How To Fail At NANOWRIMO
National Novel Writing Month is November of each year.
It’s shortened to the terrible acronym-thing, NaNoWriMo.
Every year, writers from around the world line up to write a 50,000 word novel. That’s a grand total of about 1700 words a day, give or take some.
I did it for the first time in 2013. I succeeded.
I tried again in 2014. I succeeded – though I wrote a non-fiction book instead.
In 2015, I thought it’d be easy. I routinely hit several thousand words a day, writer’s block doesn’t affect me and in some months, I write closer to one hundred and fifty thousand words than fifty thousand.
Yet I failed to write a fifty thousand word novel this year, and so failed NaNoWriMo. This article will tell you several things: Why I failed, why that’s a bad thing, what I’ve learned from failing, and why my failing wasn’t a total failure. It’s a bit of a free form article compared to others I’ve written, but hopefully there’ll be some interesting takeaways for everyone in here.
Why I Failed
There are three main reasons I failed. I’ll go through them all individually, because I guess they’re pretty common. But in short, here are the three reasons for those who don’t have time to read the whole thing:
- Freelance work kept me away from NaNoWriMo.
- I couldn’t decide which project I was doing for NaNoWriMo.
- I had a little too much freedom with my schedule.
So, let’s go through these (for those of you who are still with me.)
Freelance/Other Work Kept Me Away From NaNoWriMo
A lot of people who will fail at NanoWriMo will fail because they have other commitments. I’m lucky in a sense that I don’t have screaming babies, personal debt or a day job to keep me from writing. I write for a living. SO there’s a bonus. But still, I got mired down by freelance work. Projects which should have taken me hours took days, and my word count plummeted as a result.
This also meant that by the time I’d finished writing copy, I didn’t want to change gear and write a fiction piece.
I Was Undecided About Which Project To Pursue For NaNoWriMo
My way to get over writers block is to sit and write continuously. In fact, something I’ve played with for the last few short weeks is writing a synopsis a day. The problem with doing this is that whilst you have a million ideas and you get an in-built sense of structure in your mind, you also act like Elmer Fudd, chasing a rabbit but continually coming to forks in the road and not knowing which way to turn.
I stopped and started about four different novels in NaNoWriMo 2015, and as a result, didn’t finish any.
Setting My Own Schedule For NaNoWriMo was DISASTROUS
When you are your own boss, one of the major pitfalls you face is setting your own schedule. Something I find difficult is that freelance work comes when it comes to an extent – I’ll say to myself, “I’ll concentrate on the novel on Saturday” and then on Friday night, I’ll hear from a client who will pay double for the work to be done over the weekend.
When it comes to writing books, there’s no client. There’s no deadline. They’re finished when they’re finished.
This is terrible for me, because I pick up projects and put them down all the time. I came up with several niche sites, several marketing bits and bobs, wrote sales letters and wrote endless synopses during NaNoWriMo – none of which I’ve published, none of which go towards my monthly word count and none of which resulted in a final product. Let alone a novel.
Why Failing NaNoWriMo Is A Bad Thing
In the last paragraph, I highlighted why failing is a bad thing. Ultimately, if you’re a writer, you aren’t judged on your “great idea for a novel” and you certainly don’t get paid if you don’t finish a project. I’m pretty mad at myself – I should have finished this project easily. I did it as an amateur in 2013 with very little experience whatsoever. I usually write thousands of words a month. I even wrote thousands of words in November, and yet I simply didn’t achieve the goal I set.
What I’ve Learned From Failing NaNoWriMo
This isn’t just a rant, although it feels like it at the moment.
On the evening of November 30th, feeling downtrodden, I sat up quite late and wrote (with pen and paper, no less) how to avoid the three things I did wrong in the future. Here’s what I have come up with:
- Whenever you start a project for yourself, make sure it has a deadline.
I have written before that I have probably over a million words written on my pc that are in unfinished projects. Every so often, I’ll take stock of where those projects are at… then nothing.
This is completely the wrong approach. What I should do, and what you should do, is sit with a calendar and write a deadline.
I can do this when I have copywriting and freelance clients, so I don’t know why I don’t do it for myself.
- Budget Time
It’s easy to lump computer time and writing time together.
I tend to be in “work mode” six days a week, for eight hours a day. Why on Earth can I not achieve my goals?
If I write at a conservative 1000 words an hour (it’s a lot more than that, but it’s easy to do the math) and I work for 48 hours a week, then I should be getting 48k words a week.
I don’t get anywhere near that. I think I’ve probably had two months ever where I got that total. Sure, a lot of months I’ll get 100k, but most months it’s between 50-100k.
In real terms, that’s two weeks a month off.
Now, I’m not saying I’ll always be that productive, but if I were working for someone else (and when I work for clients, I generally do this) I’d be keeping records of those figures and seeing where I could improve. So that’s what I’ll be doing from now on.
- Keep a record of other work and the time it takes you.
This was big for me. As I said above, some projects took me days when they should have been finished in hours. A lot of this was out of my control – when you work for others as a writer, be prepared for clients who want too much, too quickly, too precisely and without regard for anything else that you might have going on.
A lot of people have a “pain in the arse” tax, where they’ll add a percentage on to the order if a client is difficult.
I’ve never done this, but I can see why you might.
My approach from now on is to carefully calculate the time it’s going to take me. I’m also going to create terms for revisions and the like, as well as the most important step: give freelance work a particular time table. No day long procrastination/research/note taking on projects that should be finished in half a day for me.
Why Failing NaNoWriMo Is NOT All Bad
I failed NaNoWriMo.
I keep writing that because it’s irritating.
You might be in the same boat, still irritated like I am.
But there are always going to be positives to be drawn from these things.
For instance:
I have 4 novels that are at least a tenth of the way through.
I have 30 synopses.
I realise the error of my ways with scheduling.
I have taken steps already to make sure they don’t happen again.
Hopefully, I’ll be more productive now. I’m going to reschedule, rejig and otherwise learn from what I was doing wrong, and turn it into doing it right.
I’ll leave this article at that, because I’ve somehow jollied myself into a positive frame of mind.