What I Learned from NaNoWriMo 2012

My goodness.  Let me just say that I am really glad November is over.  If you are wondering why I did not happen to post here after November 2nd, and you guessed that it could have had something to do with needing to write 50k words in 30 days, you would be correct.  I really had no time to do anything extra in any spare time throughout November because every minute was spent working on my word count.  I wrote in cars, in trucks, on airplanes, next to swimming pools in Las Vegas.  I wrote over lunchtimes, naptimes, and after bedtimes.  I wrote down my word count everyday, I checked the word counts of my writing buddies on the NaNo site everyday.  I made it to the first leg of the Traveling Marathon o' Doom and met other local Wrimos, I met up with my local Wrimo friend Sarah B. on several occasions, I made it to one Write In at the Writer's Place toward the end and learned I wasn't the only one suffering from brain-melt and burn-out.  But wow.  I did it.  I actually freakin' did it.  I still even now can't wrap my head around it entirely.  I go back and look at all the chapters, the scenes, the research I compiled, the 234 pages of Word Document that is just MY NOVEL, all written (but not finished, not yet!) in one month, and stare and shake my head.  I go back and reread what I wrote and don't even remember writing it!  But I like it, and that's good I guess.  I am so very glad Sarah B. talked me into doing this with her.  I feel it has finally broken down my wall of hesitation and excuses and gotten me through to the other side.  I've learned so very much in this last 30 days, and I wanted to write it down so I won't forget, and so maybe others might get something out of it, too!

1) Outlining is good.  I know, I know, there are tons of people who freak out over the idea of outlines.  Many successful novelists don't outline.  But secretly, I think they do.  They have to start from SOMEWHERE, after all.  They have to have some vague notion of what the story is, what it's about, the characters, what the end goal is.  They may not write it down, but I betcha it's in their heads.  Of note, one of the people I met at the NaNo Kick Off Party said she had no idea what her story was about, she just knew the character was looking for what was missing in her life, but even the author didn't know what that was yet.  No big deal.  But she only wrote 7k words over November.  I have a feeling that if she had taken some time to at least write down some more outline, even just some random ideas, she would have had better luck.  For me personally, I have discovered it's easiest for me if I have a very bare bones outline done, with at least the major points of the story hashed out.  I veered away from the outline quite extensively through the discovery of just writing, as I remember having done in high school with the stories I was writing then, but the outline gave me a direction and a goal to work toward, which still kept my on-the-fly creations in line with the theme of the story.  Otherwise, I probably would have had to cut out a good deal of what I wrote in November, and that kind of negates the point, doesn't it?

2) When it doubt, just write!  There were so many times during the month that I had only a vague notion of what I wanted to happen, or no notion at all of what should come next, but I wrote anyway, and while writing even the smallest part of what I did know, the solutions to the rest presented themselves in true EUREKA! fashion.  There is something about just getting the words onto the page and letting the characters show you and tell you what they want to do that really works to solve alot of problems and fill alot of plot holes.  The reason the story has veered from my outline is because I listened to the characters.  They took me in unexpected directions, and even in scenes where I thought I knew exactly what would happen, it still amost always never went that way.  You have to trust your story, your characters, and most of all yourself.  You can always edit later… deepen, add to, cut out, pare down, tweak.  For the rought draft, it is just extremely important to get butt in char, fingers on keyboard, no matter what!  I think this was my biggest problem in never working on my original fics over the past few years.  I kept comparing writing original works to writing fanfiction.  In fanfic, I always know almost the entire layout of the story, each scene and each character reaction, before I even begin.  I kept waiting to KNOW EVERYTHING before I started on my original novel.  But I just don't think original works operate like that.  You just can't know everything from the beginning, because it is unexplored and untamed territory, and the characters are strangers in the beginning.  You have to embark on the journey to learn the twists and turns, there's just no other way to go about it.  So what if you have no idea what will happen in the entire middle of your book – start writing the beginning, and then even the end, just write whatever you DO know, and the rest will come to you as you go!

3) Except for one time, in which the idea struck me while in the shower.  So, if it's really just not coming to you, take a break.  Do something else.  I took walks, I stared at the wall, I showered (to the great relief of my family), I did laundry and dishes and cleaned the litter boxes.  I read other books and watched a movie or two for inspiration.  I talked to other people who are writing to bounce ideas around.  I was so frustrated by my writer's block and the gaping blank screen at the Write In that I wanted to hurl my laptop across the room.  (I recommend NOT doing that, however.)  Like in most other aspects of life, try not to let your emotions get the better of you… eat chocolate.  That's what I did.  I ate lots of chocolate and glared at my screen for awhile, and then I decided to just skip ahead to another scene I vaguely knew (and then the words just started coming right out again!), which brings me to my next point…

4) Writing out of order is okay!  This is hard for me with my original stuff.  I do it occasionally in my fanfiction, when I have an espcially awesome scene that I just can't wait to get out of my head.  But with the novel, I really hesitated to do this.  I think because I knew that through the discovery writing, things leading up to the future scene would change, meaning that scene itself would likely have to change, so by writing it ahead of time, I was really only creating more work for myself in having to change the scene later.  But eventually, desperate for more words before the 30 day deadline, I caved and began writing future scenes.  At least it's something, something related to the novel.  And you know, the world didn't explode.  Time didn't stop.  The universe kept on going.  And I think writing those future scenes, one of which was the beginning of the climax, might have just gotten things rolling again for the "current" scene.  That's the thing, and I've heard many successful authors talk about this too – if you just WRITE, something, anything, even if you are just copying a page from another book, sometimes that can get you unstuck, one way or another.

5) Writing is hard.  Yep, I said it.  My high school self, and probably even my pre-NaNo self, would have scoffed at this.  It's not ALWAYS hard, for sure.  Sometimes it is lovely and wonderful and quick and inspiring and all that jazz, but I can now admit to myself that sometimes, especially when you are trying to meet a deadline on word count, it is just damn hard.  This was probably the most wonderful experience ever in my life for preparing me for the business side of writing.  Even novelists have deadlines for edits or even the creation of a new book if they have signed on for a series.  A 2010 Wrimo winner recently published her NaNo book and sold the trilogy.  Well she told us that she had to rewrite the second book for the publisher – 75k words in six weeks.  Granted, rewriting is slightly easier than pulling raw material out of your whazoo, but still… that is one tall order!  But she said she knew she could do it because she had managed to get through 50k words of creation in 30 days.  Now I will have a similar experience to draw from.  I know that feeling angry and cranky and exhausted and burnt-out is okay while writing a novel.   Christopher Paolini said he would write till 2am some days for his later Eragon books when he was getting close to his deadline.  Now I completely understand that on a whole new level.  It's learning to accept that and push through it… knowing when to take breaks but also when to push yourself.  I really liked not being able to back down and say, "Well, not today."  Because that's what I've done in the past and that's why this idea has been in my head since 2005 but is just now seeing the light of day.  Sure, I didn't really have consequences for not making the word count, but being accountable to just other random people on the NaNo site was enough to light a fire under my ass, so I imagine having a real agent or editor wanting something by a certain deadline should be no problem at all now!

6) A support system is crucial!!!  Don't care where you get it, but you need one.  You just do.  Trust me.  No, don't argue.  You are not some mighty lone ranger here.  You are a writer, which means you love feedback.  I know, you pretend it's not a big deal, but it is.  Just admit it. 😉  But seriously… one of the things I've rather recently realized about myself is this fun little fact.  That's why I became so addicted to fanfiction… it's instant feedback.  So I determined to find people working on their original stuff much like I found fellow fanfic writers to talk shop with.  The search for original fiction writers was much more difficult than the search for fellow genre fanfic writers, unfortunately.  But they are out there.  And NaNo probably helped me the most in this area.  The website lists regions, and you pick your local region, and then you have the opportunity to meet other local people who are also obsessed with writing, and if you find anyone you'd like to be friends with, fantastic!  Throughout the year many wrimos hold periodic write-ins amongst themselves, so you can keep up the writerly inspiration even after NaNo.  I am also very lucky to have found Sarah B., with whom I share more than just writerly interests, and of course I am hanging on to my awesome fanfic friends because many of them are awesome enough to let me sometimes ramble on about my original stuff! 

7) When writing on a deadline, there is no time to think or research!  This was also hard for me, but I managed.  I feel that going into my next NaNo, I want to have a better outline, but I will still allow a lot of discovery writing room.  I do think most of my problem with my missing middle is that I haven't done enough research to populate ideas.  I really think once I take some time to breathe and can actually stop to look up various things, the research will give me new ideas for what I can do in the middle of the novel.  During November, though, I didn't have the time.  Which is why I began skipping ahead.  Now that NaNo is over, I can look into more research of mythology and I am quite sure I will eventually come up with a few satisfactory scenarios which might befall our heroine and her escorts.  I feel I now have a plan that will work well for each subsequent novel: begin with outline, write "hot" as they say, like during NaNo, in a sprint, just to get it done and see what comes out.  Next, do more research and edit the rough draft to add more depth and layers, using Victoria Lynn Schmidt's "Book in a Month" and Donald Maas' "The Breakout Novelist" for guidance.  Schmidt's BIAM is excellent, but there is a lot of thought that goes in to her worksheets, and I don't think there's time for that kind of thinking during NaNo.  😛  Afterwards, however, I think it would be very useful to hone the craziness that might come out during a month of word sprinting.  And Maas' book is just invaluable so far, and I've hardly begun it!  Much work to do in the editing phase, but I feel I have good instructors to follow when I get to that point. 

8) Coffee really is delicious.  I never considered myself addicted to coffee, but I might be now!  I can safely say that I drank more coffee in the single month of November than I probably had during the three months prior!  Alas, most Write Ins were held at coffee houses, and when Sarah B, and I met, we always met somewhere that served delicious coffee.  And when you are surrounded by the wonderful aroma of coffee, and most everyone around is drinking it, and you want to buy something from the place so they don't frown upon you occupying a table for a good five hours or so, you buy coffee.  So I bought coffee.  Mostly pumpkin spice lattes.  Gosh, they were good.  Gustos! has especially strong coffee, I found out, and being "amped up" on caffeine actually does help with the writing.  Of course, so does being slightly tipsy on wine.  Hrm.  Well, I'll probably just stick to coffee.  I am now actually considering buying an espresso machine.  Yeah.  I probably shouldn't encourage the habit.  If only coffee and writing didn't go so well together!!  Argh….

9) I.CAN.DO.IT.  This is the most important, by far.  After having felt out of touch with my own novel!muse for so long, getting back to it was like wading through fog.  NaNo cut right through that fog.  It gave me friends, accountability, tangibility, an outside goal, a way to track the goal, funny and serious and really, really good pep talks along the way.  They gave me a video of the staff cheering and clapping when I validated my word count and a spiffy certificate to hang on my wall or frame on my desk.  Somehow they made "winning", even when you don't actually "win" anything, feel REAL, and that I did something monumental.  I guess it is sort of monumental.  When I look at those 234 pages, it seems surreal.  When I say "50 thousand words" to most people I know they turn pale and their eyes glaze over, either that or they simply don't comprehend at all.  So I guess it really is something.  A crazy accomplishment.  Just like the Writer's Digest workshop, it is a huge confidence booster.  Even if you really did write 50k words on Frank the backstabbing zombie unicorn… you wrote 50k words!  You can do SOMETHING with it.  I mean, I haven't seen any books about zombie unicorns out there yet, you know?  You never know what's inside of you until you try!  And I did it.  I actually did it.  Wow.

Despite having possibly developed an addiction to caffeine, I am super glad I participated in NaNoWriMo this year.  It was a priceless experience.  I have so much more trust in myself than I did before, far more confidence.  I plan to enter the next Writer's Digest short story contest due May 6th, 2013.  The max word count is 2k for genre fiction and 4k for literary fiction.  See, after NaNo, I could do that in my sleep!

And lastly, a little plug for NaNo, since they helped me out so much!  After all that wondefulness they offered, I donated to their cause, as they are a non-profit.  Won't you also help them help other writers realize their potential and…. Donate Maybe??  (Yes, they made a song about donating to NaNo to the melody of "Call Me Maybe" – hilarious! …) http://www.viddler.com/v/e253ba71