Lauren van Vliet, author

National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo, or just NaNo) has just wrapped up for 2019. This annual event see writers from around the world attempt to write 50,000 words in November, or 1,667 words every day for thirty days. This was my fourth time participating, and my third year ‘winning’. I use the words ‘win’ and ‘lose’ loosely when it comes to NaNo, because, despite the over-arching 50,000-word goal, it really is more about the act of writing. With that goal in mind, the only way to truly ‘lose’ is to not write anything at all (not to mention that I usually set a non-word count related goal, but more about that in a minute).

After only writing approximately 25,000 words in NaNo 2018, I wanted to make note of what contributed to my outcome this year because, win or lose, it would offer insight into my writing process. So, without further adieu, here are the things that I did this year I think contributed to my success in NaNo2019:

1. I let the momentum build. Every author has an opinion about the age-old advice to write everyday. While I fully realize that it doesn’t work for everyone, it does work for me. Despite my best efforts to completely clear out the month of November, there were some incredibly busy weeks, with things that I couldn’t reschedule. From birthdays to ministry meetings to a dehydration induced headache, the month flew by. What was most important was that no matter how tired I was, or how few words I actually wrote, I wrote for at least five minutes every day. It was great because that meant that when I finally did have more flexibility, I already had the habit starting, and also I had some words down. Sure there weren’t many, but it’s easier to get started when there’s even a little momentum, rather than starting from scratch. Not to mention that the NaNo keeps track of how many days you write (and record your word count). Wanting the 30-day streak helped me show up, even when I knew I wouldn’t hit the 1,667 words for the day.
2. I took care of myself physically. During past NaNos, I would completely forgo all other activities outside of writing, and work. This included what little exercise I may have been doing, meal prepping, and other self care activities. I would usually spend some time in October getting things in order: deep cleaning my apartment, making food to put in the freezer, and getting ahead on other tasks. And then in November, I would only write. Although this year I did let the blog and flash fiction slide, I did exercise every day (in fact the only day I missed was the day I had the dehydration-induced headache), and kept up with other life things, like meal prep and cleaning, not to mention having plans with friends and family. While having these other things took away writing time, they also gave me time constraints, so when I sat down to write I had to write.
3. I leaned into the process. One of the challenges I faced early on was that I wanted this novel to be a workable first draft, because the other years I won NaNo (in 2016 and 2017), I finished with workable first drafts. But after the first couple of days of yanking the words out of my brain, and with some reflection on why I didn’t win NaNo 2018, I realized that the workable first drafts of 2016 and 2017 came from having a series of disjointed scenes to string together during NaNo. I started calling this Draft Zero, instead of a first draft. It gave me the freedom to stop writing from beginning to end, and just write what I felt like writing on a given day. I finished NaNo with a very skeletal Draft Zero of a new novel, and I’m perfectly okay with that. I know that I’ll come back to it at some point, and flesh it out. I’m also perfectly okay with the knowledge that this probably won’t happen until after I do some editing to the first three novels in the series.
4. I expanded the community around me. One of the best parts of NaNo is the community of people that are attempting the same, or similar, goals. What was different this year was that I had people outside the NaNo community actively involved in the process. There were people who casually asked how it was going, and some who regularly asked if I’d hit my word count goal for the day. Even though they weren’t writing, I knew they were part of my NaNo community, and it was great to have the extra support to celebrate the wins and remind me how awesome I am on the not so great days
5. I set a non-word count related goal (although it wasn’t clearly defined until the end). The goal basically boiled down to leaning into my writing process, because the desire for a workable first draft is where I tripped myself up last year. I wasn’t clear on where the story was going, and instead of allowing myself to skip around in the story and explore it, the linear writing fashion and focus on getting it right led to some serious writer’s block. Even implicitly having a non-writing related goal gave me something else to work on in my writing. It helped me count successes on the days that I wrote minimal words, but brainstormed scenes I wanted to write. This particular non-word count goal also helped me to better understand and articular my brainstorming and writing process, which is a win.

I am a firm believer that there are nuggets of wisdom in all life experiences, they often just need to be unpacked and applied – which can be easier said than done. Being able to identify these fives things that helped me win NaNo is the first step in that process. I’m sure I’ll be coming back to them, both in my writing and life.