Just before leaving
University I attended one of those “Where are you going with your life after
this?” interviews. I told my tutor about the novel I was writing and she told
me about a competition where you write a novel in a month.
Afterwards I
researched it and discovered it wouldn’t be happening for another few months.
The next few years I either seemed to miss it or it didn’t feel like the right
time. Finally on November 3rd 2012 I ended up on Twitter and spotted that
familiar name “#Nanowrimo”.
I went on the website
and started thinking. I was on a year out in Canada and hadn’t found my next
job yet. We’d done most of the touristy stuff and I seemed to have more than
enough free time. It was an utter luxury and something that would probably
never happen again. If I couldn’t do it this November then I never would.
Two days had already
gone and I was at the end of number three but there was plenty of time to make
up for that. The only problem was what to write? I was currently half way
through another novel and looking back I probably could have used November to
finish it (I wasn’t fully aware of the rules). It seemed more sporting and even
challenging if I were to start afresh.
As it happened I had
an idea floating around in my brain, something that had poked its head in when
I was trying to write something else (isn’t it always the way). It was to be an
homage to the Saturday morning kids shows about kids and their monsters. The
twist would be that they were supposed to save the world when they were kids
but it never happened. Half of them never got the message.
So it would be set in
a post-apocalypse world. The bad guys had won and the world had been destroyed
in the process. The main characters would be a young woman named Lara and her
Monster friend Biggs. I had a couple of other characters too.
There would be David,
someone who had lost his Monster because of how badly things had failed.
Elsewhere would be a man and Monster pairing. They wouldn’t be my usual
likeable, charisma filled males. They would be selfish and tough, characters
that couldn’t care less about saving the world (but I still fell in love with
them).
The hardest part by
far was diving in to this without a plan. If Nanowrimo is something you want to
try or even if you want to write a novel without doing Nanowrimo, then the best
piece of advice I can give is “research, plan, think.”
When I was younger I
would plough head first in to stories only for them to dwindle to nothing because
I had no idea where to take them. Now I wouldn’t even think of starting to
write my first chapter without giving an idea long enough to grow.
Lack of planning
turned out to be my biggest issue during the month of writing. During Nano
you’re encouraged to shut out the “inner editor” whereas I usually had someone
asking “So what happens next? Huh, don’t know? Guess you’re not writing today!”
It begins
My first bit of
writing only came to 500 words or so. I had just decided then and there to do
it and wanted to get something down. The next day saw my first attempt to sit
down and write the darn thing. The enthusiasm for the competition was enough to
give me one of my most productive days. I’m sure this is the same for a lot of
people. You’re excited and still think “fuck yeah, this is an awesome idea!”
It’s only later things get tricky.
Week 1: Prioritise.
The first week saw
some decent progress. It was a little annoying to never quite make it to the
target because I started late but I was confident I could make it up. I ended
up with a lot of other work that week. I had gone from having nothing to do to
suddenly having a resume to work on, jobs to hunt and an article I had offered
to do for a booklet.
For the first time in
a long while I had a bunch of stuff to do and I had to prioritise.
Unfortunately my brain has this weird way of working. I stated to my boyfriend
what I had to do and he suggested starting with the article as that was the
only thing that would earn me money. What was the first thing I did? I went to
the comic book store! (One of the things I will miss when I go back to the
U.K.)
I did come home
obviously and put the resume and article aside for the day. I wrote up a list
of what needed doing for when and for the most part got it all done.
The strange thing
about writing is that you really have to learn when to put other things aside.
You might have to skip the odd yoga class or leave the dishes an extra day, all
those things regular human beings manage to do. But sometimes you have to
ignore that feeling of guilt and be selfish towards your writing otherwise
you’ll never do it.
Check back again for what happened in Weeks 2, 3 and 4!
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