Do you consider yourself a NaNo failure because you haven't churned out 50,000 words? I didn't, and I don't. My goal was to pick up my writing speed ... and I did it. I'm thinking I doubled it from 500-words-a-day to a thousand, sometimes more, depending on what the priority task is for the day.
Thanks to The Colorado Writer's Daily by Tamela Buhrke, I found Rachel Aaron's blog on how she increased her writing speed to 10,000 words a day. -- The screaming you hear are my thumbs. If they could run, they'd be heading for the hills at such a thought. -- Aaron gives both some great macro- and micro-tips on increasing your word flow. Give her a read. You may find something useful.
My favorite insight was one I sort of fell over while doing NaNoWriMo. -- I realized I didn't have to outline to increase my word flow. I just needed to know what direction I was going. I set up docs for my chapters: 1, 2, 3, etc. Then, started writing notes to myself at the top of each chapter in red. As a thought occurred to me, I'd jot it down on a sticky note ... and then, add it to an appropriate chapter. If the idea didn't get used when the chapter was done, I transferred it down the line ... until it was thrown away in the "bits and pieces" file.
Point: Even if you don't suceed in writing 50,000 words in one month, you may still have set a continuing pattern or habit that'll help you be more productive. Oh, yes. I realize NaNoWriMo isn't done as I write this, but I'm done. I quit trying before my thumbs gave out. Like, I'll be able to write tomorrow.
While not writing for Thanksgiving, I wrote a new opening chapter for The Somant Troubles ... which hooks readers with an unusual situation [I hope] that shows the MC's [Mariah] openness to the "99%" of the Marches. Then, the chapter introduces the continued bickering between Mariah and Linden plus how she maintains her friends at the Half-Elven military Camp even though Linden has banished her.
Now, I still have to write the ending, ie. give more detail and action to the summary for chapters 20/21 or combine them into one. -- Who knows what'll happen tomorrow.
4 comments:
Luckily my thumbs held out...Looks like I'll make the 50,000, but the best part is establishing a better writing routine. I think I can churn out 1,000 words on most days now, which is a lot better than I've done in the past.
Maybe NaNoWriMo's biggest contribution to the writer's scene is to blast people out of their writing ruts.
Hail to all who've Nano'ed themselves this month. I cheer your efforts, whether the 50,000 word goal was reached or not. Failure at 40,000 words? No way. Failure at 30,000 words? No way. Failure at not tackeling Nano? Nope. One submission off, another soon...been a good month for everone...hasn't it?
Don't think anything is a failure ... unless you completely give up. Since I quit NaNo, I've done a revision of a short story and finished the novella I put on the back-burner for NaNo.
Funny thing: After letting the novella sit, I came up with a better first chapter. It sets the stage for the story better, and the former first chapter winds up the first complication.
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