100 Things You Should Know About Writing (Part 1)

19) How to Survive NaNoWriMo: Don't Give Up

As you'll know if you've been reading any of these recent sections, you'll know that I'm going through a rough time writing-wise, simply because my work is simply taking over most of my life. (Still not complaining, though. The shoe biz is the second best job in the world after being a writer.) 

Point remains that right now, I'm already behind on NaNo. Okay that's not just my job, though. It's my job, plus the physical worked involved in unpacking 5,000 pairs of shoes. Oh and, add to that a demon flu with a secondary infection from hell. 

Even now, as I'm dosed on antibiotics and other meds to clear my head, it's still taking me two and a half hours just to focus enough to open anything and write. Guess how many hours I had to write? 

Three. 

Yeah. Needless to say, when I finally opened this editor window (yep, I'm counting 100 Things as one of my NaNo projects), I decided to write this anyway. 

Nope, not because it's going to pad my word-count nicely. (You'll find that unless I put in a ton of asides like these, I'll err on the side of brevity, since I know that the longer I go on, the less likely it is that I'll make any sense towards the end.) 

Ahem. *cough cough*

*Siiiiiiiiiigh*

My point (while I can still maintain my tenuous grasp on it) is that sometimes, stuff happens that makes reaching your daily goal--or even catching up--impossible for days. Remember my section on Life Sucks, So Give Yourself a Break (Section 12) ? Yeah. That. But when it comes to NaNoWriMo, it's really important that you actually don't stop writing. 

Sure, skip a day if you must. But try not to skip too many. 

And especially, don't become discouraged. 

Even if you're hopelessly behind, it's no reason to stop. For one thing, go read my section on What NaNoWriMo Should Really Be About (Section 17). That still holds. If you don't stop, you'll still produce more writing than if you had stopped. 

"No duh!" you might say, but it's actually a point that many writers lose perspective on.

A lot of people say something like "Oh, what's the point if I'm not going to make the goal?" 

Let me remind you of the point. 

The point is to finish a story. Whether you do it now, next week, next year, or next decade. The only way to do that is by grafting away at it until you can call it done. It's not going to happen if you give up on writing until next November. (Yes, I know people who do that too.) 

There's another big reason to keep writing, though. 

Even if it's woefully far below your goal rate, every bit you can add counts toward the 50k goal. Which means that 50k is never quite beyond your reach. 

Last year, I had to revise The Heir's Choice (The sequel to The Vanished Knight, in case you were wondering.) for my former publishing house. The revisions were, to say the least, involved. One day, I'll explain why (it's a section ALL on it's own, one day, when we reach the point where we discuss publishing), but let's just stick to it wasn't just a quick check-up before sending it back to my editor.

On top of that, I had to move house. 

As soon as the house moving happened, I started falling behind, and I stayed behind until I was 5,000 words under goal. (I'm starting to realize I have a thing with 5,000 repeating in my life). 5,000 words might not seem huge to you, but if you realize that most of it had to be hand written, I think you'll realize what a huge task it was. 

I still won. 

And I did it because I wrote as soon as I could. Even if I did what I'm doing now to steal thirty minutes and write a few more words down. 

I didn't catch up like that, of course, but it meant that the first weekend after to move. On the first two days after we've finished unpacking, I caught up. Actually, I got ahead enough that I only needed to write every two days. Which was lovely, given the revisions I had to do. 

And that's how I won. 

So no. If you're behind now, winning still isn't impossible. Keep writing as much as you can. Who knows? Maybe it'll put you in a place where you can win. 

I'm now at 3,767 words for NaNoWriMo.

Thanks for reading! I hope my veering off and rambling hasn't bothered you too much! If you have any questions on NaNoWriMo, or any other writing related question, ask away in the comments. As always, I'll dedicate a section to you if your question inspires it. 

Coming up: 

More Tips on Surviving NaNoWriMo

Worldbuilding (Dedicated to Jane Corinne) 

Internal Logic

Ideas and Cliches