by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig
Although I’ve never officially participated in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), I’ve fed off of the productivity of others and increased my own for the month. If you’re American and have Thanksgiving in your future, this is no small feat!
In the past, my approach has been to hang out in some of the forums on the site. You can look up general categories or a specific genre to find helpful advice and motivation (you’ll need a login to do so). These are very active threads, I’ve found, so make sure to set yourself a timer or it may be a time suck.
This year, I’m trying a couple of new things. One of them is the NaNoWriMo writing sprints on Twitter, @NaNoWordSprints . They run all day long and are hosted by different writers. From what I’ve seen, there are 10 minute, 15 minute, and 20 minute sprints. If you’re feeling a little stuck, or are hesitant about your manuscript, the sprints can provide a good way to make progress.
The other thing is a virtual write-in sponsored by NaNoWriMo on YouTube. It looks like they have different hosts for these events, but have the same basic structure (which they mention below). Might be another good way to run through a sprint and get a little inspiration at the same time. Find these on the NaNoWriMo channel.
If you are looking for more of a local writing connection, you can search regions on the NaNo site, here. And, depending on where you live, your local library may have regional events, like mine does.
As I mentioned, I’m not officially participating…I’m simply upping my daily goals in different areas: an outline I’m working on and a new project I’m starting to write (that’s already outlined). In the past, I’ve even used the NaNo time period to write blog posts or research writing-related tasks. I made a list a couple of years ago of other ideas for productivity during NaNoWriMo:
Ideas for rebelling:
Write nonfiction, or write your nonfiction outline/table of contents
Write essays (or freelance articles), a memoir, etc.
Work on several projects that need completing
Revise a project that you’ve already drafted.
Finish a work-in-progress
Write an outline for a project.
Write and send queries, if pursuing traditional publishing or freelance writing
Research and upload your existing books to aggregators like PublishDrive, StreetLib, Draft2Digital, or Smashwords in order to expand your reach.
Research and upload your books to a POD distributor like IngramSpark.
Set a smaller goal. Instead of shooting for the 50,000 words of NaNo, shoot for 30,000. Or just 15,000–whatever you think you can manage and that represents an increase of what you’re doing now. Or plan on finishing a novella for your email newsletter list or as a free book
Write a blog post every day for a month (think how far you’ll get ahead on your editorial calendar, if you don’t post every day).
The idea is to set a writing-related goal and meet it. What’s something that you need to make quick progress on?
Are you doing NaNoWriMo…either officially or unofficially?
NaNoWriMo . . . Unofficially: Share on XPhoto on Visual Hunt
NaNoWriMo is too confined, from where I stand. I am always wary about participating is anything with a deadline. I have been working on my book for 10 years and still working on it. Although I found an angle. I should not say I found an angle. My editor found an angle. This all blabbering is completely out of what’s going on. My wife and I, should I say, can’t forget the wife she is the key element of our story. Yes, the truth of our story, it’s a symbiosis. Stella and I have been working on our story together. So far we published two novellas, one moore coming before Christmas. Why novellas? We could not afford the 7K for our work. By dividing our book in 5 novellas, is has been easier to come with the money to pay the lady.
NaNo always comes at a really bad time for me (i.e…in the middle of a book already), so that’s another reason why I’m never official. The 7K is editing fees? That’s developmental editing, I’m guessing? That seems a bit high to me (I just paid $655 for a developmental edit last month, myself). It may be that you have a long manuscript that’s contributing to the cost?
On the upside, publishing a book as a series of novellas is supposed to be a good marketing strategy!
I’ve done it in the past and it was great motivation. Thanks for the tips on the sprints. I’m in the final run on my story and will use those to finish it this month.
I’ve been following along on many of them…they go 24 hours a day!
I’m doing an official NaNo this year, but I’m what they’re referring to as ‘a rebel’ this year because I’m finishing a manuscript I already wrote to halfway through during NaNo 2013. It’s a fantasy, so 100K words shouldn’t be a problem. The most important thing for me is that I’m writing every day again. After the year I’ve had with my writing, having written on a manuscript for three days in a row is a win. NaNo is the poke in the butt I needed apparently.
Good luck with your words! May November be a productive month for you. =o)
That’s fantastic! So glad NaNo provided you the encouragement to work through your slump!
And thanks. :) I’ve been super-productive in the last few days, so let’s see if it continues.
I didn’t realize that there was a NaNo YouTube channel. I’ll have to check that out. I’m doing NaNo officially this year but in addition to working on a cozy mystery draft, I’m also adding in some other writing tasks like blurbs and outlines.
I like to do that, too…see what other writing-related work I can either knock out or make progress on. Good luck to you, Ellen!
Like you, Elizabeth, I’ve never officially participated in NaNoWriMo. It just hasn’t worked out for me. But I have checked out participants’ posts, tweets, and so on, and I’ve learned a lot. That, to me, is a real benefit. And it does help me focus on my writing, even though I’m not doing so officially. Thanks for those ideas for rebelling, too. Those are good ways to get the proverbial juices flowing…
It really is motivating to see all the creativity at work! Hope you’ll enjoy being a rebel. :)
Love this :-) I did NaNo two years ago and “won”. I was ambivalent before (sometimes I’ve written more than 50K in a month, and not in November, and sometimes writing 50 words a day is hard, much less 1700), but it’s the community I’ve been able to plug into that’s been really valuable to me. (Writers talking to each other in real life – crazy!)
Last year I had a more limited goal of only 10K. That worked out just fine for me, but I like some of your other ideas, including upping your blog post production. Let’s make NaBloWriMo a thing, LOL.
The community there is *amazing*. It’s just one of those things where I feel myself light up when I’m around it (even though I’m lurking).
The last couple of days I’ve increased my usual writing goal (ordinarily a very modest 750 words) and written a blog post to top it off. :) I’m not sure how many days I can keep that up, but I like the idea of NaBloWriMo!
I did NaNoWriMo last year and did nearly 52,000 words in 23 days. I was planning on doing it this year as well (I have a chapter by chapter outline done), but changed my mind. Last year’s effort was volume 2 in my Chantelle McBride mystery series and was a pretty rough draft. Since I just published the first volume in that series, Feast of the Seven Fishes, on Amazon, I thought I had better get busy and get that second volume ready for publication as I have nearly finished writing the 3rd book in the series. And I bought Penny Sansevieri’s book on How to Sell Books by the Truckload on Amazon, so I’ve got to read that and start figuring out how to market my books.
That’s fantastic! You must have felt great after that. :)
You could use the NaNo time to read and make a list of things you’d like to do to market “Feast of the Seven Fishes.” Marketing is such a tedious endeavor for me that a boost like a NaNo challenge would help me out, for sure!
I’ve participated in NaNo several times, but only “won” once. I agree that the community is very motivating, and I’m hoping to leverage that motivation into finishing the mystery novel I’ve been playing around with for a few years! It’s funny how encouraging silly little things like the word count graphs and achievement badges on the NaNo site can be.
It’s great over there, isn’t it? It becomes almost like playing a game or trying to beat your best time at a sport or something! It sort of takes the drudgery out of writing (and daily writing can be drudgery at times, for sure).
I love all of your ideas and find them more doable with my work schedule–I already sit at a desk on the computer for 8 hours a day, so I was feeling like a loser. I like following the groups on social media as motivation and also for helpful info about writing in general from people more seasoned than myself. Thanks so much for sharing!
I’m so glad I could help! Good luck with being a NaNo rebel. :)
I adore NaNo and am glad my schedule lined up this year. I finished a revision on another WIP on the 31st, so I was ready to dive in on the 1st. Having fun so far. If I don’t get the 50K, I won’t get too stressed. It’s all about the progress!
Good luck with it, Jemi! I bet you’ll get a lot done. :)
No, I’m not participating. I tried once and honestly, it turned into a time suck, like you said.
It can be distracting…timers work well for me, but the forums can be a rabbit hole!
November is a horrible month to write so many words and is the very reason I am making myself do it. It’s all about the discipline of writing every day. Last year, I average around a thousand words on good days. As of right now, I’m writing 1700 words per day. Day six and I have over 10,000 words written on Smoke and Mirrors (working title). Things I did differently this year was outline and scene map in October. I also worked on my characters, but honestly they are my worst thing to do. Distraction is still my enemy so I try to do most of the writing from 5-7 a.m. Anyway, I’m pumped to be unofficially writing the NaNoWriMo.
Teresa
That’s a good point! If we can write that much under crazy November circumstances, we’ve established a great habit! Congratulations on all your progress (I like the working title!)
I was thinking about doing a series of short stories instead of a novel this year. It may still turn out that way. Honestly there are no totally good months to do this. The only other month that might be better for me would be January. Dead of winter, so no yard work to suck up my weekends, no major holidays, plenty of time indoors.
January would be a *great* month for this sort of challenge…cold, fewer holidays, and 31 whole days in the month. :) Hope your series of short stories goes well!