Greetings!
For those of you who are not familiar with National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo or NaNo, for short), the goal is to write 50,000 words between 1 November and 30 November. The idea is that having a set goal and a set deadline will help with progressing toward writing a novel.
A couple things I’ve learned over the years include always carrying a notebook to be able to write at any time, and turning off the my inner editor (kind of, more on that later).
While I have done NaNoWriMo for 12 years now, my approach to NaNo has changed, particularly over the last two or three years. I am working on a series, and for the last three years, I have worked on books in that series. After a few test drafts of books one and two, I wrote the draft I’m currently revising of book one, a partial draft of book two. For the NaNo we just finished, I tackled a first draft of book three.
I lean toward Pantsing (aka- Noveling by the seat of your pants) as my preferred method of noveling, but when it comes to a series, a certain amount of planning comes in handy to properly get a feel for the characters, the story, and the pacing. As such, when I wrote the first book, I had a very detailed outline before NaNo started, and I got about two-thirds of the way through the story during NaNo. The second book, I made up the outline as I went (mostly), and as such, I again only got about two-thirds of the way through the plot.
When NaNo 2018 came I had a rough idea of where book 3 would go, but not much of an idea of how to get there. I began putting together a timeline (using a program called Aeon Timeline, which I have found to get very helpful). The timeline events for this book were significantly more detailed than for my previous books, as this timeline doubled as an outline. About a week into NaNo. I sat down and finished about 90% of the timeline (with some discussion with my husband- aka my sounding board).
From there, I wrote the book. Some chapters were about as long as I expected them to be. Others were just long enough to serve as decent placeholders until I make another pass. Then there were chapters I did not expect to turn into much, but they ended up being a rather large chunk of the overall word count. In the end, I actually managed to fit the first draft into the 50,000 required minimum for NaNo (less a couple chapters that came up in discussion after I had passed that part of the story. I’ve since written one, only one to go!).
It seems like having that completed story will be rather useful when I comes to revisions. I know when I look at the partial book 2, I have a hard time picking up where I left off (with an ending, but little idea how to get there from where the current draft leaves off).
It also seems like having the detailed timeline works well to satisfy both the Planning element of writing (useful for consistency in a series) and Pansting element of writing (useful for letting the writing develop more organically). It is likely this will be a method I carry into future NaNos.
A final element that I started a year or so ago is that any pieces that I wrote in my notebook got typed before I continued the story. This is where that earlier mention of not quite silencing my inner editor comes into play. Most of the sections I wrote did not get typed word for word. They did serve as a framework for what I typed (and often what was typed ultimately became significantly more words). This element of having semi-revised portions of a draft is the main reason I am not inclined to give up pen and paper, regardless of the fact that I know I type faster than I write. Sometimes the words flow better when I put pen to paper, which is useful for the difficult spots. The benefits of this two step process greatly outweigh the extra effort of retyping certain sections.
Have any of you done (or thought of doing) NaNoWriMo? If so, how has your NaNo experience been? Are there things you are thinking of trying in the future?
I would love to hear from you!
~ Theresa
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I have done it last year! It was my first experience, and it was fun, challenging. There were crying moments after realising that the story I wanna tell isn’t there yet. Well, that’s what you expect when writing the first draft. 😂😅
It really is an interesting experience, to be sure. I know one of the things I have to keep reminding myself of is that it is a first draft. As a first draft, it doesn’t have to be perfect… Not that that completely helps with the idea that the story isn’t there yet, but it does help with getting the story down. 🙂
Yes that’s true. It starts with the first draft and then leads up to the true adventure of editing into a better and proper story! 😁
Very true. That is something I’ve recently discovered- that editing is merely the phase in which I take that first draft and shape it into the story it’s meant to be. Editing is its own kind of fun. It does help to keep in mind that it’s what the story deserves, same as the original creativity that went into writing it. ^_^