Happy NaDoToYoNoMo!
By Jael McHenry | December 2, 2013 |
Finally, it’s December! If you participated in November’s National Novel Writing Month, aka NaNoWriMo, you probably spent most of November sweaty and caffeinated, hermited and muttering, pushing yourself to write 50,000 words between November 1 and 30.
So, first things first: if you successfully completed NaNoWriMo – congratulations! It’s a huge, huge accomplishment.
Second, don’t you dare think of doing anything with that draft in December. Don’t look at it. Don’t edit it. Don’t even open the file. And certainly do not even THINK about querying agents with it or putting it up on Amazon.
That’s right, it’s NaDoToYoNoMo: National Don’t Touch Your Novel Month.
All over the web you can read lots of opinions about whether or not NaNoWriMo is a good idea. I happen to love it. But whether you’re experienced or new, whether it’s your first NaNoWriMo or your fifteenth, whether you never expected to write a novel or whether it’s been your lifelong dream finally achieved, here’s the cold truth: your novel is in first draft form. It is not ready.
That doesn’t mean your accomplishment is any less amazing. What you’ve got is a work of art. But it’s not the best you can do, not by a long shot, and the only way you’ll be able to see what the difference is between how good it is and how good it could be is to let it sit.
Put the novel down. Step away.
This applies to first drafts of novels however they’re created, frankly. Whether they were written in one month, or three days, or three years, they’re still first drafts. It’s really tempting, as soon as you finish the last page, to open it up to the first and start rewriting.
Resist.
Once you’ve had some distance from your draft, once you can return to it and it almost feels like someone else wrote it, you’ll be in a much better position to edit. You’ll be able to say Does this scene really belong here? And not reflexively defend the status quo with, Ohmigosh I spent so long writing that scene, I don’t want to just throw it away. Because sometimes, throwing things away makes a novel better. Or adding things. Or changing things around. But the chances that your novel came out of the chute 100% the best it could be on the first try, is frankly, quite slim.
Maybe you’re 95% of the way there. Maybe it’s 70%. Maybe it’s 30%. But the best way to find that out is to let go of it for a while. You need perspective. You need distance. You need time. Give yourself permission to do other things—bake cookies! Read! Go outdoors!—and return to your manuscript, a month from now, with fresh eyes. You deserve it. More importantly, your manuscript deserves it, if you want to give it the best possible chance of being the best possible novel it can be.
So, happy NaDoToYoNoMo!
It’s amazing how much you’ll accomplish by doing nothing.
Jael McHenry is the debut author of The Kitchen Daughter (Simon & Schuster/Gallery Books, April 12, 2011). Her work has appeared in publications such as the North American Review, Indiana Review, and the Graduate Review at American University, where she earned her MFA in Creative Writing. You can read more about Jael and her book at jaelmchenry.com or follow her on Twitter at @jaelmchenry.
I love this, Jael! I’ll throw in another tip, too: Spend your month reading a great craft book or two, so when you do return to the pages you have lessons ready to apply. That may help you get over Editing Resistance and prepare you to do whatever it takes, slash and burn, to transform your pages into a quality story.
Long live NaDoToYoNoMo!
Very smart addition, Therese! Less experienced writers often mistake proofreading or sentence-level revisions as “editing”, and it’s good to get a sense of the much, much bigger issues that can and should be tackled when revising a draft.
Good advice! I was planning on starting the re-writing process this week (I’m a first-timer and have never written anything this long before). I’ll take a break and get back to it in the New Year. Thanks. I’ll get into my Jack Bickham book instead.
Congrats, Holly! I definitely think you’ll have a much fresher take on it in a month instead of a week. Plenty of other things to do in the meantime, as you said.
Excellent advice. It would actually be rather painful to read over the tribble I had to write to meet my word count ;) Instead I’m going to revisit an older NaNo project.
Marie, I’ve definitely gone back to previous drafts and thought “How in the world could I possibly have written that! It has to go!” The joy and sadness of NaNoWriMo, all rolled up in one.
I’ve never done NaNo, but I’m a big fan of stepping away from a rough draft. And yet I see all of time how difficult this is for a lot of writers. The idea of stepping away comes up on the WU group page often, and the person seeking advice is almost always told–in chorus from the masses–to step away. They almost always say something like, “Okay, I guess I might leave it alone for a day or two.” Sorry, not long enough, IMO. December presents a perfect opportunity to step away for a full month. Good idea, Jael!
Good insight, Vaughn! A day or two isn’t really stepping away. More time is definitely needed. Plus the holidays are so busy, December really is a good time to just let yourself NOT work on a particular project for a while.
Great advice! I completed a middle grade first draft at 28,000 words so I met my personal goal. December is the perfect month to leave a draft alone and reconnect with the people we hid from during November.
Congratulations on the MG novel! And yes, it’s a good time to see all the real people we ignored while we were spending time with our imaginary friends last month.
I was considering picking my NaNo draft back up at the end of December but I think I’ll go ahead and give it the whole month.
Instead, I plan on working on short stories, reading craft books, reading in general, and just getting myself organized and ready for the new year. Oh, and having some fun. And chocolate. :)
Love that plan! Other projects and chocolate for everyone!
NaNoWriMo can be great fun, but you’re absolutely right — true “writing” is so much more than getting a draft down on paper within 30 days. Letting it sit for the month of December is wise advice, Jael. And don’t forget — NaNoEd(iting)Mo is right around the corner in March.
Ah yes. Counterintuitive, but there’s so much more to writing than writing!
First drafts ought to come with automatic locking mechanisms – as soon as you finish that last page, the file is inactivated for thirty days. If you try to get in before then, it self-destructs.
Ha, automatic locking mechanism! Love it! Great idea.
Thanks, Jael. Honestly I am too tired to even look at my NaNo novel. I fell behind this year and wrote 7600 words on Friday before finishing it early Saturday morning. Putting any first draft aside for at least a month is a sound practice. You need time and distance to gain perspective on a first draft.
CG, congrats on finishing! Sounds like you’re in a tired but strong place.
That stepping away is really hard. I met, got to know and began loving those characters and then I just walk away? Since I’m doing my first novel, I’ll take the advice. Yesterday, believe it or not, I was feeling lonely. OK, to something else this month. I’ll work on improvement on my book review blog, only a month old; I’ll prepare for what reads I want to do for January; I’ll read like crazy this month; I’ll clean the house it’s so dirty; and spend more time with my husband who is starting to feel deprive of attention. Thanks Jael. I’ll take your advice.
It can definitely be hard to walk away, and you’re not alone in missing your characters sometimes! But when you come back to them, it’ll be such a wonderful reunion.
I didn’t participate but these are words of wisdom. I’ve heard that agents are slammed with queries and even full manuscripts every December 1st. None of us can submit the first draft of a well-planned manuscript that took a year to write. I can’t imagine allowing anyone but my cat (who edits as I write…she’s a live editor) to see my first draft. Lock it away for a while. Move on to the next project.
Thanks, Ron! Other projects are a good place for our time and attention while something sits.
Great advice!
Darn it, I hit submit before I was done with my comment. I wanted to mention that if you like the sense of community and deadline that NaNoWriMo gives, there is also NaNoEdMo (National Novel Editing Month–www.nanoedmo.net), but you’d have to wait until March for that.
Very interesting! Haven’t tried that one. Great recommendation — that sense of community is so powerful.
I agree, Jael, first drafts need to be revised and they need time to sit, untouched. However, how much time they require varies from writer to writer. For example, I begin revising a scene the day after I’ve written it. This process works for me–it may not work for you. One size does not fit all.
Leanne — Very good point that one size does not fit all. Even on different projects, or at different points in the process, the same writer might find different approaches helpful. For my part, revisions happening later in the process often happen without a long break between, but after a first draft, especially if it was written fast, I feel the space is necessarily to consider the shape of the entire book.
This is such good advice, and I’m glad you clarified that time away from the first draft of any WIP can be a good thing. I like the timing of NaNo, even though I don’t participate, but finishing a draft the end of Nov then heading into the winter holidays is good timing. December is often such a busy month that there is less time for writing or editing.
Great advice! I did Nano this year and I loved it because it really helped me see what I can do if I set my mind to it – but it is most definitely time to take a little break!
How true! I left a novel on a floppy for so long technology zoomed past floppies and when I finally decided to give it a read, I couldn’t! Fortunately a friend with an old computer deciphered it and I was amazed to find not only did the novel hold up, it’s PDG. And I wrote it in 1998. Only took me fifteen years to realize how good it was and to resurrect it. So there’s definitely something to be said for leaving drafts in drawers
The exception can test the rule – so I’m going to disagree because with confidence in your writing voice and editing capability and experience in the processes of self publishing you can use NaNoWriMo as a great workout to get your short novel out there fast. To me the NaNoWriMo process is akin to the visual artist who spends a day out on a busy city street with cans of spray paint and a big sheet of paper and produces fabulous extraterrestrial paintings. You do it fast and get it out there to consumers, no contemplation and no turning back. I would also add at some stage and sooner rather than later your novel has to end, no more editing and no more paralysis by analysis. Then move onto the next one – don’t drag it out, wait three months and leave it in a drawer but edit immediately, write a million words of crap and get the 10000 hours of learning in. So next Nano 2014 – don’t just write the 50K but aim to conceive, write, edit, cover and publish all within the 30 days and really feel the fear
Love it – excellent advice!
Listen to Jael, folks. Step away from that manuscript. Move along, now. Nothing to see here…
Great advice! I will be opening my file in December, but only because I haven’t quite made it to the end yet – I got the 50k words, but the story isn’t over. Then I’m going to take a break, do some writing exercises, maybe work on some short stories. Oh yeah, and spend time with the real people I live with instead of the imaginary ones in my head. :)
Words of wisdom Jael. Just completed my sixth first draft novel (and third NaNoWriMo) and like all of them it will be locked away in a drawer to marinade for a few months – at least six. And then I will begin the crafting of a potential manuscript worth seeing the light of day. Nothing like time to improve the vintage… time well spent perfecting the words.
Your absolutely correct. I let my novel sit and ferment while I use my time gearing up for the December holiday. I know I have six levels of editing to do. Then I need a few alpha readers and then the beta readers before I try to publish. Thanks for concurring with my mythodology.
This is great advice for any first draft. Whether it took you one month or ten years to write your novel, the first few weeks (or months) after finishing you’ll be too emotionally attached to it to see it objectively. Every time you read it you’ll think either it’s the most ingenious literary masterpiece ever penned, or it’s the worst drivel ever unleashed upon the unsuspecting world and the most generous thing you could do for humanity is to smash your laptop and never type a word again.
And no, you can’t cheat and let other people read it instead. Any critical feedback will be a point-blank gunshot to the heart, and any praise will either go to your head or excite paranoid delusions that all of your friends and family are conspiring to lie to you. Maybe both.
I feel so guilty for leaving it lie, but you are absolutely right. Besides, with the holidays here, my attention is required elsewhere (In several other festive areas).
Thanks for post!
While I’m over the 50,000 mark, I still haven’t finished my novel draft, so I’ll be trying to finish up in December. That’ will make January my NaDoToYoNoMo month. :)
[…] (Happy New Year, by the way!) many authors are desperately trying to follow the principle behind NaDoToYoNoMo, which, I believe, is a new concept. As someone who didn’t participate in NaNoWriMo this year […]