Welcome to another edition of WriteOn!, where we gather to discuss writing (fiction and non-fiction).
So my experience with NaNoWriMo, after years of success (2013-2020), was less than ideal this year. I got to see the “it’s not entirely about the word count!” emails from the NaNoWriMo folks, which I’d never seen before, and I have some thoughts.
Two years ago, I shared some things I learned from doing NaNoWriMo, and this year I learned a whole new set of lessons.
But first, let’s check in on the folks who set goals (me included sigh), and see how we did:
Aashir’s nani: just keep writing
BigIrish310: 50,000 words. On track so far.
bonetti: 50,000 words, rehoming and rebuilding a previous story — approx 5k words as of 11/18, then landed in NeroWolfe-ian pickle as of 11/25.
David Pax: more work on prequel to Without Gravity - outlined key event scene.
dconrad: 50,000 words - 71,605 as of 11/26!
elenacarlena: 50,000 words, at 2000 words per writing session - appx 20,000 wds + research as of 11/25.
hay seed: new story: 50 words + multiple sentence tear-downs & rebuilds as of 1//25.
mettle fatigue: revise & post to OFPMFP an already-drafted short story— might be ¾ there as of 11/25.
NoBlinkers: 50,000 words on novel Amidst the Dry Dust - 45,146 words as of 11/25.
not a lamb: 10,000 words — 2695 as of 11/25.
reppa: developing something for January — 3500 words, maps & sketches of story locations, some scenes, backgrounds & descriptions as of 11/25.
strawbale: finish section one, at least, of alien novella - 3800 as of 11/25.
Toro Blanco: trying to finish my Charlie Turner novel - 4322 words
(I will update from the comments over the next couple days, starting with the final updates to mettle fatigue’s entry from last week)
And now, some lessons learned this year, below the fold.
I think the important lesson for me is that, now that I’m working on stuff all year, the constraints of a single month no longer fit into my schedule. If I can’t wrap up my current project (or at least reach a nice stopping point), it’ll impact my ability to switch gears. I still had a not-quite-but-almost-complete revision that I’d paused to switch to NaNoWriMo. I probably would’ve been better served wrapping that up, even though it would’ve really cut into prep time.
Second, if I’m in the wrong headspace, I simply can’t write certain types of stories. I was enthused about this in summer, when it looked like things were looking up and I’d just read a book that left me wanting to write my own in the genre (paranormal romance). But by fall, I was ground down by lots of external things, and my ability to brainstorm fun & cute & cuddly was shot. Never getting the initial traction stopped me from being able to build on it. I didn’t recognize this until too late to find a way to switch gears (about the halfway mark on the month).
Third, my usual approach of “new first draft” was also a drag, because I have a large pile of NaNo & Camp NaNo drafts already (fifteen, I think, though I didn’t carefully check my history). Even if I’d run with a new idea, I could see I’d be adding to a pile of future drafts.
Fourth, in creating a video for the space cruise, it turns out that hard deadlines work (if the hard deadline is real and can’t be ignored). It makes choosing to compromise easier, and I could’ve noodled away at this for weeks more, but I’d committed to a time and date, and had to hit the target. “Good Enough” was good enough, and that’s not something I apply to revision.
I knew a lot of this going in, and tried anyway. Now, I’m filing away the need to pay attention when I’m just not feeling the enthusiasm, and figure out why. Maybe, after eight events, it’s time to stop. I mean, I skipped both Camps this year, and that’s the first time I skipped either since I started doing NaNo.
My region was much more inactive than last year. Almost no one did any organized virtual write-ins, our ML was unusually uncommunicative on what’s going on, and there was no scheduling. We had a discord server, but no really organized sprinting. Last year, there was a lot of energy behind replicating the normal feel, but online, but this year I think we had no new blood and a bunch of people tired of trying. (Even some of the returning first-timers from last year were revising or dropped out.)
And I think that fed my lack of enthusiasm, too. There was no feedback loop, at least not the usual one. It turns out, the previously learned “who knew writing can be a social activity” is still true.
But it wasn’t an entirely unproductive month!
Four people crossed the 50k line on my region’s discord server during sprints on the 30th, so that was exciting. I did a rerun of last year’s virtual train ride, and a brand new virtual space cruise. (I even did the 3D render for the cruise myself, including some fun warp effects, timing everything for our region’s standard 20/10 sprints (20 minutes writing, 10 minute break).) So, new skills, and something sorta artistic.
And I did do some writing, just not a lot.
I’m going to close with an excerpt from Grant Faulkner’s email I got (not having hit 50k):
Dear Writer,
I want to address a somewhat inaccurate word we use at NaNoWriMo. We call people who reach 50,000 words “winners.” They are winners, of course, and I never want to diminish their achievement in any way, but what I don’t like about the word “winner” is that it implies that everyone who wrote less than 50,000 words isn’t a winner.
You’re a winner in my book. Here are some reasons why:
- To put your voice into the world is to win.
- To encourage another writer to write is to win.
- To tell yourself that your story matters is to win.
- To simply imagine a story and interrupt a day’s mundane, inglorious tasks is to win.
- To ask “What if …?” is to win.
[…]
It’s too easy not to aspire, to cave into negativity and naysaying, to let patterns of inertia take hold of us. Please take a moment to think of one thing you’re proud of doing this past month, and then figure out what you want to aspire to next.
And I think that’s a pretty good post-NaNo month exercise, too.
I imagined a space cruise venue for a write-in and made it happen. That’s not nothing. I found that the core pieces of an old draft really do work, they just need some attention when I’m in a cuddlier place.
What are you proud of doing in November?
Happy writing!
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