Surviving National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo)
Survive or thrive? I know of only one state: survival.
National Novel Writing Month, which takes place every November, is the writing world’s biggest challenge of the year. It’s a month during which amateurs and professionals alike push themselves to write 50,000 words over a span of thirty days, or 1,667 words per day.
To some pros this is no big deal. Brandon Sanderson, for example, writes at least 2,000 words per day. But for amateurs with day jobs? Finicky writers who rely on a transient muse? That’s an unholy amount of words to write consistently every day for thirty days.
My own experiences with NaNoWriMo led me to a couple of weak attempts while in college and then finally a “win,” as it’s called, in 2017. The challenge had always piqued my interest. “Wow, an entire novel in just one month?” In my head I was already cashing checks, prepping my answers for author interviews, and trying to figure out how to tell my boss I’d need a hiatus from work to tour the country to promote my book. It sounds ridiculous because it is, but writers need imaginations, don’t we?
Two main reasons I was able to win
The first was resolve. I was now in my late twenties (gasp!) and I was starting to self-reflect with more honesty than I had in years about who I was and what I wanted to achieve in life. I’d dreamed about being an author since high school, and I felt like I was watching my life slip by without giving my dream a real shot. No longer could I say, “One day I will.” That day had come. That, or I should just admit it was a fleeting high school dream and give it up. Was I willing to do that? No? I resolved to make it real.
The second was pressure. I was due to begin graduate school the following January while continuing to work full-time, and I knew it’d be unreasonable to expect myself to be able to write while working and going to school. This was a rare moment in which I’d had realistic expectations for myself. If you’re a Type A perfectionist like me, maybe you can relate to that.
This clarity served me well. Since I acknowledged that writing wasn’t going to fit into my schedule for the next two-and-a-half years, I realized I’d be in my thirties by the time I graduated and would have time to write again. Reaching my thirties without having written a book was a sin my time-traveling high school self would kill me for, so my back was against the grad school wall. It was now or never.
It’s now or never
And that became my mantra that I repeated countless times throughout November.
This mindset, this resolve, this external pressure: they were the key ingredients that allowed me to survive. Without these I could have easily given up when the writing got tough. Believe me, it does.
You will need your own rock-solid mindset. When you have a day job, a spouse, and other responsibilities on top of trying to write 1,667 words per day, something has to give, and the easiest thing to give up is the writing. This a sure-fire way to let NaNoWriMo get the best of you.
What your brain tries to do during these difficult moments is the same thing it does when you set your alarm to wake up earlier than you’re used to. Suddenly your sleep brain becomes fluent in argumentative logic and can dismantle any reasons you come up with to get out of bed. It can also become a downright bully. It will do the same with your writing.
NaNoWriMo? You made a big mistake, buddy. It was a nice thought — you always were an ambitious dreamer — but…tsk tsk…you’re just not cut out for it. Imbecile.
Shut up, brain! It’s now or never.
The first half hype
Everyone starts out the month strong. Participants are hyped up on the stories they came up with during “Preptober,” (this how WriMos refer to the month of October, which is the designated month for prepping your novel), and the forums are alive with the activity and excitement of would-be, cash-checking authors.
I resolved to participate halfway into October, so I had two weeks of Preptober left to figure out a story. In that time I wrote a rough outline of my story and a few world-building documents and character sheets, I set a writing schedule for myself which amounted to “wake up early and write before work,” and in Excel I created a writing sprint tracker and a word count tracker. A snapshot of my word count tracker is below.
On November 1st, 2017, my alarm blared at 5 AM. No expertly-crafted logical argument from my sleep brain would phase my determination to get out of bed and get straight to the writing. And indeed, I did.
For the first ten days of the month I exceeded the daily word count goal. By the time I got to November 10th I’d built a word count surplus of over 2,000 words. Over those ten days I found that I couldn’t get all 1,667 words written before work; I averaged around 800–1,100 in the morning, leaving the remainder for after work. It was very important for me to get those 800–1,100 words done in the morning, however, because in the evening, after feeling exhausted from the workday, 1,667 words looked like a mountain, whereas 500–800 words was a molehill.
In the early days of the month, if I didn’t wake up early to get a chunk of my daily word count done, I was still able to achieve the daily word count goal after work through sheer willpower, but this was draining and not sustainable.
From my chart you can see a crack started to show on November 11th. I had a nice surplus so it wasn’t too bothersome, but clearly I overcompensated the next day. Come Monday I was back into the routine and kept it going through the 16th.
Halfway into the month of consistent writing isn’t too bad. A majority of participants quit after the first week. If you make it halfway, your chances are looking much better.
By the time I reached this point the forums were already full of people making excuses for why they were behind and others commiserating about why they were too. Negative self-talk and excuse-making are like honey for a stressed-out mind seeking any flimsy reason to quit, so I started avoiding forums around this time as well.
The second half slog
Beyond week two my writing became erratic. The intense writing schedule and the sacrifices were beginning to weigh on me. I was also over halfway into a story I only had a crude outline of, so I felt like I was writing nonsense and wasting my time. Here and there I’d write scenes I thought were quite good, but most of them weren’t. I was beginning to truly understand the concepts of story pacing, character development, exposition, dialogue, and world-building. (A craft understanding one can only achieve through writing, not an intellectual understanding, obviously.) It became clear to me how little I actually knew about writing even though I’d read countless craft books and perused writing forums for years.
You will never understand writing unless you write. That right there is a fantastic reason to try NaNoWriMo if you need one.
As you can see from my word count tracker, I had several random blowout days of 2,000+ words and a couple at 3,000+ words that got me to the finish line.
By November 30th, 2017, I had 50,522 words of a novel titled The Pilgrims of Elysia, which, in its current state, is the worst novel you’ll ever read.
But even though I’d written a novel I knew belonged in a landfill, I’d written a novel. It was the best day ever of my writing career because I had finally proven to myself I was capable of writing books. My high school self could destroy that time machine he was building because I’d finally gotten my life on track to be a published author.
Would I ever do it again?
The year 2017 came and went. I had no plans (and still don’t) for my novel besides physically printing it out so I could look at the stack of paper I’d created in thirty days (211 pages in standard manuscript format). I started graduate school that following January which would demand my intellect and energy for the next two-and-a-half years. As I’d predicted, I had no time or wherewithal to progress my writing much further, though I did manage to eke out a couple of short stories during that time.
Now I’m on the other side of graduate school and I’m back to writing. Will I participate in NaNoWriMo again sometime? I can tell you with certainty that I will — it was a defining experience for me — but not this year. I’m writing at my own pace for now, but one day in the future I’ll see my fellow WriMos in the trenches again.
Next time I hope to thrive instead of merely survive.
