They keep you up at night or wake you early in the morning. They are the characters that are swirling and dancing in all writers. They want out of our brains and onto the paper or screen. It’s time to let them out! Send them on their story journey. Let your characters flow into the story you weave. It’s National Novel Writing Month, your designated month for unabashed writing.
November is the month, and the challenge is on by NaNoWrIMO.ORG to write 50,000 words in November. This equates to a strong and very rough draft of your novel. It’s your jump start to get your story out of your head.
How can this be done? In simplest terms, 1,667 words per day. Just sit down and let them flow. All the excuses are out the window according to a post by NY Book Editors. I need a plan. I need an outline. What about my plot chart? For those of you who are planners, this may be hard. I count myself among you. But when I wrote the first draft of my book during Nano-WriMO a few years ago, it was the most freeing feeling to just sit down everyday and write. My story lines and characters took me in many directions I could have never planned. I ended the month and the draft with 55,152 words and a giant YIPPEE!
To make this fun and a way to connect with others doing the same thing, check out the
NANOWriMO website and log in. There are resources and community forums by region of the country, and around the world, that let you know you’re not alone in this challenge. Check around your local community for other writers taking the challenge. Some writer groups hold writing events to help encourage one another. These events include just time to write among other writers, word games to stimulate wordsmithing, and other fun writing exercises for getting those novels drafted.
Move the Halloween candy wrappers aside, and welcome November with a challenge that could be the first step in your next (or first) published book.
I’m in, are you?
7 Tips for accepting the challenge:
- If you hit writer’s block, stop and get a glass of water. Drink it. Sit down and write a scene with one of your other characters.
- Phone a trusted writing friend if you find yourself slowing down and talk about your story. A fifteen-minute conversation may spur some new ideas.
- Even if you are writing a scene and you know there are flaws, keep writing. Something good will come of it in the next draft.
- Carve the time anywhere – lunch, carpool, a few minutes before bed.
- Mid-month slow-down? Look how far you’ve come! Connect with other writers and keep going.
- Feel like you are getting behind in your word count? Keep going. On the off chance you don’t end up with 50,000 words, you will be so much further along.
- Remember, no editing, just writing.
Let’s connect:
Facebook and Twitter: @KHRWriter
Instagram: KHRichardson5
Writers are always looking for fodder to enhance their next story. Holidays with family or friends is a gold mine for these morsels. I’m not suggesting you add crazy uncle Frank as a character. Keep an eye out for little things like who talks the most, are they loud and want everyone to hear their stories? What are the roles everyone plays in the holiday? Are they the picture-taker of the family, the one that brings more dishes than they signed up for, the one that is always late, or the one that always brings an extra person?
Karen H. Richardson, PMP 