It’s October and writers everywhere are scrambling to prepare for NaNoWriMo—that one month when dreamers put pen to paper and write. Fifty thousand words in thirty days. It’s a glorious, exhausting plunge into writing that I highly recommend trying.
The trick to NaNoWriMo is to take the motivation you feel during November and experience it throughout the year when it’s back to just you and your words. No fellow writers feeling the pressure. No write-ins or all-nighters with like-minded folks. No common goal for the month.
Writing is a solitary adventure, no matter the crowd. In the end, it’s about taking what’s in your head and putting it on paper in a way that makes sense. It’s having the discipline to put your butt into the seat and write. If you want a writing career, you have to write every month, not just in November.
One way to fit writing into your daily life both inside and outside of NaNoWriMo is through Pocket Writing.
Pocket Writing
Pocket Writing is what I call it when you fill tiny pockets in your day with words. It could be jotting down a sentence or scene idea while in line for lunch. Or using your time on a train commute to write instead of read. Or setting aside the remote and writing instead of watching yet another YouTube video.
We all have time we could fill with writing instead of the myriad other activities we fall back on from habit. You could get up earlier or stay up later like many suggest. Or you could cut back on social media and use some of that time for writing.
Pocket writing focuses on tiny amounts of time that are not filled meaningfully. It’s choosing to pull our your notebook and write instead of play on your phone while waiting for a late friend. It’s recording a note in your phone instead of playing your thousandth game of Tetris. It’s choosing to focus on your dream instead of wasting time with something that doesn’t add to your overall experience.
Start paying attention to when you waste time. Keep a log. You might be surprised by how many minutes you can string together in a day for writing if you chose to do so. Once you make a log, you can plan your time better. Say your log shows you spend 45 minutes on social media a day. You could devote that entire time to writing or at least a portion of it. Maybe you spend another 30 minutes a day waiting on family members. Try to use that wasted time to your advantage. Or go to work half an hour early and sit in the break room and write until it’s time to be on the job.
You don’t need to write in big chunks of time. Steal minutes throughout your day. Both John Grisham and Kathy Reichs used breaks during work to write their novels. They carved out writing time despite their busy schedules as an attorney and forensic anthropologist. If you look at Kathy Reichs’ bio, you’ll see how difficult finding time must be for her and yet, her bestselling mysteries are proof it can be done.
Finding time for writing is like finding time for exercise. Twenty minutes is better than nothing. Taking a quick walk can do wonders for your health. Writing for twenty minutes can do wonders for your total word count.
If you’re worried that pockets of time aren’t enough to get into your novel and make significant progress, then go smaller. Try writing setting descriptions or some dialogue. Jot down ideas for scenes and sketch them out. Do a character study to try out a new direction. You can work in pieces instead of the whole if it’s easier to jump into for the ten minute break you have. Think of it as a flash fiction exercise that you can later fit into your overall story.
The point is to take hold of those lost minutes and use them however you can to advance your work.
For more advice and comments on NaNoWriMo, check out my other blogs on the subject:
NaNoWriMo: What You Will Learn Doing It; NaNoWriMo: Why It’s a Good Idea and Eliza Doolittle and NaNoWriMo.
Now get back to plotting and preparing. November 1st is not that far away.