Week 5 of this prep/research time is all about community! The first blog starts with NaNoWriMoPrep! Week 1/6, to explain all about National Novel Writing Month. Since I live outside of my family’s town, I need to brag for a minute about my writing group. When I was living in my hometown, I had found a writing group that I participated in weekly. We would share ideas and help each other with stuck scenes. When I moved here, NaNoWriMo was creeping up and I visited a couple groups. Some met on days that were already busy for me or only met during NaNoWriMo and after that worked only on their own. There were some groups that did critiques and I’m of the mindset if I’m writing a first draft, I don’t want to be critiqued. At the moment, I am reading J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings (Fellowship) and I know that Tolkien would ask for critiques and read his chapters out loud, sometimes changing something in the middle of a reading. As much as I admire his writing, I am a believer in writing a first draft, and several drafts after that, with just myself and my research. The writing group I found last November meets at a coffee shop late Sunday morning for almost two hours. The first 15-20 minutes it to catch up, talk about writing (or not) and to find some delicious writing fuel. Then our leader sets a timer and we write for an hour straight, not talking at all to each other, unless we have a newbie or a latecomer. Then we explain where and who we are and continue with our writing. Once the timer ends, we wrap it up and talk about how it went. Usually the next thirty minutes or so reverts to talking about books or movies, or a character that we can’t quite find a place for.
One of the things I love about this writing group is that we are all different. I know you could probably say that about any group because, “Duh, Hannah. Everyone is uniquely different!” but I want to point out that everyone in our writing group comes from different households, jobs, backgrounds, religions, and even writing styles. But what brings us together is that we love writing and we love to put words together to make other people notice something they might not have before. Our differences don’t impede our writing. Rather, it enhances it because we are okay talking about hard subjects or even asking the occasional question about beliefs and practices different from our own. We don’t use them as fodder for our writing, but rather to get to know the person behind the writer. That is something that has built over time, but remains a staple among the core writers who consistently visit the table each week.
In explaining my intensely-focused writing drive during November, I want to share something from nanowrimo.org, especially for those who are new to this whole NaNoWriMo thing. By the way, if you’re interested, find the NaNoWriMo and NaNoPrep hashtags in my blog for more about how I structure my initial novel writing!
After I have the heart of my manuscript and have taken time to step back to work on consistency, plot elements, or characterization, then maybe it is time to get one person to read parts of it. During the month(s) of NaNoWriMo–November, January, February–I am content to scribble away at nearly 100,000 words and begin the stitching together process. Now that I’ve developed a daily habit of writing consistently I am hoping that my books will come together more quickly and I can start seeing some published books in the near future! At the moment, one of my manuscripts is hanging in cyberspace, waiting for my queries to be snatched up. The other is in limbo until I finish my NaNo month in December so that I can focus on research for this new novel and then it’s on to illustrations for my future graphic novel! I have no idea how long that process is going to take because this is all new ground for me. Remember? I’m building the plane while flying it.