How I wrote a book in a month: part 3
What do you do when the going gets tough? (Keep going!)
Hello! This is part three in a series! If you’re just tuning in, here’s part one and part two.
I’ve met very few of my goals over the past few weeks.
In fact, writing this series of posts is just about the only big task I’ve been able to consistently check off of my ongoing to-do list since the start of November!
My daughter had a bout with Covid a few weeks ago, and no sooner did she feel better and head back to school than I came down with a particularly nasty case of strep throat. Luckily, I wasn’t up against any major deadlines. Still, I’ve been falling increasingly behind on what I’d hoped to accomplish this fall, and the busy holiday season is looming closer and closer.
Maybe you can relate?
Sometimes, no matter how hard you prep to meet your goals, and no matter how much you try to prioritize the work that matters to you, the universe seems to have other ideas. And sometimes, when your routine goes off the rails, all you can do is get swept along and wait for things to calm down.
But what do you do if things just…don’t calm down?
When I originally conceived this series, this final installment was going to be:
Push
I was going to talk about how writing a book in a month is supposed to be a challenge! Most of us have to really push ourselves to accomplish it. (Yes, there are a few writers for whom this is relatively easy. I am not one of them! But I’d venture to say that even those speedy drafters set themselves up for success using some of the tactics I recommended over the past two weeks…) I was also going to talk about the importance of deciding you’re going to do something, and then doing it—even if you’re tired or cranky or simply having an off day. And I was going to talk about the value of pushing yourself: how setting a challenge that you know will be difficult and then working hard toward that goal is a tool for growth.
All of that is true!
But.
After the November I’ve had, it no longer felt quite like what I wanted to say.
I wrote a 40,000-word draft of a new middle-grade novel in four weeks this past summer, and I am immensely proud of that. But I am not any less proud of the small amount of forward progress I’ve managed to make this month on the book I’m currently revising. How can those two things be comparable?
Because I’m still moving forward.
At this point in NaNoWriMo, you might have 27,000 new words—or more! Or, you might have fallen behind. You might have lost your pace. Life may have gotten in the way. You may have become discouraged by your perceived lack of momentum, or disillusioned with your draft. While I still want to encourage you to push yourself through to the end of the month, the word I actually want to focus on is:
Persist
Finishing a book draft is not just a matter of pushing yourself. It’s about persisting, even when things aren’t going your way. It’s about continuing to move forward.
Most writers agree that middles are hard. Beginnings are great! They’re exciting and fun and new! And endings—wow, it’s satisfying to write a powerful, emotional climax and then wrap everything up with a nice bow (perhaps adding a teaser of more story to come). But middles? They’re messy. It can be so, so hard to see the threads that are necessary to connect Point A to Point B.
My daughter is into Highlights magazines at the moment, and there’s always a maze. This maze often looks like a swirling tangle of strings. There are knots and dead-ends, loops that put you back where you just came from, obstacles in your path.
Writing a book draft can feel like navigating one of these mazes. There is one right way to get from the start to the finish. Your job, as the creator of the world of your story, is to find that one right way.
(Of course, I don’t mean that there is only one right way for every story to be told! Each author will tell their story in a way that is unique to them. That’s why you can have two books with similar-sounding premises that are wildly different in both voice and execution!)
Now, even if you outline everything in advance—and even if you set up a writing routine that allows your creativity to flourish—you might not find your one right way through the book on the first try. Does that mean you should throw your hands in the air and give up on your goals? Of course not!
Here are a few tactics that might help you persist in making forward progress, even if that progress is not as linear as you might have hoped:
Work backward! Skip ahead to the big climactic moment that everything in the plot builds toward—the destination before the denouement. (Hopefully, you already have a sense of what this scene needs to accomplish in the greater context of the story.) Write it—get those words on the page!—and then, start traveling backward through the maze. The missing threads may be easier to spot once you’ve got a handle on where you’re going.
Jump around! Is there a chapter you’re particularly excited to write? Is there a small scene that’s crystal-clear in your mind’s eye? Make that today’s project! There is no rule that your NaNoWriMo words (or any words, written during any month of the year) have to be put down in chronological order. Plus, the more bits and pieces you assemble, the easier it will be to connect them all down the line.
Insert placeholders! Do you have a problem moving forward when you know or suspect that something’s not working? When you’re trying to write a book in a month, you can’t get bogged down in revising what you’ve already written. Instead, insert a placeholder—something like [FIX THIS LATER] or [WHY DOES SHE THINK THIS?]—and keep going.
Leave edit notes! Did you write past a placeholder and then, three chapters later, suddenly figure out how to fix that problem? Instead of editing that bit now and potentially losing drafting momentum, write a detailed note in the margins or Comments area. Then, pick up where you left off drafting—if necessary, with another note to yourself that here is where you started implementing that change. (For instance, if a character had a sibling but you realized they didn’t need one, proceed as if the sibling doesn’t exist, and fix the beginning later.)
So! That’s what I’ve got for you on writing a book in a month. Part one: prep tips to help you hit the ground running. Part two: ideas on how to prioritize your creative work within your existing routine. And finally, part three: tactics to help you persist in moving forward, even when things aren’t going as planned.
I’m posting this on November 17th, which means there is still plenty of time for you to crush your NaNo goals. But I also hope you’ll file some of this away for the next time you’re writing a book on a deadline, whether under contract or self-imposed. And if you think this series might help other writers navigate their next drafting project, please share!
As for me, I still intend to get my revised manuscript in my agent’s hands this fall. Yes, it might be later in the fall than I’d hoped—but technically, fall goes until December 21st! That’s over a month away. Fingers crossed, my household is done with being sick for a while.
But even if we’re not…I will persist.
~Kathryn
Such good tips!!!