I'm Half Way Through Writing My Novel, Here's What I've Learned

I am currently halfway through my Camp NaNoWriMo Project. A YA LGBTQ Psycological Thriller novel that I have had the idea of for many years, have outlined many times, and have decided that I have no reason to weight to write it and thought 60k words during Camp Nano sounded like the perfect time to fast draft this novel so I can move on to the next step and start querying it. 

This is my first young adult novel as well as the first novel I plan on traditionally publishing and it has in itself taught me many lessons and there are five of them that I now pass on to you to help you with your own novel. 

The Messy Middle 

Since I have just reached the middle of my story this one is first and foremost. 

I know my story has a catching beginning and mean ending that you will not see coming, but it's the middle bits that have thrown me for a loop. I even lost a day of writing trying to come up with a solution to not have it drag so much but in the end, the only solution I came up with? Skip it.

I scrolled right down to the bottom of my manuscript and started writing the ending bits because I knew them and there was no reason to be saving them for another day. The more I write in my story the more I learn about my story so that when the time comes that I have to turn back to these empty chapters, I'll be ready to fill them in. 

Plotting vs. Pantsing 

I have stated many times that I am in fact team both. While I do plot out my story in a way, I can also full-heartedly get behind the idea of pantsing in a way. 

While this novel has been in a way my easiest to write because I took the time to complete a chapter-by-chapter outline before I began writing as to not fall behind during NaNo, I have also added in chapters I didn't know the story needed until I was writing them by the seat of my pants. 

As with many things, sometimes combining two things together can be the best option. 

Perseverance 

Sometimes - I wanted to quit. 

It has been 19 days of nonstop writing to get my novel to the 34,009 words it sits at today. 

Somedays the last thing I wanted to do was to sit at my computer and open up that document, but I did it, because I knew that if I let myself fall behind, even by one day - I was never going to catch up to the goal and I would mostly likely quit. 

Sure I had the one day that I was outlining that I didn't get many words in, but I was still working on it. 

Editing Can Wait 

There's nothing I hate more about my document than those little red lines that seem to follow every sentence I type - but I can't help it. Typing isn't one of the things I am good at, I'm clunky when I type and I am also pretty bad at spelling. (Thank you autocorrect) 

If I were to stop at the end of each sentence or paragraph and correct every little thing that those red lines point out to me that is wrong - I would probably still be fixing the mistakes I made on day one of camp NaNo. 

Stopping to edit can pull me out of the scene that I am writing so I try to do it as little as possible. Mostly I save it for the end of the writing session to go back over the things I have written - but only to fix the mistakes, not to edit the words themselves. I'm saving that for the end of the month when I print out and edit the draft entirely. 

Celebrate Milestones 

I bought myself a treat when my novel reached 10,000 words, and then again when it reached 20,000 words and 30,000 words respectively.

Celebrating each of these milestones even if it's just in a small way, helps me keep focused on the end goal. I have something to look forward to each time I reach another milestone, with the final one being my partner taking me out for a well-deserved day off of writing. 

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Some lessons we can only learn by doing, and I am looking forward to the lessons the second half of this novel will teach me. 

Now it's back to writing for me. 

With love, 

B.K xo 

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