Saturday

Things I Learned From Writing 2 Horrible Books

Hello everyone! NaNoWrimo is approaching, fast. Only 16 days left until we begin the month of 2000 words a day hopefully more if I can.

This year I'm hopefully going to try and completely reinvent my writing technique and style, I've written two other books for NaNo that haven't gone.. well. 

Mistakes were made, things were learned, and things will be fixed. To possibly help myself, and maybe others, here are a list of the many, many, things that I did wrong when writing. Let's go.


i've decided to start all writing posts with a textpost. let's laugh at ourselves



some outline/plan is probably needed 

I never planned my novels. Mistake number one. I thought, hey I can be a pantser and wing it, right? (i can't be a pantser) So I have this general idea in my head, a beginning and an end, but other than that, I got nothing. Nothing. Time to plan, as much as I despise it, I need a plan of how things are gonna go and connect. ugh

maybe this way i won't take an entire day out of nano and sit on my bed asking myself where the heck am i taking this novel

*me in November after I planned* i CAN SEE CLEARLY NOW. THE RAIN IS GONE. I CAN SEE ALL OBSTACLES IN MY WAY. IT'S GONNA BE BRIGHT. 




my characters need some sort of personality

My characters are always so flat? Or they're always the same? Just these people who are either horrible, really perky, or like depressed. And that's all there is. 

Hey Noor.. there's something called character development. Try it sometime huh? 


it's gonna be ugly. don't give up on it

It's called a "first" draft for a reason. It's ugly, it's bad, but it can be fixed. And your *wink* plan helps it to be not as ugly. It'll be a not messy ugly. And there's always editing. Not that you're supposed to like it. But it'll make everything pretty AND not messy. 

Don't focus on making a single chapter perfect, it's really okay if it's not, go back and make it perfect later in the year. Right now, we gotta focus on FINISHING this not messy ugly first draft. 

Let your hands just type type type. Give them power, not too much though, they could kill some people... or too many people. 




stop stalling

As much fun as it is, I cannot spend all of November creating beautiful aesthetic Pinterest storyboards. Hey hey don't moan, you know I'm right.

And no you can't use a whole chapter on your two favorite children getting nice things. WE CAN'T ALWAYS HAVE NICE THINGS. 

Don't hold off on those deaths either.. they're painful but people die. it happens. *sobs*



don't. compare. yourself. to. others. 

Hey look at you, all the crazy things you're balancing and writing at the same time. Yeah they finished their novel in a week but that doesn't matter! Keep doing what you're doing, that 2k words a day is amazing, especially with all those crazy things! 

give yourself a high five, reward yourself with a chapter about a dragon, you deserve it me. 


have fun with it

oh come on, did you really think writing was a serious thing that you had to put your serious face and burn your hands into the abyss to finish that chapter. i mean yeah but HAVE FUN. writing is fun, that's why you do it. 

(i probably will have other opinions on this topic come november) 

BUT dance to Hamilton, get a slice of cake, read a little bit, have fun with writing and let yourself be free. F U N. 




Are you doing NaNoWrimo this year? If so tell me about your novel and also.. email me if you want to be writing buddies, we could all be in a big group and it would be COOL BEANS.


Thanks for reading,
Noor

8 comments:

  1. Thanks for this! I'm doing NaNo for the FIRST TIME EVER ahhh and I'm very excited (and scared lol). I'd love to be writing buddies, I'm defo gonna need some support for this, and no way am I expecting to do 2k a day - I'd be proud with 500 words a day haha.

    - www.whatlexieloves.blogspot.com

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    1. Yay! It's scary the first time, but it's loads of fun! 2k a day is hard but with perseverance and dedication, it goes by smoothly.

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  2. My friend and I have decided to start a NaNoWriMo support group at our school to get us through this NaNo season. I "won" two years ago, but gave up halfway through last year. This year I'm really hoping to make it through, despite the fact that I don't have any idea what I'll be writing about yet.

    Ella ~ Simply Scribbles

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  3. Haha, support groups are definitely needed to overcome NaNo. Good luck with your novel, I'm sure that something will come to you soon!

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  4. I'm a pantser who has never done NANO in all 17 years of my life. However, I think I might attempt it next summer now that I have a laptop. The not editing along the way scares the heck out of me *shivers* and having an outline takes... effort *cries*

    Hm, interesting glee gif. I haven't watched Glee since I was 12? But maybe I'll look back on it again one day. Maybe.

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  5. Wow, you've written two novels, that's a big accomplishment! At some point in my life, when I finally decide to do Nano, I'll definitely refer back to your post!

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  6. I think my biggest mistake was taking it too seriously. I forgot to enjoy the process and edited myself to death.

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