November has come and gone, and with it went National Novel Writing Month (or NaNoWriMo). For those who are not familiar with this annual event, novel writers are encouraged to write the first draft of a new novel with a goal of achieving 50,000 words all in the month of November.
To put it in perspective, that’s roughly 175 pages. Needless to say, it’s a bit ambitious, especially for anyone with a job or other responsibilities beyond writing. Still, plenty of people reach this incredible milestone each year.
This was my first year participating in NaNoWriMo. I had started planning my second novel back in the summer but wasn’t in love with the story line and ended up with the new plot line in the fall. As a result, NaNoWriMo fell at the perfect time in my writing process.
Preparing for NaNoWriMo
I am much more of a planner than a pantser, so my first priority was nailing down my outline and character details. For my outline, I started with a rough idea of how I wanted the book structured and laid out the major events that anchor the story. I then broke it down by chapter and added as many details I had at the time. Finally, because I’m slightly obsessed with ensuring the timeline makes sense, I also planned out the week or at least the month when each chapter occurs.
When it comes to the character details, I keep a spreadsheet of the main character and the most important secondary characters where I have a list of questions I answer for each. This includes anything from their age and physical description to their favorite food and biggest fear. It helps me stay consistent with how they act throughout the book.
Before I start writing, I also research as much as I can about the things I don’t know much about. For example, this new novel involves restaurant owners. Since I don’t have any experience in the restaurant business, I had to educate myself on things like opening and closing schedules, inventory management, and average annual income.
Specific to NaNoWriMo, I took time to put together a rough schedule to have an idea of how much writing I’d have to do each day to achieve that 50,000 word goal. I knew it would be an uphill battle, but I planned to give it all I could. In fact, I added the Google Docs and Sheets apps on my phone so I could write anywhere. I also scheduled as many of my author social media posts as I could, especially the #MotivationMonday posts, so I didn’t have to spend extra time thinking of, preparing, and posting content.
Surviving NaNoWriMo
The first of the month came, and I had peak enthusiasm. As soon as I finished work that afternoon, I sat on the couch and started chapter one while waiting for my husband and kids to get home. I wrote while the kids read before bed. And I wrote again after the kids went to bed and I took a shower, which is when I typically do my writing activities.
In the writing community, there seems to be two camps: the 5 a.m. writers club and the write owls. Since I can’t imagine getting up earlier than I already do and actually function to make coherent sentences, writing at night works best for me. In fact, taking a shower before I begin helps me clear my mind of the day’s activities and focus on what I want to accomplish for the night. But I applaud anyone who has found their optimal writing time and is making the most of it.
Day three, however, intersected with my forecasting day for work. This meant my later-than-usual night was spent working instead of writing. I still fit in a couple hundred words while the kids were reading, but it was my first setback.
And there were plenty others, from kids activities to fighting the urge to edit and rewrite along the way. I still persevered. I still wrote—every single day. I wrote during soccer practices, gave up reading for the month, and stayed up a little later than normal. I grabbed the laptop and attempted to write while football played on the TV all weekend long.
There were ups and downs, wins and setbacks, thousands-of-words days and hundreds-of-words days. And in the end, I wrote a total of 25,085 words in the thirty days of November. I accomplished my realistic goal of 25,000 words—half of the NaNoWriMo goal.
Am I disappointed? Hell no! This was a huge accomplishment for me. As I mentioned, I’d been playing around with this story idea for months. I now have about thirty percent of my first draft complete in one month, when I had originally set a goal to write the first draft in six months. I wrote every single day, not taking the weekends off like I normally do, even when I’d rather be watching TV or reading or napping.
So Now What?
Admittedly, I took a break for the first few days of December. I know I just said how proud I was for writing every day. It probably would’ve been smart to keep up that habit, but my mind really appreciated the break. It has been great to also take some time to reflect on the experience (and share some of it here with you).
But now, I’ll continue writing. I won’t be eyeing my word count progress like a hawk anymore. I’ve adjusted my first draft goal to four months. As much progress as I made in November, I don’t know if that pace is sustainable, especially when factoring in holidays and an upcoming vacation. Still, I will be ecstatic to finish by the end of February. My goal is to have a completed manuscript by the end of 2022, which will be a huge improvement from the two-year writing/editing process that it took to complete What We Hope For.
Finally, I will continue to encourage other writers to participate in NaNoWriMo. Even if you don’t achieve the 50,000 word count goal, any writing you get done in the month is a win. You’ve taken a story, an idea, a dream that lives within you and brought it to life. Whether you complete the story and one day publish your novel or you never share it with anyone, you wrote something, and that is what a writer does. But I hope that you let the world experience the story you create. We all have stories and experiences to share, and my hope is that we all have the courage to share them with as many people as we can.
Writer or not, what is one goal you are currently working toward?
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