Why does NaNoWriMo work?

In some ways, NaNoWriMo might seem a little extreme when you think that the aim of it is to write a novel in thirty days. Of course, it is possible to write a novel in thirty days, but what we have to think about is the quality of that novel. NaNoWriMo never claimed that at the end of those thirty days, your novel will be ready to send out to publishers - and if that's what you want, then NaNoWriMo or even the life as an author isn't for you.

If you plan on entering NaNoWriMo, you need to know that you can only begin to write the novel that you enter on the first of November - however, you can start to plan your next entry as early as the first of December. Creating biographies, taking notes and researching your plot aren't considered to be writing - so by getting this out of the way pretty early on, you are effectively freeing yourself up to simply write when the time comes. You can also take this time to design the cover of your book without any bother from the rules.

After you complete NaNoWriMo, you'll have the bare bones of a book and it'll still be nowhere near ready to show to a publisher - although a good publisher will know at this early stage if what you have is something that will fly for them or not. If you want to look halfway to being professional as an author, you'll be spending December editing what you wrote during NaNoWriMo. Sadly, editing in itself isn't just a case of correcting those pesky typo's that slipped through the net while your fingers were flying over the keys. It also involves taking out the unnecessary parts and clarifying those points that aren't as clear when read as they were when you were writing the book.

It's also a good idea to have someone else cast their eyes over your work at this stage as well because, even though you've checked through it, there are bound to be typos and plot flow problems that you have overlooked or that seemed right to you. It will also give you a chance to get used to criticism because you'll always get someone who doesn't like your work no matter how good it is.

When it comes down to the wire, I think it's important to see NaNoWriMo for what it is and that is the chance to spend a month in a supportive environment thrashing out the bare bones of a book that you can then refine with the hopes of getting it published at some point down the line. In addition to that, there are other things that you can get out of NaNoWriMo, like an idea of what it's like to have to write a certain number of words in so many days - for many unpublished authors, writing is just a hobby crammed into whatever spare time that they have... yet a published author will spend hours of their day furiously filling page after page with text to keep the interest of the fans that they have (and hopefully gain more).

One thing I dislike about NaNoWriMo has to be the fact that they ask for a synopsis right at the start. If you can, skip this step and come back to it once you have finished writing. The reason that I say this is because the way that you plan your book to flow when you start is often different to the end result - so it makes better sense to write it looking back as opposed to having to scrap it and start again because it's no longer relevant to your finished book.

What do you call them?

It can be no fun when you are stuck for a name for your character - so, just how do you come up with that perfect name?

Obviously, you could Google "Baby Names" and pick one out of the thousands of results that you'll get... but there does come a time when you'll eventually need a name for a weapon or a place or even just a last name. For the longest time, I was posting my bio's to Facebook and asking my friends to suggest names for my character - but even that wasn't totally flawless because I have over a thousand friends and it's pretty much guaranteed that some are more creative-minded than others... so I was soon stuck back where I started in that I had just 4 names when I had an whole Fae realm to find names for.

It was pretty much obvious that my book was on the road to nowhere fast. I was reduced to posting my biographies as Facebook statuses and asking my friends to think of names for my characters. On the one hand, this wasn't a bad strategy since I was getting names, but on the other, it was going to create problems down the line because it would only be a matter of time before some friends got bored of seeing the same requests day after day and it was possible that some friends would start to feel pushed out if their names weren't chosen as a character.

There was also the possibility that I was leaving myself open to having my ideas stolen by less scrupulous people - which I didn't like the idea of very much at all.

I was fortunate enough to be friends with a fellow author on a forum... and one day, he came forward with some resources. Although they weren't entirely what I was looking for, I found that I was able to work with them in one way or another simply by mixing and matching what I got until they matched my requirements a little better than what I was presented with.

His first offering for me came up with names and biographies and you can find it here. What I didn't like about it initially was the fact that it gave out a biography with the name and it took me some time to see that it could also be a good idea because you were still free to scrap or build upon that biography.

Of course, my friend didn't give up on me and he kept me in mind. In time, he returned with what I felt was a better generator because it covers other things besides just names. This was to be the one that I was more inclined to use and you can find it here. I especially like the way that it even covers technology and even weapon names.

After all this, I stumbled across NaNoWriMo, which I found to be an excellent source of characters and biographies - although I highly recommend changing them from whatever biography you adopt in order to truly stamp your ownership onto the character... after all, it's important to remember that you won't be the only one who adopts that character from NaNo. NaNo in itself covers most anything you can think of in a book but can be pretty intensive in terms of personalization on anything that you claim from them.

There's a time and place for everything

A lot of books fail before they've even made it out of the "First draft" phase. The First draft is the physical act of actually writing the book and the reason for that is because the author actively spends time reading through what they have written... whether this is done in an attempt to spell check or ensure that the plot flows smoothly doesn't really matter - the result is still the same.

I am guilty of this as much as the next author... however, I was blessed to have met a fellow author who suggested that I read Stephen King's On Writing. Initially, I was reluctant to do so because I know that Stephen King is a Horror writer and I avoid the horror genre like the plague. However, once I took the plunge, I was mighty glad that I did because it covered a lot of points that can be taken over to most any genre of book.

One point that came up was:-

When writing, write for yourself - Stephen King

At first, I didn't fully grasp what Stephen was telling me - because I'm not going to be buying my own book, am I? After a deal of thought about it (and some more reading), I came to see that he was saying "There will be typos and things that maybe you could explain better - but this isn't the time for that... carry on writing and come back to it later on".

Another point he addressed for me in that statement was that word counts or page numbers aren't a part of the bigger picture at this point in time - that will be dealt with later on in the process. Just write, once you have taken the story as far as you can go, then is the time to edit it.

As an author, I couldn't agree more with the five words quoted above... and to be honest, I wish someone had said them to me much, much sooner in my journey to becoming an author because they have turned the way that I write right onto it's head.

At this point in time, it doesn't matter if your book looks like an entire collection of encyclopedias - the time to decide what to do about that will come much later on once you've got it written. Chances are good that there will be some bits that you'll strip out altogether, while other parts might even make a good sequel. You never know, you might even find enough to cover more than one book from this first draft.

The hardest part is the start

Just how do you start a book?

There is no right way or wrong way of starting a book. It goes without saying that you are going to need a character to start with. Some people like to create a biography for their character as a point of reference while they are writing.

A good biography will start with a name, gender and age or date of birth. From there, you can go on to really explore your character as a person. If he were real, what would his likes and dislikes be? Does she have any phobias or special abilities? What are his hobbies? What is her dress sense like? If you want to, you can even break out the pens and pencils and draw him or her.

If you are going to build a biography for your character, it's important to note that you are looking more for a list as opposed to pages of detail at this point - you are the only one who is going to see your biography.

Even if you choose not to write a biography for your characters, you'll still need to have much of this information mapped out in your mind before you put fingers to keys.

As I said above, there is no right way or wrong way of starting a book - which is why I personally do a mix of the 2 options above. Naturally, that means that sometimes, my characters will have a biography while at other times they won't. Typically, that depends upon how I've managed to bond with the character. If I'm confident that I have a good bond then I won't bother with a biography. If there's a chance that the story might run out of steam or I don't feel that I've bonded with the characters in a firm way, I'll write a biography - at least that way, if the story doesn't work out, I can place them up for adoption by fellow authors or simply save them to play around with different storylines with. Just because one fails doesn't mean that the character wouldn't fill a role in a different storyline better.

Now is also a good time to check those facts - if your character is going to commit suicide by jumping or starve to death on a desert island, try to get it factually correct. We all know that jumping from the 1000th floor of a high rise will guarantee death without a doubt... but what effect would it have on the body or the environment around your jumper? How long would it take for someone to starve to death in a halfway believable way? They won't still be alive 6 months later.