Five Things I Learned From NaNoWriMo

There were only three blog posts last month; one was a blog post explaining how busy I was going to be in November, one was an Internet meme about books, and one was a slapdash podcast me and Mark threw together on a whim. None of them were really content-heavy - I didn't do any reviews or rambles or anything like that. As I explained in 'A Month of Writing', I've basically been really busy writing other things over the course of November, and I haven't had much chance to focus on writing blog posts. There was a short story I started that didn't really work out, and an article on video games that is going pretty well. The main reason I was so busy in November, however, was NaNoWriMo.

NaNoWriMo is a worldwide event in which people attempt to write a 50 000 word novel over the 30 days of November. I explained it in more detail in 'A Month of Writing', or you can just go to their website and read about it for yourself there. Basically, I attempted to participate over the course of last month and, all things considered, I failed miserably. I ended up with a wordcount total of just over 16 000 words; 34 000 off of my target for the end of the month. I think it's worth saying that I wrote all of those in the first 13 days of the month - I gave up after that, due to exhaustion and the fact that I was already behind. However; in the course of participating, I learned a couple of things about writing. Some of them were completely new to me, others I had always sort of known about, but taking part in NaNoWriMo made them more tangible. So here's five things that I learned from NaNoWriMo.


1. Deadlines Mean Productivity

I'm starting with the obvious one, but in every situation, working to a deadline will mean an increase in output. This isn't just true in writing, it's true in every facet of life; if you have a deadline, it helps you defeat the procrastination demon of 'why do today what you can put off until tomorrow?' With NaNoWriMo, the 30 day limit for writing is about as harsh as it gets, so it's impossible to put off the work until tomorrow if you want to stay in the game. As the final hour draws closer, you will begin to write more and more frantically, and you will begin to push out pages and pages where otherwise you would be struggling to write a sentence. The approaching finish line will keep writing front and center in your mind as it looms ominously. Deadlines also provides motivation, and motivation is vital in writing. In fact...


2. Keep Motivated

This is one of the most important lessons, and I think I failed NaNoWriMo this year because I didn't adhere to this point. Basically, it is vital that when you are writing something, be it a short story or a full-length novel, you keep yourself interested and enthusiastic about the piece. Motivation comes in a million different shapes and sizes, so do whatever you believe will motivate you. Tell everyone you know you're going to write a novel, so they can give you pep talks or pressure you to write. Maybe block yourself from the Internet if it's distracting you, or even just hang big posters around your house that say 'WRITE A NOVEL!' in big red letters. Whatever you do, staying motivated is the key to success. I lost interest in my novel around the month's midway point, for a number of reasons, and once you lose interest you are fighting a lost battle.


3. Plan Ahead

This point is entirely subjective and varies from author to author. Some writers like to meticulously think through each of their scenes, whereas some writers just go with the flow. So consider this point more of a suggestion than the others. Planning ahead will save you a great deal of headaches when you are in the thick of writing your novel, churning out words at a rapid pace. You don't want to lose any of the momentum you've (hopefully) built up by stumbling on a plot hole, or realising that you just don't like that scene you've just written. This happened to me around chapter 4 of my novel, and it seriously impacted on my word count. I could have remedied that problem with planning; if you work out a rough draft of how your story will go, it makes the actual writing process much easier.

4. Don't be Afraid of First Drafts

Editing a story you have written is not usually a fun process. Going through, line by line, cutting out parts that don't work and replacing them with new things that do, can be a tedious process if you've just finished writing, because the story is still fresh in your mind and it may be difficult to get an objective view of the piece. As a result, you might be inclined to avoid first drafts, as they require a lot of editing by definition to turn into full, finished stories. I certainly felt that way before NaNoWriMo, and would often spend a lot of time getting one scene just right before moving onto the next. But this is a mistake; first drafts, I've learned, are actually an infinitely valuable way of getting your novel onto its feet. Because you know you're going to be coming back and rewriting everything later, it's okay to experiment or change your mind about things. For example, I decided during chapter 5 that I was going to relocate my story to an entirely different location. Because I was going to go back and edit the older chapters later, I was free from going back and editing them right there and then. That meant I could just carry on with chapter 5 uninhibited, so no time was wasted and I was able to implement the change easily. Another great thing about first drafts is that you can leave parts of the story 'under construction'; when I was having a hard time with a scene, I just wrote a quick note to myself explaining how the scene should end, then carried onto the next scene. I got to move past my writer's block, and I was safe in the knowledge that the scene would be finished later in editing.


5. Spread Out the Exposition

While the other points have all been quite vague and general, this one is more focused because it's a problem that I struggle a lot with when I'm writing. Exposition is basically the act of giving the reader information - this could be background trivia, or important story details that advance the plot. A big problem with exposition is that, generally, it isn't much fun to read or write when done in large doses. When an author provides too much exposition in a scene, it is referred to as a 'plot dump', and this is often a problem because the writing may feel forced; for example, if two characters are providing excessive exposition through their dialogue, the dialogue would feel unnatural and stilted. Another problem is that exposition given in the form of description, or as an opening narrative, can be very tedious for a reader. The solution to these problems is to spread your exposition out; the reader doesn't need to know everything at once. If you are setting your story in a fantasy world, do not fully introduce the world immediately. Instead, describe it only when necessary and bring the reader into it slowly. If, as another example, you are trying to unveil the killer in a murder mystery, do not fall into the trap of having the murderer break down at the end and explain the whole plot, in detail, through excessive monologue; instead, reveal the inner workings of the murder over several scenes, so that the climactic final reveal feels more natural.

So those are five writing points that I learned from my failed participation in NaNoWriMo. I hope that at least one person reading is a struggling writer who maybe took something away from one of those points. I will, if all goes to plan, be following these points when I re-attempt NaNoWriMo next year.

Since this is my first post of the new month, I'm pretty much obliged to link you to the Doctor Who: Re-Incarnated website so you can check out our latest story. It was written by Mark and features Jack the Ripper! Exciting, right?

Apologies for any typos, grammatical errors, sentences that don't make sense, or general stupidity; I wrote this at 2am in the morning. I'll come back tomorrow and re-edit it, looking for any problems I've missed in my current sleepy state. Thanks for reading.