What I learned from NaNoWriMo

If you're planning on jumping into NaNoWriMo this year, here is what I learned last year (Originally posted to Mary's Ramble Nov. 30, 2009):


Whew! I made it! I wrote 50,000 words in one month, actually less than that, considering I started a week late, I finished a day early (25 hours, to be exact) and there were a handful of days scattered through the month that I didn't write at all. In total, I wrote 17 days this month. 

I signed up for NaNoWriMo once before, and tried it unofficially another time, and I didn't finish either time. I didn't even come close. Finishing, and finishing early on top of it, felt really, really good!

Here are a few things I learned over the last month (in no particular order)

• It's good to have a plan. 
• I'm usually a pantser (someone who discovers the story as she writes, rather than plotting first), but this time I started out with what I called a Fuzzy Synopsis (as opposed to the legendary Dreaded Synopsis) - it was just a vague plan of my story arc and the points I wanted to hit. I kept the file open a lot and it became a place to throw things I saw coming down the road, but that I hadn't gotten to yet.
• I also used a calendar. For years, my writers group's "Goals Guru" *lizzie has encouraged us to use a desk calendar to track our writing progress through the year. I've never been good with the paper calendars and usually track it in my Google Calendar instead. NaNoWriMo turned out to be an exception, thanks to a lucky purchase. Months ago, I bought a $1 calendar mouse pad at the craft store. It was a horrible failure as a mouse pad, but it's the perfect size to keep on a little stand between my keyboard and the shelf my laptop sits on. On it, I tracked each day's goals and progress. 

• I needed a better plan for laundry. I washed the clothes, but very few of them got put away. I've been wearing wrinkled clothes from a basket for three weeks. Hopefully by next November, LilGirl will be well-trained in putting away her own clothes. I won't hold out the same hope for Hubby - that's a battle I gave up on years ago. But we will have a better system in place by then. We won't even talk about the rest of the housework.
• It's good to reward yourself. Some nights it was tough to make my word count. On Monday nights I bribed myself to get done early so I could watch Big Bang Theory. Other nights, I told myself that as soon as I was done I could watch the new episode of The Guild. Once or twice, the bribe was a shower. I tried to keep the bribes non-food-based, but I have to admit there were nights the bribe was a piece of dark chocolate.
• It's good to reward your family, too. The last couple days of writing were tough on LilGirl. Her reward for letting me finish was getting out the Christmas dollhouse we haven't taken out of the box since we moved into this house four years ago.
• Sometimes you have to be your own Jillian Michaels. Sunday, the final day, was the hardest. I knew I had to do 8000 words in two days, which is more than I've ever done in that amount of time. A strong feeling of being overwhelmed started to come over me, but I knew I would kick myself forever if I came so close to finishing and didn't make it. So I broke out the sticky notes and the Sharpie and wrote myself a note that said "Four sets of 2000 words and you're done!" 2000 words is less than I had been doing each night. It was do-able. I promised myself a break between each set and got to work on the first one. It worked. Even though I had another day to finish, once three sets were done and it was only 6:00 pm, I knew I'd finish on Sunday. The last 2000 words were the hardest. My brain was full of all sorts of other things I could be doing, like reorganizing my bookmarks or cleaning my keyboard. I wrote another note, "2000 words to go! WooHoo!" and stuck it to the calendar, then dove in. A couple hours later, I was done. (You can see the sticky notes stuck to the calendar in the picture above)
• The rumors that you don't shower much during NaNo is totally true. Sorry to those of you who had to put up with my stinkiness.

The biggest thing I learned:

• I can do this! After struggling along with another story for literally years, it was good to set that one aside and come out with a whole new story in under a month. Yes, it needs a lot of editing (boy, does it ever!) but it's light years ahead of the other story for the amount of time I've spent on it. This has extinguished one doubt among many about my future writing career - that I can work to deadline without having to spend years on a single story. I've given myself a deadline for editing and submitting my NaNo story, then I hope I'll be able to return to the other story with renewed vigor and finish it. By next November, I should be ready to jump into another fresh story and do it all over again.

25,000 words???

Congratulations to Mary D--the first Minanoan to report making her 25,000 word goal! Mary's also doing NaNoWriMo...so keep cheering her on!

Minano--getting ready part one

Whenever facing an extended writing challenge--like NaNoWriMo or our own Minano--good preparation is essential. Here's a few thoughts to get you started.

**Make a daily goal. There's thirty days in November (If I remember the rhyme correctly). However, for numerous reasons, it's difficult for many of us to write every day. So take a good, honest look at the calendar. There are plenty of activites you might be able to put off, but some events demand that portion of your time. If you're cooking Thanksgiving dinner for family, you may not be able to squeeze in words to make your daily goal. So plan around those days.

Now, go to your calendar and X out days you know you won't write. It doesnt' matter the reason. Then count up the days left for writing. Take your goal (for Minano it's 25,000 words) and divide it by the number of available days.

For instance--if you plan on writing 20 days, to reach the goal youll need to write 1,250 words per day. The satisfaction of continually meeting a daily goal will propel you forward, even after the challenge is done!

**Take a hint from Scouting and Be Prepared. NaNoWriMo encourages participants to work on a totally new novel. For Minano, we're simply going for word count--it doesn't matter if your words are on a new project or you're continuing your current work in progress. Either way do all of your normal pre-writing before November one. Know your characters and their inciting incidents. Plotter? Get your charts or notecards filled out. Write by the seat of your pants? There's always some pre-thinking that happens before you start a story--even if you only name your characters or title your story.

The point is--when November one rolls around, all you need to do is sit at the computer and begin.

**Is that all there is to it? Oh, of course not. Come back in a few days for more thoughts on surviving an extended writing challenge. And by all means, if you have tried and true suggestions or survival techniques (like the best chocolate to keep by the computer) please share them here!

Minano

Some Heartlandian authors have signed up for Nanowrimo--Thirty days of writing and literary abandon

And some Heartlandians realize that while a writing challenge with a significant word count goal is important, 50,000 words in 30 days is a bit much. To meet that need we've created our own MINANO or mini-NaNo. Each person accepts the challenge to write novella sized--to the tune of 25,000 words in 30 days.

Come back often to check how the Heartlandians are doing... or join us if you dare!