How to win (and how to lose)

NaNoWriMo is a lot of fun but stressful. A good kind of stressful.

There is something exhilarating in trying to be super productive and achieve a huge in a short time that is hard enough to achieve under normal circumstances. The pressure and competition pushes you to get those words down on paper.

As of today, I've participated in two NaNoWriMos and two Camp NaNoWriMos. I've "won" one of each (and by won I mean exceeded the word count goal... My actual goal of finishing a novel has yet to be achieved, but that's another story).

Though my dataset is small, let's do some qualitative data analysis to see what I think separated my wins from my losses.

1. Outline

The times I won were the times I made an outline. Ever since I was a little tacker I have loved writing. I can't tell you how many stories I started, but I can tell you that I rarely got very far with them. I was super excited about my stories, but the story in my mind raced far ahead of what I was putting on paper. I would get bored of what I was writing, unable to keep up with the exciting scenes I was at in my head. I would lose focus, lose track of where I was going and, like some traveller wandering through the misty marsh, I would get distracted by some mysterious bright light and kill my story (and motivation) by wandering off the track into a bog. It was fun at first, but it was fruitless.

NaNoWriMo 2017 was the first time I did any serious planning and outlining for a personal writing project. I figured out major themes, made character descriptions for more than just the major characters and calculated where I wanted the story to end. I didn't cage my mind. I let it race ahead and wrote down the exciting ideas it had. I came up with a rough plot. Then I made an outline using Blake Snyder's Beat Sheet, which resonated with me more than other outlining methods. I could slip my exciting ideas into the outline.

Outlining didn't kill my passion or motivation. If anything it stopped me from encountering other passion killers: plot holes and writer's block. It helped me easily achieve my word count goal, despite having a busy schedule where I couldn't write for several days. And although I haven't finished that draft, I got further than I ever had before.

I used the same outlining strategy for Camp NaNo the following April on a new story. I beat the word count goal and this time got closer to finishing the draft (I planned a less complicated story).

I didn't need to outline for Camp NaNo in July because I wanted to finish existing projects. But I was vague about my plans so nothing happened. I lost.

I went into NaNoWrimo 2018 with an old story idea in mind, but I decided it would be more fun to be a pantser and do no planning. It wasn't more fun and I made little progress.

Don't be a hero. If you struggle to get your story out, swallow that weird pride a lot of pantsers seem to have and give outlining a go.

2. Short, dangerous challenges

Find some way to motivate yourself to smash out a heap of words in a very short period of time. Some people do word sprints with each other. I'm a loner. I found Write or Die helped me power through the chapters. Write or Die gives you a time limit to meet a word count (e.g. 500 words in 15 minutes). If you pause for too long and start to fall behind it punishes you by making horrible noises or, in kamikaze mode, deleting your words. You might think absolute garbage ends up being typed just so you don't die, but I didn't find that. The intense pressure over a short period really helped.

You can find Write or Die at https://v2.writeordie.com/

3. Never look back

I've heard this advice a lot but it's so true. Do not read over what you've already written. Do not be tempted to edit. Getting out that first draft is the time when Author-You needs to be fully present and not distracted. Lock cold, meticulous Editor-You in the shed out the back. Editing can and will eat up a lot of valuable writing time. There is a time and place for editing. That time and place is not now. Now is the time for writing. And unless your memory is really that bad, you shouldn't need to re-read your work at this stage either (and this is where outlining helps; you should have a good idea of where you are up to). Reading also cuts into valuable writing time. If you realise you made a mistake somewhere, make a note so you can go back to it later (I like to use Comments). And only skim read your work if you need to cross reference some detail (or again, make a note so you can return to it later).

In Genesis 19:26, Lot's wife looked back when she wasn't supposed to. She turned into a pillar of salt. There's something we can learn from that.

4. Be a competitive mean girl

I know this isn't the point of NaNoWriMo. You're meant to be competing against yourself, not others. But I hate losing and I can be competitive. Despite how wrong this is, looking at my writing buddies and their growing word counts was a big motivator for me to write. At the very least I didn't want to be trailing far behind them. Don't actually be mean about it, but if it helps you push yourself, a healthy bit of competition is a good motivator. Again, word sprints could be useful here.

5. But don't be too competitive and don't be a lone ranger

Even if you are secretly competitive, don't be mean to your writing buddies or cabin mates! Being involved in the NaNo community is a great opportunity to connect with people around the world who are so different to you but have similar goals and interests. Learn from their experiences, teach from your own, encourage and be encouraged.

I found being connected made me feel I had people to be accountable to with my goals. Get yourself some writing buddies you genuinely connect with. The same goes for joining a Camp NaNo cabin. Don't just settle for random buddies or cabin mates; if they are hard to connect to find some others. The times I met my word count goals were the times I was interacting more with my writing buddies and cabin mates. The time I didn't bother connecting with my buddies or the time I ended up in a cabin full of fanfic writers I couldn't relate to were the times I felt less involved in NaNo. Needless to say I gave up quickly and lost.

6. Persevere!

I have this awful tendency to completely abandon things if I'm not naturally awesome or doing that well. When I found myself falling behind with little hope of catching up, I gave up. This is a stupid thing to do. Winning NaNo isn't about getting 50,000 words out or a finished draft or an award on your NaNo stats section. The real win comes with every word you get down or every minute you put towards your project. It doesn't matter if you only write 10,000 words. That's 10,000 more than you had in October. Making the time to write and developing writing habits are more important than word counts.

I hope you found this useful. If you have other ideas about what makes for a successful NaNo or Camp NaNo, feel free to share in the comments.