My Best Advice for Sticking with Nanowrimo (or Any Fierce Drafting Project!)
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Happy November, and Happy NaNoWriMo to all my crazy scribblers!!
I'm not doing NaNoWriMo this year, but I am doing my own version of a writing marathon. I'm taking aim at my long-suffering work-in-progress, and I'm going to marathon through to see how far I can get with it in November.
... Because if you're going to try and work at an astonishing pace, November is the time to do it! ;)
Before we get into today's post, I have a little housekeeping announcement for you lionhearts.
First off: thank you SO much for being kind and patient with me as I took October off to replenish. Oh my gosh. It was the BEST possible thing I could have done. I'm feeling so much better!
Secondly: I've been looking at my writing goals and my writing pace over the last year. 2016 has been a tough year for my work-in-progress. October's break from blog production helped out my novel so much that I've decided to make a change to the blogging schedule.
Starting this month,
I'm going to post just two articles a month.
And we'll just see how that goes for a while.
Why two articles? Well, for one, I can never manage to write short posts. You probably noticed, haha!
I've tried—really I have!—but I'm always wanting to cram them full of all the info and supporting detail that I can muster. ... I always figure that if a topic is resonating for someone, I wanna make sure they get everything valuable that I can give them on that topic.
But, I get it: that can be overwhelming to keep up with, both as a reader and a writer!
In the past year and a half (has it been that long?!) I've written about so many of the writing topics that are close to my heart. I have been able to say a lot of what I most wanted to say about writing. (Have you been able to check out the Archives yet? They're bursting!)
So a more gentle pace with blogging seems the way to go, at least for now. Expect to see me here on the first and third Thursday of every month!
Sound okay? Any questions? Just let me know in the comments. (Also, if there's something about the writing life that I haven't really tackled yet, or if there's something you'd love to hear more about, please do let me know!)
And thanks so much, as always, for being the awesome bunch of lionhearts that you are. You encourage me so much, and I'm so privileged to be writing alongside you!
Speaking of writing...
Let's talk about mega-fast drafting, marathon writing, and NaNoWriMo.
Whenever I charge into some speedy drafting goals—like NaNoWriMo, or my self-designed drafting marathons—I always start by getting really clear on my purpose.
NaNoWriMo is such a huge event: it's become one of those rites of passage for writers today. Something to aim for, something to try at least once.
Which is great! But before you get swept too far along, you need to grab a little bit of time to check in with why you are doing it.
What's the point?
If you are doing this crazy cliff-dive of a writing exercise, what's the goal? What are you aiming for?
Here. I'll let you think for a sec. ...
.
.
.
The reason why I love NaNoWriMo, why I love drafting marathons, is because of the core goal.
The goal is what shapes the whole experience; the goal is what makes it.
Because the goal of NaNoWriMo isn't perfect writing.
Heck, the goal isn't even GOOD writing.
The goal is: Mass ink.
Word-shaped blotches and sentence-like creations and LOTS of 'em.
For a recovering perfectionist, overachiever, and overthinker, this kind of drafting marathon feels like the craziest kind of indulgence. Abandon expectations. Abandon most-to-all standards. In a race like this, they'll just hold you back.
NaNoWriMo is about momentum and velocity, and it feels more than a little dangerous at times.
It's risky in the same way that running down a steep hill is risky, and I do it for the same reasons—
To see if maybe I start flying.
Or if at least I'll feel like I'm flying.
Only instead of wings, we're sprouting a glider made out of words and pages, and seeing if maybe, just maybe, our feet lift off the ground for a while.
When you're moving this fast through storyland, after all, it has a way of seizing you.
You start living half-in and half-out of two realities: There's your day-to-day "real" life concerns (food and errands and whoa, actual humans)—
And there's the world of your story, your characters pressing in around you, holding onto your sleeve, putting their hands in your pockets, telling you secrets.
We do NaNoWriMo because, when we drop the bar of our expectations, and when we run in the biggest writerly wolfpack ever, something happens.
We literally achieve liftoff.
Even if you don't "finish" NaNoWriMo, even if you don't "win," you still get the experience of making a run for it.
Barreling across the plains of story, galloping faster than maybe you ever have before.
Do it for the rush, for the thrill, for the crazy swooping sensation in your stomach as your story grabs your hands and waltzes you across whole continents.
Let your NaNoWriMo goal be: that rush.
Chuck perfection and standards; burn your outline if it gets in your way; and do whatever you can to get close to the heart of your story.
Don't worry, quite so much, about words per day. Filling out that word count graph can feel like the main goal, but I promise it's not the main thing to worry about.
So instead of asking, "How can I crank out even more words," try asking: What can I add to this scene that would thrill me?
Because the best way to write a ton of words is to answer that question. That's when your word counts will start shocking you.
Ask some follow-ups:
How can I love writing about this character more? What quirks, traits, inner darkness, or outer hope can I layer into them that would keep me engaged while I write?
What curve to the conflict would pull me to the edge of my seat? How can I weird up the story a bit? How can I add all my favorite story traits to it? What would keep me entertained?
What settings would I just love to pepper my story with? What do I want to explore with words?
Start answering those questions in your draft, and you'll find that the words and the masses of ink take care of themselves.
For the record, this is my best advice for NaNoWriMo, or for finishing any draft well. This is what has always worked the best for me.
When you're worrying about quality, remind yourself that your real goal is just: tons of words on pages.
And if you find yourself worrying about how to write tons of words, throw that goal out the window, and just ask: What gets me excited, really excited, in a story?
And start sprinkling—no, dumping—that into your draft. You'll feel the difference immediately.
You just might start flying.
I'll check back in with you in two weeks with a big inspiration post, which I'm super excited about!
But til then, if you're looking for more NaNoWriMo cheerleading, check out this post on diving in, this post on the main NaNoWriMo fear (and why it's not true), and this undervalued—but super useful!—writing strategy.
Finally, here are 50 plot twist ideas... one of them is sure to bail you out of your next plot conundrum!
Best of luck—and happy flying!!
