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?

NaNoWriMo: Inciting a Rebellion

Psst. Hey. Over here. Step into the shadows with me for a moment. That’s right. NaNoWriMo has dark alleys with shifty people like me wiggling their fingers at you to follow them.

We are the NaNo Rebels.

We are the folks with previously written material, so we start NaNo on, say, chapter five and add 50k from there. We are the people who are working on a bunch of short stories that will total 50k. We are poets, autobiographers, essayists, and scriptwriters.

But we’re not cheaters. Honest.

Do you recognize yourself in any of that? It’s okay if you do. The fine folks at the Office of Letters and Light have made provisions for us. They’ve given us the title of Rebel to erase the possibility of feeling like (or being called) a cheater. They even provided a section of the official forum exclusively for Rebels to talk about their awesome rebelliousness.

Myself, I’ve started every NaNo so far with 15-20k already written. The camaraderie and fever of NaNo are fantastic for a procrastinator like me. I know I will get 50-60k written every November, without fail. If I already have 20k written, I can finish November 30th with the words “The End.” And that doesn’t suck. If I go in with nothing, I end with a partial manuscript, and everybody who’d been helping me through November is too burnt out to drag me through the rest of my novel. I’ll be on my own like I am the rest of the year. Doing it rebel-style is like getting one free novel every year.

Before my first NaNo, three years ago, I’d never finished a novel before. That’s what NaNo taught me—how to be a finisher. I took that very first book and sold it to Carina Press. “The Phone Call” came in right before my second NaNo, so I wrote the second book in the series.

And last year’s NaNo was crazy. I walked into the kickoff meeting, dazed, with the news that I’d sold the next four books in the series—books I had yet to write. I wrote book three that year, and this year, I’m writing book five. (I had one due in between and had to learn to write a novel without NaNo helping me. That’s another story altogether.)

NaNoWriMo taught me what I needed to know. I’m a finisher now. But I’m not sure I could have learned that lesson if I hadn’t started each November 1st with words already on the page.

We Rebels still have rules. The words written in November are the only words that count toward the 50k. We still validate our work at the end of the month in order to get the nifty certificate. We’re still required to wear underwear on our heads on Thursdays and eat Pixie Stix on bologna sandwiches.

Wait. Those aren’t real rules? I’m gonna kill those guys.

The feeling of accomplishment is no less than it is if we’d started from scratch or written something more in line with the original NaNo intentions. So, if what you’ve been doing feels a little off because you’re not doing it exactly the way everybody around you is, come on over.

Rebels are in the dark corners, getting stuff done. And maybe selling a watch or two from underneath an overcoat.

NaNoWriMo: Husband and Wife Edition

When my husband, Aaron, first told me he was going to do National Novel Writing Month, I thought he was crazy. At that point I was already a published author with a number of books out—and the idea of writing 50,000 words in one month daunted me. Since he had only ever written short stories before I was quietly doubtful.

Furthermore, he’d only heard out about NaNoWriMo on November 3^rd.  He had no prep time. I am a plotter. I don’t like to type Chapter One until I have an outline.  Aaron went in seat of the pants with a basic situation but no clue where the plot was going. He used tarot cards for inspiration until the plot took over around chapter six.  The mere thought of doing this gives me hives.

This was during NaNoWriMo’s early years and according to the rules at the time you had to sign up before November 1^st (now you can sign up on Nov. 30^th if you want to). Undeterred, he joined a group called the NaNoWriMo Guerilla Rebellion. And he did it. (Well, actually he finished the novel at 47,000 words and changed all the characters and place names to longer names to artificially push the word count up to 50,000, but since he started three days late, I consider it a win.) And he went on to win for the next seven years. (Including one novel which ends: And then the Earth blew up.)

In years when we both did NaNoWriMo together, it quickly became apparent that my husband writes faster than me. He would often procrastinate until 10 pm before opening his manuscript file, but would then pour out 1666 in an hour or an hour and a half.  The only time I write this fast is when I’m doing a much-anticipated scene and/or nearing the home stretch.

My usual writing process is something like this: Write two paragraphs, count my words, write two more paragraphs, noodle around on Facebook, write a page, check my wordcount, check my email, write four more paragraphs, get a beverage, write a page, have lunch, catch fire and write three pages, done. It’s like trying to start a fire. I have to find the right kindling and even then my first sparks tend to burn out.  I am a slow-and-steady-wins-the-race type writer.

I have won NaNoWriMo successfully.  In fact my husband and I both won NaNoWriMo while having small children in the house. But I have come to accept that he is better at it. He stayed up late on Halloween and wrote 1000 words while I slept. He went to events and became part of the Edmonton writing community. He used Word Wars to get a jump on his word count. He once won our children a humongous stuffed Sullivan (the character from Monsters Inc for those of you without kids) by typing a 100 words with his nose. I’m lucky to get over 200 words in a word war. The only way I could win a Word War would be if the other contestants were forced to type with their noses.

I’m not doing NaNoWriMo this year. Since I write all year long, I’m often in the middle of a project when Nov. 1 rolls around. This November is all about the rewrites—and rewriting is an area where I’m better than my husband hands down.

NaNoYesNo?

A Conversation between Cindy Spencer Pape and Jody Wallace

Cindy: So, Jody, I'm actually doing NaNo this year for the first time since 2006. What about you? Thinking about making yourself crazy this November?

Jody: NaNoHellNo.

Cindy: I know. It's kind of crazy, right? Trying to write like a maniac right in the middle of the maniacal holiday-prep time? Because it's not like I obsess about that or anything.

Jody: I hear some people are more inspired when they're under pressure. While writing a whole book during November does sound like enough pressure to make you, ehm, poop out a diamond, I'd be more worried about ending up with a bad case of literary hemorrhoids.

(BECAUSE I HAD TO GO THERE IN MY SECOND COMMENT. God. Do you hate doing this article with me yet?)

(Nope.)

Cindy: I tend to be one of the pressure people. (Grumble) I did NaNo once.

Once. It worked like a charm. First sequel to first sale written, sent off & was immediately acquired. Then for the next few years, I didn't need to. My normal output was right up there. These last few years, I've kind of slacked off. So doing NaNo is me, kicking myself in the butt. (Foot going in. Not diamonds coming out.)

Jody: I did NaNo never. Maybe when my children are old enough to feed themselves? Nah, who am I kidding? My writing process simply doesn't lend itself to upchucking a first draft in a short period of time, unless it's a novella or short story.

The challenge I have is that a lot of...let's just call them self-appointed gurus...seem to enjoy critizing writers who don't upchuck their first drafts, writers who have a different process. I've even seen gurus intimate that writer-parents use children as an "excuse" not to write. However, since I'd love for my output to be faster, it's hard not to internalize the proselytizing just a little.

Cindy: Gah. No argument there. Self-appointed gurus tend to make me want to upchuck in a much more colorful manner than words on a page. Everyone's process is different. No argument. Mine tends to be fast, and I'll revise, but I don't do drafts. What I've been doing lately, though, is dawdle. And that's why I'm doing this. To give myself some accountability to stay the hell off Facebook and Amazon and Buzzfeed and the stupid solitaire games and actually get some stinking work done. Weirdly, I was faster when my kids were still in jr. high and high school than I am now that they're in college.

Jody: I do think it's important not to let other writers shame you if you don't thrive using their preferred writing process. Then again, it's also important to be accountable. Having been in small press and independent publishing most of my career, accountability for me has had to come almost completely from within. It's tough to carve out writing time when you don't have the income or contracts to offset your family's loss of attention, clean clothes, meals, and so on. I can see how dedicating a single month to NaNo might be more manageable than every month of every year, especially when you have a ready-made peer group to commiserate with you and cheer you on.

So it's not that I don't respect NaNo'ers. NaNoites. NaNoWriters. NaNoNaNoShazbats. What do you call yourselves anyway?

Cindy: Heck if I know. I just call myself a writer with a word count goal.

I absolutely agree about the not shaming part. Among my crit group, I'm an oddity for not outlining every little detail--and for not writing successive drafts, and for a while, at least one friend took that to mean I wasn't serious about my writing. And being in small press is a whole different thing, where the income level doesn't correspond to the work load.

I tend to think of NaNo as a thing to get people who say they want to write a book but never have, out there, putting words on a paper and using the charts, etc. on NaNo to give themselves encouragement. That's one reason I never did it again, even though I knew I could. To me, once you've proven you can, the month is kind of moot. I just wanted to do it again, to reestablish consistent habits in my brain.

My kids are grown, which puts me in a good position to write, and I don't have a day job. Those aren't excuses, they're reasons that you might not get to write 40 hours a week. Other jobs are other jobs, and it's no shame, or shouldn't be. Kids take time and they're more important than pretty much anything else. Send the shamers to me for a good smack upside the head. For me, though, lately, it's just been about motivation and discipline. That's all in my head and I'm using NaNo as a tool to help me keep myself in line.

Not for once a year, but to get those habits back on a regular basis.

Jody: So how do you plan to deal with your proven one-draft method versus all the advice out there that you should never submit in December what you upchucked in November?

Cindy (Shrug.) I'll figure something out. I think the point comes down to this. For me, NaNo was a useful tool when I needed to focus on my first sequel, my first quasi-deadline. It worked. (And yes, I do some revisions and self-editing before I submit, just not a whole new draft.) I'm hoping that this year, it will help me renew my writing habits and get my fingers back on the keyboard more often. But as to the hype? It should never outweigh the work. I'll meet my goal or not, and it won't make much difference either way. It's just a tool. And tools really aren't meant to be used for koshing people over the head. (Though some do a pretty good job.) It's the same way with NaNo. Used properly, it can be helpful. But I really don't think it should ever be used to shame someone.

Jody: I tell you what, Cindy. During our discussion these past few days, you've managed to change my mind about NaNo, which is pretty amazing! But because I don't like pressure, I'm going to join in the frenzy my way, with CatNoWriMo -- Cat Novel Writing Month. In fact, I already posted the first episode at my Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/JodyWallaceAuthor?ref=hl and FB told me it was too profane and hate-filled to run as an ad, so it's pretty much on par with everything I write.

Why don't you share the link(s) to your NaNo novels and/or account so we can stalk you too?

Cindy: Since I'm already behind, you may have actually won the argument. Here's my NaNo link though, if anyone wants a writing buddy who may or may not remember to check in! http://nanowrimo.org/participants/c-s-pape

For what it's worth, I think our mutual answer is DO WHAT WORKS FOR YOU. Right? And if anybody gives you crap, sic Meankitty on 'em.

***

Happy Writing, all, no matter how you do it!
Cindy Spencer Pape and Jody Wallace

Here Be News

New Releases

In a life of impossible choices when sometimes death magic is the lesser of the evils, can a dark mage save the world and his own soul?

Corwyn Ravenscroft. Raven. The last heir of an ancient family of dark mages, he holds the secret to recreating the Ravensblood, a legendary magical artifact of immense power.
Cassandra Greensdowne is a Guardian. Magical law enforcement for the elected council— and Raven’s former apprentice and lover. She is trying to live down her past. And then her past comes to the door, asking for her help. 

As a youth, Raven wanted to be a Guardian but was rejected because of his ancestry. In his pride and his anger, he had turned to William, the darkest and most powerful mage of their time. William wants a return to the old ways, where the most powerful mage was ruler absolute. But William would not be a True King from the fairy tales. He would reign in blood and terror and darkest magic. 

Raven discovers that he does have a conscience. It’s rather inconvenient. 

He becomes a spy for the council that William wants to overthrow, with Cassandra as his contact.
Cass and Raven have a plan to trap William outside his warded sanctuary. But William is one step ahead of the game, with Raven’s life, his soul, and the Ravensblood all in danger.

89,000 words

Buy Link

Group News
Have you ever considered writing a novel? Join us this week as we talk about NaNoWriMo. You can find Angela Korra'ti's kick-off post here.

Link List

In case you need a little Nano inspiration: 24 Quotes That Will Inspire You To Write More

5 Weird Effects of Daylight Saving Time

Star Wars Blooper Reel and more Star Wars in your Thomas Kinkade painting.

Voting for the 2013 Goodreads Choice Awards is now open.

The 2013 World Fantasy Award Winners.

Reviews:
Night Owl Romance listed Veronica Scott's paranormal romances WARRIOR OF THE NILE and PRIESTESS OF THE NILE as  Top Picks and awarded the stories set in Ancient Egypt 5 Stars.

NOR says "... brings to life, for the reader, ancient Egypt; Pharaoh’s, Egyptian gods and goddesses, the priests and priestesses, as well as the people. It was a land rich in culture and heritage. I believe that Veronica Scott has captured it beautifully."

You can read the review of WARRIOR here and PRIESTESS here. Both are from
Carina Press.

Veronica's latest adventure in Ancient Egypt, DANCER OF THE NILE, is an Amazon Best Seller.

Welcome to NaNoWriMo week!

Hi and welcome to the Here Be Magic NaNoWriMo Week! Several of us here on the Here Be Magic blog are going to present to you a series of posts all about NaNoWrimo, our own experiences with it, and various bits of advice on how to make it through.

First and foremost, for those of you who don't already know what NaNoWriMo is, it's short for National Novel Writing Month, and it happens every year in November. The idea arose in response to how many, many people in life often say, "Well, gosh, I'd like to write a novel!" NaNoWriMo is intended to give you a chance to do exactly that. The basic goal of the exercise is to write 50,000 words--not even a complete novel, by most modern genre standards. The NaNoWriMo site provides you a system by which you can report your final word count, but it's still mostly on you to get those words out of your head and into your manuscript.

Many NaNoWriMo participants have the goal of writing something that'll eventually be publishable. Many others just like the social aspects of it, and the support of knowing that their peers are going through the same mad dash that they are. The NaNoWriMo site itself features forums where you can hook up with your fellow writers, as well as pointers to local events--but all over the Net, really, you can find a lot of NaNoWriMo support groups. There are, in short, countless ways to participate in the event.

Now, a lot of people in publishing find NaNoWriMo can cause more harm than good, since many people who come out of November with their 50,000 or more words immediately try to query what they've produced to publishers or agents. Which leads me into what I want to talk about in my post today: how I did NaNoWriMo the first time, and how it got me started on seriously pursuing writing.

My first novel Faerie Blood was the product of the 2003 NaNoWriMo. I had completed novels before, but not in some time, and I wanted to see if I could meet the challenge of 50,000 words in a month. I worked out the math and saw that it came to 1,667 words a day, give or take a word or two as you rounded off. Given that I had a full-time day job at the time, that was a lot of words to try to produce in a day.

So to try to make it as easy on myself as possible, I did some outline work in the last couple of weeks of October, laying down a rough idea of what I wanted to write about. I had a tiny germ of an idea that had started in a scene I'd written, and I took that scene and expanded it out into a full cast of characters and a roughly sketched out plot. And I threw a lot of things I loved into it, to motivate myself: elves, Seattle, computer geekery, biking, magic, and most of all, music. In particular, my two main male characters are a bouzouki player from Newfoundland (and anybody who knows anything about my musical tastes will know that Great Big Sea totally inspired that) and, of all things, an Unseelie Elvis impersonator (again, pretty obvious to anyone familiar with my musical background).

And it worked. About halfway through the month I ran out of outline, so had to regroup and plot out the rest of the story. Then I barely squeaked over the line by November 30th.

I wasn't done with the story yet, though. So I kept writing, although I'd figured out fast that nearly 1,700 words a day was pushing it for how much I could comfortably produce. So in December 2003 I kicked down to 500 words a day instead, and by January of 2004, I finally had a complete novel.

The process taught me two things:

1. The importance of writing something on a daily basis. A lot of people say they'd like to write a novel, but if you don't actually allocate time to put your fingers to the keyboard and do it, it's not going to happen.
2.  It's okay to write words that aren't perfect the first time. Before I did NaNoWriMo for the first time, I worried a lot about getting every single word and sentence right. I'd ask people for feedback and become far more worried about fixing what problems they reported than I was about actually writing new words.

Want an example? Here! Have some chapter comparisons! Both of these are PDF files.

• The original NaNoWriMo version of Chapter 1 of Faerie Blood
• The current shipping version of Chapter 1 of Faerie Blood

Because here's the thing that I see a lot of publishing people lamenting about: that NaNoWriMo novel you produce is, in fact, probably not going to be publishable the instant you're done with it. You're going to need to give it to beta readers. And you're going to need to edit it, probably several times, before you've got something worth an editor's or agent's time and trouble.

It took me a while to get Faerie Blood into a state where it finally got me a publishing offer--2008, in fact. And by then, the book had been through several edit passes.

I haven't done NaNoWriMo officially since 2003 for a few reasons. Some of them were medical, since in some years I've been through too many medical stresses to be up to the task of producing that high a daily word count. Others, though, were a lot more practical. I'd learned that I could in fact write a novel, and by the time Faerie Blood was published I had in fact finished another novel--what eventually became Valor of the Healer, now available from Carina.

But I still appreciate the social aspects of NaNoWriMo. There's something very encouraging in knowing that your fellow writers are joining you in the goal of producing a novel.

And if you're one of the many who're tackling it this year, I wish you good luck and happy writing!

--
Angela Korra'ti, a.k.a. Angela Highland, is the author of both the Free Court of Seattle urban fantasy series and the Rebels of Adalonia high fantasy series. Come say hi to her at angelahighland.com, and if you want to buy Faerie Blood, all the ways you can do so are right over here!