: An American Revolutionary Novelette" my story in The Naughty Literati's Naughty Chances: Take A Chance On Romance. "Winter Interlude" is a companion piece to The General’s Wife: An American Revolutionary Tale, delving into the relationship between Captain Samuel Taylor and Lieutenant Patrick Hamilton.

So what did I learn this year during NaNoWriMo 2015?

- It’s always best to end a day’s writing session with notes about what comes next.
Corollary comment: It is so great when the writing flows and a scene comes together, characters are changed, plot moved forward. But the previous night’s victory is dampened by the looming realization the next morning that, OMG, you have no idea what happens next.

- I really, really, really need to tamp down the inner editor. I try to by putting stuff I need to research or edit in [square brackets] and forgetting about it. It doesn’t always work.

- I am a combination of plotter and pantser: perhaps the word is “plotser” or “pantster”. But I do need that next-morning crutch of what comes next. So the pantser needs a plot plan, even if that plot plan is formulated a minute after the pantsing has finished.

- 50,000 words is basically a really detailed outline.

- I learn the same lessons year after year. I really need to pay attention to my inner writer!

If you want to see how my November progressed on Twitter, I've captured the tweets on my blog.

I encourage everyone who has ever wanted to write a novel to take the National Novel Writing Month challenge. If you can't wait until November 2016, the same organization runs Camp NaNoWriMo in April and July. Your voice needs to be heard and your characters need to come to life!

About the Author

Regina Kammer is a librarian, an art historian, and an award-nominated, best-selling, multi-published writer of erotica and historical erotic romance. Her short stories and novels make history sexier, whether the era is Roman, Byzantine, Viking, American Revolution, or Victorian. She’s even sexed up contemporary settings, Steampunk, and Greco-Roman mythology. She has been published by Cleis Press, Go Deeper Press, Ellora’s Cave, House of Erotica, Story Ink, The Naughty Literati, and her own imprint, Viridium Press. She began writing historical fiction with romantic elements during National Novel Writing Month 2006, switching to erotica when all her characters suddenly demanded to have sex.

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By The Seat Of My Pants

There are two primary ways to write, either you're a plotter or a pantser. Neither is wrong, all that matters is what works for the author. As the name implies, plotters plot and plan, many have the entire book mapped out in a detailed outline before they move on to the writing stage. Panster's are the opposite and typically have an idea of who the characters are and where they want the tale to start. From there they follow where the characters lead, writing by the seat of their pants.

I didn't learn that until I actually became an author. All through grade school and college, I thought there was something wrong with how my brain worked because I could not outline to save my life. Every time I had to write a paper, I had to complete the whole thing well in advance of when the outline had to be turned in. After writing the paper, I would then go back and write the outline required for the assignment from the finished paper. I had no idea there were many others who did the same thing. It wasn't until working on my bachelors degree that a teacher finally told me that being a pantster was normal for many people.

And then there's another wrench in the whole thing because some people can write various scenes out of order while others have to write in a straight line from start to finish. That's  me. I have to start at the beginning of a story and work my way straight through to the end. So I am a linear pantser. I start knowing who my hero and heroine are, what sub-genre or romance their world revolves around, what they do for a living and how they meet. I will have a general idea of how I want their relationship to develop, some obstacles I want to throw in their way and then I sit down and write.

Most of the time this works great but there are times I will get stuck and cannot see where they are going next. At those times I have to step back, do some thinking about their goals and motivations to figure out how to continue. Then there are those rare, wonderful times when writing feels as if you are channeling the characters, everything is just there and the author is merely a scribe, writing it all down.

I've had that happen once. A story came to me out of the blue. In first-person, which I had never written in that style. And it was from the hero's perspective. Going with the flow, I let the character drive and still to this day have no idea where his story came from. I wrote Sebastian's story so quickly, stunned by how it was just there. As if I'd channelled the character.

Recently, I had the rights to that story, Trip My Switch, reverted to me and did some revisions to re-publish. It was really cool to get back into the hero's head and discover that I still feel a strong connection to him. When I picked the manuscript back up it was instant and almost like visiting a close friend who will always have a special place in my heart.

Getting to design the cover for myself this time was a lot of fun for me. I spent days searching stock sties for the perfect trio for this naughty BDSM M/M/F menage. The revised story is in the hands of my editor and will soon be available for your reading pleasure. I hope you'll fall for Sebastian, Chris and Marissa as deeply as I have.

Happy Reading,
Nicole