Week two brings with it the first realizations that what you are doing is hard. It also brings with it the realization that you can do this. There are moments when everything feels right and the words dump right out onto the page. Then there are days that you can hardly muster more than a few paragraphs. This is where the road starts to get bumpy. This is where you should keep your foot pressed firmly on the accelerator.
I don’t care who you are or how many NaNoWriMo’s you have been through, 50,000 words in a month is a heck of a lot of writing. Yet every year thousands of new writers manage to cross the finish line. It is amazing what we can achieve when we put our effort into it. Right now you may be ahead on your word counts and think that you can easily just coast to the finish line. Or maybe you have yet to hit a daily target and you are thinking that your story just isn’t worth it. To both of you I say slam the pedal to the floor. Don’t give up. Don’t slack off. The only way to get across the finish line is through writing each and every day. Every little bit you can get down counts as progress.
There are probably more than a few of you who are behind and are working on the same chapter. The characters don’t seem right or the setting feels off. Maybe there I a scene and the dialogue isn’t flowing the way you want it to. It is every writers urge to go back and make it perfect. I want to do it every time I participate in a NaNoWriMo and do you know what I learned over the years of doing this? Don’t look back. WriMo isn’t about getting your manuscript perfect, it is about getting your manuscript written. If you dwell in the past for to long you will only get diminishing returns on your word count. I have learned over the years to jot down a note (that should be longer, more explanatory), throw in a comment [fix this] and move on. It seems counter intuitive, I know. Shouldn’t each chapter be as good as possible? Well, no. At least, not right now. I have been working on my last WriMo book for years, editing, shaping, molding and gutting scenes that do and don’t work. Your finished product will resemble the effort you put in during WriMo but it will not be the same as what you are writing today.
Think of the woodworker, she does not just saw into a log and out pops one of those bear statues (you know exactly what I am talking about, don’t lie). No the woodworker first cuts out the rough shape of the thing. Then over the next few days or weeks she meticulously chisels and sands and shapes that rough cut into a bear statue. NaNoWriMo is about getting the rough shape finished, so you can come back later and shape and polish it into a fine story.
The greatest secret to NaNoWriMo is to just keep writing. Keep your foot on the pedal so to speak, and your eyes on the goal. Write your story, leave a note about what you don’t like, and then move forward. You will find that the words will flow fast and the chapters will begin to buzz by. So what about when things aren’t firing. Words are hard and the day is tiring? Well, you do have all of those notes you can go back and check. Little golden flag posts that you can anchor to for a bit and work on polishing things up. I find that when I do this, I usually have an idea or two about what I need to write next. Then it’s back to the races, write, leave a marker, write some more. Repeat until your story is told.