Writing Tips

Lessons from a First Time Writer in NaNoWriMo

The following article is by Writers in the Grove member, Carolyn Bradley.

What have I learned about writing from participating in my first NaNoWriMo?

It is more fun to have written than it is to write. Writing is hard. Writing takes discipline.

I have learned that I don’t have any.

And so I am grateful to Writers in the Grove and NaNoWriMo for shoving me off the stump I’ve been roosting on for years and getting my butt moving in the right direction. It helps to be held accountable – someone is expecting some words to be written.

I have learned that I am a planner not a pantser. I probably already knew this but my husband confirmed it. So I know it will be hard to write until the dishwasher is loaded and the bed is made and I’ve learned that an outline is a huge help to me.

I have learned that I am not a very good writer. This surprised me. I am in awe of the wordsmiths in this writers group who write with such amazing clarity – sometimes in fifteen minutes or less. That is not me. But some of them have been writing for a long time, thousands of words, and I am just a beginner. So I have learned that I will have to write many more words in order to improve my craft.

I have learned that I can turn off my editor for long periods of time. This is probably the most important takeaway from this experience for me, since this is what has kept me from writing for so long. For that, I am the most grateful.

I have learned that I have a lot to learn. And more importantly, I know now what I do not know and how to learn it.

And one final thing – please excuse the absence of contractions. It’s a NaNoWriMo thing. If you’ve done NaNoWriMo, I’m sure you’ll understand.

Writer’s Toolbox: Editor Types and Skills

In “10 Things Your Freelance Editor Might Not Tell You—But Should by Brian Klems, he advises:

You should avoid the temptation to hire someone to edit your first draft.

I know you’re really excited that you finally finished that book! I’m happy for you…you should be happy for you. Celebrate it! But don’t send it to an editor yet. Put it away for three weeks and then reread, making notes on its strengths and weaknesses, asking yourself what’s missing, and flagging places where you find yourself skimming. Then rewrite the manuscript at least once—twice is better. Don’t bring in a professional until you have made the book the best you possibly can on your own. At this stage, you are still best equipped to take your book to the next level. Only when you’ve taken it as far as you can on your own will you get the most for your money in hiring a freelance editor.

Once you have reworked your draft until there is no more room for you in it, then it is time to take it to a professional.

Writers in the Grove

Writers in the Grove workshops offer time for reading and review of written work. Items are to be no longer than 4 minutes read out loud, and at least 18 photocopies to share with the members to edit. Edits are limited to encouragement and suggestions at the development stage, not serious editing markup. The process usually takes about 5-10 minutes, and the writer receives their copies back with notes and some verbal advice. These are done on a first-come, first-serve basis based upon the limited amount of time available.

Most published writers go through various editors and editing steps before publishing. Each step in the process is critical to the success of the published work, though not all work goes through each of these editor types.

The job descriptions of these editors are:

Editor: The editor has many roles, and may work with an author to improve their manuscript and develop a style guide to ensure consistency throughout the manuscript. This process may involve rewriting and editing copy to improve readability through language, spelling, punctuation, and syntax, though these tasks are typically taken by other editor types. Some editors oversee the entire publication process and may work with marketing and the author to promote the book, but this is typically the responsibility of the publisher, which could be the author as self-publisher.
Copy Editor: Copy editors review copy for errors in spelling, punctuation, and grammar, check for readability and style. They also fact-check and verify story details, date, facts, and statistics. It is highly recommended that everything you prepare for publishing go through through copy edits.
Development/Developmental Editor: The development or developmental editor examines the plots and arcs in the story, ensuring consistency in presentation, form, voice, and style. Their job is not to rewrite the story but make the story consistent with all the core elements a good story demands. Their expertise is on development, ensuring the story is stuffed with all the conflict, excitement, and drama necessary to make it compelling. Another type of development editor is called a substantive editor. This person helps the writer by focusing on story elements, plot, characterization, dialogue, point of view, settings, scene orders, word choices, sentence structure and syntax, and strengthening the manuscript writing.
Line Editor: The line editor is the final editor to tackle the manuscript before publishing, you hope, after its been through all the other editors. Their job is to not discuss plot and arc, character building or dialogue as that is the responsibility of the development editor. Their job is to go through every sentence, check every word, and make sure that the manuscript is ready for publishing by checking spelling, grammar, punctuation, consistency, word usage, possibly some fact checking. While the copy editor does these things, too, it is the line editor that ensures each word works, and nothing will embarrass you after publishing.

Editors use a style guide or style sheet prepared by the author, sometimes in collaboration with an editor, on how the voice of the book is to be written and presented to maintain consistency.

The following is a breakdown of the specific tasks associated with each editor role. A professional editor may cover all these things, so I’ve not included them in this list. A reminder, these tend to be fluid descriptions as some editors specialize in one or more of these skills and roles.

Copy Editing

Spelling and punctuation choices are consistent with the genre and style appropriate to the book’s setting and characters.
Variant spellings, like anaesthesia or anesthesia, or colorful or colourful, or accent spellings for dialog/dialogue and writing style, are consistent throughout and in line with the book’s style guide, and included in the style guide for the manuscript.
The manuscript is fact-checked, if applicable, to ensure that all historical, current events, names of people and places, weather, politics, and other references to real things are correct, or as right or close to the truth as possible. All quotes and references must also be verified.
Chapter headings, subheads, parts, sections, quotes (blockquotes or pull-quotes), and other manuscript formatting areas are consistently styled throughout the document.
All foreign words feature the correct accent marks, and are italicized if appropriate.

Development/Developmental Editing

Plot and Arc
- Does the story have a clear beginning, middle, and end?
- Does the story start in the right place? Should it start earlier or later?
- Does the plot have an arc? Is it clear? Are the significant turning points of the plot dramatized sufficiently to support the conflicts and resolution of the plot?
- Does the manuscript offer consistent themes and motifs? Clearly defined? Define them.
- Does the story follow a definable pattern of cause and effect, action and reaction?
- Does every sentence have conflict? Does every paragraph have conflict? Does every page have conflict? Does ever scene have conflict? Does every chapter have conflict? Make sure they do.
- How is foreshadowing used? Is each scene set up well and can the reader keep slightly ahead of the character, or slightly back so they are as surprised as the character?
Characters
- Does the protagonist have a clear arc, called a protagonist arc?
- Does the protagonist face challenges and conflicts consist with character development and the plot arc?
- Is all the background/exposition necessary to support the character and the plot included? Is there any backstory that can be cut or edited down?
- Does the protagonist both win and lose something by the end of the story? Which is the greater win or loss? Should their be balance?
- Are the other characters in the story deserving of their place? Do they all need names? Could they be consolidated? Minimized? Emphasized? Expanded?

Line Editing

Language and Style
- Check for redundancies and repetition. Eliminate repeated words or phrases that do not serve as an artistic effect. Look for clever phrases used repeatedly and cut them.
- For fiction, cut all author intrusions in to the story, author commentary, editorializing, and pontificating. Let the characters tell the story.
- Are the verbs and adjective details specific? Do they match the intention and intensity of each sentence and scene?
- Cut out unnecessary words or sentences or filler dialogue? Ensure each one matters to the story.
- Do paragraphs end on strong sentences, encouraging the reader to read the next paragraph and turn the page?
- Are sentence and paragraph lengths varied throughout the manuscript?
- Do the characters sound different from one other in thought and dialogue?
- Is the narrator’s voice and diction consistent throughout the manuscript?
Scenes
- Is the setting clear and reflected in the details of the story, be it a place, time, culture, or age?
- Are events narrated in real time and , whenever possible, in chronological order?
- Do transitions between subjects, sections, and chapters move smoothly. Are they all necessary? How do transitions impact the pacing of the story? Are transitions across time and space clear to the reader?
- Are the themes and motifs in the story obvious in the use of language, similes, and metaphors throughout the manuscript?

Where to Find Editors?

Finding and hiring an editor is no different from hiring an employee. You look for someone who has the right skill set, expertise, reputation, and experience, and interview them to ensure you and your written work is a good match for them.

Willamette Writers is a good source for finding editors, as is the agents and editors list from Pacific Northwest Writers Association, if you wish to keep your search local to the Pacific Northwest.

The Society for Editors and Proofreaders offers their Directory of Editorial Services, made up of their professional members. The Association of Freelance Editors, Proofreaders & Indexers also offers a list of their members who are professionally trained and experienced. The Editorial Freelancers Association is another member resource to highly skilled professionals.

There are many editors marketing themselves online. Search for them using keywords that describe your genre and writing style to narrow the results, and vet them thoroughly before trusting your precious work to their eyes and hands.

Here is some advice from a variety of experts about the editing process to help you along the path to publishing.

After NaNoWriMo 2016

Congrats on surviving NaNoWriMo 2016. Whether you reached your 50K goal or not, you are a winner because you give it your all. You wrote. You set up a system to deal with your internal editor, schedule writing time, and find a support system, such as this site, to keep you on track and going forward, no matter how war you got. You did it.

Now what?

Thanks to the fantastic and creative work of past NaNoWriMo participants, we have access to tons of answers to that question.

Fist, NaNoWriMo doesn’t end just because the month of November is over. There are many events in your areas and online. NaNoWroMi offers “The ‘Now What?’ Months to help you keep going and staying on track from January through to the next NaNoWriMo in November. They have extensive archives of tips and pep talks to keep you going as well.

There is an active NaNoWriMo forum called Life After NaNoWriMo to help others to keep going afterwards.

If you are ready to publish, you can share your published entry on the Published Wrimos list.

Beth Cato wrote a great article on “Beginning After NaNoWriMo” tp take you step-by-step through the process. Here are some other great tips and resources:

If these aren’t enough, here is a collection of Pinterest finds for life after NaNoWriMo.

The one piece of advice that all of these people have in common is to keep going. You’ve created something here. Good, bad, or ugly, it is a gem in the rough and it is time now to start to hone it, chipping away the junk rock to find the beauty within, and polish it to make it shine.

There is no bad writing. There is potential in what you wrote. Keep working on it.

Don’t stop writing.

If you arrived late to this series to support NaNoWriMo participants, check out our writing tips, NaNoWriMo prompts, and writing tips for NaNoWriMo on our Writers in the Grove site.

NaNoWriMo Writing Tips: Last Day

Woman triumphant at sunrise You never thought the day would come, did you, but it is here. This is the last day, the last few hours, minutes, and this year’s NaNoWriMo event is over.

Here are some last tips for this year’s event.

Verify: The first thing you need to do this morning is verify your word count. This is critical. While your word tracker maybe telling you that you are at 51,245, NaNoWriMo’s official word count verifier may count words differently and come up with 49,394. Check it to confirm how close or over you are to meet your goals.

If you are over and do not wish to copy and paste your manuscript into NaNoWriMo’s official word count verifier, then use one of the alternative methods with a random text generator.

Be a Winner: Submit your word count for the day to NaNoWriMo’s tracker, verify it, then check all the great prizes you win as a winner of NaNoWriMo.

Backup everything. You should be keeping backups all along the way, but take a moment now as you’ve reached the 50K goal to backup, backup, backup.

Tell All: Let the world know that you won NaNoWriMo. Even if you didn’t, whatever you did is more than you would have done otherwise, so celebrate that with friends, family, and social media networks.

Relax, but not too much: Drink a ton of water, go to bed and catch up on the sleep you missed, and wake up the next morning to continue writing or to start editing your fantastic and creative work.

Write up lessons learned: It was only 30 days out of your life, but many lessons, life lessons, writing lessons, creative lessons, psychological lessons, physical lessons, all types of lessons were faced and learned. Even if you have been keeping track, take time to write them down now. Whatever got in your way during November gets in your way throughout the year. Whatever struggles you faced with your writing, these are the things you need to learn more about and work on this year to improve your writing skills. Don’t wait on this list. Use it to make a plan going forward, and to keep you on track through the next 11 months.

Be proud: Not everyone makes it through NaNoWriMo, but everyone who makes the attempt is a winner. It means that even for a short while, they made writing a priority. Congrats!

You can find more writing tips, NaNoWriMo prompts, and writing tips for NaNoWriMo on our Writers in the Grove site.

NaNoWriMo Tips: Reverse Things

Your character is afraid of their own shadow. They creep through life trying to never disturb the dust of living, yet life still happens to them.

Write a scene like that with your character.

Then, throw the whole scene into reverse.

Write the same scene with your a brave, fearless personality at play, loving life, embracing anything thrown their way.

Which is the true definition of the character you want in your story? Is it one of these extremes or a compromise between the two.

Use this technique to not only learn more about your character, especially to identify strengths and weakness, but also to mix things up. Sometimes a brave and tough character has moments of fear, when they feel helpless and out of control. What would it take to make them feel that way? Might be an interesting part of your story.

You can find more writing tips, NaNoWriMo prompts, and writing tips for NaNoWriMo on our Writers in the Grove site.

NaNoWriMo Tips: Move Once an Hour

I’ve set a digital clock on my computer and phone to ping at the top of every hour. This reminds me to stand up and move.

While I will work through it if I’m in the middle of a writing burst, when the idea is complete, and it is safe to walk away, I will do so for at least five minutes.

Scientific research as shown that sitting for long periods of time is just about as unhealthy as smoking. Writing for 60-90 minutes without moving for only 30 days won’t be the death of you if you are regularly active, but consider a little movement to keep the juices flowing inside your body as well as your mind.

Go make a cup of tea, go drink a glass of water, walk around the room, or to another room and back. Don’t let yourself be distracted by walking into the kitchen or laundry room and seeing something that needs doing. Just move around.

Some writers stand up and do jumping jacks or squats for a few minutes. Many will stretch. Do something upright for just a few minutes once an hour.

You will return to your writing with more energy, a better ability to focus, and possibly a new idea for your story.

You are in the final stretch, so keep stretching.

You can find more writing tips, NaNoWriMo prompts, and writing tips for NaNoWriMo on our Writers in the Grove site.

NaNoWriMo Tips: A Reminder – No Editing

The key to NaNoWriMo is the word count. Meeting the goal of 50,000 words. The best way to get there is to not edit, to not fix spellings or grammar, but to just keep the words coming.

There is another good reason not to edit. It is a distraction.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had the wavy red line under a word and I’ve paused to fix it – after all, it’s just a right click and select the right word – and lost my train of thought. It can happen that fast.

The mistakes will still be there when you come back to edit. Just keep writing. The world will not come to an end because you mizpelled a word or messed up a tense. Keep going. You’re almost done. Stay on pace, stay on track, you can do it.

Note: According to Chris Baty, founder of NaNoWriMo and author of many books including No Plot? No Problem! Revised and Expanded Edition: A Low-stress, High-velocity Guide to Writing a Novel in 30 Days, a good proportion of NaNoWriMo participants use procrastination to stall until the last four to six days of the month, then throw themselves into a frenzy to complete the 50K word count competition on overdrive. Even if you have been slacking, it is possible to write more than 10K words a day, if you stop editing and get out of your own way.

You can find more writing tips, NaNoWriMo prompts, and writing tips for NaNoWriMo on our Writers in the Grove site.

NaNoWriMo Tips: Point of View

NaNoWriMo isn’t about writing just one thing. It is also a time for experimentation, which can also spice up the chore of your 1,667 words a day. Try experimenting with point of view.

Write a scene told from the perspective of the main character, written in third person.

Write the scene as told from the perspective of an omnipotent narrator.

Write the scene as told from the perspective of one of the other characters.

Write the scene as told from the perspective of one of the animals nearby, a bird, cat, dog, snake.

Write the scene in first person.

Which works better? Should you change your story’s point of view? Or keep it? Either way, it mixes things up for a writing session, and helps you see your story from another perspective.

You can find more writing tips, NaNoWriMo prompts, and writing tips for NaNoWriMo on our Writers in the Grove site.

NaNoWriMo Tips: Where are Your Cliffhangers?

Cliffhanger movie 1993 screencap of man falling from landslide on cliff Have you included some cliffhangers in your story? Cliffhangers are the moments in a movie or television show when there is a cut-away from the action, often for a commercial, and the viewer is left hanging, anxious about what will happen to the hero.

Cliffhangers are common writing devices, but they work. In a novel, these are found between scenes and chapters, but also between paragraphs, pulling the reader through the story to find out what happens next.

Where are your cliffhangers? Are they critical plot points or have you thrown in a few throughout the story to keep the reader on edge, eagerly turning page after page?

If you don’t have any, start adding them. Write them in. They add tension, conflict, and drag the reader through the story.

The key to a good cliffhanger is how it draws the reader into the story. They are a part of the action. They want to know what happens. A successful cliffhanger is one written to make the reader a part of the story, so they feel like they are the ones pushing or chasing the story forward.

You can find more writing tips, NaNoWriMo prompts, and writing tips for NaNoWriMo on our Writers in the Grove site.

NaNoWriMo Tips: Play with Time

Writers can make a moment last pages, even a whole chapter. Or they can make a sentence last a week.

As you work on your novel and stories, consider how you use time. Stretch it to make a moment last, compress it to add tension or skip the story ahead.

Consider adding a race against time element to your story. The clock is ticking and your hero has only so much time to accomplish the task and save everyone.

The groundbreaking television show 24 told the story in real-time, so to speak. Each hour increment in a 24 hour period represented 60 minutes of the story line. They even used a clock to help track the hour during each episode. It was an exciting story device that kept the viewer on the edge of their seat as the drama raced forward.

Doctor Who - the Stolen Earth screencap.

In Doctor Who, the Doctor and his companions and the other characters in the stories can shift between time within a few seconds not just on this planet, but across multiple planets and galaxies. In the finales of Season 4, the time traveling machine called the Tardis was controlled to dial through time, allowing the Doctor and Donna to watch an event that could take thousands or millions of years to complete, helping the viewer experience it with them, adding drama to the story line. In the book and BBC show, Johnny and the Bomb by Terry Pratchett, young kids discover a woman who can travel through time with a shopping cart, and go back and forth to World War II to prevent a bomb from exploding in their 1990s time period. Creative manipulation of time lines in stories is found everywhere, helping not only add drama, but to also help the reader understand what’s going on.

As you write, ensure the reader is with you on the passage of time. Do they track that it has been minutes or years between scenes? How have you made that clear?

It’s challenging to keep a reader on track with your creative manipulations of time. Flashbacks, backstory, dream sequences, future thoughts, movements of time between scenes…work it carefully, dragging the reader through the space time continuum.

Help them keep up with the time and the pace of your story, but have fun with how you use time.

You can find more writing tips, NaNoWriMo prompts, and writing tips for NaNoWriMo on our Writers in the Grove site.