ARCHIVE: Seven Years of NaNoWriMo...Seven Lessons

Veronica sez: Went looking in the Archives today for good posts from the past about NaNoWriMo and I liked this one. Even though we have no updated lessons from  2014 and 2015, why don't you tell us what you've learned in your experience?! Best wishes to everyone participating this month.

So here's what Julie Particka/Seleste DeLaney shared in 2013:

NaNoWriMo is an evil beast. Truly. I signed up for my first time in 2007. At that point, I was full of piss and vinegar and thought it would be a piece of cake--especially when I wrote 7,000 words my first day. Yeah. You know those people that start a race hot out of the gate and then limp over the finish line? That was me my first year. I almost didn't make it. And it took me the rest of that year to finish the book.
Lesson learned in 2007: I need at least a rough outline or I flounder.



In 2008, I had an outline and a plan. I had a story that I loved and characters I adored and wanted to know better. It was set in the town I lived in, so I could run out to research places on short notice if necessary. I was ready to go and I rocked out my 50k by playing it slow and steady. And then I finished the book in December. I...was a rock star in my own mind.
Lesson learned in 2008: Tortoise. Be the tortoise.


After a year of querying and getting nowhere, I sat down to 2009 with a totally different kind of story. Huge in scope and quirky and...it was going to be awesome. I had my outline ready, my planets named and even a history of the 'verse written. Enter the return of the slogging through words. The book sucked. Hard core suckage. But I pushed through to the end, because I was too stubborn to let it go. I finished my 50k and shelved it. (Three months later, I took that space opera and re-wrote it as a steampunk novella. It became my first sale.)
Lesson learned in 2009: Don't get cocky. You need the right story, in the right setting, with the right characters.

In 2010, I was officially a published author, took all those lessons from years past, and sat down to write what was one of the scariest books I'd ever attempted. Not in that it was horror, but in that I was taking a world I'd started in short stories and trying to turn it into a novel. This was the year that everything fell into place. I loved that book. I loved the characters and the energy and... It was the year I screamed NaNo's praises from the rooftop.
Lesson learned in 2010: Sometimes the stars align and things just work (it sounds lame, but this is  a very important thing to remember in the world of publishing.)

By the next year, I had several publishing credits under my belt, and one of my novellas had even won Book of the Year at a review site. But I was tired. So I decided to take a break. Not from NaNo--that's crazy talk--but from what I had to write. I dove into a project that had been calling to me for a while and wrote with gusto. It was another one that I finished drafting in December--and it was the longest book I'd ever written. But I was pretty sure it was unpublishable, so I shelved it. But I was renewed and got back to work with vigor. (Note: I plan to pull this one out as soon as i have a break in my schedule. I'm less convinced it's unpublishable now.)
Lesson learned in 2011: Every once in a while, it's okay to take the time to get your mojo back.

shhh...nothing to see here

2012 was the year of the sequel. This was another heavily prepped for book with much plotting and an index card board that looked like I'd lost my mind. But at this point, not only was I a professional who regularly wrote at well over the minimum daily word count, but I was also dealing with edits for other projects pouring in. It was a messy year and one I wasn't sure I'd finish. I plowed through anyway.
Lessons learned in 2012: Published authors don't get to coast through NaNo. Deadlines matter more, so words have to come in massive spurts when you can get them. Also? Sequels are hard for me to write. So are books with seven point-of-view characters. But if you're stubborn enough, you can do it all.

Now it's 2013, and I'm once again attempting a sequel--actually the last book in that series. Because of other projects, I didn't have time to plot it in advance, which is making me twitchy, and it feels way too much like that first year where I was desperately trying to figure things out as I went. Oh, and I have edits on two (or more) very important projects coming in the next few weeks. And my kitchen's being torn out and redone the week of Thanksgiving. There are still over three weeks of NaNo left, but I think this might be the year that beats me. Then again, it might be the year that I finally give into the need to project jump and just work on the book that is calling to me. I don't know. What I do know is NaNo is always an adventure, and there is always something to learn.
Lessons learned so far in 2013: Don't forget everything else you learned along the way. Sometimes, no matter how stubborn you are, you can't do it all. It's okay to step back and change course. 

Long story short? NaNoWriMo has taught me how to be a better author in the crazy world of modern publishing. The lessons, both big and small, have shaped me into who I am today. I'm pretty sure without the push of this event early on in my career path, I probably would have given up. So than you, NaNoWriMo. I couldn't have done it without you.

What about you? Have you learned anything by doing/attempting NaNo?

The Little Story that Could

My online writing group used to do these monthly writing challenges (they are now less often and I don't participate anymore). One year for February, the challenge involved using song lyrics to inspire a story. I can't even remember the song anymore but it was a ballad, and with Valentine's around the corner, the stories were mostly romantic in nature.

Except mine.

Oh sure, it had romantic aspects to it, but it was actually the story of a woman who felt like her boyfriend was controlling her in a borderline abusive way and how she dealt with it. The story was about 1300 words long and bore the title Of Course I Try (taken from a key line in of dialogue). It won the challenge and I got a cute little picture thing to add to my signature for the website.

The summer of 2010, I submitted the story for publication. I was informed it was too short and asked if I could make it longer. My answer to that was "Of course." I bumped it up to somewhere over 5000 words, which still made it a short story, but it was now a sellable short story. Reviews were good, but one thing kept popping up. "I wanted more."

Initially my thoughts were along the lines of "but it's a short story, it's supposed to be short." Then... wheels started turning, gears started grinding and smoke leaked out of my ears--I had a way to make more work. For the holidays that year, The Ghost of Vampire Present came out, continuing the story of the heroine from the first short. Basically it's a little bit of A Christmas Carol, combined with a little bit of The Lady or the Tiger, combined with vampires and a modern setting.

Obviously, by the end of that story it was clear it most definitely wasn't the end. In fact, those shorts were only the beginning. When I started pondering more, it wasn't a little more that came to mind, it was this whole world built around the idea that vampires wanted Jocelyn. The hows and whys and whens became far too big for short stories. From the moment I conceived the second story, I knew there'd be more and those shorts would serve as prequels to the bigger story.

On August 28, the first installment of that bigger story will be released. A far cry from the humble beginnings of a 1300 word story, Kiss of Death is a full-length novel (the first of three) that will explore the world of my vampires and their link to Jocelyn (the heroine of those prequels). And, it will introduce my favorite of all my characters to the world. In fact, he'll be taking over the guest blogging duties at several of the stops on my blog tour over the next two weeks. I hope you'll follow along. And for those of you who have been on the journey with me since the first Blood Kissed story hit the internet, thank you for your support. Kiss of Death wouldn't have happened without you.