National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) has rolled around again. If you’re not familiar with NaNoWriMo, the goal is to write a 50,000 word novel in one month and thousands of people around the world take part in the challenge. I almost attempted it this year. I have my (probable) next book outlined and ready to go but my schedule is jam packed and I’ve been taking a bit of a break from writing. Adding the pressure of NaNoWriMo would have been bad for my mental health. But lots of people are attempting NaNoWriMo. If you’re one of these people then you’ve hit the halfway mark. Maybe you’re excited because your novel is hurtling along and you’re on track to finish your first draft by the end of the month (that’s a lot of your/you’re). Alternatively, you’re not. Maybe every day is a struggle and the pile of words remaining looks like an insurmountable hill to climb. If that’s you, it’s okay to abandon NaNoWriMo. You’re not a lesser writer because you haven’t managed to crank out a completely arbitrary 1,667 words a day during a pandemic. Take a break, refill your creative well then jump back onto the writing horse when … Read More
NaNoWriMoLax 2017
All around the world, writers are taking part in National Novel Writing Month and battling to write a 50,000 word novel in one month. NaNoWriMo as it’s known is an annual tradition that’s been running since 1999. It started with 21 people but now hundreds of thousands of people take part. Writing a novel in 30 days isn’t an easy task – the success rate in 2015 was roughly 10%. I’ve yet to seriously attempt NaNoWriMo. The timing never quite works out. This year was close – I was supposed to have finished the novella I’m working on and could have started my next book, but the novella turned into a novel. I guess in theory I could count the words on that novella as a NaNoWriMo project but that seems like cheating. Next year I’m definitely going to try to get organized, though. For a lot of people who are taking part, now is about the time where things get tricky. Thanksgiving is coming up, the original idea is starting to seem stale, and the words get harder and harder to come by. Which is where NaNoWriMoLax comes in. Here are 50 plot twists to get you going again. … Read More
NaNoWriMo – The End
Okay, NaNoWriMo is over. If you completed your 50,000 words (and if the Twitterverse is anything to go by, a lot of people did), congratulations. If you didn’t…don’t give up. Think back to the beginning of NaNoWriMo and the fresh faced young author eager to prove to the world that their story was worth telling, worth reading, maybe even worth publishing. If that enthusiasm is still there keep hold of it. If it’s gone or life has worn it down to a less exuberant level, nurture it. Think about what you love about writing and what prompted you to attempt NaNoWriMo in the first place and try to rekindle that spirit. Imagine your story out there in the world being read by thousands of people. Imagine the joy you’ll bring. Imagine the huge advances if you like (although I hope there’s more to your interest in writing than money). Whatever it takes, don’t stop writing. What THEY Don’t Want You To Know I’ll let you into a secret…There’s actually no rule that says you can only commit to writing during November. Shocking, I know. And guess what, even if you did complete your NaNoWriMo novel (and congratulations again by the way), … Read More
NaNoWriMo – Half Full or Half Empty
Okay, it’s the halfway point of NaNoWriMo, or thereabouts. How are you doing? By now you should be at about 25,000 words, give or take a few thousand. If you are, congratulations, keep up the good work. If not, don’t panic and certainly don’t give up. There’s still plenty of time. You’re obviously not writing now (after all, you’re reading my blog) so take a few minutes, step back and think about where you are – or aren’t. Assuming you really want to complete your novel…what’s stopping you? I don’t have time – What can you give up for the next fifteen days? Television? Movies? Shopping? Work? (Okay, maybe not that last one but if you’ve got spare vacation days perhaps now is the time to use them). How about sleep? Can you get up an hour earlier, go to bed an hour later? It’s always possible to find something to give up or postpone – if you really want to. It’s not good enough – Are you giving in to your internal editor? Are you spending too long crafting the perfect sentence? Don’t worry about quality yet. There’ll be time to revise and rewrite later, NaNoWriMo is an excuse to vomit whatever you can … Read More
NaNoWriMo
It’s November already and that means it’s time for NaNoWriMo. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the concept, NaNoWriMo is the National Novel Writing Month. Across the world, hundreds of thousands of writers are furiously scribbling away, trying to write a 50,000+ word novel by November 30th. That’s a lot of words in not a lot of time. For me personally, that means an average of four hours of writing a day for 30 days. If I managed to remove distractions like Google+, Twitter and Facebook then I might be able to get that down to three hours a day but even then, that’s a big commitment when you’re holding down a day job and training for a half marathon. Despite the challenge, thousands of people manage to finish their novels every year. Me, I’ll stick to a more modest goal – and fail miserably*. Maybe next year I’ll find a way to pick up the pace enough to join the fun. In the meantime, I’ll wish everyone taking part in NaNoWriMo luck, and keep my eye out for the next NaNoWriMo success story. If you want to find out more – and it’s never too late to join … Read More