Camp NaNoWriMo: Learning Through Doing

Camp NaNoWriMo is not just a writing race to the end of the month. It’s a journey. Through your novel, sure, but there’s more to it than that.

First, there’s the obvious question of can you do it? The answer is yes. The answer is nearly always yes. The real question is will you? And if you won’t or can’t, will you drop out early and give up or will you persevere? Writing right until the end even though you know you won’t succeed because it isn’t about winning, it’s about writing.

Which is it about to you?

Whether or not you persevere reflects how determined you are to succeed as a writer. How dedicated you are. You will learn what you are willing to sacrifice and what you aren’t. You’ll also learn whether or not you write well under pressure, with a deadline hanging over your head.

In fact, you’ll learn a lot about your writing process. When is the best time for you to write? Can you write every day? For how long can you write at a time? All of these little things that can lead to a more productive writing time. You learn through doing.

It may go deeper than that. You may discover your approach to writing novels. Your secret formula.

And of course you’ll learn about your novel: what happens, who the characters are, etc.

Really, it doesn’t matter if you won Camp NaNoWriMo or didn’t. What matters is what you learned through the process and what you’re going to do with that knowledge.

What did you learn?

 

Meanwhile in Camp NaNoWriMo

Yesterday…

Photo by Axlyz

So Happy Easter and all that. It was nice to have 4 days off. Not so nice to get up this morning having been lulled into my natural sleeping pattern of rise late, sleep late.But enough of that. It’s Camp NaNoWrioMo, a time when authors and wannabes try to write a novel in a month or whatever and however much they want, as of this version. Which is great except why isn’t every month write however much you want of whatever you want month? It should be.

Reading this back it sounds like I’m against the widening definition of NaNoWriMo. I’m not. I really do think it’s great. I just wish the support you get was there every month. You know – the cabin, the wordsprints on twitter, all that jazz, it’s great!

Not helping me much, though. For all you early flounderers out there, I am with you. Maybe now that NaNoWriMo doesn’t have to be a novel, it could be a series of false starts. I chose to restart my novel because I tried to re-read my dissertation and thought it was a load of shit. I just read what I wrote yesterday and came to the same conclusion. Except yesterday’s shit is fresh and smellier and hasn’t been polished up at all. So I’m thinking of starting again. No idea how. Do I like how I started last time but just not the writing? No.

(Yes, this will be one of those rambly, moany posts – like I said, I did not appreciate being jolted back into the real world’s sleeping pattern of 7am til 11pm so I’m tired, OK?)

Today…

Photo by Michelle Gallagher

Yesterday, I left off moaning to go for a swim and while practically treading water behind the slowest swimmer I’ve ever encountered I started mulling things over. And the answer came to me. I thought it through for a few more lengths until I got that ‘I want to get home and write’ itch, swam for a few more then got out, went home and wrote.

After one more false start the words suddenly started to flow. And of course it felt amazing and I’ve been on a high ever since. Was in an irritatingly good mood all day, today, to the delight of my colleagues. Kept thinking about how I couldn’t wait to get home and write. Of course, now that I have come home I’ve been busy doing more important things like checking facebook and watching Bob’s Burgers and writing a blog post. The thing is, though, it’s still there – the will to write. It’s more like delaying the pleasure. I’ve also got into this post-dinner writing routine. You know what writers are like with routines. Pathetically superstitious.

Time to get on it.

Maybe another cup of tea, first, ay?

The Magic Solution to Staying Motivated and Achieving Your Writing Goals

GET ON WITH IT!

Normally I don’t shout (use capslock) but this is a shouting situation. Because that really is the answer and if you want something more magical and simple and foolproof than that – you’re out of luck. Sorry.

And I know. I’ve been there. In fact, I’m there now. I’m writing a blog post about getting on with your writing to avoid getting on with mine. So I’m with you. It’s hard. And I too want a magical solution. The golden key to success. But you know what? It doesn’t exist. This is the closest there is – the cold, hard, ugly truth. And I know it doesn’t exist because I’ve looked. Every time I don’t feel like writing I think, ‘hey, you know what would be a great idea, finding out how to motivate myself by googling it’ and every time I look I find the same old bullshit.

For example:

1) Set goals. I know how to set goals. I’m awesome at setting goals. What I need help with is actually working towards the goals. You know – doing something.

2) Hold yourself accountable. Great. How? If I don’t have the self-discipline to not skip a day, do you really think I do have the self-discipline to punish myself in some way? I don’t even know how I could do that – not give myself the reward I already gave myself because I’ll probably do the thing I’m meant to do and I deserve it anyway? Which leads me to…

3) Reward yourself. This is great until you get your reward and it’s sitting there looking at you and you think ‘ah, I’ve started, I deserve one’ and before you know it you’ve eaten the whole box and written one word. If that. (Yes my reward invariably involves food. Usually brownie bites.)

The truth is if you lack self-discipline, none of these things will help you because none of them can actually force you to stop procrastinating and start writing. The only thing, in my experience, that has ever worked is a deadline. And when I say a deadline, I don’t mean a deadline that you made up and it doesn’t really matter if you keep it or not I mean a real deadline such as a coursework deadline that makes the difference between passing and failing a degree. That will motivate you. But at the end of the day, you’ll still procrastinate if you’re that way inclined, until the last possible moment, which varies – for me it’s about a week before, for others it’s more like 5 hours before. But you’ll get it done because you have to. If you don’t have to and you lack self-discipline you won’t. Unless you just bloody well get on with it.

So stop looking up tips and advice on motivation and finishing your novel. None of these will help you and you’re not helping yourself – you’re fooling yourself because, NEWSFLASH, you’re procrastinating and there’s only one surefire way to stop doing that and start writing and that’s to stop procrastinating and start writing. A.k.a.

GET ON WITH IT.

Writing Again

Photo by Nicki Varkevisser

Last Thursday, as soon as I’d posted that blog (having wasted at least an hour finding the perfect image, naturally) I started writing again, after nearly three months off. And I have to say, it feels pretty good. Technically, it’s pre-writing, getting to know Cathy again because there’s still an awful lot I don’t know about her. But I’m getting there. And hopefully I’ll get to learn even more during Camp NaNoWriMo.

So far I’ve only missed one day (yesterday) and that’s because I took the day off work in lieu and I think the freedom went to my head. Especially as my parents are away for a few days. The only sensible thing to do, all things considered, was play music ridiculously loud and have a bit of a bedroom rave. As you do. I used to be so sure I’d grow out of that but I still haven’t and I can’t see it happening. Unless I have a kid and can’t because I’d wake the thing up. Even then, if I was ever home alone, I’m sure I’d go back to the old bedroom rave ways. It’s exercise. Fun, slightly shameful exercise.

I’m thinking of posting a few of the fun facts I’ve learned about Cathy. Like the fact that she likes Country music. Who’d have thought? I hate it but thanks to her it’s growing on me. A bit. Like a blister.

It’s Time

Photo by Lori05871

Yesterday, I decided that today would be the day to end the writing break. So naturally I’ve spent the evening thinking up various reasons why I shouldn’t. There’s the obvious excuses: I’m tired; I don’t feel very inspired today; NaNoWriMo doesn’t start for another 11 days and then there’s some more obviously stupid ones: I can’t decide whether I should use my laptop or go back to pen and paper; it’s too late for a cup of tea and I can’t write without tea; I need to find the perfect font, first, if I’m using my laptop and if I use my laptop I need to charge it up so I can type in bed. My mind isn’t really trying that hard to think of good reasons – it’s just tossing up any old shit into my consciousness – probably because I know what’s going on. I’m scared.

I’m scared that I won’t be able to or that I’ll force out some shit just so I’ve written something. Most of all I’m scared that Cathy won’t talk to me. That she’s gone. Died in my imagination and I’ll never get her back.

I don’t want to write because I don’t want to find out that I’ve lost her.

I’d decided on today because I thought it was 10 days before NaNo and that seemed like a good time to start writing. I’d have 10 days to warm up and I had a plan around that: day 1: 100 words, day 2: 200, day 3: 300, etc, etc. I’d train myself up to the 1000 words a day I’ll need to do to achieve my goal of 30,000. When I saw that today there were 11 days to go, I felt relief. Like I’d been let off the hook.

But I haven’t. Or rather, I haven’t let myself off. Because I’m ready, I’ve been ready for a while, it’s just that now I’m here, about to do it, it’s scary. I’ve got cold feet. But sometimes, you’ve just got to woman up and look over the edge and jump.

So that’s what I’m going to do.

I’m reading the Handmaid’s Tale atm…

…and I have to say, it’s giving me the fear. That’s not a difficult thing to achieve, mind you, the thought of zombies gives me the fear because even though I know it’s impossible (unless you’re given that drug by a Haitian bokor) I still think what if?

Thing is, though, the events of The Handmaid’s Tale seem much more plausible. Think about it: if all women’s bank accounts were frozen and women were all fired and the law was changed so that divorce, abortion, women working, women owning property, etc, etc was all made illegal, what could we do to stop it?  The Nazis stripped the Jews, and many other groups, of their rights and faced little resistance. It could happen.

And that’s why it’s giving me the fear.

It’s also giving me a lot to think about, such as what’s more important: freedom to or freedom from? And would it really be that much worse than the admittedly exaggerated state of events before the freedoms to were abolished? Where violence against women is common because objectification is rife? The future of the ‘before’ does not seem that far off from where we are now. 20 years, maybe. That also fills me with fear. And history tends to over-correct, so the time of ‘freedom from’ could happen. Maybe it’s even likely to. And maybe this time of marriage for love and sex for pleasure (for women, at least) is a phase. It’s a fairly modern norm. In our society, anyway.

I haven’t finished it, yet. Another couple of bus rides and I’ll be there.

Bit of an odd blog post, today. I apologise. I had a tiring weekend. Fun but tiring. I now have little left to give.

The Break

Image from ‘You Can With a Camper Van’ website

During the break from the blog, I also took a break from writing. Neither was pre-determined but that’s life: littered with good-intentions. And I’m not the only one.

Today, I culled some email blog subscriptions because now that I’m working full time again, I realise my time is precious and I can’t afford to squander it on scanning an email that I’m always going to delete. But while I was doing this, giving each blog a quick read to decide whether to keep it or not, I discovered that I’m not alone in taking a blog break. In fact, at least half of the blogs hadn’t been updated for months. Quite a few of the latest entries were written last Summer.

And we’ve all done it: started something we’ve never finished or intended to do something and never seen it through. How many of your New Year’s Resolutions have you kept so far? Can you even remember what they were? It’s only March and even though I can remember that feeling – that this time it would be different – I can’t remember exactly what they were.

Maybe it’s laziness or maybe there’s more to it. Maybe we need to have high expectations of ourselves but never quite manage them. To expect more is to hope. If we fulfilled our hopes, would we be satisfied? I don’t think we would because there’s always more we could have done. And that’s not a bad thing – to never be satisfied. When you’re satisfied, you have nothing left to hope for because you already have everything. And what is life without hope?

Besides, when it comes to writing, I believe you need a break every now and then. Before I slipped into the break, I was forcing the words. I knew what I was writing wasn’t working but I kept pushing because ‘writers write’ and you just need to be disciplined, right? Well maybe, but maybe not. Not always, anyway. The thing you need to remember, and that I’m consistently forgetting, is that you’re not in control. You don’t decide when you’re going to receieve the idea or what it will be. You don’t decide what your characters’ voices will sound like or what they will tell you. You don’t decide when they will reveal something they’d kept hidden – if you could, you’d know it all at the start – it would certainly make writing easier. Writing isn’t creating, it’s discovering. And if something isn’t working, no amount of discipline will make it.

Maybe not everyone needs to take a break in these situations. Maybe some people can recognise when something isn’t working, straight away, find out why and proceed in a way that does work. But I think I’m just too stubborn for that. It takes a while for me to admit I’ve been wrong and even longer to admit to a better alternative. And then there’s always the chance that the alternative won’t work out. And it probably won’t – one road won’t lead you to your destination, or even one mode of transport, – but it will take you further. All you can do is try. And maybe you don’t end up taking the fastest or most straightforward route, but if you get close enough to sense where ‘there’ is, in the end, does it matter?