50,000 Words and Counting

Yay! I did it! 50,000 words and a day early, too. Woo Hoo! I'm well into my second installment in my series and feeling good about the outcome.

Here's what I learned from this NaNoWriMo experience--

1) Friends can be great allies, even when they're rooting against you.
The day before I began the challenge I asked my friends and family on Facebook to come up with something (reasonable, but not necessarily desirable) I would have to do for them should I fail to reach the goal.

As Jon Voight (playing bad-guy Jonas Hodges on 24's 6th season) said,

"Stress is the fertilizer for creativity."

That should be the motto of NaNoWriMo. We should all hang it on our walls.

2) Having even a bare-bones plan for what to tackle during writing hours is key.
Each day I would brainstorm leading up to my writing time. This was helpful because I tended to write in the evening, usually ten to midnight, but if you write in the morning, just brainstorm before going to bed so you have a skeletal checklist for the morning.
An example of a day's checklist follows~

Wall of Mirrors

[X]Unity Gatherings held in commandeered church bldgs stripped of any spiritual significance

[X]Gwenna’s gemstone (@ Samuel’s?)

[X] Arrival— feeling checked-over

[X] Meets Erin, gets tour, sees Wall of Mirrors, and Mirror that Matters

I found that on the few days when I went to the computer without any firm clue as that where I was going with the story, it took me much longer to reach my daily goal.

3) Ask for help. When you don't know something, ask anyone who might. Ask your mom, your grandma, ask your Facebook community, ask a stranger.
Some examples of things I asked when I was coming up dry or simply didn't know:
-- What was a chore that you hated or would have hated to get stuck with as a teen?
-- When you have an asthma attack, which would help-- cool air, or warm moist air?
-- What are the turn-wheel passageways called in submarines? Hatches?
Also, Facebook (probably other social networking sites, too) is a great tool for writing prompts. I asked my friends to give me partial sentences to work into my writing one night. I had so much fun with what they gave me. Make sure to reward your friends for participating by letting them see how you used what they submitted. I did this by posting a "Note" and giving collaborative credit where credit was due. I'll post it on here, soon, as well.

4) Daily writing with a goal in mind is a great benefit and achievable. If I do NaNoWriMo next year, or any month in between, I would plan further ahead and set up an incentive plan for when milestones are reached. As it was I just made up my reward system as I went. Not terribly bad. A Cinnabon was part of my Treat day for reaching my half-way mark.
And on that note, Goodbye NaNoWriMo November, Hello NaNoSubMo* December. :)

*National Novel Submission Month where I will take on the task of perfecting my query letter, chapter summaries and polishing the manuscript of my first novel and work to get it into the hands of a reliable agent who can be passionate about my project, too.