Write a Novel in a Month

I still remember when I first heard of this seemingly insurmountable task: write a novel in a month, but this is the goal given by National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). As it seemed so impossible, I pushed it from my mind and remembered it once more in October 2019, late October 2019. As I had decided to pick up my pen once more, I finally gave the impossible a looksey.

The task: write 50,000 words in 30 days.

I found that October was full of planning and preparation, none of which I had done. I was also pretty intently focused on the novel that I had been working on for a while and didn’t want to pull that focus away when I felt like I was so close to being done with a first draft (cleverly called Asaldium: Book 1). So, I decided to skip 2019 with plans for 2020. The key component that I decided to strive for is simple to say, but harder to achieve: do it the right way.

Background

The reason that I wanted to “do it the right way” is because my other novel’s evolution meandered and slowly crept along over several years (10+, but who’s counting?). Not only did I change as a person over that time, but I certainly did as a writer. I wrote like I did in high school, by the seat of my pants, essentially winging it. So, after all these years, I have a first draft, and that draft is going to be picked apart like a fish by a hungry bird. All I can do is hope that what comes out will be better than what comes out of the bird. In fact, I know it will. Will it be the golden egg? I can hope so, but all I really know is that it will need tons of work.

Which is what leads me to doing it right. I’m inherently a planner and I think my writing will be better for that planning. I do know that I will be able to make myself a comparable rough draft that will take a month instead of years - with lots of work, but still a net improvement. Or at least that’s the hope…

September 2020

I decided to take one of my favorite side characters from the Asaldium: Book 1 and delve deeper into her life. She’s from a very rich culture that I had fleshed out in my mind, but it didn’t make it onto paper because it’s not her story. Welcome to the birth of Laursana Origin (I know, such a wordsmith).

She is a member of the Cursari, the navy of the Domain of Janar who are viewed by the rest of the world as pirates. Well, pirates have ships and swords. As an average millennial, I have experience with neither of these. So, I decided that September would be all about learning the basics of these integral pieces of Laursana’s life and fleshing out the other characters. This was key. In the past, I haven't had solid characters in mind when writing so they haven't been captivating. I aim to change that from the start this time!

I started in mid-September. I started on YouTube and watched a bunch of videos about the science of sails and watched videos of life on the Standardt. Then there were the videos about swords, finding ones that wouldn’t be terribly anachronistic or implausible for types of fighting. On my lunch at work I read sailing books (yay bookstore jobs!) to get familiar with the lingo. I know that I could just write something like, “Insert sailing lingo here” but I’d prefer my first draft to have as little of that as possible. My hope is that it will also eliminate me creating a scene based on broken physics. Is the boat I have them in too big to go through that size passage? Can the ship make that kind of turn? I know I’m writing fantasy, but I prefer my fantasy to have a basis in reality or have a good reason not to.

I downloaded Campfire (totally worth the money that I paid for it) and began organizing my book. It has a bunch of features including timelines, relationship webs, and character arcs. Instead of having a vague idea of who my characters are and where they’re going, I have a far stronger plan. I don’t want to plan it to death and murder my creativity in a confining box of my own creation, but having these basics down lets me more easily define my characters. In Asaldium Book 1, the two main characters started being pretty similar with their comfort of the outdoors being the key difference. I had to go back in and change a lot of scenes to make them two distinct people. I plan to avoid that this time.

October

I think I have too much in my novel. Though 50,000 words does not a novel make, what I planned would be closer to 200,000 words. While I planned to beat that number, 200,000 was a monster of a book that even I wouldn’t want to read. I found a good place to break it up, which means that I know the gist of what will happen in Laursana Book 2 already. Silver linings! Also, if my guess is wrong, I could just continue with my original plan and no one will be the wiser, except you, good reader. (Spoiler: I didn’t need Book 2 material)

By mid-October I just wanted to write. The excitement was quickly leaching out of me, sucked up by a solid start time. I could picture the first scene in my mind and I just wanted to put the pen to paper and get it out. Did I start too early? Should I have waited a teeny bit more so that I only had to wait a month?

The answer turned out to be no.

“Oct 31: It's tomorrow. I'm filled with a fun mixture of excitement and horror. I bought the winner t-shirt, meaning that I can't wear it if I don't hit 50,000 words by Nov 30th. I can do that, but I have a bigger goal for myself. Though I don't think it will be a great draft, I want to be finished with something around 90,000 words. Double, I know, but it is what it is. It's tomorrow though. Excitement, it's mostly excitement.”

November in Short

Wow. Just wow. There were good days and bad days. Some days I got in a couple thousand words, others just a couple hundred to keep my streak going, but I wrote every day. I really didn’t do much except work and write. Obviously the days I was not at my day job were generally more prolific, but I had some good days where I worked as well. 

The planning was key. I know that there are people who plan far less than I did and I have no idea how they do it. Were my words gold? No, but planning allowed me to write 54,015 words in one month.

December/Reflection

Unfortunately, almost as soon as November ended, I happened across the less planned part of the book and my steam evaporated. I’ve brainstormed more, but working retail in December is draining and I’ve dropped in productivity on The Brush of Creation (new working title).

Of course, this could also be because I was incredibly focused and slightly burned out from writing for a month straight. While I do think there’s some of that, I don’t think it’s as much as logic would suggest.

I will 100% do it again. I haven’t finished The Brush of Creation, but I did a good chunk of it and it was really nice to have solid goals to achieve each day. Some might find that too much pressure, but it worked for me. I’m a NaNoWriMo winner and I proudly wear my winner shirt while I drink out of my NaNoWriMo travel mug and wear my lapel pin (oh yeah, I went all in). It’s a great program and I think everyone should give it a go. There are a lot of resources and groups to interact with. I wish I’d taken more advantage of them, but there are still write ins happening every week and it’s now mid-December. It’s a good group and community and I’m proud of the work that I’ve done.

Remember to check out the chainmaille shop while you’re here. Also check out The Crystal, a short story that takes place in the world of Asaldium