November writing challenge a great success

By Heather Justesen

So November is over and hundreds of thousands of NaNoWriMo participants around the world are taking a break from pounding their keyboards. I've participated in the yearly novel-in-a-month challenge four times now, but this is the first year I've actually completed the 50K words during the month of November. That's not to say I haven't managed that many words during other months of the year, but November is always insane for me, so I've never managed it before during the annual challenge.

This year I decided I needed to plow through as quickly as possible, so I started the month strong, and with the help of a three-day writing retreat I managed to complete the 50K goal by November 8, and am currently working on my third draft of the manuscript--but if I'd tried to write just the daily allotment each day instead of speed-writing, I wouldn't have finished, because, again, the last half of the month has been crazy.

I learned a number of things from this year's challenge:

1: I can accomplish anything if I just stick my rear-end in the chair and go to work.

2: Writing mysteries can be fun!

3: Plotting in advance, even if the plot is sketchy, makes the writing go so much smoother (Okay, so I've known this before, but it was good to have it reinforced)

4: Character sketches and journaling from the characters' point of view is extremely helpful to understand them. I've never journaled for my characters before, but it was totally great!

5: Having friends cheer you on is great motivation. There were 32 people from my original writing group all participating in Nano this year, and 15 of us reached the 50K goal. We had a spreadsheet with everyone's total words available so we could see where everyone was, and we held writing sprints several times each day to help us get and stay on task. Also, it turns out I've got a healthy competitive streak I usually ignore.

6: Sometimes even the writer doesn't know who dunnit until the climax scenes are written. I know that might sound odd, but I *thought* I knew who the murderer was until I went to write the climax, and it just wouldn't come. As soon as I changed the murderer's identity, everything fell into place and the scene practically wrote itself.

7: A supportive spouse can never be overvalued when you have a major goal. Mine is completely great about allowing me time to focus on my writing and at understanding that means either he's going to cook a lot, or we're going to be eating scads of leftovers. Thanks sweetheart!

December is going to be chock full of edits for various projects (I have so many in need of editing it's not even funny), in addition to the usual Christmas preparations. I'm excited for everything in store.

A Moment of Silence or Meditation

By Nichole Giles

Did I mention last month that I’m participating in this year’s National Novel Writing Month challenge? The deal is that I had to sign up on a website, and by doing so, commit myself to writing 50,000 words in thirty days. I did that, and then added a bunch of writing buddies who will cheer me on and keep me going when I decide I don’t want to do it anymore.

The challenge started at midnight on November first, or in other words, the minute Halloween was over.

How am I doing? So far so good. If there’s one thing I’ve learned this month, it’s the value of a quiet moment of meditation. Now, I’m not talking about during the writing process—that, my friends, is a stall tactic—but just before. I’ve discovered that when I take five or ten minutes to meditate, to sit still and quiet in a relaxed position, all by myself, I am far more prepared to write from the heart instead of my head.

“But,” you ask, “What’s the difference?” Everyone is different, so this may not be true for you, but I’ve discovered that the material that comes from my heart is far better—and requires less editing or large, ridiculous numbers of rewrites—than when I sit down and force something to come out of my head.

As an example I’ll use my two current works in progress. I started the first one last winter, in a moment of inspiration that came to me during one of my kids’ basketball games. The first chapter or two flowed easily and established a cast of characters I loved, and who have developed into people a reader can care about. I’ve been working on this manuscript for almost a year, and it stands right now, about 2/3 finished, at 60,000 some odd words. Currently, this story is stalled.

It’s taken me a long time to build up that word count because of countless minutes of writing time wasted staring at a blank screen as I wonder what happens next and try to force the story to work out in my head. By trying to force myself to write the story, I caused my characters, plot, and setting details to stall, gel, and rebel against being written. The stinkers!

On the other hand, the story I started last week for NaNoWriMo is in a completely different realm. I know the characters fairly well, and have a very vague idea of what needs to happen and where the story is going, but I have no preconceived plans other than an idea of what the main character will need to experience in order to accomplish her quest. By not having outlined ideas in my head, and then trying to force these ideas onto the screen, I am better able to take five or ten minutes of quiet meditation before I begin writing and use them to dig deep into my heart, and allow the words and story to simply flow—unedited and not judged by my dreaded fear of failure.

This week I’ve written over 20,000 words, which is roughly 1/3 of the words completed in my other manuscript. You know, the one on which I’ve been working for eight or nine months and still have not finished. Interesting, isn’t it?

So the question of the day is does it make a difference when you start your writing session with a few quiet minutes of meditation? Share your thoughts, I really want to know.


**Mormon Mishaps and Mischief update: Cindy and I have received the proofs, and are getting ready to turn them in to our editor, Heidi. We’re still waiting for a solid publication date, and our real cover art, but are expecting good news any day. Stay tuned.

Until next time, write on!

Nichole