NanoWriMo Count Down

This Writer's Relief infographic is great! I'm gearing up like never before for NanoWriMo this year. And, a lot of things have changed about my whole process, including the types of things I'm consuming when I'm not writing or planning a WIP.

A few years back, I started listening to a podcast that I'll not name here. It's one I recommended to people a lot over the years, and I listened weekly. I've given said podcast up this year and made way for better ones. Part of the reason why I stopped listening to the podcast-I-shall-not-name is that the focus was always far more on how you can sell sell sell and how you should write to market. 

And that's just not me. (Note: I deleted multiple paragraphs after this because I went on a rant about all of my complaints about the podcast in question. Back to the real topic: NanoWriMo).

I'm in a great writing group now, although it took me forever to find my tribe. The wait and the work to get here were worth it, though. But, I still see people in that group, even, feeling like they have to win NanoWriMo and publish their MS after to even consider joining in. 

You don't have to do either.

If you write three days in all of November, hey, at least you wrote those three days.  Last year, I think I made it about 10 days before a book show and holiday prep totally wiped me out. I had a completed MS in a drawer and was depressed over it because there were way too many competing plot lines in it and it needed major revision. I got 12K words toward my NanoWIP and quit.

This year, I'm starting over on the work I started last year. I have character profiles, descriptions of how each individual character relates to other individual characters, what scenes are mandatory for each character, what each character learns, and I'm working on a timeline and outline of my scenes/daily writing focal points for the entire month. Would I be able to do that without the pretty weak and shoddy 12k draft from last year? Nope. 

And I probably couldn't do it with a full-time day job either, even though I wrote my first three novels while working full-time. Those novels, while entertaining, certainly aren't as solid and well-structured as Elegant Freefall, which is the novel I spent most of this year revising--significantly.