I regret to inform you that sometimes, advice is correct
motivation, drafting strategies, and The Bet
A Faster No will be on the short side this week — I’ve been a bit swamped, which is a nice change, and those of you who I’m late delivering Back to School critiques to should have already received emails from me about it. (As a reminder, I could always stand to be more swamped—book me on Reedsy for your novel!)
We’re a few days away from the start of NaNoWriMo, and I promised last week to talk about motivation and drafting strategies. I don’t think anything I’ll say in this post will be super groundbreaking. After all, if you’re subscribed to this little newsletter chances are that you’re a writer or friends with writers, and have seen acres of advice on how to finish a novel. Write every day. Write on a schedule. Write when you can, using whatever tools are at your disposal—your phone, a napkin, a CVS receipt.
I’m here to tell you that all of that advice is true—to a point. The answers to the question “How do I finish a novel?” are legion. The only true correct answer is: whatever works for you. The answer “what works” might change over time, too. Finishing a novel doesn’t take one strategy, it takes many, and the strategies might change from the beginning of the novel to the end product.
To finish the first draft of my fantasy novel, I employed several strategies: I wrote every day in timed sprints with a friend, used word count to motivate me, and most importantly, put something on the line for finishing the draft:
I bet Maurice Broaddus a night of drinks at WorldCon that I could finish my manuscript before he finished his.
I made this bet on March 8th, on a FaceTime call after finding out I’d been laid off from the comics company. Maurice and I met at WorldCon in San Antonio a thousand years ago, and I knew that if I lost, it would be an expensive proposition. So I wrote like the wind. I fixed a number in my mind for what a “complete” draft might look like and was determined to hit it by the end of the day on March 31. I wrote on the week days only, and by the end of the month I’d added fifty three thousand words to the manuscript and finished it.
Well. Finished. The first draft was done. And in the second draft, I added another twelve thousand words. That process looked different, too—I didn’t have another bet to motivate me, so I had to use different carrots and sticks to get the work done. I’m in the third draft now, and hopefully the final one, and that work looks different, too.
If you’re approaching NaNoWriMo or any other long-term writing project, the key to success will be honesty with yourself about your aims and the kind of time that you have to work with. What do you have coming up in the next month? What does your schedule look like on a day to day basis? Are you going to have time on the weekends only to write? Sit down and set a timer and just start writing—how many words can you get out in thirty minutes? Be realistic. If you only have thirty minutes a day to write, how long will it take you to hit fifty thousand words?
Chuck Wendig’s blog Terrible Minds has a great series of posts on finishing a novel writing only three hundred and fifty words a day. If NaNoWriMo isn’t in the cards, can you do 350 a day?
I learned a few things about myself in the marathon sprint to April 1st. First, that I’m getting older, and I had to buy an ergonomic keyboard. Second, that if I’m on a sprint, I can easily hit a thousand words in half an hour. Are they good? Some of them! Do they exist? Hell yeah! And third, I do much better if I’m writing with people. And by “with” I mean on FaceTime, with either my friend Amanda or my friend Rebecca Heyman (and on one fun occasion, both!)
So as you approach the month, take stock of your life and schedule and think about what you want to accomplish. Find a writing buddy. Make a bet. Anything that will get you over the finish line. You might have to shake things up as the month goes along, but being honest and open at the start will help you adapt to any changes later on.
Merry NaNo!
(Oh, and for those wondering how the concert went, it didn’t! They cancelled Day 1 of When We Were Young due to high winds an hour before we were going to lead the hotel!)
HOUSEKEEPING
Have you joined the A Faster No discord yet? There are fives of us in there now, and when NaNoWriMo starts I’ll be running morning and evening sprints for us to share how the process is going. It’s free to join and should be fun!
You have a few more days to take advantage of my editing special through the end of October: if we book a project together, in addition to the regular services I’ll add on either a thirty-minute coaching/Q&A session or a query letter review. Check my profile out on Reedsy here. If there is a topic you’d like me to address in this newsletter or a question you’d like answered, please leave it in the comments or reply to the email! I want to make sure I’m covering things y’all are interested in.
THIS WEEK IN HOCKEY
We’re a baseball stan account now, folks. The Astros absolutely hosed the Yankees in the league finals, so now they’re on to the World Series. We love to see it! The only good thing that the Yankees and their fanbase did was viciously bully Ted Cruz to his face at the stadium. Onward to the World Series!
READING: Exclusively KinnPorsche fanfiction, it’s brainrot hours over here
WATCHING: Criminal Minds
LISTENING: “Astronaut” by Jin (BTS)
This has been A Faster No, a dispatch on publishing, writing, books, and beyond. Is there something you’d like me to talk about? Leave it in the comments or reply to the email! You can support the newsletter here. If you purchase a book from any of the links to Bookshop.org I get a small commission at no cost to you. I am available for developmental editing and editorial assessment services via Reedsy.