There’s
plenty that’s already been written about the business of writing a 50,000 word
novel in the thirty days of November – an annual act of insanity for the last
ten years known as ‘National Novel Writing Month’, or just NaNoWriMo (the
pedant in me – and it’s a considerable percentage of my personality, sadly –
really wishes that could be changed to ‘International
Novel Writing Month’ or even just ‘Novel Writing Month’; do we have to point
out to America yet again that there are other countries in the world?). If you’ve previously completed or attempted
this feat, or gone no further even than just registering at www.nanowrimo.org,
you will no doubt have received plenty of emailed advice and be fully familiar
with such constructs as ‘the Inner Editor’, that pesky critic inside you that
deplores every last word you’ve written and stops you from getting any more
than a few pages into any novel-length writing attempt. The Inner Editor is bad and must be
silenced. If, on the other hand, you’re
completely new to the process, have a nose around on the website for this
advice: it’s definitely worth reading.
What leads
me to think I have any sort of right to add to this accumulated wisdom? Only that I’ve produced a novel out of NaNoWriMo
six times now. In 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009
and 2011 I completed my 50,000 words with a few extra to spare by 30 November,
whilst last year I fell 10,000 words short but had the book finished by
January. Without a doubt, NaNoWriMo has
become part of my Autumn routine now and not
doing it would feel like not doing Christmas in December. I adore NaNoWriMo.
Over the
years, I’ve come to certain conclusions about what things seem to work for me
personally during November. They might
not work for you. Here, in no particular
order, are a few of them.
Write using a pseudonym
Writing
anonymously is a liberating experience.
A significant part of the inner editor’s sting is that nagging thought,
“What will people who know me think about me writing this?” Adopting a pseudonym isn’t cart blanche to go into unnecessary
graphic detail on that sex scene you’ve always secretly wanted to write – and
it certainly shouldn’t be viewed as absolving you of all social responsibility
for your text – but it might just be the thing that enables you to write
something punchy and powerful rather than something safe and bland. Be bold.
Be outrageous, if necessary.
Don’t let worrying about how others see you paralyse your creativity.
Occasionally talk about your novel to
someone
Actively
talking about your plot to someone will bring it to life in a way that’s much
harder to achieve if it remains only in your head. Find a friend and throw the topic into
conversation over a beer or a coffee.
You’ll be amazed at the new ideas that come to you from simply speaking
aloud your ideas. What’s more, your
friend doesn’t have to say a single word in reply; even if their eyes glaze
over in boredom, even if they slip into a coma right in front of you, you’ll
still find the act of talking it through helpful. If you’re writing anonymously, incidentally,
the friend doesn’t necessarily need to know that you’re actually writing this
story; you could introduce the plot as a hypothetical tale or perhaps the
premise of something you read by someone else.
Connect to a NaNoWriMo community (but
not too frequently)
Writing a
novel is ultimately a solitary experience, even if you’re surrounded by people;
if friends and family aren’t constantly having to repeat what they just said to
you because your head’s immersed in the issue of what sort of one-liner your
protagonist might use after beating up a bad guy then, quite frankly, you’re
not doing it right. That said, knowing
that others are going through the same sort of authorial highs and lows as you
are can be immensely helpful to your mental wellbeing. Connecting to a group – as I do in Second
Life® – should prevent you from sliding too far into the solipsistic delusion
that your novel is the only reality and you and others around you are actually
fictional characters. Talking with other
novellers, however, should be done only in small measures. Spend too much time around them and you’ll
start getting distracted by such non-important detail as how in God’s name
they’ve managed that high a word count in so short a time.
Give yourself permission to write
without knowing where your plot is going
The
likelihood is you’re one of the millions upon millions of people who, as a
child, were taught that stories have to be planned out in advance before you
actually start writing them. They do
not. Not only do they not, but plenty of
bestselling novels have been written by writers who readily admit to pretty
much making things up as they go along.
There’s nothing wrong in having an idea in your head on how things are
going to turn out in advance of day one, but if you find that the text starts
taking you in a new direction, just go with it.
In all my NaNoWriMos, I very rarely have any sort of a plan in mind
before I start writing and only once have I had to delete a whole chunk of text
because I decided this wasn’t the book I wanted to write (last year, as it
happens; also one of the main reasons I was 10,000 words short by the end of
the month). Remember: you can always
edit once the month is up.
Track your progress using a
spreadsheet
Time might
be money during the other eleven months of the year, but for the thirty days of
a novelling November, wasted minutes equals not generated word count. An inevitable consequence of this
quantitative contest is the maths required each day in order to know whether or
not you’re on target for the big 50k.
If, like me, word count is something you check up on on a
paragraph-by-paragraph basis, that adds up to a lot of time spent doing
calculations which could be better spent doing writing or thinking about
writing or any number of task-avoidance activities you’ve talked yourself into
believing are in some way ‘for the good of the novel’. Save that time by using a NaNoWriMo
spreadsheet. I constructed one myself
several years ago (a task-avoidance activity that was for the good of my novel)
and you can download it from
http://huckleberryhax.blogspot.co.uk/2009/10/free-nanowrimo-progess-spreadsheet.html. Enter your word count into the current day’s
cell and the spreadsheet will not only tell you how many words you’ve written
that day, but also whether you’re in credit or debit for the overall project. It will even draw you a pretty graph. A hunt around the web will find you other,
similar tools, but just think what better procrastination purposes you could
put that time to.
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