I know it’s been quiet around here lately, but we have good reason. Nicole’s been overwhelmed with classwork leading up to her winter break and me? As of a few hours ago I am a novelist. A subpar novelist, but a novelist nonetheless.

If you’ve never heard of NaNoWriMo, it’s basically a self-driven test of your commitment to write 50,000 words between November 1st and November 30th that’s been happening for a number of years now.  The object is to put your fears to rest and not get caught up in what you’re writing is perfect and instead focus on completing 1,667 words per day over the course of the month.  It can be grueling to say the least, but it’s ultimately very fulfilling to cross the finish line.

Here are a few things I learned in the midst of writing Grammy Martha, my horror work about a kindly old woman and the terrible way she copes with losing her son:

Thanksgiving will murder your productivity

I figured that after our family came in for turkey and mashed potatoes that they’d slip into a post-gorge coma leaving me free to write.  This was wrong.  I ended up getting nothing written for a few straight days during Thanksgiving and making up for it with days to spare was brutal.  I did it, but it was five in the morning before I got caught up and I didn’t wake up the next day until nearly two in the afternoon.

Don’t try to do too much

Stick to your daily word count as best you can, but what i mean here is not to try and cram a billion subplots into your work.  I kept getting ideas and getting sidetracked and ultimately a lot of them never went anywhere.  That’s fine for the purposes of NaNoWriMo, but it can still be discouraging when you’re in the middle of it.  And let me re-iterate…

Stick to the daily word count!  (Or more if you can)

Getting ahead with a few extra thousand words one day is great.  Getting behind by a few days is not great.  It’s discouraging, awful, and makes it feel more like a chore than a good-natured challenge.

My Book Sucks (And that’s ok)

If you find yourself getting discouraged in the midst of writing, remember this is one of those rare occasions where it really is about quantity over quality.  The whole theme of the competition is ’30 days and nights of literary abandon’ so treat it that way!  You just might find in the midst of something silly that you get an idea for something grand to work on for your next project.  I will tell you now that my book is rife with (but not limited to):

-Typos
-Inconsistencies
-Poorly developed characters
-Shameless word padding
-Plot holes
-Drivel
-Awful pacing

But ya know what?  That’s just fine because you know what else it has?  50,057 words.  Precisely what I set out to accomplish plus an extra 57 for good measure.  I can deal with that.

If you’ve never thought to give it a shot, take a chance.  You may not churn out the next great American novel, but you’ll probably have at least a little fun and when all’s said and done you get the pride of knowing that you have written something entirely yours.

So, how that that’s done we will now resume your regularly scheduled programming, right after I grab one of these!