Hints for Anyone Going in for NaNoWriMo

Tomorrow sees the start of NaNoWriMo - National Novel Writing Month.  The idea is to write a 50,000 word novel from scratch over the course of the next 30 days - that's 1666 words per day.  The aim is for quantity rather than quality. 

I think it's a good idea - if the pressure doesn't make you feel stressed, or a failure if you miss the targets.  Try to keep it as a fun thing, and not another chore.  

Here are my tips for keeping on writing:

1. Start with at least 3 major plot turns.  I did a class last week where everybody got 3 at random and had to outline a novel length plot.  Examples of the plot points were Someone reveals something, someone discovers something and someone succeeds at something.  Whatever it is, it has to mean a major change for the characters.  

2.  Use names well.  Jane is not as good as Mary Jane, which in turn isn't as good as Miss Mary Jane. Remember you're going for word count targets.  Ditto place names.  Kingston on Thames, anyone?

3. Don't waste any time looking up words in a dictionary or thesaurus.  The same goes for metaphors and similes.  Oh, and cliches are fine.  Use the first thing that comes into your head - it's about quantity, not quality.  

4. Description of what people are wearing can add a couple of hundred words easily.  Also describe locations in loving detail.

5.  Plot ninja is a new term for me, but it covers an event that acts like the literary equivalent of a ninja leaping out of a cupboard - the story spins into a new direction.  Get a store of plot ninjas before you start and write them out on cards.  Then, when you get stuck, pick one at random.  Examples might include: an unexpected letter turns up, the phone rings with an unwelcome message, someone turns up at the door, the electricity fails, the car breaks down.  When in doubt, introduce a new character (and a whole new set of clothes/personal habits/quirks to write about).

6.  Remember that dialogue can be as aimless as it often is in real life.  Long rambling conversations that go no where are just fine for NaNoWriMo.  

The overall idea is to release you from your inner editor and critic and just get writing.  At the end of the month you may have 50,000 words of tripe, but there will be some nuggets there - there may even be a story.  Use the month for having fun and giving it a go and seeing what happens.  And remember, whatever you write can always be re-written later on. 

Hooray for all NaNoWriMo-ers

November is over and with it the end of NaNoWriMo - National Novel Writing Month. Some people will have written 50,000 words and got their certificate. To them I offer sincere and heartfelt congratulations for having the determination and discipline to see it through.

I was talking to an enthusiastic NaNo-er and they found the deadlines an encouragement. They wrote shedloads and had finished their 50,000 words about five days ahead of schedule. Good for them - it's a huge achievement.

Others won't have made it. To them I offer sympathy. When I tried NaNo last year it completely did for me. The deadlines were a stress too far. I felt guilty in parts I didn't know I could feel guilty about. I stopped writing.

Different strokes for different folks, horses for courses. But, word counts aside, we can learn a lot about our writing process from the experience. My speedy NaNo-er discovered that there was more time available for writing than she'd previously thought. I discovered I don't like additional deadline pressure. I also don't like being told what to do and always want to do the opposite. (I actually knew that before, so I should have known NaNo wouldn't work for me.) I know several Nano-ers this year who started writing in genres and styles they didn't usually write in.

Whatever your results, whether you made the word target or dropped out early, you can learn from the experience. Hooray for all those who tried, and good luck with your novels.

NaNoWriMo Starts Today! (For some...)

Today is the first of November, which has been designated National Novel Writing Month.  For those of you who aren't aware of it, the aim is to write a 50,000 word novel over the next 30 days.  

It's good for those who need deadlines and like working to targets.

It's bad for those who have quite enough guilt trips in their life and don't need another one.

It's good if you need encouragement to break free of the perfectionist streak - the NaNoWriMo novel is one where the style and content is irrelevant, because only achieving the word count matters.

It's bad if you feel a failure because your personal writing process doesn't fit with churning words out.  

It's good if it means your family/friends/work colleagues will give you more space to write because you can label what you're doing. 

It's bad if you can only write under pressure - the ideal is to develop a regular writing routine which will enable you to continue after November.  Bit like crash dieting v sensible eating and regular exercise.  

It's good if you have an idea buzzing around your head that you want to get down on the page as quickly as possible.

It's bad if it distracts you from your current work in progress (new ideas are invariably more attractive).

So, NaNoWriMo might be great for you, or bad.  Either way, watching this video will bring a smile to your face...

November and NaNoWriMo Coming Up

For those of you who don't know, November is National Novel Writing Month - or NaNoWriMo. The aim is to over the course of the month to produce 50,000 words, an average of 1,667 words every day. Since it first started it's grown every year and is now a world-wide extravaganza of writing.

Not good writing, mind you, just writing. NaNoWriMo is not about quality, it's solely about the word count. You get a certificate if you reach the target, and that's about it.

So why do it?

One of the great things about writing is that it's a process. You start with some raw material and you then hone and polish them into something worth reading. Everybody has to do some editing; you're one in a million (a billion?) if you produce something worth publishing on the first draft. But you need the raw material to start off with. NaNoWriMo could be the spur that gets you producing the words, and there's certainly lots of support from other NaNoWriMo writers, both on the forums and in local groups.

I tried it last year. To be honest, I thought it would be a bit of a doddle because I'm quite good at regularly producing a couple of thousand words per day. I thought it would spur me on to produce those couple of thousand every day, instead of perhaps 4 days out of 7. I loved the idea of having 50,000 words to play with at the end of the month - what a Christmas present to myself!

What happened was it became yet another thing to feel guilty about, another tool to beat myself up with. I found I was producing less and less. 'YOU MUST WRITE' pulsed in my head until it throbbed and the last thing I felt like doing was turning on my laptop. December came as a huge relief.

I'm now a bit wary of the whole shebang. It suits some personalities, but not others. I suspect that those people who love it are the sort who find it quite easy to churn out thousands of words anyway. They can revel in the luxury of a copious output and know they will be envied. Those of us who love the editing, rather than the first draft bit, just get depressed because NaNoWriMo isn't about our sort of skillset. Tortoise or hare, horses for courses - enjoy, or avoid, it's up to you.

The Lure of NaNoWriMo

November approaches, and I need to start on the next novel. I know who the main characters are, where it's going, the overall theme and things like that, but I haven't started on the writing. I'm toying with the idea of joining NaNoWriMo as the idea of having written 50,000 words by the end of November is wonderful. Of course, it means I will have to actually do the writing which is a less wonderful prospect given November is shaping up to be a busy month, culminating in the launch of A Single to Rome on the 26th. Will it just mean yet another layer of guilt to add to the stress of writing a novel a year? But on the other hand, I do like a deadline...Decisions, decisions.