Closing the Chapter that is NaNoWriMo 2021
Well gaias, it’s official. That magical time of year for novelists has come to a close. The annual National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo, has once again concluded.
Writers all around the world who participated in this gory event are either initiating a celebratory jig, or igniting themselves on fire.
Like seeing sunlight after days in darkness, some of us need a little time to adjust back into the real world. For me, like a broken dam, reality is flooding full force into the world I built and lived in for the last month.
Some of us are just now seeing the farewell letter from our circadian rhythm. After weeks of neglect, it has ‘finally’ packed its bags and bid us ado.
Some of our bellies are swollen with so many bad decisions, the DoorDash guy knows you by name and order.
Some of us have become grimy, Gollum-like versions of ourselves, so much so that our cats don’t recognize us and our loved ones are afraid of us.
Just me? Oh.. okay.
The Weirdness that is NaNoWriMo
For those who aren’t familiar with NaNoWriMo, it’s an event that takes place through November, where writers and other weirdos attempt to write a novel (first draft) by the end of the month.
In other words, the goal is to write 50,000 words in just 30 days.
My history with nanowrimo
The first time I heard about NaNoWriMo was back when I created my Twitter account in November 2019, about a century ago. It had already started by the time I figured out what it was, so I decided to do my own NaNoWriMo 2019 challenge — in January of 2020
Word count wise, (50k in 1 month) I won that round!
I was finally feeling like a writer again. So naturally, when autumn rolled around, I began to prepare for my first attempt during the official annual event. I had already done it! I was 1/0, which is 100%!
I had this in the bag!
…
I did not have it in the bag. I lost.
I barely wrote 5k before crawling back into my hobbit hole, pretending like nothing ever happened.
So coming into this year, I was 1/1. One win, one loss. Before boarding the crazy train once again, I reflected on my previous attempts, and what lessons I could learn from both of them. As we all know, a lot happened in the world between January and November 2020. There are tons of factors outside of what was within my control that affected my success rate, which is equally true for anyone else and their own personal circumstances
Of what was in my control, I weighed both experiences, comparing and contrasting, thinking about what had a positive impact on me, or what would have made a more positive impact on me had I done it. So with the wind at my back and my hair in my face, I embarked on this journey once more. And I am happy to say that, after my 3rd attempt at doing NaNoWriMo, I won 2021. I’m now 2-1.
What I Hope You Take Away from This
I hope you’re able to take the information below and think about possible ways that some of or all of the advice might help you in your success moving forward. You’re welcome to take all of it, or none of it. That includes any additional suggestions that anyone else might be willing to share.
Without further ado, in terms of NaNoWriMo word count success, here’s how I pulled off another win, pulling from the strengths (and working with my weaknesses) from previous years.
What helped me be successful in winning NaNoWriMo
I planned a lot — and also, not at all.
I am one of the most Type B personalities you will ever encounter in the wild. That makes me, for all intents and purposes, a pantster. I spent a little bit of time roughly outlining my characters and some central themes I was playing around with for my story. Oh, and I announced my story idea on the NaNoWriMo website. But for the most part, I winged the story (hence, no ending…)
But that doesn’t mean I did nothing leading up to November’s commencement. I did a lot of little things that helped me feel prepared to take on this new challenge. I purged my closet for donations. I took walks outside, or sat down with a book. I prepped some easy grab-and-go meals I kept in the freezer. I deep cleaned my personal spaces - bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, and most importantly, my writing space. I set myself up for success by preparing the space around me, rather than preparing the work itself.
This advice is not intended for you to copy and paste. Are you planner? A pantster? Maybe a planster? Whatever you are and however you tick, work to know yourself. Learn what works for you; play to your strengths, and work with your weaknesses.
I updated my word count religiously, as well as keeping an eye on the badges I earned on NaNoWriMo.org
Extrinsic motivation in the form of colorful badges? Yes, please! I know they don’t mean anything. And yet, they do mean something — because I decided to put value in them.
Was I a GirlScout for the sense of community, friendship, and girl power? Nope. I was in it for the f*cking badges.
Even if you couldn’t care less about the badges. Whatever stupid, extrinsic motivators you can set up for yourself this month will help you inch closer towards that 50,000 word count goal. Priceless.
The NaNoWriMo dashboard also has a feature that lets you track your word count. I updated my word count after every writing session. Not only did it help with, ahem, badges, but it helped me see how each writing session made a difference in working towards the bigger goal. Even on days that I didn’t write much, it still felt good to clock in something.
I prioritized my writing time and maintaining a writing streak
Definitely helps that writing streaks count for NaNoWriMo badges, amiright!? But seriously, writing every single day, no matter how short of bursts it might be, was helpful. There were days that I did need a break, and on those days I wasn’t hard on myself, or start the narrative that this was me giving up. I let myself recharge, and always came back refreshed and ready to go.
I admit, my streak tapered off at the end of the month, at least partly because I had already reached the goal, and I was helping out families with holiday related obligations. In hindsight, I would highly recommend not allowing yourself more than two days in a row off from writing. If you’re anything like me, the momentum will be lost after two days, and you’ll spend time just trying to get this boulder rolling once more.
This also plays into writing time.
I know myself, and I can get distracted pretty easily. Sometimes I even convince myself that I’m not distracting myself, and doing ‘very important things’ like ‘research’ and ‘tweeting’ and ‘following my cats around in case they do something funny’.
If you warmly invite distractions and means for procrastination, cut that shit out of your life! At least for the hour or two that you commit to writing.
There’s no such thing as cheating with word count when it comes to NaNoWriMo
Do you have a character with a name, that can seamlessly have 2 (i.e. Mary becomes Mary Jane? Or better yet, Mary Jane the Fabulous Flutist?) Great! Do it! Word count is word count.
Do you have a character with a stutter? No? Can you make one? Sure. Word count is word count.
Ignore the angry red underlines when you write ‘under lines’ with a space and without a hyphen. What was once one word is suddenly two. Word count is word count.
Did you just spew non-coherent word vomit all over your screen for a half hour? Don’t delete it. If it’s really driving you crazy, find a way that works for you to ignore it. I prefer the strikethrough method, while others change the font to italics, or font color to white so they don’t have to look at it. That’s fine. Just do it. Word count is word count.
Sometimes it’s hard to see the forest through the trees. Words are the trees and the novel is your forest. Every bit counts towards the bigger picture, and just for this month, you can unapologetically kick our inner editor to the curb .Word count is— well, you get the idea.
I bet money on my own success
Not everyone is in the position to do this. I understand. But betting on my success was, hands down, the biggest difference between my success in 2019 (and 2021) and my lack of success in 2020.
I wrote a check to an organization that represents everything that I, morally and ethically, stand against. I wrote a letter to this organization, noting that if they received this money, it was due to a personal failure and broken promise to myself. I signed the check and letter, sealed and addressed the envelope, and passed it off to a human who I trusted to mail the check on December 1st, if I didn’t send them a screenshot of the word count reaching at or over 50k.
The exact dollar amount that I chose is not what matters here - what matters is how I assessed a reasonable number to bet. This magical dollar value was enough to hurt financially if I lost it, but not so substantial that I would be tempted to void the check before arrival.
I would have been pissed if this organization got even a dime out of my pocket, so if you want to try this route but don’t have much cash, bet a small amount to an antagonist organization of your choice.
Some Final Thoughts
I understand that there are factors that allowed this to be a reality for me that are just not the case for other people. I don’t have a commute or a 9-5, nor do I have spawn that depend on me to live (other than my cats).
It’s also worth mentioning that, while I am proud of my accomplishments and I don’t want to diminish the determination and perseverance it took to accomplish the word count, I do want to be completely transparent about noting success simply based on word count.
I didn’t write an ending to my story. So, depending on your definition, you would not consider that accomplishing the NaNoWriMo goal. I focus on the word count goal more than the completion of the story. That’s the plantster in me.
That’s a skeleton I can bury for now and dig back up come time to edit. All this to say, for what it’s worth, consider how you define winning this challenge. Did you finish a rough draft that wasn’t 50,000 words? If so, maybe in some ways, you won NaNoWriMo more than I did.
No matter where you stood at the end of National Novel Writing Month this November, if you put your name in the hat and went for it this year, I want to celebrate with you.
If you hit 50,000 words this November (or any month of your choosing), congratulations. You won NaNoWriMo. I want to celebrate with you.
If you didn’t hit 50,000 words, but you did write a complete first draft of a novel, then congratulations. You also won NaNoWriMo. I want to celebrate with you.
If you didn’t participate in NaNoWriMo, but served as an emotional support shoulder to a person in need, then thank you. You deserve to be celebrated, too.
If you participated in NaNoWriMo but didn’t meet any of these milestones, that’s okay! You’re not a failure, and yes, you’re still a writer. I recommend you take some time while the memory is fresh and write out what worked for you and what didn’t, as well as why. There is always next year — hell, there’s always next month!
What was your experience with NaNoWriMo 2021 like? Did you try any of the suggestions I listed, or do you have any of your own that you’d like to share? Post a comment below so we can hear from you.
Write on, writers!