NaNoWriMo2015—I’m All In, and In It to Win It
#NaNoWriMo2015 – wasn’t going to do it this year, as last year’s effort petered out due to lack of inspiration and frankly, I was tired after switching to a new job with new responsibilities. (Same company; just a different team.)
And this year – well, I have a new job again – same company, same team, but increased responsibilities. But I think I just have more energy this year, plus I have some time off to recharge, plus I’m trying a different genre – science fiction. Previous novels have either been historic fiction or just plain ol’ fiction. Trying a new genre, I think, will help me challenge myself in a good way.
And here’s what I’ve learned from previous NaNoWriMos –
Write, grasshopper, write. Don’t worry about much. Don’t worry whether you’re writing a novel or a story as much as you are writing something. Think of your work as a story comprising scenes. Write those scenes, as best you can, daily.
Don’t abandon your work, but abandon a scene that’s not working. You have 31 days. Write stuff, every day, and if something isn’t working, drop it, and try another scene. Maybe you’ll come back to it later, maybe not – but the goal is to write.
Write what comes to you. Don’t worry about whether your story hangs together yet. This is your draft stage. Get everything out, as you think of it.
Editing and fixing is for later. Sure, your draft is a piece of – ahem – stuff that you might not show your mother. That’s OK. Just write it all, confusing POVs, stories/scenes that don’t go anywhere, stories that contradict other stories, characters that appear only for a scene and never appear again, scenes that conflict with known facts (not such a problem with science fiction – I can invent FTL travel, for instance).
Risk something everyday. Don’t try to stay on tangent. Color outside the lines. Write stuff that you don’t even like. Try writing the same scene from two different POVs, and keep both scenes.
The goal here is to get it all out. Your mind is always working, behind the scenes (so to speak), so let it work while you are busy writing.
I found that a lot of what I write in my first drafts really isn’t usable as it—but it’s useful in that I’m developing the story and characters, and I will come back to rework the content later.
I have yet to write the Great American Novel. But – I’ve written five novels now through NaNoWriMo, and that’s five novels that didn’t exist before I tried.
(Hat Tip to my writing buddy Jenna Willett at Jen’s Pen Den for her encouragement. You can read her latest here.)
