This November I participated yet again in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), in which participants attempt to write a novel in a month, roughly 200 pages in total. For those of you who have been following me for a while, you will know that this is actually a common thing for me to do. This month in particular is the 13th time I've participated, including Camp NaNoWriMo and Script Frenzy (100 pages of a screenplay in a month), all of which are hosted online by the Office of Letters and Light, a nonprofit organization that aspires to encourage and nurture creativity around the world.I have been asked many times how it is I manage to do NaNoWriMo on top of my usual studies and work, as well as how I consistently win. I thought it would be interesting to write a post explaining my methods that get me through NaNoWriMo, and have done so since I started back in 2011.
First, I want to make it clear that writing is a lot like music, it's 1% talent, 99% hard work. There's a tendency to attribute it to an inherent talent, but the truth is that any great writer has spent hours and hours working hard on their craft. This is just to say that you don't have to have a god-given gift in order to do this. This is why I can constantly win NaNo. The skills that I use in order to accomplish it have been internalized from years of practice.
Writing a novel is a lot like a relationship. At first you have that honeymoon period, where you're loving every moment of it and everything is wonderful. For novel writing, this is usually the initial burst of inspiration that creates the novel. But then you have what we call the second week slump in NaNo, where that inspiration dies down and the magic feels like it's gone. Sometimes getting over this slump is the hardest part, although in long term commitments it will occasionally come back in the form of writer's block or other fun things like that. It's at times like these when you have to put the work in, even though you might not want to. If we quit on our relationships the moment they got hard, we would never know a meaningful long term relationship. Likewise with a novel, if you give up when it's hard, you will never finish it.
That being said, it's about time I introduce the things that carry me to the finish line during NaNo. First of all, it's a sense of ability, or more simply, the belief in myself. I have always believed that I could do it. I constantly refer to this as pride, saying I have too much pride to fail. What this does is that it abolishes the doubt that often holds people back when they engage in activities. It's important to believe in yourself, most especially when you're facing incredible challenges. Doubt can be very self-fulfilling.
Drawing off of this pride comes the determination that is necessary in order to get any novel written, like I mentioned before. Honestly, as my recent stats for NaNo suggest, I have been having trouble with this on a day to day basis. This is a common problem among writers and people who participate in NaNo. When you're not overflowing with inspiration, it can be very hard to sit down and start writing. This gets harder and harder the less you find you're liking the novel you're writing. I felt this way throughout the month, as the novel ended up going into a direction I found wasn't in line with how I conceived it before. The aforementioned pride is what gave me the determination to finish the word count. I may never look at that novel again, but at least I didn't let it beat me.
Now, one thing I've only mentioned briefly is the whole issue of inspiration. This is what traps most people when they write, or want to write, often referred to as writer's block. I've been asked how I find the inspiration for all these stories. The truth is that I find a dependence on inspiration (or traditionally referred to as the Muses) to be often counter-productive. The issue here is usually people not knowing where to go next in their novel. In times like these, I find it helpful to think about what necessarily has to happen, or what the next logical step in the story is. I usually figure this out by looking at the general plot of the story, asking myself where the characters are and what needs to happen in order to get to that end point. From there, I look at was happened between characters, and who they are. From there I can usually make up character drama between them, conflicts that are brought by the necessary steps in the plot. This often opens up sideplots and so on, which helps incredibly for writing the story because it gives you a lot more material to work with.
This leads me to my next method. I try my best to internalize the story and the characters. This way the story works itself out in my head without me having to consciously and constantly think about it. A way I do this is by establishing the general plot, setting, and mood of the novel, as well as doing some brief character sketches. For things like NaNo, it's really not necessary to have incredibly developed characters at the start. That sort of thing comes later. Having a general idea of the personalities and the beliefs of the characters will usually help inform their actions. That being said, sometimes I'm surprised at their actions. This is a normal thing for writers. It's often referred to as the characters coming to life. When doing editing and revision, this opens up possibilities for further character development.
Speaking of editing, it's crucial to leave this until after the first draft is done. For challenges like NaNo, which are already incredibly limited on time, there's no time to edit what you write. The NaNo community often says to kill your inner-editor, that voice in your head that says that this sentence or that sentence isn't good enough, or that your characters aren't developed enough, or that your plot makes no sense. What this generally means is either you learn to trust in your abilities to be coherent at a fast rate, or you stop caring entirely about it, leaving that worry to the future. I tend towards both, although I always fix spelling errors, even though I would be quicker if I didn't.
Anyways, with all that being said, I think it's about time that I wrap up this post. But before I do that, I just want to point out that there are a couple other big factors in my NaNo that are less methods and just general things about myself. First of all, because I grew up with computers, going between gaming and writing, I learned to type at a young age and am an incredibly fast typer now, which, combined with the above methods, becomes incredibly useful for NaNo. On top of that, writing is my life, as opposed to a side thing. Because of that, it receives the utmost importance and increases my determination far higher than the average person in NaNo.
And with that, I think it's about time I actually end this post. Ironically, it's taken me some time to write this post. I do tend towards a dry spell after NaNo ends. Anyways, take care, and until next time,
-Zero
No comments:
Post a Comment