Many of you may have started up a novel this month. Far more of you than in any other month during the year. Why November? Well, that’s because it’s National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo to participants and observers alike.
That’s great.
Go write a novel. In a month. With the support of friends and other participants. I believe that there could be a book in everybody and I want to encourage you to start, continue and finish one. Let’s go! Well done, you. But it’s not going to be easy…
Let’s think about what writing a book in a limited time actually means. I’d like to offer 5 key pieces of advice for anyone doing NaNoWriMo…
1. Commit to a time that you will write each day - but don’t sacrifice the things you love in order to do so.
A book is a gargantuan achievement, and to cross the finish line you’re going to have to put in a hell of a lot of work. What NaNoWriMo asks you to do is make it from 0 words completed to 50,000 words completed in one month. This averages out to about 1700 words per day if you write every day of November.
1700 words to an author who has written books before is very achievable especially if you are able to write for about 3 or 4 hours per day. Don’t believe me? The magnificent Brandon Sanderson goes over the topic in his introduction to writing Science Fiction & Fantasy. If you’ve never heard of Brandon, I encourage you read his books, check out his online course, and watch material via his YouTube page. He’s incredible. Please spend the first hour of your NaNoWriMo time listening to his introduction, especially if you are writing in speculative genres. It will give you some energy, encouragement and a dose of practical reality for what you may need in order to succeed in your goal for the month (and ideally, beyond it.)
Something that Brandon mentions in the above video is the importance of consistency. If you’re going to go for 1700 words per day, then do it. Pick a time of the day, whether that’s first thing in the morning, before work, or after dinner, or from 10pm to bedtime, and commit. But if you do commit, make sure that this writing contest doesn’t take over your life, become a chore, and ruin writing for you forever. Still talk to friends and family, go for walks, watch TV, play games, read, do all of the things you normally do to make you relax and enjoy life. Otherwise, writing this damn 50,000 word brick is going to be agony.
Enjoy it.
2. Outline your story, even if it takes a few days!
If you jump into NaNoWriMo and think that you’ll be able to write non-stop without any kind of plan or outline, you’re either completely wrong, or you’ll finish it on time, read back over what you’ve got and realise that it’s pretty messy.
Messy is fine. That’s what editing is for. That’s what the second draft is for. Or the third draft. But if you want to reduce the pain in a long editing process, or make multiple extra drafts - you’re going to save so much time and effort if you write a good outline.
Ideally, your outline should focus on the start, middle and end of the book, with detail on key scenes. You should also figure out who your characters are, what their traits are, and if you can do it, give them all names ahead of time. Trust me, having all of these things will save you so much time in the future.
How long should your outline be? That depends. Do you want to stick to it for the whole book, or do you want it to be a guide for your key beats along the way? The important thing is that you have a direction to follow, and one that you can rely on to help you look forward to the next cool part of your story. Excitement about your book doesn’t need to be a mystery. Sure, you can write and see where things take you, but the journey of discovery is not lost if you have an outline, you’re just making substantial jumps of that discovery at the beginning, building bridges for achieving more moments of excitement along the way, and trust me on this - making it far easier to get to the finish line.
3. Don’t get hung up on word count.
I cannot stress this point enough. Don’t get hung up on word count.
It’s way more important to have a direction, good ideas and a plan than it is to be on 5,000 words on Day 3. In fact, I’d rather have 0 words done on Day 7 but have an amazing outline and plan to go with, than have the full 50,000 words at the end of the month if it was writing as a rudderless ship.
Word count is just a measure. It’s arbitrary.
Come the end of November, if you hit 50,000 words, you technically have a novel done. In reality, most novels are somewhere between 85,000 and 120,000 words long. Tome and Resolver are both around 100,000 words each. That doesn’t make them twice as good as your 50,000 words result. That’s just the size they ended up as.
It is a far better result if you end NaNoWriMo with a story you love, than hitting 50,000 words. If you come out of this experience with a story you are proud of, it doesn’t mater if it’s 2,000 words or 200,000 words. Use the exercise to finish the story you want to tell, and you’ll know what is right for it.
So what if you “fail” the challenge. If you have completed a story you are happy with, that is a massive success, and by no means a failure.
My advice: fuck word count.
4. Share the book with others.
If you really want to write, it’s because you need to tell stories. Something that you create with your imagination! Something that others will then take and enjoy!
If you do NaNoWriMo and succeed or fail, finish something or not, hit 50,000 words or not, the best thing you can do, no matter what happens, is share it with others. Other people in the challenge, friends, family, or me if you really have to. Share it. Learn from that. Don’t be afraid. Nobody is going to give you grief for sharing something creative. If they do, they’re not worth the time. If you share it with someone you trust, ask for an honest opinion, and for one or two things that person enjoyed about reading it. If that’s all you get out of November, then you’ll have accomplished something great. And honestly, share it with me if you like. I will read whatever I can, and I’d be delighted to help new authors.
5. Don’t hold back.
This is your book. Not your mother’s. Not mine. Not anybody else’s.
Write for yourself. Write the book that you want to read. If you do that, it’ll turn out so much better at the end. And that end should not be November 30th. It should be when you want it to be, when the story is done.
Now get back to it. And enjoy the creative process.
With love, Brian.
