6 Reasons NaNoWriMo Doesn’t Work For Me (But Why It’s Still Great)

For those of you who don’t know, NaNoWriMo is the idea that, every November, writers can sit down and get 50,000 words on paper, writing a novel in a month. That’s 1,667 words per day. You upload it to the NaNoWriMo site, and if you get those 50,000 words, you win!

The idea is to spark creativity and overcome self-doubt. Some people would like to write a novel, but can’t get the words on the page. Having a set goal like that is supposed to encourage people to silence their inner critic and just go for it.

I love the idea, and I participated (and failed) for about four or five years. It took me a long time to figure out why it didn’t work for me, but I get it now.

Here’s why:

1. I consistently “fail” at daily tasks. I don’t know why this is, but it is. On Facebook, I was nominated for that 7 days/ 7 black and white pictures challenge. I missed day 5. I got back to it and posted my day 5 the next day, but I always do it. In years I’ve participated in NaNoWriMo, I’m usually full steam ahead for about the first week, and then I start missing days. It’s just not my work style, I guess.
2. I need to work from an outline. In the past, I’ve been a “pantser,” meaning I just write by the seat of my pants. It never worked for me. I struggled to finish; I did multiple drafts; my point was lost or I forgot to tie up threads. Then a friend recommended Story Engineering, by Larry Brooks. This book makes so much sense to me. It’s not an outline, per se, but rather a set of story points one must work toward.
3. 50,000 words isn’t actually a novel, so I’d have to add a lot more to it to make it one. I write YA, which is the shortest novel you can get, outside of middle grade. Word count for YA ranges from 55,000 to 79,999 words, according to Writer’s Digest. I always have to put more words in, and don’t want to start at a deficit. My style tends to be pretty stripped down anyway. “Plot-focused,” one of the writers in my group calls it.
4. It stresses me out. There are days when I can put 5,000 words on paper. But I don’t write every day. And if I miss a day or two with NaNoWriMo, I’ve already “failed,” so what’s the point in continuing?
5. I don’t care about praise or fake badges. Studies show that badges in fitness apps and praise for doing things increases the likelihood that someone will do a behavior, but that stuff doesn’t work on me. I think it’s great when it does provide encouragement for people, but it doesn’t work like that for me. (Neither does advertising or “hard sells.”) Knowing that, at the end of the month, I’ll get a “congrats!” for “winning” isn’t encouraging for me.
6. November doesn’t work for me. I’ve actually thought about doing my own personal NaNoWriMo during April or May, any month that isn’t so crazy. But something about November, which is stuck between Halloween and Christmas just makes it crazier to me. In November, I want to take down Halloween decorations and put up Christmas ones. I want to bake cookies and travel to see family. I do write in November, but not at the crazy, flat out pace that NaNoWriMo requires.

I know I sound like a Negative Nancy, but I actually think NaNoWriMo can be wonderful for people who are struggling with writing that first novel. For anyone who wants to write but suffers from self-doubt, those first steps can be the most important ones. For people who do respond to routine or praise, it can be a great encouragement. Plus, the NaNoWriMo community is welcoming. They have events all over the country where people can go and write together.

If you’re on the fence about whether to try NaNoWriMo, at least check it out. They have progress trackers, pep talks, support, community, etc.

For me, I just like the idea more than the reality.

Have you ever done or considered doing NaNoWriMo? What do you think about it?

 

What I Learned From NaNoWriMo

Photo credit: Doree Weller

I joined NaNoWriMo about 4 years ago, and I’ve never “won.”

For those of you who don’t know it, NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month, and it challenges writers to complete a novel in the month of November.  It calls a novel 50,000 words, which is 1,667 words a day.

In the past four years, my commitment has varied, but I’ve tried to do it, and each time I’ve failed.

This year, I went into it determined to just get words on paper.  I wasn’t going to worry about whether or not they were good, but just go for quantity.  Some writers encourage this practice because just writing can be a key to creativity, and they say that it can override the self-consciousness that holds some writers back.

In past years, I haven’t been able to finish because I struggled over what to write.

You see, I have a problem with middles.  I do beginnings great, and endings well, but the middle gets me stuck.  I’m not the only writer with that problem.  I remember back when I attended a writer’s conference, they called it “Muddle in the Middle.”

I had written 15,000 words of this novel, and it wasn’t working.  I knew it was bad, and I didn’t like where the plot was going, but I decided to go with it, because the idea was just to get 50,000 words on paper in November.  It didn’t feel right to me, but I wanted to try it.

Then I went to a meeting of my writer’s group.  Another group member, who did not know I was doing NaNoWriMo mentioned that he was going to start submitting his finished novel to agents in December, because in reading agents’ blogs, they were inundated with garbage novels after NaNoWriMo.  The other group member made some disparaging comments about NaNoWriMo.

I heard other things that night that made me doubt myself.  Other group members had criticisms that hurt me personally.  Usually, I can take criticism without taking it personally (it took a LOT of practice, believe me), but on this particular night, I couldn’t separate it from myself.

I was sad that following week, and did a lot of soul searching.  I stopped working on my NaNoWriMo novel.  I even thought about giving up writing completely; it all felt kind of pointless.

But when I got over feeling sorry for myself, I started to look at some things with myself and my writing.

I’ve known for a long time that I’m not disciplined or organized in any aspect of my life, and I’ve used the excuse that “I’m creative” to get out of considering to do things differently.

I read a bunch of writer’s blogs and information from various sources.  I took notes on what I read and really thought about it.  I realized that I haven’t treated this process as if I’m serious about it.  I’ve done some of the work, but not enough.

NaNoWriMo is great for people struggling with self-doubt, who need to get practice getting words on paper.  I’ve read that you need 10,000 hours of practice to “master” anything.  NaNoWriMo can be helpful at getting some of those hours.

I’ve written 3 novels completely.  The first one wasn’t good.  The second was better.  The third will be publishable once it’s edited heavily.  I have seven unfinished novels.  When I counted them up and really thought about that number, I realized that there’s something wrong with my process.  I like the ideas of each of those novels, so why haven’t I finished them?  What happens is that I get an idea and get excited about it, then put words on paper without any clear idea of how I’m going to get from A to Z.  It’s less exciting when I need to get down to figuring out how the dots connect, so I move on to a different project.

One of my favorite quotes is:

“Amateurs wait for inspiration.  The rest of us just get up and go to work.”  -Chuck Close

I’ve been quoting that for years, but I’m not sure I ever really thought about what it meant.  Once I did that soul searching, I realized that my lack of discipline is a serious problem.  I saw myself waking up one day 10 years from now and looking at my dozens of unfinished novels, wondering why I’m no further along in my writing career than I was when I was 8 years old.

Something had to change.

As I said, I started reading, because that’s what writers do when stuck; they read.  And I journaled.  And talked to a friend.  Doing those three things helped me realize that I’ve been a lazy writer.  Because I’m good at it, I didn’t feel like I had to do any work on it.  And if I started novels and didn’t finish them, I just hadn’t found the right idea, right?

Wrong.

My major problem is that I don’t map out stories before I start.  I get an idea and I start them with no clear idea of where I’m going.  I like to let the characters lead, but letting the characters lead doesn’t mean that I don’t have to know what the path looks like and the destination.  Knowing the path doesn’t mean they can’t take the scenic route or choose the fork in the road; it just means that I have to have an idea of the direction they’re going in.

The question I had to ask myself was, “Why do I write?”  First and foremost, I write for myself.  I write because I love it, because I have stories to tell, and I want to tell them.  I want to know what happens next.  But I also would like to be published, mostly because I want to share my stories.  If I live until 100 and never get anything published, I’ll be disappointed, but I’ll probably still write.  I don’t know if I could stop if I tried.  🙂

I’ve always been a fan of Query Shark, as the query letter is my nemesis.  One of the things she says is that every word must be the right word.  Dean Koontz says something similar.  His writing process is to polish every page and examine every word until he moves on in the story.  I’ve been reading those two pieces of information for years, and I don’t think I ever really understood them.  As a writer, it is my responsibility to make sure the work says what I want it to say.

That disappointing week was difficult for me, but I’m proud of myself, that I was able to really look at what hurt me and learn from it.  When my first novel is finally being published, I know that I’m going to look back on that week and realize that was a turning point for me, and my taking a hard look at myself will be what makes it possible.

I didn’t “win” NaNoWriMo, but I won something much more valuable.

When Getting Things Done Feels Like A Vacation

Superstition Mountains, Arizona
Photo Credit: Doree Weller

I moved over two months ago, and I haven’t gotten nearly as much done as I wanted to.  I’d hoped to be further along in unpacking and writing than I am.  I had set a goal to get my novel out to as many agents as possible, until I realized that my novel still needed some heavy editing.  *sigh*  I’ve just been “too” to get anything done.  Too tired.  Too busy.  Too unmotivated.  Too everything.

I expected last week, the first week of NaNoWriMo, to be more of the same.  I was determined to keep going through the entire month, even if I didn’t meet the goal of 50,000 words, just not to give up.  I was also determined to get some things done around the house.

I was pleasantly surprised to feel motivated and to get more done than I expected to.  The unpacking went well, and so did working on my novel.  I’m forcing myself to work on it even when I don’t want to, and it will definitely need rewriting, but at least I’m getting the skeleton on paper, which is the point of NaNoWriMo.  I also managed to do some editing on my completed novel.  My writer’s group gave me positive feedback, and I feel really good about the edits.  I’m changing some minor things in the novel to make it better.  Finally, I feel like I’m on the right track.

Getting things done feels good, and for the first time in two months, I actually feel like I’m off work.  I haven’t worked a job for pay since the beginning of August, but I’ve been so busy and stressed that I haven’t felt like I had any “time off.”  Now, it’s finally starting to feel that way.

As an added bonus, I’ve decided to try doing yoga again.  I did my first session last night, and it was wonderful!  At first I had trouble keeping up (for those of you who don’t use yoga, it moves faster than you’d think), but once I got into the groove, I feel like I did pretty well.  I got a very good workout and I stretched out all those achy muscles.  Of course, I have new aches today, but that’s the good workout kind of ache.

Maybe I didn’t get started as quickly as I wanted, but I’m finally doing all the things I wanted to do during my time “off.”  The clock is ticking until it will be time to go back to work, so I’m making the most use of this time that I can!

Nanowrimo

Today is Day 1 of Nanowrimo, AKA National Novel Writing Month.  The goal of Nanowrimo is to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days.  It doesn’t have to be good.  It doesn’t have to be edited, or in any kind of salable shape.  It just has to be complete.

I tried a couple of years ago, and I think I got about 30,000 words before I gave up.  It was just too hard for me to keep going every day.  However, I think it was a good experience, and I’m thinking about trying it again.  I know I should have decided before now if I wanted to start, but I didn’t.  I figure that I still have a few more days before I’m so horribly behind that I can’t catch up.

It’s 1667 words a day.  I have a few ideas…

Welcome to November

I always feel sort of let down on the first day of November.  Halloween, and by extension all of October, is really big for me.  I decorate, go to haunted houses, play with makeup and costumes, and of course, blog about it.  Then November rolls around.  Haunted house season is over.  😦  The holidays approach, which is great, but I suppose it doesn’t feel like anything special because most of the stores have had their Christmas decorations up since September!

So… that being said, there are some great things about November.  November 5th is Guy Fawkes day, which I love ever since V for Vendetta.  Thanksgiving is this month, along with my mother’s birthday, and my dog’s birthday.

November is also the launch of Nanowrimo, or National Novel Writing Month.  It’s a community of writers who agree to get together to help one another jumpstart that novel.  The idea is that you’re supposed to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days.  It sounds like a big undertaking, and it is.  I didn’t manage to do it last year, and I’m not going to attempt it this year.  Still, I’m cheering on those who are participating.  If you want to learn more about it, take a look at their website.

http://www.nanowrimo.org/

Here’s a (sort of) encouraging article.  I thought it was interesting, anyway.  In an “The Onion” sort of way.  http://www.csmonitor.com/Books/chapter-and-verse/2011/1101/NaNoWriMo-is-back-and-hotter-than-ever

Nanowrimo

In my complaining about my Halloween hangover on Monday, I completely forgot to bring up a reason to celebrate!  Nanowrimo has begun!  I know that some of you are out there shaking your head saying, “She’s finally lost it.  We knew it was only a matter of time.”  No, my friends, this isn’t baby talk.  Nor is it something I made up.  November is National Novel Writing Month.  That means if you’ve always said, “I wish I had time to write a novel,” now’s your time.

Nanowrimo is an event that challenges people to write a 50,000 word novel between November 1 and November 30.  That’s 1,667 words a day or about 6 pages.  I signed up as a way to kick start my third novel.  I’ve had this book called The Cycle rattling around in my head for awhile, and I decided that it was time to put it on paper.  During the month of November, I’m not allowed to make excuses, get distracted, or have a life.

If you’re interested, it’s not too late to join.  You can join anytime in the month of November simply by signing up at http://www.nanowrimo.org/.  There’s a list of rules on the website, but the big one is that the entire 50,000 words must be written in November.  Everyone who finishes wins and gets mad props on their website.  This will be my first year, and I’m very excited about it.  I’ll try to keep you updated on my progress.