Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Five Things I Learned from National Novel Writing Month

I devoted all my spare time last month to finishing NaNoWriMo, which I talked about in this post. I met my goal of 50,000 words with two days to spare! I was giddy. I thought I'd share some of the things the NaNoWriMo experience taught me.



1. Some days it was particularly hard to generate words, but the best way to continue making progress was to just keep typing even if my writing veered away from where I anticipated it going. Originally, I thought I'd write an adaptation of The Little Match Girl by Hans Christian Andersen aimed at young adults. It quickly veered into a murder mystery with Harlequin romance tendencies. I just went with it. I am not as creative as I thought I was. I spent a lot of time just staring into space and wondering why nothing novel or interesting was entering my brain. I took comfort in what Anne Lamont calls "The Power of the Shitty First Draft" and reminded myself that no one was going to read my stale thoughts. That more than anything else helped me move forward.

2. I am not an evil genius. I am bad at murdering people. I'm bad of hiding evidence. I am bad at getting rid of bodies. Even if it is all imaginary. I will not be plotting any murders or committing crimes in real life any time soon, not just because of my own ethical and moral reasoning, but because I'm clearly too dumb to get away with it.

3. I learned that I know practically nothing about everything. My google history is a testament to my lack of knowledge: I had to look up information on grief counseling, forensics, trucking, farming practices, weather patterns in Montana, RV parks, immigration reform, popular hairstyles of the nineties, classical piano, how hypothermia works, the lifespan of parrots, kitten mills, Hans Christian Andersen, famous wrestling moves, and highway sound barriers.

4. I learned that you can develop school girl crushes on your characters. I fell head over heels for one particular character in my story. I actually felt a little guilty spending so much time in my head with him, as if I was somehow cheating on my husband. Weird, right?

5. NaNoWriMo saved me MONEY. I took no trips to Walmart for random project supplies. I only went to the grocery store when we were out of milk, and I did not cook for most of the month so I didn't have to buy special ingredients. I'm embarrassed by how much money I saved by not leaving the house. Maybe I should continue neglecting my family and spending every free second I have in front of my laptop, since it seems to be the fiscally responsible thing to do. :)

I enjoyed spending time writing everyday. I'm taking a little break from it this month, but I look forward to rewriting, and rewriting, and rewriting in the hopes that this little brainchild of mine will one day be readable to someone other than me.

3 comments:

  1. two questions. what did you eat if you never cooked? and, so.. i'm not a novel writer. but i enjoy writing soooo much! is there any way to participate in NaNoWriMo without writing a novel or short stories, ya think?

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  2. Lots of cereal, Lydia! You can do NaNoWriMo any time, although November is the best time to do it because you have the support from the web site. You don't have to watch a novel. You can do a memoir, or free verse, or anything really. It's all about committing yourself to writing every day, something I've always struggled with. Thanks for stopping by my blog! :)

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  3. Gah. Not watch a novel, write a novel. ;)

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