National Novel Writing Month 2020

 

This is the first year I have actually written a novel during National Novel Writing Month! This is an event that writers of all levels are able to participate in online. The goal of National Novel Writing Month (Nanowrimo) is to write a novel from start to finish during the month of November, with the goal of reaching the “finishing line” of writing 50,000 words.

Last time I participated I was writing a collection of short stories. This year with NANO I actually took the plunge and write an entire novel from start to finish. This felt like quite I have never completed a book length project while working full time before. Last time I finished a book length project I was between jobs and I was on short term disability the first time that I wrote a book from start to finish.

The project that I decided to tackle actually started out as a short story that I wrote earlier this summer that I had wanted to re-visit from a different perspective. This was far from an easy project to do. There were times that I wanted to go back and rewrite what I had written. But I reminded myself that when I run a race that when I am getting closer  to the finish line I do not turn around and go back to the beginning. The point was to keep writing and to get it done!

This is really different to the way I approach writing short stories and poems because I can often start my rewriting process in the same writing session that I started the original draft. However, keeping myself writing and not letting myself go back was an exercise in being able to really lose myself in my imagination.  However in not allowing myself to do any rewriting and giving myself an uninterrupted hour I was able to type a thousand words easily during the work week. Then on the weekends I was able to work for several hours at a time, helping me to catch up to what my word count goal was for the week and to make more serious progress on my story.

To accomplish the time that it allowed I did have to cut back on reading novels and writing reviews. The book  No Plot? No Problem! was a book that I would consult during this month for some tips. One thing I really became a fan of was timed writing sessions.

 I am in a day job where my productive time is constantly evaluated.  To make sure that I did not lose myself too much during my work breaks I would set the timer on my phone and put my phone at the other end of the room, allowing myself to write during those periods of time.  I realized that while I do not always feel like my work life and my writing life are related at all, I realize that the emphasis on productive time is something that my job working for a large bank is something that I could translate over into my writing life better.  When I am at my day job, I am focused on work but sometimes when I am writing my mind wants to try to do other things---like pay my bills, write notes to friends, scrolling through Twitter and browsing books on Amazon. So the act of putting my phone at the other end of the room helped me with my productivity in my writing life immensely.

While I was not doing as much work on my blog as I sometimes have been, however there was another project that I did find myself taking up intensely as well: poetry.  I have gotten into tarot  cards during COVID and that inspires me to write poetry. Having something where I was working more on savoring images and applying it to my emotional life and placing my observations into poems made me feel like I was still diving into the more slow, meditative qualities of writing that has helped me out immensely emotionally. It kind of felt like the opposite end of what I was doing for Nanowrimo where I was trying to get as many words out and as many points out as possible while poetry allowed me to be more meditative and crafty.

But I do not want to discount the emotional benefits of doing NANO this year has been--  having a project that was allowing me to lose myself in my imagination helped me out in its own way—my day job has been emotionally taxing, its been stressful living in a city that has made the map nationally for racial violence and a lot of events I would have normally made a point of attending have been cancelled. Having a place to lose my mind in and to keep my imagination going in the mist of all of the chaos that the world has given me has helped me stay sane.  And now I have a sense of accomplishment for having written another novel during a short period of time!

Now the next step is rewriting what feels like a very sloppy copy to make it more shareable to the world….