Teaching is gobbling up my free time!

Recently I took a job as a high school English teacher.

It sounds like the perfect job to support one’s personal writing, because of all the time off–but it isn’t. Most of that time off is eaten up by grading, planning, and dealing with administration and parents. So this job has been eating up most of my spare time. Getting the Masters that led to this job has been similarly time-consuming.

This is why I haven’t really been updating here, or doing nearly as much personal writing as I would like to. I’m told that it gets easier to manage your time once you’ve been teaching for a while, and that many people are able to write on the side,but so far I haven’t seen the light at the end of that particular tunnel.

What I’ve been doing instead of writing fiction is trying my hand at poetry. While poetry is certainly difficult, it is less time-consuming to complete a finished poem than it is to complete a finished short story, and certainly to complete a novel. There are fewer words involved, and the attention to how those words sound and play off each other is important in both. I’m still not writing as much as I’d like to be, but unfortunately right now teaching needs to be my priority.

Poetry has resulted in a few dents in my publication hard hat, though!

Recently 1 over the 8 published two of my poems, Ecosystem Engineers and Like This, last month. EE is vaguely about a long-term, former relationship (I know I know) and Like This is about catastrophic thinking and anxiety. 1 over the 8 is a great publication that I’m proud to be a part of. They don’t just publish poems in English, they also publish them in Macedonian, Bengali, Danish, and more. Plus, they publish your work as soon as it’s accepted, since they don’t have “issues”, they have an ever-growing repository of good poems. They also got back to me almost immediately after I submitted, which is wonderful.

That’s not all though! I woke up this morning to a message from The Hopper Review, a new publication set to launch sometime this September. My poem, Cityscape, is going to be part of their inaugural issue. It’s about the NYC subway, which, as a lifelong New Yorker, is the backdrop of my existence. I’ve been shopping the poem around for a while now, and I’m so happy that it’s finally found a good home. I’m also very excited to see what else is in the first issue.

Well, back to lesson planning (and hopefully a little more writing). Have a great week everybody!

“Crowded” and the road to publication…

After letting it sit on my hard drive for a year or so, I decided to see if I could find a publisher for a story of mine, Crowded. Crowded was originally written for a competition held by Strand Bookstore, which it did not win. Although I was proud of the piece, I wasn’t expecting it to win. It was a romance writing contest, and I tend to dwell on insecurities and complications rather than passion and drama. Despite the fact that I’ve been happily dating the same guy for six years, I am an incredibly unromantic person, and it’s difficult to summon an energy that just isn’t in me most of the time.

Besides that, it had a stupid title. Before I renamed it, it was called Avery Today. I don’t know why I called it that. The main character is named Avery and there’s some stuff about time, but it’s not a good title at all.

Once the title issue was fixed, I decided to see if any literary magazines would be interested in it. After all, I had been sending Angelhands, Kondrati 2.0 and Hematoma out to every place I could think of, to no avail. Why not see if one of my other stories would fare better?

To decide, I pulled up a document that I use to keep track of my submissions. Like Crowded, Hematoma is also about relationships. It had been rejected about ten times already, but a few of the publishers invited me to send more work. One publisher, Verdad Magazine, asked to spend more time with the piece before ultimately rejecting it. This probably meant that the editor liked it enough to consider it, so I sent them Crowded to consider. Then, being busy with student teaching and homework, I forgot about it for a little while.

Time passed, and I got an email from Verdad Magazine. I have trained myself to expect rejection, so when I started reading the email it took a minute for it to register that Crowded had been accepted for publication. Only not quite. The editor wanted me to change a few things first.

This was a first for me. I am not an experienced professional author. Crowded will be only my fourth published story. I have only once had an editor change anything about my work, and that was for an article, not a story. I have never been asked to make the change myself. When I received the request, I was immediately prepared to go through with it. The editor suggested that I change the ending so that it included an image. The rest of the story relied heavily on imagery, but the ending wrapped it up in a pat and cutesy way that didn’t work with the rest of the story. Once this was pointed out, I was all for it. Part of me felt like I shouldn’t be so quick to change my work, but the editor was right, the end would have been improved by changing imagery. Besides that, I wanted it to be published. I’m willing to make changes as long as they don’t damage the heart of the story, and in this case, the change just made things better. I wasn’t sure for about a week if they actually wanted to publish my piece or if they were just being sweethearts and telling me how to improve, but in the end, it was finally confirmed…

Crowded, a short story about a dude with social anxiety taking a girl out on a date at a book store, will be published in the Spring 2013 issue of Verdad Magazine!

Clarkesworld Magazine

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I recently submitted Angelhands to Clarkesworld Magazine, a fantasy/sci-fi magazine. After submitting, I discovered something truly amazing about this magazine. I’m not talking about the content, which is entirely excellent, and which you can check out on your own. No, I’m talking about that little word circled in red on my poorly-done MS Paint edit above. If you can’t see it, the word is queue.

A queue. Can you believe it? This is a magazine that tells the reader exactly when it can expect a response, and lets you track the progress. How cool is that? I’ve been submitting my work for about three years now, and I’ve never seen anything like that before. I’ve seen submission managers that let you check on your story, but all they ever say is “received”, “accepted”, or “declined”. There’s no in-between. I never expected any kind of in-between. Until now.

When I first submitted my story, two days ago, it was #66. Now it’s #38. Therefore, I can reasonably assume that I’ll be getting a reply in the next few days. Because this magazine doesn’t accept simultaneous submissions, this is important to know. The more information that I have to aid my planning, the better.

This queue is fantastic, and I thank Clarkesworld for providing it. Whether or not you accept my work, you guys are rocketsauce awesome.

Step by step by step…

Angelhands, a story about Natalie Heidelmann, a girl with the ability to make people sick by touching them, has just been rejected from Asimov’s Magazine. This is after being rejected from Daily Sci-Fi and The New Yorker. Unlike some my stories that were widely rejected, I have yet to come to the conclusion that the work isn’t good enough. I still believe in the quality of this story. I just haven’t found a home for it as of yet.

I’m not sure what angle to take with it. So far, I’ve been submitting to paid markets. I don’t know why, I guess I was feeling ambitious. The fact that I want money could also be a factor. The New Yorker was obviously rather unlikely. The other two were both difficult to break into, but I thought they were worth a shot because my story can be categorized as sci-fi. From here, I’m not sure where to go. Do I keep trying with paid markets, or is that an exercise in futility? Do I keep trying with sci-fi markets, or do I send it to mainstream literary markets?

Sigh sigh sigh. All is complexity and woe.

The Importance of the Body in Fiction

The Importance of the Body in Fiction

Unless they’re a consciousness floating through space, every character has a body. This may seem obvious, but many writers ignore their character’s bodies in favor of their minds. This can happen for a number of reasons. Some of the more common ones include not thinking that bodies are important, not wanting to deal with bodies because they’re gross, and simply forgetting about them. We tend to only talk about the body when it’s doing something titillating and fun, like having sex, but our bodies exist all the time. Like clothing, your character’s body, and how it feels to be in that body, can open up a whole new dimension of development.

Idiosyncrasies

Everyone’s body is different. Some of these differences, like height, weight, and color, are obvious. Other differences are not so obvious, and they can make your character appear unique. Here is a short list of idiosyncrasies that your character could have.

Clinodactyly: This means that the pinkie finger is tilted inward. It can be a clinical sign, but it can also occur for no reason. Your character may find their unusual fingers to be a source of pride. They may not notice it. They may find it embarrassing.

Dry skin: If your character has dry skin, they must keep a constant supply of moisturizer. What kind of moisturizer do they buy? Organic and paraben-free? Whatever is cheapest at the 99 cent store? Olive oil and aloe vera? Scented lotion from Bath & Bodyworks? Your character’s choice can tell you a little bit about who they are, and the irritation of dry skin can make them seem more human.

Crooked teeth: Not everyone’s teeth are as straight and white as coffins. Some of us have crooked teeth. Maybe your character has teeth that are terribly, desperately disfigured, and they just can’t afford the necessary dental work. Maybe they’re only a little bit crooked, and they obsess over it. Maybe they don’t care.

There are thousands of examples, and all of them can reveal something about your character, and build them as an individual.

Physical Impact

Let’s say that your character has been out fighting demons for three days straight. In many stories, she will be tired and beat up afterward. To some readers, this vague description can seem like a rip-off. Some readers won’t care. Some will just want to get on to the next adventure. Some readers, however, won’t attach themselves to your character if that character is not realistically affected by what happens to them. Besides that, detailing the consequences of an implausible act like fighting demons makes that act believable. Above all, you want your reader to believe you.

So how can you write about physical impact? Let’s go back to the above example. Your character is fighting demons. This probably makes her tired. How does it feel to be tired? Your body seems weighted, your eyes feel like they have grit in them, and it’s hard to focus on anything. Describe that. Besides being tired, your character probably has sore muscles. She can complain about that, or bear it silently. She might be hungry because she didn’t pack enough food. She might be thirsty because the demon slapped her canteen out of her hand. She might have bloody claw marks on her face. She might be sweaty, have grit under her fingernails and dirt in her hair. You probably know how all of these things feel, even if you don’t happen to spend your time fighting demons. All of these details add believability and depth to your story.

Health

Let’s face it, not all of us are in perfect health. More importantly, neither are our readers. Seeing yourself portrayed correctly in a piece of media is exhilarating. For those whose bodies function in ways that are different from the norm, this experience can be hard to come by. Millions of people worldwide suffer from various chronic conditions, and many of them manage to lead full and interesting lives. Even those of us who are healthy most of the time get sick. We have colds and headaches and impacted teeth. Therefore, it seems strange when everybody in a fictional setting is healthy all the time. In fact, it can make your fictional world seem less full. Give a character allergies. Give a character diabetes. Have your character get bad cramps when they menstruate. Give your character chronic knee pain. Give your character fibromyalgia.

If you do choose to give your character a physical issue of any kind, take care not to reduce them to their condition. This can be hugely insulting to those who share the condition, and it’s lazy, one-dimensional writing. Your character may sometimes feel like their condition is their entire life, but they should have other important attributes.

Size and Shape

How much does your character weigh? What is her approximate height? These things matter for social reasons, but they also matter for physical reasons. If your character is very tall, she might have to stoop when she comes in through the door. She might have difficulty finding shoes that fit. If she’s short, she might not be able to reach high shelves without the aid of a step stool. If she’s fat, her thighs might rub painfully together when she walks for too long. She may not be able to find clothes that fit. She may be discriminated against because of her weight. If she’s thin, she might not be able to keep herself effectively warm in the winter. Any one of these things can influence how others perceive and treat your character, and how your character experiences the world.

Incongruity with Self

Your character may not like what her body is doing. She may not feel that her body represents who she is at all. This could be because her body is failing, or attacking her, as in a chronic illness. This could be because she is a transwoman, and her penis makes her feel dysphoric. She may feel like she needs to lose weight, a perceived need which can range from nagging to all-consuming. If your character’s body is not what she feels it should be, this can create some fascinating narrative tension, and the end result can range from acceptance of the body as is, to action taken to change it.

Ask Questions and Do Research

If you choose to give your character a bodily experience that you do not share, do your research. I cannot stress the enough. This especially applies to weight, trans* issues, and disability and chronic illness. A fully fleshed character is not composed of stereotypes, and a good writer does not trifle with something that real people live with. If you know someone who deals with what you choose to represent, see if they are willing to answer questions. If not, there are plenty of resources in the wide wonderful world of the Internet, so get Googling!

Thoughts on NaNoWriMo, Day 7

1. Did I seriously just change the word “milk” to “chocolate milk” because it’s one extra word? God, I’m desperate.

2. Who would my characters have voted for? Almost all of my POV characters are 13 years old…the only adult would definitely have voted Democrat. Dude grew up in Brooklyn, what else do you expect

3. Is it even possible to have a title before you’ve finished writing? Don’t titles stem from themes or important bits that you don’t know about before you start?

4. Decided to jump on the elliptical to see if I could jump-start my lazy brain and get some ideas. I got an idea, but it’s for a Naruto AMV that I’m never going to make because I don’t have footage. Some help that was. Oh well, at least my heart appreciates it.Is it cheating if I don’t deduct “Part 1, Chapter 4”, “Part 2, Chapter 1” and so forth from my over all word count?

5. Apparently, Sol’s need to use the bathroom is extremely important and worthy of spending multiple paragraphs describing. So is Kenny’s concern about what kind of pizza Andrew eats. Self, this story has a murder in it. Priorities much?

7. I just misspelled “cranky” as “crankly.” Now I want “crankly” to be a word.

8. Apparently, I forgot to decide what any of my characters look like except one, Austin. Austin was the template, so his stats appear under every single character. Austin is 6’3 and 200 pounds, he has a beard and he has sideburns. This description appears under Nanette, a four-year-old girl. Yup.

9. Writing two scenes at once is a good thing. I’ve found that being bored while writing is not always a sign of bad writing, it can be a sign of being partially brain-dead as a consequence of staring at the screen all day. As such, being able to flit between scenes is really helping.

10. When I finish my goal for tonight, I’m still going to be a day behind. I just can’t stare at the computer screen anymore, and I need to make dinner. My eyes are killing me, and my stomach is growling. 500 more words.

11. Self, stop listening to Clumsy by Our Lady Peace. That song is your inspiration for Little Bloody Rivers, not this new story. You’re going to start writing about Rue and Kit if you keep this up, and you’re supposed to be writing about Kenny, Andrew, and Sol.

12. I’m 30 words away from 10k, and I’m totally checked out. Oh, and that’s the goal for yesterday, but it’s all that’s going to happen today. Ugh. Maybe another line about Sol needing to go to the bathroom?

13. 10K 10K 10K!!!

The First Night of NaNoWriMo

The First Night of NaNoWriMo

 

NaNoWriMo begins on November 1st, which means November 1st midnight, not November 1st whenever the heck I wake up, or November 1st whenever I get home from work/school/various obligations. Whether you start writing at midnight or not, that’s when it starts. My advice to all you NaNo’ers is to start at midnight if at all possible. Even if you can only scribble a hundred words on a napkin in between customers, write something at midnight. Why? Because if you do, you’ll wake up the next day with something on the page. Even if it’s crap, it’s something. And something is important. Something means that you started. Something means that you might actually do this NaNo thing.

 

Assuming that you’re taking my advice, here are some tips for how to go about this.

 

  1. Keep the Halloween festivities under control. Guys, I know it’s Halloween. If you’re young, you’re out running around in a ghost costume trying to stuff as much candy as you possibly can into a plastic bag. If you’re an adult, maybe you’re going to a party. All well and good, but don’t stay out too late, and don’t get so drunk that you can’t write. Have a drink! Have two! I’m not telling you not to have fun, I’m just telling you to reign it in enough that you can kick start your NaNo-sperience right.
  2. Caffeine is not your friend. Remember, you’re starting at midnight. Unless you’re working the night shift, or you’re nocturnal, you’re going to want to get to sleep at some point during the night. Drinking coffee late at night may keep you up for much longer than you can continue to write coherently. If you must have some caffeine, consider a cup of white tea—it’s high in brain-pleasing antioxidants, and the caffeine level isn’t high enough to keep you up all night.
  3. Aim to write at least 667 words before going to bed. Or 500. Or 300. Or 50. Write something, anything is fine. Personally, I aim for 667, because then I have a nice, round, 1,000 words to knock out in the morning.
  4. Study any outlines or notes beforehand. This is important. At midnight, you want to be able to just burst right out of the gate and start writing. You don’t want to get distracted by rereading your notes. You might edit them! You might spend time tweaking your plot when you could be writing it. Now is the time for accumulating words, not perfecting the details. If you don’t have any notes, forget about it, just let those fingers fly.
  5. If you absolutely cannot function so late at night, wake up early. Even though I strongly advocate scribbling down something before you hit the sack, I recognize that not everyone is capable of staying up until midnight. Some of you might have to be up at 4 AM. Some of you may need twelve hours of sleep to function during the day. Some of you may be nocturnal. If you absolutely must wait to start writing, do it, but carve out a little bit of time before you start your day. Unless you’re absolutely positive that you can bang out 1,677 words in one go on the first day, it’s a good idea to divide it up into chunks, to get you used to it.
  6. If you’ve lost power due to Hurricane Sandy, wait until morning. Hopefully, the hurricane will be over and done with by Wednesday night, but some may be left with residual issues. If your home has no power, you likely don’t have a light source. It’s best to save your flashlight batteries for other things, and it’s dangerous to write by candle light. Prioritize your safety, and wait until daylight.

Defining and revising the literary canon…

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Books from top left to bottom right: I am a Cat by Natsume Soseki, Bed by Tao Lin, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, I am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced by Nujood Ali, Ariel by Sylvia Plath, and Dear Everybody by Michael Kimball.

One of the things that identifies you as an “intelligent” or “cultured” person is familiarity with the literary canon. This alone is a somewhat arbitrary standard. For me, it’s incredibly important to read the classics, because I intend to be a writer and an English teacher, but I think my brother, who is majoring in physics, would be better served by reading scientific articles than 19th century novels–unless, of course, he really liked 19th century novels. These books might grow my soul, but others find their inspiration elsewhere, and that’s okay. But let’s say for now that it’s important for everyone to be well-versed in the literary canon. What, then, does that canon consist of? And who decides it?

There are millions of books floating around in the world. Generally, the classics are the ones written decades or centuries ago–those that have withstood the test of time. But what are the standards by which these books are considered to be universally important? What are the standards by which we choose which books are taught in school? Just about everybody reads The Great Gatsby in high school, or at least they did when I was growing up. Why is this book better than anything else F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote, or anything else that was written at the time? Is it because it’s easy to use it to fulfill curricular goals? Is it because reading it will somehow improve people’s minds, moreso than any other book about the same topic?

Certainly, some books are better than others. The Great Gatsby is a skillfully written book. But what about The Iliad? It’s a classic because it’s a relic of a long-past age, because it’s one of the first texts that we have to go on. But if you read it, you see that it’s promoting rape. You could say that it’s important to understand what things were like during the time it was written, and you’d be right, but why do we then read it uncritically? Why don’t we talk about how unacceptable that is, and not just about it’s historical context? Why do we have to read about men being given women to rape as a reward for killing villagers in order to be cultured and intelligent? Why is Franz Kafka’s work considered classic when it was published posthumously against his will? Why are Shakespeare’s plays, which weren’t meant to be read but to be seen, and which weren’t even written by completely by him in the first place, considered mandatory reading? Why did no one ever tell me to read Natsume Soseki?

There are books that I personally feel that everyone should read. This is because I personally enjoyed reading them, and feel that doing so made my life better. But this is a small cache of books, because there are only so many books I as an individual can read. No one can read all the books, and no one can know for certain which books will be best for which person, except, of course, that person. As things are, it is important to be familiar with the literary canon, because it will be referenced repeatedly. It’s important to be able to read and understand the cultural script. But the cultural script is determined by what we continue to read. If we collectively decided that we didn’t need to read Shakespeare anymore, after a few generations, we’d stop referencing him.

I’m not arguing that we shouldn’t read Shakespeare, or Homer, or Kafka, or Fitzgerald. I am arguing that we read Soseki, and that we also read other writers of color, and that that be a mandatory part of any literary curriculum. We should be reading women writers and venerating them along with their male peers. The books that American society deems worthy of note are written by white men. This is a problem because America does not consist solely of white men. Women and people of color need to see what people like themselves have accomplished, and see those accomplishments viewed as just as important as the work of white men.

Also, we need to be reading contemporary literature, if we care about literature as a concept and not just historical benchmarks. If we don’t see what people are doing now, we’ll have a heck of a time seeing where our own work might fit in. If we’re not writers, we still should be doing this, so that we can see how the world we live in is reflected in art, and thus gain a better understanding of that world–meaning, our world, not the world of our great-great-grandparents. It’s important to learn about history, but we’re rarely asked to read contemporary books in school, and we should be.

When we think about what should be in the literary canon, we need to stop naming books we haven’t actually read. We need to stop saying that books are classics because they are classics. We need to be deciding what we think about books based on their actual literary merit, and we need to include a big pile of books not written by dead, white man.

Rejected!

Yesterday, I got rejected by the New Yorker. It was the best thing that had happened to me all day.

Sounds weird, right? It definitely sounded weird to the friends and family that I told this to. Who wants to be rejected?

The thing is that the New Yorker was a long shot. I never expected them to publish me. They publish Alice Munro, Haruki Murakami, and Junot Diaz. Why should they look twice at someone with three published stories to her name? Besides, it had a fantasy/sci-fi edge to it. Not really the New Yorker’s style.

I submitted it because they sometimes publish unknown writers, and they sometimes publish sci-fi. Both are rare, but I was confident in the story and I thought, why the heck not? The worst thing they can do is not respond to me.

They did respond. Here it is:

Dear Anna Lindwasser,
We regret that we are unable to use the enclosed material. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to consider it.Sincerely,The Editors

This isn’t the response that I wanted. It was a form letter. No specific information about my work. But they bothered to get back to me. They spelled my name right. Presumably, someone at the New Yorker read my story. That isn’t much, but it’s something, and right now, it’s enough. Now that the New Yorker is done with it, I can focus on more realistic market.
Yesterday, a few hours after receiving that rejection letter, I sent my story, Angelhands, off to Daily Science Fiction. I will certainly have some stiff competition, but they do seem to be open to new writers. We’ll see how it goes.
To my readers–would you submit to the New Yorker? Is it a waste of time, or is throwing your hat in the ring worth it? Does rejection ever make you feel good, or is it always a disappointing experience?

How To Win At NaNoWriMo

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Image Copyright Nanowrimo.org.

NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month, is the brainchild of Chris Baty. It’s an event in which you write a 50,000-word novel during the month of November. Every year since 1999, thousands of people have signed up for this challenge. Many of them came out of it with a first draft of a novel on their hard drive. Some, such as Amelia Atwater-Rhodes, even turned their first draft into a book deal. Pounding out a novel in just a month might seem daunting, but don’t despair! There are simple guidelines which can help you make it to the finish line without too much heartache.

1,667 words a day…or not?

Seasoned NaNo’ers know 1,667 as the magic number—the number of words you have to write per week if you want to make it to 50,000 in thirty days. If you’re a methodical person with a predictable schedule, this strategy is your winning ticket. But what if your life is more scattered? What if Sunday is the only day you can see your boyfriend, Monday you have classes from from dawn until dusk and a graveyard shift at K-Mart, and then on Tuesday you have nothing to do? Everyone has a different schedule, and you have to figure out a pace that works well for you. This isn’t an excuse to fall behind. Some people thrive on the mad dash to the finish line, and write 50,000 words in a week, but most people can’t do this, and it isn’t healthy to try. Work on your novel whenever you can, but don’t sweat it if one day you write 3,000 words and the next day you only write 500.

Planning Ahead

Before trying out NaNoWriMo for the first time, many people wonder whether they should outline the plots of their stories, or develop their characters extensively before the start of NaNoWriMo. There are as many different answers to this question as there are participants. Some people love the planning stages. They map out everything about their story before they write a single word. For some of those people, that works great. For others, too many planning can kill their love for a story, or make them freeze up at the thought of committing their ideas to paper. Not planning anything also has mixed results. Some people write best by learning what their story is about as they go. Others need direction, or they get stuck. Most people work best with a strategy that’s somewhere in the middle. You should know something about your story, but not everything. You know, for example, that your main character is a dragon slayer who has no idea what to do when faced with robot dragons. You don’t know that he’s going to fall in love with one of the robot dragons. Know what works for you!

Your Social Network

Some people undertake NaNoWriMo with a group of friends, and rely on each other for support throughout the process. They meet up for write-ins, have contests to see who can wrote the most over the span of ten minutes or an hour, help each other develop plots and characters, commiserate, and cheer each other on. If your friends aren’t doing NaNoWriMo, encourage them to join you. If they’re not interested, all is not lost—there’s still a number of ways to connect with fellow NaNo’ers. The NaNoWriMo.org website has an incredible forum where one can gain support, and municipal liaisons in various locations all over the world organize write-ins, parties, and other events to get you writing and to help you meet other people who are doing the same. To find a municipal liason near you, click here.

Balance

It can be tempting to dedicate every waking moment to NaNoWriMo, and many participants will urge you to do so. You may have to cancel social engagements in favor of your novel, and you may have to spend less time on other hobbies. Remember, though, that NaNoWriMo is not more important than your life. It is not more important than your five-year anniversary with your wife. It is not more important than taking your son to the dentist. It is not more important than going to work or going to school. It is not more important than eating healthy food, getting regular exercise, and getting enough sleep. NaNoWriMo should be fun, and it should be challenging, but it should not consume your life.