My NaNoWriMo Draft: Your Fast Draft, My Discovery Draft
November is for writers. Or writing. Or it has been for me since 2008–the first year I heard about NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), tried to do it, and completed the goal of writing 50,000 words in 30 days.
I’ve attempted it most years since. Some I’ve won. On others, I came close. Still, on others, I quit by the end of the first week.
One thing became clear to me. November is the crappiest month to try to do something huge.
Most of us have family obligations around the holidays. Some of us even are the hosts of those events, cooking large meals–and then cleaning up after them. (Then there’s this someone who is doing that times two this week.)
Throw in everyday life’s normal complications, and you find yourself asking “Who has time to write a couple thousand words every day for a month?”
Well, I decided this year that person had to me. And I took some extra steps, joining a Savvy Authors Boot Camp to help keep me focused and on track. THIS was the best move I’ve made. Not only has my “team” kept me focused and on track, (Seriously, the #sistersofromance are the absolute best gals!) but because I owed it to my team, I didn’t quit when some old NaNo demons came to haunt me.
Some may think NaNo is made for pantsers like me, but I remembered toward the end of week one, why it’s not. It’s a plotters dream.
Why?
Because the story I am writing as I begin week four, doesn’t even resemble the story I was starting to write day one.
The story I had written a synopsis for. The story I had “pretended” I was a plotter for and even made out some pivotal scene cards to keep me on track.
The story I knew didn’t have enough conflict and was hoping would sort itself out as I write.
By week two, I wasn’t even glancing at that premade synopsis anymore. I knew it was useless.
By week three, I was making some notes so that when the bell goes off on November 30, I can sort this out throw out some useless scenes and streamline others.
Because, as every NaNo’er knows. If November is for writing, then December (and maybe January) is for editing.
