A few years back, I was enrolled in a writer’s workshop, and we were invited to ask our instructor anything about writing and publishing we wanted to know. The instructor was a published author who’d recently landed a six-figure contract with a prominent publishing house in the UK.

One of the workshop participants asked her, “What’s your best advice for getting published?”

Her answer was simple. “Don’t give up. The last one standing is the one who gets the book deal.”

I remember thinking at the time that her answer was a bit ridiculous and an oversimplification of the challenges writers face as we pursue publication. I mean, of course perseverance is important, but there’s no way it can be the sole determining factor in who gets published and who doesn’t. Hello, what about talent? Timing? Trends? Networking? Even luck? Surely those things play a role, too.

But over the past few years since that workshop, I’ve come to realize the instructor was right. It really is that simple: don’t give up.

I’ve seen so many writers give up. Four years ago, I had a ton of writer friends, all in the same writerly place I was – in the trenches trying to get that first novel out into world. Like me, they blogged every day. They socialized with other writers. They tweeted and Facebooked about their journey. They threw themselves in NaNoWriMo every year with more zest than an orange peel. They joined critique groups. They queried literary agents. Some of them even landed representation. And some of them even made it all the way to the editorial boards of major publishing houses before their manuscripts got rejected (an impressive feat all by itself, let me assure you).

And then, for various reasons, an alarming number of them gave up. I had one friend in particular, a supremely talented YA writer who’d signed with a prestigious literary agency. She came very close to closing a deal with a prominent children’s publisher, but fell just short of her goal – the publisher turned her down at the end, citing budgetary reasons. And a few months later, her blog was gone, her website shut down, her Twitter account deactivated. When I last checked in with her, she told me she doesn’t write much anymore, and she certainly isn’t pursuing publication.

I can’t begin to tell you what a shame that is. While I understand the burnout, she’s a fantastic writer and it’s hard to imagine her novels won’t be in bookstores someday.

But the thing is, she has to believe it. She has to be the one to decide not to give up.

Writing might be a creative endeavor, but to finish a novel, you have to write on days when you don’t feel like it. Inspiration only lasts so long before sheer perseverance takes over and pushes you through to The End. Writing is work. And like any other type of work, it requires discipline. There will be days that you love it, and days that you hate it. But if you’re serious – really serious – about seeing your work in print someday, then the best thing you can do as a writer is refuse to give up.

A good chunk of that old group of aspiring author friends have disappeared over the years. The ones who are still around are either published, or are on the path to publication. They didn’t give up. When their first novels got rejected, they wrote second novels. And third novels. They tried again. I know it’s easier said than done, and that there are no guarantees, but the one thing I do know for a fact is that giving up is the only surefire way to not get published.

So don’t give up.

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Jennifer Hillier is a Filipino-Canadian author with two published books so far. Her psychological thrillers, Creep (2011) and Freak (2012) are available from Simon & Schuster / Gallery Books in the US and the Philippines and from Little Brown / Sphere in the UK. Her third book, Magnolia, will be out in 2014. Check out her blog, bio, and more at www.jenniferhillier.ca, and follow her at twitter.com/JenniferHillier.

So. It’s the last week of NaNoWriMo, and to those of you who’ve already got purple bars, kudos!

But for those of you who, like me, have a long way to go, it’s time to buckle down and get to 50K once and for all!

Now, you may feel tempted to give up. After all, the number of words you need to write per day may be way above the 1,667 you started out with (in my case, it’s in the five-digit zone, so, yes, I’m totally freaking out). Plus, there’s school or work to think about, not to mention family dramas and gatherings, orgs, clubs, and even the first of your Christmas parties. And what’s the point of getting to 50K anyway, when all you get for it is a purple bar and bragging rights?

All these excuses do make it easier to justify throwing in the towel, huh?

Well, here’s a word for you: don’t.

For one thing, getting that purple bar isn’t so much about acquiring the right to tell your friends or even the world, “Hey, guys, look what I can do.” It’s about telling yourself to remember that you can achieve your goals if you really put your back (and your heart) into it.

Almost all the PinoyWriMos I’ve talked to over the years do it at least in part because they dream of someday becoming bestselling and/or critically acclaimed novelists. The novel you write this month may not be the one you sell to a publisher someday. It may never even see the light of day once we’ve hit December 1. But it’s a start. And it proves that you do have it in you to write a novel.

But if this isn’t enough motivation for you to keep going, here are a few suggestions.

1. Practice a little positive reinforcement (AKA go for bribery).

Promise yourself that graphic novel you’ve been eyeing for months or the director’s cut copy (original, of course) of your favorite movie. And if bribing yourself doesn’t work, get your significant other, friends, or family members to offer you bribes to sweeten the deal. Co-MLs Anton and Tina did this successfully last year–Tina coaxed Anton into winning with the promise of a book he really wanted.

2. Pair those bribes with a little negative reinforcement too.

Threaten to deny yourself a treat if you don’t get to 50K. Or pledge to pay out money that you have to use for something completely selfless that you probably wouldn’t do otherwise (like dropping it into a Salvation Army basket). Make sure the amount is big enough to hurt. You can also tell your mom that you’ll do her errands for a month or tell your little sister you’ll drive her everywhere she needs to go for the next few weekends. If making sure you avoid that doesn’t light a fire under your, ah, fingers, then move on to the next tip.

3. Get rid of distractions (especially online time sinks).

Online, there’s Write or Die. Offline, go to a coffee shop that has no free WiFi. Or write on a park bench. Avoid distractions like you’ve caught a terminal disease and this is your last chance to write what you want to write.

4. Get your nearest and dearest to hound you or cheer you on.

In these last days of NaNoWriMo, accountability goes a long way. Get your friends to be the Writing Police—if they see you playing that Facebook game or doing anything that isn’t writing, have them bug you. Being nagged by constant messages of “Why aren’t you writing?” may drive you to get it done just so you can get some peace and quiet.

5. Take advantage of the November 30 holiday.

The last day of the month is a free day for many of us, so take advantage of it and use it to write! Barricade yourself in your room with cup noodles, water, and caffeine, and focus on getting to your word count goal. And, as Grant Faulkner advised, travel “down the random, unplanned paths of your imagination.”

6. Join the last Wednesday Word War!

If you’re finding it difficult to push yourself to write, try for a little communal spirit and hit the #pinoynano chat room tomorrow at 9:00 PM. We’re having the last couple of Word Wars for the month! Do it for yourself–and, if you have one, your squad!

7. Give your inner editor the week off.

If you’re a candidate for the grammar police like I am, it’s probably really hard for you to keep your fingers away from those “backspace” and “delete” keys. For me, it’s a mental itch that sometimes has me reaching up and scratching my forehead in real life. I’m not joking. But this week, I’m going to give silencing my inner editor a good old college try. If you need help, again, Write or Die is your friend. But what you really just need to do, as Grant Faulkner said in his pep talk last week, is say yes to the mess!

Good luck, and see you at the Thank Goodness It’s Over (TGIO) Party! And by the way, it’ll be from 3:00 to 6:00 PM on December 1, 2012, at Figaro, G/F Hanston Building, Emerald Avenue. Here’s a link to the map: http://goo.gl/maps/WYBia. It’s just a building over from the Kick-Off Party venue—expect fun, prizes, and info on the next steps for your novel.

Cheers!
Purplyana (Liana)
Co-ML for Asia :: Philippines

At dinner you will sit facing each other, studying
the surfaces. “Where have you been all afternoon?”
he will ask, and you will say, “Don’t be mad;
even when I was away, I was thinking about you.”
I was thinking about how to fix you, you will add,
but of course you won’t say it out loud. You will
take note of everything that seems wrong with
the equation in front of you: he’s stubborn, and
demands too much, and says all the
wrong things, and scatters bad choices across
the landscape of his days, and most of the time,
if you’re being honest, he doesn’t really make
a whole lot of good sense. You will wonder at what point
you have to turn back, start over, throw your hands
in the air and say, “Screw this, I’m getting a sundae.”
You will wonder at what point you will be allowed to
give up, accept that there is nothing here worth
pursuing, nothing here worth working on
anymore. You will wonder why you even
tried so hard in the first place.

Then he will lean across the table and tell you,
“I’m just glad you’re here,” and you will remember
the beginning, and the way you felt back then:
the thrill and the energy and the sweet caffeine rush
of potential, the determination to see
what other people couldn’t understand in
this thing you could quite possibly love. The grand
sweeping promise of it all. You will remember why
you got this far—you wanted a happy ending. You
still do. So you will sit facing one another, studying
the surfaces, until you finally gather the courage to make
a move, to push things forward, to bubble-wrap all
the fragile parts, the better parts, and keep them in
a safe, warm, dry place; to continue. In the future
you will fix whatever needs fixing, but
for now, you will continue. Your mother
always says the best is yet to come, and maybe
in this moment you believe her. Somewhere
in between dinner and dessert, one of you will think,
This is going to change my life. Of course you won’t
say it out loud. Not yet.

But feel free to write it down.

============================

Marla Miniano is the Deputy Editor in Chief of Candy Magazine and the author of Summit Books’ Every Girl’s Guide series, Table for Two, and Fangirl. Her new collection of short stories, From This Day Forward, will be in stores this month. Connect with her at twitter.com/marlamini and marlaminiano.blogspot.com.

Hello, I’m sorry this pep talk is late.

Just like everything that I need to write in the past month, this pep talk is a few days late. I intended to write it last week, but life got in the way until I finally put away some time to sit down and write it. So I apologize for not being so peppy last week, and I hope this one finds you well this sunny aMonday morning.

I’m going to tell you a little secret. I came into NaNoWriMo this year having a serious gut feeling that I will not make it to 50k. In the past years I have been doing NaNoWriMo, my life hasn’t been very busy during November. I had work and other responsibilities, but I always found the time to write. Even when I was in school, I found the time (I think I actually had more time back then).

Then 2012 happened. November blindsided me in several ways, and I was really surprised that NaNoWriMo was upon me. I had the flimsiest plot in the world, but I decided to go in with that, and see what November will bring me. Unfortunately, November brought me more work in my day job, to the point that whenever I was done with my work day, all I want to do when I go home is sleep. But then other responsibilities come my way, and I had to attend to those too, until I realized that my novel has taken a back seat.Allthe way at the back, and to the point that I almost forgot about it, and did not write several days.

So on the day I realized that, I panicked. I haven’t been counting my words in the first few days and that has made me very zen about everything, but when I saw that days have gone by with zero words in my bank account, I realize that it’s trouble. Then I realized that I actually had no idea and zero motivation to get my story moving, I knew I was in even more trouble.

Panic!

Then I decided to do a crazy thing again. I opened my 2011 novel, read the last few parts and tried writing a bit of it just to get the creative juices flowing. And I had fun writing it.

If you’re around our Facebook group, you would have seen a post from me where I wrote about how I jumped ship and started from scratch and now I only have less than 2 weeks to get to 50k. I don’t advise it, but this drastic move has made my creative juices flowing and I’m trying to write like the wind. It’s crazy, but it’s fun, and I still had no idea if I’ll reach 50k, butI am finally writing,and that is something.

So what is the secret to NaNoWriMo, anyway? In my 9th NaNoWriMo, I discovered that the secret to NaNoWriMo is to have fun. Some of us put a lot of pressure on ourselves to get to the 50k deadline, and a little pressure is good, but don’t forget to have fun. This is supposed to be fun, so loosen up and you know, be happy with the writing. Don’t get too caught up in the details like you need to do so and so, and you need to get everything perfect. Just have fun. I think the more fun it is for you, the easier it will be for you to write.

So go crazy with your novel. Insert random scenes that are not in your original outline, write a lot of back stories and interactions. Enjoy the entire process. They did say the journey is the destination, right? Or at least, something like that.

I think I just hit 10k today. So yeah. I have 11 days left to get to 50k. No idea if I can do it, but I’m going to have fun trying, anyway.

P.S. Getting bribed by friends and family to get to 50k is an excellent motivation, by the way. That’s my other secret to NaNoWriMo.

Hi there, WriMos!

How have the first couple of days of November been treating you? Have you gotten any writing done, or, like me, have you let life and work get in the way? Well, whether you’re on a writing high or hoping to play catch up over the next few days, it’s early yet, which means that goal of 50,000 words is still within your reach.

And for those of you on the fence about whether or not you should join NaNoWriMo this year, well, if the Mayans were right, this could be your very last year to get it done!

Will you write something worth being remembered by if the world does come crashing to an end once the year is through? Who knows? But at least you would have tried, right? And if you need a little help, here are a few survival tips to live by:

GUIDELINES FOR THE NANOWRIMO APOCALYPSE

1. Stockpile your writing fuel.

Whether it’s the standard coffee, chocolates, and chips or something more unique, like a sandwich of butter, fig jam, and rock salt, make sure you’ve got a stock of the things that keep you charged for writing.

2. Create your writing stronghold.

You might have to hold off a zombie apocalypse. Or you may need to barricade yourself against prying siblings or nagging parents (or monster in-laws). Whatever it is, make sure you’ve got a secure sanctuary in which you can write without distraction or interruption. And if distractions prove an internal problem, remember there’s always WriteOrDie.com. There’s nothing like a little Kamikaze Mode session to get you pounding at the keyboard.

3. Take inspiration breaks.

You may be on the urgent business of making a worthy representation of human literature for the races that will discover our ruins after we’ve been annihilated for hitherto unknown reasons, but your writing will suffer if you don’t stop to breathe now and again. Remember the smell of rain in the air before a downpour or the feel of the noontime sun on your skin. Get a little inspiration out of the world before it ends.

4. Don’t neglect the rest of your life.

You never know what will trigger the start of the end of the world. If you’ve seen the movie Contagion, you probably know this already. It could be a little carelessness at a crucial point in your work. It could be not showing up to work on a day you were supposed to report. NaNoWriMo is important, guys, but don’t sacrifice your chances for promotion (or for passing your classes) for it. You can write before you go in and after you’ve gone home. You can even write on your way to and from places, provided you’re not driving.

5. Just keep writing.

Writer’s block? Two-dimensional character development? Unclear plot lines? Who cares? Just keep writing. In fact, make that your mantra. Remember Dory in the movie Finding Nemo and how she would singsong her mantra of “just keep swimming”? Just keep writing, just keep writing, just keep writing…

Welcome to NaNoWriMo 2012, everyone! Hopefully it won’t be our last, but just in case it is, let’s make it count! Purple bars for everyone this year!

Cheers,

Purplyana (Liana)
Co-ML for Asia :: Philippines