There has been a lot of controversy of late around NaNoWriMo’s blatant support of the use of AI to generate creative content. I am absolutely NOT going to add fuel to that particular fire here.
I wanted to talk about a MUCH more important reason for my not participating in NaNoWriMo this November.
And it’s this: I am almost finished my current WIP. I have been building momentum since the summer months, and have created a writing habit to the point that I now feel awkward if a day goes by without me adding any words. In short, I no longer need NaNo at this point in my writing career.
So, how did I get here?
Well, it hasn’t been easy. I struggled for many years with a daily writing habit. When I still lived in the UK, I had a fairly stressful job with long hours of commuting, which I ultimately began to resent because it left me so utterly exhausted that I could only write at weekends. But then, what if I wanted a social life? I lived alone at that time, so to spend all my weekend time writing would have turned me into a hermit. I had to get out and about sometimes!
You might have thought that the move to France, and nurturing my freelance editing business, would have afforded me more time to write, and it absolutely does, but it has taken me almost six years to actually create a daily habit. And, let me tell you, from a queen of procrastination, it is very much worth it.
So, here are my top tips to make it work for you:
Give yourself a stupidly low number of words to achieve. This minimises the likelihood of failure, and psychologically makes you think you only need a few minutes, so it won’t take long. My daily target is just 250. Invariably, once I get going, I find I can usually crank out at least 500, even when I have a day of editing or proofreading ahead. On a full writing day, I usually find I can get around 1,500 or more.
Find out what time of day works best for your creativity. For me, it’s first thing. Once I start looking at social media, or the news, or any other internet time drain, I have no chance of achieving my goal for the day. Make it a priority. If necessary, carve out some time in your diary. Don’t ever add in there some household chore, or running an errand. This is your time, and it’s sacred. Treat it as such.
Start your day with intention. I sit down at my desk, and the first thing I do is open my journal. In there, I write a couple of lines about what I accomplished the previous day (or not), and what my goals are for the coming day. It really helps me to start the day with the right mindset, and in the right mood. If the day before wasn’t great, I make a point of writing that it’s okay, that I will do better today. It usually works.
Write your way around obstacles. For me, the easiest way to become derailed is when I come to an awkward scene that I’m not sure about. This happened just the other day, in fact. I have a detailed spreadsheet with a list of all the scenes, so all I did was mark it as ‘missing’ and carry on with the next one. When I go back and type up this first draft (it’s all in notebooks at present), I will address that missing scene. I might even find it’s no longer necessary.
Celebrate small successes. I hit the 75,000 mark this week, and I was so over the moon that I told everyone I know, including the cats. (They seemed unimpressed, although frankly I don’t know why I expected more.) It felt like a huge target, and as a result, I feel I have even more impetus to get on and finish.
I hope those tips work for you. Do share any ideas you have to keep momentum.
Happy writing!
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