"Get Out of Your Routine": How to Make Space for Writing In Your Life

During NaNoWriMo’s “In Your Pocket” Summer Drive, we’ll be posting “ My First NaNo ” stories from you, our amazing participants, and the writing tips you learned from your maiden voyage. Today, board member Tony Shen shares how he overcame his late start to finish his novel by busting his routine: 

It must have been November 12 or later. The start date for National Novel Writing Month had come and gone; I’d decided I didn’t have it in me to write a book in a month. This was the fourth November that I had considered writing only to do nothing about it. But my life was still fine. I sat down in a cafe two blocks from my house and happily opened a book by some amazing writer who was not me. 

I noticed a friend intently working on his laptop. I got up and talked to him. He mentioned something about his daily word count and being behind, of course. We talked about the holidays then I returned to my table. Then I stood up, walked back to my house, grabbed my computer, returned to the cafe, and began my NaNo-novel. I had no idea what to write about, so I just started writing. 

NaNoWriMo ended up giving me so much. I had played guitar for 10 years and had lamented that I could never write even one song. I wrote and recorded five songs in the two months after winning NaNoWriMo. 

My tip for finishing your novel is to get out of your routine. If you normally come home right after work, don’t. Go to a cafe and write even though you may be tired and hungry. Routine-busting is a method to achieving your goal of writing a novel in one month. 

Tony Shen is the Chief Operating Officer for EdTec, a social venture supporting charter schools throughout the US. He holds an MBA from UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business and a BA from Stanford University. But really, Tony would rather be turning his 2011 NaNoWriMo novel into a rock opera co-starring Carrie Brownstein and Radiohead.

Photo by Flickr user madame.furie.