10 Things I Learned from NaNoWriMo

I just finished writing my first murder mystery as part of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). It’s 28,000+ words, a fair amount shorter than the 50,000 words that NaNoWriMo “winners” are expected to generate, but way beyond this minimalist writer’s normal daily output. I write short things, not long ones. And I write nonfiction, not fiction. But, maybe emboldened by having just spent a weekend outdoors experiencing homelessness and thinking I could do practically anything, I took the plunge on November 1st. And, you know how kids jump off a raft into a lake holding hands? My husband and I decided to write the book together and we did. He was the plot master. I was the writer. It worked. It was incredible fun. And it’s not a bad little story, “Murder in Wilson Park.”

Here’s what I learned from this amazing experience.

Writer’s block is a fiction. Start with a decent sentence and keep going. If you’re stuck, get up and walk around. Finish what you start for that day. When you’re done, go make a drink. If you’re not done, stay in your seat until you are.

Use what you have. In any given moment, your brain has a huge flock of random thoughts flying and careening and changing color. People’s names, a friend’s ancient shoes, another friend’s desire to cut her own hair, your daughter’s reporting career, conversations overheard at a meal program. Who said it? Nora Ephron. Everything is copy.

It’s hard to keep track of time. I was several chapters in before I realized I hadn’t moved on to the next day. How do I put everybody to bed? It gave me new appreciation for writers who start each chapter with a header, Day 3, 9:00 a.m.

Describing nature is hard. A lot of the action in my little book takes place in the woods. But my knowledge of flora and fauna is scant. A plant is either a tree or a bush. (I never got into ground cover.) So, creating a picture of a scene was pretty challenging. Mostly, it felt like when I was in first grade. Here’s the house, here’s the sun, and there is a tulip, too.

Taking time to describe is challenging. I concentrated on moving the story forward. Sometimes, I’d stop to smell the roses and really get into describing a character or a scene but very often I was propelled to the finish line. That means I missed opportunities to make characters deeper and richer. Happily, there is revision.

Writing about violence is rough. I found I had a very narrow vocabulary for violence. It was hard to diversify the violence, give it nuance, make it more vivid.This could be taken as a good thing or a bad thing, I’m not sure. I will need some instruction in this area should I continue.

It is exhilarating to unleash your imagination. This sounds so dopey but it’s true. A nonfiction writer thinks about content, pacing, metaphor, economy,message. A fiction writer thinks about the characters. Is this something Sally would do? How would Jerky react to this situation? So, the span of the possible grows to match the potential of each individual which is, essentially, limitless. Right?

You need some markers and big paper. These help you keep track of your characters and the action and make you feel like you’re in the middle of a serious enterprise. Immersion is a valuable thing.

Your characters become real. Tonight, I miss my characters – Sally, Amanda, the Three Dorothys, Deputy John, Charlie 8, Ace, Beverly, Johnson, and Clark, Matt and Jovan, Jacob, Joe Jablonski, and, yes, even Mr. X. They were my people for a month and they made for really great company.

Readers are precious. My blog readership plummeted during the past month. But the readers who stuck with the story were invaluable. A reader on the other side of the globe would regularly give me sharp nudges, applaud certain moves, and pose questions I needed to answer. Those ‘true blues’ made this whole effort worthwhile. Thank you to all of you – you know who you are!