Another NaNoWriMo in the Can

I won NaNoWriMo tonight. I’ve printed my certificate, ordered my winner t-shirt, and gotten a coupon for Dabble, the program I’ve drafted five books in.  

I’m superstitious. I wait to buy my winner t-shirt until I’ve passed fifty thousand words. The shop can run out of shirt. It’s happened a couple of times. But I refuse to budge on this one. I don’t want to jinx myself.  

Dabble is my word processor of choice. I only use it to draft. There is something it that is eye pleasing to me. I can’t think of a reason to mess with that. I have other programs, but I don’t stray for long. Dabble has more options as it’s grown up a bit. I only use Dabble to type out words. Right now, any edits, scene cards, research, notes, and character sheets live in Scrivener and Notion. But I love Dabble. When I win Nano, I get a fifty percent off coupon for one year! 

Things I do before I write. I use scene cards as a prewriting exercise. What do I think is going to happen next? What conflict should I show? What’s the timeline? What’s the weather? Whose POV will it be? These short little cards wind up my brain and then I let it loose to spin out a story.  

I write using sprints. Every fifteen minutes I can get five hundred words, give or take. Nano requires one thousand six hundred and seventy-six words per day. That's four sprints. One hour of writing. This made the word count more than possible. With lots of breaks, I stayed ahead most of the month.  

There were no excuses and no reason to skip days. I wrote through all the turmoil November flicks in my face. Migraine? Dictation. No time? Write in between appointments. Would rather do anything else than write? Sat my butt down and wrote. This is how I win Nano. Consistency. I do it every single day, no matter what.  

One great thing about Nano is it stokes my creativity. If I write every day, my writing gets better and better and flows will no fuss. I’m better at my critiques. I read with a more critical eye. This only happens when I draft. Edits are a beast for future me to think about. Right now, I need to finish twenty thousand words before New Year.  

I'll be honest. I didn’t want to do Nano this year. That’s odd for me, and perhaps the elongated pandemic has something to do with it. As I wrote this year, I sometimes realized I was going through the motions. I’m not even sure I like the book. It's gross right now. But I kept writing. Why? Because you can’t edit what you haven’t written.  

There have been years where I’m up all-night November twenty-ninth trying to get five thousand words written in a short period. This year, I started out strong with about ten thousand words in the first three days. This let me get ahead. Momentum can be so important.  

If you’re behind, you can catch up. If you hate the book, keep going. Something good will happen that might save the book. Sit down and write. Your story could be a bright moment for someone. Books touch people in ways we can never imagine.

Please let me know where you are with your book. Hoping all the right words flow out of your mind and onto the page. I’m going to go collapse now and eat chocolate. Happy writing!