Successful Approach and Resources to NANOWRIMO and the Writing Process

Tracker
http://www.truckpoetry.net/NaNo/NanoReportCard2008.xls

Outline Helper
http://www.truckpoetry.net/NaNo/Cameron%27s%20Outline%20Helper.xls

Character Creator
http://www.truckpoetry.net/NaNo/charactercreator.zip

All I can offer is my own experience. Your mileage may vary.

A lot depends on what sort of thing you are writing. If it's a historical novel, for example, then you need to do a lot of front-end research before you go into NaNoWriMo: there's simply not time for that during November. Similarly, if you are doing science fiction and/or fantasy, you need to do what those people call "world building" before you start.

Once you get going, though, I think there's a uniform feeling among WriMos that you just fire up the fingers and write. Don't think about what you are doing, resolve to revise, revise, revise later, but for November, just write. Write blather. Write really good, insightful stuff. Write plot bunnies and trebuchets and people singing song lyrics, all of which you know will need to be removed like the scaffolding on a building. Just write.

This is the process that Our Founder (hand over heart, respectful humming) calls "tying up your Inner Editor and stuffing him/her in a closet." You've got to turn off the voice in your head that says "this is c**p" and just resolve to write c**p today, as long as it's 1667 words per day of c**p.

For me, when I do NaNoWriMo, I'm resolving to make a decision somewhere in the next calendar year (after it's had at least a month to sit and age): do I embark on a total rewrite and revision of this first draft, or do I set it aside and devote my energies to more viable things? I really don't think anyone produces output that is marketable or even readable on the first try.

Of my three years in NaNo, here's the outcome. For 2005, what I wrote was unusable -- ambitious and interesting but ultimately not worth revisiting. For 2006, I revised and revised and revised and that manuscript, with probably 70% of the words I originally wrote and about a third new stuff, is now out to prospective agents. I consider that ratio a fantastic success. For 2007, it's too early to tell. I have plowed through revisions on about the first half of what I wrote, but it's not clear to me it's worth the effort. The last half was pretty much a rush job and a disaster. I think I will need to extensively re-write and re-plot that part, and so if I were to guess I'd say that IF I put in the effort, the final product will be about 30% written during Nov 2007.

Those three years, then, probably span the range of the NaNo Experience: from 0% to perhaps two-thirds usable.

For me, the "overhead" of NaNoWriMo is extremely helpful in getting those words out. I like the challenge of Word Wars, the discipline of write-ins, the fun of good-natured taunting, and the support I get from the friendly, warm corners of the Forums. I like the emails I get from Chris Baty that seem to encapsulate exactly how I feel that day. (How does he know?) So, if I keep writing, I will keep doing NaNoWriMo. If I don't do NaNo this year (and I'm still deciding), it will be because I've decided to suspend my writing activities for a while.

Again, these are just my personal experiences and others from the area may chime in to offer their advice.

Monotreme

Thank you for sharing!

I can offer only a small tidbit and personal experience.

http://www.advancedfictionwriting.com/art/snowflake.php is a nice way to go, and I know several who actually use that method. It is, however, no good for me. I'm more of the 'seat of the pants' type. I have a basic idea, which I may or may not use, some characters, which I may or may not use, and...yeah. Speaking from experience...I tend to do research on a wide variety of subjects before November. Anything that could possibly crop up gets explored. I know what kind of stories I tend to or like to write, and so I can think 'gee, maybe it'd be nifty to know that there's lots of iron in strawberries'. Or something silly like that.

As far as world building goes, I just go with whatever comes to mind at the time. i'll worry about how a desert is neighbors with a tropical rain forest with the arctic two miles away later.

Character building...mostly I start with a face, and build around that. Then I move on to body type, build clothing and accessory choice, before deciding on personality. Names tend to come last, except for a few rare instances. (Lol, in my first novel, everyone was numbered. boy 1, girl 1, man 1, woman in shop 2343. Yeah.)

Plot? I occasionally use my own, but I love the adoption threads :)

Structure...it's up to you. Writing is very open. I tend to go mostly chronologically. Except for when I don't. Not very helpful, but, yeah.

Grammar? What's that? It exists during nanowrimo? (My essays are going to suffer, i just know it)

I tend not to track after the first week. It's a pain when it's handwritten XP I hate counting words....

Setting...it's kinda up to you. When and where do YOU want to write about. And I personally don't really think about setting when writing. Last year's story all took place in one city. It started out Victorian-style, ended up temporarily medieval, before becoming mideastern complete with samurai (don't ask) to something like NYC and then Venice. Yeah. In the rewrite I should probably pick a style of the city and stick with it.

Hope that helps?

These have been great comments so far. I would love to see comments from the rest of the group too please. I think we can all learn a lot from each other.

Justin

These have been great comments so far. I would love to see comments from the rest of the group too please. I think we can all learn a lot from each other.

Justin