October 18, 2007

Trying NANOWRIMO for the first time? Here are some tips...

The first time I did NANOWRIMO, I was really busy. No time, lots of commitments, but I really wanted to give it a shot. I ended up with a 105k novel that is currently in the hands of agents who are, to my great surprise, taking it seriously.

One little tidbit I learned the first time was: the 50k challenge is not THAT time consuming. Several days a week, I would sit down in late afternoon at Starbucks (like J.K. Rowling), put on some headphones and write for a few hours. That was all it took. I may have worked a weekend or two for a couple of longer stints, but really, the time commitment required is smaller than you'd think. And it kept me writing after the month was over, another bonus.

The other tip I have is not to take yourself too seriously and second guess yourself. The deadline will force you to write more, perhaps at the expense of some quality, but when I finally got around to editing my first novel, I found it needed less work than I expected and after all, you cannot edit a blank page so bad writing is more redeemable than none at all. ;)

As for rules... frankly, I think you need to stick to the rules that help you, and disgard any that are holding you back. You're doing this for enjoyment, at least in part. As I was driving across the country this fall with my husband, we amused ourselves with coming up with a story. When we got to our new house, I sat down and wrote the first couple of sentences of the story and sent it to a friend. She gave me some great feedback on how to change the setting for marketability. Now I plan to use my couple hundred words and plotting ideas for the book I'll write in November.

I am a plotter, in case that wasn't obvious. The fact that you can put your title in now tells me it's not a big deal if you want to think about your story in advance. I do think you should wait until November 1 to start writing the actual story, but any prep work you want to do, whether it's research or outlining or reading up on craft, I think is fine. I'm not a purist.

Anyway, hope this helps your jitters a bit and good luck on NANOWRIMO 2007!