NaNoWriMo: Y/N?

National Novel Writing Month has been a thing since 1999, growing organically from a small group of friends in one town to a huge non-profit spanning the globe. The whole story can be found here, and the official website can tell you anything you want to know about what it is and how to get involved. I'm here to discuss why I join the challenge most years, and why I sometimes don't.

It's a Challenge, Not a Contest

One of the things I like best about NaNoWriMo is that it encourages writers to see each other as companions, not competitors. It doesn't matter how many people reach their target, or how quickly they do it. The only metric of success is: "Did I reach my goal?" Not being the fastest, or the furthest, or the most published, or the more popular. It's a personal challenge that you work on in company with other writers.

This is an important point for writers, especially fiction writers, to take on board: We're not competing with other writers in our genres.  If someone enjoys my book, and I enjoy your book, then I'm going to send my readers to you and (I hope) vice-versa. The reader gets more to enjoy, and the writers get to grow and share their audience. NaNoWriMo is a good way of promoting that mindset, and reminding ourselves that we are storytellers first and foremost.

It's Still a Numbers Game, Though

As I'll be discussing in a couple of days, raw numbers aren't always the best way to measure success. I'm still discovering the needs of my AuDHD brain, but one possibility is that numbered goals can be a source of stress rather than motivation. Last November I didn't get anywhere near my 50k goal, but I did manage to write something every day for 30 days straight. And that felt like a real achievement!

I normally resist "streak" thinking, because it only takes one bad day to ruin months of work. So a workable metric for me is to set myself a target percentage, rather than counting unbroken streaks. Missing three days in a month is a 90% success rate. Missing 36 days across a year is a better than 90% success rate, even though that's more than five weeks' worth of missed days.

 Most productivity and self-study guides suggest that anything above 80% is a pass, and so that's my target. Anything over that 80% is a bonus, not the new baseline standard. 

So: NaNo yes or NaNo no? It depends entirely on how you like to write, and what you find motivating. Sometimes I'm in a "numbers" mood, and take pleasure in charting my progress. Other times, I simply get frustrated and blocked over how far behind I am. When I'm in that kind of headspace, I need to find a different motivator. But I do recommend checking it out. The community forums are amazing, and the pep talks are available in the archives. Take a look, use what you can, and don't force yourself into anything that isn't a good fit.

Actually, that's a pretty good rule for most advice now that I come to think about it.

Beginnings

 

Beginnings are a popular topic among writers. Take, for example:

“Begin at the beginning, ... and go on till you come to the end: then stop.” –  Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

"Let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start." –  Rogers & Hammerstein, Do-Re-Mi

“The beginning is the most important part of the work.” ― Plato, The Republic

And, my personal favourite:

“Everything starts somewhere, though many physicists disagree.” ― Terry Pratchett, Hogfather

My stories usually begin as ideas, stewing quietly in my head for a while. But when I'm ready to put pen to paper, I begin with an outline.

Wait! Don't comment yet! This is not going to be 500 words of "use my new and brilliant outlining method". Instead, I want to show you how I took inspiration from several methods, and how you can do something similar customise your own outline.

Avoiding outlines on principle? I've got an upcoming post for you on the eighteenth: Outlines: Love 'Em or Hate 'Em? 

My brain likes patterns, so outlining has always appealed to me. But even after many years of experimenting, I couldn’t seem to find “the one”, the perfect outlining method for me. Many writers at this point tend to do one of two things: Give up on outlining, or invent a brand new method of their own. I don’t have the right kind of brain for the first, or enough confidence for the second, so I had a problem – until I realised that I didn’t have to pick just one method, nor was I actually obliged to use every part of any given outline. No-one was looking over my shoulder to make sure I was using their method “correctly”.

After a lifetime of being constantly “put right”, this realisation was something of a bombshell. But after the shock wore off, and I’d done a bit more testing, I finally had my own, home-brewed outlining method. As promised, I’m not going to share it here, or anywhere else, because that’s not the point of this post. The point of this post is to encourage you to develop your own method. 

I like top-down outlining, so the Snowflake Method and the 3/9/27 method appealed to me most. The Hero’s Journey and the Heroine’s Journey were interesting, but too specific for my style. I found the Plot Embryo to be the best fit in the end, especially with the tragic and heroic patterns having so many parallels.But you might find that you prefer a more linear, discovery-type of outlining, such as the Pixar method. Or a method more focused on the world-building, asking what would happen given a particular set of circumstances. 

The array of outlining methods out there offers near-endless combinations to suit every taste. Spend a bit of time exploring, and refine your plan to fit your own story and style. But remember:

Lesson Two: A plan is only a plan

Plans that change are still worth having. It’s always a good idea to have a direction in mind when you set out, even if you change it later.