If you read my post for October, #7 – Looking Forward to NaNoWriMo, you will know that I signed up for NaNoWriMo, the annual writer’s 30-day challenge that runs from 1st to 30th November.
I can tell you now that I made the target. I wrote 50,000 words in 30 days. 50,435 to be exact. And it feels great. Every evening, no matter how late, I looked forward to signing in to my NaNo account and updating the daily word count. It was a great thrill to see the little bar chart growing higher and the figures rising in the statistics panel.
I can honestly say that, overall, I enjoyed it. Sure, there were days when I didn’t feel like sitting down and producing 1,667 words. Some days I was just too tired, having put in a full days’ work, and surrendered two hours to motorway traffic. Other days, I didn’t have the time I needed for the required word count and felt under such pressure to squeeze the target into a shorter period of time, that the stress of it threatened to stifle any creativity. And of course, there were occasions when my carefully planned storyline seemed to lose its way, and I convinced myself that several days of re-plotting were needed before I could possibly write another scene!
As crazy and simple as it may sound, it was the pleasure of meeting the targets that motivated me most, way more than knowing I’d have a substantial chunk of a new novel completed, albeit a first draft. There was also great satisfaction from proving I could write something every day. Some days it was only a few hundred words, but most days, it was around the 1700 mark. On nine occasions, I pushed over the 2,000 mark to cover a deficit from the handful of slower days.
What it really showed me is that, if I make writing a priority, a genuine priority, then there is enough time, and regardless of fatigue and plot issues, it is usually possible to add something new to a piece of work every day. There is always a way. On one occasion I wrote 1200 words with pen and paper, in a hospital cafe, while waiting for a relative. Several times, I used my time in traffic jams to record a few hundred words on my phone’s voice recorder. Lunchtimes over coffee and a sandwich also produced a few hundred words typed into Google Docs on my phone.
There is plenty of help along the way too. NaNoWriMo provides pep talks from guest writers, and Twitter is a great place for motivation and banter, from other NaNo participants.
I’m already planning for next year. My advance plotting and scene planning helped a lot this time, but I had only prepared enough for the first half of the story, thinking I’d have time during the month to add to it. Next year I intend to start the planning on 1st September.
I think mini NaNo’s would also be a useful way of getting work done. Maybe committing to writing 2,000 words per day for seven days, sacrificing anything that gets in the way, including all pastimes and social gatherings where necessary. The momentum gained from writing on consecutive days is cumulative. Writing every day for seven days seems to produce considerably more than writing every third day over a longer period.
Happy Writing,
Harry
Useful Links
#7 – Looking Forward to NaNoWriMo
NaNoWriMo Website
Camp NaNoWriMo
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