What Learned From Participating in and Winning NaNoWriMo 2019
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It’s been an entire month since I last wrote a story on Medium (and even longer since I published anything to this blog), and I’ve finally come back to detail my experience with my first ever National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) participation. To sum up the entire experience, it would have to be equated to running a marathon in the same a sprinter would prepare to run a mile. A very confusing analogy, but I’ll try to have it make sense by the time I’m done with this piece.
Anyhow, as you already know, I decided to participate in NaNoWriMo this year to try and make up for the failed attempt that had been my previous draft, known as Temptations. You can read the original piece for more information, but to sum up the entire ordeal, it had been a disaster that became harder to manage as the draft went on, leading to an ~80K word mess that was so difficult to understand that I had to cancel the project, leading to a large loss of time and resources. NaNoWriMo in that regard was meant to help substitute the bad habits I let myself get into with my first novel draft, and formulate a system of some sort to be able to produce the highest quality novels without sacrificing too much overhead when it came to the amount of time I spent writing it.
For reference, NaNoWriMo simply refers to the challenge of writing 50,000 words in 30 days, or approximately ~1,667 words a day. The novel can be of any genre, and in any format, so long as it fits the definition of what is considered to be a “novel.” In my case, although I didn’t necessarily finish the novel (more on that later), I did hit the required word count, and as such “won” NaNoWriMo.
As such, I decided on a few things this time around that would make the challenge easier for me, as well as give me more leeway as to hit the word count for each individual day:
- I would write a more character-focused novel that largely takes place from the perspective of the protagonist, and with little to no dialogue from other characters introduced as part of the story.
- The story would be more descriptive, in that more emphasis would be placed on the abstract ideas mentioned throughout the entire novel, rather on the inherent development of other characters. The protagonist is the only character that is developed in depth.
- If necessary, I would add a small writing session that usually took place from 8 PM to 11 PM, in a small twenty minute block that allowed me to hit the word count for the day. The best example of this being that I only hit about ~1000 words for the first writing session of the day, and then completing the final ~700 at about 6:05 PM, when my session had been over, and I passed the mark.
- When planning out the novel, I would simply use a fairly detailed outline that focused on the general structure of the story, and then use my own imagination to fill in the spots and write out the book (the unofficial term for this would be “plantser”). I found that this simple change immensly helped my writing, and allowed my creativity to flourish far more than with Temptations.
- The general rule I set for myself had been to write as early as possible for each day. I usually wrote at about 7 and went to no later than 10, but through the middle of the challenge, I struggled with keeping my time correct. One day involved me moving my only writing session of the day to about ~7:30 PM.
- I barely did any sort of actual editing. I did, however, allow myself to revise and redraft certain parts if I felt it would drastically alter the course of the story and put me in the same spot I had been in before.
These changes, and more, made up the bulk of my strategy when it came to dealing with the challenge. However, the chart tells a different story:
According to the chart, I had initially started off in a very consistent manner, but as the middle of the month approached, my writing became very sporadic; rather than being concentrated around a similar word count every day, it would be as low as ~800 words for the entire day, and the highest count on another, which had been ~2300 words. What’s important to remember was that I did not skip a day. I wrote everyday without fail, even if I didn’t write in the morning. In addition, I thought ahead and used a dramatic boost to my normal output of words at the beginning to stock up time for when I would be able to write a little bit less. If I had to do something the next day, or if I outright wouldn’t be able to write anything, I would simply cash in the one “day” I had and still be on pace to finish. Although my original date to finish had been the 26th, it slowly moved to the 28th, then to the 29th, and then to the 30th. Even though I lost a bit of steam leading up to the end of the challenge, my initial planning ensured that I had been able to get through without having to pack an incredible amount of words in at one time. My daily average came out to about ~1,668 words a day, and my WPM dropped from 17 to 14, but I still managed to have enough time to finish, even with the wild fluctuations in between the recorded word counts for each day:
Going back to the first and second bullet points above, I reasoned that I would be able to handle the challenge better if I would have a long overarching plot line to follow, and in that I would simply add in the details through my writing over the course of the month. I had to plan out everything in advance, and even beyond the hours I spent writing the novel, I spent a few more on each day thinking about how I would continue from where I had left for the day. In that sense, NaNoWriMo is equivalent to a game of chess; once the preparations are made, the middle and endgame is a lot easier to manage if you are able to think ahead and plan for unforeseen circumstances. Going back to the analogy I made at the beginning, I treated the challenge as a sprint, but also brought in the same elements of planning for a marathon, and prepared as I thought about running a mile. This change in my mindset easily helped me win the challenge, and I hope that it would only help you if you decide to take the challenge for yourself.
As for my novel, this was the unofficial cover I was going to use for its publishing on my Amazon page:
For the most part, the novel is entirely drafted. However, I still have to write the ending, and also rearrange certain parts of it to ensure that it ends on a decent note. Once that happens, I’ll finally begin the process of editing and revising the entire work, adding and removing parts as necessary in order to bring about the best result possible. I’m trying to aim for a release date sometime in the middle of December before the holiday break, but I can’t guarantee that I’ll make it in time, as this month is incredibly busy for me, especially with my new job (I’ll write about that soon.)
Anyhow, I enjoyed participating in NaNoWriMo 2019, and I so grateful for being able to not only complete the challenge, but to produce such a great work that it nearly made me cry at certain times. I’ll be sure to have it out as soon as possible. Until then, I’ll keep you updated on everything relating to both the novel and everything else in my life.
