One of the most heartbreaking things I experienced in November was reading the tweets of writers who were unable to get their word counts.
NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writers Month. Writers world wide spend November all writing their novels. For those who have mastered their craft, it is a fantastic challenge to beat their insecurities, and write an entire 50,000 word novel in a month.
Fifty Thousand words is barely a novel – in many genres, the word count is 85,000. In some genres such as fantasy and sci fi, the word count is as high as 110,000.
Any doubts I had of writing a novel that large was dispelled when I completed my first novel. It topped out at 184,000 words. I’ve spent the last three months editing it daily to try to bring my word count down to a manageable 90,000.
Still working on it. I’m halfway there.
I can only imagine the dismay of many writers who were unable to complete their novels. Many were unable to get more than 400 words a day. And those writers began offering the WORST writing advice I’ve ever seen, penning articles on their writer’s platform “Why it’s okay to not win NaNoWriMo”, “If you wrote one word in NaNoWriMo you won”, “The perils of arbitrarily derived word counts”, etc.
In order to help you, I have to explode these myths. It does not serve you to lie to you and agree. These articles do not help you as a writer at all.
The object of NaNoWriMo is to COMPLETE a 50,000 page novel in 30 days. I did it in 22 days, even with a complete crash of my computer at the time, requiring a complete reformat, and two lengthy days r-installing all my software.
How is it that some writers complete NaNoWriMo, and others do not?
Here are some of the leading reasons you are unable to complete your novel. Let’s identify the problem, and work on a solution.
- You do not understand the reason behind NaNoWriMo. The goal is not to BEGIN a novel – the goal is to COMPLETE a novel. Yes, it’s wonderful you wrote. But if you did not get 50,000 words, you did not win. If you wrote only one word, you did not win. You failed. There’s many valid reasons for NaNo – to prove to yourself you can complete a novel. If you failed NaNo, you need to discover why! This will Give you the tools you need to win it this year!
- You may not understand the craft of writing. This is by far the biggest flaw most have. Writing is not taught in schools. The writing taught in public school is designed to let you finish homework. That’s it. College tends to teach you abstract concepts that don’t translate well. As a result, most don’t know how to take something in your head and write it out on paper. I spent many hours trying to do it, and so I was able to teach myself writing.
- You have a flaw in your process. If you could not write 1667 words a day, you have a flaw in your process somewhere. With apologies to Steven James, if a person cannot pants (writing by the seat of your pants) a novel, get 1667 words a day and win NaNo, the odds are very likely that you are not a pant’ser. If pant’sing a novel does not work for you, don’t force yourself to write that way. Pant’sing for many is an excuse to not complete a novel. Sitting with a real pant’ser (I met one this year) shows you they can get their word count. If you can’t, you’re not a pant’ser.
- Your concept for your novel was a scene. What was your idea for your novel? If you can’t answer the question “And then what happens?”, this was your flaw. “The prince put the shoe on the servant girl.” That’s an example. If you can’t lay out the concept from “there was a servant girl who had three wicked stepsisters” to “and they lived happily ever after”, you began with a single scene in mind. The fix for this is exceptionally easy – take fifty books you’ve read or fifty movies you’ve seen, and outline the book. “The officers of a silent nuclear submarine realize their machine is destined as a first strike weapon. Gathering their courage, they conceive a plot to kill the only officer who can stop them. They then engage in multiple deceptions to allow themselves to sail the submarine to the United States and surrender the submarine and request political asylum. In the meantime, both governments race to find – and sink – the submarine. Only one man in the CIA realizes they are trying to defect, and he has to race against time to try to save the submarine, and stop world war three.” I’d put the ending in there, but in case you never read the book, I don’t want to spoil it. There’s an example. Do this to your NaNo novel, and you’ll have no problems.
- Your concept for your novel was actually a character, not a plot. This too is a common problem. You’ve invented a really cool protagonist. In reality, you’re writing about yourself. But novels are written about STORIES, not CHARACTERS. “And then what happens?” This question shows you that… NOTHING HAPPENS! You’re writing about HOW GREAT your protagonist is, not WHAT HAPPENS to them. Solution? Write about what happens to them, and what they do as a result! Writing “She’s sad” doesn’t tell us the story!
- You don’t have a writing system. This is the problem for the rest of the writers. Perhaps because you pants, perhaps because you just don’t HAVE a system, you came up with a book outline in it’s shortest form “it’s about a guy who…” And then you just had no idea how to translate that to a novel. Solution? Get a system you follow from start to finish. Plan your work, work your plan. Proper planning prevents poor performance.
- You don’t understand story structure. If you weren’t any of the above, this is your problem. Solution? Learn story structure. Build your outline around it.
Conclusion
If you couldn’t complete NaNoWriMo and many others could, the solution is not to make excuses but to find out what is wrong. Read the analysis above, and see which one best describes you. Be aware that it may be a combination of any and all factors!
Find what’s wrong. Fix it. Learn to apply the fixes, and practice regularly. And this November, win NaNoWriMo. No excuses, no justification, just celebration.
Then complete, edit, and re-write your novel until it is perfect. Prepare a query letter, and get published.
