By Bethany Macmanus
With November 2013 come and gone, I'm 50K words into my
romantic suspense novel, thanks to NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). To
say writing with a goal of 1667 words a day, every single day, was challenging,
would be an understatement. Honestly, at this point, my family is hoping I
don't do it again next year (maybe they'll come around—I've got a year to get
them to see things my way!).
As the month and the novel both transpired, here are some
things I found worked for me.
·
I used the “timed typing” function on my AlphaSmart to
yank myself free of distractions like the Internet, and to focus on simply
getting words on the screen, without my inner editor screaming its head off.
True, there were spelling and punctuation issues I'd be embarrassed for even my
mother to read, but it got the job done, and that's what's important in NaNo.
·
I lowered my house cleanliness standards, and
then I lowered them again. I didn't let ANYONE see my house during NaNo, and I
might have even walked around talking to the clutter to let it know it would
meet its demise, come December. I also lowered my nutrition standards, letting
my kids eat more fish sticks, frozen pizza, and mac 'n' cheese from a box than
I would be comfortable admitting in many social circles.
·
Don't tell anyone, but for some scenes, if I
wasn't hearing my characters' thoughts that day, I would just brainstorm
description for the setting, dialogue, what the characters knew so far, and
what they needed to find out. What their goals, motivations, and conflicts were
for that scene; and reminders in caps for stuff I needed to change, that I'd
written earlier.
·
I asked people on the social networks (namely
Facebook) to hold me accountable if they saw me on there. I did, and they did.
Enough said 'bout that...
·
I used inspiring sounds and smells liberally. Gomixit.com is
a great white noise producer because it has variety, and it's free. I
occasionally played my Celtic music while the timer was going on my AlphSmart,
because the lively rhythms made me type faster. For scents, I used both candles
and essential oils. If I found the setting of a scene difficult to visualize or
get into, I would play YouTube videos of similar settings, whatever I could
find to get those cogs turning.
·
I assigned a reward to myself, every day for
the month of November. It might be helpful to write it on a calendar to
yourself (I didn't do that, just thought of it right now). Some days, I asked
my husband to hold my reward in safekeeping until I finished my NaNo.
·
I backed out of anything I possibly could,
for the month. This included PTO, author meetings, critique partner
responsibilities and chat time, etc. I apologized profusely to folks for my
lapse in commitment.
________________________________________________________________
Bethany Macmanus lives in Houston with her husband, daughter and son. After
practicing as an RN for five years, Bethany left the nursing field to pursue a
fiction writing passion the Lord planted in her heart when she was a child. And
as Nancy Drew mysteries were her guilty pleasure during those early years, so
she naturally gravitates her pen toward the things that go bump in the
night.She draws many interesting and perplexing facts from her former career.
These come in handy when her characters get themselves into serious scrapes,
and give a psychological spin to many of her plots. She’s allergic to milk,
Sulfa drugs, and people who stop in the middle of intersections while driving. She has been a member American
Christian Fiction Writers since Jan. 2011. She has
been honored in 2011 ACFW Genesis contest Finalist for
Mystery/Suspense/Thriller and 2013 RWA Daphne du Maurier (unpublished)contest
Finalist for Inspirational Romantic Suspense. She has authored Six
Solitude Road and Murdered Between Stalagmites.
She blogs on her website, at http://bethanymacmanus.com/blog
Twitter:
@bgmacmanus
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