Didn’t commit to NaNoWriMo? Don’t despair—take action!

Posted Fri, Nov 5 2010 2:16 PM by Martha Lundin

Yes, it’s National Novel Writing Month again. The idea of setting aside one month in each year to write 50,000 words is a fantastic one, and it’s helped many people achieve their desire to get more writing done.
 
But what if you didn't get around to committing to NaNoWriMo? You meant to, but you’ve been busy and this and that came up and … well … you just never got there. You figure that it’s already Nov. 5 and you’ve lost four full writing days, so you might as well let it go by until next year.
 
Wait--don’t feel guilty; don’t give up. You can still accomplish something that will further your writing goals.
 
One possibility: If you’re game, you can still join the NaNoWriMo group and get going on your novel. Let’s see, a little math to figure this out: If you’d started on Nov. 1, you’d need to write about 1,670 words per day to reach 50,000 on November 30. But you have only 25 full days left to write, which means you’ll have to write an extra 330 words each day (or 2,000 words/day) to make up for missing the first five days. That’s a lot of writing, but it is doable. For more information about how to get started, take a look at the NaNoWriMo website. (If you start tonight, you'll have to write only 1,924 words each day.)
 
And if you don't think you have what you need to write an entire novel, do something else that will forward your writing goals. Here's a list of suggestions—pick one or two and commit to finishing them before the end of November.
 
• Devote just 15 minutes each day to writing. You may not write the Great American Novel this way, but you’re committing to writing regularly, and you never know what might come out of it.


• Take a couple of hours each week to observe people and their conversations. Make notes. Use these observations to learn about dialogue and body language.

• Spend the month writing and perfecting your query letter. (For more insight into agent query letters, take a look at our "Critique My Query" videos.)

• Don’t know what to write about? Each day, make a note of something that you found interesting and write a one-sentence description of a story you could write about it. At the end of the month you'll have 25 ideas!

• If you've already figured out your story but aren’t making enough progress writing it, prepare a mini-outline for each chapter. The structure might help you move forward.

• To help you create three-dimensional characters, write a one-page biography for each character in your novel. Include quirks, likes, dislikes, physical description and the events that have shaped their lives.

• Spend the month researching agents to find out who might be interested in your novel.

• Attend a writing group meeting to get some constructive feedback on whatever you’ve written so far.



While the goal of NaNoWriMo is to write 50,000 words in one month, the point of it is to accomplish something--it's about moving forward with your writing. If you can't join the other NaNoWriMo writers who are busy scribbling away, you can still make November a productive writing month!

--Martha Lundin, editorial associate for The Writer

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