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NaNo note to self - Part One

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This is my tenth year to take the NaNoWriMo challenge.
Just my third year I took time to write a letter to myself as a way to remember some of the things I had learned in those first two years.  I pull it out from time to time as a bit of instruction and inspiration.  In honor of my tenth year I post that letter here - in four installments.





NaNo Tips
What Worked 
What Didn’t Work


An open letter to my current self
 from my former self as a NaNo novice


by
Kaye Sims

October 27, 2012



I have participated in NaNoWriMo twice now – two years in a row.  I consider it a success for several reasons – mostly because of the sense of accomplishment, but also for some of the things that I learned in the process.

I have discovered that it is helpful to go back and see some of my notes leading up to the previous experiences, to remind myself of what works and what doesn’t and to get caught up again in the fun of the project.

This is a compilation of ideas and thoughts and gimmicks and warnings – some of which were well-thought out, some were just stumbled upon, and some are mere observations.  You will probably heed much of the advice and will let yourself ignore much of it.  That’s okay because this is your novel and you make the rules.

Before going any further, maybe we should address this novel thing.  The first year I did NaNo, my Miss Goody Do-Everything-Right-and-according-to-the-Rules struggled with whether I could legitimately call this thing a novel.  I had never written fiction before and hadn’t the foggiest clue how to go about it.  Nerd that I am, I searched around for definitions until I found that there is such a thing as an autobiographical novel.  Aha!  That’s what I could do!  So that’s what I did that first year.  When the second year came along, I decided I could fudge a little and just write whatever I dang well felt like writing.  After all, this was my novel; I am the author and I can make the rules.  Only problem was that I had no clue as to the direction I wanted to write – so I started out simply exploring that dilemma – of the girl who wanted to write a novel, but didn’t know how.  Yah, yah, silly idea, I know.  But you have to admit it is a rather novel idea.  

It seems that there are three phases to participating in NaNo:

  • The commitment
  • The plan
  • The process


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