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| Photo by Nick Morrison on Unsplash |
The first week of NaNoWriMo has come and gone, and I'm all the better for it. This has to be the longest I've lasted and I genuinely feel so much happier for having taken the leap and committed myself to this project this year. In this post, I'll walk you through my daily word count, writing routine, and how I've been feeling about it all so far.
Preptober, a.k.a. the month I spent planning for NaNoWriMo
I don't think I would have lasted this long had I not spent the whole month of October 2019 plotting and planning and daydreaming. All my previous attempts at NaNoWrimo started on the first of November with nothing more than a vague concept and random scenes in my head, so it's no surprise my efforts and ideas sputtered out and died down by the end of the week. This time, I wanted to do something different.
I cannot stress to you how vital this month of planning turned out to be for me. John Truby's "The Anatomy of Story" also came in handy in giving me a framework to tackle my planning with, though I'd adapted it to suit my needs. I used to think all I needed to write a story was a concept, some characters, and a general idea of the main conflict, but Truby's process broke it down for me in ways I never thought of—not in the sense that I didn't think they mattered, just that I often took those aspects of writing stories for granted.
If you're looking to embark on a writing journey, especially if you're writing fiction, I cannot recommend "The Anatomy of Story" enough. The things I learned from it have kept me from giving up altogether, because every time I get lost or don't know what to do, I can just turn to my notes and figure out where to go from the plot-rut I'm in, which brings me to another point:
Outlining is a gift sent from the gods. Every day, I refer to my outline to see at which point of the story I'm at, and I am so, so grateful past-me took the time out of being lazy to get it all down. Of course, I give myself room to experiment and change things up a little, inject scenes I didn't know was necessary for progression, yadda yadda yadda, but the general idea of the story is there. I don't have to wonder what comes next; past-me already figured it out. All I have to do is write.
Want in on a secret? I haven't enjoyed writing a story in this long.
Day One
On the first day, I wrote 1,367 words, just a couple hundred short of the 1,667 minimum. I tried not to beat myself up for it; the first few days are all for figuring out what works for you. Besides, 1,367 is no small number; it's better to have written fewer words than expected than to not have written at all.
Day Two
I ended up writing 2,212 words to make up for the deficit from the day before. At this point, I started to enjoy the process. I liked having a goal to accomplish each and every day, and I try to get words in as soon as I wake up—a tactic I lifted from Julia Cameron's "The Artist's Way" where she talks about morning pages and how it's important to get writing to beat your inner editor to the punch.
Day Three
On day three, I wrote a total of 415 words. I was running on zero sleep, my brain wasn't functioning properly, and I just wasn't in it. I just wanted to get a few words in before passing out so that I don't miss a single day in my streak.
Again: less than the minimum is better than nothing at all.
Day Four
Initially, I wrote 2,385 words on day four despite my attention span being all over the place. I imagine it to be a wild hawk flying around, my attention, and the rational part of me—the one that knows I need to put in the work if I want to get anywhere—has to wrangle it down to get it to focus. I remember feeling like my brain really took a good beating after that day's writing session, so I rewarded myself by playing some Sims.
While playing Sims, my attention span wandered again, but this time, to my writing. I felt like I hadn't done enough, a complex which I then realized stemmed from me feeling like I was completely behind on my goals and so constantly felt like I was playing catch-up (which is a story for another time). I opened up the document, punched in another 840 words, then some more, until finally, I ended the day having written 5,066 words—my most productive day yet.
I think having written such a small number the day before lit a fire in me, and I became even more determined to not only catch up to the word count, but to also get ahead.
Day Five
I surpassed the 10,000 word count goal that day, having written 1,716 words. I woke up that day with every intention of meeting 10,000, so to have done it left me feeling really accomplished the rest of the day. And because I write in the mornings, as soon as I wake up, I started working out at home to fill the rest of my time while not writing. If I can write every day, surely I can dedicate a small amount of time each day to get my heart racing, right?
Day Six
I wrote 2,000 words on day six, not including an outline I wrote for a separate piece of work for something else altogether. At this point, I'm starting to feel like I've hit a stride. I wake up each morning kind of dreading it, but I get my butt on the chair and start writing, anyway. It doesn't matter if the words are ugly; I remind myself that the first draft is basically just me telling myself the story and that I can always go back to edit and move things around. I'm on a tight schedule which leaves no time for perfectionism, and thank God for that.
Day Seven
I capped the first week of NaNoWriMo with 1,728 words, capping my word count at a total of 15,089. That's about thirty percent of the way through! I was so pumped about this that I ended up working out for longer than my usual, and today, as I'm writing this, my body is sore from the exercise.
Main takeaway
If there's anything I learned from my first full week of NaNoWriMo, it's that in order for me to do something, I have to really let go of my reservations, of my fear of failure and imperfection, and just go for it. I know it seems obvious, but this is a big revelation for me. I used to worry that maybe I wasn't a writer, that I wasn't cut out for it, that I didn't have what it takes. Well, here I am on the other side, telling you that while it most definitely is an uphill climb, it's do-able. And if I can do it, so can you.
Let me know if you're also working on a #NaNoWriMo project, and feel free to add me on the website so we can be buddies!
Love and light,
Nina
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