November is National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo, a writing initiative that forces you to write the first draft of a 50,000-word novel in 30 days. The idea is to break down the self-imposed barriers that stop you from writing – “I don’t have the time”, “I’m not good enough”, “I really need to watch that box set of Breaking Bad whilst eating my own body weight in cheese” – and get something down on paper.

I love NaNoWriMo, to the extent that, after completing it in 2010, I decided to do it again – every month, for a year. There’s something about an arbitrary, self-imposed deadline being pursued by millions simultaneously that I find really motivating.

A lot of people are sceptical about writing a novel in a month, never mind 12 in a row. The main question I was asked was: “Are any of them any good?” (Answer: “To be honest, probably not.”) But that was never really the point.

I wrote 12 books in 12 months to break the cycle of overthinking every sentence, of questioning myself, of being too nervous to even start in case what I wrote was rubbish. Because rubbish can be re-written, but a blank page is intimidating. It stares at you, pristine, daring you to defile it…

By the end of 2011 I was, however, mentally drained. Finishing was a huge confidence boost, but what came next was overwhelming. What do you do with 12 unfinished manuscripts and well-meaning people asking to read them? You start re-drafting. 

This is a long process and, 10 months later, none of my edits are yet finished. A couple are close but aren’t there yet – but that’s OK. It’s easy to get carried away by the thrill of constantly creating with no immediate repercussions but, having proved to myself I can write a book or 12, the next task is to make them as good as they can be. That takes time.

The 12 books in 12 months experience improved my writing as only hours of practice can. I’ve had a few short stories accepted this year and I’m almost at the point where I’ll have some novels I feel comfortable pitching. It’s wonderful having the knowledge that I will get there soon, and that newfound confidence is why I think everyone should have a go at NaNoWriMo.

Top tips for getting through your NaNoWriMo draft:

Outline, even if you don’t normally bother. Nothing too detailed, but have something with a beginning, middle and end as your safety blanket.

Write every day, even if you don’t initially feel like it. If you fall too far behind at this stage, catching up feels like an impossible task.

Focus. Find out how and where you work best and use it.

When your 30 days are up, remember you’re not finished. Even calling it a first draft errs on the side of generosity. Rewrite. Fill in gaps in your plot, do secondary research and don’t race through it this time. 

Stick your draft in a drawer for three months before re-reading it.

Image: Books by Henry Bloomfield,on a CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 licence. 

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