NaNo Coach: When Writing, There Are No Rules, Only Tools

This season, we’ve brought on published authors to serve as NaNo Coaches to help guide you to reaching 50,000 words. Our third NaNo Coach, best-selling author Jason Hough, shares his words of wisdom:

Being the NaNo Coach for the third week in November filled me with a bit of anxiety. What sort of advice would people need that far in? Surely steadfast habits would be formed and stories sorted by then. In many ways I feared that any advice I could give, however valid, would only derail those asking for it.

To my surprise and delight, there were plenty of great questions and concerns to help with. While many sought encouragement, which I happily-if-awkwardly gave, I was extremely pleased to find that often others in the community had chimed in as well with stellar pep-tweets. This gave me warm pangs of nostalgia for NaNoWriMo—the community it fosters is truly remarkable.

Here’s a sampling of the questions I received, and my responses, which I’ll thankfully be able to elaborate on here:

@KDSpyKidD3: Could you offer some words of encouragement? I’m currently at 11K and trying hard to catch up.

Like any marathon, by this point in the race the pack is starting to spread out, and some are beginning to see the finish line as impossible to reach. It’s tough to offer grounded support when you don’t know the specifics of why someone has fallen behind—is it because they’ve lost interest in their story, or because they have school, or family, or a demanding job? NaNoWriMo is a time-demanding project, almost three hours a day, in my case. I remember how difficult it was, that first year, to fit it in every single day because of how much time it took.

What I suggested to Chris and many others were a handful of basic tips:

Do anything you can to squash your natural desire to edit. I’ve read it takes as much as 20 minutes to truly regain concentration after being distracted. Find ways to avoid this! Turn off spell check, turn off grammar check. Go full screen. Unplug your Internet. Some things I’ll add now:  set your phone to silent (or off!) while writing. If you use an email app that “dings” when you get a message, shut it down.
If you’re stalled, try changing small things. Move to a different room, or go to a coffee shop, to write.  Play different music!  I learned early on I cannot write if I’m listening to music with vocals, so now I listen to movie soundtracks.
For writers block, immerse yourself in information and inspiration. Go to a library or bookstore, even a movie, without any real agenda, and just feed yourself on ideas.

@TheKennethHayes20: does the plot have to be finished by November or just have to reach 50k?

During my first NaNo in 2007, I also mistakenly assumed the goal was a complete novel of roughly 50k words, and I had to contrive my story to end there, much to its detriment. What I realized soon after that, which is also explained in NaNoWriMo’s FAQ, is that you’re just trying to write 50k words. This can be the start of a much longer novel, or portions of two short novels… whatever makes sense for you.

Some people noted their story would end at 35k or 40k words.  My feeling is if that’s where your story ends, so be it.  Fill out the rest of the 50k with a short story or two!

@faroop: My MC has confession to make to spouse & I’m thinking of leaving scene out, only showing consequences. Can that work?

What I’d like to discuss here is the overall theme of “Can this work?” or “What’s the rule?”-type questions, which came up often.

As Matthew Pallamary, one of my writing coaches, put it: “When it comes to writing, there are no rules, only tools.”

This phrase has stuck with me for years, and if there’s one thing I’d like people to take away from my NaNo Coach week it is exactly that. Many of you are just beginning your journey as a writer. You’ll get mountains of advice, often contradictory. Because of the concentrated energy of NaNoWriMo’s pace, November is the perfect test bed for trying things. You’re learning what sort of writer you are, so embrace that. Try advice that appeals to you, and ignore the rest.

To conclude, let’s talk about the dreaded 50k goal. It’s frustrating when I see people say they’re dropping out because they’ve fallen too far behind. First, keep in mind that NaNoWriMo’s pace of 1667 words per day is very aggressive. I’m a professional author and my daily output averages around half that. So, really, don’t feel like you’re not cutting it as a writer just because you fell behind.  You’re writing, and that’s what actually matters.

I’d love to see everyone hit 50k, but what I would love even more is if you simply keep going. Write as much as you can so that, in the end, whatever the word counter says, what you’ve really done is written as much as you can for an entire month. Formed a writing habit, in other words. As far as I’m concerned that’s the single most important thing you can take away with you when November ends.