I'm a NaNoWriMo Loser (And That's Okay).

By Dan Haring

November is the month many exciting things happen. My wedding anniversary, birthdays for two of my kids, Thanksgiving, Movember, and more. But as a writer, one of the coolest things about November is NaNoWriMo, or for the acronym-averse among us, National Novel Writing Month. The idea is simple. Write 50,000 words during the month of November.

Notice I said the idea is simple.

The reality is much harder. Which is why of the three times I've attempted to "win" NaNoWriMo, I've never even gotten close. November is also, without fail, a month that piles up with busyness very easily. (Those things I listed above play a big part, except for Movember. That one pretty much takes care of itself.) So not only is it hard to find time to write with the normal full-time job and full-time family life, but all the extra stuff makes it near-impossible.

But still, each late October, in the midst of my Halloween happiness, I get the itch, the idea that THIS will be the year that I dominate NaNoWriMo. And that indomitable spirit usually carries me though a good week or two of November. And then I realize I've only written 2000 words total instead of the daily goal of ~1600. But it's okay, I tell myself, I'll just double up my word count for a few of the days and I'll be right back on track!

And it's usually just about this time that real life comes clomping over and reminds me of all the silly realities and details that I'm supposed to be dealing with, and inevitably my NaNo book falls by the wayside. 

But in the end, I'm really okay with the way things work out, for several reasons.

One is that it's a goal of mine, albeit one that I fail at all the time, to take advantage of the opportunities each day offers. Some days that means having a few uninterrupted hours to write at night. Other days it means that with time spent with kids and my wife, my writing time is minimal to nothing at all. But I'd rather my kids have memories of me spending time with them than of me hunched over the computer, grumbling to myself.

The other main reason is the goal of NaNoWriMo is to get you to write. Write a novel, sure, but write. That's the key. Right now I've averaged just under 500 words per day for the month. I wish it were more. I wish I'd been able to get closer to my goal. But I'm okay with it because I'm a lot closer to finishing this book than if I hadn't tried to do NaNo again.

And I think most people who tried and failed, like me, probably wrote way more than they would have without it. So wear your loser badge proudly. Because you're not a loser in the traditional sense. You're on your way to winning. you're on your way to finishing that book, even if it takes a little longer than 30 days.

PS Happy Thanksgiving!

Looking Up

By Dan Haring

I've always been enamored by the skies. Whether it's shooting stars or sunsets or rainclouds, I've always loved looking up. I don't know why. Maybe it's some desire to escape, to soar above this world. Maybe it's just the vastness of it all. Maybe it's the inability to measure what's in a cloud, or to imagine that the moon is shining down only for me. For whatever reason, I've always loved it. Before digital cameras, I'd routinely fill up rolls of film with pictures of the sky. Now I just fill up my phone.

I was riding down the freeway with my family the other day when I saw a massive cloud churning across the sky. I tried to snap a picture, but a wall of passing trees was too quick and obscured everything. So I had to wait a few miles before I caught sight of it again. When I finally did, it had changed to this:

I know it's not a perfect likeness, but my first thought was, "It's FALCOR THE LUCKDRAGON!" Now, The Neverending Story might be one of those movies that people love because they grew up with it. But being one of those people who did grow up with it, I'm proud to say I love it. If you haven't seen it, you should still check it out. It's a fantastic tale, even if the filmmaking effects don't quite hold up. But back to the point, if I hadn't been looking up, I would have missed this pretty spectacular cloud. 

There's an Ani Difranco lyric that goes "When I look down, I just miss all the good stuff. And when I look up, I just trip over things." I'm not saying we should wander around with our heads in the clouds all the time. Everyone has responsibilities and I'm not advocating we abandon them. But once in a while, take a break from checking Facebook on your phone and look up, look around. See what beauty and inspiration is out there.

You're probably going to trip over more things. But I'd rather do that than miss all the good stuff. 

You Are a Writer

By Dan Haring

Raise your hand if you're an aspiring writer.

I'm sorry, but you're wrong. You're not an aspiring writer. You are a writer.

What does aspire mean? "To seek to attain or accomplish a particular goal. From Latin aspirare, literally, to breathe upon."

I see you over there, in the corner, breathing onto your laptop.

"Shhh...I'm aspiring over here."

No you're not. You're writing. 

If you have, at one point, put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard and written something - a poem, a short story, a screenplay, the first chapter to the next great American novel, you are, in fact, a writer.

Now, if you haven't, if you're still just breathing on the paper, but not putting anything on it, then, I guess, technically you're an aspiring writer. But that's okay. The great thing about writing is all you need is that pen and paper or that keyboard. There should be very little, if anything, physically holding you back.

Now, you might say that I'm stupid for that whole breathing thing. You might be thinking "I really AM an aspiring writer. I want to write the next Harry Potter or Twilight or On the Road or Catcher in the Rye."

And that's great. It's great to have those goals. But let's go back to the definition of aspire. To seek to accomplish a particular goal. You are an aspiring best-selling author, which is something altogether different.

It means you're serious about this whole writing thing. It means that you're not just going to mess around, but that you're going to take your craft and make it into something people will pay you money to read.

And that's awesome. You need to have goals, whatever they may be. But that's just it, The goals are the finish line, and you're never going to reach them if you don't pick up that pen.

So just write.

Some of you might be rolling your eyes and saying "Ok, we get it, can you move on to the next visual?"

The answer is yes.

This is me and my two sons at the 2010 San Diego Comic Con. The lady we're with is comic book writer Gail Simone, who has written tons of comics, including characters such as Batman, Wonder Woman, Superman, Deadpool, etc. (My kids are obviously impressed) And this is right before I turned to her and asked if she had any advice for an aspiring comic book writer.

I'm pretty sure I even used those exact words.

I'm not even going to make an excuse for myself. The point is, the second you make that effort and start writing, You've changed into a writer, so don't sell yourself short.

The reason I'm spending so much time on this is I've heard so many times from friends. "Oh, that's cool you wrote a book. I wish I could." Like it's some magical fairytale thing that I somehow managed to do and that they'd never be able to.

But it's not magic, it's just a matter of working hard.

So stop aspiring. Start writing. And if you've already started, keep writing.

I promise it's not as scary as it sounds. 

Happy New(ish) Year

By Dan Haring

2013 already? Almost February already? Holy cow. Well, happy new year everyone! I'm sorry for this being my first appearance here in a while. Work and writing and life have been pretty busy lately. We have about seven weeks to finish up the movie Epic, which is what I'm currently working on. I'm really excited about it, and you can check out the trailer here.


As far as writing is concerned, I'm just finishing up a pretty major revision on my MG fantasy book. It feels like I've been revising this book forever and I'm pretty sick of the process, but I have to admit it keeps getting better. So I'm definitely glad I did it, it just wasn't tons of fun. But that's the life, right? So hopefully this will be the version my agent feels is ready to go out into the world. Fingers crossed!

At the beginning of the year, you know, exactly four weeks ago, I did a quick check to see how I did on my 2012 revisions. Overall I did all right. Still didn't hit some things I really wanted to, but if felt like I put up a pretty good fight.

So I'm sitting at the (almost) beginning of another year, and I'm trying to come up with new goals for this year. I don't know if it's a copout or not, but I'm thinking about just keeping the goals I didn't hit from last year.

Honestly, right now I'm pretty happy with life. I have an amazing family, great job, and I'm able to write and do side projects. There's always room for growth and progress, and I want to keep striving for those. But right now I really just want to enjoy life, enjoy each day for what it is. I want to enjoy the little moments and not always be hoping and wishing and waiting for things.

Because hey, I'm alive for another day, and that's pretty cool. All the best to you and yours this coming year!

Catching Up

 By Dan Haring

Hey folks! I know it's been a while since my last post. The last month has been a pretty crazy one for me. My family had been living in Southern California for the last 5 1/2 years, and for the most part, we loved it. What we didn't love was the lack of job security. So when a really good job offer from Blue Sky Studios (They do the Ice Age movies) came in, we jumped at it. The only problem? It was literally on the other side of the country in Greenwich, CT, 2802 miles away. But it was a great opportunity, so we rented a truck, piled all our junk in it, and hit the road. (I'm purposefully glossing over the packing process, which was awful.)

I've driven cross-country a few times, and loved it. But I'd never done it with four kids under the age of seven. Thank goodness for dvd players and Disney. Speaking of which, on one of our last California days, we hit up Disneyland one last time and grabbed a plush Perry the Platypus, and decided he was going to be our traveling buddy.

I highly recommend driving across this amazing country. There are a million things to see, and even things like the open expanses of Kansas can be breathtaking. But again, maybe don't do it with little kids and a moving truck. (All said and done, the kids did great, though.)

After five long days on the road, we finally pulled into our new home in Connecticut. It was hot and humid, trees blocked the horizon in every direction, and there were spiders everywhere. I know I wasn't alone when I thought we should just turn around and head back.

But one word that kept coming up when we told our friends and family about the move, was "adventure." "This is going to be such a fun adventure" they'd tell us. And you know what? They were right. Getting lost and adjusting to new things and leaving our comfort zones and seeing my kids' faces when they saw fireflies for the first time. This is an adventure. And what's life for if not to have adventures?

A great American hero, Neil Armstrong, passed away this last weekend. As I was reading about his life, one quote of his really stuck out to me. He said, "I believe every human has a finite number of heartbeats. I don't intend to waste any of mine." Great words to live by, and ones I hope I can follow. I don't want to miss out on adventures because I've become complacent, even if it means leaving behind everything I know. The clock is ticking, and so are our hearts. Let the adventure begin!