Road Trip to NaNo: 3 Tips to Write Like the Rain

NaNoWriMo is an international event, and we’re taking a Road Trip to NaNo to hear about the stories being written every year in our hundreds of participating regions. Today, Joy DeVore, our Municipal Liaison in the USA :: Washington :: West Sound region urges you to write like the rain:

Welcome to West Sound, Washington! When most people think “Washington”, they picture one of three things:

Washington DC (Not us.)
Seattle, Washington (Still not us.)
The damp, temperate, woodsy Northwest (Ding, ding! That’s where the West Sound is located.)

Our region is pretty vast. We may not have the Space Needle but we do have some great hiking trails, camping spots, mountain climbing, water-skiing, and we know how to make a mean latte. We also have water. Lots and lots of water. We’ve found that writers can take a tip from our brand of liquid sunshine. After all, rain is both fluid but also unrelenting at the same time. 

Be unstoppable. 

Rain doesn’t care about your picnic, your soccer tournaments, or your wedding. Once the rainstorm starts, nothing will make it stop until it’s finished. 

Do the same thing. Write what you want. Only let the right influences in—the ones that inspire you to write. Don’t believe others if they tell you that you can’t write—those people can just go jump in a lake. Give me their names. I’ll give them what for!

*clears throat* Ahem. Anyway….

Be fluid. 

Rain moves from one place to another as the wind stirs the clouds. Fluidity is about adapting. If you can’t write at home due to distractions, take a notebook and move: go to your patio, a café, to a friend’s house, or bust out your headphones. 

Are you able to upload a copy of your work onto a cloud? (Wow, this rain metaphor is really taking me places, isn’t it?) This will allow you to write in other settings as well. When you have some time to write, pull up your project and write on your phone or tablet—even if you can only write for fifteen minutes. 

Be prepared. 

While it’s not quite NaNoWriMo yet, it’s coming up fast. The last tip that I have for you is to come up with a back-up plan. I’ve learned (from having to plan events in a region where a rain cloud can pop up out of nowhere) that you should always have a back-up plan. 

Here are some of my tips for things that you can do now, in case of unexpected events and roadblocks.

Write down a handful of interesting items that you can throw in your story if you get stuck: plot twists, surprise elements, new characters, or important objects.Set up a digital folder, external hard drive, or email folder in preparation for your weekly back-ups.Come up with rewards to help inspire you and to help push you forward during the NaNo-slump (which happens around the end of week two for me).Find a notebook to carry with you. It’ll be great for bursts of inspiration, notes, writing down observations, etc.

Just like jumping in puddles and dancing in the rain, writing can be a lot of fun. Enjoy the process and have a great NaNo!

NaNoWriMo in USA :: Washington :: West Sound

Jocelyn (Joy) DeVore is returning for her second year as an ML for the West Sound region. She writes dark humor, farce, satirical fantasy, and comedic thrillers. She works as a freelance writer, ghostwriter, and general keyboard adventurer. You can find her in a “made-for-TV” style neighborhood in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and dog.

Top photo taken by Flickr user zenobia_joy.

Region photos shared by Joy DeVore.