Advice from those who have been there
In 2006, I took on the challenge and was successful. It was awesome, and I learned a number of valuable lessons. In 2007, I took on the challenge and failed. It sucked, and I learned even more valuable lessons. I'd like to share some of these lessons with you now, from the critical components to the helpful but non-essential hints:
1. If you decide to do this, go in knowing that absolutely nothing will dissuade you. I hate to sound like a motivational speaker, but this is the single most important thing. Every year, I see people going in with the attitude "Well, I'll give this a shot, and if I succeed that's awesome and if I fail no harm done." That's a good attitude in life, but it's piss-poor attitude for NaNoWriMo. The reason is simple: This is such a ridiculous endeavor that, sometime during the month, it's going to seem like quite a bit more trouble than it's worth. If one of your first principles going in is that quitting wouldn't be the end of the world, you will definitely quit. So make your first principle that nothing short of the incapacity of an immediate family member will make you quit, and asterisk that first principle with the fact that it really depends how close you are to the immediate family member in question. This won't guarantee success, unless you have a great deal of willpower and some luck. But not doing this will guarantee failure.
2. Have some idea of your plot arc before you start. This is probably the most important difference between my successful effort and my unsuccessful one. It's hard enough coming up with something to write when you know where you're story's going. It's damned near impossible when you don't.
2a. Avoid your plot arc whenever possible. This is important too. The plot arc is your safety net, providing you something to write when you fall off the tightrope of improvisation (wielding all the while the long pole of awkward metaphor). It's nice to have it there, but you want to use it as seldom as possible. Wander off on whatever pointless digressions your mind will let you, and advance the plot only when you're out of other ideas. Word count is much easier to come by that way.
3. Do periodical character inventories. You'll probably wind up creating quite a few characters, and there's a good chance that you'll wind up losing track of some of them. When you're out of ideas, go through your list of characters and see which ones you haven't dealt with in a while. Then spend as many words as possible explaining what they've been up to since we last heard from them. In my successful novel, I had a character who had met my protagonist while the latter was doorknocking, and who had then installed himself as official agent. He disappeared without explanation partway through the election. Once I noticed (it took me a while) I developed a sub-plot out of it in which this character didn't actually live in the house where my protagonist had met him, but had started squatting in it while the owners were away on vacation. When they returned, he had to disappear. Obviously. Got some good word count out of that one.
4. If at all possible, write about something on which you have strong views. When you're having trouble writing anything else, just have one of your like-minded characters espouse your beliefs at great length. I'm doing my first rewrite of my successful novel, and it's a little disheartening to see how much of it is made up of prolonged explanations of my own political views. Still, those screeds made success come much more easily.
5. Read the archives of this blog. Seriously, they're not very long, and they will both tell you how to name your characters (Jake was on the verge of naming the Prime Minister of Canada "Luigi Mario") and assure you that everybody goes through what you are.
1. If you decide to do this, go in knowing that absolutely nothing will dissuade you. I hate to sound like a motivational speaker, but this is the single most important thing. Every year, I see people going in with the attitude "Well, I'll give this a shot, and if I succeed that's awesome and if I fail no harm done." That's a good attitude in life, but it's piss-poor attitude for NaNoWriMo. The reason is simple: This is such a ridiculous endeavor that, sometime during the month, it's going to seem like quite a bit more trouble than it's worth. If one of your first principles going in is that quitting wouldn't be the end of the world, you will definitely quit. So make your first principle that nothing short of the incapacity of an immediate family member will make you quit, and asterisk that first principle with the fact that it really depends how close you are to the immediate family member in question. This won't guarantee success, unless you have a great deal of willpower and some luck. But not doing this will guarantee failure.
2. Have some idea of your plot arc before you start. This is probably the most important difference between my successful effort and my unsuccessful one. It's hard enough coming up with something to write when you know where you're story's going. It's damned near impossible when you don't.
2a. Avoid your plot arc whenever possible. This is important too. The plot arc is your safety net, providing you something to write when you fall off the tightrope of improvisation (wielding all the while the long pole of awkward metaphor). It's nice to have it there, but you want to use it as seldom as possible. Wander off on whatever pointless digressions your mind will let you, and advance the plot only when you're out of other ideas. Word count is much easier to come by that way.
3. Do periodical character inventories. You'll probably wind up creating quite a few characters, and there's a good chance that you'll wind up losing track of some of them. When you're out of ideas, go through your list of characters and see which ones you haven't dealt with in a while. Then spend as many words as possible explaining what they've been up to since we last heard from them. In my successful novel, I had a character who had met my protagonist while the latter was doorknocking, and who had then installed himself as official agent. He disappeared without explanation partway through the election. Once I noticed (it took me a while) I developed a sub-plot out of it in which this character didn't actually live in the house where my protagonist had met him, but had started squatting in it while the owners were away on vacation. When they returned, he had to disappear. Obviously. Got some good word count out of that one.
4. If at all possible, write about something on which you have strong views. When you're having trouble writing anything else, just have one of your like-minded characters espouse your beliefs at great length. I'm doing my first rewrite of my successful novel, and it's a little disheartening to see how much of it is made up of prolonged explanations of my own political views. Still, those screeds made success come much more easily.
5. Read the archives of this blog. Seriously, they're not very long, and they will both tell you how to name your characters (Jake was on the verge of naming the Prime Minister of Canada "Luigi Mario") and assure you that everybody goes through what you are.
posted by "Steve Smith" at 9:34 PM
1 Comments:
A much better way to motivate yourself to continue than the silly self-motivation posed by Steve is to choose someone arbitrary (preferably someone who will write THOUSANDS of words in the first 10 days). And resolve to beat them.
Once that person quits (and he/she will) you will have invested far too much misery to give up without wasting part of your soul.
You can also use such rivalries as plot points. Just add a zeppelin and give your opponent a moustache. That always works.
Last tip - if you do finish, make sure Steve notices. pfft.
Post a Comment
<< Home