This November , I decided to participate in the National Novel Writing Competition (or NaNoWriMo) for the very first time , although I'd heard about it. So I decided to give it a go . I was really nervous to start with, but signed up and joined a few forums, the Newbies forum and the forum for my age group, and just introduced myself, then I found I had a writing buddy. I planned just writing down ideas in a notebook and on my iPad and read all the FAQ and advice on the NaNoWriMo site. I also followed NaNoWriMo on Facebook and twitter , and also Nano Word Sprints. I retweeted advice I thought was useful , and tried to reach my daily writing targets, and if I went over them that was a bonus. My advice would be read the NaNoWriMo site, find some writing buddies, and try and stick to the daily targets. I updated my word counts several times a day too. Also, join the forum for your genre , I did- mine is a fantasy book. I also searched the net to find out more , and used Pinterest to pin aspects of writing that would be useful in this , and other, projects. Other advice: decide what time of day you work best at, and set yourself a writing target for the day. Mine was sometimes to finish a certain scene within the book, for example. Also , decide if you want to write in silence or with music on, -I did a bit of both- . I drew up a timetable to aid my focus and decided if other things I had to do during the day could wait until I had finished the part of the book I was working on or not. I also had lots of hot drinks , which were relaxing , like herbal teas, and made sure I did something other than write my book before I went to bed, and that I was relaxed when I did so, so I'd be fresh for the next day. If I thought of a new idea I wrote it down before I forgot.
After all these days of using dragon dictation for my novel, I finally finished it yesterday. All in all, I experienced a lot of emotions, from excitement, as registering on www.nanowrimo.org to indecision over some parts of my story, to moments of inspiration , and not so much inspiration. There were late nights, lots of cups of herbal tea, lots of encouragement from Alfredo and my friend Siobhan , and then some moments when there were almost tears when things almost didn't go great (not helped by the tiredness caused by working on my book everyday). I kept myself together , and concentrated a lot and finally , was able to submit my book called Spellbrooke yesterday. There were some problems uploading it , as it was my first time doing NaNoWriMo, . Then, the relief and happiness when I'd finally managed to upload it successfully (after several emails to the tech team and my writing buddy Mona- thanks for being patient, encouraging and helping me get out of some writing- related problems! )
To anyone who, after reading this would like to do NaNoWriMo, I'd say go for it, take the plunge and try it. Before NaNoWriMo, I never thought I'd finish writing a novel in a month , and I'm proud I did it , despite the fact I used my dictation programme, but that to me is immaterial. I did it the way I could and within my abilities , but I finished, and have my novel , Spellbrooke , to show for it. I got a winner's certificate too, which I'll print off soon, and on December 4, there are more surprises in store for the winners , so I'm looking forward to that, but for now, I'm enjoying relaxing, and the satisfaction of having dictated a novel in less than a month. I really started on November 4 , as I planned for the first few days, as I didn't realise the 'Planning Time' for Nanowrimo was September/ October. I know for next time , though.
If you asked me what I'd change about NaNoWriMo next year, I'd plan earlier, but I think I'd do everything else exactly how I did, as it was a great experience.
For anyone who's reading this and still writing their NaNoWriMo novel,
Hope this advice helps, and good luck. Oh, and if you're wondering what cover I chose as I submitted my novel, this is it below.
I'm going to read now. I'll blog again soon
