So long NaNo 2015

As NaNoWriMo comes to a close (crawling to it's dramatic death or skipping to the end in triumph), I'm struck by what changed in my writing & what hasn't changed in my writing beliefs.

1. Word Sprints: What a complete game changer. Total revelation. I saw mention of them on the NaNo site before, heard others mention them. And I poo-poo'd the very idea. Timed writing? Huh-ell no. I caved, under extreme protest, and tried it one night. Holy shitballs! Several hundred words done in 10 minutes. I'm talking exceeding my daily word count in a little more than half an hour on good days, just under an hour on slow ones. Without word sprints? A few hundred words over the course of who knows how long. I'm a believer & I tell everyone like I was healed at a revival. Because it's that freaking amazing. Productivity on steroids, y'all.

2. Summarizing: *shudders* I have always hated trying to sum up (or create a back cover blurb) what I'm working on. If I could explain it in a paragraph, I wouldn't be writing a 350 page novel. I mean, come on! But you have to. For queries, to entice agents, publishers, prospective readers. You've got to get this figured out. And I hadn't. And then during a writerly conversation (aka, a bitching session) somebody pointed out I didn't have one on the NaNo website for my novel. I made my case, whining like a preteen asked to pick up an empty cup they just used (I have company, can you tell?). I complained that the summaries made me feel like I was writing a corny movie intro, complete with the movie preview guy's voice in my head. A melodramatic representation of the book. My friend asked what was wrong with that, but my mind was off and running. Maybe I had to go ahead and be uncomfortable and feel like I was making a fool of myself to get a horrible decent blurb I'd be happier with. So I turned up the drama, heard the movie preview guy in my head and wrote the first halfway decent summary I'd ever done. So that's my new trick personal writing parlor trick.

3. Moving on when I'm stuck: I have always marveled at people who don't write their novels in a linear way. They bounce from scene to scene and then go back and knit things together later. It's like freaking magic. I have bullishly stuck to the linear way of starting at the beginning (hating it) and slogging through to the bitter end. Then I go back and rework what I didn't like (hopefully finding inspiration to fix it) and call it a day. This year I tried something else. Yes, I stuck to linear to an extent, but when I wasn't making any headway, I made a few notes about what I wanted from the scene and moved on to what came next. If a scene was running long, I'd let it go on and see what came out of it. Yeah I'll end up cutting it later, but I got some really cool character development that way and discovered some new directions I would have missed otherwise.

4. Embrace the community and they really will embrace you back: Brace yourself - I'm shy. Even on social media, I don't understand this whole friending people you don't know or barely know. Before NaNo I had a total of maybe 3 tweets, and maybe 5 more things I retweeted. Come NaNo, I used a topically relevant NaNoWriMo hashtag (Feel free to groan, I am. Anybody seen my cane or slippers?) and had a sudden influx of followers who weren't trying to sell me something. More than that? Every writing related tweet I made (all, like, 4 of them) people liked. Hearted. Favorited. Licked. Whatever. It was weird, it was trippy, but it was kind of neat most of all.

5. Ambient Sounds: One of the cool things that's come of hanging out with other writers and sharing stuff has come by way of background music/sounds. I don't think I know a single author who writes to silence, at least none that admit it. It's one of the first things that comes up in that getting-to-know-you stage: "What do you listen to when you write?" There's even a box for that for each user on the NaNoWriMo site. Some people can't listen to songs with words or the words impact their scenes. Some only listen to movie scores. Some only listen to Buddy Holly on a full moon. (It's possible.) The point is, this is an area of sincere interest for a lot of us writer types. The perfect mix to keep us inspired, on task and motivated without adding one more freaking distraction. This year I have had great success on this seemingly endless writing journey listening to ambient backgrounds on a seamless loop. There are websites with near endless variety of sounds, from fireplaces crackling to monster's screams to the gentle lull of waves against pebbles. Wonderful, fantastic people arrange these (you can too, but did I mention the deadline I have this month?) to form environmental backgrounds: a ship sailing on the high seas, a damp dungeon, a spring rain in the meadow, a Turkish or Parisian cafe, an Irish Pub, or the common room of your choice inspired by a certain magical boarding school. It totally rocks. Are your characters on a quest and find themselves in a tavern on a rainy night? There's an atmosphere (or 12) for that.

6. Quit looking for the perfect time/perfect book on writing and just write: This is one I've been a firm believer on for a long time. What makes anyone who writes a book on how to write an expert? I know people who write writing advice columns who have never had a book published. And aspiring authors beg for more. I'm not saying there's not good advice out there, but if your bookshelves only have books about writing and you've never finished a manuscript yet, sit down and just write. That's the advice I see from published authors I read. Write. Daily if possible. Agonize and edit after it's written. Just write. I'll admit to a few "How to" write books in my collection, but:

• I've never read one cover to cover
• They are genre specific because I wanted tips on how to handle certain situations
• I inherited at least 1 or 2 of the 3 or 4 books I have.

I don't think anything negative about those of you who pour over the how to books, please understand. I just think you're taking what worked (in theory) for a particular author and expecting it to be a magic wand. Time + experience = luck. You can fix crappy writing, weak characters or scenes that don't work. You can't do anything about something you haven't written.

B. 50,000 words in 30 days doesn't equal the novel of your dreams (though it does help): Okay, so as much as I have a love to hate relationship with NaNoWriMo, I need to be honest. The main goal as you hang on for dear life during November is to hit 50,000 words. Like high school and college essays and term papers, you will find yourself doing whatever you have to to pad that word count. Contractions no longer exist. You know exactly what I'm talking about. As much as you're crafting your story, at this point you're just trying to hit that 50,000 words so you can breathe again. And in a way, that's good. Because in that frantic rush, it's easier to turn off your inner editor that s-l-o-w-s you down otherwise. But I know as I write I'm going to have to go back and fix so much later. And personally, I find that frustrating. But doing NaNo gives me a big chunk of the writing process for my idea done. It gives me something to mold later instead of staring at 300 words on a screen and wondering if this should go anywhere.

Zed. Deadlines help some of us get more shit done and increase our other obligations exponentially at the same time - Murphy's law of writers: So as I prepared myself for the home stretch (What a shock, I'm behind with only a few days to go.) my household was on board with helping me make it. My hubby went with me to the store to stock up on caffeine, quick lunches and snacks for myself to grab and get back to work with. He pushed me to get out of the house and write the last weekend so I would have fewer distractions. My parents asked how much time I had left & how many words I had to go, making dinner with the turkey day leftovers one night and heating up frozen pizza another. My visiting nibling curled up in the arm chair in my office and played video games and set up my Christmas tree for me. Great people, right? And they are. They are also all exponentially needy the last two days. WTF?! My husband, with his support? Messaged me all day long. Cute pics, Christmas shopping ideas, etc. He'd come give me a hug or check on me. At one point I had 3 people in my office and my mother was having a mini episode. My husband, bless him, even asked me at one point today why I wasn't further along with my word count. I think you get the idea that my word count was not what I was hoping for at the end of the day. Which is okay, if a little stressful. Because secretly, I love running up along deadlines. It's my version of being an adrenaline junkie. Once the people in my house started going to bed one by one, my productivity went up. I was interrupted, but once an hour or two instead of every 8 minutes.

Whew! In the end though, I made it. And I have a few new tools in my writing arsenal. It doesn't have to be smooth sailing to be worthwhile. Also, word sprints!!!

So if you'll excuse me, I need to pull out my 2015 NaNoWriMo winner shirt and strut around my house. Until I spill something on it. I give it 4 hours, tops.