Phoenix Living

Ok, let’s take a look at this set-up realistically for a moment, this NaNoWriMo deal. Again, not in an attempt to discourage, but you can set yourself much more realistic success goals if you know the beast you’re dealing with.

First, let’s establish an agreement that the idea of 2000 words a day, every day, no breaks or off days, as a long-term sustainable goal is pretty durned unreasonable. Sure, we can all name a writer or two we know or we’ve heard of who writes like that. Similarly truthfully, the number of writers who really and truly do write like that are extremely few, statistically insignificant in number compared to the overall number of writers. So already we recognize that NaNoWriMo as it’s structured isn’t how most “real writers” do their everyday writing.

Next, let’s take a more time-limited example: it’s much more easy to imagine that a writer might need to write 2000 words a day every day for a month with no breaks or days off, especially if they have a looming deadline. This mirrors much more closely the NaNoWriMo structure. However, if you take that crunch time as your model, it would be wise to treat it as such on the other end, and give yourself some time off after the crunch to recover before you try to dive into revisions. If you try to push through and keep working after you’ve just put yourself through a major crunch, you massively increase your burn-out chances. And still, even in a crunch time, even for pro writers, Other Life Events will sometimes crop up at the most inconvenient of times. So this model still doesn’t address how you deal with those inevitable interruptions of routine that even the most dedicated writer can encounter and which can get so discouraging to one’s motivation.

So let’s focus in again, this time on an example on my Facebook feed from someone who forgot about NaNoWriMo and is worried about trying to start such a big project four days late. What are the options available to someone in that position? Well, several!

• You can try to make up the 8K spread out evenly across the month, making your new total only about 267 more words per day.
• You can decide that your personal wordcount goal is 42000, the 50K minus the 8000 words you missed by coming in late.
• You can decide that your NaNoWriMo ends four days later than everyone else’s, and make up the missing 8000 words on the far end.
• You can do four extra mega-writing sessions of 2K each, either all at once(possibly more burnout potential) or spread across four days of the month where you’re feeling more inspired/energetic enough to do 4K instead of 2k that day.

And I’m sure there are even more ways to solve the problem than I mention here. If you’re willing to genuinely assess the situation you have to work with (including your own needs, desires, and motivations that you’re bringing to the writing table), you’ll be able to more easily narrow it down to the solution that best fits your situation. Remember the goal, which is to find reasons for you to keep writing, not to find excuses not to write–those are easy and everywhere.

Meaning…remember to care for your writing instrument, which is your brain, which is housed within your body. This advice comes in early in the month in the hopes of encouraging good body-care habits from the start. It will benefit your writing too!

I’m one of few writers I know who willingly and consciously incorporate the advice given to anyone who works long hours at a computer: look up and away from the screen every twenty minutes to focus your gaze on something across the room from you; get up for 5 minutes every hour to stretch and move around; stretch and move your arms and hands, shoulders and neck in-between writing bursts as often as you think of it; take longer breaks every 3-4 hours at most, for rest and food. I want to be able to write for years to come, and making these adjustments into habit early on is a very small energy price for a big return both now and later. In addition to making it more likely I’ll have less severe chronic typing issues later, it means I can usually put in longer hours in the now before getting fatigued. The more I get good (and enough) rest, and healthy food, and regular massages and stretching and exercise, the more and better and more frequently I write.

It really does work like that, and I’m not the only writer who thinks so. I’ve read several writers who recommend taking up a sport or regular physical activity that interests you, as part of your weekly writing routine. (Quite a lot of sff writers seem be on a rock climbing bug lately, and I’m no exception there, but I’m also interested in other activities too.) If you’re less physically inclined or capable, it’s still worth considering regular stretching, as well as possible low-impact activities like chair yoga or gentle water aerobics. If you’re capable of more activity, then get active! regularly! It can even sometimes help break you out of a stuck creative spot.

Our modern life encourages us to be far more sedentary than our biology prefers us to be, and since we’re still primarily biological organisms for now, we can’t ignore those needs without losing optimal functioning. So while you’re still feeling good about that initial flow of words onto the page, don’t forget to give a little love to the parts of you making that work possible–fingers, hands, arms, shoulders, neck, brain. Hey, even that butt that’s staying dedicatedly in that chair needs a wiggle now and then to stay properly supportive…

There’s not usually a lot of pep talk that needs to happen at this stage of the NaNoWriMo process. The second day, most people are still jazzed and on their initial creative high. For all of those folk, my advice today would be: enjoy it! Really have fun with it. Remember what it feels like. Contrary to popular myth, what makes a “real writer” isn’t the highs of creativity when the muse is with you and you are a demigod among words. Because those moments are all too rare, for demideity’s sake remember to notice them, enjoy them, revel in them while you’re living it.

For those few of you who might already be goal-struggling, or feeling the first niggling doubts creep in even if you made your goals so far, this next bit of advice you might remember seeing on this blog before but it bears repeating: for this stage of the process, it doesn’t matter if it’s good, it matters that you do it.

To successfully navigate the NaNoWriMo landmines inherent in the system, you have to be willing to acknowledge the limitations of that system and work with them so you don’t build up huge levels of discouragement. And realistically, if you are trying to put 50K words on the page in a month, you’re necessarily going to need to put less energy on the honing and revising stage of the game during that time. There will be plenty of time for the last part after November, when you’re staring at a pile of 50,000 words and wondering again exactly how you turn them into a finished story. For now, remember and repeat “just do it” or a less commercially-laden equivalent slogan as needed, to convey the concept to your hindbrain the truth that the only way out of this (with 50K words) is through.

While I still disagree with NaNoWriMo as it’s structured, I don’t extend this attitude to disapproving of the people who try it out, as it’s a big undertaking and usually fraught with strong emotional states along the way. In past years I’ve simply ranted about NaNoWriMo, or ignored it, or created a counter project to it (that was the year we did InSoHaiMo on LiveJournal, International Haiku and Sonnet Month–because anyone can spit out a haiku a day for 30 days–and there were some really great poems featured there). Since I’m not focusing on my poetry as much this year, I feel like I need a new way to subvert or support the people trying NaNoWriMo into remembering to feel GOOD about their writing and their process while they’re slogging through. So…

Not sure I’ll post writing discussion snippets *every* day (daily is the goal!), but I’ll increase the frequency of them here on the blog significantly this month, to help create an online discussion area where you can figure out some of WHAT you’re doing as you try not to panic about your wordcount. Also, for those of you trying the deed and who are semi-local, our house is nearly always full of good food and smart writers who love to talk about craft and technique for hours! So when you’re needing extra support for this quixotic task this month, look me up for a question, discussion, or even an in-person visit and we’ll help you churn those words! Comment here or drop me an email, reesa at reesabrown dot com to get the communal juices flowing.

In addition to Reesa Brown, the writer making this offer, you get the special bonus writer prize of Steven Brust to help with the writer discussions for anyone wanting to do a workshop in person this month. He likes talking about writing as much as, if not more than, I do! He especially likes adoring fans (hehe) but any writer serious about their craft enough to want to talk about the processes involved is just fine.