NaNoWriMo: Five things I learned shooting for the stars

-

This is my "Writer's Wednesday" post, coming a day late to give the final wrap-up on NaNoWriMo. If you've been a "Nanner" this month, please chime in and let me know how it went for you.

I set my goal absurdly high at the beginning of the month, matching the reality of an 80K-word standard for novels in my genre. I talked about the project way back in the last IWSG post on Nov. 2. 

Tonight I reached the end of my day's writing energy, and then some, at 72,032 words. That's the most I've even done in a month, and I have some thoughts about that, and about life and its relationship to writing. First, I figured out tonight how to adjust my personal goal, so I dropped it down to 70k for a "win." That doesn't actually change the fact that I'm going to spend the next two days in my artist's retreat trying to finish the book. So here are five things I learned this month:

1. Go ahead and set your goals high. Whatever "high" is for you. Then be happy if you even get close. I tried for 80K, and didn't get there, but I wrote a lot more than if I'd just settled for the standard NaNo target of 50K.

2. The better the outline, the better I'll do at writing. My outline was weak and incomplete, and I let the NaNo enthusiasm push me to start before I was ready. As a result, I struggled through the middle of the book, both to make word counts and to make a story worth reading.

3. Thanksgiving break is different when you are hosting your family instead of being hosted. In past NaNo years, I've been happy to use the novel as an excuse to retreat from the gang. With my adult children visiting me at my new home, I didn't want to retreat. I might have suffered a bit from sensory overload, but I wanted all the time with them I could get.

4. No matter what I do, my first draft is a hot mess. Get over it, and get on to the end. I have to have faith in my increasing ability to rewrite.

5. Writing in a single burst is energizing, and it makes it easier to keep track of what your character is doing. But I still can't retain it all in my head. I'm honestly starting to think I need to write a story summary alongside my first draft so I can remember what's up.

And one tip, not new for this month (for that matter, neither is #4, or #2): keep some kind of document listing characters, and one for settings. If you have a 7-Eleven on the corner of 3rd and Main in Chapter 3, you will need to remember that when your characters drive back past there in Chapter 17. I also keep a random name generator on a tab, and use it.


Finally, a shout-out and thanks to Hypatia-in-the-Woods/Holly House for the amazing residency I'm enjoying as I wrap up this splat of a novel. I've been inspired by a barred owl, bald eagles, seals, and snowstorms while here!

Because I always like to leave you with a photo or two, here you go!


Barred owl on a branch just beyond the deck.

Sword ferns in the snow.


©Rebecca M. Douglass, 2022
 As always, please ask permission to use any photos or text. Link-backs appreciated.
Don't miss a post--click the "Follow-it" link below!

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Let us know what you think! We love to hear from our readers!

Popular Posts

#WEP--The Scream

-
Image
WEP challenges are FREE and open to all. On the 1st   of the challenge month, there will be a   get-your-thinking-caps   on post. The badge will include the dates of the challenge and the winner’s   prizes. The InLinkz sign up will open on the third Wednesday and close 3 days later. It will contain no news, just the sign up. Participants link up with their DLs (Direct Links to their entry).  Learn all about it here .    My entry this time is based on an actual incident. Mom and my brothers will recognize it. My apologies to them for the non-trivial liberties I took with history and their personalities. We are now also meant to provide a tag line for our stories, so here's mine: What terrors lurk in the root cellar?     The Scream The house we lived in that year wasn’t much. The wind blew in everywhere you could imagine a draft, and some places you couldn’t. The old enclosed porch we used as a root cellar was worse. It wasn’t just the win...
Read more

Non-fiction Audiobook Review: Falter, by Bill McKibben

-
Image
Important stuff, but hard to hear. Title: Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out? Author: Bill McKibben. Ready by Olivery Wyman Publication Info: Macmillan Audio 2019. 11 hours. Hardback by Henry Holt & Co., 291 pages. Source: Library Blurb: (Goodreads): Thirty years ago Bill McKibben offered one of the earliest warnings about climate change. Now he broadens the warning: the entire human game, he suggests, has begun to play itself out. Bill McKibben’s groundbreaking book The End of Nature -- issued in dozens of languages and long regarded as a classic -- was the first book to alert us to global warming. But the danger is broader than that: even as climate change shrinks the space where our civilization can exist, new technologies like artificial intelligence and robotics threaten to bleach away the variety of human experience. Falter tells the story of these converging trends and of the ideological fervor that keeps us from bringing them under control. And t...
Read more

#WEP: December Flash Fiction Challenge

-
Image
This December challenge wraps up the year of artistic inspiration from some great works of art. The WEP is open to all, following the simple rules: 1. SUBMIT your name to the list below on December 1 thru the 15th . Add your link (URL) 2. POST your entry, put WEP is in the TITLE along with The Narcissus badge within your entry. 3. STATE feedback preferences and word count at the end of your entry. 4. READ other entries, giving feedback if requested. 5. SHARE THE CHALLENGE on social media. Tweets are ready on the WEP blog. PLEASE NOTE: ENTRIES CLOSE Dec. 15th @ midnight (NY Time - check WEP blog clock) ALL GENRES WELCOME except erotica - 1,000 words maximum My story for this month's challenge is maybe cheating a little--I didn't write it for the challenge, but I decided that the common understanding of Narcissus and narcissism fits well enough, even if the story doesn't relate to the painting. I wrote this while trekking in Nepal last month, highlighting a character w...
Read more