Stick a fork in NaNoWriMo 2011!
Summary: Motivational message to my fellow wrimos: you can do it!
Fellow wrimos, you can do it. I believe in you!
Believe me, I know what NaNo failure is like. I tried (short for National Novel Writing Month where goal is to write at least 50,000 words during the month of November) once before under a pen name. It was back in 2004, I think. I'm too ashamed to even travel back that far and research. I struggled to 35,000 words, pantsing it all the way, and ran into plot walls the size of Everest. As Yoda might say, "Disappointed, I was."
Fast forward to 2011 and the eBook revolution. Scored a Kindle and published a book of stories I wrote back in 1990s called Mental Shrillness. On my birthday, September 29, 2011 my debut novel Fresh Flesh was released. As I was digging through agent correspondences and notes for Fresh Flesh, I came across the log sheet for the first draft. I started the first draft in November 1988. I had thought about working on the second book in the Fresh series during CampNaNoWriMo and even signed up, but held off. When I saw this log sheet it seemed like a good idea to work on Fresh #2 during NaNoWriMo 2011.
That's what I have been doing. The title of Fresh #2 is Fresh Fetus and was given at the end of Fresh Flesh and on my NaNo page, so it wasn't a total secret. I'm happy to report to interested readers that I'm about 70% done with the first draft of Fresh Fetus. I didn't--and won't--be able to complete the first draft during NaNoWriMo 2011, but I started and wrote 50,000+ words of the first draft this month.
This was my first year of trying NaNoWriMo under this name. That's one way to tackle your past NaNo failures, I guess, just change names. I'm not writing this post to boast, I'm writing it to motivate my fellow wrimo buddies. Here are some things I did this time that I did not do on my first attempt seven years ago:
- Joined a NaNoWriMo writing group at writing.com. I wasn't even registered at writing.com until August 2011. Should have registered ten years ago. Why didn't I? I have no answer.
- Got paired randomly with a NaNoWriMo Writing Buddy. We sent each other an email every week during NaNoWriMo offering each other some helpful suggestions for staying motivated. Here is a sample of what I sent my buddy when she appeared to be stuck at one point:
- Attended a local, offline write-in event at the library. There are local writing groups all around the world and if there is one near you, wrimo, I encourage you to attend. I wrote over 2,700 words during one of these write-ins. They do group activity things like word wars and you can talk with other writers who are in the same trenches. I got a couple cool NaNoWriMo stickers. Wish I'd done this last time.
- Visited an online write-in. This one didn't go so well due to the low attendance, but I put it here because I think if you visited an online write-in with a big enough group, it could help.
- Joined a Facebook group with fellow wrimos. We commiserated about the process and posted our progress.
- Added a bunch of writing buddies through NaNoWriMo. I could have done more to communicate with these folks (for the most part, I didn't), but I followed their progress toward 50,000 words with interest.
The main difference between last time (fail) and this time (success) is that I got involved with other writers. Participating in group functions helped on some psychological level. They didn't write any words for me, of course, but I had an added motivation of not wanting to report back my daily writing as a goose egg. I didn't feel alone. Writing might be a largely solo profession (unless you're collaborating with others on a project) and if there is an opportunity to get out and meet other writers from time to time, it's worth doing. Even if it doesn't improve your writing output, you might make a new writing friend.
Throughout December, I'll continue working on Fresh #2 and hopefully can get the first draft done before the end of the year. Then it will sit for awhile before I go back and work on the second draft. Beta reading possibly as soon as March or April and then another coat of paint, final editing, proofing and a planned future release date!
NaNoWriMo 2012
Really? This soon?
Will I do NaNoWriMo again? Too early to tell. Overall, it was a positive experience and I did get a good chunk of a first draft done. I won't know how good the first draft is until it's done and settles a bit. I'm too close to first drafts when writing them to ever be a good judge of the quality, but there are a few things about the story that I like a lot. The important part to me is that my time was well used. I can never get this time back and if the material turned out during NaNoWriMo takes more time to edit and rewrite then it won't be something I'll likely do again.
Next? I'm thinking about trying Script Frenzy in April 2012. The goal there is to create 100 page script. I'd like to do an adaption for one of my novels, perhaps Fresh Flesh. Anybody reading done Script Frenzy? Please let me know what you think. Also, I'd love to hear from other wrimos in the comments. Let me know how you did during NaNoWriMo 2011.
Fellow wrimos, you can do it. I believe in you!
Believe me, I know what NaNo failure is like. I tried (short for National Novel Writing Month where goal is to write at least 50,000 words during the month of November) once before under a pen name. It was back in 2004, I think. I'm too ashamed to even travel back that far and research. I struggled to 35,000 words, pantsing it all the way, and ran into plot walls the size of Everest. As Yoda might say, "Disappointed, I was."
Fast forward to 2011 and the eBook revolution. Scored a Kindle and published a book of stories I wrote back in 1990s called Mental Shrillness. On my birthday, September 29, 2011 my debut novel Fresh Flesh was released. As I was digging through agent correspondences and notes for Fresh Flesh, I came across the log sheet for the first draft. I started the first draft in November 1988. I had thought about working on the second book in the Fresh series during CampNaNoWriMo and even signed up, but held off. When I saw this log sheet it seemed like a good idea to work on Fresh #2 during NaNoWriMo 2011.
That's what I have been doing. The title of Fresh #2 is Fresh Fetus and was given at the end of Fresh Flesh and on my NaNo page, so it wasn't a total secret. I'm happy to report to interested readers that I'm about 70% done with the first draft of Fresh Fetus. I didn't--and won't--be able to complete the first draft during NaNoWriMo 2011, but I started and wrote 50,000+ words of the first draft this month.
This was my first year of trying NaNoWriMo under this name. That's one way to tackle your past NaNo failures, I guess, just change names. I'm not writing this post to boast, I'm writing it to motivate my fellow wrimo buddies. Here are some things I did this time that I did not do on my first attempt seven years ago:
- Joined a NaNoWriMo writing group at writing.com. I wasn't even registered at writing.com until August 2011. Should have registered ten years ago. Why didn't I? I have no answer.
- Got paired randomly with a NaNoWriMo Writing Buddy. We sent each other an email every week during NaNoWriMo offering each other some helpful suggestions for staying motivated. Here is a sample of what I sent my buddy when she appeared to be stuck at one point:
> If you happen to be stuck (?), you might think of your favorite characters in your story and write some scenes with these characters. Even if the scenes don't seem connected to the rest of your story, you might find that it frees you from thinking about the rest of the novel. You can always pull these scenes out in editing and maybe make a tie-in short story or maybe the muse will connect your character(s) to the plot point you are at in your novel.
- Attended a local, offline write-in event at the library. There are local writing groups all around the world and if there is one near you, wrimo, I encourage you to attend. I wrote over 2,700 words during one of these write-ins. They do group activity things like word wars and you can talk with other writers who are in the same trenches. I got a couple cool NaNoWriMo stickers. Wish I'd done this last time.
- Visited an online write-in. This one didn't go so well due to the low attendance, but I put it here because I think if you visited an online write-in with a big enough group, it could help.
- Joined a Facebook group with fellow wrimos. We commiserated about the process and posted our progress.
- Added a bunch of writing buddies through NaNoWriMo. I could have done more to communicate with these folks (for the most part, I didn't), but I followed their progress toward 50,000 words with interest.
The main difference between last time (fail) and this time (success) is that I got involved with other writers. Participating in group functions helped on some psychological level. They didn't write any words for me, of course, but I had an added motivation of not wanting to report back my daily writing as a goose egg. I didn't feel alone. Writing might be a largely solo profession (unless you're collaborating with others on a project) and if there is an opportunity to get out and meet other writers from time to time, it's worth doing. Even if it doesn't improve your writing output, you might make a new writing friend.
Throughout December, I'll continue working on Fresh #2 and hopefully can get the first draft done before the end of the year. Then it will sit for awhile before I go back and work on the second draft. Beta reading possibly as soon as March or April and then another coat of paint, final editing, proofing and a planned future release date!
NaNoWriMo 2012
Really? This soon?
Will I do NaNoWriMo again? Too early to tell. Overall, it was a positive experience and I did get a good chunk of a first draft done. I won't know how good the first draft is until it's done and settles a bit. I'm too close to first drafts when writing them to ever be a good judge of the quality, but there are a few things about the story that I like a lot. The important part to me is that my time was well used. I can never get this time back and if the material turned out during NaNoWriMo takes more time to edit and rewrite then it won't be something I'll likely do again.
Next? I'm thinking about trying Script Frenzy in April 2012. The goal there is to create 100 page script. I'd like to do an adaption for one of my novels, perhaps Fresh Flesh. Anybody reading done Script Frenzy? Please let me know what you think. Also, I'd love to hear from other wrimos in the comments. Let me know how you did during NaNoWriMo 2011.
No comments have been added yet.
