It’s the end of the first week. I happened to have the day off today, so I was able to sleep in and get my writing done early and without rushing. Much more relaxing than yesterday.
NaNoWriMo is a distilled, compressed writing experience, and you can think of it just like a novel. The first week to the beginning, the central two weeks to the middle, and the last week to the end. Whether or not you actually try to cover the entire plot of a novel in the month, the process still maps pretty well, in my experience.
In the classic emotional arc of novel writing, week one is the fun, creative time where you’re free to invent and discover. Everything is new and shiny. In week two and three, the experience begins to dull, as you have to build a functional story on the foundations of character, setting and plot. In the final week, the end is in sight, and even if all the components of the book aren’t exactly coming together, you can at least take solace in the fact that the pain will be over soon.
Most books have at least a few moments in the process of writing when doubt or frustration crop up. Sometimes a book feels like a disaster in progress. The general agreement seems to be that those moments usually come in the middle, not so much at the beginning or end. So the start of week two begins to usher in the part of the month where a lot of the struggle happens. I’ve certainly felt that in previous years. We’ll see how it goes this time around.
Following up my previous post, I wanted to mention that you can actually add updates for specific days and/or delete updates on the NaNoWriMo website. You just have to do it from the “stats” page. This is nice for someone like me, who writes late at night and occasionally goes over midnight. Now I can make sure my word count applies to the right day.
Tonight was a rough one. I didn’t feel like writing, and it felt slow, even if it did end up being pretty on-pace compared to my previous sessions.
On the upside, I crossed 10,000 words. On the downside, I updated my count on the website one minute after midnight. Now I don’t think I’m going to get that “Daily Par Every Day” badge. And…sure, it’s just a stupid graphic on a website. It doesn’t really matter. But, assuming all goes well, I’m going to get to the end of the month and all those badges will light up like a Christmas tree. Except that one. Because I was one minute late. Oh well.
The actual book is going fine. Thanks to the 10,000 words I already had done before November, I’m approaching the end of Act I.
My strategy so far has been to write a paragraph or two beyond my “par” word count each day. This doesn’t feel like much, but I’m now about 850 words ahead. At this rate, I’ll have a spare day of wiggle room around Day 9. I also have some vacation later in the month, and I may use that to pad my word count a little further. That way if something comes up or I just feel burned out, I can afford to take a day off, or write a little less.
I wrote in two sessions today. The first was a bit of a slog. It was a lot of physical action as one character pursues another in a crowded building. I had to figure out exactly what each of them was doing, as well as the layout of the building. The second session was about twice as productive, and was mostly dialogue after the chase.
If I have anything like a hack for getting your NaNoWriMo word count, it’s this: use lots of dialogue. Dialogue is such a fast way to write a lot, and it’s a great way to develop characters, especially if you’re still trying to figure those characters out as you’re writing.
In my experience, most of the difficulties with dialogue come with editing it, once you realize you have unnecessary bits or need to rearrange things. Since dialogue has a natural flow to it, changing one thing can have a lot of knock-on effects. Luckily, that’s not a concern during NaNoWriMo. That’s a problem for future me!
I’m going to say something that probably seems obvious to writers who call themselves “pantsers” or “gardeners”—those who don’t plan/outline/prep extensively before starting a big writing project like a novel.
Having a very loose outline for this project has been…fun? I have more flexibility to just discover new ideas or characters and immediately weave them in. I have a few plot points I want to hit, and I can meander between them as much as I want.
The other thing I’ve noticed, not slavishly following a detailed outline, is that I’m writing faster. My recent point of comparison, of course, is Razor Mountain.
I spent something like a year and a half writing the “first draft” of Razor Mountain. I put “first draft” in quotes, because I was working from the most detailed outline I’ve ever made, and each chapter went through at least one round of edits (and often several) before I posted it. I wanted the story to be coherent and relatively free of plot holes, because I knew people would be reading it while I was writing it.
The downside is that I am now finished with that “first draft,” and I still need to edit and revise. I’m still going to end up cutting some things out and adding new things, along with lots of smaller edits. A better first draft is still a first draft, and some of the effort that went into making it better will be thrown away when those sections are cut or modified.
My weekly output during Razor Mountain was about equal to my daily par for NaNoWriMo. I will be writing the equivalent of 45% of Razor Mountain in November. Call it half of a first draft. But it’s going to be a much messier first draft. How much more will need to be rewritten or thrown away to make it good? I don’t know. Is it better to blast through that first draft as quickly as possible, knowing that it means more editing later?
The other aspect that I’ve been thinking about is sustainability. I accepted my slow cadence of two chapters per month on Razor Mountain because I decided I could keep it up indefinitely. My past experience with NaNoWriMo is that I’m usually pretty worn out at the end of November.
On the other hand, at this pace I could finish the first draft of a novel in two or three months. Even if I had quite a bit of revising to do, I could spend a year doing that and still finish faster than my Razor Mountain pace.
As usual, I’m probably over-thinking everything. After all, it’s only Day 4.
The words continue to come pretty quickly. Along with my main character, I’ve gotten to introduce a couple of interesting secondary characters. The second major character will enter the story in my Day 4 writing session. I initially thought that these two would be very buddy-buddy, but now I’m thinking that some tension between them would give me more opportunities to keep things interesting.
I am starting to enjoy and feel more comfortable with peeling back the layers of the world. I’m not terribly familiar with steampunk or its various punky offshoots, and I’m still figuring out what real world time period(s) and place(s) to draw from. I began with the default: Victorian England, but now I’m thinking about adding some more Eastern European elements into the mix. For now, I’m happy to pull in a mish-mash, even if they’re a bit anachronistic together, and see how it works out.
I’m also delighted to make it to Friday and catch up on some sleep.
Day 2 of NaNoWriMo, and I’m still feeling pretty good. Despite having a lot going on during the day and writing fairly late at night, I’ve been cranking through the word count.
Maybe it helps that my brain is worn down and isn’t trying to do as much editing as I write. Maybe it’s the fact that this session had more dialogue. Whatever it is, I got through the day’s words a full 30 minutes faster than Day 1.
I am very tired and looking forward to the weekend.
As is pretty normal for me, I was not as prepared as I had hoped to be. Life has been busy lately. I went into November with something more like a story summary than a scene-by-scene outline. But that’s fine.
Unfortunately, November 1 was a Wednesday this year, which might just be the worst day to start NaNoWriMo. Much better when it lands on a weekend. Ideally, Halloween would fall on a Friday or Saturday, and I could stay up late and do a little bit of midnight writing to kick things off.
As it was, I had to work all day and save my writing for the evening. I didn’t actually start writing until kids were in bed. Still, I started this year with the advantage of jumping into a story 10,000 words in. I already have a main character that I know something about, and some pre-existing tone and setting to build from.
The last time I participated in NaNoWriMo was before I had started this blog, and before I had started Razor Mountain. Before that, I was…inconsistent. I can definitely feel the difference, now that I’m in the habit of writing on a regular basis. 6-7 pages in a day is still a lot for me, but by not worrying too much about quality, I was able to bang it out in less than two hours.
In short, Day 1 went well, and I’m already tired and looking forward to the weekend.
As I mentioned last week, I’m hopping back onto the NaNoWriMo bandwagon this year. I’ve participated quite a few times, but for those who are participating for the first time, I thought I would give you some advice and resources for NaNoWriMo newcomers.
Nothing Really Matters Except for the Writing
Let’s get this out of the way up-front. All you need to do is write. Write 50,000 words of a single novel in the month of November, and you’ve won NaNoWriMo. And if you don’t want to do “traditional” NaNoWriMo, set yourself whatever goal you want.
NaNoWriMo is all about writing, so write in whatever way works for you. That said, most of my advice here assumes that you’re doing the standard event.
Set up Your Profile
NaNoWriMo started as a fun challenge among friends, and slowly expanded into the huge event it is now. Likewise, the NaNoWriMo website has evolved over the years to have quite a bit of functionality.
Once you’ve created a login, you have access to your personal profile and a few tools. None of this setup is really necessary to participate, but I find that it helps me to get excited about the event if I set up my profile.
First, under “My Nanowrimo,” you can create an “About me” section and select favorite books and authors. If you have friends doing NaNoWriMo, you can set them as your buddies. Under the “Groups” section, you can join your local writing group. There are groups for most decent-sized cities. If you’re in a rural area, there is probably a group that covers that part of your state. (If you’re not in the US…I’m not actually sure how good the international coverage is. You’ll have to search and find out.)
Create a Project
Under the “Projects” section of “My Nanowrimo,” you can enter some info about the book you plan to write. If you just signed up, the default settings will be for NaNoWriMo, but you can adjust the settings to whatever you want.
Picking a working title and an image to represent your project can be a fun non-writing way to get excited about your project. You can also look at the “Badges” section and award yourself personal achievement badges. There are badges to identify yourself as a planner, “pantser,” or something in-between, and a bunch of other badges for various little actions and achievements.
The badges under “Writing Badges” will be automatically awarded based on the word counts you upload to the site. If you enjoy earning badges, you should glance over these before November starts. To earn them all, you’ll need to write at least 1667 words per day in November, and you’ll need to update your stats on the website each day to earn credit toward badges.
Connect
There are forums under the “Community” section of the website, where you can chat with other participants and find like-minded writers. If you’re interested in meeting up and writing with people in real life, check out the section for your geographical region. People will often schedule events and get-togethers, although what’s available is going to depend a lot on the amount of participants in your area.
Offers
Since NaNoWriMo has become a big event, many companies that sell tools for writers will provide discounts or coupon codes for participants. You can check “Writer’s Resources -> Offers” to see what’s available.
These are typically not amazing deals, but if you’ve been thinking about buying a writing tool like Scrivener (a product I personally like a lot), you can get it a little cheaper by using these codes.
Preparation
While futzing around with your profile on the NaNoWriMo website can be a fun way to procrastinate, you’ll eventually want to get into the actual project. If you’re participating in the traditional NaNoWriMo, you can’t start actually writing until Halloween midnight, but that doesn’t mean you can’t do some preparation before November.
If you’re the sort of writer who likes to outline, this is the most obvious way to prepare. Knowing what you want to write will allow you to hit the ground running. Whether you’re a planner or not, you’ll probably want to think about your characters’ personalities, your settings, and at least a starting point for the plot. NaNoWriMo is mostly about writing a lot of words in a short amount of time, and you’ll have an easier time writing a lot of words if you don’t have to regularly stop and figure out where the story needs to go next.
The most important thing is to find the aspects of the story that excite you. Why do you want to write this story? The more excited you are to write, the less grueling the process will feel. Most writers will regularly encounter frustrating sections in their work, but that excitement is the fuel that can keep you pushing forward when you’d prefer to close the laptop or notebook.
Apart from story considerations, you may want to think about writing logistics. If you don’t already write on a regular basis, it can pay to think about where you’re going to set up shop for the month. Do you plan on writing at a desk at home? The local coffee shop? Will you write on a computer, tablet, or notebook? When will you have time to write each day? Do you need to make adjustments in your schedule during November to ensure you have the time set aside?
If you haven’t been writing on a regular basis, you may not have a good idea of how long it will take you to write 1667 words. If you have the time and inclination, one or two practice sessions might give you a better idea of what you’re capable of. For some people, writing 6-7 double-spaced pages is no big deal. For many of us, it’s hours of work.
You may want to give a heads-up to your family or the people you live with. The event is a lot easier if they are aware of the time commitment you’ve made. These people can also be your biggest cheerleaders, even if they aren’t participating. And if they are participating, then you can support each other.
Psyche Yourself Up
At the most basic level, the strategy for success in NaNoWriMo is simple: start strong, and try to not miss any days.
To start strong, many participants like to join a midnight write-in or local event on November 1st. Late-night diners are common venues, but you can always attend a virtual write-in at the place of your choosing. The more you can boost your word count in the first couple days of the event, the more wiggle-room you’ll have for days where you struggle.
If you have days where you know you won’t be able to write (Thanksgiving is a common one for writers in the USA), you may want to try to write extra beforehand, so you won’t fall behind.
Don’t Forget to Have Fun
NaNoWriMo is a challenge, but it’s meant to be a fun one. If you’re anything like me, it’s easy to fall into the trap of worrying about the goal and forgetting to enjoy the actual experience. Writing can be tough, but we do it because we get something out of it: self-expression, self-understanding, or the simple joy of bringing something new and unique into the world.
Are you participating in NaNoWriMo this year? What are you doing to prepare? Let me know in the comments.
The days are getting colder and the leaves are changing. It’s fall, and we all know what that means for writers: NaNoWriMo is coming.
If you’re not aware, NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month, both an event and the organization that runs it. NaNoWriMo happens every year in November, and everyone is invited to try their hand at writing a 50,000-word novel in thirty days.
I’ve talked before about my mixed feelings toward NaNoWriMo. Years ago, I used to feel like missing a NaNoWriMo was a little bit of a shameful thing for an aspiring writer. These days, I’m juggling many writing projects (and the rest of my life), and I know that writing 1667 words per day isn’t always practical or even beneficial.
On the other hand, I haven’t participated in NaNoWriMo since 2019, and I spent over two years working on Razor Mountain, writing only 2-3 chapters per month. As November gets closer, I’ve been thinking that it might be fun to really jam on a different project and get a lot of words written in a short amount of time. I’m glad I spent the time and effort on Razor Mountain, but that’s a damn long time to be mostly working on one big thing. NaNoWriMo could be a nice palate cleanser.
The Prep
I’m a planner at heart, and I’ve found through brutal experience that if I want to succeed at NaNoWriMo and not burn myself out, I need to have a halfway decent outline ready before November. I want to be able to just write, without having to sit and work out plot points.
I don’t have any shortage of ideas for books, but some of them are much more fleshed out than others. I started Razor Mountain with an idea I had already thrown some words at, and I’m planning to do something similar with this year’s NaNoWriMo project. I don’t have a good title yet, so let’s just call it NaNo23.
I didn’t know NaNo23 was a novel at first, but then I went and wrote 10,000 words, and it wasn’t even close to being done. The upside is that I have a great beginning, with characters, setting and plot to extrapolate. The downside is that I’m not sure what exactly the middle or end will be. That’s what I’ll be working on in October.
Despite a good starting point and some time to plan, I expect to have much less of a detailed outline than I did with Razor Mountain. I’m actually looking forward to that. NaNoWriMo ought to be a little messy. I also don’t expect that I’ll actually finish the book in 50,000 words. That’s fine too. I’ll at least come out of November with a good chunk of something new.
The Project
My NaNo23 is an urban fantasy story in a Victorian England-esque setting. (I haven’t decided yet if this is actual England in some alternate history, or a fantasy homage.) The protagonist is Edward Argent, a man who has worked as both soldier and spy, and has seen a great many things he’d rather forget. He’s a little bit Sherlock and a little bit James Bond (or he would be if he wasn’t drugged up and miserable, haunted by his own past).
The magic of this world is very particular: anybody can do it, but it only works with physical objects. By using a particular object repeatedly, it becomes bonded to a person, and it gains power from use. A chef might use a magical spoon to enhance their cuisine. A soldier might imbue his sword with power. These objects are called “totems,” and a person can only have one. It takes time and effort to imbue a totem with power, and it’s a severe blow to anyone to have their totem broken.
There is another class of magic, however, and this is much more rare. Certain people find that they have the ability to create a totem that is not simply an object, but a living creature. These people are known as hexes, and they are so uncommon that the average person isn’t entirely sure they really exist. If they do exist, their power is far greater than ordinary people. They don’t just make a good soup or fence well. They do proper magic: fireballs and invisibility and even changing people’s thoughts. Hexes understand that their power comes from their animal, their familiar, and two minds focusing on the same magic are far more effective than one.
Then there is Edward. Edward is a special kind of hex. As far as he knows, he’s unique. When he wants to use an item as a totem or an animal as his familiar, he thinks about it and it happens. No great effort, no weeks and months of hard work. He can pick up new skills and new animals whenever he has need. He doesn’t advertise this ability. There are dangerous, powerful people who want to use hexes for their own ends. How much more dangerous would the world be for a hex with special abilities?
The Plan
One thing I learned while blogging through Razor Mountain was that some introspection really helps me stay focused and learn from my writing experience. I’d like to do that here, as well. Unfortunately, NaNoWriMo word goals tends to be a slog for me, and I’m not sure how much I’ll want to be blogging on top of those 1667 daily words.
I’ll probably post at least one more time as I do my October prep, and then a few times about the process throughout November.
If you’re thinking about doing NaNoWriMo this year, let me know in the comments. It’s always more fun to do with others.
Have you started a writing project, only to feel your enthusiasm wane partway through? Do you find yourself with notebooks or folders full of half-baked ideas? Are you thinking about putting aside the current thing for a much more exciting thing you just thought of, right now?
Well, Chuck Wendig is back with a motivational and deeply bizarre rant/list of eight reasons why you should finish the thing you started.
Point is: whether you’re doing NaNoWriMo or not, I want to remind you:
It is vital that you learn to complete what you begin.
Finish. Your. Shit.
I know. You’re stammering, “Guh, buh, whuh — but I’m not really feeling it, I have a better idea in mind, it’s hard, I think I’d rather just lay on my belly and plunge my face into a plate of pie.”
I’d rather do that, too.
I mean, c’mon. Prone-position face-pie? Delicious. Amazing. Transformative.
[…]
Here’s why I think it’s essential to learn how to finish what you begin when it comes to writing, no matter how much you don’t want to, no matter how much you’re “not feeling it,” no matter how much pie you have placed on the floor in anticipation of laying there and eating it all.
(If you’re not familiar with Wendig and are squeamish about cursing, violent imagery, or deeply weird metaphors, be aware that this post contains quite a lot of all of those things.)
Words Deferred 