Let’s get this out of the way up front. I have never participated in National Novel Writing Month. Not one time. Didn’t even start it and then give up. BUT … before you quit reading, I have completed five novels. And each one was written more quickly than the last. With my final few attempts, I landed on a structure which I believe can be turned into some advice for NaNoWriMo. From a never timer.
PRIOR TO NOVEMBER 1st
Plot Out By Chapters
I do this for every novel I write (now … I do it now). I go in knowing the general idea I have for the book, and then I plot it out chapter by chapter. This means you will need to know how your book ends before you begin writing it, which is a very good thing for NaNoWriMo. Endings are the worst sometimes. And you certainly don’t want to get right to the finish line and not know how to cross it.
I hear you saying things like, “But I create characters and then they tell me where my story goes.” Yeah.
Look, I’m not going to beat around the bush here. We don’t have time for that shit. If you wanted to be guided by your characters as you meditate on the lawn, you’d be headed back to your low-residency MFA program for a fall conference instead of pounding out a novel from your fevered hole of an office in your converted basement. We need to get shit done. You hear me? Plot it the fuck out. You have two options: either you have a feel for this and you just do it; or you know about how long you can write on one topic or in one sitting and you find out how many times that number goes into 50,000. That’s how many chapters you need. If you opted for the first approach, divide 50,000 by that number. That’s how long your chapters are going to be.
Turn Each Chapter Into a Writing Prompt
Now you have a general outline of your entire book. You made a few little notes for each chapter during the first step. Now it’s time to turn those chapters into something you can work with. Thinking of a novel as a one whole can be overwhelming. That type of thinking leads straight to writer’s block, which in the case of NaNoWriMo, is death. You can only cross one bridge at a time. And you’ve been handling up on some writing prompts since childhood. So here we go.
For each chapter give yourself three things to work with: what do you want the reader to feel, what is one image the reader will see, and what is something the reader will learn about a character. If you can’t come up with those three things, then maybe you need to rethink that chapter. If it isn’t making us feel something and it doesn’t have at least one memorable image and we don’t learn anything about a character, is it really worth a whole chapter. Now is your chance to maybe combine a chapter or two (as well as maybe separating one with too much for three questions), and then re-math.
Set Weekly Chapter Goals
This is possibly the most important step. The easy thing to do is to say to yourself that there are 30 days in November and 50,000 words to write, so my goal will be 1,666.66667 words per day. That is horrible. Just awful. Don’t do that. Think in terms of chapters. Is your book broken into 25 chapters? Great. November pretty much has 4 full weeks plus a Thursday-Saturday. Give yourself those first few days to get the first chapter written, and then make a goal of 6 chapters per week. You already know that each chapter needs to be about 2,000 words. Those will be your writing prompt goals. But other than those short term goals, never think about daily numbers. Work to get those 6 prompts written this week no matter how much or little time they take up each day.
DURING NOVEMBER
Create the Plan, Work the Plan
Your plan is strong. Do not deviate. Think of NaNoWriMo like a college class with a fuck ton of homework. You have this week’s worth of writing prompts to do, so go do them. Find yourself a space very similar to the space you would carve out to complete some homework. Make sure you’ve communicated with your family your plans to accomplish this lofty goal. And then carve out times to work. Go to the library or lock yourself in your room at a set time. If Saturday rolls around and you’ve only made it through a couple of chapters for the week, don’t freak out. You wouldn’t freak out about homework. What you would do would be laugh a little at your procrastination over dinner Friday night, adding, “Yeah, I’m going to have to go spend all day at the library tomorrow until I’m caught up.”
Pace
It is entirely likely, with a plan this complete, you may very well feel the urge to move ahead at times. Take those first few days. Let’s say the first chapter of this idea has been rattling around in your head for months. It practically writes itself, and you have it finished by Thursday at lunch. Your instinct will be to forge ahead and start on next week’s chapters. And it is your experience. If you want, go for it. But …
Do not neglect your personal needs. Sure, pulling two straight all nighters and pushing yourself 10 chapters deep puts you way ahead of a finisher’s pace. However, sleep catches up with us all. You could very well work yourself sick and crash out at the halfway point. Or maybe you neglect your loved ones to the point one of them tries to stop the insanity come Thanksgiving, when the end is so close. Nope. Stick to the pace you set. Have a life around your weekly goal. Maybe you clear yourself a Saturday afternoon to clear your mind. Stepping away can make ideas flow. You need to see the forest at times. Not just the trees.
Do Not Edit; Don’t Even Look Back
This seems overly simplified, but it’s crucial. NaNoWriMo is not designed to churn out a finished product. It’s designed to give you a first draft. You do not have time to edit this shit. Edits come later. For now, don’t even look back. As soon as you finish a chapter, it is dead to you. You move forward. Always forward.
Having said that, as a related note, do not always feel the need to finish one chapter before calling it a night. In fact, one clever way to make sure you don’t have to look back is to stop with a little left in one chapter. First of all, it will mean you start the next day knowing exactly what is about to happen, which will prevent blockage. Secondly, it will keep the flow of the whole story fresh on your mind from one day to the next.
WHEN NOVEMBER ENDS
Walk Away
Some people do NaNoWriMo as a part of a contest. And some do it just for shits and giggles. If you’re in a contest, then, obviously, submit. But if not, walk away. Do not dwell in this world you’ve rolled around unshowered in for a month. I promise you are too close. You need distance. I would recommend not revisiting this manuscript until 2019.
And … Write It Again
Now you can edit. Go back to your manuscript. Look for some places that need to be fleshed out more. In all honesty, a 50,000 word manuscript is not typical book length in almost any genre (maybe middle grade?). You will probably need to build it up a little. Look for possible sub-plots. Look for areas to do more character development. Remember, you wrote a first draft. If you want this to go anywhere, you’ll need a second. And a third. And a fourth. And … fuck … writing is so hard.
Matt Coleman is a writer of crime novels and comedy. His novels, Juggling Kittens and Graffiti Creek are available from Pandamoon Publishing. Learn more at www.mattcolemanbooks.com.