NaNoWriMo The Third Was NOT The Charm: How I Survived My 3rd Year of November Noveling Madness

 

All righty.

Here goes.

The long-awaited NaNoWriMo 2014 recap post!  Nearly a month later, I think I’m recovered enough to tackle this, and I think I’ve had enough reflection time to determine what I need to improve upon next year.

So, my dear fellow writerly people … if you have accomplished NaNoWriMo yourselves, please do chime in with your comments on your own experiences.  And if you have not NaNo-ed before, but are considering doing so next year, please take my experiences here and learn from them, because that is what I, myself, am endeavoring to do here!  (And is, in fact, the main reason I even bother to blog in the first place!)

Onward with the contemplative recap post …

This year was my third year participating in NaNoWriMo.  I felt more excited for this year than the previous two years.  I also felt more prepared.  I felt like a NaNo Veteran, you might say.  This probably contributed to the terribleness that later ensued.  Let me explain.

I believe I may have grown overconfident in my abilities to hammer out 50k words in 30 days.  I mean, I’d succeeded in reaching 50k the two years previous.  AND I’d even hit my NaNo Camp goal of 25k in 31 days in July.

I was convinced I was story-slinging badass M—–F—er who would eat this 3rd NaNoWriMo for breakfast without breaking a sweat.

I did several things differently pre-November this year, and I think all of them were bad choices.

So what did I do this year which just happened to spell my almost certain doom?  Well …

1) Most destructively, I did not touch the novel for a little over a month before NaNoWriMo.  I *thought* this would make me more excited to get to work on it again in November.  Goes with the whole “good things come to those who wait”, right?  I *thought* this would help me feel more organized once November rolled around because I would have been able to take the time in October to get life in order in prep for NaNo. THIS WAS VERY, VERY WRONG.  Not only did I NOT make any more progress on organizing my life in prep for NaNo than I would have if I was still occasionally writing the novel, BUT … I heard once that for every day you do not write, it takes 3 days to get back into the mindset, or the groove, or whatever you want to call it, to write. THIS IS TRUE.  THIS IS 100% TRUE!  As a consequence, I battled some fierce resistance and could not get settled into the writing “groove” for most of November. It was so bad that I distinctly remember the day it finally began to get a little better: November 20th.  Yes. It took that long to even BEGIN to get better.

Embed from Getty Images

2) I did not really plot the novel beforehand.  “But your Boot Camps!” you insist.  Yes, my Boot Camps. But I had already DONE the Boot Camps.  You see, this NaNo my goal was to complete the novel I’d begun for NaNo 2013. I had the thing almost entirely plotted since November of 2013. I did do a bit of tinkering with the back end of the outline before this year’s NaNo, but nothing near involved enough.  Because frankly, I just DIDN’T KNOW. I should have made myself sit down and really hash out some ideas, at least.  But I did not.  I glossed over the plotting and outlining bit this year because I thought that part was really already done. Which it was. But it needed to be done BETTER. If it had been done better, the 20 days of agony previously mentioned would have been slightly more tolerable, because at least I would have had a guidebook for SOMETHING to hang on to!

3) I did not attend the NaNoWriMo Official Kick Off Party.  Pffft, I thought.  I am a veteran now, I don’t need those kind of newbie rallies and going-over-of-basics and idea-generating-games! Turns out, this very seemingly minor absence had a huge impact on my mentality throughout the month.  Because a HUGE part of NaNoWriMo is in RITUAL AND ROUTINE! The previous two years, I did attend this Kick Off Party. And so it seems skipping out on it this year deprived me of a much-needed brain boost, or perhaps mangled the signal to my creative centers that it was TIME TO ACTUALLY WORK! Perhaps I don’t need the goings-over-of-basics or idea-generating-games (although I probably DID need this one, see #2)… but I DID need the ATMOSPHERE. The KICK OFF EVENT, as it turns out, is REALLY a KICK OFF EVENT!  For my brain, or subconscious, or muse, or whatever. I needsssss it.  Also, missing the event meant I missed out on the swag. Just little things, like the standard 30 day calendar sheet of paper they hand out at those things, not being taped to the corner of my writing desk as it had been the two years previous, made this year feel all out of whack. You can bet I won’t be making THAT mistake again!

4) I was anti-social with my fellow regional NaNoWriMo-ers.  The previous two years I was much more active on the forums, with sending messages back and forth to my new-found Writing Buddies on the website, and with actually talking to some of them face to face in the local Write In meet ups.  Plus, I attended MORE of the local meet ups previously than I did this year.  Now, I blame most of this one on the fact I now have my very own lovely writing group, and thus I felt it was not as necessary to seek out the company of other, unknown writers. But this was also wrong. Yes, I have a writing group, and they are awesome, and I am really lucky to have found all of them! BUT, that doesn’t mean I don’t need to expand my horizons, so to speak, lol. It’s refreshing and stimulating to converse with people you don’t know about writing, and even though it was my writing group who carried me through the month (and which is responsible for me finishing 4 days early!), interacting with strangers who are undertaking that same huge task as well also helps to concrete the event in my mind as something REAL and tangible and happening.  If that makes any sense. This year, I scarce said “Hello!” to anyone outside my writing group, even during the two Write Ins I did attend, and I think overall, again, it hurt my overall attitude throughout November.

So what DID happen this NaNoWriMo? Did I manage to do ANYTHING right!?!?!

Well yes I did.

For one, despite ALL OF THESE MISHAPS, I wrote 50,000 in 30 days. In fact, I did better than that. In fact, I wrote 50,100 words in 26 days. And after I hit the 50k goal, I KEPT WRITING. Yes, by the time November 30th rolled around, I had reached just over 54,700 words! Considering how roughly this NaNo started, and how HARD it was to sit down at the computer every day and hash out the daily quota, I’m quite surprised at the results.

I fought for almost every word this year. I stuck with it and battled my own self-sabotage and resistance until, finally, FINALLY at almost the very end, the words started coming along much more easily, the plot started falling into place, solutions presented themselves, the characters came back from their strike, and everything fell onto the keyboard of its own free will. I FINALLY, at almost the very end, reached THE ZONE again. Really and truly. And then I began to love to write again. I began to love the novel again. I became once more fully invested in that story.

And then NaNo ended, and reality came crashing back to me.  And for 10 more solid days I kept up the writing every day anyway, until I finally had to give it a rest because of the approaching holidays (see previous December Project List 2014 post). And having to quit writing every day HURT, because I knew I’d have to start that self-battle ALL OVER AGAIN when I finally went back to writing consistently.

But at least now I really do know one thing for sure: I CAN DO IT.

I can beat the self-sabotage and resistance. I can conquer procrastination. I can banish excuses.

I can absolutely write decently even when every word is like pulling a perfectly healthy molar.

And I know for sure that eventually the writing will not feel like I’m pulling a perfectly healthy molar anymore.  Eventually, it will become wonderful again.

So.  Here is what I have learned from NaNoWriMo The Third Which Was Definitely NOT The Charm:

1. TAKE AS LITTLE TIME OFF FROM YOUR WRITING AS YOU CAN HANDLE. The more time you take off, the harder it will be to begin again. Period. ESPECIALLY do not take time off from a project if you plan to work on it during NaNo. In fact, if you plan to begin a new project, STILL work on it pre-NaNo, even if it’s just writing out a few scenes. Or writing out an outline. DO SOMETHING PHYSICAL. DO SOMETHING BESIDES JUST THINK ABOUT IT!

2. DEFINITELY PRE-PLOT, AS MUCH AS YOU CAN. Pantsers, you too. See my Boot Camp posts for some things you can still do to prepare yourself. Trust me, every little bit will help you, even as a pantster.

3. ATTEND NANOWRIMO EVENTS!  Even if it’s more about the ritual than the actual content of the events.

4. SOCIALIZE MORE WITH OTHER WRITERS OUTSIDE OF THE WRITING GROUP.  Because it’s good to be social every now and then.

5. JUST WRITE. WRITE AND WRITE AND WRITE. Forget distractions, forget excuses, forget the nagging little voice in your head telling you it’s crap, that you’re just not “feeling it”, that you must be “inspired” to write, that you’re behind and you’ll never make the word goal. SHUT UP AND JUST WRITE. You’ll find you’ll write all those inner-critics and excuses right into oblivion, where they vanish into smoke and dust.

Embed from Getty Images

6. FIND PEOPLE. If not for my writing group, I may not have succeeded this year. But because most of them were kicking my word count ass most of the month, the competitive streak in me would not allow myself to give up, no matter how desperately I wanted to. (At let me tell you, at 1am when I was still struggling to hit the daily word count, knowing I had to be up again in a few hours to work and take care of a kid and animals and a house — I really, really, REALLY wanted to give up on NaNo.) You NEED a support group of some kind or another.  Whether to cry with or compete with. Find someone who shares your writing passion and form your own group. HOW? Well, go to your local NaNo forums. Go to local conferences and conventions. Be friendly. Talk to people. You’ll be amazed at who you’ll find.

Yeah, this November was full of much wailing and gnashing of teeth.

But I did it anyway. I kicked NaNo’s ass three years in a row.

And you know, all SEVEN out of SEVEN in my writing group did, too!

And every year I learn more and more about myself, my writing habits, and what it means to call yourself a “writer”.

So there.