Pep Talks for Writers + NaNoWriMo Success Tips with Grant Faulkner

Marissa chats with Grant Faulkner, Executive Director of National Novel Writing Month and author of PEP TALKS FOR WRITERS. In this NaNoWriMo-themed episode, we discuss the concept of "productive procrastination" and the joy of having secret side projects in the works; how to find little moments of "time confetti" to help move you toward your word count goal; using NaNo as a means to shake up your creative process, no matter how many words you ultimately write; and how it's okay to be a #NanoRebel and use the challenge to work on an existing project.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:06

[inaudible]

Speaker 2: 0:07

Hello and welcome to the happy writer. This is a podcast that aims to bring readers, more books to enjoy and to help authors find more joy in their writing. I'm your host, Marissa Meyer. Thanks so much for joining me. One thing that has been making me happy this week is so a lot of you know, that I frequently have super secret side projects in my writing. So I always have the one book that I'm actively working on. That's coming out in a year or whatever. Um, but I usually try to have at least one thing on the side, kind of my play project. And I've had a few of those over the last couple of years that I've been dallying on in the background. And one of my goals for 2020 was to finish and sell at least one of those to my publisher. Well, as of this last week, I am pleased to announce that my publisher has bought not one, but two of my super secret side projects. So I'm so excited. I really, really love both of these and can't talk about them yet because we haven't officially announced anything, but there's a lot coming in the pipeline. And I cannot wait to tell you guys more about them. So yay. I'm so giddy thinking about it, and that is making me super, super happy this week. Uh, and of course I am so happy to be talking to today's guest. He is the executive director of national novel writing month, AKA NaNoWriMo, and the cofounder of the 100 word story. He is the author of pep talks for writers, 52 insights and actions to boost your creative mojo and the coauthor of brave the page, a young writer's guide to telling Epic stories. He's also published a collection of 100 word stories titled fishers and nothing short of 100 selected tails from 100 word story. His work has appeared in dozens of literary magazines and anthologies. And if that wasn't enough, he's also the cohost of the right minded podcast, super busy guy. I'm so pleased to have him on the show tonight. Please welcome grant Faulkner.

Speaker 3: 2:27

Thanks so much, Marissa. I'm so happy to be here. And gosh, I am so impressed. I want to, I want to talk about your side project sexually.

Speaker 2: 2:35

I can't talk about the worst teaser.

Speaker 3: 2:39

I, I, I just think I'm, I'm a big side project person myself and, um, I don't know. There's a certain love that I have for my side projects, I guess, because they gave me a break from my more big onerous projects, you know, that sometimes carry a burden. And so I just love that, that your side projects have not only like, I don't know, often the corner of a room, but they've sort of blossomed into something, something else. Um, so anyway, congratulations.

Speaker 2: 3:09

No, it is one of those things where, you know, writing starts out a hobby, um, and you love it and you kind of do it on the side and it's this passion on the side of your normal day to day life. But then when it becomes a career, like it's different, it's different having my, my things that I'm under contract for and under deadline for. And of course I still enjoy those and have fun with those, but it's different than having something on the side of that feels like it's just for you.

Speaker 3: 3:36

Yeah. I, um, like you, I really like juggling different projects. I don't know if it speaks to my attention span, but I, I love that. I love if I, I might work on a book for a month and then go to another book for the next month and sort of go back and forth. And I, I, I initially was troubled by that, but I feel like it really feeds a sense of energy kind of gives me fuel. And I recently also, I don't know if this applies to your side projects, but I'm intrigued if it does, is I heard this concept of productive procrastination and, and what it means is that, um, you will, you're procrastinating on one project, but, but your procrastination takes the form of productivity because you're essentially working on a bunch of other projects. Um, and then once you're done with those bunch of other projects, then you sort of like do the big project.

Speaker 2: 4:30

Yeah. I had not heard, say it again,

Speaker 3: 4:33

Productive procrastination. And I had a guest on my podcast and she actually thought she had coined the term. She thought it was unique to her. And then I Googled it and found out that it was an actual, like psychological concept that's been studied. Oh, interesting. Yeah,

Speaker 2: 4:48

No, that's exactly what it feels like though, because there are days when I just can't muster the willpower to work on, you know, the thing you feel like you're supposed to be working on, but then switching over to, you know, a super secret side project, it feels like a treat. It kind of feels like you're doing something a little bit bad, but you're not supposed to be doing, but in the grand scheme of things, you're still pushing a project forward and something that you care about.

Speaker 3: 5:13

Well, I liked the way that you, it's not just a side project for you. It's a super secret side project. So it's

Speaker 2: 5:20

I say nothing more. You can't get anything out of me about mystique. You gotta gotta keep it up a little bit. Okay. So I'm sure you have probably given this pitch about 8 billion times, but for the uninitiated, what is national novel writing month?

Speaker 3: 5:43

Well, I'm going to, I'm going to answer that. And then I'm also going to have I'd love if you would also give your definition of what it is. Cause I, I actually love how other people explain it because everybody explains it a little bit differently. And, and what I also think spas fascinating about it is that NaNoWriMo's many things and there's many ways that you can interpret it for others or define it. And so, so just so I don't go on for like 10 to 20 minutes explaining it. I'll say that there are two metaphors for it that I think work for me or explain it well. And one is that NaNoWriMo is a writing boot camp. So it is this big, uh, endurance test or this test of, of, of writing a novel and the reason, yeah, they call it a bootcamp because you write 50,000 words in 30 days in the month of November. And so you have to write 1,667 words a day. And what I think that's good. I mean, it's good on a number of levels like creatively. It's good because it helps you start and finish a novel, you know, so many writers like I used to be, I had this paralysis where I would just write and rewrite the first chapter of my book and I would need to get that perfect before I can move on. And I was doing is I wasn't, I wasn't like exploring the story like I should have been. And what I realized later is that once you finish that book, it's highly likely that that first chapter will get cut. And if it doesn't get cut, it'll get dramatically rewritten. I always liked this quote by Joyce Carol Oates, where she says, you don't know the first sentence of your novel until you've reached the last sentence. And what she's, what she's talking about is that that rough draft where your ex you're exploring the story and you're taking creative risks and you're, you're having fun with it. And then once you've reached the end and to do all this, you also need to kind of banish your inner editor, which is another penance principle of NaNoWriMo. Um, but yeah, you reached the end and then it's time for revision. And that's when you really come in and shape the story and think about it more. And so don't spend, you know, an ungodly amount of time on that first chapter because it can be an obstacle for the rest of it. And then the other thing that I think is good about that bootcamp, well, they're numerous things, but I think most writers need to, especially in the early stages, sort of develop the discipline and the determination to show up every day and to write, you know, and to explore their process and to learn that you don't wait for inspiration that you create inspiration by showing up to. Right. And so it teaches you those somewhat unsexy aspects of writing, like even time management too, has to learn, like when you can write and how to write within those hours. Um, so I think those bootcamp elements are important. Sometimes I don't like the word bootcamp because it sounds so forbidding, but the other part of it to make the bootcamp a little bit more inviting is that the other metaphor that I use is that NaNoWriMo is a rollicking party. You know, it's like a writing festival and that's because we really dispel, um, that mythology of the anguish solitary writer, we invite people to come in and write together. And this, this, this occurred or started when Chris Beatty founded NaNoWriMo in 1999, he wrote with his friends after work and they would meet in a cafe and there'd be 20 them with these old clunky laptops from 1990. And they would also make writing fun. They wouldn't just, they weren't, they wouldn't just write together. They would give each other challenges and games. So they might say, uh, whoever can write a thousand words first, we'll get a latte as a reward. And so they would, you know, race each other to see who could write a thousand words first, and then the winner would get a latte. And then after drinking copious amounts of, of beverages and coffee, the challenge would be, you can't go to the bathroom until you've written 500 words, which if you're, if you're ever having trouble finishing anything, that's a really, really, really good technique. Um, yeah. So, so writing together and that, I think that that brought in a real collaborative spirit and a whimsical spirits of people. If you go to a NaNoWriMo right in, and we have, um, I'm being long winded with this, but just so people know, we have like a thousand volunteers around the world who organize events exactly like that, where people meet in cafes and they have, you know, what we call word sprints, you know, challenges to write a, for five or 10 minutes as much as you can. And people, the thing I love about NaNoWriMo is it's just like the peop people will share for instance, their worst writing. And this is so rare for writers because I think writers generally aren't that open to sharing, especially their worst writing, but there's something about NaNoWriMo where we've, we've broken down those barriers of perfectionism and, and competition, I guess. And so people like sharing things like their worst writing, they laugh at themselves. And I think that that's creatively liberating in the end. So I went, I went on and on, but how would you define NaNoWriMo?

Speaker 2: 10:35

No, I, I love because everything you said is true and it is kind of this thing that's hard to define, like there is the, the practical, nitty gritty element. And usually when someone asks me what it is, I'll kind of give the basic structure of, you know, it's this challenge where you try to write 50,000 words during the 30 days of November and like the 62nd pitch there. Um, but it really is so much more than that. And it's this wonderful community and you, and your, you know, all the people there at NaNoWriMo have really grown it into, you know, a, a year round writing community where people you can talk and you have different programs and different things, encouraging writers and inspiring people kind of throughout the year. Uh, and so it's, it is so much more than just that little seed of a challenge.

Speaker 3: 11:34

Yeah. I was going to say it was it's interesting. I was listening to the words you were using about encouragement. And we did this interesting exercise as a staff about, I don't know, six or seven years ago, and it was a communications exercise and we had to come up with, I think it was 10 words to describe NaNoWriMo. And we would, the game, the game was, is that we'd pair these down with the idea that you would end up with one word that was the word. Um, and so I think going into the exercise, we all thought the word we would come up with would be creativity or creative writing or something like that. But when we took it down from 10 words to seven to five to three, the one word we ended up with was empowerment, um, which was a surprise for us. But then once we thought about it, we were like, yes, this is exactly what we're about. We're about empowering people to believe in themselves to tell their stories. And we're about empowering them to get over the obstacles. And those obstacles can be, you know, there can be a hundred different types of obstacles. So, um, yeah. So I think between that boot camp and that rollicking party, those are the two crucial ingredients for our style of empowerment.

Speaker 2: 12:41

Yes, no. And I obviously got my start. My first novel cinder was written as a nano novel and a bunch of my novels, you know, started life as drafts during NaNoWriMo. And it's to a point now where it's almost more unusual for me to meet a writer who hasn't at least tried nano and I've talked to so many writers whose debut novels started life during NaNoWriMo who continue to use it, you know, year after year to inspire themselves. And, and it's one of those things that I have my theories about why people love it so much, but for you, like, why do you think that writers keep coming back year after year to do this challenge and, you know, try to experience that, just the momentum from it again and again,

Speaker 3: 13:35

That's a really good question. Um, I love your story. I love when you, you, you told me once that when you can't, you often can't write a novel during November because of your publishing schedule, whenever you start a new novel, you essentially do your own NaNoWriMo. Um, so I think that that's so great. I love that story. So, you know, I think there's probably, um, the reason that people do it. Um, I mean, I think it is creatively liberating. I think it's, it speaks to people. I mean, I I've heard of so many people who just have these, these epiphanies, these big breakthrough moments, you know, and of course that happens with unpublished and published authors, but with published authors, sometimes it becomes their go to method. Um, and then I think, I think there is a people aspect to it too. Um, just that, you know, I'll hear one of the things I heard my first year here. I mean, there's a good and bad side to this, I think is that, um, so many people, they, they feel like they're riding with the world and then they just are galvanized by that community experience. And it's really interesting cause it's not like just your friends who might be writing, it's like getting on Twitter and seeing the nanogram hashtag trending and reading all of this encouragement coming from strangers, but it really does affect you. I think that's part of the magic is that all of these people are, are doing this really tough thing, but they're cheering each other on, you know? And so it's just so motivating. Um, so I think, I think there's something about that. Just that, that magic of community, um, that's galvanizing. Yeah,

Speaker 2: 15:13

Yeah, no, that's a good word for it. Galvanizing. I feel like every time I, if I've gone a long time without either doing NaNoWriMo or doing like my own version, that doesn't happen during November, but you know, if I've taken longer to do a draft, I almost like forget what I'm capable of. And then if I take a month and it's like, no, I'm going to really nail this draft this month or I'm going to really get these words done. Then it's like a reminder that, Oh yeah, I've done this before I can do it again. Um, and I feel like that's one of the great things that nano shows writers again. And again, like you are capable of this.

Speaker 3: 15:54

I love that you say that because I, I personally feel that's one of the important things that we do is that we help people believe in themselves and believe that they can do more than they think they can. And I have this theory that most people, uh, under sell themselves and, and they should aim higher. Like a lot of people, they don't believe they can write a novel or they don't believe their creators. This is like one of the most disappointing things I'll hear from people when I invite them to do NaNoWriMo is they'll tell me, Oh, I'm not, I'm not a writer or I'm not a creator, or I'm not that I don't have the imagination to tell a story. And I'm like, no, no, no. This is the definition of being human. We are storytellers. This is really fundamental to who we are and you can do it. You just need to attune yourself to that and believe in yourself.

Speaker 2: 16:38

Yeah. We spend a lot of time on this podcast talking about like how everyone's process is different. And you know, for me that fast, first draft silencing the inner editor for a month or however long it takes and just like plowing through the words and getting the story out there. And then revising later that really works for me, but I know it doesn't work for everyone and that there are writers who, you know, it just works better for them to take it more slowly and to be more meticulous while they're doing their first draft. So if there's a writer listening who feels like no 50,000 words in a month, it just won't work for me. Like, what would you tell them is how could they still be a part of this?

Speaker 3: 17:27

Yeah, that's an interesting question. Cause I, I do get that a lot of people will and writers. And usually, usually I get it from people who actually are, have written, um, you know, for a while, or they're published authors and they'll say I'm a slower writer. And I think, I mean, I wrote for a long time before I did NaNoWriMo, I was a pretty mature writer. Um, and so I always, and I, and I did it to shake up my creative process. Basically I woke up one day and I was like, did I decide on my creative process? Or did it decide on me? And, and I just think it's valuable for writers to constantly experiment with their creative process and they can do that in small or large ways. And one large way is to do NaNoWriMo. And so if someone is, um, you know, I'll hear some, somebody who will tell me, well, I'm a slower writer, you know, I couldn't possibly write 50,000 words in a month. I write more like 10,000 words. It could be an interesting experience for them. Maybe they don't have to write 50,000, but just to set a more ambitious word count goal to write, you know, faster, to write without their inner editor. So present, um, I think it just might change the way, you know, they think of writing. Um, and it might, you know, I don't write fast all the time, but I do it sometimes. And so it's, it's almost like it's a tool in my toolbox to use, um, when I have it. And I'm, I, I think like kind of what you were saying, I can, I can trust it to, to, to lead me someplace. And if I need to slow down and write really slowly, I can do that too. Um, so yeah, I think, I think, you know, when I think about NaNoWriMo, it's, it's, it's definitely, we're not prescribing a creative process or technique to people. I mean, it works for a lot of people, but I think it's really about experimentation. And I think it's about showing up and making, writing a priority for a month. And, uh, that's the main thing. I get so many people who will tell me, I only wrote 10,000 words in the month of November. I failed. I just heard this from Angie Thomas. Actually. She told me that she failed at NaNoWriMo. I don't know how many words she wrote, but she, she was, she said she failed. And I was like, I was like, no, I hear that all the time, but you didn't fail because you showed up to write. And if you wrote 10,000 words in a month, that's a lot that if you do that every month, that's 120,000 words a year. That's a novel or two. So yeah, I think, I think there's so many things you can learn beyond hitting 50,000 words that it's, it's more important to participate than to let that be just another obstacle in your writing life.

Speaker 2: 19:55

Yeah, no, I'm so glad you said that. Cause I do think that people get really hung up on the 50,000 words. And like, if that, like, if you usually write 5,000 words in a month, well, what would be a challenge for you? And if that's 10,000 or 20,000, like go for that, you know, you don't have to necessarily do the 50,000 or alternatively, maybe you usually write 50,000 words in a month and a real challenge for you would be a hundred thousand words. Like it can go both ways.

Speaker 3: 20:26

It can go both ways. And we definitely have those people who write a hundred thousand words in a month, so it's shocking to some people, but they can do it. Um, but, but like you say, I think it, it is it's, it's the idea of the stretch goal and it's showing up to write. And I think especially as, as we become adults, um, writing and creativity just tends fall lower and lower on our to do lists until it perhaps falls off the list itself. And I think we need to have ways to make creativity a priority for a month. And so whether you write 50,000 words or 10,000 words making, writing, and creativity, you know, putting up at the top of your to do this, I think is really,

Speaker 2: 21:07

Yeah, I agree. And I love that. And that's one of the things that I tell people about nano too, when we're talking about it, is that, you know, regardless of what your goal is, if you have any inclination to write, it can be really hard to fit it into your daily life. Um, but NaNoWriMo, it is that it's like giving yourself permission that for these 30 days, I am going to take this dream and this goal and I'm going to nurture it and focus on it.

Speaker 3: 21:35

Yeah, exactly. And that's one of the benefits. I didn't mention this earlier, but I think sometimes writers, we think we have to write only in our best moments. And so for me, that's first thing in the morning, but sometimes, you know, I don't have my best moments available to me. And so NaNoWriMo actually teaches me to write in my worst moments and that those are sometimes valuable too. You know, like I might be exhausted at night, but getting in 15 minutes of writing, getting in an extra 500 words, um, can be great and wonderful. And I think of, I oftentimes tell this story of Toni Morrison who had, she was a single mom with at least two kids and she was almost 40 and she was working in New York city and she wrote her first novel. And I believe she wrote it at night and they would be like, you know, the only 15 minutes she had after putting her kids to bed. And I love this one story because she was writing with one of her, I think, toddler or babies on her lap and, and the child of vomited on her page and Tony Morrison instead of, uh, she didn't stop writing. She, she wrote around the vomit and I thought that was a great metaphor for, you know, just like to keep writing, even in the, you know, with the worst of obstacles or a really tough obstacle. Um, and so I think NaNoWriMo teaches you that it teaches you that, you know, I mean, for me, because it's hard to, I need at least two hours to write 1,667 words a day, I'm a relatively slow writer. Um, so I will write for 10 minutes during my lunch break, or I will write for 10 minutes after I get home from work. You know, they're, they're not my ideal times to write, but you know, every little, uh, I heard it referred to as time confetti, you know, taking advantage of all those little moments of time we have in our day. Like instead of checking my phone and doom scrolling, um, I can, I can write my note.

Speaker 2: 23:27

Right. Put that energy to something.

Speaker 3: 23:30

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 23:32

So how many times have you done nano, do you think? Or do you know?

Speaker 3: 23:37

You know, I, I, I think the first year I did, it was 2009. Yeah.

Speaker 2: 23:42

Okay. And so obviously are the executive director, I'm sure there feels like this great amount of pressure that you have to do it, you know, do you feel that way? Like, do you ever wish you could take a year off or do you also get really excited about it a year after year?

Speaker 3: 24:01

Yeah, I'm going to be honest here. Um, so, so the founder, Chris Beatty does it every year. I've, I've quizzed him on this. He starts, he, he does it by the book. He starts a new novel every year in November. And it's like, he's a seasonal bird. You know, his world just changes on November 1st. Um, I, I, I find that I, I mean, I, I was doing that for a number of years. I would start a new project in November. And, and what I found was I have, I have too many projects kind of queued up that I want to finish. And so every year it's somewhat torturous for me to decide because there's a part of me that really wants to start a new project. I've got plenty of ideas for those, but there's a part of me that also wants to go back and finish something. And so it really depends on where I am with something. And kind of like you, like, if there's a publishing deadline or my own deadline for something I might spend the month as a nano rebel, which means that I might, um, focus more on revision, um, or a rewrite, uh, which I measured by time. I essentially say if I revise for an hour, that's a thousand words and that's how I measure it. Um, but yeah, but, but I like, you know, there's, I love that. Um, it's great to be a pure participant to start a new project with everybody else to be out there and just experiencing the same thing they, they do. I mean, it's amazing. The trajectory is somewhat common, you know, to go fast out of the gate and to be super enthusiastic and excited about your novel. And then after a week or two, you hit that money middle you wonder why, why the hell you started this novel kind of trudging through the swamp. And you gotta, I don't know that those are the tough moments, but you know, those are the tough moments you're going to have as an author, not just in the second week of NaNoWriMo, but they're going to be a lot of different muddy middles to figure out how to get through.

Speaker 2: 25:54

Yeah. Yeah. Well, I'm, I'm inspired by hearing you say that you do different that you're not always writing during nano, because for me, like we talked about, I always want to do it. I'm the same way. I have 8 billion ideas for different books in my head that I'm excited to start. And so there's always that, that part of me, that's like, yes, let's do it. We can take on one more thing this month. Um, but the way that my, my deadlines and my publication schedule happen, it doesn't always work out. But even if I'm not starting a new project or drafting something during nano, I still kind of get that buzz of energy just from the world and the writing community. That's like, you know, even if I'm revising this month, I feel connected to it.

Speaker 3: 26:40

Oh, that's great. Yeah. I follow NaNoWriMo hashtags. I dip into the forums and I love when I get to go in person and lead some word sprints and hear about other people's novels. I mean, the closer I can get to it, there is an energy that I can feed off of no matter what, how I'm participating.

Speaker 2: 26:57

Definitely. And I do love the term nano rebel.

Speaker 3: 27:00

Yeah, I do too. And it's, it's actually a girl. I mean, one would think, I mean, we've been around for, this is our 21st year and there, you know, it's amazing, there are people who have been doing this since 2001, 2002, and they also have a couple of closet fulls of novels, you know, a lot of novels land around the house. Once one time I said to Chris Beatty, I'm like, cause my wife's a writer too. And I said, we've got too many novels in our house. And he's like, you can't, he's like, you can't have too many novels in your house. I was like, I'm not sure about that. Um, but anyway, um, yeah, since they're more people and they've written with us for so long, I think it's invited them to, you know, to go back and, and they want to do more rewriting than, than original writing. So we, so yeah, growing, um, a group of Nana rebels, but again, you know, NaNoWriMo is all about the act of writing and doing it with other people. So I, I want to invite Nana rumbles. I don't want to forbid people from

Speaker 2: 27:55

Right. Right. Take your inspiration and see where it takes you. Yeah. So for someone who is gearing up for NaNoWriMo here, we are about a month out. What are some of your like top tips for a successful NaNoWriMo?

Speaker 3: 28:13

Yeah. Well, one, I'll just say we have this whole nano prep program that's on our website. So I would go there and engage in that. And it's actually like a week by week. I don't like the word curriculum, but it's not truly a curriculum, but it guides you through a lot of different activities and types of exercises to prep. So I would definitely go there. I think I've thought about this a lot and I've thought about the ones, you know, if I can give people one thing to help them succeed during NaNoWriMo, what would it be? And it's actually not so much about the novel prep in terms of like, you know, figuring out planning your novel or outlining it. I think it's more about planning your life. And so, um, I think a lot of people, they sign up for NaNoWriMo. They're excited, they've got a great novel they want to work on, but they don't think about how they're really going to open up a window of time in November. And so I think most of us are busy people. Every time I go to a crowd and I ask who here is busy, every hand goes up. So whether it's perception or reality, we're all busy people. And, uh, so I think people have to think about, uh, look at their lives. And we have, uh, in Chris Beatty's book, no plot, no problem. He has what he calls a time hunt. And you go through, you can do this with software too, but you go through and you, you detail how you use your time for one week and you do it for like every 15 minutes. And then you look at that, um, how you've used your time for that one week and think about when are you going to write and whether it's like opening up time, like I talked about earlier, having a little more time at your lunch break to write or writing in the evening or writing an hour when you first wake up or going gangbusters, like some people do and write four, five, six, seven hours on the weekend days. Um, I think just a strategy and just a commitment, um, will take you a long way. And I said, because a lot of the biggest drop off for us is actually the first week, a lot of people are fast out of the gate and they right. But then they hit that wall. And so I think the more you can make it a routine or, or figure out how to build it into your daily life, the better

Speaker 2: 30:16

That's great advice. And that's something that I remember doing back when I wrote cinder and like, really, it was very intentional about, okay, I'm going to ride on my lunch breaks and I'm going to get up an hour early every morning and, you know, really focused. And then it's been a while since I've really taken the time to think about how am I spending my time and how could I squeeze in some of these things. So you just inspired me. I'm going to do,

Speaker 3: 30:42

It's good to do every once periodically I do the same thing. I mean, I, uh, I know the only fortunate thing about my writing life is I wake up at an ungodly time. I have like two hours before anyone in the house is up and I just love that. Yeah, that's the best time. Um, but otherwise, you know, I think with our phones these days, and so many things competing for our attention, I think we do have to really think about how do we carve out time and be pretty rigid about it.

Speaker 2: 31:11

So like everything this year NaNoWriMo is going to be looking a little different in the face of COVID. What are some things that are changing that are going to be different and how can writers still find ways to, to participate if they're looking for more of that social aspect?

Speaker 3: 31:33

Yeah. Um, this will be the first year, as I mentioned earlier, for people don't know, we have a thousand volunteers that called municipally as ons. They're just superstars and heroes and like their coaches and teachers and cheerleaders. And they, they have these in person events and, you know, every place from Des Moines to Tokyo. And, um, so people come and they write together and, um, those are amazingly successful, but this year they will be online virtually not in person, uh, which is too bad but necessary for the world. We're living in to keep everyone healthy. Um, but I think like with anything, I think there are also opportunities, uh, for this, I think more people will be able to come. I think just virtual writing. Like we, we've been seeing this all year, actually, people who congregate in our forums, uh, they've been, uh, gathering together and setting up zoom links for them to write together. So it's been really great. Yeah. It's been super cool. It's been like, you know, like it's always like there's tragedy, there's always something good that might come out of it. And this is one of those things I think is just that now that like zoom has become of a mainstream thing, I think a lot more people are writing together that way. Um, so that's the big thing. And then, um, I think we have a comrade in program where there are 1,200 libraries, the sign up, and they also host, um, in person right. And gatherings. And so that's really going to be dependent by library or community space. So you're going to have to check those out on the website. Um, and that is the main thing is just sign up for nanowrimo.org. I haven't mentioned that it's all free, we're a nonprofit and we, we want everyone to be able to tell their stories so we will always be free. Um, but when you sign up, you can go to your local region and you can connect with your misplays on, you can look at a calendar of when the writing events are and how to attend them. And then you can see what libraries in your area are hosting events as well. And then we have our young writers program as well, where, um, a hundred thousand kids in teens write novels and we support 10,000 classrooms to teach novel writing. And this is a big year for us because a lot of teachers, a lot of schools are doing distance learning and our program is really set up for that. We have a common core aligned curriculum and workbooks that are free and a whole website dedicated to young writers. Um, I work where teachers can set up virtual classrooms. So anyway, we, we hope that a lot of schools take advantage of this. And again, that's all free.

Speaker 2: 33:55

Yeah. And so is that like if a, would that be a teacher deciding that they want their class to participate? And so the teacher could go to the website and get information.

Speaker 3: 34:04

Yep. The teacher can do that. Um, parents who homeschool can do that. And, uh, students, students can either sign up through the classroom if they're teachers teaching it or you can sign up, um, you know, if you're 13 or over, um, by yourself and just write, you know, as well. And, and, and there online forums on the site, all the kinds of social community things are on the young writers program site, as well as the main site. And I want to mention one other thing on the main site that I'm really proud of is we've always had a very vibrant for forums. Um, they're about a million and more than a million, um, posts every November about every topic of writing under the sun and more. And we also though have, uh, set up this functionality for writing groups. So you can set up a more intimate and private group with eight or 10 of your friends, and you can keep that group going. So you can, whether it's whether you're in a drafting phase or just want to play writing games or give feedback, those groups will help support that.

Speaker 2: 35:02

No, that's awesome. And I'm so glad you brought up, um, the young writers program because it is one of the programs that nano does that is really dear to my heart because I just know that young Marissa would have loved something like this. And it would have been so validating for me as a kid and a teenager that wanted to write and loved writing, but was so clueless as to like, but how do I make this dream of mine a reality? And how do I, you know, how do I take it seriously? And all of that, I just would have loved this program. So it's,

Speaker 3: 35:38

I didn't have it. And I think it's interesting to me because I'll talk to kids, you know, I didn't, I was a reader kid and I liked writing, but I only maybe wrote poems and some short stories. I never dreamed about writing a novel. I thought that's something that other people did mainly adults, but I talked to kids who are 17 or 18, and they've already written six or seven novels. You know, it's like really amazing. It's old hat. And I love this one story. And like, I won't tell her name because I feel like I'd embarrass her. But she started writing with our young writers program as a 12 year old and very, very serious diligent writer. And, um, by the time she was 20 and in college, she was getting really, really worried that she was never going to be published. She was really upset by this. I was very charmed by it, but as it ended up, she just got a two book deal with Harper Collins, um, which is just amazing to me, you know, like, yeah, it's super cool. And yeah, I mean, not, I mean, I want to celebrate writers who are unpublished too, but this was just one of those, one of those stories that I was just kind of amazed by that the young writers program essentially played a big role in that.

Speaker 2: 36:47

Yeah, no good for her congratulations to the mystery writer. And I did also want to touch just briefly on your podcast. You were the cohost of the right minded podcast. Tell listeners if someone's looking for a little bit more inspiration and something else to listen to, what is the podcast about?

Speaker 3: 37:11

Yeah. Um, there's a lot about what this podcast is about, I think. Um, yeah, yeah. And Marissa was on right minded way back, I guess that was a couple years ago maybe, um, when we were first starting, um, yeah, we've done it. Um, gosh, I'm losing track of time, but over two years. Um, and yeah, it's, it's just all about writing about the, uh, the process of writing and, um, you know, we talk about publishing as well, but we try to keep it more on the creative process. And we have a featured guest every week. It's a weekly podcast and the guests, we try to cover the gamut. You know, we'll have a fantasy genre writers. Why writers, romance, writers, literary fiction writers, memoirist, um, yeah, just every sort of writer. And we've gotten some amazing guests and had amazing conversations. So, um, yeah, I'm good feedback. And it's about like this about 30 to 40 minutes at tops.

Speaker 2: 38:05

Awesome. Um, okay. We're going to wrap this up today with our happy writer lightening round.

Speaker 3: 38:11

Okay. Does that involve me?

Speaker 2: 38:14

That is all you. You're not up to that yet.

Speaker 3: 38:19

I can listen to somebody else's lightning, lightning round.

Speaker 2: 38:23

All right. First question. What book makes you happy?

Speaker 3: 38:27

Oh my gosh. Uh, what book makes me happy? We're going to have to be here for like another hour as I ponder, um, lightning round light. I know lightning round. I'm just going to say, and I'm forgetting the title of it now, but there's a book by James Salter, um, that I have on my bookshelf that I'll pick up a case. I like his sentences, his sentences, um, just have this interesting flow and mood and tone, and sometimes I'll pick it up just to read a few sentences. And I, I'm sorry that I cannot remember the title of it. Right.

Speaker 2: 39:00

That's okay. If it comes to you, I can put it in the show notes or something. What do you do to celebrate an accomplishment?

Speaker 3: 39:11

I think I should do more. I think, I think I'm so busy that I don't do anything in particular. I go and tell my wife, maybe we buy something special to eat that night. Um, I'll tell my kids and my kid, the funny thing about having kids who have writer, parents, I'm curious if your, your kids are like this. Marissa is they take it all for granted. You know, they, they, they are totally unimpressed. Even when I, even when I like my daughter, Simone, I'll go. And I'll say, Hey, I'm, I'm, I'm talking to, you know, you're one of your favorite writers on the right mind podcast. And she'll just kind of shrug her shoulders. I shouldn't say this, but, but, but I find it so fascinating because like when I was growing up, if I was in, I don't know, within a mile of a writer, you know, I was excited. Uh, the writers were not part of my life growing up, but I think they've become such a part of my kid's life that they just take too much for granted. So I dodged the question there, you know, I, I, I, I just feel like I'm always working on something and I love working on something. So I know, I think, I think that the act of finishing something as the reward unto itself, and I recently heard this about even like NaNoWriMo, you know, a lot of people celebrate when they've reached 50,000 words or set rewards for themselves. And, but I read this study where it was like, it was like seeing your bar chart go up every day is a bigger reward. And so I think that the senior bar chart of word count going up, I think like for me, like just finishing the project is its own reward.

Speaker 2: 40:41

Yeah. Yeah, no, that's funny. I never end a writing day without checking the word count and on, on Scrivener. And like seeing that little, that little colored green bar, it's a little bit longer today, it's a little bit longer.

Speaker 3: 40:55

Right. Exactly.

Speaker 2: 40:57

What advice would you give to help someone be a happier writer?

Speaker 3: 41:04

I think like really focusing on that story that the person wants to tell. I think there's something just intrinsically joyful about telling your story and telling your story the way you want to tell it and really not worrying about the world, what the world is going to think, or if the world wants to publish that book, or if the world wants to pay you a lot of money or read that book, I think there's something about just that pure act of writing and storytelling, which really resides as when you're a child, especially when you just wake up and you're like, I'm going to write this story just because, just because I want to write it just because it's fun. So I think holding onto that energy and finding a way to keep that as really important, because I think as adults, there's just so much else that kind of infiltrates us.

Speaker 2: 41:50

Lastly, where can people find you?

Speaker 3: 41:54

Um, Berkeley, California used to be able to find me in several cafes in my neighborhood. Uh, otherwise, uh, you talking about online, I assume

Speaker 2: 42:09

The pie is there still that pie bakery next door

Speaker 3: 42:15

I've been buying pastries to keep them in business? Um, yeah, no, otherwise I'm, I'm, I, I somehow managed to, there are other grant Faulkner's in the world and I know them online strangely enough, cause they're not that many of them, but I got the grant Faulkner at, at grant Faulkner Twitter and Instagram and grant faulkner.com. So you can find me there.

Speaker 2: 42:38

Awesome. Thanks so much for joining me grant. Thank you. This was a delight. It's always so fun to talk to you. You as well. And I'm so excited for nano. I am like on the fence about whether or not I'm starting a new project this year or not. So I have four weeks still to decide.

Speaker 3: 42:57

Let me know. Um, I'm gonna, I'm gonna encourage you to do it.

Speaker 2: 43:00

Okay. Well, I'm, I'm tempted. I am super tempted. So we'll see. Let me know if you do. Okay. Sounds good. Uh, readers, you can sign up for national novel writing month and declare your November writing project@nanowrimo.org and be sure to check out grants books, pep talks for writers, brief the page and fissures. Of course, we always encourage you to support your local indie bookstore if you can. But if you don't have a local indie, you can also check@ouraffiliatestoreatbookshop.org slash shop slash Marissa Meyer. If you're enjoying these conversations, we would love it. If you subscribed and please help us spread the word to other readers and writers, you can find us on Instagram at Marissa Meyer, author and happy writer podcast until next time stay healthy and cozy in your bunkers and whatever life throws at you today. I do hope that now you're feeling a little bit, huh?

Speaker 1: 43:59

[inaudible].