Lev Butts Gives Thanks 2018 Edition
I am interrupting my ongoing countdown of great self-published fiction to give you my annual Thanksgiving post. As you all know, I generally use my November post to give a brief list of all the writing-related things I am thankful for each year (except for that one time that I didn't).
This year's post is about just one thing. I mean, I'm already doing a countdown on the other months of this year, so it would unduly strain your indulgence for me to add a countdown within a countdown. Also, I can only think of one writing tool this year that really deserves a thanks.
NaNoWriMo
Every year, many writers and aspiring writers all over the world log into the internet and devote the month of November to writing a first draft of a novel with a minimum of 50,000 words. This internet-based creative writing project is referred to as the National Novel Writing Month or, more familiarly, NaNoWriMo.
This is the second year I have participated. While most people sign up with the intention of starting and finishing their novel draft in thirty days, I had no intention of waiting almost a year to start my work when I decided in January of 2017 to give it a go. Instead, I tried it in hopes that it would help me finish the third Guns of the Waste Land. While I did not actually complete the novel within the thirty days, I found the subconscious discipline it inspired in me to write more often incredibly helpful. I did get the bulk of my first draft finished; it took me only into the middle of December to finish it up and then a couple of months of revisions before it was ready to send to the publishers.
This year, I am similarly not beginning a brand new project. I am instead working on the fourth and final volume of Guns. I do not think that I will finish it this month, but what NaNoWriMo has helped me do is to write every single day, something it has been traditionally hard for me to do.
I have found that with the self-imposed pressure of the program spurring me on, I am able to cut out a little time every day to write. I don't really have long bouts of writing; I manage little more than any other time I write outside of November: about an hour, sometimes two. I average about 1,000 to 1,500 words a session, but sometimes I only write as little as 300 words or so.
The point is, though, that I have written more this month on Guns than I had since I started the project at the end of April. I began the month with 11,760 words after six and a half months, and I have added in the last 21 days (I am writing this post on the 21st, not the 23rd) a further 15,696 words. And because of its ability to make me put pressure on myself, I am incredibly thankful for NaNoWriMo
My ultimate hope is that the discipline I have grown over the month of November will stick with me once NaNoWriMo ends, something I realize is entirely up to me. If so, perhaps next year, I will use the program to increase my word count. Maybe one day I will actually be able to start and complete an entire novel in a month.
Ain't nobody counting but me.
Be sure to join me next month when I review the sixth self-published novel in my countdown, Rooted by Idabel Allen.
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| I mean, I kind of already am... |
NaNoWriMo
Every year, many writers and aspiring writers all over the world log into the internet and devote the month of November to writing a first draft of a novel with a minimum of 50,000 words. This internet-based creative writing project is referred to as the National Novel Writing Month or, more familiarly, NaNoWriMo.
This is the second year I have participated. While most people sign up with the intention of starting and finishing their novel draft in thirty days, I had no intention of waiting almost a year to start my work when I decided in January of 2017 to give it a go. Instead, I tried it in hopes that it would help me finish the third Guns of the Waste Land. While I did not actually complete the novel within the thirty days, I found the subconscious discipline it inspired in me to write more often incredibly helpful. I did get the bulk of my first draft finished; it took me only into the middle of December to finish it up and then a couple of months of revisions before it was ready to send to the publishers.
This year, I am similarly not beginning a brand new project. I am instead working on the fourth and final volume of Guns. I do not think that I will finish it this month, but what NaNoWriMo has helped me do is to write every single day, something it has been traditionally hard for me to do.
I have found that with the self-imposed pressure of the program spurring me on, I am able to cut out a little time every day to write. I don't really have long bouts of writing; I manage little more than any other time I write outside of November: about an hour, sometimes two. I average about 1,000 to 1,500 words a session, but sometimes I only write as little as 300 words or so.
The point is, though, that I have written more this month on Guns than I had since I started the project at the end of April. I began the month with 11,760 words after six and a half months, and I have added in the last 21 days (I am writing this post on the 21st, not the 23rd) a further 15,696 words. And because of its ability to make me put pressure on myself, I am incredibly thankful for NaNoWriMo
My ultimate hope is that the discipline I have grown over the month of November will stick with me once NaNoWriMo ends, something I realize is entirely up to me. If so, perhaps next year, I will use the program to increase my word count. Maybe one day I will actually be able to start and complete an entire novel in a month.
Ain't nobody counting but me.
Be sure to join me next month when I review the sixth self-published novel in my countdown, Rooted by Idabel Allen.
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