It's mid-October. The weather is turning cold in my neck of the woods, which I'm not excited about but my dog loves it. This is also one of those points on the calendar when time seems to accelerate, as all of a sudden a lot of big things feel like they're about to happen all at once. This includes three of my family's favorite holidays, each of which presents various challenges. Are the kids too old yet for trick-or-treat? Do we stay home and host Thanksgiving (which can be stressful) or travel to spend it with relatives out of state (which can be a whole different kind of stressful)? Why, oh why, have we not yet started Christmas shopping? Add to that the end of this school year's first marking period, the annual swap of warm-weather gear for winter duds, and, oh yeah ... NaNoWriMo.
If that sounds like gibberish to you, let me explain. November is "National Novel Writing Month," for which NaNoWriMo is the not-quite-acronym. It's an annual self-challenge for writers to produce 50,000 words within a single month. Web sites abound for writers to discuss their projects, track and share their progress, tout their successes and lament falling short. It's a big deal. It's an annual tradition. And it's not easy.
I've tried it several times, and never quite pulled it off. But along the way I've learned some lessons to apply all year long. For example, I started out thinking that taking vacation the week of Thanksgiving meant I would have a solid seven days of writing to make up for missed daily goals in the first half of the month. Not so. More than almost any other, that's a family-oriented week. There's the feast itself, of course, but before that lots of shopping and prep to help with, and the weekend following it we spend putting up the tree and decorating the whole house for Christmas. And if we're not hosting then there are also hours of travel time. Can't write and drive; I think there's a law or something. So, first tip: hit the ground running on November first, and try to get ahead of daily goals and stay ahead if possible. Things will inevitably happen, and it may be tougher to get back up to speed than it was to get started in the first place.
Second tip: go in with a plan. If you're starting a fresh project for NaNoWriMo, use October to think it through a bit, maybe create at least a basic outline. A blank page can be an exciting world of possibilities, but it can also be an intimidating void if the words to fill it don't spring to mind. And the pressure of the ticking clock doesn't help.
Last, best tip: don't stop at the end of November. If you write 50,000 words, good for you! Celebrate, then finish up the story, go back and edit and polish, and then start the next one. And if, like me, you don't get to 50K? Don't despair, whatever you got done in November puts you further along with that project than you were in October, and now you have December to continue working on it, and if need be also January and onward. Just make progress, and keep at it until the work is done. I haven't yet hit my NaNoWriMo goal, but I have finished several books, and eventually you can, too. Let's go!
