Nontraditional NaNoWriMo Advice

At the end of October, I attended an asynchronous virtual writing conference from The Manuscript Academy. I knew that I’d been neglecting my writing and that I needed something akin to a giant writerly magnet to pull me back into that regular writing habit.

It’s so tough, though! I was talking to a mom friend about mom guilt the other day, and I didn’t sum it up as succinctly in our conversation, but I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m torn in three ways: my work, my kids, and myself, and “mom guilt” emerges anytime the kids aren’t the first priority on that list. Most of the time, I prioritize my kids and my work, and there’s only enough time in the day for any two of the three, so I get pushed to the wayside by default. I think all three can be prioritized, but not well. At least, that’s my experience.

Anyway, long story short, writing is a huge part of my soul, of what makes me, me. There’s a line in one of my currently-being-prepped-for-querying manuscripts where the character says to one of my MCs, “Have you ever longed for something so deeply that you feel your heart is being pulled from your chest?” He’s talking about his art, which happens to be painting, and my MC sort of gives him a tough time about it (“melodramatic much”), but I relate to that character. Actually, I relate to all my characters in some way, which I suppose is why I created them in the first place: a tangible collection of some interior longings or interests or random curiosities brought to human form. Storytelling is freaking amazing, guys.

Naturally, I’ve side-tracked again (I play the forgetful English professor well at work and at home), but I realized that I wanted to use NaNoWriMo as a way to reclaim that vital part of myself. However, I didn’t necessarily want to do the traditional NaNo format: rush-draft 50,000-80,000+ words of a manuscript and then take everything from a chainsaw to a set of surgical forceps to it later (or maybe that’s just how I’ve traditionally done NaNo…). I wanted to just dedicate November to writing, in any form: to making the time for it, for that part of myself.

I ended up taking advantage of a coupon and getting a month’s membership to The Manuscript Academy (totally recommend, BTW! They’re amazing) where I attended a few other free classes, learned a bunch, networked a bit, and met with an agent about my query for my memoir (which will probably require its own blog post from how much I learned in those few minutes). I finished revising (again) my upmarket superhero speculative fiction that I love so much and deeply hope someday an agent will love as much as I do. I also had the incredible realization that that book is actually the start of a really quirky trilogy and I already have the second book written, though both also completely stand on their own (different MCs but the 2nd book’s MC appears in the first book in a different form– dead, sort of), so I wrote 10,000 words in a new manuscript that is the conclusion of the trilogy (1 MC from the first book and 1 from the 2nd– so exciting!). In short, I had a productive, but more importantly, very happy November full of writing.

Onto the advice portion, as promised. There are a few takeaways I’ve gleaned from my untraditional NaNoWriMo:

1. March to your own drum. I’ve always been told (lovingly?) that I march to a slightly different drum. I think it’s because I can’t keep a beat, but truly I think it helps to focus on what you need when you make plans for NaNoWriMo, or anything really, rather than what others are doing on social media or what the typical expectations are.
2. Stick to your plan. Even if your plan is more aimless, like mine admittedly was, stick with it. I did something writing-related every day, and it made a positive impact.
3. Celebrate small victories. Realizing the little changes that I needed here or there in my manuscript were worth a little victory dance. Or a celebratory coffee.
4. Make your own writing month. Honestly, I have plans to use January as my next writing-intensive month because it works well for my work schedule. NaJaWriMo? Heck, yeah.

One last cool little thing is that I hit my 200th post on my blog this month– another little writing-related celebration! Yay for growth, writing, passion, and persistence.