Today marks the first day of NaNoWriMo 2017, and after a wildly unsuccessful attempt last year, I’ve decided to give it another go.
Last year, I managed to write close to 15,000 words, but my plot diverged from where I wanted it to go and I became unhappy with the progression. As a result, I stopped writing my WIP and quit Nano to read Six of Crows and watch anime instead. (I don’t regret reading Six of Crows because it was AMAZING, but I also wish I’d continued writing as well.)
Yet, while I decided not to continue with my WIP, I didn’t delete the it from my laptop. I archived in among my writing folders, as a reminder that although it wasn’t meant to be, it helped me grow and learn as a writer. I learned that I need to plan in much more depth to avoid my plot going off on a tangent, and I need to have a clear idea of character perspectives for each chapter. I also need to get up my central themes and plot early on.
So with these goals in mind, and armed with more knowledge about writing methods that work for me, I’m attempting Nano again this year. But, since I now work full-time and have a long commute (1.5 hours each way), I’m trying to be realistic about it. I know I won’t be able to reach the full 50k, so instead I’m aiming for 20k and setting myself a target of writing something every day. I also want to try to maintain the quality of my writing while I’m drafting, as I definitely favoured quantity over quality last year and that’s part of why I ended up disliking my WIP so much.
My WIP this year is a high fantasy about a gang of magic thieves and I’m actually quite excited about it. I feel much more enthusiastic about this idea than last year’s, and I feel more relaxed because I’m not aiming to hit 50k. As long as I write something each day and have fun with it, I’ll be happy.
Are you taking part in NaNoWriMo this year? If so, what’s your WIP about? Feel free to link me to any blog posts you’ve written about your plans, I’d love to read them!
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I have similarities feelings to you on this. While I managed the 50K last year, the plot got ridiculous and the writing was poor. As a result, this NaNo I’m writing the same story, but this time I have a much better plan in place. I appreciate NaNo for the motivation to get stuff down but do worry about the quality v quantity aspect.
Good luck with your writing!
Thanks Maia! Yeah, I definitely felt like I was just rushing to put words down last year, where as I feel like my writing is better quality and is actually in my own style. Sounds like you’ve got a good plan, what’s your story about? 🙂 Good luck to you too!
20k is such a good aim! I’m revising my MS this NaNo, so doing something a lil different as well! Good luck this month!
Thanks so much Laura! I’m on track so far and have written 5k, but we’ll see how long that lasts 😉 Ah, that’s exciting, what’s your MS about?
Good luck with NaNoWriMo!! 😀 I’m not taking part myself, as November is usually one of the busiest months for me (university and all that) and I would have no time to participate. Maybe next year I will have more time!
Thanks Anna! Surprisingly, I’m on track so far, but we’ll see if I manage to stay that way. 😉 I hope you manage to get everything done for uni this month!