Written By: Aniesha Brahma
When I was six years old I was
convinced the only thing I ever wanted to be when I grew up was a writer. And
as I grew up, I tried and failed to finish whatever writing project I started.
In my late teens I realized the importance of being disciplined no matter what
job you decide to pursue. And even though I learned to be disciplined I never
tapped into the art of finishing a novel. In 2009 I stumbled across someone’s
post which said they were taking part in NaNoWriMo. Curious about what that
could possibly mean, I looked it up.
NaNoWriMo is the short form for
National Novel Writing Month which was launched way back in 1999. (People from
all over the world take part in this – the creators felt that NaNoWriMo rolls
off the tongue better than InNoWriMo would and did not rename it to
International Novel Writing Month.)
It is a creative writing
project where writers from all over the world pledge to write 50,000 words in
30 days in the month of November. Even though this system of writing has been
criticized the creators of NaNoWriMo have always maintained that it is easier
to edit a terrible first draft than it is to edit a blank document. They are
not wrong. For more information, you can go here: http://www.nanowrimo.org/
If you sign up with NaNoWriMo
you will have your own account with them, be sent pep talks over the course of
the whole month of November (and sometimes even throughout the year), and you
will have to write a minimum of 1,667 words every day beginning from the 1st
of November till the 30th of November to complete your NaNoWriMo
challenge. The site has a word count determining machine, so once you are done
with your day’s work – you can upload the entire document there and it will
update your word count automatically. This method works for those of us who are
inherently lazy and need a push to get things done. Seeing the word count
slowly increase from 0 to even 15,000 makes you want to keep writing your
novel.
In case you have decided to
give NaNoWriMo 2015 a try, the following hacks might help you enjoy writing
your novel and be a part of the madness that is NaNoWriMo.
#Hack 1 – The Plot Rollercoaster: NaNoWriMo allows you to plan your novel
months in advance just as long as you don’t begin writing the chapters down. Be
clear of the genre you want to write in, think the whole story through. Even
though some writers claim they like to be surprised by what their characters
might do, as a first time writer it is better to be the one calling all the
shots for your characters. The basic rule of any story is
order-disorder-reorder. Writers have played with the timeline, with points of
view among other new techniques. Decide on your timeline, plan the events and write
them down chronologically. It does not matter how you choose to depict the
events in your novel, as long as you are sure about the chronology in your
head. First time writers often fall victim to plot holes for the sole reason
that they did not think things through. So make sure you have definitive
beginning, middle and an ending that ties all of your loose ends together. In
novel speak this would be: the introduction, the rising action, the climax, the
falling action and the resolution.
#Hack 2 – The Characters & Interlinks: In the novel’s world you have to
introduce most of your characters in first half of the story – especially if
they play key roles. You cannot randomly conjure a character out of thin air
just because it would be convenient for them to save the day. If you want a
particular character to save the day make sure you’ve introduced him/her in
advance. Writers have suggested knowing every little detail of each of your
characters. Minor things like what they carry in their purse might not even
make it to the novel, but it will help you create a three dimensional and
believable character. Another suggestion is to write down all their names and
make the links of who is related to whom, and which character knows which
character etc. This is called a character map and comes in handy when you are
writing down scenes, and do not have the time to go through all of your notes.
If also saves you from writing yourself into plot holes.
#Hack 3 – The Time: We have friends to meet, places to go, books to read,
movies to watch and TV shows to catch up on. Yes, we all have jobs and we all
have several commitments. Well – writing is a commitment too. Set aside a time
when you can just get into your most comfortable clothes, shut yourself out from
the social media, switch off your phone and begin writing. It would be a good
idea to switch off your Internet at this point – because we delude ourselves
into thinking we are researching for our story, when in reality we are perhaps
wasting time watching cat videos on YouTube.
#Hack 4 – Research Beforehand: In case your novel needs you be very accurate
with your facts, get your research done well in advance of writing your novel.
Nothing breaks the flow of writing that trying to look up the symptoms for
bipolar disorder or the identifying marks of a rare species of birds. I use
Evernote (https://evernote.com/?var=2) to store everything
I would be needing for my novels in the different notebooks. It really is a
really handy app. It is like your own personal pen drive that you access from
anywhere in the world.
If you can plan and research
your novel before you begin writing and concentrate only on getting the words
down once you start your novel – I can guarantee you will have a complete novel
by the end of 30 days. Discipline and following a strict schedule are sure to
put you on the way to finally have your first complete draft! Isn’t the very
thought of it exciting?
I am going to participate in
NaNoWriMo’15. Will you be joining me?
Author’s Bio: Aniesha
Brahma is the author of The Secret Proposal and The Guitar Girl, and a
contributing author of the anthology Voices Old & New. She holds a MPhil
degree in Comparative Literature and has recently started out as a freelance
writer. You can find her regular write ups on her blog: www.anieshabrahma.com. If you would like to check out her books, you can check
the following links:
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