Q: John, you wrote 518,335 words in the 30 days of November. This is amazing (and borderline insane)! How did you do it?
A: Borderline insanity is coming back to NaNoLand for the fourth straight year. 500K is so far into the mists of madness that I don't think it has a name. But it happened for several excellent reasons:
#1
I had two incredibly gifted pacers that kept up with me until the very end (Soluna the Houstonite, and Kateness in Philly), a ton of support from Maryland's dedicated ML's and wordsmiths, and a wife who was willing to support the madness even if she couldn't understand why I did this to myself.
#2
The delete key on my computer is off limits. So is the backspace. Spell check is highly discouraged.
#3
I maintained a list of character names in a separate file. It was a spreadsheet of character names, their relationships to the main characters, and a few words about the workplace or setting where they appeared. By doing this, I never had to look back in the novel for the name of the receptionist at Company X, and thus, never had to re-read any portion of the novel that I had written. No re-reading = less temptation to edit. A little extra work, yes, but it made it easier to keep everything flowing and to keep my internal editor locked away in the closet where I had stuffed her on Halloween.
#4
I had multiple plotlines, so if I hit a bad patch in one where the words were not flowing, I could move to another.
#5
Any time I had in November was an opportunity to write. Stoplights. Meetings. Awards banquets (unless I had to make the speech). I carried a notebook and pen everywhere I couldn't take my laptop. It helps that I type at over 100 wpm and average 80-something when writing.
#6
I didn't sleep much.
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It was glorious, it was incredible, and it may never happen again 'cause my hands hurt a lot by November 30!
Thanks to everyone who supported my mad dash, and kudos to all writers who wrote at least one word in November. You dared to dream, and you get to walk through the rest of your lives knowing that you have been a part of something truly great. See you all in NaNo X!
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John Stradling is a computer programmer and database administrator for a major US bank. He is married, with his wife and eldest daughter joining him this past year in the insanity of creating novels from nothing. He also has two more children who will some day be old enough to jump off the deep end of NaNoWriMo as well. In what spare time John can muster, he enjoys video games, crossword puzzles, reading, and writing—a lot. 2007 was his fourth year running for NaNoWriMo, and his word count was more t h a n a l l t h r e e p r e v i o u s y e a r s c o m b i n e d .