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writercisesOriginal posting 30 November 2009
If you're crunching out the last words of nanowrimo, don't bother reading this yet. Just sit down and write, write, write.
On the other hand, you may have gone over that target and be relaxing, or maybe you're reading this after the end of nanowrimo. Or maybe you looked at your pile of words and that looming deadline and target and just said the heck with it, I'm not going to get there, so I give up. In any case, one way or another, you're looking at the last of Nanowrimo 2009. November 2009, National Novel Writing Month 2009, a chance to write 50,000 words in one month -- or at least to try it, to think about it, to consider the challenge of that kind of a goal.
No matter what you did or didn't do this month, stop at this point and think about it. Take some time to reflect on what you did. If you've written a great big pile of words, you may be starting to think about finishing it up, going back and editing, and that sort of follow-up. But before you start cranking on that, take a few minutes to think about how you feel about it, and what you learned from it, and what you'd like to take away from Nanowrimo 2009. Go back over the month, take a look at your writing, take a look inside yourself.
Maybe you discovered that crunching out like this, grinding out 2000 or 3000 words a day, or maybe doing the write all day marathon sprints, maybe you found that really felt good. If you did, you may want to schedule more free writing sessions for yourself, or maybe make an appointment with yourself to spend Saturdays just crunching out words. That's OK.
Maybe you discovered that you really wanted more planning and outlining, more direction for your own writing. Great. Take the time and build your own support structure the way that you like it.
Maybe you discovered that this kind of crunching out words without really thinking through each and every one was very frustrating for you? After a few days, you gave up. You went back to polishing each sentence, slowly working through each paragraph, developing the characters, the setting, the structure of the story. That's good too! Now you know that you don't want to set high quotas and attempt to grind out the words, that you're going to produce well turned words. Quality, not quantity. And that's just fine.
It's the end of November -- and nanowrimo 2010 is just 11 months away. But that's 11 months for you to do what you want to. If you want to aim at 50,000 words a month, do it. Or maybe you want to spend December planning, with a little writing on the side, and then do another push in January? That's good too. December, clean up the gore from nanowrimo, then in January lay out the next session, and do another sprint in February? Be careful, February is short!
Or maybe you want to back off a bit, just 20,000 words a month for a while? A story a week -- six weeks, six stories?
Or focus on some other part of your writing toolkit for a little while? You've done a one-month marathon of words, pouring them out on the page. Character structure, world building settings, laying out events to build plots, editing -- there's a lot more to writing than just word counts.
Still, congratulate yourself or commiserate with yourself about your writing in November. Think about how you feel about it, and what you'd like to do next. What did you learn, what do you want to take away, what do you want to change?
Write yourself a letter.
Sometimes the end is just another beginning. That's how series get started!
If you're crunching out the last words of nanowrimo, don't bother reading this yet. Just sit down and write, write, write.
On the other hand, you may have gone over that target and be relaxing, or maybe you're reading this after the end of nanowrimo. Or maybe you looked at your pile of words and that looming deadline and target and just said the heck with it, I'm not going to get there, so I give up. In any case, one way or another, you're looking at the last of Nanowrimo 2009. November 2009, National Novel Writing Month 2009, a chance to write 50,000 words in one month -- or at least to try it, to think about it, to consider the challenge of that kind of a goal.
No matter what you did or didn't do this month, stop at this point and think about it. Take some time to reflect on what you did. If you've written a great big pile of words, you may be starting to think about finishing it up, going back and editing, and that sort of follow-up. But before you start cranking on that, take a few minutes to think about how you feel about it, and what you learned from it, and what you'd like to take away from Nanowrimo 2009. Go back over the month, take a look at your writing, take a look inside yourself.
Maybe you discovered that crunching out like this, grinding out 2000 or 3000 words a day, or maybe doing the write all day marathon sprints, maybe you found that really felt good. If you did, you may want to schedule more free writing sessions for yourself, or maybe make an appointment with yourself to spend Saturdays just crunching out words. That's OK.
Maybe you discovered that you really wanted more planning and outlining, more direction for your own writing. Great. Take the time and build your own support structure the way that you like it.
Maybe you discovered that this kind of crunching out words without really thinking through each and every one was very frustrating for you? After a few days, you gave up. You went back to polishing each sentence, slowly working through each paragraph, developing the characters, the setting, the structure of the story. That's good too! Now you know that you don't want to set high quotas and attempt to grind out the words, that you're going to produce well turned words. Quality, not quantity. And that's just fine.
It's the end of November -- and nanowrimo 2010 is just 11 months away. But that's 11 months for you to do what you want to. If you want to aim at 50,000 words a month, do it. Or maybe you want to spend December planning, with a little writing on the side, and then do another push in January? That's good too. December, clean up the gore from nanowrimo, then in January lay out the next session, and do another sprint in February? Be careful, February is short!
Or maybe you want to back off a bit, just 20,000 words a month for a while? A story a week -- six weeks, six stories?
Or focus on some other part of your writing toolkit for a little while? You've done a one-month marathon of words, pouring them out on the page. Character structure, world building settings, laying out events to build plots, editing -- there's a lot more to writing than just word counts.
Still, congratulate yourself or commiserate with yourself about your writing in November. Think about how you feel about it, and what you'd like to do next. What did you learn, what do you want to take away, what do you want to change?
Write yourself a letter.
Sometimes the end is just another beginning. That's how series get started!
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