NaNoWriMo - What I Learned

National Novel Writing Month, aka NaNoWriMo, is over. Unfortunately I didn't hit the traditional 50K goal but I wrote something almost everyday. With the exception of the election, holidays and traveling for almost 12 hours. As of right now I have ~30K words and counting for my novel. Throughout the month, I've learned some things:

Reading a book, watching television or a movie while or before writing can help spark some ideas but it can be easy to develop a voice that sounds like what ever you were previously engaged in. For example: while watching "60 Days In" with my sister, I found myself wanting to rile up my characters or write them into fight scenes at the most inappropriate times.

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When Election Day came, I hit a wall. I didn't want to write and if I did, there was a chance that I'd only write scenes that would destroy my character's world and everything they held dear. While some people may say, "write away, you'll never know what could happen", I knew that if I did so, I'd end up having more work to do later. Other times that affected my writing: being sick, holidays, and traveling. I learned that as important as it was to get something down, there will be times you have to put your energy elsewhere for a time then dedicate yourself to catching up later. And when I say later, I mean as soon as you possibly can.

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"It's only a first draft." Say it with me: "It's only a first draft." And again: "It's only a first draft. It does not have to be perfect."

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Even if you don't reach the 50K mark, you still did something pretty amazing. Laying out a story. Learning about your characters. Building a world. Introducing conflict and playing with conversations. It's a new and exciting experience.

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If and when you come across something that may need to be researched later, highlight, highlight, highlight. The program that I use to write lets me add comments to anything that I highlight. This allows my thought process to continue flowing without interruptions.

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To all of my ¹plotters out there. There will be times that you end up ²pantsing it. It's gonna be okay. In fact it's interesting and kind of fun.

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It's easy to become a little jealous of that person that was super ambitious and has 40K words done in only 10 or 12 days. Instead of letting the little green imp out to ruin your day, do one of two things: congratulate them then get back to YOUR writing or ignore them and get back to YOUR writing. If it helps, remember that you're further along in your story than a whole lot of people.

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Don't worry about how many times you've used the word "said". Just get the story out.

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It's okay to jump around in the story. For many of us it makes sense to write the scenes in order from beginning to end. There were times when I really didn't know how I wanted certain scenes to connect. So I stopped and worked on a different scene in a different place then went back to my stopping point the next day. For example, I wrote my characters into a corner and I had no clue as to how I was going to get them out. I worked on it on and off for a week and a half. In the meantime, I was able to elaborate on some details, work on other scenes and learn more about my characters.

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Twitter, also known as "The Great Distraction", can either be a help or a hindrance. For me, it was a little of both. I enjoyed reading words of encouragement from some of my fav authors and other WriMos. At the same time, it was all too easy catching up on news stories, tv show spoilers and cute animal gifs. My advice: find out where you fall as far what might be your biggest distraction then cut it back (or out) and/or find an accountability buddy.

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NaNoWriMo.org also has forums to help connect you with other writers from your region and around the world. This is the one thing I regret not taking more advantage of the beginning.

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Reward yourself from time to time. Make a short-term goal and a long-term goal. Anytime you hit those goals: reward yourself with something small, fun and enjoyable. The buttons that you can earn from the website are great motivators too. When you fail, don't punish yourself. Just pick yourself up and work hard at it next time.

At this point in time, my story isn't finished and I look forward to doing more with it. I enjoyed NaNoWriMo and I plan on participating in it for 2017. In the meantime, have you participated in NaNoWriMo before? How was your experience?

1. Plotter: someone who plans out their story prior to writing it down
2. Pantser: someone who "flies by the seat of their pants" or doesn't plan out or plans very little of their story prior to writing it down.