My NaNoWriMo Experience 4

Guest blogger, Shana Thornton

I was a NaNoWriMo virgin and completely oblivious to the process. I didn’t even have a slight curiosity from the past about this November challenge called NaNo in the realm of writers. I’d never paid attention. Then, Melissa asked if I was planning to participate. Me? I’m not a fast writer; I’d been working on a novel (almost the size of NaNo) for four years and just finished another revision one month before NaNo started.

Prior to NaNo, my writing days had consisted of pouring through research and visiting the places I had modeled as the setting of the novel I had been working on and through. I had edited and revised as I wrote, combing through the manuscript daily as if brushing out the tangles. I was careful about each word uttered from the mouth of my narrator. Would she really use that word? I asked myself. Would she really make that decision in that way? I developed her until her mind was thick and I knew how she would have behaved in kindergarten, even if that time in her life never showed up in the book.

How could I possibly write 50,000 words in 30 days without being silly or contrived, like breaking apart contractions and adding a ridiculous amount of adjectives? How could I remain true to my form and crank out that many words within a month? And finally, I had to teach classes, three of them, college level English and drama courses in an accelerated program. Not only were my students working at a swift pace, but I also had to grade and lesson plan at an even faster pace if I wanted to be an effective instructor. I signed up for NaNo, in spite of my schedule, on the night of October 31, and vowed to follow all of the advice from Melissa and the NaNo pep talk e-mails.

On Monday, November 1, I went to class and wrote the free-write topics on the board. A few students looked stone-faced and blank while staring at the topics, much like I felt when faced with a cursor ready to perform on a blank page, and the trouble was I had to play the director and design the performance. No matter how many times I reassured my students at the beginning of the course, some of them always wanted me to repeat, “This is a free-write. I give you a prompt, and you just start writing. Don’t worry about spelling, grammar, or if you even stayed on topic. We’re working on getting words on paper. Quantity is better than quality in this case.” Similarly, the NaNo writers coaxed me into starting a manuscript. Just write. Don’t look back, and I needed their coaxing often like those stunned students who felt better when I restated the goal—write more, revise later.

That day, I realized that I’d been teaching my students the method of free-writing, yet it wasn’t a technique that I had practiced in my own writing for a long time. Throughout the first book, I’d been plotting my next move constantly. The map was complete with directions. After class, I started typing for NaNo without worrying about spelling and grammar. Another novel idea had been growing in my imagination for a couple of years, but I wouldn’t allow it to take shape since the first one was still in-progress. When I began free-writing NaNo, I pushed forward, from character to character, scene to scene and focused on each episode that I was writing, not worrying what would happen in the future.

When I wanted to stop, the advice from Melissa and those e-mail pep talks from other WriMos pushed me forward. I wrote on my ipod in the grocery store lines, while waiting for the long traffic lights in this town to change, while my students were free-writing, and while I waited for coffee to brew.

In spite of my doubts, I remained true to my style and to the story. In spite of my confusion in the middle of NaNo, the themes resurfaced and surprised me by connecting the threads of the book and creating a solid form. Then, mental exhaustion by November 28 and 6,000+ words still needed to be written. Head in hands, I wouldn’t make it. And, when I didn’t think it was possible, one day away from the end, I received the bitchiest, roughest pep talk in my writing career. The writer’s hefty cussing, which I proudly took personally, motivated me to kick my own ass into gear. I typed and typed to meet the goal by 3 a.m. on November 30.

There were consequences: a terrible case of tennis elbow in my right arm (still have it), coffee burn-out, the messiest office I’ve created since grad school, and a pact to edit and exchange the NaNo book with Melissa by January 15.

There were accomplishments: a first draft that gave me sympathy for my students, a first draft that revealed I can write with speed and purpose, and a pact to edit and exchange the NaNo book with Melissa by January 15.

Will I do it again? Definitely.

Shana Thornton serves as Managing Editor for Her Circle Ezine‘s Books and Literature section. In addition, she writes interviews, features and fiction. She also teaches composition and literature courses, chases her husband and daughter, and runs trails with her dog Mojo.

Photo by Mitzi Cross.

Want to write for The Writer’s Life blog? Drop us an email at thewriterslife@hercircleezine.com.

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