2.22 NaNoWriMo Prep 2018
It was a bright and sunny summer day in 2005 when my relief teacher for the advanced English class in High School held out a hand as the class were leaving the library.
"Kristy, wait a moment, I need to talk to you."
These words gave me pause, I mentally ran down the list of recent teen transgressions and wondered if I had been too loud or rude during class, "Yes, Ms?"
"Have you heard of National Novel Writing Month?"
"No, what is that, Ms?"
"It's a month where you write 50,000 words. A novel. It starts in November. I think it would be a worthy investment of your talent."
So here are my tips for surviving NaNo for those of you looking at entering.
For about 4 years straight, I always took the first week of November off from work and the last week of November off from work. I found that this gave me a head-start on the novel and time to catch up when I invariably fell behind some years. It helps that my birthday is December 1st, so having the days around it off are pretty much a present to myself.
I know plenty of authors who work full time, have two children and a spouse and still find time to write. Time is there. It might not be as much time as you want, in fact, likely, it is never enough time as you want, but NaNo is about using the time you have. Wake up at 5am, go to bed after a chapter, do whatever it takes to get there.
Writing Excuses says it well in their podcast, "When you say you don't have time, what you're really making is a values statement."
If finishing is important, make the time.
Now obviously, there are always things that should come before writing and work, your health and your family are important and I'm not saying to drop everything, run to a cabin in the woods and hide there. Certainly, emergencies can and do happen in November. I lost my job, got kicked out of home and had a car-crash one year, surprisingly, that year I did not finish my novel. The universe will throw a lot at you when you're busy. And it's okay to have to take up tasks that are more important. Never berate yourself for that!
But, what I'm saying is, "Do you really need to binge-watch all of Gilmore Girls, or could you stop after one episode and then go write?"
NaNo is always going to take a lot of your attention and energy because it is a big endeavor in a short time period.
For pantsers, this might mean clean your desk, pick which idea to pursue, get your inspirational mugs.
For some of us, it means finding a quiet place, for others, like me, it means making a youtube playlist to have on repeat for 30 days on end, keeping me 'in the zone.'
Stock up on coffee, or tea, or chocolate. Prepare your environment for the act of writing. Charge your laptop or tablet each night.
Sharpen your pencils or refill the ink in your pens.
For me, NaNo prep is a few notes on characters, maybe world-building, maybe an outline. But most importantly, I clean my writing desk. I refill my drink-bottle, I sit down for an hour and search for my youtube playlist. A clean desk and good music are my essentials.
I picked a few of my buddies because they are writing monsters who aim for 100k in November and I'm a competitive squirrel who wants to do well, so while they skyrocket through the month, sailing on what I can only assume is a bevy of muses who never throw a tantrum, I grind my face into the novel and write another hundred words because I want to get closer to that goal.
NaNo works because of the social contract that we share. We're going to try it, we're going to put it all in.
There is no reward for finishing NaNo except the reward of a finished novel. You won't get a parade, you won't win a book deal at the end (although certainly, many go on to query their books successfully!) but the point is to get there and you are going to need to do it word-by-word.
It is so very easy to fall behind a day or two of NaNo and suddenly you are behind 10k of your projected goal and the end of the book looks very far away indeed.
Want to know a secret?
Lamenting you are falling behind, won't actually catch you up.
The only way to catch your word-count goal is to write.
Usually around the 15th of the month, I invariably have something annoying pop into my life that requires me to miss a night or two of writing work.
This can stretch out. I get home from work tired. I want to watch some new netflix show. I just need a day to recharge.
Now it's been several days, maybe a week with no words.
The only way to fix this is to write. Write, as they say, for your life.
I love the pep-talks that NaNo give us, because Every. Single. Author. is experiencing this exact same sensation at the middle of their battle. Everyone feels like they are bleeding into the manuscript, that their muse is a toddler who has latched onto the doorjam and you are holding the muse's ankles, pulling, screaming, and slowly tearing their fingers from the wood.
I've pulled all nighters on November 29th, fingers painstakingly jotting out 15k, just to cross the threshold and finish.
I've sat on 48,000 words, thinking how terrible and horrible the novel I've just written is, and wondering who in their right mind wouldn't just burn the whole novel down. Finishing would be an insult to true authors, because naturally, I could never be such with this drivel.
Finishing a novel can be scary. A work in progress is a safe space for writers. A work in progress has no expectations, no demands. You are 'creating' and you can remain safely 'creating' for as long as you want without ever falling into the dark, terrible place of having 'created.' Once something is finished, once you have written those terrible words 'the end' you might, heaven forbid, have an expectation of your novel.
But, in case no one ever told you, your novel never has to be seen by anyone else if you don't want it to be. You can lock it in the highest towers or the deepest dungeons. You can keep it secret and safe for all time. It is, after all, at this point, just your novel. It cannot hurt you. I mean, it can hurt your hands and fingers, and posture and sleeping habits... but novels rarely jump out of the computer and send themselves off to publishers and get you ridiculed or humiliated. Novels are content to wait on your pleasure. If it is your desire they stay unseen in dusty file-folders of your harddrive, they shall.
So, while you make have a spike of fear that you are unworthy or inadequate or incapable or the worst author ever, or too lazy.... write.
Write and write.
Your novel wants you to finish.
You want to finish. Despite all the horrors and fears churning in your soul.
If both of you want it, it will be beautiful. And ugly, and natural and all your own.
"Kristy, wait a moment, I need to talk to you."
These words gave me pause, I mentally ran down the list of recent teen transgressions and wondered if I had been too loud or rude during class, "Yes, Ms?"
"Have you heard of National Novel Writing Month?"
"No, what is that, Ms?"
"It's a month where you write 50,000 words. A novel. It starts in November. I think it would be a worthy investment of your talent."
Fast forward to 2018
I've been doing NaNoWriMo since 2005 without fail. Well, not entirely without fail. I've failed to finish 5 times. But I've always participated. Nano has been a worthy investment of my time and energy over the years. A worthy trial by fire, which I've found to be the only way I really learn anything at all.So here are my tips for surviving NaNo for those of you looking at entering.
1. Prepare your time.
This means, allocate the time you need to hit your word counts. Allow yourself the space and the concentration to achieve your targets.For about 4 years straight, I always took the first week of November off from work and the last week of November off from work. I found that this gave me a head-start on the novel and time to catch up when I invariably fell behind some years. It helps that my birthday is December 1st, so having the days around it off are pretty much a present to myself.
I know plenty of authors who work full time, have two children and a spouse and still find time to write. Time is there. It might not be as much time as you want, in fact, likely, it is never enough time as you want, but NaNo is about using the time you have. Wake up at 5am, go to bed after a chapter, do whatever it takes to get there.
Writing Excuses says it well in their podcast, "When you say you don't have time, what you're really making is a values statement."
If finishing is important, make the time.
Now obviously, there are always things that should come before writing and work, your health and your family are important and I'm not saying to drop everything, run to a cabin in the woods and hide there. Certainly, emergencies can and do happen in November. I lost my job, got kicked out of home and had a car-crash one year, surprisingly, that year I did not finish my novel. The universe will throw a lot at you when you're busy. And it's okay to have to take up tasks that are more important. Never berate yourself for that!
But, what I'm saying is, "Do you really need to binge-watch all of Gilmore Girls, or could you stop after one episode and then go write?"
NaNo is always going to take a lot of your attention and energy because it is a big endeavor in a short time period.
2. Prepare your method of writing.
For plotters, this means, get your outlines sorted. Do your character surveys, draw your maps of the world, etc.For pantsers, this might mean clean your desk, pick which idea to pursue, get your inspirational mugs.
For some of us, it means finding a quiet place, for others, like me, it means making a youtube playlist to have on repeat for 30 days on end, keeping me 'in the zone.'
Stock up on coffee, or tea, or chocolate. Prepare your environment for the act of writing. Charge your laptop or tablet each night.
Sharpen your pencils or refill the ink in your pens.
For me, NaNo prep is a few notes on characters, maybe world-building, maybe an outline. But most importantly, I clean my writing desk. I refill my drink-bottle, I sit down for an hour and search for my youtube playlist. A clean desk and good music are my essentials.
3. Get buddies and explain your commitment to others.
My roommate supports me by asking 'have you finished your word-count for the day' because she knows it is important to me, and I work best when nagged.I picked a few of my buddies because they are writing monsters who aim for 100k in November and I'm a competitive squirrel who wants to do well, so while they skyrocket through the month, sailing on what I can only assume is a bevy of muses who never throw a tantrum, I grind my face into the novel and write another hundred words because I want to get closer to that goal.
NaNo works because of the social contract that we share. We're going to try it, we're going to put it all in.
There is no reward for finishing NaNo except the reward of a finished novel. You won't get a parade, you won't win a book deal at the end (although certainly, many go on to query their books successfully!) but the point is to get there and you are going to need to do it word-by-word.
4. Keep your head in the game.
It is so very easy to fall behind a day or two of NaNo and suddenly you are behind 10k of your projected goal and the end of the book looks very far away indeed.
Want to know a secret?
Lamenting you are falling behind, won't actually catch you up.
The only way to catch your word-count goal is to write.
Usually around the 15th of the month, I invariably have something annoying pop into my life that requires me to miss a night or two of writing work.
This can stretch out. I get home from work tired. I want to watch some new netflix show. I just need a day to recharge.
Now it's been several days, maybe a week with no words.
The only way to fix this is to write. Write, as they say, for your life.
I love the pep-talks that NaNo give us, because Every. Single. Author. is experiencing this exact same sensation at the middle of their battle. Everyone feels like they are bleeding into the manuscript, that their muse is a toddler who has latched onto the doorjam and you are holding the muse's ankles, pulling, screaming, and slowly tearing their fingers from the wood.
I've pulled all nighters on November 29th, fingers painstakingly jotting out 15k, just to cross the threshold and finish.
I've sat on 48,000 words, thinking how terrible and horrible the novel I've just written is, and wondering who in their right mind wouldn't just burn the whole novel down. Finishing would be an insult to true authors, because naturally, I could never be such with this drivel.
Finishing a novel can be scary. A work in progress is a safe space for writers. A work in progress has no expectations, no demands. You are 'creating' and you can remain safely 'creating' for as long as you want without ever falling into the dark, terrible place of having 'created.' Once something is finished, once you have written those terrible words 'the end' you might, heaven forbid, have an expectation of your novel.
But, in case no one ever told you, your novel never has to be seen by anyone else if you don't want it to be. You can lock it in the highest towers or the deepest dungeons. You can keep it secret and safe for all time. It is, after all, at this point, just your novel. It cannot hurt you. I mean, it can hurt your hands and fingers, and posture and sleeping habits... but novels rarely jump out of the computer and send themselves off to publishers and get you ridiculed or humiliated. Novels are content to wait on your pleasure. If it is your desire they stay unseen in dusty file-folders of your harddrive, they shall.
So, while you make have a spike of fear that you are unworthy or inadequate or incapable or the worst author ever, or too lazy.... write.
Write and write.
Your novel wants you to finish.
You want to finish. Despite all the horrors and fears churning in your soul.
If both of you want it, it will be beautiful. And ugly, and natural and all your own.
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