This is a story about my first attempt at NaNoWriMo and what I learned along the way. I was relatively new to novel writing and had heard the NaNoWriMo phrase a few times here and there. It was fairly obvious that it had something to do with writing competitively, as it was “National Novel Writing Month.” But I had no idea what it actually involved.
When I first became active in the Twitter writing community in 2018. It was around October of that year when the NaNoWriMo hashtags started getting really popular. I now know this happened because NaNoWriMo occurs every November. Back then, my curiosity had been awoken. But it wasn’t until October 28th or so that I finally decided to research the topic. I discovered the challenge of NaNoWriMo is to write an entire novel (50,000 words) in 30 days. Challenge accepted.
With no preparation, no warning, no clue what I was doing, I jumped headfirst into NaNoWriMo. I’d like to say it was a wild success. That this was the most rewarding experience of my life. That I grew instantly famous from my hastily written debut novel. But I can’t, because it wasn’t. It was awful. It would be six months before I could write again.
Before NaNoWriMo, I had been doing pretty well with my first novel.
Ideas had been brewing for years when I finally decided to start writing about them. When I discovered NaNoWriMo, I had already written about 50,000 words. Granted it took me 4 months to do that. But I had done it. I was already doing well and on my way to completing my first novel. But leave it to my hyper Type-A self to decide that wasn’t good enough.
So I decided to write a completely new novel. It would be a prequel to the novel I had been working on all year, the one that wasn’t even finished. But I thought this would be great. I could fix some gaps in my current novel and develop an amazing new world for my characters.
Excited about a new project, I went to the website. Biting my lip in anticipation I signed up, came up with a title, set my goals, and was off. That’s right, off to flop around aimlessly for 30 days. The whole thing started off pretty well. I hit my writing goals for the first week or so. I did some word sprints on Twitter to catch myself up a few times. (Note – Group word sprints are awesome and I highly recommend them to all writers.)
But I mostly just wasted my time on Twitter watching my fellow writers blast through their writing goals. I got very discouraged. Everyone else was doing this. So why was I struggling so much? It’s not like I was doing anything different. But I was. I was doing things very differently.
I’m not an outliner, so I didn’t think having done zero preparation would be an issue. It was.
My first novel started based on a whim and after joining a writer’s group at the local library. Those weekly meetings had been holding me to my writing obligations. But around the time I decided to jump into NaNoWriMo, my writer’s group dissolved.
I hadn’t created a plan for my first novel. And without that extra motivation of having to present something at my writer’s group, my novel-writing brain melted. I had no idea where to go with my story. So I figured why not try writing something else?
Again, I created a plan. I just started writing. I got to about 8,000 words, then fizzled out. To this day, there sits my random novel at 8,000 words.
I wallowed in my sorrows for nearly half a year. I couldn’t quite figure out what was happening to me. I had done so well for those first few months. But after some self-reflection, and some research, I discovered the problem.
As it turns out, I need an outline and I need a support system.
I am one of those people who often needs direction. Structure is tranquility. Without a clear plan, my projects turn to dust. I’m sure many of you can relate.
With that in mind, I decided to create a plan for my novel. I gave myself the rest of the year to come up with a solid plan. I worked my butt off to do all the research and background work. When November rolled around, I tried again. I do not accept failure lightly. So I gave it my all. I had done the NaNo Prep course. I created an outline. I found a writing buddy. I participated in a regional writer’s group. I stuck to my goals because I had a plan and I had support. And you know what? I did it. I won NaNoWriMo in 2019!
So what did I learn from doing NaNoWriMo?
1. I wouldn’t trade my experience for anything. NaNoWriMo changed my life. I’m the writer that I am today because of it.
2. I found out about writing sprints, which are amazing tools for when you’re simply just not motivated to write and have no idea where to go.
3. I discovered my style of writing. Without this, I probably never would have finished my novels. I’m not a full-blown planner. I’m a plantser and I’m proud of it.
4. I realized that failure does not necessarily mean defeat. This might sound like some “participation trophy philosophy.” But without my first failure, I might have continued writing, but to what end? You can write as many words as you want. That doesn’t make them a novel. It definitely doesn’t make them a good novel.
5. I learned to ask for help. Without my writer’s group, I would have failed. They supported me, encouraged me, laughed with me, cried with me. You can’t do this writing thing alone. You just can’t.
If you’ve never done NaNoWriMo, don’t let me discourage you.
Give it a shot. Just maybe don’t jump right into it two days before it starts with absolutely no idea what you’re doing. Start looking into it in April. That’s when they do a Camp NaNoWriMo. If you find you like it, then try the real deal- NaNoWriMo in November.
