Succor: My First NaNoWriMo

My first experience with NaNoWriMo taught me what it means to be a writer. To be a writer is to write every day. To begin a work and to finish it. To choose a time and a place to write, commit to it, and show up to do the work, day after day.

For me, being a writer means being prepared. I prepared for NaNoWriMo by stating my premise in fifteen words, then expanding that premise into five sentences, then expanding those five sentences into five paragraphs, and then expanding those five paragraphs into five pages of synopsis. That's the Snowflake Method. After that, I followed Alexandra Sokoloff's index card system to set scenes and climaxes. So, I went into Nano with an outline, a synopsis, and scenes on index cards (well, sticky notes on a tri-fold board).

All of that preparation worked to my advantage. Every day, I looked at my synopsis (which followed my scene list) and typed scenes. Because I had put tons of thought into the storyline during the synopsis preparation, I found that I rarely thought about my book while I wasn't typing during NaNoWriMo; I just picked up each day where I had left off the day before. Although, usually, I went back a paragraph and re-wrote some badly arranged lines and then moved on.

A big helper to finishing my novel in thirteen days was that I had made a pact with myself not sign on to the internet until my daily writing was complete; I didn't even check AI stats or Nano stats until my daily writing was finished. But, I did keep up with my daily housework schedule and DayMinder Agenda. However, the second week of Nano, I didn't walk or lift weights; I only stretched daily. And, I made sure not to neglect my spiritual and familial commitments.

I love my Nano novel. Even now with rewriting, I'm still having fun with it. However, I've learned that I need to continue to write every day, and that means keeping up with a new plot and new characters. So, while I'm revising my Nano book, I'm also plotting out my next project. If all goes well, then I'm going to start writing the next novel as soon as possible. And, after that, I hope to plot and write again, repeating the process until I feel better about my writing skills.

I hope your Nano experience was fun for you, and I'd like to hear about it.

Kathleen