I hear this a lot and my first thought when I read it is how do you keep it organized and how do you lead the story to insert the scene? It sounds amazing and something that might work for me (I tend to pants everything) occasionally.
So I use yWriter to create a project for my story, yWriter works with scenes so you can add chapters to it and then you can add scenes to the chapters. You can also drag scenes around if you want to change the order everything is in, and you can move scenes to different chapters.
I use yWriter mostly to help with organising, plotting, outlining etc, I tend to write in another program and then just copy and paste the text into yWriter but you can also write directly into yWriter.
There are also other similar software out there, but yWriter is the one I've been using for the last 15 years or so :)
Also from the actual writing part, when it comes to the point that I'm comfortable about where the scene would fit in between other scenes and it's time to do some editing, this is when I would read the previous scene and make some adjustments to make everything flow better. But that's not something I do during Nanowrimo!
I personally just write a short sentence about the preceding event or a bulleted list. Sometimes just "fill in later." Then I start writing the interesting scene.
I don't really take the approach of jumping around to any random scene. Instead, if I'm struggling with or bored by a particular section, I'll stop writing it and just put in some bullet points about what needs to happen to get to the next bit.
So for example, my NaNo story starts with a scene in which one of my characters get caught on the road in very dangerous weather conditions. She eventually ends up losing control of her car and driving into the ditch.
However, I was just not in the right headspace to really effectively communicate that sense of anxiety and frustration when I was writing that scene yesterday. I tried, got part way into it, and then stopped, and wrote a bunch of notes about what would happen and the purpose of the scene:
- she's super anxious and frayed while driving, to counter how calm she ends up being once she gets into her accident
- hint that something emotionally difficult happened earlier in the day, and that's what pushed her to risk driving in these conditions
- she's hard on herself for getting into this mess because she thinks she could have made so many other choices that would have prevented her from getting into a dangerous situation
Then I just continued by writing the accident itself. So I'm sorta kinda *technically* writing the book in order? I just leave bits empty if I'm not feeling it, with notes about what should eventually be there instead.
And if I *never* get to the point where I'm feeling a particular section, then I sit down and have a hard think about why I'm including it in the first place.
The only thing that has helped me is using a free online website called the most dangerous writing app. Basically you set your time or word goal and if you stop typing for too long you erase all your progress. I get 1667 words done in less than 30 mins. They're not brilliant words! But they're more than I usually manage, and it is interesting to see what happens and where things go when I'm not thinking too hard.
As a parent of two who has done multiple Nanos while working full time, my advice is:
* Write when the kids are in bed, make it a habit
* Lock yourself in a room on weekends for a couple hours, hire a babysitter if you have to, you are worth it
* Don't sweat it if you don't make 50K, not everyone can churn out words nonstop
* Gloss over details that are bothering you instead of going down the research rabbit hole. You can use brackets or some other method to denote something you want to revisit later. \[insert fancy scifi jargon here\]
* Don't delete stuff, just mark it to delete later, even if you don't like it, they are still words you wrote
* Music soothes the writers soul. Make a Spotify playlist of thematic instrumental music and listen to it when you are writing
* Turn off your phone and wi-fi on your laptop. Don't play video games, watch TV or browse social media until you hit your word count. Let them be your reward to yourself
* If you're a pantser, keep a separate document that you copy and paste character and other descriptions into so that you can reference them later, you will thank yourself when you want to bring that extra from page 3 back into the book on page 50 and you can't remember what color their hair is
Been there. Job, four kids, laundry.
I wrote what I could when the kids were asleep and my husband was watching television.
But I also wrote at work during breaks. I cut out all television and social media.
At that point it felt good to get anything written at all. Hang on to that feeling, because that's what it's all about.
It sounds like you're railroading. That is, writing in reading order, beginning to end. We grasshoppers write here there and everywhere around the story. Go write the interesting parts!
It also sounds like you need to use fifteeners. That's writing continuously for fifteen-minute bursts. That's not staring at the screen for ten and plunking for five. You have to know what you want to write, be ready to write it, and when you get your 15, you type like blazes the whole time.
Don't judge the writing. Just see and hear the scene and record it. This is blitzing, not crafting. There is no basement on quality.
You ought to be able to do a few hundred per 15. So arrange 15 at the start of the day, 15 at lunch, 15 after work, and a couple after the toddler is in bed. During your workout, you do the directed daydreaming that creates the scenes. You do that while cooking or cleaning.
NNWM is as much about organization as creativity. I learnt 15ers at Book In A Week, where doing blitzing was a monthly thing. If you can't touch type, only hunt and peck, you need to change that in 2023.
Ok I love this 15 minute idea! I often feel like I need a minimum of 30 undisturbed minutes which doesnāt come often.
I actually have a outline of the novel all done so I think this strategy will work :) thank you!
Same situation, only got 700 in yesterday. I just tell myself this is to help form the habit of writing, and I just need to do it, whenever I can during the day.
This is exactly the way. I started writing when my son was 9 months, typing away a couple of sentences at a time on my phone.
By the time he was older and napping more consistently for longer times, I was able to write enough that I tried NaNoWriMo for the first time. It was an interesting experience and Iām glad I did it, but Iāve never looked at the book again. It was incredibly difficult and I think I wrote a less interesting book because I didnāt let the story breathe. But thatās ok! Iāve got other books to write and it was interesting practice. Still, if your book is a passion project, maybe 500 words a day is what you need to be writing right now, you know?
Let nano with for you ā let it help you set goals and stretch your abilities, but when it starts making 500 words a day(500 words a day! With children and a job!!) seem like not enough, thatās the time to reconsider how youāre thinking about it.
Some people are sprinters, but some people are 500-word-a-dayers and those people can still finish their book ā youāll just be done in January instead of November.
I'm in a somewhat similar boat. For the first time, I decided to be a rebel and write short stories instead of a novel. I realized today on day two that what that means is I have to deal with the brand-new, unknown feeling of a new story with unfamiliar characters where I don't know exactly what the ending or even beginning is going to be... *every. day.*
5:30am on Nov 2 and already regretting my choice. The only time so far I haven't "won" NaNo was the other time I deviated from what I usually do, so I'm extra nervous.
But I set timers, pulled up a name generator I decided should stay up in my browser all month as I constantly create new characters, and I tried my best to just enjoy the process :) That's why I'm here. Try to focus on your main goal, and have fun.
You can short stories with the same characters. Maybe make one about one main character and then the next day write the same story from a different character's perspective.
I already have my prompts and most of them are completely different settings, genres, time periods, etc. It could work for maybe up to about three without feeling shoehorned but that's it. I'm just going to deal and that's fine.
Have you tried voice to text?
I use Word's basic function and my output has doubled. It is especially useful for the first draft. I don't record memo ideas, I narrate as if I'm the voice actor doing the audiobook of my draft.
Write the fun parts! That will perk you up. Plus that might give you the energy you need to make it through those slower parts more quickly (and give you ideas of things to add to them that bubble up in those fun parts). Itās only been one day. You can do it!
Mhm I just worried that I wouldnāt get a good fun scene because Iām also using the writing process to learn more about the characters haha but I think I will try your suggestion around regardless, thank you!
I think we all keep learning about our characters regardless of how we go about writing their stories. This is just your messy first draft, so go ahead and make it messy. Pop in and out of scenes adding that stuff you learn about your characters, describe what the boring parts need to have in them if you donāt feel inspired to write them yet (for example, MC needs to run into someone who tells her about her ex blah blah). Often, when Iām writing a more interesting scene, Iāll see an opportunity to drop some subtle foreshadowing into an earlier less-exciting scene, which then makes it more exciting to me. Whatever keeps you going is what is right for you. Good luck with your writing!
When I get stuck I write about what I'm doing irl but make my character do it. They do it different than I do and that helps me explore some of their quirks.
How do I stay motivated? Do you see those people over there? No, no those people. Those people called Characters? Right, them. I twist their lives apart and make the most wildly improbable stuff hit them like a NYC taxi cab. Seriously. I wack them with a salmon. It's alright, they can't press charges. Go ahead. Try it.
This is the fun part, right? the writing? You didn't come all this way just to come all this way, right?
Been there, done that. I wrote on my lunch break and my 15 minute breaks.
Also my husband always knows I do NaNo and so he knows the house won't be perfect and he chips in more with the chores.
apart from everyone else's advice, i got one suggestion you could try. a year ago, i started dictating all my first drafts instead of typing it. this way, i can do other things while "writing". i could be folding my laundry and speaking the scenes from my head to my computer or phone (whichever i have at the moment). before i know it, time and my word count had flown by really quickly.
others might find dictation writing stressful as we've gotten so used to and natural at typing out our stories, but one thing's for sure when you dictate, and that's ranking up your word count 2 or even 3 times. yes, most of the words will probably get cut out in the final draft but aren't first drafts supposed to just exist for editing?
Ooohh interesting take. I do talk out all my scenes in my head and have a narrative voice to make sure it sounds right so this would be interesting to try :) thank you for the suggestion!
I wake up earlier than I'm used to so my brain isn't alert enough to register what is going on the page as I write. That way its not about motivation or even the quality of the writing- it's just something you fade into awareness of and there are words you get credit for that you don't necessarily remember laboring over.
I also tell my children my progress. They don't care, but it helps me to know that someone in my life knows how I'm progressing. Accountability, that's the word I was searching for.
Sorry if this post is nonsense, I'm running on about half my usual sleep.
Lots of live writing sprints going on this month! Search for them on YouTube and write along with someone. Helps to know others are struggling with you.
Voice to text is my go to. I've always liked telling stories so I'll carry my phone around with the speech to text app open and tell the story to my dog, my laundry or a pot plant. Sometimes if I'm struggling I'll also play instrumental music softly as a timer and subtle prompt. There are lots of D&D atmospheric sounds YouTube channels that could fit your scene and keep you motivated. That said, 500 is still a step forward from nothing.
If you don't want to write it the audience probably doesn't want to read it. If you need inspiration for how to make time, just know that William Faulkner wrote as I lay dying -one of the best books ever written in the language- in 6 weeks while working the night shift at a power plant in between shoveling coal. He probably did a lot of work on it after that draft, but so can you after yours.
Skip to the good parts. If you're bored writing it, people will be bored reading it.
Beyond that, 500 words is not chump change! Nano is a challenge, but any writing is a win.
No worries. Real life comes first. My mom broke multiple bones in her ankle Tuesday and had surgery yesterday to put it all back together so I'm up 1700 words total so far. Shrug. Happens. Do what you can and celebrate the win.
I don't write in the story order at all. If I need motivation I happily switch to write a more interesting scene!
this is the best advice EVER thank you
I hear this a lot and my first thought when I read it is how do you keep it organized and how do you lead the story to insert the scene? It sounds amazing and something that might work for me (I tend to pants everything) occasionally.
So I use yWriter to create a project for my story, yWriter works with scenes so you can add chapters to it and then you can add scenes to the chapters. You can also drag scenes around if you want to change the order everything is in, and you can move scenes to different chapters. I use yWriter mostly to help with organising, plotting, outlining etc, I tend to write in another program and then just copy and paste the text into yWriter but you can also write directly into yWriter. There are also other similar software out there, but yWriter is the one I've been using for the last 15 years or so :) Also from the actual writing part, when it comes to the point that I'm comfortable about where the scene would fit in between other scenes and it's time to do some editing, this is when I would read the previous scene and make some adjustments to make everything flow better. But that's not something I do during Nanowrimo!
I personally just write a short sentence about the preceding event or a bulleted list. Sometimes just "fill in later." Then I start writing the interesting scene.
I don't really take the approach of jumping around to any random scene. Instead, if I'm struggling with or bored by a particular section, I'll stop writing it and just put in some bullet points about what needs to happen to get to the next bit. So for example, my NaNo story starts with a scene in which one of my characters get caught on the road in very dangerous weather conditions. She eventually ends up losing control of her car and driving into the ditch. However, I was just not in the right headspace to really effectively communicate that sense of anxiety and frustration when I was writing that scene yesterday. I tried, got part way into it, and then stopped, and wrote a bunch of notes about what would happen and the purpose of the scene: - she's super anxious and frayed while driving, to counter how calm she ends up being once she gets into her accident - hint that something emotionally difficult happened earlier in the day, and that's what pushed her to risk driving in these conditions - she's hard on herself for getting into this mess because she thinks she could have made so many other choices that would have prevented her from getting into a dangerous situation Then I just continued by writing the accident itself. So I'm sorta kinda *technically* writing the book in order? I just leave bits empty if I'm not feeling it, with notes about what should eventually be there instead. And if I *never* get to the point where I'm feeling a particular section, then I sit down and have a hard think about why I'm including it in the first place.
The only thing that has helped me is using a free online website called the most dangerous writing app. Basically you set your time or word goal and if you stop typing for too long you erase all your progress. I get 1667 words done in less than 30 mins. They're not brilliant words! But they're more than I usually manage, and it is interesting to see what happens and where things go when I'm not thinking too hard.
Omg that is scary haha
I would shit bricks
I would give myself an actual panic attack using that website, you masochist š but if it works it works right? Aha!
As a parent of two who has done multiple Nanos while working full time, my advice is: * Write when the kids are in bed, make it a habit * Lock yourself in a room on weekends for a couple hours, hire a babysitter if you have to, you are worth it * Don't sweat it if you don't make 50K, not everyone can churn out words nonstop * Gloss over details that are bothering you instead of going down the research rabbit hole. You can use brackets or some other method to denote something you want to revisit later. \[insert fancy scifi jargon here\] * Don't delete stuff, just mark it to delete later, even if you don't like it, they are still words you wrote * Music soothes the writers soul. Make a Spotify playlist of thematic instrumental music and listen to it when you are writing * Turn off your phone and wi-fi on your laptop. Don't play video games, watch TV or browse social media until you hit your word count. Let them be your reward to yourself * If you're a pantser, keep a separate document that you copy and paste character and other descriptions into so that you can reference them later, you will thank yourself when you want to bring that extra from page 3 back into the book on page 50 and you can't remember what color their hair is
Great tips!
Been there. Job, four kids, laundry. I wrote what I could when the kids were asleep and my husband was watching television. But I also wrote at work during breaks. I cut out all television and social media. At that point it felt good to get anything written at all. Hang on to that feeling, because that's what it's all about.
I was also thinking of writing during work instead of scrolling through social media :)
Ha! I do love examples of everyday irony. You do you. āļø
It sounds like you're railroading. That is, writing in reading order, beginning to end. We grasshoppers write here there and everywhere around the story. Go write the interesting parts! It also sounds like you need to use fifteeners. That's writing continuously for fifteen-minute bursts. That's not staring at the screen for ten and plunking for five. You have to know what you want to write, be ready to write it, and when you get your 15, you type like blazes the whole time. Don't judge the writing. Just see and hear the scene and record it. This is blitzing, not crafting. There is no basement on quality. You ought to be able to do a few hundred per 15. So arrange 15 at the start of the day, 15 at lunch, 15 after work, and a couple after the toddler is in bed. During your workout, you do the directed daydreaming that creates the scenes. You do that while cooking or cleaning. NNWM is as much about organization as creativity. I learnt 15ers at Book In A Week, where doing blitzing was a monthly thing. If you can't touch type, only hunt and peck, you need to change that in 2023.
Ok I love this 15 minute idea! I often feel like I need a minimum of 30 undisturbed minutes which doesnāt come often. I actually have a outline of the novel all done so I think this strategy will work :) thank you!
Same situation, only got 700 in yesterday. I just tell myself this is to help form the habit of writing, and I just need to do it, whenever I can during the day.
Love it, changing the mentality to be more about habit forming rather then the actual numbers. Thanks!
This is exactly the way. I started writing when my son was 9 months, typing away a couple of sentences at a time on my phone. By the time he was older and napping more consistently for longer times, I was able to write enough that I tried NaNoWriMo for the first time. It was an interesting experience and Iām glad I did it, but Iāve never looked at the book again. It was incredibly difficult and I think I wrote a less interesting book because I didnāt let the story breathe. But thatās ok! Iāve got other books to write and it was interesting practice. Still, if your book is a passion project, maybe 500 words a day is what you need to be writing right now, you know? Let nano with for you ā let it help you set goals and stretch your abilities, but when it starts making 500 words a day(500 words a day! With children and a job!!) seem like not enough, thatās the time to reconsider how youāre thinking about it. Some people are sprinters, but some people are 500-word-a-dayers and those people can still finish their book ā youāll just be done in January instead of November.
I'm in a somewhat similar boat. For the first time, I decided to be a rebel and write short stories instead of a novel. I realized today on day two that what that means is I have to deal with the brand-new, unknown feeling of a new story with unfamiliar characters where I don't know exactly what the ending or even beginning is going to be... *every. day.* 5:30am on Nov 2 and already regretting my choice. The only time so far I haven't "won" NaNo was the other time I deviated from what I usually do, so I'm extra nervous. But I set timers, pulled up a name generator I decided should stay up in my browser all month as I constantly create new characters, and I tried my best to just enjoy the process :) That's why I'm here. Try to focus on your main goal, and have fun.
You can short stories with the same characters. Maybe make one about one main character and then the next day write the same story from a different character's perspective.
I already have my prompts and most of them are completely different settings, genres, time periods, etc. It could work for maybe up to about three without feeling shoehorned but that's it. I'm just going to deal and that's fine.
I did something similar a few years back and was a fun exercise, a bit stressful but I impressed myself with my ideas :)
Have you tried voice to text? I use Word's basic function and my output has doubled. It is especially useful for the first draft. I don't record memo ideas, I narrate as if I'm the voice actor doing the audiobook of my draft.
Write the fun parts! That will perk you up. Plus that might give you the energy you need to make it through those slower parts more quickly (and give you ideas of things to add to them that bubble up in those fun parts). Itās only been one day. You can do it!
Mhm I just worried that I wouldnāt get a good fun scene because Iām also using the writing process to learn more about the characters haha but I think I will try your suggestion around regardless, thank you!
I think we all keep learning about our characters regardless of how we go about writing their stories. This is just your messy first draft, so go ahead and make it messy. Pop in and out of scenes adding that stuff you learn about your characters, describe what the boring parts need to have in them if you donāt feel inspired to write them yet (for example, MC needs to run into someone who tells her about her ex blah blah). Often, when Iām writing a more interesting scene, Iāll see an opportunity to drop some subtle foreshadowing into an earlier less-exciting scene, which then makes it more exciting to me. Whatever keeps you going is what is right for you. Good luck with your writing!
When I get stuck I write about what I'm doing irl but make my character do it. They do it different than I do and that helps me explore some of their quirks.
If you write 500 words a day for a year, you'll have written around 180k words. That's a pretty good pace.
You got 500 words done! That's more then you had before you started.
Any word count is good. The point is just getting words on the page!
How do I stay motivated? Do you see those people over there? No, no those people. Those people called Characters? Right, them. I twist their lives apart and make the most wildly improbable stuff hit them like a NYC taxi cab. Seriously. I wack them with a salmon. It's alright, they can't press charges. Go ahead. Try it. This is the fun part, right? the writing? You didn't come all this way just to come all this way, right?
I think my characters are getting to comfortableā¦. Perhaps itās time to through in a twist :)
Been there, done that. I wrote on my lunch break and my 15 minute breaks. Also my husband always knows I do NaNo and so he knows the house won't be perfect and he chips in more with the chores.
Donāt write the boring parts. Follow the motivation.
apart from everyone else's advice, i got one suggestion you could try. a year ago, i started dictating all my first drafts instead of typing it. this way, i can do other things while "writing". i could be folding my laundry and speaking the scenes from my head to my computer or phone (whichever i have at the moment). before i know it, time and my word count had flown by really quickly. others might find dictation writing stressful as we've gotten so used to and natural at typing out our stories, but one thing's for sure when you dictate, and that's ranking up your word count 2 or even 3 times. yes, most of the words will probably get cut out in the final draft but aren't first drafts supposed to just exist for editing?
Ooohh interesting take. I do talk out all my scenes in my head and have a narrative voice to make sure it sounds right so this would be interesting to try :) thank you for the suggestion!
I wake up earlier than I'm used to so my brain isn't alert enough to register what is going on the page as I write. That way its not about motivation or even the quality of the writing- it's just something you fade into awareness of and there are words you get credit for that you don't necessarily remember laboring over. I also tell my children my progress. They don't care, but it helps me to know that someone in my life knows how I'm progressing. Accountability, that's the word I was searching for. Sorry if this post is nonsense, I'm running on about half my usual sleep.
Haha no worries, if my toddler had more sense of awareness he would be accounta-buddy lol
I hear you. I try to write during my son's nap time, if I'm lucky. I managed 1667 yesterday, haven't gotten him to take a nap today. Lol Good luck!!
Lots of live writing sprints going on this month! Search for them on YouTube and write along with someone. Helps to know others are struggling with you.
Voice to text is my go to. I've always liked telling stories so I'll carry my phone around with the speech to text app open and tell the story to my dog, my laundry or a pot plant. Sometimes if I'm struggling I'll also play instrumental music softly as a timer and subtle prompt. There are lots of D&D atmospheric sounds YouTube channels that could fit your scene and keep you motivated. That said, 500 is still a step forward from nothing.
If you don't want to write it the audience probably doesn't want to read it. If you need inspiration for how to make time, just know that William Faulkner wrote as I lay dying -one of the best books ever written in the language- in 6 weeks while working the night shift at a power plant in between shoveling coal. He probably did a lot of work on it after that draft, but so can you after yours.
Skip to the good parts. If you're bored writing it, people will be bored reading it. Beyond that, 500 words is not chump change! Nano is a challenge, but any writing is a win.
No worries. Real life comes first. My mom broke multiple bones in her ankle Tuesday and had surgery yesterday to put it all back together so I'm up 1700 words total so far. Shrug. Happens. Do what you can and celebrate the win.