Writer’s Corner: Using the NaNoWriMo challenge to get the book done

NaNoWriMo 2023 – Writing a novel in 30 Days

This year, for NaNoWriMo, I chose to work on the second book in my Women in the West series, Sarah. In 2022, I chose a book that I had already been working on, so even though I completed the 50,000 word goal, I wasn’t truly a winner. So this year, I had to ask myself, “Can I truly meet the NaNoWriMo challenge?” I began with nothing but an outline and a partial opening chapter, just to see if I could do it.

NaNoWriMo isn’t designed to help you write fast, not well. That part is up to you. The idea isn’t to emerge after thirty days with a perfect novel, but with a rough draft, a place to start and build from.

Week One

During the first week, I met my writing goal of 1,667 words every single day and the writing was coming along fine. I stuck to my outline, for the most part. A couple of times I had to push to get those words out, but they were out there on the page.

In 2022, I tried to use methods suggested in Booked to the Gills, by Aisley Oliphant, such as time blocking. This was only one of the tips offered to get in 1,667 words per day to culminate into 50,000 words in 30 days. (You can read my review of Booked to the Gills here.)

Time blocking is an excellent strategy for getting words to page, if you can stick to it. I couldn’t. I found that, for me, time blocking only worked when events in my life were going smoothly. Too often things came up that prevented me from writing at my scheduled times, including working unscheduled shifts or other emergencies that just can’t wait.

This year my life is not structured enough to make time blocking feasible for me. I’m not working, but that leads to other situations that must be dealt with, things that can’t be scheduled around. But, I knew they would come and so I decided instead to move ahead with my natural stubborn bullheadedness, and endeavor to persevere. I simply sat at my laptop and wrote every chance I had.

Week Two

The second week was filled with those immediate distractions, things which couldn’t be ignored, and I’m sad to say, I had the first day that I didn’t meet my daily goal. On Tuesday of that week, I only got in about 160 words. But the good part is that I exceeded my daily goal enough in the previous week, that it didn’t take much to catch back up, and I finished off the week being right where I should be or maybe even a little better.

Most of my writing sessions were in shorter time blocks, with longer stretches once or twice a day. I was willing to take what I could get, and I seemed to be getting enough time in to meet my daily goal most of the time.

Week Three

I had two days in a row during the third week where I didn’t quite meet my daily goal, but came close. One extra good day with over 2000 words, and a couple where I made it over my daily goal by smaller amounts kept me floating right about where I should be in the overall word count, at over 35000 words. So overall, I was fairly pleased with my results.

I continued with my write every chance you get strategy, and it seemed to be producing the results I needed. I used modified time blocking by taking advantage of extended time blocks of several hours at a time, breaking them into 15, 20, 30, or 45 minute segments as life demanded.

During longer blocks of time, I often found myself stopping to research the details for certain scenes. Since this book is historical western fiction, I needed to be historically correct to the best of my abilities. I had to watch myself, and on few occasions, found myself falling down a research rabbit hole. Research is a necessary part of the writing process, so I didn’t fault myself for these excursions. At first I tried putting disputed facts in brackets, but leaving whole setting descriptions blank wasn’t helping my word count, and my word count wasn’t suffering for it, so I continued in that manner.

Week Four

I got a bad start to week four. My laptop has seen better days, and on Tuesday the 21st, I was unable to back up my work, because it quit registering my USB drive, and then I lost my screen image. Let me tell you you can’t write, or do anything else, on a blank screen with no curser. This was a set back that could, and in fact did, end my chances for a successful NaNoWriMo.

It was quite a disappointment. I had gone into town to shop for Thanksgiving dinner, and on the way back, I had worked out what would happen in the final scenes of Sarah. I was at over 35,000 words, closing in on the end of the challenge goal of 50,000. I knew what needed to happen, so I was ready to pound it out into the page. And suddenly, I was at a dead stop.

Alas, I have a guardian angel, in the flesh. My oldest and dearest friend has always watched out for me. When she heard I needed a computer, she sent me one. It doesn’t have the storage space my old one did, so I’m still trying to figure out how to access all my files, but it will do in a pinch, until I can afford to get a new one. It didn’t arrive in time for me to meet the NaNoWriMo goal, but it is allowing me to finish the book, and that is what is important.

I made the 50,000 word goal on December 10th, ten days after the NaNoWriMo deadline, so I might have made the goal for the challenge had I had a functioning computer. I’m happy to say that Sarah is back pretty much on schedule and should be ready for editing in January, as planned.

What I Learned

Even though I wasn’t able to finish the challenge and declare myself a “winner”, I now have a story with over 50,000 words completed, which is a darn good start, and I still learned a lot about my writing process from the experience.

• I used to be a binge writer. I could focus on my story and tap away at the keys, blocking out everything around me. I learned that I don’t write like that anymore. As I’ve gotten older, I find I need those fifteen minute breaks every so often. This helped me to get the other things in life that I needed to tend to done, as well. Daily tasks and obligations are good excuses to put the writing down and take care of business.
• Along with that, I learned that grabbing shorter time segments whenever I can works well for me. Even if it’s only 15 minutes, it gets a few words on the page, and those 15 and 30 minute segments add up when you look at the word count.
• I also learned, not for the first time, that the best advice for me as an author is, “Butt in chair, write the damn book.” Those short segments did add up. I made the daily word count this way all but one day, prior to my computer quitting on me.

Conclusions

I am using the NaNoWriMo challenge to help me become a more prolific writer. I found the whole month of November to be a learning experience, because writing processes change. I learned that the way I used to write doesn’t work for me anymore, and I developed a few writing strategies that seemed to be more successful for me. Overall, I enjoyed doing the NaNoWriMo challenge, grew as a writer, and would recommend it to anyone who wants to test themselves or improve their writing process through trying out new strategies.

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For Kaye Lynne Booth, writing is a passion. Kaye Lynne is an author with published short fiction and poetry, both online and in print, including her short story collection, Last Call and Other Short Fiction; and her paranormal mystery novella, Hidden Secrets; and book 1 of her Women in the West adventure series, Delilah. Kaye holds a dual M.F.A. degree in Creative Writing with emphasis in genre fiction and screenwriting, and an M.A. in publishing. Kaye Lynne is the founder of WordCrafter Quality Writing & Author Services and WordCrafter Press. She also maintains an authors’ blog and website, Writing to be Read, where she publishes content of interest in the literary world.

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