Nanowrimo 2021: Over Halfway

 

We've passed the halfway point of Nanowrimo 2021 - how are you getting on?

In my last Nano post, I admitted that I was behind on my word count for the month and I'm afraid to say I'm still playing catch-up. But I'm still writing, still adding to my word count, and that's the important bit in my opinion.

I found myself struggling this week, even when I did have the time to sit and work on my book. I've blogged before about writing in 15-minute bursts and decided to put this into practice to see if it would help. I tweeted about it, to make myself accounantble, and off I went.

✅ 15-minute burst No.1

✅ 15-minute burst No.2

✅ 15-minute burst No.3

✅ 15-minute burst No.4

✅ 15-minute burst No.5

Writing in short bursts has really helped today and I've managed to reach my 2,000 words goal - total word count for the day = 2,193 🥳#NaNoWriMo

— Jennifer Joyce (@Writer_Jenn) November 15, 2021

I set my timer and managed to write just over 400 words in the 15 minutes. So I figured if I did 4 more 15-minute bursts, I should be able to reach 2,000 words. It seems ridiculous - 5x15mins=2,000 words? Nah. It can't work. But it did! And so I've been writing in 15-minute bursts for the rest of the this week. I don't always have time for 5 lots, but I'm much more productive in the time I do have. I'm no longer staring at the screen or wandering off to Twitter or Instagram.

My goal for today was to reach 20,000 words and with my 15-minute bursts, I managed to leap over the milestone. This book is getting there, one word at a time.

 

Ready, Set, Nano!

It's the 1st November, which means only one thing: it's time to Nano.

This is the third time I'm going to attempt Nanowrimo and although I feel like I'm prepared with my chapter plans and my Pinterest boards and my character questionnaires, I know it's going to be a challenge. But I'm trying to not put too much pressure on myself, because I want to enjoy the next month. It's going to be intense, but writing and creating stories should be fun.

My plan is to write 2,000 words for six days of the week to reach the 50,000 words, but life sometimes throws obstacles in our way so I'm not going to fret if I don't reach any of my milestones (though I will absolutely give myself a massive pat on the back for every one I do reach).

For the past couple of years, Nanowrimo has meant trying to reach that 50k goal, but for me, this year is going to be about making a start on Book 16 and enjoying being part of the Nano writing community. I loved all the Zoom sessions I had with my local group last year, and I took that away with me more than the word count.

So, I hope to reach the 50k during November, but I'm not heaping the pressure on myself. And with that in mind, I'm going to dive in to Nano2021. Let's do this!

Get Ready for Nanowrimo 2021

 

Are you taking part in this year's NaNoWriMo?

It's October, which means that Nano2021 is heading our way. Nanowrimo has been going for a long time, but this is only my third go at it; during Nano2019, I wrote a chunk of the first draft of The 12 Christmases of You & Me, and I wrote almost 70,000 words of a new (as yet unpublished) book last year.

Next month, I'll be starting a new book (which has the imaginative working title of 'Book 16') and I've been busy getting ready to dive into the first draft on 1st November. Here's how I've been prepping:

Some people are pantsters. They dive straight into a project without a plan. I am not a pantster. Far from it. I like big plans and I cannot lie.

(Although I did write the first draft of Book 15 without any sort of plan. I enjoyed writing it, but this is not the norm and I won't be repeating it in a hurry! I blogged about it here)

I like the security net of having plans in place before I start a book and I've already plotted Book 16 down to individual chapters and scenes. It took a bit of time, but I know it'll be worth it in November when I can look at my plan and know what I should be writing every time I sit down for a Nano session.

I've been getting to know my characters by pinning images on my Pinterest board and filling in questionnaires and career tests on behalf of my characters (I blogged about this too here)

I've logged back into the Nano website and created a new goal for Book 16 so that I can log my words after each writing session during November. I love seeing the book grow on the little bar on the website, inching nearer to my goal every day. It's a great motivational tool.

I joined a local writing group that were taking part in Nanowrimo in 2019, and I've found being part of the group has really helped me keep up my word count during Nano. In 2019 we'd meet up at the library for writing sessions and chats, but we had to rely on Zoom last year - and it still worked! We'll be meeting up online again this year and I'm looking forward to finding out what everyone is working on this year.

Last year, I set myself a daily word count goal of 2,000 words during Nano, but for six days a week instead of seven so that I could have a break and prevent burnout. It worked really, really well (I managed to write almost 70,000 words during the month) so I'm going to aim for 2,000 words a day for six days a week again. Fingers crossed it works out just as well this year!

How are you getting ready for Nanowrimo?

Writing Tips: 3 Ways I'm Getting To Know My Characters

 

It's October, which means Nanowrimo will be starting in just one month. I've already plotted out the book I'm planning to work on during November (I know, get me being all organised) but now I want to get to know my characters a bit better before I start.

There are probably loads of different ways that writers get to know their characters, but these are the three ways I'm going to get to know mine in preparation of Nano 2021:

Pinterest is a brilliant tool for writers, and one of the ways I use it is to create a board for my characters and pin images that I feel represent them; their hobbies, their  jobs, aspects of their personality, their look. 

This worked particularly well during the run-up to last year's Nanowrimo. I had my plot, planned out down to each individual chapter and scene, but I wasn't sure who my main character was. I was having a little look at Pinterest and I came across a photo of a woman wearing a thick green woolly coat with an orange skirt, royal blue jumper, grey tights and brown lace-up boots, and it was seeing this mish-mash of colours that somehow worked that made Zoey's character start to come alive in my head. I could see her wearing that outfit and as I searched for more quirky clashing outfits, her image grew with every picture that I pinned.

There are loads of questionnaires that you can find online to fill out about your characters. For last year's book, I used Nanowrimo's questionnaire and although I didn't use all the questions provided, I picked out a few that I thought would be most useful. I didn't want reams and reams of questions and answers, but I did find those few I chose really helpful in finding out what made my characters tick.

It sounds a bit odd to take a career test on behalf of your character (especially if you're not trying to find a career for them, though sometimes I am looking for ideas for that too) but having to think about the answers your character would give to the questions is really helpful and I often find out things about my character that I wasn't aware of before the test!

So those are three ways I'll be getting to know my characters over the next few weeks. If you have any tips of your own, feel free to share in the comments below :)