NaNoWriMo
NaNoWriMo is supposed to be this intense month when you put aside all other distractions and focus on writing your novel. But, no matter how good your intentions are, life is never that simple. We can’t plan for all the emergencies that life throws our way and it’s possible some of your NaNoWriMo plans have fallen by the wayside. There’s no shame in that.
Actually, there’s no shame feeling overwhelmed by NaNoWriMo at all. We’re all busy people and NaNoWriMo takes up a lot time. Writing 1,667 words a day is a big deal. It’s draining and tough. Throw in Thanksgiving and all the accompanying madness, and everyone is feeling the stress. Taking even a few days off can make you feel like you’re getting even further behind. Once that thought is in your head, quitting starts to look like more and more of an easy way out. You feel like you’re just too far behind, and you’re never going to catch up. That attitude is toxic though, and you need to start being kinder to yourself.
We all hit speed bumps. Stuff happens. It happens to everyone. That’s life.
But know this…
If you’ve missed some days…or maybe even have stopped writing altogether, for whatever reason, you should know that it’s ok to restart. Get back on the horse, try again. You don’t have to wait until next year to try NaNoWriMo again, you’re still part of this year’s competition.
Worst case scenario, you don’t reach 50,000 words…and all you have is half a novel. Well guess what? That’s still an awful lot more writing than you had at the beginning of November.
Don’t quit. Keep writing. You’ll be happier for it come November 30th.
See all of bookspry’s NaNoWriMo posts here.
NaNoWriMo
So we’re halfway through the second week of NaNoWriMo. The first week passed in a flurry of ideas and creativity and planning outlines. That initial excitement is starting to fade and there’s still a long way to go. How do you keep up the momentum to continue writing everyday?
Try making a writing schedule. Decide on a time, each and every day, that you are going to set aside to just write. It doesn’t have to be the same time every day. But you do have to plan a writing session every single day. By creating a schedule you are making a commitment to yourself that you are going to write. Every day, you should know that you have time set aside for your writing.
Once you’ve created your schedule, comes the hard part. You have to stick to it. That time is sacrosanct. You’re not going to skip that time, you’re not going to start late, you’re not going to let anything distract you from your writing. You joined NaNoWriMo because you have a novel inside you, bursting to get out. This is your time to get it done.
When you have a writing schedule something magical happens. After a few writing sessions, it starts getting easier to write. At first it’s tough. Maybe you’re not feeling energetic for tonight’s writing sesh, you’ve run out of inspiration or you’ve already written out all your good ideas. There’s a temptation to just give up on the writing session altogether, and come back to it once you’ve had some more ideas. But that’s a terrible habit. If you can teach yourself to push through and get writing, then you’ll be able to keep up the energy and enthusiasm that you had in Week One for the rest of the month.
See all our #NaNoWriMo posts here.
NaNoWriMo
So, we are well into week 2 (yikes!!). That means you’ve probably got some sort of outline for your NaNoWriMo story. You know what your plot is going to be. Maybe some minor details are still hazy but, for the most part, you know where this story is headed. You’ve probably got an idea for most of the scenes you’ll need to write.
Inevitably, some of those unwritten scenes seem more exciting to you than others. Maybe it’s the big reveal scene that your whole story builds towards. Maybe it’s a scene where the love interest surprises the protagonist with a kiss. Whatever kind of scene it is, there are simply some bits that are more fun to write than others.
But, when we start writing, we rarely start with those scenes. But if that’s the scene that most excites you, then why the hell wouldn’t you write it straight away?
It’s just the way the brain works. We think in straight lines. We’re writing a story, so of course we’re going to start at the beginning and then work forward until we get to the end. No matter that all the fun exciting scenes tend to be towards the back. You’re going to have to plough through all these other scenes before you can write something exciting….That doesn’t sound right, does it?
NaNoWriMo is an intense month. One of the best ways to stay engaged with your writing is to find the aspects that excite you, the scenes that inspire you. So jump ahead! Write that fun scene! You don’t have to write thousands of words of set up before you start having fun.
Does that sound wrong? Like you’re cheating somehow? Like you’re eating your desert before you’ve eaten your supper?
Here’s the thing: you’re a writer and you can write the scenes in any order that you want (NaNoWriMo or not!). If writing that fun scene now helps you stay engaged, then you go and write that scene right this minute. In fact, while you’re at it, you can write any other scene you want. You don’t have to write them in order. This is your story! This is your creation, and you’re not bound by any rules about what order you write in.
NaNoWriMo
We all know that the main goal of NaNoWriMo is to write 50,000 words. The organisers of NaNoWriMo encourage you to write everyday and that every word that you write counts towards your 50,000 total. So that means that if you suddenly realize that the last paragraph you’ve written is completely wrong and needs to be removed, then you should not delete it. Instead, we’re told, you should just strike it through. That unwanted paragraph still counts towards your word count.
No matter how many words you want to cut out, NaNoWriMo encourages you to never actually delete them. It doesn’t matter if it’s just the last paragraph, or if it’s the entire last chapter: nothing should get deleted. Every words counts towards your end of month total.
For a lot of people this advice creates a dilemma. If the purpose of NaNoWriMo is to write a novel in one month, then what’s the point in keeping in scenes that I know I’m going to edit out on the the first of December?
Honestly, that argument does makes sense – but it’s missing the bigger picture.
Yes, NaNoWriMo is about getting your novel written…but it’s also about showing you what you are capable of. This November you’re going to find out that you are capable of writing 50,000 words. You’re going to get into the habit of writing everyday. One writing session at a time. Each session chipping away towards your goal. It does suck that not every writing session will be 100% useful. But those words that you want to edit out are a testament to your new creativity and work ethic. They absolutely should count towards your end of month total.
You put that work in, and nobody can take that away from you. Apart from you.
Please don’t delete your own hard work!
There is another reason why you should strikethrough rather than delete. What you’re writing this November is a draft. This is not the final manuscript. It doesn’t have to be all polished and ready to be published. Every time you stop writing and start editing, you’re slowing down.
Say you’re half-way through a scene, and you suddenly realize that the character that’s supposed to speaking at the moment is wrong. The whole character is just unnecessary; having him in the story doesn’t help further the plot. Instead, he’s just a confusing extra that’s stealing the limelight from the protagonist. He has to go.
Now that you’ve come to this momentous decision, what’s your next step? Do you stop writing halfway through a scene, so that you can go back over everything you’ve written so far, deleting every mention of this rejected character?
Or, do you strikethrough whatever that character just said and continue writing? It’s pretty clear that one way is going to completely stall your writing session, and the other way is going to let you continue amping up that precious wordcount.
So, this November, no matter what, don’t touch that Delete key!
NaNoWriMo
We’ve made it the end of the first week of NaNoWriMo!
Good job! Give yourself a pat on the back! The hardest part is over (seriously)!
It might not feel like the hardest part is done, after all there’s still another three weeks to go, but I’m here to tell you that you should be feeling incredibly proud of yourself for what you’ve achieved so far. After a week of writing everyday, it’s too easy to let in doubts and negative thoughts. Maybe your word count isn’t as high as you’d like it to be. Maybe your idea has gone off in directions you never expected. Maybe you’re having a hard time finding the time in your day.
Not only are those kind of negative thoughts unhelpful and depressing, they are also irrelevant.
Before NaNoWriMo began you probably had a vague idea for a novel you would eventually write. For this past week, no matter how many words you’ve actually written, you’ve been thinking about your novel. It’s no longer an abstract idea, but a concrete thing that you’ve started on. You’ve taken the biggest step in writing a novel: you’ve started.
Yes, of course, there’s a long way to go! But getting started, and sticking to it through those first negative thoughts, is the biggest obstacle. Writers are writers because they keep writing, not because everything works out exactly as they planned.
There are so many people in the world who believe that they have a brilliant idea for a novel. They’ll excitedly tell you the set-up for their novel and sketch the plot. But then, when you ask the fateful question, how much have you written? They’ll smile ruefully and shake their head. They haven’t started writing yet.
A lot of people are walking around, fully intending to write their novel…someday. They’re just waiting for inspiration to strike. When that magical, mystical day comes, they’re going to sit down and write the whole thing at once. Maybe that sounds realistic to them, but to me, that’s just crazy. It’s only when you sit down and start writing that you realize all the flaws in your carefully thought out story. That’s when you see the plot-holes, it’s when you realize that your dialogue sounds clunky. And when you get a chance to make it better.
So, while I’m glad that so many people are interested in writing, I’m always saddened that so many people have this dream and haven’t done anything to make it a reality.
That used to be you. You used to daydream about writing a novel. Not anymore. No matter how many words you’ve actually got down, you’ve stopped being an idle dreamer. Now you are getting it done.
You are a writer.
