Wordcraft – Are we ready to WriMo now?

I’m writing about NaNoWriMo – the national (although now international) novel writing month – of November. And no, I haven’t flipped the pages of my calendar too fast. Because NaNoWriMo is now virtually a year-round event, and the warmups have already begun!

To bring WriMo newbies up to speed – NaNoWriMo is designed to get writers off to a running start on a novel by asking them to put 50,000 words down in a single 30-day period, from November 1-30. The point is to juice up our creativity and turn off our nagging internal editors – those voices in our heads that tell us what we’re doing doesn’t make sense, our spelling/grammar/plot structure are terrible, that we’ll never, ever be able to write an entire book. Instead, put those voices to work spitting out words so fast our fingers can barely keep up with them.

You say you don’t hear voices in your head? Sure, you do. You’ve just been afraid to admit it. Until now.

So join the hundreds of thousands of participants yearly who make the NaNoWriMo pledge to make those voices earn their keep, starting today (October 25) at the free webinar, “How to Push Through to the End, with We Need Diverse Books,” from 11 a.m. – noon Pacific Daylight Time with authors Adam Silvera and Stacey Lee. Log into the website for details.

Yes, a free webinar. Because everything is free at NaNoWriMo, a bona fide nonprofit organization. (Although they love donations. Not to mention purchases of cool merchandise advertising the event!)

Then keep looking to the site for events with actual people in your region. In my part of North Texas, the Dallas Public Library’s central branch will host members of the DFW Writers’ Workshop, ready to provide help with outlining our books, creating characters, finding time to write, or whatever's bugging potential writers. Suitable for teens and adults (must be at least 13 to participate in NaNoWriMo), in the third-floor Conference Room B of the library, 1515 Young Street, Dallas, from 6 – 7:30 p.m.

Still in North Texas, the DFW Rhinos will host a potluck lunch from 1 – 3 p.m. this Saturday, October 29, at Hurst Christian Church, 745 Brown Trail, in Hurst. Then on Halloween, Rhinos hold a midnight write-in from 8 p.m. October 31 to 6 a.m. November 1, also at Hurst Christian Church. See the DFW Rhinos Facebook page and the “regions” button at the NaNoWriMo site for more events.

Want more help? It’s OK to go outside NaNoWriMo. The Writer’s Garret, 10809 Garland Road, Dallas, has some in-depth workshops great for novelists. Consider “Developing Characters,” November 1, from 7-10 p.m. with writer Sanderia Faye (The Mourner's Bench) and/or “Never Let Me Go: How to Craft your Chapter’s Beginning and End,” November 13, from 1-4 p.m. with writer Weina Dai Randel (The Empress of Bright Moon).  For each workshop, the early bird cost for Writer’s Garret members (through October 30) is $45. Regular price is $60 for members, $75 for nonmembers. See the site to join and/or register for classes.

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You're probably wondering: is there life outside of NaNoWriMo? Strangely enough, yes, but some of it is moving along quickly. Today, October 25, (at 11:59 p.m. CDT) is the deadline for the Writers Guild of Texas flash fiction contest. See the WGT site for details and entry fee for non-WGT members.

Today is also the regularly-scheduled last-Tuesday scene read for the Dallas Screenwriters Association. Although only DSA members may bring scenes, the reading is free and open to the public, at Half Price Books, 5803 E. Northwest Highway, Dallas. Castings start at 6 p.m., readings about 7 p.m.

Finally (for now), I was excited to see that the Writers League of Texas from Austin will bring its Texas Writes programming to a couple of small-town libraries in the deep Piney Woods of my native East Texas in the coming year. Librarians interested in bringing a free half day of presentations and panel discussions by accomplished writers to their communities of less than 12,000 people may contact the WLT for an application. 

Wordcraft -- What happens at a crime scene

l-r, Drs. Johnson & Verbeck

This post comes with a warning -- if discussions of violent death make you feel faint, stop reading now. Just realize you’re condemning your characters never to experience violence in any form, not even a quick peek at a traffic accident. It’s the nice quiet kind of life most of us would like to lead. But writing isn’t about the kinds of lives our characters like. If they got everything they want, we wouldn’t have anything to write about.

The annual DFW Writers’ Conference is packed with inspirational speeches by big name writers, lectures on writing craft, interviews with agents and editors, and the usual gossip and commiseration by writers thrilled to find other people who speak our special language. This year the conference added something new -- panel discussions by forensic science professionals and law enforcement officials.

I’m going to take the forensics experts, all from the Fort Worth medical examiner’s office -- forensics death investigator Amy Renfro, deputy medical examiner Dr. Tasha Greenberg, chemistry professor and explosives expert Dr. Guido Verbeck, and chief toxicologist Dr. Robert Johnson. The panel moderator was Dr. Michelle O’Neal, an anthropological investigator and member of the DFW Writers’ Workshop which sponsored the conference.

What do these people do? And what makes them do it?

Renfro is usually the first of the group to be called to the scene of a death, starting the photographic documentation of bodies. Please don’t call her a CSI technician. Despite what we see on TV, in real life, CSI teams do not examine corpses. Strange though it may seem to TV viewers, neither do police officers.

And although police officers are allowed to inform the deceased person’s next of kin about the death, the job often falls to Renfro, who prefers to do it in person if at all
possible. Sometimes, however, the next of kin isn’t even in the state. Or the country. And exactly who is “next of kin” calls up a legal hierarchy based on, among other things, the deceased person’s age and marital status.

Greenberg performs autopsies on bodies she receives through a designated chain of command from autopsy technicians. She and Amy “I like dead people” Renfro both admit to having a strange sense of humor. “If we couldn’t laugh, we couldn’t handle it,” Renfro said.

And although the job “does make you appreciate your life and the lives of those around you,” Greenberg said, “I get excited. I love my job.”

To do Greenberg’s job, you need to be a physician. In the state of Texas, you’ll have the title of medical examiner or deputy medical examiner. I was embarrassed to learn that I’d referred in a story to the person examining a case of violent death as a “coroner,” a position that exists in some states, but not in Texas.

Johnson spends his time in a lab determining causes of death involving alcohol or drugs. Except that the actual drugs most likely aren’t still in the body, forcing him to look for other chemical indicators. “I avoid the morgue unless I’m forced to,” he commented
wryly. He’s also the one to talk to if you’re a writer looking for that least likely to be found poison to use in a murder mystery.

In his primary job as a teacher, Verbeck said, “I have to prepare students for (the gruesome facts). My first couple of lectures are shock and awe.”

Verbeck, who aided the investigation of the recent West, Texas, fertilizer plant explosion is also the one to go to if you want to know the right explosives -- or the more technical term, “energetic materials” -- to use for a particular crime.

(Squeamish audience members questioning Johnson and Verbeck invariably used some formula of “if I want to poison someone,” or “if I want to blow something up.”)

(Next Monday, I’m taking a break from the forensics discussion, but be prepared later for more specifics of an investigation, including the “CSI effect.”)

Wordcraft -- Resolution number 2: Join other writers

It’s still December and you’re already making your second writing resolution for 2012. Feel proud of yourself as you join a writers’ workshop. And then faint from terror.

I’ve been a fairly regular member of a workshop, at the Dallas Writer’s Garret, since 2007 and can honestly say that by the last couple of meetings I’ve been able to resist the urge to lock myself in the restroom before my turn came to read. Because putting your work out there is scary. It’s amazing that we writers hope for publication, when our work may be seen by thousands of people, but fear putting it before a dozen.

But those dozen, of course, are the ones you see face to face. The ones who say things about your writing that ring in your ears. That’s the terrifying part, but it’s also the helpful part. I’ve heard unpublished writing at conventions, and the stories from writers who attended writers’ groups were better than those who hadn’t. It’s hard to be objective about our own work. We need to enlist the eyes and ears of others as well.

(There are online groups as well, but nothing quite beats the physical presence of other group members.)

After I had tried writing fiction for about a year and family members started to avoid me for fear I’d ask them to read my stuff, I realized I needed to find other writers. But how? An internet search turned up some possibilities, but for those of you in North Texas, I’ll list some I can vouch for from personal experience.

-- The Dallas Writer’s Garret. Moving from its current East Dallas location in January, but check www.writersgarret.org/ for the new place and times. 
The late Texas Poet Laureate Jack Myers and his wife Thea Temple founded the Garret, which has its own education program as well as sponsoring writing workshops. Attendance at the workshops (called Stone Soups) is free for first-timers, $3 thereafter. Garret members also enjoy unlimited free attendance.

-- DFW Writers’ Workshop. Meets every Wednesday evening at 508 Simmons Street in Euless, Texas. Non-members may visit twice a year to observe but reading and critiquing is limited to members. Dues are $100 annually, prorated quarterly. DFWWW also sponsors a convention I’ll say more about in a later post. See www.dfwwritersworksho.org/ or call 817-714-6573.

-- North Texas Speculative Fiction Workshop. Meets the second Saturday of each month except December at the Hurst Barnes & Noble Bookstore, 861 NE Mall Blvd., in Hurst, Texas. DFWWW member Pat Hauldren (Alley) is the founder and moderator. It was free when I attended a few years ago and I that’s still the case. See www.ntsfw.com/   This group (and several others) are also on
www.meetup.com/

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Contest deadlines -- December 15 (tomorrow!) is the deadline for the first short story competition from Short-Story.me. Contest fee is $5. See the site, www.short-story.me/ for details. (And check out my fantasy story “Shaman” from 2010 while you’re there.)

Also due December 15 -- Entries for SheWrites Young Adult Novel contest, whose proceeds benefit Girls Write Now. See www.shewrites.com/ for details (even if you’re a guy).



(Next Wednesday: Resolution number 3 -- find homes for your stories.)