Rules for NaNo Novel Writing

"There's nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and open a vein."

- Red Smith, Philadelphia and New York sportswriter

Well, that's one way of looking at writing. I think I first heard that on the old TV show Thirtysomething. We're here to look at the peculiar demands of NaNoWriMo, though. 50,000 words in one month! These rules have served me well, and ignoring them has cost me forward momentum.

• Write every day. Seriously. Taking a day off can and has led to two, three days, a whole week, and a word count hole that's impossible to fill. Even one sentence on an off day can help maintain momentum. Writing in the same time and place most days helps build up a good writing habit.
  
• Just write. Let the words flow. Indeed, seek out the state of "flow," where the writer is just taking dictation from his characters. It's an amazing feeling. Even short of that, turning off all internal writing filters yields higher word count and occasionally some surprisingly good prose.
• If it's scrolled off the screen, fix it in December. Sure, fixing that typo in the previous sentence is fine. Going back to fix some writing flaw, rethinking a scene that's already written, even changing a character's name with find-and-replace, all destroy forward motion and waste time.
• A little planning beats no planning at all. Chris Baty's book is No Plot, No Problem, but there's a difference between not plotting out the whole novel, and having no organization. A 100-word blurb, a list of planned chapters, a couple of paragraphs describing each major character. All these help keep the writing going, rather than stopping often to figure out the next plot turn or whether George and Lula need to drive north or south to reach the haunted cabin. At the end of a writing session, a few words about what to write next can help getting started quickly at the beginning of the next.
• Never write a sex scene on deadline. This requires a delicate touch. The writing can get too mechanical or too elliptical. In real life, sex is all sensation and no thinking. On the printed page, the author must evoke those sensations in the reader's mind while his intellect is fully engaged in the story. Writing about sex at breakneck speed just washes away all imagination in a torrent of words.

There's more I could add, but, gee, in previous years there were only three rules. So let's not get too complicated.

Annual (Re)Introduction

Here is the very first posting in Free Range Novelist, updated for 2009.

This is the National Novel Writing Month weblog of Wes the Bricoleur. Or, for short, NaNoWriMo and Brico. The goal of NaNoWriMo is to write a 50,000-word novel in the month of November. That's it! 1,667 words a day, every day, quality not even a consideration. Free Range Novelist chronicles my experiences during November, 2009, as it (sort of) has for five years running. It will center on day-by-day writing, life as a Municipal Liason, plus a few excerpts from my novel-in-progress. Maybe 10% of postings will ramble off into other topics.

Why a blog on top of daily pages of novel to write? This is a way to let some "I-ness" out in the midst of so much "they-ness" writing in the characters' voices. If my Inner Editor gets too restless pacing in its month-long cage, it can exercise on a very short leash here.

Here are my rules for November: this blog is a place for honest observation and reflection. Like, or don't like what you see here? Feel free to comment, all considered opinions are welcome. I'll write about other WriMos here, and in return expect to be fair game.

As for the noveling experience, well, other entries can wax philosophical or turn practical. See the "rules for writing" post, for instance.

So. Here we go... enjoy November! Yours Truly must surely enjoy it, since this is the sixth noveling November in a row for your enthusiastic Brico, and a chance for a third win.

I Makes An Appearance

Goodness, where did eight months go? It is now 83 days to the start of NaNoWriMo 2009, and things are different this year. Your humble blogger has agreed to be co-Municipal Leader for the Detroit region, along with Owen B.

So, first, let's drop the Yours Truly. This was a small conceit so I wouldn't be writing "I" in every other sentence. But I expect to see at least a few more readers drop by this year, so all the cutesy stuff has to get swept away in favor of clean, direct writing.

This blog started as a way to let the Inner Editor walk on a leash occasionally during the noveling month. It'll still be that way, except now, Mr. I.E. will be harnessed to the yoke of clear reporting of the amazing and the mundane during November, and in the lead-up to the NaNoWriMo contest.

There will be no changes to the archives, so anyone who cares can see what the old, "YT" style was like. From now on, though, I is here.