Photo Credit: Chris Blakeley (Flickr.com) Used under CCL
This is my sixth year participating in NaNoWriMo, but it’s hard for me to really count my first year; when I started in 2006, I was working in retail management and just didn’t have time to write 50,000 words in a month. Though I tried my best, I only made it about 20,000 words in. Ultimately, I gave up because my job was so demanding that I was just too tired to write a story that, quite honestly, I wasn’t all that happy with anyhow.
Of course, if I had a time machine, I’d definitely put it to use by travelling back to 2006 and offering my past self some tips on how to finish that first story. In the four NaNoWriMo events since, I’ve learned a number of tricks to keep myself writing so that the required 1,667 words a day really don’t take that long to bang out. And, since a time machine has yet to be invented yet (and probably won’t be in my lifetime, because I have yet to come back from the future and try to change my own destiny or, more likely, play any practical jokes on myself), I might as well pass these tips on to others, because they’re really useful.
We’ll start with what I call the 15-minute miracle. Over the last few years, I’ve really come to appreciate the power of writing in short bursts, and I’ve learned from my own NaNoWriMo experiences and from writing with others that one of the best way to get 500 or more words down on paper is to set aside 15 minutes of quiet, focused writing. During this time, no distractions are allowed. Nothing should be looked up on the internet, no phone calls or text messages should be responded to, and no one should be checking email, Twitter or Facebook. It’s just the writer and the novel, passionately embraced.
What’s amazing is that these 15-minute bursts are often just as productive (if not more so) for writers than a full hour of more casual writing. The time constraint forces the story to flow, and the writer is not allowed to stop just because things aren’t working out. Rather, the burst forces the writer to either deal with problems and to ignore them, overcome them or force the characters to think through them. There’s no time for analysis; the right side of the brain is given carte blanche to come up with whatever it wants. Sometimes, this yields some sloppy writing that will need to be revised out down the road, but just as often, it yields some brilliant writing that can be polished and built upon to make the story even better.
When I see a writer struggling, I often tell them to plan out three or four little 15-minute breaks throughout the day to do nothing but write. These can be taken during work or school, and they can also become a part of the daily routine. During the time that’s not being spent writing, the conscious and subconscious mind can be thinking about what will happen next. And during the short bursts of time where writing is occurring, all of that thought can be synthesized into something great.
In my experience, most writers can bang out 400-500 words at a minimum during these 15-minute challenges. That means that four 15-minute sessions (or 60 minutes throughout the day) are all that are required to meet the daily NaNoWriMo quota of 1,667 words. And, since the writer’s time is being spent more efficiently than trying to block out two or three hours of less focused writing, there’s more time to devote to all those things writers tend to give up during NaNoWriMo, like cooking their own meals, getting some housework done, or enjoying the company of non-writers.
A few other tips I’d offer include:
- Don’t spend too much time drafting a story skeleton, a world bible or any of those other time-consuming pre-NaNoWriMo tools. I’m definitely the sort of person who likes to plot out my stories in detail and plan out the structure prior to writing the first word. But you know, that process doesn’t benefit me in the long run, because it doesn’t give my characters much room to breathe and it stifles me creatively if I see a new direction I want to take things in, but find myself forced to try to stick to an outline.
My advice is to write out a brief treatment (no more than 5 pages) and a list of the characters planned prior to NaNoWriMo and to let that be the most you do. Both of these documents should simply serve as guides to keep you on track, and not as story bibles that force you into a path you planned before you’d started the actual writing.
- Keep a list of names handy. I’ve talked about how to generate quick character names, but no one says you can’t get those details ready beforehand. It can be really useful to have a few stock character names (and perhaps even some descriptions!) on a list you can refer to when and if you get stuck. In a pinch, you can also “cast” some actors or actresses in your story and change their names later once you’ve gotten to know their characters.
- Write the parts of the story you’re most excited to tell. One of the biggest mistakes I see people make during NaNoWriMo stems from the idea that a story must be told in a linear fashion. I recommend avoiding this line of thinking and writing in fragments that can be pieced together more neatly later. For one thing, it’ll help you to stay interested in your work – a very important goal during a month of novel-writing. But for another thing, if a section of the story is getting boring to you as the writer, it’s quite likely going to get boring to your editors and readers down the road as well. So, skip ahead to the parts you’re most interested in writing and piece things together during the revision phase. You can always insert a bracketed paragraph explaining how your characters got from point A to point B, and you might find that, later on, point A wasn’t such a big deal anyhow.
- Do your research when you’re not writing. If you have the time before NaNoWriMo or during November downtime to conduct research, great. Otherwise, just fake it while you’re writing and add in details later in revision. You’d be surprised how much less important it is to get historical details precise than it is to make sure your characters or plot are actually interesting. And if you’re writing a research-intensive historical fiction novel, don’t fret; just keep your references handy and dive back into them for inspiration when you’re not focused on your writings bursts.
- Move problematic writing to the graveyard. The graveyard is a section of your document where you can store any writing you’ve done that’s just not working out and which you want to remove from the continuity. Believe it or not, the graveyard is useful both in the writing phase (it keeps your word count up) and in the revision phase (it gives you ideas for different ways of telling the story and often preserves some decent writing you failed to appreciate when you crafted it!). It’s easy to hit the delete key – I used to do it all the time! – but it’s much better to hold on to whatever hits the cutting room floor, because it could come in handy later.
Great post filled with useful advice. I loved the idea about having a writing graveyard. I never thought to put the problematic writing at the end and to worry about it at a later time. Going to have to add that to my writing arsenal.
Because I’m doing my novel so…last minute (last year I planned how I wanted it to go for months), I’m working on my character list and treatment. Thank you for these suggestions.