It’s that time of year again — the annual event for writers where they attempt to complete a 50,000-word manuscript in 30 days: Nanowrimo! Nanowrimo stands for National Novel Writing Month. Created by Chris Baty, he recognized that a great number of people dream of writing a book but struggle to fulfill that goal.
200 million people want to write, but how many need that push to get started? This is why Nanowrimo is a thing. But…it’s not for everyone. Should you try it? Should you not?
We’ve decided to tap into the expertise of our Speculative Chic contributors — all awesome authors in their own right — to give you a collective pep talk if you want to participate in Nanowrimo this year! And if you’re not feeling this event, no worries — we’ve got your back there, too!
Kendra Merritt: This will be my twelfth year doing Nanowrimo. It’s a format that just works for me; barreling through a project, not stopping until it’s done. I know it doesn’t work for everyone, but I find that combination of panic and hope quite motivating. And over the years, I’ve collected lots of advice. Here are a couple things that have proven themselves over and over.
Let go of perfect. Nanowrimo isn’t about getting it perfect. It’s about getting it written. And before you think that makes it somehow not worth doing, or you think your manuscript is going to come out awful, just know that every first draft is its own kind of awful, whether you wrote it in thirty days or three hundred. I used to think that if I planned enough ahead of time, I would be able to pump out a perfect project. Not true. Yes, if I spend the time to plan, I have less restructuring and rewriting to do later, but it does not guarantee wonderful words. I still have slow days, bad days. Days where I have to fight for every word. But here’s the thing. After everything is over and done with and I go back to read what I’ve written, I can’t tell the difference between the good days of writing and the bad. It all evens out somewhere. I believe the phrase is “perfect is the enemy of done.” If you’re looking for perfect, you’ll never see done.
Always end the day with a good idea waiting. This one is a little more specific, but I’ve found it very helpful over the years. It feels great to end the day wrapping up a chapter or scene, without any idea what comes next. But it’s very hard to get started the next day. On the other hand, if you end the day with a pretty good idea of what happens next — or at least an inkling — then you’re excited about it. You’ll spend the time you’re waiting to write thinking about it, mulling it over, and getting all the kinks worked out. Then when you actually put hands to keyboard, the words will flow a lot better. And related to this…
Change up your writing medium. I do most of my writing in the morning in Scrivener. My motto (or excuse, depending on how you look at it) is: if I don’t get it done before noon, it doesn’t get done. So I’ll finish writing with a good idea waiting and then go about the rest of my day with it niggling in the back of my mind. In between chores or waiting in the car or at doctor’s appointments I’ll get some notes written down by hand. Something about writing with pen and paper wriggles more ideas free, and those notes tend to expand into actual dialogue, clever turns of phrase, and honest-to-goodness prose. Voila, now when I go to plug those notes into Scrivener the next day, I have a launch pad to start from. Makes things much easier.
Kristina Elyse Butke: My advice is going to come from a place of failure — I have never won a single Nanowrimo! After struggling through it multiple times, I’m not sure I want to participate again because I don’t like feeling like a loser and I don’t always thrive under pressure (however, everyone’s advice here is kind of inspiring me, so who knows?). Everyone’s writing style and method is different, and I used to beat myself up when I couldn’t write daily or make a regular habit of it as many professional, published authors advocate.
I just can’t write everyday. A lot of this has to do with my brain chemistry and how it affects my motivation and ability to focus; working with a regular, daily structure is often prescribed for my illness but so difficult for me to adhere to! When I struggled to complete my first novel at graduate school, my mentor Tim Waggoner gave me advice that was a breakthrough for my creative and mental health, which was essentially, “If it works for you, don’t fight your process.” I pass this on to you, fellow writers, as the most important thing to keep in mind as you work on your manuscript.
If you participate in Nanowrimo or not, just know that I want you to do your very best and I wish you success. I think preparation is very important in doing an event like Nanowrimo (or generally jumpstarting your book). Here are some quick links to tools that can help you out with prep!
Worksheets: I’m a big fan of E.A. Deverell and her free writing worksheets. She’s got over 150 of them and updates with new sheets every week. If you want to view her archive to access them all (it’s password-protected), you have to sign up for The Coterie, which is free and just requires your name and email. She has worksheets on plot, conflict, characterization, motivation, and of course, Nanowrimo!
Plotting: I struggle with plot so much! I can create characters very easily but have a hard time giving them something to do, so a book that helped simplify things for me is 20 Master Plots by Ronald Tobias, available from Writer’s Digest Books. It classifies different plots that recur through a wide variety of stories, from myth to fiction to film, and breaks them down simply. While I highly recommend the book, if you don’t have a lot of time to read it, then Tobias’s Master Plot Checklist is great for figuring out your plot (and in a way, the rules of story) in no time. You can get it for free here.
Worldbuilding: Thank goodness for the writers of Tumblr who directed me towards this awesome website: Notebook.ai. You can create a single world for free to start with (and there’s a lot to do in the free version, although the subscriptions provide a huge number of options), but basically if you ever wanted to get thick into world creation, down to the flora and fauna, Notebook.ai allows you to create a beautifully visual encyclopedia. You can create universes, countries, cities, characters (including family trees!), and so much more. You can add images to each section, too. This has been so much fun for me to play with, and I highly recommend it to keep your fictional worlds organized. Plus, it’s fun to have a Worldbuilding Bible!
I hope these tools help you out! Good luck!
Lane Robins: So, I write a lot and I write often. I have six published books to my name, one self-pub, and five drafted-not-yet-sold/revised.
I have never ever been successful at a Nanowrimo. Why? Four reasons.
Bad timing. My day job is in retail, which means November is when the job starts eating my life. And what it doesn’t eat, the holidays do. As well as the slew of family and friends’ birthdays. November is a hard time of year to do intense, focused writing. If you’re a retail worker, a student, or someone with a big and demanding family — November may not be for you.
Project mismatch. By November, the only project that I can fit in among the day job and holiday lead-up is a novel revision. Revision doesn’t map easily into Nanowrimo’s careful word counts. Sometimes the story idea you are most excited about doesn’t fit the Nano mold. Maybe it can’t be expressed in 50k; maybe it’s the type of story best not rushed through; maybe you get partway through and hate the project.
Motivation, or lack thereof. One of the best reasons to do Nano is to prove to yourself that you can write a book from beginning to end. It’s a great motivator, and I know a lot of people who found that Nano boosted their self-confidence and jumpstarted their writing career. But at this point, I know I can write books, so finishing a book during Nano doesn’t give me a boost; it’s just another task to get done in a too-busy month.
Maybe you don’t need that motivation, or maybe that level of motivation makes you unpleasantly anxious. If Nano doesn’t energize you, you don’t have to do it. If you face it with dread, be nice to yourself, and pick a different way to get your book written.
It’s just not me. Some people are night owls; some people are early birds. There are patterns that we all fall into, and writing is no exception. I write like crazy from February through May. That’s my drafting time. After that, I outline new projects for a couple months. The rest of the year is revising.
You might be more creative in the spring or in the deepest parts of winter. Or you might be a writer who accumulates words at a steady but slower pace. Nanowrimo might coincide with SAD hitting you; or conversely, this could be the season you love, and you’re out in the crisp autumn air and the idea of hunkering down over your computer is repugnant.
Nanowrimo is a lot of fun and inspiring for a lot of people. But it’s not for everyone, and that’s okay. Write at your own pace and cheer your friends on with a clear conscience.
Nancy O’Toole Meservier: There are few things I look forward to more than National Novel Writing Month. 2019 will be my ninth time participating. Not only have I managed to win every previous November, but I have published two novels that started out as NaNoWriMo Projects. Giving advice to would-be participants is a little tricky, as everyone’s process is different. Still, some pieces of advice are more universal.
Focus on the day-to-day, not the end game. I get overwhelmed easily, so I can understand why the idea of writing a novel in one month can seem impossible. But when you think about it on a smaller scale, that’s only 1667 words per day, which is much more manageable. If you find yourself getting overwhelmed by a giant task in front of you, then focus on the smaller tasks that will get you there.
Pick a time to write in advance. Nothing kills a project faster than procrastination. Combat this by finding a time to write and scheduling it on your calendar as you might do any appointment. It helps if it’s the same time every day (for me, it’s before I go to work in the morning), but as someone who’s been there, is perfectly possible to find time to write with a less consistent schedule. You just need to think as far ahead as you can.
Get ahead early. A month is an awfully long time. There’s a good chance that something will come up and steal away your writing time (if you’re an American, that might be Election Day or Thanksgiving). So, to prevent falling behind, find extra pockets of time to write early in the process. You’ll end up far less stressed this way.
Take part in the community. Part of what makes National Novel Writing Month so motivating is the fact that we’re all in this together. Seek out the wider community to help you through the tough times, and to cheer you on when things get good. I usually use the forums or Twitter for this.
Momentum is your friend. When I sit down to write each morning, I already know what I’m going to write, as I’ve done freewriting exercises (sometimes the night before) to help me plot things out. These notes allow me to tackle potential roadblocks in advance. You may prefer to fly solely by the seat of your pants, but that doesn’t change the fact that the key to getting 50,000 words in one month is momentum, which you won’t achieve if you’re constantly backtracking.
Find a way to keep that momentum going, whether it’s by prepping, or by coming to terms with the fact that your draft is going to have problems that will be fixed later (Note — even if you prep in advance, you’re still going to have to come to terms with this). Regardless, the focus should be on moving forward, or else getting those 50,000 words is going to be a lot harder than it needs to be.
So that’s my advice. To everyone tackling NaNoWriMo in 2019 (and beyond), write like the wind!
Nicole Taft: First off, I’m utter trash when it comes to completing anything during NaNoWriMo. I’ve tried in the past and always failed to the point that I no longer attempt it. I do my own thing on my own time and that works better for me. I have, however, had a few books that give me that extra boost when I needed it. The extra “oompf” when I’m starting to feel down about my writing or the number of rejections, or when I just need something good to get me going.
I discovered Chicken Soup for the Writer’s Soul purely by accident while at the tiny town library when I was 13. I’d been writing short stories and sending them off to magazines that seemed to fit the best à la my big fat copy of Writer’s Market. It’s filled with so many stories of success, rejection, fighting through the rough draft, the umpteeth revision, and more. Stories from Ray Bradbury, Sue Grafton, Clive Cussler, Terry McMillan, and dozens of other authors have pitched in their tales of writerdom that can help remind you of why you love this craft, how it can change lives, and to never give up. After I returned it to the library, I made a point to obtain a copy for myself. I still have that very same copy today.
When you work at a bookstore you pull a lot of books out of boxes to be put on the shelves, and that is precisely how I came across A Writer’s Space by Eric Maisel. It’s a small, square-shaped book all about making a writing space your own. From honoring your inner muse to personalize rituals, it’s got all the goodies about creating your very own little writer nest. A lot of us tend to stick with the old battle cry of “butt in chair, hands on keys,” while forgetting that oftentimes it’s so much more than that (personally I handwrite my manuscripts in college lined notebooks with a pencil). If you find yourself struggling to find that happy place, give this book a try and see if it doesn’t give you some insight into getting where you need to be.
Fun fact: It’s been many, many years since I’ve read either one of these, but now that NaNoWriMo is upon us, my own writing is struggling, and they’re both sitting on my shelves, perhaps now is a better time than any to read through them again myself.
Are you going to try Nanowrimo this year? There are plenty of reasons why you should try it and why you should pass…what are your thoughts? Feel free to share them in the comments.
Above all, we wish you all the best on your writing journey — however and wherever you choose to go.
“If it works for you, don’t fight your process.” Yeeess! It’s taken me twenty years of writing to realize I have to write it wrong before I can write it right. It’s the most frustrating thing when I feel like I should be past that in my career and keeping up with everyone else who pump out ten books a year. But I’m slowly starting to embrace it. It works for me. Eventually. Maybe that’s why I like Nanowrimo so much, it gets all the wrong out so I can finally get to the right.
There are twelve months in the year. I don’t understand why they have to pick the one that is the busiest one for family/holiday/leaf raking/pre-Xmas activities to distract from writing. At least they could’ve picked a 31-day month. Why not March? Who does anything in dreary, drab March? The only distraction there is St. Patrick’s Day.
[…] Are we really halfway through November?! If you’re doing Nano, how’s it coming along? If you’re gearing up for the holidays, what are your plans? […]