NANOWRIMO WEEK TWO UPDATE

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After nourishment, shelter and companionship, stories are the things we need most in the world. —Phillip Pullman

Over the next month, I’ll be giving weekly updates as to how the process has been going for me, for my own records as well as your reading pleasure. There are few things I love reading about more than other people’s journeys as they take part in Nanowrimo - they’re always full of insights and inspiration for me.

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Did you hear that whooshing sound? It was the sound of week 2 of Nanowrimo whipping by!

As of this week, here are my stats:
Characters Introduced: 7
Plots accepted and discarded: 11 (!!)
Total breakdowns this week: 2
Words written: 30 887
Days of overwhelming inspiration: 1
Days of absolutely no inspiration: 6
Days of not meeting my target: 1
Current feelings towards writing: Crazed artist fritters around his studio muttering curses and singing songs as he cuts away at marble. There is no clear sculpture that can be seen…

Tools I’m using remain the same: Habitica, Scrivener and 8tracks. I cannot reccomend them enough.

This week has been trying, to say the least. Here’s what I’ve learned:

You’re building a habit, not a masterpiece. This doesn't have to make sense. This doesn't need to be pretty. All it needs to be is words on a page - lots and lots and lots of words. This isn't about making your magnum opus. Even the best of novels started out as a rough draft. Rougher than yours, even. Revised and re-worked after the first one had been written. Just keep writing, and believe that it will work it's way out.

Letting go of things can be hard, but freeing. Sometimes things just don't seem to work out. Sometimes you just have to cut something loose and leave it in the dust to find another person, or time, to inspire. But that can be easier said than done. I let go of all the plot and planning I had for this month. Which was hard, because this was going to be THE year I planned my novel for Nanowrimo. No such luck, I started from scratch. And the novel has been better because of it.

Inspiration is fluid and fickle. Don't pursue it, embrace it. Jump on it the moment it shines it's head, even if it's just to jot an idea down. Catch it like a little butterfly, and maybe give it a little pet to convince it to stay. It will disappear like magic if you don't (and even sometimes if you do write it down). Treat it kindly, but don't go running off of cliffs chasing it. Inspiration is not the normal state - normal is simply sitting down and getting the work done. Even if it's crap. Especially if it's crap.

Where is the line between pushing yourself and being cruel to yourself? I honestly still don't have an answer to this question. So far, it seems to me that peppering your hard work with rewards, and taking breaks, but being firm with yourself is a big line between cruelty and kindness for me. Not bursting in to tears is another. That being said, I think I need to push myself harder, still.

If something isn’t working, let it go. Collect it, write it down somewhere, and then let it go for the time being. Maybe now isn't the time to write about girls captured by fairies (my idea). Instead it's time to write about badass girls with crazy magical tattoos in a despotic kingdom (my new idea). Inspiration will come and go - don't hang on to something that's already left you. It will either come back, or reveal something better.

Scraps can always be useful later on. Do not discount the words you've written because you've changed your idea. I still feel like I'm cheating a bit by including my now-defunct story for the new one. It's almost 10 000 words added to my word count that aren't the actual book I'm writing. But everyone I talk to (including my common sense) says keep it - it counts. So I am. Because they do count for something, and maybe one day that story will get written, too.

Organisation is probably in order. Probably. Despite saying that, I have no organized my story in any way shape or form. No chapters, no settings, no real...anything. It's literally just drabbles. Right here and now, I promise to organize it the moment I complete my book (whether that's before nanowrimo, or, at the latest, December 1st).

Writing still feels so freakin’ good. So, so good. I feel so excited every single time I sit down to write at the end of the day, and even on the days where I didn't, the words flowed fairly easily - I think that's a signal that a habit is starting to form, which is SO exciting for me. It's been a hard habit to keep, this week, but I know it will pay off, and the words keep coming.

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That's it for advice and thoughts this week, folks. The second and third weeks are always the hardest for me, and I'm not looking forward to the dreaded week three. But hopefully things will work out - I'm holding on to the fact that despite my bad days, I still am LOVING writing, and loving the habit that it's giving me! Plus my plot keeps thickening like...like a delicious...soup? Soup is good.

NANOWRIMO WEEK ONE UPDATE

"There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, nobody knows what they are."

--W. Somerset Maugham

And so wraps up the first week of Nanowrimo! Over the next month, I’ll be giving weekly updates as to how the process has been going for me, for my own records as well as your reading pleasure. There are few things I love reading about more than other people’s journeys as they take part in Nanowrimo - they’re always full of insights and inspiration for me. 

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So, as of today, my nanowrimo stats are:
Characters introduced: 5
Settings explored: 3
Words total: 12 998
Chapters written: 4
Words in ‘scraps’: 7 061
Current feelings towards writing: A seasoned veteran grins as she looks over the battlefield before charging in to the fray again excitedly.


Tools that I’ve been using religiously: Habitica, Scrivener, 8tracks (I’m keeping track of all the music I’m listening to using this playlist)

This week has been a strange-but-great week for me. Here’s what I’ve learned so far:

You can have a job and write a novel at the same time. With ease. In fact, you might find great comfort after a long ass day full of whinging customers, to sit down and type away at the computer screen, watching the words fill page after page, spending time with ideas and creativity. I was really, really worried before I started Nanowrimo this year, because this is my first year attempting the challenge while being modestly employed. I was terrified that I would come home after bad days and be too exhausted to write. But things have worked out so far, and I’m really, really happy to learn that it is possible. Whew.

Treasure your good days. On the days where the words seem to simply flow out of you, take them, run with them, tie them up and squeeze every word you possibly can out of them before they escape and leave you desperate. So far the words have just been flowing out of me, and as much as I’d like to think that this will last for the whole of Nanowrimo, I want to be prepared for the days when they just won’t come (I’m looking at you, week three. I remember you, you bastard). So I’m writing. I’m writing as hard and as fast as I can - my word count is, as of today, at over 15 000 - that’s almost 5k more words than needed to ‘win’ on November 30th. It’s a cushion for me that I’m not resting back on until I absolutely NEED to. Until then, I’m beating my word goals as many days in a row as I can.

Changing your mind is a-ok. Even necessary. Just make the decision to change as early as you can - because changing your story 4 000 words in is a far-easier feat than changing it 30 000 words in. I decided to completely scrap my story idea for this year, and return to the world of my first nanowrimo draft, with some heavy alterations. It’s a setting I just keep coming back to - and with good reason. Apparently my brain want this world to be written about, so I’m going to indulge it. That being said, I’m holding on to a lot of themes from my original idea, so all that planning was not for nothing. Once I made that change, the words haven’t seemed to stop.

Go with what you know. If you’re an almost-pantser like me (someone who tries to plan, but never quite manage to plan anything and end up making it up as you go along anyway), trusting your gut is probably one of the best choices you can make. Where there isn’t a plan or an idea, real life can be a huge inspiration. Steal people from your life, your favourite books, steal plots from movies and TV shows, sweep up atmosphere and thoughts from work in to your story. Take whatever you can find and churn it out in to your words.

Writing feels so freakin’ good. There are few things that feel as good as updating my word count every day and seeing the number get bigger and bigger. The satisfaction and accomplishment, and the feeling of having actually done something creative is intoxicating. And addicting. I know life gets in the way, but truly the best thing for anyone stuck in their lives is to create, and writing is one of the easiest ways to create. We all know how to write, and we should all be writing in whatever ways we feel best - journalling, blogging, writing a novel - or all three, in my case.

Dedicating yourself to a challenge seems to make other things fit in to place. Every day I know the first thing on my to-do list, without fail, is going to be to meet my word count. But while I’m at it, I’m also trying to do a 15-second plank a few times every day. I’m trying to remember to brush my teeth more. I’m trying to eat a fruit, take a few minutes to just focus on breathing, keep my tattoo lotion’d and looked after. I’m using the fuel writing every day is giving me and using it to develop other habits that can continue after Nanowrimo is finished - and hopefully this year I can keep the momentum up and continue writing after November is up, too.

That’s all the sage advice I can give you folks from the first week, even though I could go on about how great I feel right now. Hopefully I’ll remember this if I get blocked. Tell me how your weeks have been going! Onwards we go in to week two