What I Learned from NaNoWriMo

Well, November is finally over, and with it goes National Novel Writing Month. Oh, that bittersweet trial of knocking your head against a wall until 50,000 words pop out and scatter themselves into some vague semblance of order on the page. That bestial dragon, casting shadows on the land of creativity with that dreaded specter of productivity.

The two are not mutually exclusive, however, and I proved that by accomplishing the 50,000 word mark over the course of November! It was a close-run thing, given the fact that I was seriously ill for the last week of the challenge, but I did manage to finish off that dreaded word count. There are several things I take away from the challenge, and I’d like to share them with you today. These don’t apply to writing specifically, but serve as good advice with life in general.

1.      You’re capable of more than you think.

I’ve spent the last two years trying to force myself to write one thousand words per day. I always thought that this was enough, given the fact that I hold down a full-time job and then operate three blogs in addition to what I consider “actual writing.” Still, I often found myself giving excuses at the end of the day.

“You worked hard on other stuff. Give yourself a break.”

“You earned one day off.”

“No one is perfect. Pick it back up and try again tomorrow.”

NaNoWriMo forces these excuses out the window. If you’re serious about making the mark, then you have to keep your nose to the grindstone day after day. I slipped once early on and took a couple of days off, and before I knew it I was playing catch-up for the first half of the challenge. Still, that desire to persevere kept me at it when sanity said I should have been sleeping.

If you want something enough, you will do what it takes to see it happen. Turn off the inhibitors, and see where you can truly take yourself.

2.      Planning ahead allows you to reap dividends later.

2013 was my first attempt at NaNo. I was already mid-stream in my first book, so I figured I could just use the word count requirement as a means of keeping myself on pace. Considering the fact that I was inventing the world of Cestre and all of its content at this time, I fell flat on my face, accomplishing a whopping two or three thousand words for the month.

That first novel became an incredibly drawn-out affair that took almost eighteen months to complete. However, I finished up my polished draft and handed it to beta readers a few days before NaNo kicked off in 2014. With my batteries charged and the groundwork of my novel’s setting already well sketched out, I plotted my second book and barged into November with my keyboard blazing.

With anything you do in life, planning in advance will make things run more smoothly. Get a sense of direction and make a framework for what you would like to see happen, and then go with it!

3.      Save the second-guessing until the bulk of the work is complete.

This one obviously doesn’t apply to everything in life, but any project that can be fine-tuned at little cost in energy later benefits from that early enthusiasm as fuel. I poured the words to the page, grimacing as some of the dialogue came off as stilted but forcing myself to push on. I knew that if I became bogged down in a particular scene, I would never fully get the project off the ground.

If you sit at the starting line and second-guess yourself, you’ll never have to worry about making mistakes along the way. You’ll never even get on the track.

NaNo was an extremely enlightening experience for me, and I plan to keep my discipline and knock out one thousand words per day until next November rolls around. As long as I keep plugging forward I know my writing will continue to improve. With any luck, it will pay off in the coming year as I put the final touches on the first book in the Dawnbringer series.