What I learned from NaNoWriMo

1. Prepare before writing. Every time I have gone to write a long piece, I have failed because I did not prepare. I didn’t write an outline or do character bios. Much thanks goes out to SoCalScribe for his articles and challenges on how to prepare for NaNoWriMo. The article on story structure made all the difference in the world.

2. Preparations need not be in-depth. A short synopsis of each scene and a short bio of the main characters are enough to write a rough draft. I was struggling to fill out this long in-depth bio sheet when SoCalScribe ’s challenge came up to write short character bios. I decided to try that and found myself struggling to get under his word limit, but finding it to be exactly what I needed.

3. Detailed outlines are a double-edge sword. On one hand, writing detailed outlines of each scene help me accomplish my goals and not allow me to flounder. On the other hand, going too in-depth can hamper my ability to write creatively and freely.

4. Outlines are a guide and not written in stone. Detours will happen often as the characters take over or my muse hits me with inspiration. Go off-course and then re-adjust and get back on track as best as possible. Or revise the outline as I see certain aspects not working.

5. Keep a list of people, places and things. As I write, the names of new people, places and things will pop up. It’s much easier to add them to a list than to try to find which scene I wrote it in later when I need to reference it.

6. Set a writing schedule that fits into my life. Determine the days/weeks that I have more time to write and the days/weeks that I will have less time to write. Establish a schedule with achievable goals. Once the goal has been reached, relax and pat myself on the back and enjoy the rest of my life without the stress.

7. Slow and steady wins the race. Every time I tried to push myself to write more, I got sick from the stress. Stay focused on my goal for that day or week and work towards it steadily. Don’t raise the bar because life happens and I want to enjoy it and the time I spend writing. I can’t do that if I’m sick.

8. Have a support network. Telling my friends and family helped keep me going when I wanted to stop. Having an almost daily email exchange with Krislgreen novel minded who was also doing NaNoWriMo helped motivate me to keep going to my goal.

9. Posting my work kept me from looking back. One thing I was worried about was looking back over my work and spending time revising rather than moving forward. To prevent myself from doing this, I posted my work every day. Once it was posted, I didn’t allow myself to revise because I wasn’t going to revise my posts. In this manner, I tricked myself into only looking back over the previous couple of paragraphs to remind myself of where I was going. Even though I saw many obvious errors and character mix-ups, I did not go back and revise.

10. I am neither a morning writer nor a marathon writer. In effort to not alienate my husband, I promised him that I would write on my novel when I got up in the morning before him. However, I found I didn’t write very well or quickly. I ended up taking most of the mornings on my off days to meet my goals. My best days were when I went to work because my writing was broken up into little chunks throughout the day. On those days, I often surpassed my goals.