NaNo recap, 2019

[seventhe]

We’ll start with the tl;dr version, saying that I have in fact met NaNo on the field of battle this year and emerged with about 50,004 words in a jumbled document that is something like an original fiction.

However, I had a LOT of thoughts about it, and in absolutely no order, here we go.

• First, to be honest, my final word count is about 47,500 of original fiction and the rest made up by my last work assignment over Thanksgiving. This is related to the fact that, on top of 47,500 words of original fiction in November, I also write over 15,000 words for paid work and about 10,000 words of fanfiction when I needed a break. This was too much. I literally burnt out. However, I think with that much writing in one month (plus the obvious 57K/10day record) I deserved to win a NaNo, even by a lil bit of cheat.

• 1667 words a day is a lot of words in some ways, and not in others. I have, due to work words and really poor planning skills, written 6000 words in a day. Fuck, I once wrote 7200 work words in a day due to some really shit planning. If I am in the groove, I can easily write over 700 words in a 20-minute sprint, which means that the 1667 bit should take about an hour all things considered, yes? Well. The days I knew what I was doing, yeah, I could hit 3K (I think my max on this one was 3500 words in a day). The days I didn’t I struggled to make 800. Where this really comes into play is that with all my work and projects - and I am not the kind of person who could ever focus on only one thing - having to make 1667 words a day on one thing is too many words.

• I went into NaNo with one of my favorite general concepts for a character - a dumpster fire of a lady who can scry into the past helps a grumpy prissy cop and an enigmatic warrior lady solve a magical mystery! - and a good deal of worldbuilding. I had figured out in advance what the key parts of the world were going to be, and how it would work; while writing, a couple other great pieces fell into place and were explored appropriately. I learned a lot of things about my world while writing it - what a great surprise! - and whenever I eventually re-read it to keep working on it, I intend to do so on two screens, so that I can fill in the master information file as I go.

• Some of this worked well. Some of it did not! For example, I had only the vaguest concept for plot, and it definitely shows; my second main character didn’t even enter the story until around 35,000 words, and while I had the MC (Frey) down pat, I struggled a bit with Martine before figuring out his real voice, and I still don’t know his motivations. I was just getting to what was going to be the main arc of the story around 50K. Now, I’m not really the type of writer who wants to start the action immediately (although I hope the beginning of the book is something that will make people curious) but also, 50K of me dumping words to get a feel for Frey’s life? Probably not necessary.

• All of this is to say that I didn’t spend enough time building a plot for this story. Now, the purpose of NaNo is to dump words, not to make a coherent novel, so I spent my writing time generating words. I think that eventually I would have gotten a handle on where I wanted to go had I kept going; I am amazed at my ability to to generate scenes. But I didn’t do enough prep to make this any more than a word-dumping collective. It’s the first third of a book, and that first third probably doesn’t need to be 50,000 words.

• In addition, when just dumping words, it felt... I don’t know. So, readers of my fanfiction probably know I have a couple different styles I slide in and out of; sometimes I pay attention to the language of the story and make it more - visual, poetic, whatever I’m going for - and sometimes I pay more attention to the story and just write as it comes. Most of this story didn’t have much style to it; it was dialogue, conversations, or Frey thinking at herself the way I think at myself in my head. It doesn’t mean good or bad; it was just curious. The more stylistic parts were Frey using her magic, which isn’t a bad contrast now that I’m writing about it.

• Having the final document, well, in whatever incomplete state it is, I am literally of two minds as to whether to comb through, highlight the good parts, and continue with that version, or ...start over, using the NaNo dump as a guide to help me be more conscious and careful with what I’m writing and how I’m writing it. [1] It will probably depend on how I feel about it once I do go back to re-read it?

All of this being said, I’m probably ...unlikely? To do NaNoWriMo again. I’m not sure it’s useful to me. Now, it might be more useful if/when I have a plotline as well as a concept and characters and a world, and I’m also not saying it isn’t useful for other people! But I’m not sure the concept of dump out words heedlessly is one that’s good for me with what I want to do. I mean, let me point out that I now have 50K of Reflections written that I wouldn’t otherwise, sure. But I think what would work for me is a slower, longer type of challenge, where I have an ongoing project to write at least 500 words of daily, and have time to structure all the characters and plot as I’m going.

Like I said, I’m completely impressed at my own ability to dump great scenes out of just a general thought and turn them into real things I can see my characters doing in this novel! But like, okay, I have identified and honed that skill. I’m not sure what another NaNo would get me. I’m not sure I — enjoyed it? It wasn’t nearly as much fun as, say, sprinting stuff in the Discords, or going back and forth with a friend. Other than the goofy articles I write for pay, I don’t like the way it swung writing into too much work.

And if you’re sitting here going “hey Sev if you didn’t enjoy it because you didn’t prep a lot, prep for the next one and try again” — yeah, that’s the plan. But I don’t need the format of NaNoWriMo to do it. November’s a horrible month for it, because of family things, and I don’t think I need to completely burn myself out on words in order to write stories. I don’t want to lose October to planning and November to word generation; both are important family and friend months, and I’m capable of doing these things independently.

But here’s what I’ve learned!

• Construct the main points of the main plot before diving in. It can change as you go, but know where you’re going with what bits. At least figure out what your characters need to be figuring out.

• Write a bit in each character’s voice, or - if using first person like I was - write the MC with each other character. This is a preparation tool. For me, if I’d taken the time to let Frey’s voice talk about Raya, or Martine, or the Karma Knight, personality-building would have gone a lot more smoothly. The only one I got right was Darren (her father). When I was working on Ausrine, I had a number of what I called “journal entries” where Ash talked about her friends, the world, and so on — and I used her POV to get to what made my characters tick. It would be an incredibly good exercise for Reflections.

• Write the filler. You can always edit it out later.

• If you hate writing it, do you really need it? I got myself into a scene or two where I was like “but this has to come next” and, well, does it? I’m the author of this damn story. I’ll tell it how I want, and I can leave a placeholder or marker to remind myself to check whether the transition works in another way. Fuck writing stuff I don’t enjoy. As another way of phrasing this, make sure you’re always excited to write something about the next part. If you’re staring at the screen going “where are my 1667 words and when will they return from the war”, placehold the damn bit and move on.

• Move multiple things along, a little bit each week, at the same time, or you’re gonna get bored.

In the end, I’m glad to have stuck with this one - I usually give up about 10 days in; and now I think maybe I know why I usually give up, and that’s because I’m not sure this is the way I want to write. Then again, I now have 50K I didn’t have before - the NaNo motto - so we can see what happens moving forward.

It’s taught me some about telling stories — I feel like my brain is always bursting with ideas, concepts, characters, stories, and yet this story got bogged down because I hadn’t worked its plot enough. Just sitting down and writing isn’t enough if I want to tell an actual story. (Looking back at my 57K MCU Criminal Minds fic, yeah, I definitely had a plotline and outline and everything I needed to get on the road and drive.)

but hey, did the thing, moving on to the next thing now.

[1] remains a conundrum for me; i often read stuff and think my general dump-it-all-out word skills are equal to other stuff that’s been published, and i need to just take an idea and dump it out and publish it for that reason. Save the deliberate style for ideas i care more about; try to generate a fucking normal novel or two first. So i oscillate between that and wanting everything to be perfect. This of course assumes the fantasy world in which i make money off of generic novels while writing my masterpieces, which is so far from how this shit works i should probably throw it in the trash can by now.

Comments

[benjamindunbar]

I don't have anything to add, just noting this is heaps of self-awareness and I am very proud of you for the science and chucklefuckery and accomplishment here. More on the way to wordchievement than ever.

[lassarina]

This is all good and interesting stuff! I am so proud of you for doing the thing ♥