Once again, I am jumping into the insanity of National Novel Writing Month. Last year, for the first time in a series of efforts, I actually won—I had a 50,000 word draft of a novel I titled Too Close. Yay, me!
Unfortunately, most of those 50,000 words are not good. Not good at all. When I am ready again to focus on this novel (I LOVE the premise, although I am not ready to share it), I’ll have to start pretty much from scratch. Hopefully, I’ll be able to salvage some of the better sections.
Consequently, this year I’m doing things differently. I’ll share with you the lessons I learned the hard way.
Lesson #1: Plan your story. The rules of Nano permit and even encourage outlining of your plot and scenes. I do always plot but in the past I’ve waited until Nanowrimo started to really look at the story in detail.
Lesson #2: Plan your time. I work, so scheduling writing time is essential—in the past, I’ve just winged it. Bad idea. I’m also going to be realistic about holiday expectations, meals in general, and well…housekeeping.
Lesson #3: Screw housekeeping. “A clean house is a symptom of a rigid mind.” I heard that somewhere. Really. did.
Lesson #4: Sedate the “internal editor”. Prevailing wisdom says to turn off your internal editor. You know, the voice in your head that tells you your writing sucks. But in order to prevent ending up with a huge percentage of words you can’t use, you need a little self-editing. Instead of killing him or her off (or “it”—My internal editor is a pesky troll named STFU), just give it a valium. Or a hard punch in the head. This will help you achieve a balance between letting the words flow and making sure they’re good.
Lesson #5: Hire a dog/cat sitter. Or leave the house. If you are lucky enough to not have an attention-seeking or high-strung puppy or kitty then this doesn’t apply to you. My Chloe is a marauder and a menace. I LOVE HER DEARLY but cheese and rice she doesn’t like me to work. I have to leave the house.
I hope you find a few kernels of help in these lessons. If you’re participating in #NanoWriMo2019, good luck. And if you’re in need of a Buddy, drop me a tweet @TrevannRogers or a comment and let’s connect.
