My NaNoWriMo Experience

I was intrigued by this, and decided to look a little further into the process. I registered on the site in October 2011, and then did something I’d never previously done – I spent the rest of the month plotting out my novel, Who Wants To Live Forever, taking the idea I’d had some years previously as a starting point. I found this to be the single most important part of the process. By the time November 1st arrived, I knew who my characters were, what they would be doing in each of the thirteen or so chapters that I had split the story into, and (as each chapter covered events that occurred in a different decade of the twentieth century) I had completed my research (mainly on the Internet, but also from some books on the local environment) to ensure that each chapter would be as accurate to the time period as I could make it. I also registered in my local NaNoWriMo group for the Lancashire area during this period and linked to a couple of buddy writers who I had learnt were also NaNoWriMos.

As far as the actual writing process was concerned, I found that almost everything fell into place almost seamlessly, although much of that was certainly down to the support from others around me – my buddy writers, for example, and the pep talks from both the local group and the NaNoWriMo site itself. I actively looked forward to each evening, when I could upload my word count and also see how the local group was doing as the overall word count rose towards the one million mark. I tried to remain disciplined – e.g. write at the same time each day, try not to leave it too late to start, if possible, write up to 2,000 words a day instead of the 1,667 daily average (that way, I could reward myself with a weekend off if I felt like it, and, as I was best man at a friend’s wedding in late November, I knew there would be some days when I couldn’t write at all).

In the end, I completed the 50,000 words with about four days to spare, and the novel itself ran to – first draft – about 53,000. I left it for a few weeks before beginning the editing process, in order to have a fresh perspective on it, and eventually I sent it off to a publisher, and was fortunate enough to have it accepted by Carina UK (after a further editing process, which took the word count upwards to 66,000), where it is now on sale as an eBook at sites such as Amazon.

Buoyed by the success of my first venture, I registered in NaNoWriMo again in 2012, although this time, I decided to dispense with the meticulous plotting before hand. A big mistake! Although I completed the 50,000 words of When Two Become One during the month, it was tough going, and on a couple of occasions (especially during the period between the 8th and 15th of the month) I asked myself why I was bothering with this. I still tried to stick to the other ‘rules’ that had worked so well in 2011, such as writing at the same time of day, keeping in touch with buddies etc, but the words didn’t flow and I’d be lying if I didn’t say that it was hard going. Nevertheless, I still ended up with a completed novel which I decided to self-publish it as a Kindle book.

Learning from this experience, in 2013 I reverted back to full-plan mode for my third NaNoWriMo novel, Elementary, and I found the whole experience very similar to that of 2011. Once again, I was fortunate enough to get the book published by Carina, under a changed title of The Element of Death, less than six months after the story was completed. 

(If anybody is interested, this story, along with my other writings, can be viewed on my Amazon page.)

Apart from NaNoWriMo month, I have also written (or am in the process of writing) two other novels, but whereas each NaNoWriMo novel was completed within the thirty days of November, the first of these new novels took me six months to complete and my current one is still ongoing after eight months, which serves to demonstrate that outside the umbrella of the NaNoWriMo family, it is very easy to become sidetracked and to lose the incentive to keep going each day.

In summary then, if you are going to register for NaNoWriMo in 2014, I would say:

• Use the time between now and November to plot out the story in as much detail as you can

• Register on NaNoWriMo and make a contribution to the site for hosting this writing experience

• Join your local group and connect with other writers in the area

• Attend the write-ins if possible, as writing together is always an easier task than going it alone

• Set realistic targets, but don’t restrict yourself to them – if the writing really flows one day, keep it going, and if another day you struggle to reach a thousand words, don’t beat yourself up about it

• Even if you don’t reach 50,000 words, be proud of what you’ve accomplished

And, most of all, enjoy the writing.

Steve Wilson works in IT as a database manager and writes whenever he has any spare time. Although predominantly a fiction writer (with crime and fantasy his preferred genres), Steve has also written several football based non-fiction books. Two of his crime-based novels have been published by Carina UK, an imprint of Harlequin, and he has self-published many of his other writings. All of his works can be viewed from his Amazon author’s page.