Writing a novel in a month – Chapter 1

So, it’s that time of the year again – National Novel Writing Month (or NaNoWriMo, as its affectionately known) is officially underway and week one of the challenge has already been and gone.

For the month of November many intrepid (aka crazy) souls challenge themselves to writing a 50,000 word novel in 30 days and, for the third year running, I’m one of them. The mission that I’ve accepted is to write an average of 1,667 words per day of my novel to ensure that I ‘win’ by uploading my 50,000 words (or more) for verification on 30th November.

At the beginning of the second week, I thought I would spend my first NaNoWriMo blog post answering a few of your most obvious questions.

Why?

The question that I’m repetitively asked is why on earth I’m putting myself through this? The answer is simple really – because having a deadline motivates me and simultaneously unlocks my creativity.

I tell everyone I meet that I’m doing NaNoWriMo. I hate feeling like I’ve failed and, by the simple act of telling everyone about the challenge, my pride then refuses to let me fail.

But, more importantly, my brain revels in the fact that it is allowed to meander along a story, finding its way through a plot, without me constantly shutting it down and editing it.

How?

One of the secrets to a successful NaNoWriMo is knowing if you’re a plotter or pantster and becoming very comfortable about which of the two categories of writer you fall into.

My first year I was a plotter. I began plotting months in advance. In fact, I’d sketched the plot in so much detail that it was really just a case of filling in the blanks with some conversation and description. However, I found that this did kind of kill the buzz a bit half way through the challenge and my characters remained trapped in my plan. They were never allowed to jump off the page and become part of my life (where they had been before i started the writing process). Also, I hadn’t factored in the fact that I’d be about 5,000 words short of 50,000 when I typed ‘The End’. I got through it by going back through my work, adding new scenes here and there, but it wasn’t ideal.

Last year I decided to fly by the seat of my pants. I barely plotted and just wrote. The story that began in my imagination ended up being something quite different when I’d written ‘The End’ and I’m not sure I liked where it went. The idea I started with was a bit weird and magical and what I ended up with was a pretty pedestrian tangled relationship story.

Having spent time away from these attempts, when it came to this year I decided to do a combination of plotting and pantstering. My plotting actually took a bit of a hit due to some crazy deadlines I had before the start of November but, despite that, I do have a rough plan and character sketches. It’s not detailed but it;s got enough detail that I know I’m going in the right direction, even when my characters take hold of the wheel for a bit.

That’s the problem with too much plotting – your characters aren’t allowed to develop naturally, you stifle them, they get annoyed, you get frustrated and the result is writers block.

Writers block can also result from not enough plotting though – you spend too much time procrastinating about what the next scene will be and not doing enough actual writing.

My advice is to find what you’re comfortable with and stick to it. There is no point spending available writing time worrying if your plotting ways are killing your story off or if flying by the seat of your pants is going to result in you writing yourself into a hole.

When?

I have a full-time job in digital communications. I have two websites to maintain outside of work, reviews to write, wildlife and bands to photograph, a guitar to play and all the usual chores everyone else has. Everybody has ‘life stuff’ like this. I’m no different. Some of these activities have to take a back seat in November, but I;m actually finding I can continue most of my usual activities.

My secret? I try to write in my ‘deadtime’ wherever possible. For me, that’s the train leg of my commute (totalling around an hour and twenty minutes per day) and my lunch break, when necessary. On a good day this means that I still have my evenings free to catch up on all the other tasks or just relax. It helps that this is also my approach to writing my blogs and reviews.

To use ‘deadtime’ I have to be really tough on myself and it doesn’t always work. You have to accept that things will crop up (someone will disturb you on the train or you have to work during your lunch), but having a routine (and a bluetooth keyboard for your tablet for use on the train) helps.

So, how’s it going?

I’m just past week one and my word count is 15,464. I have reached my average word count every day and this is the plan.

In previous years I’ve tried to write as much as humanly possible to ‘bank’ words for days when I’s be less enthused. It didn’t work and I got frustrated with my story.

Allowing myself to do the average needed means that I’m not writing for extended periods so I’m less likely to become bored and start to procrastinate. Also, the breaks between writing allow my brain the time it needs to come up with the next juicy plot twist – just because I’m not writing, it doesn’t mean I can’t mentally plan the next scene so that when I next sit down to write it’s there in my head waiting for me.

What’s next?

Week two! In my next blog I’ll try to share some more detail about how I’m planning on getting to half way while making sure I have enough happening in the story to get me to 50,000 words.

There may be trouble ahead but I’ll keep on writing because I’m now in for a penny, in for a pound – or 50,000 words.

(If you’re taking part in NaNoWriMo 2015, or if you’ve taken part before, I’d love to hear about your experiences – please leave me a comment below)