NaNo–The Aftermath
December 5th, 2006 by Kathleen Bolton
Now that the dust has settled from this year’s NaNo challenge, bloggers have begun to post their experiences. One of the things I liked about NaNo was the sense of community we writers shared. And then I could come here and whine about it to the world.
Some of the things I learned during this process was to tell my nitpicky muse to shut up and stop hyperventilating over word choice and get out of the way while I got the bones of the plot down. I think that was THE most valuable lesson I learned. That and if you sit long enough, your butt will go numb and you won’t feel the back pain.
I also learned that it really helps to have a detailed outline figured out before going into the story. Usually I have a good conflict but a vague sense of how I want the story to unfold. This time I hashed it out via the VOGLER method (details HERE) first. I wasn’t a slave to the outline, but when I felt like I was wobbling too far off the mark, I was able to pull back.
Finally I learned to ignore the little voice that says, “Hey, lemme jump over to CNN.com and see what’s going on in the world (or Television Without Pity, or People.com).” Time wasters, that. I had a daily goal, and though I hardly ever reached it, I got close enough to feel good about my progress.
I’m going to try and keep it up through the month of December. To those who made it to 50,000, we salute you.
Eric at Quantum has a good post about his experiences; as does Neinke.
For me, it was a reminder to enjoy the process of writing. And I loved the bar chart, watching it go up everytime I logged in some more words. I must figure out how to set one up for every mess-in-progress.
I’m with you Elena. The charting of progress — that kind of feedback is really helpful, and pushes motivation in its own way.
yWriter has a progress meter built into it. But I’d be curious to find other tools like that too. Always open to new stuff!
I think I would have to have an outline to do this, too, otherwise I’d write myself into a corner.
I liked the bar graph too, but I’m reluctant to put one up on the blog–unless Therese wants to do it too. It’s fun when it’s going up, but it’s frustrating when it seems to barely move at all.
The outline was essential, Melissa. I don’t think I’d have gotten as far as I did without it.
For me, outlines are imperative, but creativity in the form of pantsing is also important. I may not have pounded out 50,000 words, but I learned a lot about being a novel writer.
I hate written outlines. Not that I am against them - they work great for some folks. I have a mindless job, and mentally outline. After 8 hours, I am excited to come home and pour out my thoughts.
I flew through the NaNo experience until my family vacation kicked me out of the zone! I naively thought I could spend the day at Disney and then write on my AlphaSmart at night. Uh uh. The lights went out for the kids and I was not interested in working via reading lamp. I slept. Hard. Then I came home and got strep throat. Not fun! So I did pretty well with NaNo, all things considered: 23,000+ words and a bunch of new thoughts. And now I *KNOW* I can push myself into the zone whenever I need. I guess it’s kind of like exercise - push through the hurt and the good stuff follows.