The Improv Technique For Writing Your First Draft

First drafts are difficult. First drafts suck. First drafts are AMAZING. First drafts are torture. First drafts are super fun.

These things are all true simultaneously. Writing is really simple, but it's also one of the most complex things you can attempt. It's a career path fraught with paradoxes and cognitive dissonance, and we continue to do it because we are all sado-masochistic monsters who desire to inflict as much pain on others as we do on ourselves. Emotionally, because physically that would be illegal.

One of the hardest parts of first drafting is the conflict between needing to think really hard to keep things moving, and having your brain freeze up and refuse to cooperate because it's being overused.

But one of the most advantageous things you can sometimes do with your writing is shut down the critical thinking part of your brain and write, letting words just fall out on the page the way they want without really bothering to think them over, like flicking a switch that causes the thoughts to bypass your frontal lobe and just flow out of your fingers. That is in fact how I am writing this article right here right now, and also how I managed to ace both my college-level English classes in twelfth grade.

Critical thinking is for subsequent drafts, when you go back through to edit; the first draft is for creativity, and somehow, paradoxically (one of our favorite things), creativity sometimes means turning ourselves off.

So as an exercise in turning off our critical thinking, this is the introduction to my 7-step program for using Improv to turn off our inner critics, get those words on the page, and finish that damn first draft as fast as possible.

What is Improv?

If you're unfamiliar with the concept, Improv is short for Improvisational Theatre, a genre of entertainment in which people come together and perform a piece that is written in the moment; there are no scripts, no pre-planned plot points, just whatever each person is bringing to the table.

Sometimes Improv takes the form of a game, like Emotional Elevator (in which each character represents on emotion, and infects the others in the elevator with that emotion until they leave), or just an interaction or story. Sometimes prompts are chosen from a hat, or by submission, or are taken from the audience to help establish the setting, plot, and characters.

Often Improv is comedic; the spontaneity of Improv provides endless opportunities for laughs. Other times, it can be more serious, and Improv bits can last only a few seconds or as much as several hours.

The Setup


-Set your goal; it could be a certain wordcount, number of chapters, whatever
-Set your deadline; how many days/weeks/months are you giving yourself to get this done?
  -Find your writing space; somewhere quiet and private is usually best, but wherever you can turn off your brain is a great place to be


The Rules

1. Yes, And

The cardinal rule of Improv is always say yes; its codependent companion is, then add an "and." In the context of Improv this means that whatever your partner states or proposes immediately becomes the truth; no matter how outlandish, they are always telling the truth, never lying. Even if you don't like what they've proposed--perhaps that you're a greedy fishmonger bitch, or that the sky is made of angel wings and the sea of hellfire--you have to accept it, because if you don't, the audience will stop trusting both of you.

Because Improv is all imaginary, it only works if the audience trusts that you're telling the absolute truth, so you have to roll with everything your partner says, and they have to roll with everything you've said.

Then, once they've brought something to the table, you bring something in the return--the and. Because a story doesn't move forward if something new doesn't happen!

In the context of this game/challenge/whatever you want to call it, Yes, And is a singular activity--you are providing both the Yes and the And.

"What the hell does that mean?" you may be asking, "Isn't that just normal writing?"

Well, yes and no; because for this goal period, I'm challenging you to write whatever comes to mind. No matter how ridiculous, off-topic, or just plain stupid it may seem, if it pops into your head, you write it. Then, once it's written down, you add the next thing that comes to mind.

It's vital that you go with the first idea that pops to mind, because only then can we properly tap into your subconscious and get you thinking without thinking. In Improv the golden rule is that the first idea is the best idea, but we often throw it away because we're insecure, worried that it's too much or not enough. Eschew that now; write the first thing that comes, and if it turns out not to be the best thing? Fix it in post. That's why we edit.

(Side note: After this process is finished, I do assure you that much editing will be necessary. This pursuit is about getting words out on the page, not making them perfect.)

2. No Buts

Another primary rule in Improv is No Buts, (not to be confused with butts, which are often used in Improv). If you add a but, it's an automatic denial; you're saying that the previous idea isn't good enough.

In this pursuit, it's fine for your characters to say but, but if you find yourself thinking, "But that wouldn't work!"/"But that doesn't make sense!"/"But" ANYTHING, then you're denying your own ideas; your confidence is incomplete, and you're letting it get in the way of your creativity.

Smash that But to smithereens and save it for the editing process! You have more important things to do right now! Namely, Write Write Write!!!

3. Justify

Sometimes when you find yourself wanting to add a "But" it's because something doesn't seem to make sense. It happens! But instead of denying this weird thing that doesn't make sense, we need to justify it instead. Slash that but and stick in a because instead, and give the context, to yourself or your readers!

Ex: "The sky is pink! But that doesn't make sense!" Becomes "The sky is pink! Because there's a thinner atmosphere and lots of red suspended dust in the air, like on Mars!"

This helps makes sense of that which is confusing, moves you along a path that makes sense to you, and keeps that dreaded But as far out of the equation as possible.

4. Quickly Establish Setting, Relationship, Plot

In Improv it's important to establish the Who, What, Where, When, Why and How as soon as you can; this is intertwined with your justifications above to some degree, but here we're largely talking about your scenework and character interactions. Sometimes we spend a long time meandering around things in real life, spiraling closer and closer to the point the longer we spend time in a place or with another person, but this often doesn't make for great fiction (unless done very well, with the intention of adding tension) so try cutting straight to the point:

Where are you? When is it and What is everyone doing? Who's there? What do your characters want, and Why? How are they planning to get what they want?

Establish these things fast so that the audience understands what's going on and can imagine the scene easily, then get into the juicy bits, the exciting stuff they came to see. As Chuck Wendig is fond of saying, skip the boring bits. If you're not having fun writing it, they're not having fun reading it, I can almost guarantee.

5. Give Yourself Gifts

In Improv, Gifts are the little tidbits of seemingly throw-away information that you and your Improv partners sprinkle throughout a conversation--the mention of your wife being pregnant, you have a blue ribbon in the National Scrap-Parts Bike-Making League Championships, you're an active member of an underground BDSM club exclusively for short doms and tall subs.

Whatever it is, the more information you give earlier on, the better it'll be for you later on, because you'll have more to pull from, and you get a better and better feel for your character as these details come out. And then, when something happens, you can pull on those Gifts to improve the story later on--maybe your characters need to get somewhere fast, so you build a bike out of the garbage in your apartment, or you need to abscond the scene so you get a text from your wife telling you she's having the baby, or someone says they recognize you from somewhere and you can be like, "You were my best mate's tall sub last weekend!"

We do this all the time in our writing and never think about it--little details that we give our characters "just because" become a big deal later on, and can even explode into entire character or plot arcs, or be the secret key to defeating the Ultimate Badass at his own game.

So in this exercise, give yourself gifts--give yourself lots of Gifts, don't be afraid to dig down into the depths of who your character really is, get all UP in those guts, sprinkle the breadcrumbs and then follow them home! It may just get your characters out of tight corners later, and having already established things as truth, it will feel much less like a Deus Ex Machina.

6. No Mistakes Only Happy Accidents

My first Improv teacher at AMDA, Katie Muchlin, was very fond of saying that "There are no mistakes, only happy accidents."

You are bound to make mistakes, in writing as in Improv as in life; when that happens, don't dwell on them. Justify what you have to justify and move on--and maybe that happy accident will turn out to be the single best thing that's ever happened in your story, you don't know!

Follow the breadcrumbs, Hansel, and when the bird eats them out from under you, take a deep breath, count to ten, and fumble through the dark because damn it you need to get Gretel the fuck home already, it's midnight and it's dark and you're like eight, literally anything could eat you. There is no time for tomfuckery and self-pity when you're mired in the depths of Creepy Forest Number Nine, Han. Just push through and everything will turn out alright.

7. Find A Button

You find a button at the end of a scene, both in Improv and in normal acting, but also in writing; the button is difficult to define, but you know it when you see it. It's the point at which it makes perfect sense to end the scene; everything that needs to be resolved is resolved, and all the questions that need to be raised have been raised. This is often the "oh snap" moment, or the witty oneliner.

Once my class played a game in which members of the audience would enter as members of a family with a unified theme; this theme was "criminal," and one after another children and parents and the like were revealed who were all terrible. A comment ("Gift") was made that one of the children was supposed to be watching the person they were keeping prisoner in the basement. So when the conflict was rising to a din and things were starting to get out of hand, I ran across the stage and screamed, "I'M FREEEEEEEEEE!"

That was an immediate button; at that point the class was in tears, nothing more could be said, any conflict that was going to be raised or absolved had been raised or absolved, and no one would miss the scene for its ending--and neither would anyone resent it its length.

We've all been in situations where we read a story or watch a show and a scene just goes on and on and on when it doesn't have to. Even if it's just a few lines too long, you can tell that whoever was writing the piece didn't know how to press the button, one they sometimes give to themselves. Next time that happens, keep an eye or ear or finger out for a place that seems like a natural ending point, where the scene could end and it wouldn't negatively impact the rest of the story at all.

The difficulty in Improv is finding that moment yourself, because it's all happening so quickly and there's so much going on at once. But we have to try.

So as you write your scenes, if you ever find yourself getting bored or stuck, find a button; think of it as an escape hatch, the big red button that says DO NOT PRESS and yet resolves all your problems; then pound that thing into the ground and keep moving. You have to keep that momentum under you or you'll stop to second-guess yourself.

8. Keep The Story Moving Forward

Speaking of keeping moving, did I mention you should keep moving?

Don't look back. Don't stop to tie your shoes or smell the flowers or roll in the grass; go, motherfucker, go go go, we're opening our parachutes in t-minus ten, and one's got your name on it!

Don't let this baby stall out, friend, you can do it, I believe in you! Just focus on the "And;" what is the next logical happening after the last happening? Or the next illogical happening, whichever comes to mind first. Do you know where this is all headed, where you plan to end up? If yes, aim that fucker and blast it. If not, then just run, dude, and you will find that path through the forest, even if you have to cook ten witches to do it.


9. Don’t Ask Questions


Another rule in Improv; don't ask questions. Why? Because questions are not information. Questions are, in fact, an admission of ignorance; you don't know this thing, the audience says? Why don't you know this thing? Aren't you supposed to be real?

And then they remember that they're paying to watch people pretend on an empty stage and their minds explode. Don't make your audience's mind explode; make statements, not questions.

Of course, you want your audience to ask questions, to keep them interested, but for this pursuit try focusing on making them ask "what's going to happen next" instead of "What's happening now?"

Don't ask questions of your audience; you are in control, you know everything for all intents and purposes (until we get to the editing stage at least), and that's what they need to believe. Try to steer away from characters asking questions when you can, too, because again, it provides no new information; it is an admission of, and often even a repetition of an admission of, ignorance. Sometimes that's necessary, sometimes it's not.

Don't worry, you'll get a feel for it eventually.

Really what this means in regards to your writing is BE CONFIDENT. You know your world, you know what's going on, don't waffle. This is your time to shine, and the more confident you are, the more your audience will believe in you.

10. End The Story In A Different Place Than It Began

     This seems obvious, and it kind of is; what's less obvious is that every scene is a story in and of itself.  This is a throwback to number seven, really; you want to end the story as a whole, but also every individual scene in a different place than the one in which it began.  Your characters are different people, or have a different relationship, or have changed their goals.

     This can help you find the button on every scene (and your story as a whole if you're kind of in the dark about where it needs to end).  Whenever you're unsure about where a scene should end, ask yourself if things are different now; do people know things they didn't know before?  Important things, not just baseball stats or the names of the cloud formations (unless those things are important to your plot of course)?  Have their plans changed?  Are they in a different place mentally, emotionally, physically?

     Make sure things are changing; if everything stays the same, the story is going nowhere.  Pretend you're a Robinson and Keep Moving Forward!

Conclusion

     And that's about it, really!  Hopefully, using these techniques, you'll be able to turn off that brain and bang out a great first draft.  Just remember:  Any first draft is a great first draft, no matter how patchwork or illegible; it is a first step, a very long, very hard first step, and you made it.

     Learning to run will be so much easier now that you've learned to walk.

How To Win NaNoWriMo in 15 Days

     Last year, I won NaNoWriMo with a couple days to spare, and I was pretty proud of myself.
     THIS year I won NaNoWriMo in HALF the allotted time, and I felt pretty darn great, I tell you what.  Unfortunately I didn't finish my novel in time (I'm too damn long-winded), but I walked away with a certificate and a smile and a good portion of a first draft for a story that I'm really into.
     Of course, if I kept the secrets to my success a secret, it wouldn't exactly behoove all of you writers out there, wondering how you can get not just your NaNo Novel, but ANY of your fast drafting on even faster, so I'm here to spill the beans and teach YOU how to blow the fishes out of the water with the power of your magic writey-downer abilitations.*
     Here's eight tactics YOU can use to win big fast!

*not a word.

  

1.  Cheat

     Okay, so not cheat, exactly, but sort of???
     See, what allowed me to win so quickly was the fact that on the first day of NaNo I was able to log 11,518 words.  No, it's not because I'm some sort of superhuman (I mean, I am totally some sort of superhuman, but that's not how I was able to write so much).  My secret?  I took NaNoPlotMo VERY seriously; I outlined like hell and scribbled down every note and spare thought I had, fleshing out the first half of my novel so vividly that half my job on day one was essentially copy-paste-expound-upon.
     This also meant that, for the first half of my novel at least, I had a clear idea about where I was going, who my players were, etc, so once I hit the ground I hit it rolling, fullspeed downhill with a fire on my ass.
     This is sort of cheating, yes, because all the WRITING is supposed to be done during November, but taking extensive notes is just an expected part of October for us NaNoers, and no one is looking over your shoulder raising their eyebrow at you for "thinking too much," so you do you and take as many notes as you want, comrade, it's your journey and can't no one tell you how to climb that mountain but you!
     (Also, no one can tell you not to write tons of run-ons in your first draft.  NO ONE.)

2.  Don't Look Back

    This is just one of those old classics of the NaNo experience, but still SUPER helpful.  Like, so helpful oh my God, I spent most of last year's NaNo just LEARNING this one, and it's helped in all my drafting since; don't go back and reread.
     It's tempting, I know!  But you must resist the urge.  Go back a chapter or maybe two if you need to at the start of the writing day, to try to kickstart your creativity, remember where you left, etc., but don't go any further back and do not, I repeat, DO NOT, I REPEAT AGAIN FOR FURTHER EMPHASIS, DO.  NOT.  EDIT.  
     I know those words are being real shitlords--they're screaming at you, begging you to come fix your mistakes, taunting you with your imperfections, but don't do it!  It will only slow you down, it could lessen your word count (which is all well and good during editing season, but not when you're drafting, ESPECIALLY not with NaNoWriMo), and you'll lose all your momentum.  Even if you're suffering from a block, you'd be better off getting up and going for a walk, or reading, or watching an hour of TV than risking a trip into the bog of edit hell.
     Don't even look back for details--if you forget a detail, make it up, you can always fix it in post.  And hey, who knows, maybe you'll like the new way better!
     Just, in general, if you can possibly help it, don't look back.  The time for looking back is not while your chainsaw is half-way through the lonely housewife's torso; the time for looking back doesn't come until the last grudge match has been settled and your bloody trail of carnage and slaughter finally matches the tale of woe and revenge set down in the notebook you made to look like that one from Deathnote.  That's when you bust out the bleach and start checking IDs.

3.  Don't worry about POV

     This year, I couldn't decide if I was writing from multiple third person limited or from third person omniscient.  Last year, during Camp NaNo I kept slipping into second person POV, too, and randomly switching tenses.
     This is pretty normal, we all do it to some degree, some more than others--our brain will just randomly switch gear and suddenly a third person story has six paragraphs of "I went to the store today" slapped in the middle.  Don't sweat it.
     This is another thing that can be fixed in post.  If you're not sure what POV you even want the story to be in, just write.  Write whatever comes to mind and deal with the aftermath later.
     That goes for tenses and shit, too.  Just don't worry; again, it can all be fixed in post.  Right now, the most important thing is to get that story out of your goddamn body before it has the chance to escape in a less palpable form, or takes hold of your brain and drives you MAD.

4.  Big casts help

     I'm not saying that big casts are the answer, or that they're right for your particular story, and I'm DEFINITELY not saying that every story needs to be an ensemble.
     What I AM saying is, I had a big cast this year (both years.  I'm a fan of large casts.  Sue me) and it really helped keep my juices flowing--I had a lot to work with, a lot of subplots to dive into, and any time I couldn't figure out what my MC's next move was, I could cut to some of the more minor characters and talk about a subplot for a chapter or two, which allowed me the time to let my MC ruminate on his options and decide what to do next--and, sometimes, for new characters to invent themselves.
     And of course, while writing my MC's scenes, I was able to work out what my side characters were doing, etc., etc., which makes for a good process most of the time.


5.  Set a big word count and follow that shit

     After my eleven thousand word victory I was like HELL FUCKING YES
     But I knew I had to keep working--I told myself that I would write at least three thousand words a day.  I didn't, of course, but I tried to; some days I went over, some days I went under, but because I was so far ahead, it wasn't any problem--even if you don't get off on the huge side of the bed the first morning of NaNoWriMo, exceeding the normal goal is a good thing to shoot for--maybe you write two thousand words a day instead of 1667, maybe three thousand, maybe five thousand!  Whatever you can handle, do that and do it consistently; that way if something happens and you're under one day, it's no big deal.  If you do it enough and for some reason you have to skip a day, again, you have some room under you, no big deal.
     BUUUUUTTTT.....

6.  Don't skip a day

     If you can help it, don't skip.  I know you have those pretty little days' worth of word credits saved up from all your SUPER DUPER WRITE-TASTICNESS, but do your best not to let them get to you.  If you take that day off, it's going to seriously screw with your momentum, which is what fast-drafting is all about.  You gotta go hard bro, 'cause in this game, there's no goin' home.  *Insert Murder Eyes*
     Plus, by skipping a day, your manuscript becomes a little less clear in your mind, details become a little more hazy--if you knew what you were going to do in the next scene, maybe you lose it, or lose part of it, and you risk the dreaded need to (DUN DUN DUUUUN) TURN BACK.  *LOUD MELODRAMATIC GASPING*

7.  Set up a routine that works for you

     I like to work in chunks of several hours at a time, when I can, so I try to get up early and write for a few solid hours before school, before I've expended my creative energy for the day, and then I do my best to squeeze in whatever extra time I can between classes--maybe you work best at night, though, or for fifteen minute intervals throughout the day; maybe the only time you can squeeze it in is while hastily shoveling bologna sandwiches into your chomping maw at the midday hour.
     Whatever works for you, set a time and try to stick to it--then grab whatever extra time you can get your grubby little hands on.  Try to set up a workstation if you can, leave your computer on sleep instead of off so it takes less time to boot up when you feel the desire for a pyre!

8.  Throw shit in there

     Obviously, you don't want to just slam a random thing down for the words, but don't censor or limit yourself.  Use those adverbs and adjectives you're not sure you'll need, you can cut 'em later!; write that introspective diatribe, you can change it later!; give a flashback that explains the entire character that you're pretty sure you'll end up using like four sentences from in the end; you can cut the rest of it later, but at least now you know, and this is a part of fast drafting that, as more of a pantser than a plotter, I love, because now I have all this information about my characters and their lives that I can use later, or not use at all, but at least I can write the character with all this shit in mind!
    And my wordcount is boosted, and no one got hurt**, and all is well.

**Except for all those people you murdered on number 2.

Things Not To Do During Camp NaNoWriMo

     The first half of Camp NaNoWriMo ended nearly a month ago, and I lost by a little more than half my goal.  I'm not proud of this, but I'm going to call it a "Learning Experience" and use it to get a blog post in.  Here's a list of nine things you SHOULDN'T do when embarking on Camp NaNoWriMo.

1. Get sick
        I came down hard with a throat virus in early April that really sent me reeling.  I couldn't talk, I couldn't move, I couldn't do much of anything.  The one thing I COULD do was write--which I did a lot of!  I got something like twelve thousand words written in one business week.
        But then I had to go back to school, and this is where I died.  I had reading to make up, worksheets to fill out, MORE reading to make up, and everything went to hell.  I was still sick when I went back, too, which meant that in addition to scrambling trying to catch up with backwork, I was also exhausted just getting up in the mornings, and my favorite thing to do was come home and sleep, which meant foregoing my daily writing for days at a time.
        Don't get sick when you do NaNo, kids.
    
2. Buy an iPad
        I've never owned an Apple product before, or even a cell phone more high tech than a basic Tracfone, but last month I decided to purchase a used iPad from my boss.  "This will be awesome," I said to myself.  "I'll be able to write my NaNo Novel anywhere I want and not have to worry about transcribing!"
        I did not, you will have inferred, understand how iPads work.
        My intentions were good, but one of the first things I did was go online and download a bunch of Apps that looked cool, and some of them actually were.  The one I wanted most to work properly, however--the word processor--was lackluster and comparatively difficult to figure out, and I ended up spending far more time trying to make my digi-self a rich famous moviestar in the coolest high school university EVER, which cost me precious hours in writing time.
        Since then I've chilled on the games (mostly), and I had a lot of fun but hindsight being 20/20 I know now that it was really a very bad idea right from the get go.  Maybe buying an iPad wasn't the problem in and of itself, but I'd say it's for the best if you not download really fun apps just before you start Camp NaNo.  Probably.
3. Start three plays
        I've never done more than one play at a time before, so I decided that the best thing for me to do would be to jump in and do three at the same time because easing your way in is apparently for chumps.  This, however, was ALSO a giant time suck on this, the month of my daughter's birth (my daughter being the manuscript, you see).  Three days a week since I've been out of the house essentially from eight in the morning to nine or ten at night, which cuts severely into the two-thousand-word-a-day goal I had set for myself.
        I don't regret this, since it's a lot of fun and also my career path, but NaNo was a bad month to START it--as I may have made clear by now, starting things is a hectic and exhausting business which leaves time for almost nothing else.  I had the same commitments this month as last, but this month it was far less taxing, simply because I'd already adjusted to it.
        Maybe just try to avoid starting pretty much ANYTHING, really, during NaNo months.
4. Get Sick
5. Get no sleep
        I have a lot of trouble sleeping most nights, but for some reason I had an especially hard time sleeping in April, which left me too lethargic and dry-minded to write much of anything at all.  Maybe it was because all of the above were tiring me out.  Because that's totally how normal biology works, right?  Yeah.
        It's really important that you get enough sleep to keep yourself healthy, especially on a NaNo month.  Writing fifty thousand words (or whatever your goal was this time around) is a terribly taxing task, and if you continually end up running on empty, your manuscript will suffer.  When your manuscript suffers, the writing gets hard to continue.  When the writing gets hard to continue, it's pretty easy to quit.  And when it's pretty easy to quit, you let the mouse in through the window and it sucks all your blood out through your palm.  And that, children, is why you never give a mouse a cookie.
        Can you tell that I'm tired as I'm writing this?
6. Get Sick
7. Get Sick
8. Get Sick
        Jesus Christ, please do not get sick on NaNo, you will regret it once you go back I promise you take care of yourself stay healthy stay hydrated sleep well don't lick peoples' noses, you don't deserve the loss of word count you are a good person you deserve a finished manuscript
9. Put it off until tomorrow
        When you have thirty days to write sixty thousand words, it's really easy to say "I'll just write four thousand tomorrow to make up for it!"  When you're tired and busy it gets even easier, and once you've pushed the deadline back once it's easier to do it again--and again, and again, and again.  Before you know it the month is up and you have almost nothing to show for it but a husk of an MS and some progress on a game you'll honestly probably delete in like a month.
        Sometimes it's unavoidable, and as I've said before, you don't need to beat yourself up about it--but you should do your best to avoid it.  When you dedicate yourself to a daily goal, do whatever is in your power to reach it as quickly as you can.  Write in the morning, write throughout the day, write when you get home from work, write, write, write, write, write.
        Because Write Is Right, and the only one you hurt by blowing off your goals is you.

7 Things To Consider When Contemplating Your First NaNoWriMo

     There's a lot to learn every time you put pen to paper.  When you put fingers to keyboard 50,000+ times in a single month, you're sure to learn a thing or two.  My brain's a little fuzzy from all the wordage so I'm probably not including everything I figured out during NaNo, but here are seven things I do remember!
     Fair warning:  Most of it has more to do with the actual NaNoing than the writing itself.

1. November is the best month to write a novel.
   
        November is a perfect month to write a novel.  It's the only month I know of in which hundreds of thousands of people from all over the world are all working hard to accomplish the exact same goal in the exact same frame of time, and writers are everywhere!  Online, IRL, even your relatives become writers during NaNoWriMo!  It's a great time to dive into the writing community, because everyone has something to say, everyone's ears are wide open for advice, and everyone is looking to both support and be supported.
        Really, November is the only month out of the year where writing becomes a truly social event, and it's glorious.
   
   
   
   
2. November is the worst month to write a novel.
   
        Yeah, everyone is writing in November, but everything happens in November.  There are birthdays galore pouring in from the yearly Valentines-day procreation vapors, there are deaths to mourn, Thanksgivings to plan, Black Friday sales to either murder people over or altogether avoid, plans you have to make to see family members you don't want to see (and a lot of exercises in self-control undertaken in order to not to get in any major arguments), long stretches of time where you may not have access to the internet (which, if you're using an online word processor, can be a major set-back), plans to make to talk to family members you do want to see, etc. etc. etc.
        The point is, November is chock-full of Stuff To Do, and it's a real challenge to be able to fit it all in and then pound out roughly two thousand words a day on top.  Like adding sprinkles, only they're made of keyboard keys and make your head hurt.
        (Really, feel free to vent about all your set-back events in the comments.  It can be a tough month to get through, and I know how much it helps to just complain every so often.)
   
3. Fast drafting is like cocaine
        Not that I've ever used cocaine (that stuff on the table's just sugar, I promise), but I've heard some stories and I think the analogy holds up.
        Trying to Fast-Draft like that makes you feel like that guy from Owl City, blending up rainbows and shooting them right through your veins (or your eyeballs, but that's heroin, I guess.  So, Fast-Drafting is like... um.  Don't laugh at me, it's drugs.  Cocaine, Crack, Heroin, Ecstasy, the difference doesn't matter if you're a clean-as-a-whistle word junkie like me wink wonk).
        You're on high, forcing yourself through fifty-thousand tiers of excitement, frustration, bliss, and exhaustion.  You're screaming words into the void, doing your damnedest to make them sound pretty but not really caring as long as they're /out,/ and that feeling of progress is pretty fucking intoxicating.  You want to punch dragons and piss on ogres, and when you're on a roll you feel invincible!... but when you crash, you feel like you fell into a bespiked pit of shit from which there is no exit.  The more you touch that high, the more you crave it--but the longer you go without it the closer you get to being clean; once you reach that point it's easy to give up, get a nice respectable job as a shit-sweeper, and stop dreaming about that old silly notion that you could be a pen jockey.
        I um.  I forgot where I was going with this.  I blame fast-drafting.  *Snorts the sugar on the table and rides away on a horse-sized fountain pen*
        I guess the point is, it's not always easy to tell what's up and what's down once you get in the zone.  You're so focused on the words that nothing else seems to matter, and you want more--which makes it feel so unsatisfactory and so much like drudgery when things get hard.  You really have to either push to make everything come out, or skip around to the parts that make you feel like you're flying.
   
4. There's burn-out
   
        I finished my draft in the very extremely early morning of the twenty-ninth of November (it was like one, maybe two AM, which I still count as the twenty-eighth since I hadn't yet slept), and with 50K under my belt I was ready to see what else I could accomplish.
        "Another ten thousand before November ends!" I said to myself, riding the final wave of endorphins from accomplishing my goal.  "I want this monster finished by mid-December so that I have time to put it away before Edit January begins!"
        December fifteenth is still my goal for finishing.  My goal per day is probably going to continue to be two thousand words a day, but this blog entry is the first real piece I've been able to write since finishing Nano.  "But Maggie, it's only been two days!" you say, and yes, that's very true, my treasured reader.  Insanely true.
        But it's more than that--I can feel this exhaustion looming in the word parts of my brain.  Putting my fingers back to the keys for Captive Stars feels like an overwhelming task right now.  I may need a few days to get back into it--the hope is that spending a few days away will give me plenty of time to turn my gears back to the story.  I've tired of stories before, I've had periods of time when I didn't want to write, but it's been a few years since I've been in a space where the prospect of writing was mentally and physically repulsive.
        The best thing I can suggest for anyone else suffering from burn-out (and I'm sure there's a lot of you; writing a novel is a task of extreme exertion, and our brains can only take so much at a time) is rest.  Put on some nice music, maybe read a book or veg out on TV, take plenty of naps, and try to just let your mind recover.  It did a lot this month, and it deserves a little pampering.
   
5. Other responsibilities will suffer
   
        I'm in line to be valedictorian of my class this year.  Since it's senior year, that's kind of a big deal.  I've been working really hard to keep my grades up, especially important since I'm only taking three academic classes, but I was resolved this year to put NaNoWriMo first--it'll be a lot harder to put those words in once I'm in college, after all.
        So the second marking period ended and, as it turns out, my grades have certainly suffered.  I'm still doing great, just not ME-great.  More like, classmate-great (said the perfectionist to the happy kids).  It got harder to find time to study when I was trying to make time for NaNo.
        It was also difficult to make time for family and friends--I know my mother was disappointed that I wasn't able to help with a lot of Christmas preparations because I was either writing or sleeping (to make brain-room for more writing).
        Was it worth it?  Yeah, I think so.
   
6. After all that goal-holding, it can be hard to continue the novel
   
        Maybe it's all that burn-out, but it feels almost like a drag to keep going now that the rush is gone.  I'm really going to have to find a way to keep myself motivated if I want to be able to edit in January.  It's a little easier to hold yourself accountable for word count when you're competing against an outside goal and there's an ABSOLUTE deadline. At least for me.  I tend to give myself too much lee-way with deadlines.
   
7. Don't go back for information
   
        During NaNo I became very good at just writing and writing and writing--without going back to check for accuracy.  It really helps you to push on through the narrative, resolving to fix it in the editing process; speed's the key and 50K is the lock!  Or something like that.
        Toward the end there (the last three days or so) it almost felt like momentum was the only thing keeping me going.  This ties back into the above--the more momentum I gained, the higher I felt.
   
   

     I wish I had more to share with you, especially after my very long, very sudden hiatus, but my brain is all tapped out.  Maybe I'll have more NaNo tips after Camp NaNoWriMo (which I hope to see you all at in the summer).  

     Fare thee well!