Many outside incidents can interfere with your plans for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), and you may have limited or no control over them. But what about problems within your manuscript? How do you keep writing? Check out my tips below on how to overcome obstacles during NaNoWriMo.
Don’t linger.
In my first drafts, my writing is usually dialogue heavy. That’s because dialogue is the main way my amateur detective Rae Riley discovers clues. The dialogue is the point of the scene, and I want to get that down first. But as I write down the most important aspect of the scene, I know I need to put in dialogue tags, action tags, and descriptions. That’s where I can bog down.
I’ll write a very effective two-person conversation, and then move Rae out of that scene into another. In the new scene, I have to describe the setting and my flow comes to a grinding halt as I decide what I must describe, the mood I’m trying to set, and many other details. I’ve learned that if I want to keep going, I just need to jot down a few notes that I will attend to when I edit.
If Rae moves from the library where she works to the Main Street of her small town, I’ll write in all caps and highlight (DESCRIBE WEATHER) and then dive into the meat of the next scene. If I stop writing because I can’t think of a good action tag to go with the dialogue, I just use “he said” and “she said” and know I’ll replace them later.
Sometimes, I realize I need to do some research in an area. For example, in A Shadow on the Snow, I knew a character would pawn a stolen item and the police had to find it. It was a small point, so I could just make a note that I needed to research that one fact and go on to the next scene.
You should only stop writing if you realize your obstacle is so big that it must be dealt with before you can continue because the whole story will change if you don’t. Let’s say your main character’s uncle is a cop. His profession is a key plot point in your story, but you know nothing about law enforcement. This is when you stop writing and do some research. You may do the research and realize that you will have to change your story completely to fit with reality. Or you may find you only have to make a few tweaks. But once you’ve decided you have to stop writing, work as quickly as you can to get back to the manuscript.
What advice do you have on how to overcome obstacles during NaNoWriMo?
My theme this month is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), and I’m so pleased to introduce you to author Regina Felty. Not only has she published several books, but NaNoWriMo is how she kicked off her writing career. She explains why you may want to accept the NaNoWriMo challenge. The stage is yours, Regina!
I’m a goal-oriented personality who loves the gold medal–or at least hearty applause–at the end of an achievement, especially for something I’ve worked months on bringing to fruition. I maintain a planner to keep my life in order. Structure and organization are a priority, or I become overwhelmed.
So, when I decided in 2019 to write a book, the first thing I did was purchase a writing program that would keep my characters, scenes, settings, and plethora of notes in an organized layout. I outlined and presented the story in great detail to my faithful sounding board: my husband. But as is common with dreamers–who have lofty ideas and strategies–the motivation to tap out words on a screen was lacking. At the rate I was going, my novel wouldn’t be published for another decade! And since I hadn’t gotten serious about writing until I was fifty, I wanted this book done before I collected social security.
My research for writing motivation led me to an event called National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), where ambitious writers set out to write 50,000 words of a novel in thirty days. Yes, that’s over 1,600 words a day for a month. Looking back, I remember thinking that NaNoWriMo sounded more like a Double Dutch jump rope song than the writing cult movement that it is. But I was all in. I created a profile on the website, set up my book project, and was poised to hit the floor (keyboard?) running. I hadn’t factored in that Thanksgiving is also in November, and I host the annual holiday at my house.
What was I thinking?
However, I was determined to do this thing and needed a plan (have I mentioned how much I love a plan?). I decided to wake up an hour earlier and write before work every day and extra on weekends. Most days, it felt like I was just vomiting words on the page. Plots and scenes resembled a 5,000-piece puzzle tossed off a twenty-story building more than a novel-in-the-making. For the challenge, it was all about the word count and I reasoned I would sort it all out later. My daily mantra was, “You can’t edit an empty page, right?”
Whew! I did it. Those coveted 50,000 words in thirty days! Yay me!
But … was the book done? Did it resemble something that would later be wrapped in a cover and displayed on a shelf? Not even close. But it was all about the challenge, and the hope that my words could be shaped into a novel. I mean, who wants to give up after making it to 50,000 words?
I still had a lot of work to do before I could line up beta readers and an editor. But NaNoWriMo was my catalyst. My shot in the arm that this old gal could be an author. Seriously. Of an actual book.
Four months later, my debut novel, While You Walked By, was released. And, let me tell you, March 2020 was not the best time to launch a book from a new author.
But the novel has received almost 6,000 reviews on Amazon, and I’ve since launched four more novels and am working on another to be released in 2025. I no longer participate in NaNoWriMo because I’m more realistic about what I can achieve in thirty days (Remember, I’m over fifty now!). However, NaNoWriMo was the motivation that sparked my writing career.
And, who knows, maybe NaNoWriMo is just the challenge you need to get started writing too!
An unlikely friendship that brought healing to both.
Ben doesn’t know what to think when a homeless boy shows up late one night behind Angelo’s Bakery where he works as a handyman. He’d seen his share of suffering humanity on the streets of Philadelphia, but this boy is so young…so vulnerable.
Pushing sixty and feeling as if his life has no purpose, Ben wrestles with his own demons. A recovering alcoholic, he is gripped with remorse over the loss of his wife and son, but determined to stay sober.
Twelve-year-old Aden starts to run when an old man comes out of Angelo’s Bakery and catches him hiding, but something about the man draws Aden to him. Terrified and naive to life on the streets, Aden is forced to forge his survival in the face of dangerous predators and violence after his mother abandoned him.
Can Aden trust the gentle old man who offers him food and a hand of friendship? Will Ben be able to forgive himself and search for his son?
While You Walked By delivers a heartfelt, coming-of-age story about the hope that can be found even in the most desperate circumstances.
REGINA FELTY lives in Arizona with her husband, Andrew, and their energetic rat terrier, Rocco. She spends way too much of her free time listening to Crime Junkie episodes and scrolling through social media when she should be writing.
Although she has always written to entertain others, it was during her dicult teen years that Regina turned to writing as a source of personal therapy. Besides dividing her time between being an author and her career as an American Sign Language Interpreter, Regina also manages her blog, It’s a Felty Thing, and has a special place in her heart for troubled youth. You can follow her on Facebook, Instagram, and Goodreads.
Today’s the last day to reach your writing goal for NaNoWriMo. Whether you reach the goal or not, you should congratulate yourself for attempting to write a novel. That’s an achievement worth applauding. Regardless of your word count, what do you do after NaNoWriMo? The best advice I can give you is …
Nothing
At least for now. I’ve complained long and loud about NaNoWriMo being in November because, for Americans, it’s a tough month to devote to writing with Thanksgiving waiting near the end. But it may be a better month that I’ve ever realized because December follows it. With all the holiday activities demanding your attention, December is the perfect time to do nothing with your manuscript. Romantic suspense author Di Ann Mills calls this hiatus “cooking time.”
Don’t look at the manuscript again until at least January 2. You’ll come to it with new eyes. Sections you thought brilliant may seem merely flat now. Or a scene that was particularly tough to write may read much better than you hoped.
Now that you’ve let your story sit and have reread it, it’s time to …
Edit, Edit, Edit
Everybody needs to edit their manuscripts and often pretty heavily. Some newbie writers believe the first draft is the best, but I’ve never written anything that didn’t improve from a second, third, or twentieth review.
Since editing is so important, I had planned to feature this subject in December and wrap my blog’s theme for 2023, “The Journey of a Book”. But Christmas is interfering. I think more readers will be able to learn from my posts on editing in January after all the hoopla of the holidays.
So for December, my theme is Christmas writing prompts and reposting the most popular posts from the seven years I’ve been blogging. Come January, we’ll be ready to tackle editing. If you’d like to catch up on the themes from this past year, follow the links listed below.
Knowing how to take a break during NaNoWriMo is critically important if you’ve hit writer’s block and want to hit your word count by the end of the month. Your break can come in two ways–you can take a break from your novel and deliberately take actions to reignite the creative spark. Or you can take a break and deliberately take actions that have nothing to do with your story. Either approach will work.
Reigniting the Creative Spark
When your inspiration runs dry, you can take actions that you think will prime the pump of your imagination. Since I’m a mystery writer, I might review interviews I’ve already conducted with law enforcement and legal professionals, google new questions that have popped up since I began writing, or consult books I own in this area. I might reread my favorite mysteries to see if I can learn something new about plotting, setting, structure, or how to handle characters or dive into writing books and study any of those techniques.
Make a Clean Break
But maybe what you need is a clean break. That might sound crazy when you have a 50,000 word count to achieve, but trying to run a marathon without any fuel is crazy too. I’ve also thought it was crazy that this writing Olympics takes place in November. NaNoWriMo was created by an American, and he should know that only December is a busier month in our country. But the fact that Thanksgiving forces most people to take a break from their regular schedules can work in your favor if you’ve hit a wall of unproductively in your novel.
If you have to take off from writing for the holiday, make a clean break. Don’t do anything writing related for a day or two, which should be easy if you’re attending or hosting a Thanksgiving dinner. Force yourself away from your pen or computer. Try not to think about your novel at all.
Or you might try this approach. If I’ve run into a scene going nowhere, I tell my brain what the problem is and then stop thinking about it. Very often, ideas will begin to bubble and then rise to the surface. I’m not sure how this works, but I’ve had a lot of success by turning my brain loose from my conscious efforts.
After your clean break, you may be surprised at how eager you are to get the words flowing again. And at how easily they flow.
If you let your imagination soar during NaNoWriMo, you run the risk of a character hijacking your story. Maybe you’ve read about other writers who have had characters appear out of nowhere, fully formed, as if someone has air-dropped them into their brains. Don’t let it worry you. When a character takes over, you may find yourself with a much better story. That was my experience while writing my YA mystery A Shadow on the Snow.
My main character nineteen-year-old Rae Riley has just discovered who her father is and is getting to know her sprawling, extended family. Her thirty-seven-year-old father Mal has an eighty-year-old grandfather. A former lineman, Mal is built like a grizzly bear, and since he shares his name with his grandfather–Walter Reuel Malinowski–I wanted them to share physical characteristics too. Personally, I didn’t know any big elderly men who looked like former football players. Usually, I have to see a character as clearly as I do people in reality to feel comfortable writing about them, I had to have some person to fill the spot in my story, at least temporarily, so I picked Clint Eastwood because I knew he was a tall man and I’d seen photos of him in his eighties.
I began writing. Next thing I knew, Walter was in charge.
Every scene he was in he took center stage. As I wrote dialogue, I felt more like I was taking dictation than imagining the conversation. (Yes, we writers hear voices in our heads, but we know they’re not real. Most of the time.)
As I wrote, Walter’s appearance changed. The Clint Eastwood looks disappeared. The man I saw in my mind was as broad and intimidating as a tank with deep-set eyes and aggressively square jaw. And this change was not conscious thinking on my part. He transformed without me realizing it.
What’s more, he was fun to write. His blunt, harsh, mean personality was such a contrast to Rae and Mal. But I knew he was more than just a bully and enjoyed exploring all the facets of his character. I worked him into more scenes and the book benefited from his larger presence. But I had to remember that ,while important, Walter was still a minor character. If I didn’t keep tight control of him–something he would swear no one could do–he’d run amok and change my entire novel.
I wasn’t the only one who Walter won over. Two of my beta readers singled him out as one of their favorite characters. I’m looking forward to including him in my next mystery.
