How to Survive Your Second Week of NaNoWriMo

In many ways, the second week of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) feels like a race where you blew out of the starting gate, sprinted over the hill, and then developed a stitch in your side. Your endorphins have abandoned you. You’re tired. You’ve drunk too much coffee. You said good morning to your children, and they nodded, recognizing the familiar face while desperately trying to remember your name.

Week two is about consistency, and it’s where I learned the difference between being a writer and being someone who talks about being a writer. Write is a verb, and if you’re going to be a writer, you’ve got to write regularly.

Julia Cameron, the author of The Artist’s Way, once wrote you don’t have to be in the mood to write. I mentally protested this statement when I read it, but as much as I tried to disprove her, it’s true. I cannot say I’m ever in the mood to scrub a toilet, but I scrub my toilet because someone has to do it.

Cameron also recommends committing to writing three pages per day, the point being to focus on the quantity and allowing her higher power to take care of the quality. I followed her example intending to disprove it, but in the process of filling the pages as quickly as I could, I didn’t have the bandwidth to listen to my inner censor, and the quality of the writing slipped through. As I reread my pages later, I was amazed that I had written those pages.

When you make writing a habit, you show up at the page, and you learn to write regardless of your mood. Somedays, it feels like you put up your antennae and download perfect prose. Other days, it seems like a struggle to type the next word. When this happens, write what you know about your story. Explore the history and details of your setting. Dig deeper into the backstories of your characters. If you need a break from your protagonist, step out with one of your minor characters and discover where she leads you.

Don’t give up on your story. If you find you don’t like where you are in your novel, take a right turn, and see where it takes you. When you hit a wall, let something unexpected happen. If things seem to be going too smoothly for your protagonist, throw a wrench into his plans.

If you find your motivation is weakening, meet up with another NaNoWriMo participant to write together. Write-ins are usually happening almost every night in November.

If 1,667 words in one sitting seem overwhelming, break it up into several more digestible mini-writing sessions throughout the day. Get up early and write 500 words before breakfast, write 500 words during lunch, and then you only have 667 words to write after dinner. If you typically drive home in rush hour, stop at a nearby coffee shop on your way home and write until traffic is lighter.

As much as NaNoWriMo encourages writers to keep up the word count, you might need an occasional day off to comfort yourself with a healthy dinner, a hot bath, and a good night’s sleep. Allow yourself to rest, and then show up at the keyboard the next day. You can double your daily word count over the weekend.