On Joining NaNoWriMo While Knowing the Odds are Stacked Against Me

Once again, I've managed to get the week right before one of the NaNoWriMo months.

I've actually decided to do NaNo yesterday. It was a serious debate for me. I actually wasn't going to write at all for the rest of the year. But you know what my muse does when I say I'm not going to write?

She makes me want to write.

So that's what I'm going to do.

Write.

While editing three books for publishing.

While importing and selling 5000 pairs of shoes.

And while moving house.

Why, one might ask, would I be so insane as to take all this on my plate? Well, the simple answer is that I want to publish three books, preferably before the end of this year. Secondly, I want to write, because writing makes me happy. The shoes, while they make me happy (come on. SHOES. ARE. MY. DAY JOB.), I don't really have a choice about. Same about moving house. (I'm not going to go into that, because explaining why we have to move house will take up a whole week.)

But anyway, the big thing is that made me decide to NaNo after all was that writing makes me happy. It's one of the few activities in my life that fulfills me as a person.

That's really why I'm doing it. Not because I want to write 50k words before December. Not because I like the prestige of winning NaNo.

Which is good, because I've won twice out of seven attempts. Okay I should mention that I would have won in July if not for the shoe business taking off in such a huge way that I had zero time to write. As in, I slept when I wasn't working and worked when I wasn't sleeping.

Technically, this shouldn't be the case now. Although it could be. So for now, my goal isn't so much to write 50k as to write a bit every day and see how far I get.

But that's okay. Because that's what NaNo's really about. Getting words down. Even if I only hit 10k, it's still 10k more than what I would have if I kept to my decision not to write again until January. And given the sheer amount of stuff I have to get done, it'll still be an achievement.

More than that, I'm hoping that it'll be 10k of sheer happiness and escapism. Right now, I really need it.

What about you? Doing NaNo? Please feel free to buddy up with me. User name is iceangel.

Non-Traditional Tips for Surviving Camp NaNo: Breaks

For my final tip for this week, I thought I'd go a bit more counter intuitive on you.  

Take a Break

When I say break, I mean take a day off. Surely you didn't think my mini-goals to get ahead of par was because I want to be an over-achiever, did you? 

No no. I'm a firm believer in rest. No, I'm not lazy. But some days, you just need to slow down. Or stop writing entirely. Maybe it's because your brain feels like mush. Or maybe you have a family member who needs your attention. 

Either way, it's better to not write for a day, than to try and cram everything in at once. The way I see it, cramming just sucks. Yes, you write, but odds are you're not going to enjoy it. And let's face it. What's the point to writing if we don't like it any more? Also, writing without actually enjoying it tires you out. Emotionally and mentally. Which means that although you might manage to force yourself to write today, it might mean that you end up not writing for a week. Or if you manage to keep forcing yourself to write until you win, you might not write again for months. 

No one wants that. 

So if you're feeling a funny burning sensation in your brain (Really. That's how it feels to me in any case.), or life just gets in the way, set a reduced mini-goal or don't write. Preferably, you'll have a buffer of extra words built up. Otherwise, you just need to split the difference in between your remaining days and work it in later. 

That's actually why I didn't post yesterday. I had every intention to do so, but got knocked over by a migraine. Still feeling a bit achy, so I'm going to reduce what I want to do for today as well. Lucky me, I was two days ahead. But there's simply no way I'm going to melt my brain by writing through a migraine. 

Furthermore, I have a strict six day policy in my writing. In other words, I only write for six days a week. I always take the seventh off unless I can't resist writing. It sounds strange, I know, especially in a world where people keep shouting that we should be writing every day. But in the end, I know I'm more productive after resting than if I slog through writing day after day until I burn out. 

Anyone else doing Camp NaNo? When was the last time you took a break? 

Non-Traditional Tips for Surviving Camp NaNo: Mini-Goals

I thought I'd write about this other nifty trick to surviving Camp NaNo because I'm actually a bit pressed for time. Because of this nifty trick. 

Today's tip: 

Set small, easily achievable mini-goals. 

I don't know about you, but I used to find a 50k words in a month goal to be a daunting prospect. Especially when I'm writing by hand. See... when I write by hand, my writing speed is pretty much halved. However, the benefits to writing by hand much outweighs the disadvantages, so I've had to learn to adapt. 

One way I've adapted was to break my big goal into little goals. Usually I work something like this: Each day, I aim a bit higher than the daily average. I do it in such a way that by the time I day six, I can take day seven off. 

(And I do take at least one day a week off from writing. Even in NaNo.) 

But I don't stop there. I try to write in such a way that there's always a widening surplus of words between the goal and my writing. Because a few hundred extra words don't take all that much out of me. On the other hand I know that towards the end of the month I might get tired. So it's good to have a buffer. 

The reason is actually the same as why I set mini goals. It's actually easier to say: "Hey, today I only need to write a thousand words and tomorrow I can take the day off." Than I have to write "30k more words to win." 

Yep. It's all psychological. 

This month, I have to write 2420 words every day to stay on par. Which means I'm trying to write 3k every day so I can take one day off per week without falling behind. 

Now 3k per day might sound daunting in itself, but I've easily been able to beat it on most days. My average for the days on which I write is 3223 words per day at the moment, and I'm not done writing for the day yet. (Hence my comment from earlier.) 

How I do it: 

1) Because I'm working on seven projects, I work out how many words I have to write per book to get to my goal. This is 429 words per project. Which equates to about four handwritten A5 pages. So I aim to write five. 

Again, this is a psychological trick. "Only five pages" is easier than saying "I have to add 3000 words to my writing." 

In truth, I almost never write less than 500 words into any of my projects at any given time. And furthermore, I don't ever write in all of my projects on a single day. 

The trick is that I say: "I'm going to start writing and for now, I only need to write 500 words." My mind takes over from there and I write until the scene is done. Obviously, the more I write, the easier it becomes for me to start on the next story.

Because the amount I'll need to write in any subsequent session decreases as I write. Which makes it so much easier for me to write without really worrying about whether I could possibly reach my goal. 

2) Word sprints. You'd think that with my slow speeds I wouldn't sprint on Twitter. You'd be wrong. I do it almost as often as the sprints are happening (assuming I'm awake. Damn you time zones!). Again, it's purely psychological for me. 

Don't tell me you find the idea of writing for ten minutes daunting. Especially not when you take a five minute break afterwards. But twelve ten minute sessions add up to two hours of writing. (Math. I know.) The thing is, you're probably going to find yourself writing easier because you can keep your inner critic at bay for short stretches of time. And writing easier means writing more. 

So even if you do have say three hours available, try 10, 15, 20 and 30 minute sprints followed by short breaks to recover. 

This method also means you won't be as likely to burn out in the long term.

If you're on twitter, you can follow @NaNoWordSprints or check out #NaNoWordSprints if the account isn't active.

And that, my lovelies, is my tip for today. Trick yourself into thinking each writing session you do is a cinch, and it will be. 

Anyone else doing Camp NaNo? How are you doing? 

 

Non-Traditional Tips for Surviving Camp NaNo: Multitasking

Hey all! It's Misha again.

Usually I'm here to critique people, but I only got the memo that I'm up yesterday, and... well... in case you don't know, it's Camp NaNoWriMo.

I'm taking part, mostly because I think NaNo's awesome. Mainly though, I'm about four months behind on my writing goals, and my Camp NaNo goal will catch me up on two. (I'm aiming to write 75k words.)

Since my mind is pretty much locked onto Camp NaNo this month, I thought I'd share some tips that help me get through writing marathons. (Actually, I do them much more than you'd think.)

But be warned. I'm not going to give you traditional advice. I'm basically sharing what works for me and why.

My first tip to get through Camp NaNo (especially if you have a huge goal set):

Work on multiple projects. 

Now when I say this, I hear two camps of people screaming at me. "But I can't!" screams one side. "But the rules!" screams the other. 

Easiest will be for me to go into the rules. Basically, NaNo is about writing a novel in thirty days. And furthermore, it's on an honesty system. It makes allowance for rebels of every creed. Including but not limited to: 

1) People who started the story before and now want to finish it. 

2) Script writers

3) Poets (Kudos, if you're one.) 

4) And people working on more than one novel at a time. 

All of the above qualify as winners when they hit 50k words or whatever. 

Is any of it cheating? No. I think not. If I rebel, I'm not disadvantaging any other writer by doing so. So what do you have to lose? 

Now onto the "But I can't!" camp. I admit that some of you really can only focus on one thing at a time. And those of you who have tried and failed to work on more than one project, you'll know you're someone who really can't work on more than one thing at a time. 

However, I know from own experience that at least some of you aren't quite being honest. I also said "I can't", preferring to stick to one project at a time. Then one day I had an epiphany, where I realized how much time I wasted. See... if I only had one active project and it stalled, I'd wait for months for inspiration that would get me going again. And in those months, I often didn't write at all.

This stalling in a project can be murderous in NaNo, by the way. Because the words stop coming. So you try and force them. Which makes them less likely to come. And probably pushes the inspiration part further away. Odds are, your idea won't come back if you keep poking at it. 

Multiple projects solve this. 

It works like this. I have somewhere between three and seven (current record) fiction projects running at the same time. One is my priority project, which I try to work on every day. The others I work on at random, or as inspiration or interest strikes me. If I stall on any of them, I let it lie and move on with the other projects. (Temporarily prioritizing another book.) Believe it or not (and you'll only know if you try), this is actually a really liberating way to write. 

It's saying that I HAVE TO WRITE 50k (or whatever) while saying BUT I GET TO PICK WHAT TO WORK ON. 

This is especially useful when you have a shiny project that's diverting your attention from your current one. Write both, making the shiny one the carrot at the end of the stick. If you finish writing a chapter in your main project, you get to work on the SNI. 

Because there's less pressure on performance, I've found I perform better. Whenever my project stalls and I work on something else, it now takes a few days to revert back to form. And the whole time it was stalled, I was still productive. 

And my stats don't lie. I failed three NaNos the traditional way because I kept stalling at 30k (at most). Then April last year, I decided to try and write more than one project. I won easily. So in November, I did it again. I won while revising another book in the same month and moving house on the 19th. With all the packing afterwards. 

If you're thinking that I won't finish any drafts this year... You're right. I might not. (Although I suspect I will.) But where NaNo has a way of wiping out writers faster than you can say "I'm a winner!", I'll be able to continue writing for the rest of the year. And by next month, I'll possibly have two or three books finished instead of one. 

So if you've been feeling stuck and struggling to reach your goal, why don't you try adding one project to work on when you're tired of the first one? Could be that it'll make a huge difference to your writing.

Anyone else doing Camp NaNo? How's it going? 

For the Abstainers

Okay, they're all gone, right? Who? The crazy writers doing the National Novel Writing Month.

With them gone, I can admit this. I'm not doing it. It's not the way my brain works. And considering the stuff I have due this month, I know there's no way I can do it even if I had a mind to. (It's kind of a miracle that I even got my posts done this week.)

I wish the NaNoers all the luck in the world, but I'm cheering from the sidelines.

What about the rest of you? I can't be the only one. If you're not doing NaNo, why not? (I'm not judging. I'm curious.)

On Your Mark, Get Set...

Okay, so who's jumped the gun on NaNo?

Right, you're all good. No one starts early. But I bet some of you have started thinking about it, right? Right?

Fess up. What sort of things have you started so that you can hit the ground running?

NaNo Advice

I'm betting that there are a few NaNo veterans among us. I'd like to pick your brains if you don't mind...

What is one piece of advice you'd give to a newbie NaNo participant this year? Anything you wish you'd known the first time you tried it?

Planning?

NaNo starts on Friday. (Insert dramatic music here.)

So, for those of you planning to partake...

1. Do you outline your writing or do you make it up as you go along?
2. Do you have a plan for November?
3. What are you going to write about?  

It's Coming!

November starts on Friday. And we all know what that means...

Are you going to do NaNo this year? Have you done NaNo in the past?