Nanowrimo 2008 winner!

After being behind the ENTIRE month, I finished last night, almost 24 hours early. Final count - 50,224. This might have been both the most difficult and the easiest Nano I've done so far (this was number 4). Because of a huge amount of work in October, all of which I wanted to have out of the way and off the desk, symbolically and literally, November 1st, I was overwhelmed and undermotivated when November 1st arrived.

Last year I spent October outlining the story of three major characters whose story lines converged at some point, creating the main conflict. Hours were spent researching the north of England where one of my characters was from, and Oxford where he would be a new student. Nicolas was from a smallish village outside Sheffield, trying to escape his stultifying home by going away to university. There he was to meet two important characters - one a burned out professor and the other a teacher escaping the temptation of a student at his prior job. I read articles and blogs on entry exams for Oxbridge, freshman problems, courses one could take, how students made their decision on what house to live in, student and professor relationships and ethics codes, what professions the young man's parents might have, as well as the attitudes of those from the north of England about those from the south, and vice versa.

When I began the novel on November 1st, I felt in control of the material - I had character notes, plot lines and chapters when things would occur. Then about 8,000 words in something happened that wasn't supposed to. A very minor character, so minor he wasn't even a secondary character, arrived to play his part. Lucas (a drinking mate of Nicolas' father) was supposed to come on the scene, drunk, say something like "C'mere," and pull Nicolas into the loo and snog him. Then he was to leave the scene, never to return. The purpose was to underscore Nicolas' need to escape his small town. Instead, I thought huh, who is Lucas anyway and what would a sheltered, closeted eighteen year old feel about it. Initially, the friend of the family was to be symbolic of the lack of understanding and the isolation Nicolas experienced. Then I realized Lucas was a bit of a lad, a ladies man, and very lonely as well. Not surprisingly, Nicolas thought that drunken kiss in the loo to be the best thing that had ever happened to him. And well . . . I had to dump all the rest of my plot arcs, and character backstories because they'd suddenly become irrelevant. Instead of a novel about two professors in conflict over a young man's academic career, I had a story about two lonely and mismatched people who fell in love.

This year, I had neither plot nor characters by November 1st. No problem. All my research last year leading up to the starting line was chucked by the side of the road anyway. But by November 3rd, I'd written less than 2,000 words - about 6 pages. I was already about 15 pages behind. I got stuck on things I believed vital in order to begin - a clear picture of what my main character looked like (I have "casting" photos on my desktop for all my fiction) and a title. I loved my title from last year, "The Dream of Safety" which came from a poem by W.H. Auden entitled, "Leap Before You Look". I spent far too much time online, sorting through poems in order to find the perfect title to illuminate the novel's theme, a son caught in his family's competing needs of him. Not until the end of the first week did I settle on "Insufficiency", from Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

I began writing blind, no idea who anyone was. At the end of the week, I wrote a full synopsis to give me a sense of the whole, where I was starting and where I needed to end up. Back to the writing. Within a few more pages, I had parted company with the synopsis enough to know I'd never get back there. I kept at it, usually 4 days (6,668 words) or more, behind. But I learned I was most productive for 30 minutes a clip. Writing that way, I could write the daily Nano quota of 1,667 words in about two hours. Of course I had several daily quotas piled up. There were any number of times when I said to friends and coworkers, "This may be the year I don't finish". And then I thought, "Hey! That's crazy talk!"

So, I continued to do what worked for me. I learned more about my characters; tweaking things, changing motivations, or elaborating so they made sense in a different light. I looked for other ways to motivate myself. Jason, my teenaged MC receives a series of emails from his best friend Mark, a boy with a rather chaotic, uncensored way of throwing out information, changing directions, asking questions, pondering irrelevancies etc. Again, he was a minor character originally, but important to Jason, and it turned into a very funny rant. It yielded many precious words to add to the total count, also proving why the two were best friends. Jason spent most of the novel at his mother's family home for his grandfather's funeral. The burst of Id-type ramblings from his best friend was a needed injection of lightness, proof there was a world separate from the grief and tribulations in his family. I just let it go where it took me. And I reached my Nanowrimo goal this morning at 1 am.

Every year I participate in Nanowrimo, I learn more about myself as a writer and more about the creative process. Each year is different along many variables - motivation or lack there of, research done or none, planning vs impulsivity, short or long stretches of writing, writing with inspiration or without a thought in my head, first person or third person limited, novella or novel length. It's a wonderful way to set up challenges and push yourself in ways you never considered. I know one writer who has participated in Nano since 2001 and writes in a different genre every single time. And she's a playright in her ordinary life.

Every year I meet new people who may have not a thing in common, except a ferocious desire to throw themselves off the literary cliff - just to see what will happen. Every year, I hear people say, "Isn't it great to be able to just talk about writing?" Yes, it is. Nanowrimo is the great equalizer. By its very concept, it squashes the elitism that has silenced many a person who might like to try their hand at writing something, but is put off by the idea they aren't good enough before they even put pen to paper, or fingers to a keyboard. The pure zanyness of writing a novel in 30 days makes whether or not it is good, wholly beside the point. So many writers are hampered by the terrible, mistaken belief that a final draft is a rough draft that has been spell checked. The rest of us agree with Anne Lammott, we must all write shitty first drafts in order to create the good stuff. And without a first draft we allow to stumble and fall, to be boring or melodramatic or confusing or simplistic, there can hardly be a final draft.

Of the 112,000 or so participants from over 90 countries who signed up for Nanowrimo 2008, who knows how many will hit 50,000 by 11:59 pm tonight. Who knows how many have the will and dedication to keep going, to keep writing and then editing, into December and beyond. Of those, who knows how many will keep at it, becoming not only a good writer, but a published writer. But whoever took up the challenge on November 1st has most likely written more and learned more about themselves than they would have had they said, "Eh, maybe I'll give it a try. Next year."