NaNoWriMo is over…now what?

NaNoWriMo 2011 is behind me. I was somewhat successful. I met some of my writing goals. Other goals I did not make. The process was phenomenal though, and I learned some great lessons. So here is a brief list of five lessons that I learned during the month of November while participating in NaNoWriMo.

Lesson #1 – It is okay to suck.
The NaNoWriMo goal is to write 50,000 words in 30 days. If you do writer’s math this equates to 1,667 words per day or about six and a half to seven pages per day. Since I am not Stephen King, this is no easy feat for me. It is no easy feat for most writers, actually. So, you then take the 1,667 words and cram those into the allotted time that you have to write. If you are like me, and consequently, like the average writer in America, you have a day job. It is a sad but true statement. Most writers have regular 40-hour per week jobs that take up a good measure of each of their days. Even New York Times bestselling authors have day jobs. Really. (Okay – lemme stop ranting and get back on task…) Which means that, after you get home from work, cook dinner, do the dishes (unless you have a god-like partner to do those things) etc…you may have a couple of hours in the evening in which to cram your 1,667 words. So, if you have, say, two hours, you have to write 835-ish words in that hour, or you have to write about four-ish pages per hour. Maybe that does not sound like much to you, but it IS a lot. Try it. I dare you. Consequently, in order to achieve this, I have learned that I have stop trying to be perfect and allow myself to suck. It is quite liberating, actually. Just write the crappy draft and suck big eggs. Sucking is okay because it allows you to shut the judgmental part of the brain off. Creatively also flows when you allow yourself to suck. Funny how that works.

Lesson #2 – You can edit later.
You cannot edit when you were trying to meet a word deadline. You cannot edit when you are writing the crappy draft. Otherwise, you will get sucked into wanting everything to be perfect. You must edit later. Just write the crappy draft. Do not get stuck on word choice, grammar, or if you dialog is attributed to the correct character. You will catch these issues when you go back and re-read, re-write, and edit your draft. You will do this anyway regardless of the draft number, or at least, you should. If you do not re-read or edit your work after you have written it… well, there is another bigger problem on your plate.

Lesson #3 – it is okay to fail.
You might not make your word quota on any given day. Life happens; the cat barfs on your bed, the windshield on your car splits into a horror show scene from the freezing temperatures and an errant rock kicked up by the driver in front of you, your mom comes over to visit and wants to chat and go shopping. Whatever the distraction is, you do not make your word quota. This is not the end of the world. Stop kicking yourself in the head (see lesson #4) and move on. Review your writing goals, take a deep breath, and acknowledge that you failed. Do not try to do double the word count the following day; Going from 1600 words to 3200 words in the same two-hour time span is crazy making. Do not do it. Just press on the next day. If you continue to write you will still get there.

Lesson #4 – Do not get down on yourself.
Some of us (not you, obviously, but some of those like me, and clearly me) can easily get down on ourselves for not doing what we want to do, and also for doing what we don’t want to do. We want to write. We don’t want to take an hour to go grocery shopping. We want to write. We don’t want to…well you get my drift. But, beating yourself up doesn’t solve anything. It just makes you feel bad. So – be gentle with yourself. You didn’t make your word count goal today. But, you are 10,000 words further along in your novel than you were before November 1st. Look forward. Continue on. You will get there.

Lesson #5 – NaNoWriMo is over but there is still work to do.
If you completed your 50,000 word draft, then it’s time to edit, re-write, pitch, publish, and market. If you did not complete your 50,000 word draft then it’s time to continue writing. There is still December, January and more months to get the draft done. Review your writing goals to complete your draft by the end of December. Just do it. Just write. Eventually, you will get the crappy draft done, and then it will time to edit, re-write, publish, and market. You see, the writing tasks never end. You are a writer, and your job is to write. You just have to keep writing. It is what you do.

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