This month, I've been taking a little bit of a break so I can wind down from NaNoWriMo. To be honest, most of this break has really been me working on some other projects that I haven't been able to get around to, so there's not too much rest involved there. But now that things have had time to cool down, I'll wrap things up with a retrospective look at Nano.
There were upswings and downswings and all kinds of emotions going on this November. The month wasn't without its challenges and obstacles. I lost momentum, and struggled with doubts, on and off. Several times, I wound up with a daily wordcount of 0. I had a day when I wasted time watching sitcoms and didn't write a single word. But this year's NaNoWriMo has taught me a lot. It wasn't without its writerly woes, but it's helped me to grow as a writer and to meet other writers.
The Journey. Well, the first morning I wrote 13 scenes right out of the gate and amassed about 6,000 words, getting off to a good start. My second day was a bit slower but my energy and creativity had a helpful little spike on day 3.
By day 5, I was 3k ahead of my projected twenty thousand words. I was still riding that first awesome wave and I was really excited about how things were going. This was an incredible stage of discovery for me. I'd killed off a character and added depth to the main character's love interest. I could feel Creative Liftoff brushing against my fingertips.
At the end of the first week, I was falling behind. I had big plans to catch up and get ahead the coming weekend. Even though I had a busy schedule, I was determined to fight my way back into the green.
Then week two began. On day 8, I made it past my doubt. I had an epiphany and wrote over five thousand words that day. Things took a turn for the better again as I looked forward to developing my characters, world, and plotlines.
November 9th was a 6,716-word day. Mainly it was because I'd been sprinting online with other Wrimos. Not only did it help me boost my numbers quickly, but it was a lot of fun. Seeing little snippets of what other people were writing also gave me a couple of good ideas.
On day 10, I ran into some trouble. I couldn't see myself reaching my goal of 150k for the month, and I was wondering why I'd ever even taken on the challenge. I'd run out of steam and I was having so much trouble moving my wordcount forward. Due to the loss in momentum, I struggled to come up with anything new to write.
Though my characters were great and were already revealing themselves to me, I'd somehow lost contact with them. I was stuck writing whatever stupid material would fill the blank page. I was really lost and I just needed someone to encourage me and tell me that I could keep going. Thankfully the Wrimo community is super supportive.
It wasn't easy to battle my way through day 11, either. I was creatively drained, 10k behind, and completely overwhelmed. Doubt was really settling in now. On day 16, I wrote a scene that I have very mixed feelings about. You can read it here. I think once you'll take a look, you'll know what I'm talking about.
The next rough patch was quickly smoothed over with a bout of freewriting. I'd had a lull in my inspiration and hadn't been able to pound out too many words in this particular writing session. So I decided to just freewrite.
On a side note, the freewriting post quickly became the most popular on my blog. It's over three times more read and shared than the second most popular post. I just wrote some nonsense about inner dialogue, plot bunnies, and stream of consciousness. That's not to say that freewriting doesn't free up your mind and get your creative juices flowing. It definitely does. I just don't know why the topic was so much more interesting to people. I'd love to know what was so different about this post that made everyone come back to it so I can do it again!
Most of my wordcount came from the freewriting itself, since I wrote 2.3k in those 45 minutes. There was a lot of word vomit, because my mind was wandering all over the place. But the exercise led me to list all of the major problems I was having with the plot, the research questions that I needed answers to, and the loose ends that I needed to tie up or eliminated.
I wrote no words on the day that I began the research I'd been putting off because I was mainly concerned with upping my wordcount during most of the month. A good portion of my day was spent searching for those answers, using the list that I'd freewritten several days before.
The major obstacle to show up last month was the computer issue. If you've been reading my blog from the beginning, then you know that my laptop stopped working just before Nano began, forcing me to move on to Plan B. So I untangled the mass of cords coming out of my 2001 Windows XP and hooked everything up and ran whatever programs I had to to make sure things would run as smoothly as possible. Things were going surprisingly well on this "dinosaur" computer, as long as I made sure to run the care programs one every day or two. I was working on Scrivener (which automatically backs up your work) on a flash drive, so I knew that I wasn't going to lose all of my progress. At the end of week three Dinosaur decided that it didn't want to behave anymore. Luckily, I got my laptop back a couple of days after that and, after I updated all of my files and ran the system care programs, the show was back on the road.
I also got sick last month. It wasn't end-of-the-world-zombie-apocalypse sick, though my throat got so sore that it hurt to swallow and my head ached so badly that I got dizzy when I tried to walk around. It wasn't a major health issue or anything, but it did make it hard for me to get any work done. Because of the dizziness, I spent the good part of the day sitting in one spot and watching Netflix.
I've obviously had quite the adventure this month. It's been a roller coaster. Week one began with me being ahead and confident, but it ended with me falling behind. At the beginning of week two, I'd passed up my doubts and I was back in business. Until a third of the way through, when I lost my nerve, my momentum, and my inspiration. Things spiked back up around the two-thirds mark, only to come plummeting down toward the end of the final week. You can read posts from the last and second to last days if you're interested. The entire story crumbled on me. Unfortunately, my story fell apart at the end of the month. I'm not upset anymore, because I can see that a lot of good came from this draft. However, I'm still mourning the loss of Flying Change.
So the bad days consisted of a dead laptop, a slow desktop, missed wordcount goals, lost momentum, wasted time, and failed premises. The good days were more abundant, though, and there was a lot more good this month than bad. I proved to myself first day in that I can blow my own expectations out of the water. I learned a lot about character development. I discovered that small revisions (going in and filling in the meat on the bones) can help to boost my wordcount by a lot. I found other writers online who I'd love to keep talking to after NaNoWriMo; I found blogs that I know I'll keep reading. I wrote more that I've ever written in a month, proving to myself that I'm getting closer to that elusive 150k. My speed picked up part of the way through the month, allowing me to write more each day than I've ever done before. I had an amazing comeback day and wrote my highest daily wordcount of November (and probably ever). And, finally, this blog has taught me a lot about accountability and consistency and has allowed me to document and share my experience in a way that I've never done before.
I'm sure that a lot of you have had more interesting experiences, though, and I'd be happy to hear about them if you want to share.
The Lessons. I learned quite a bit about writing in November. Even though it's nothing profound, I thought that I could share a few lessons. I'm not being pretentious or anything, but I think that writers who haven't had my specific experiences could benefit from hearing about them.
I've learned about how helpful sprints can really be. They force you to block out any potential distractions over a set amount of time. I sprinted some of the time on Twitter and some of the time by myself. What I found works best for me is to attempt #1k30min every time. I usually fall just a little short, though I did come up with over 2k once or twice.
I've learned that sometimes you have to think small. I had a day last month when I was just overwhelmed with what I was writing and I had no idea how to move forward. Unable to write that night, I asked other writers for their advice. And +Rosie Reast replied with this comment here, which I'd like to pass on to all of you.
Other times when you're stuck, it helps to write the little things. If your character has just returned to his village after battling the dragon and you don't know where to move the story, think small. Have this hero go back to doing his laundry, or have his mother cook him breakfast and drill him for details of his adventure, or have him play with the cat or the dog. These little scenes can help to move things along again and break up the intense action, giving readers time to relax before the next big battle.
Finally, save small ideas. I like to write my ideas down wherever I can. If I see a sweet foreign couple who just inspire characters based on themselves, I'll make a note on the back of a receipt or text the idea to myself.
I've learned something about time management. Yeah, I'm not the best person to ask for time management advice, but I somehow become better at it during Nano. So I have a couple of tips based on my own experience this November: write in chunks and know when to pull yourself away. This way, you'll get plenty of relaxation time while also getting in plenty of work on your novel. If you don't give yourself a break now and again, how can you be expected to be productive?
I've learned about some good resources this Nano, in addition to the resources I'd already been using. The biggest ones for me have been @NaNoWordSprints on Twitter and Scrivener, the latter of which I've been using for about a year now. Twitter, on the other hand, isn't something I've done much of before. So I discovered the sprints account recently and was hooked. Plus, when there's no sprint leader around, Wrimos like to form their own groups and write together via the hashtag #NaNoWordSprints.
I've also learned that writing my story out of order with no previous planning isn't something that works too well for me. I created characters that I loved, but very few plot-driven scenes.
The Plan. So, what do I plan to do now that NaNoWriMo is over? Well, my storyline didn't work and Flying Change fell apart on me, so I'll be taking a break from it. When I do get back to it, I'll be redistributing its parts. I've created a "rollover" file in Scrivener so that I can manage what I want to keep. Right now I have a few story ideas tucked away in these folders, as well as my main characters, who I hope will turn up somewhere else in the future.
I'll still keep my revision promise; I'll just be revisiting last year's Nano project instead of using the one from last month. This novel will need some Beta readers, so I'll be going about looking for interested writers while dealing with my own large list of things I have to read for people.
The Challenge. I dare you to freewrite. Take fifteen minutes and just write whatever comes to mind. After you've done that, review what you've just written. Is there anything of value? Anything that sparks another story idea or solves a problem in your current work in progress? I hope you find it useful. Freewriting is always useful to me.
I'll also challenge you, if you're interested and if you have work of your own that requires revision, to join us in our pledge to have our novels revised by January 31st 2015. You can add yourself to my Twitter list here.
The End. Even though things didn't go like I'd expected or wanted this November, I'm actually really happy with how things turned out. I learned things that helped me to make it through the month. Sprinting improved my wordcount, "thinking small" helped to move me out of writers' block and increase my progress, managing my time kept my month (slightly) balanced, and the programs and websites that I've used this month were all very helpful to my process. A personal lesson came when I realized that I'd been writing plot bunnies; I discovered that planning probably works better for me.
I'd like to pay all of these lessons forward to anyone who hasn't experienced the same ones that I have. Let me know if any of my advice was helpful to you. Novel or no novel, NaNoWriMo has once again helped me to grow as a writer. I really hope that my advice can help all of you in some way too.
Should I create a resources page for the other resources that I've used? There are a few good sites that I know of and will share if anyone's interested.
Tell me what you've learned this November. It can be something about you or your novel, or something a bit more general. And if you have any great tips or resources, feel free to share them!
--Britni M
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