Audrey A McGee

Would someone PLEASE remind my early December brain that I was supposed to give a triumphant report of my massive success? I have to finish this blog post series!

54,532 words, according to my tracking app.

30 days of writing: I wrote at least a few hundred words every single day.

WOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOO!!

My book — a story that I’d been working on since mid-high school — came to life through many days of me banging my head against a literary wall. I discovered much more about my world and its history, my characters and their individual struggles, and a little more of what I might want to say in my story. And, rather best of all, I found a bit more of my writing style. When the story clicks into place, the words come more easily, and a little bit vice versa. It is a blessing to be confident in what you’re writing.

My good friend and writing mentor, Kate, told me that her biggest takeaways from NaNo are generally how she writes, not what she writes. Now, I didn’t develop the steady writing habits she did because I was piecing together multiple jobs, and nothing was consistent for me. But, here are some things I learned about myself as a writer:

I write a lot better with the Nutcracker soundtrack playing in the background. It’s familiar enough to not feel strange or uncomfortable, but not so catchy that it’s distracting from my work. Simultaneously, Tchaikovsky was a fantastic musical storyteller. Often times, I would put one of the songs on repeat because it matched the exact vibes I needed in my scene. Or, if a track came on that was super fun and inspiring to me, I would pause what I was doing and start writing a scene based on that song. I ended up writing the ending scene of my book based on Act 2: No. 12d, Divertissement, commonly known as the Trepak or Russian Dance.

My tendency to switch scenes takes me to the most valuable point I learned about myself as a writer: I’m a puzzler. Often, writers categorize themselves as either making intense and detailed outlines prior to writing (aka a “plotter”) or someone who writes the story as it emerges from thin air (sometimes called a “pantser” — writing by the seat of your pants). I am neither, often writing myself into a hole with either method. So eventually, during NaNo, I just started writing whatever scene seemed fun to me at the time. I had some nuggets, or images, or characters, that I knew I wanted to include because they were fun: scavengers living in a swamp; a factory full of light and color; the lord of the penguin realm. As I wrote each scene, I would improvise which characters were present, guess at the context with which they arrived in the situation, and then, like a pantser, discovered some interesting things about the story. After writing a few of these, I would ask myself where these might fit in the longer narrative, and start to roughly outline, like a plotter. When I described my style to Kate, she referred to me as a puzzler, a type I hadn’t heard of before.

Knowing my writing type is a huge benefit to my work, even as I’ve been working on different projects this year, like a new play and a research project. When I write what seems fun and interesting, I’ll build enough pieces that I’ll eventually find it fun and interesting to string them all together! Narratively, it keeps me fresh and not bound to one train of thought, as I feel when I try to be a plotter or a pantser.

And now, some general tips you’ll hear from everyone else — and I’ll repeat them, cause they need to be heard:

• Rewards systems are fantastic! And they don’t have to be big. I often found some sort of special sweet treat for the end of each day, or let myself watch an episode of the animated Redwall series as a reward.
• Timers and clocks can do everything. I sometimes set a timer for 20 minutes, or sometimes a weird number like 8, and tell myself I only need to focus for that amount of time. It means I don’t have to mentally keep track of time and only focus on my task until it reminds me of what’s next.
• You can and will hate what you write sometimes. But you have to keep hammering away, because eventually, it’ll crack open.
• Watch out for your weaknesses and be aware of them. I am a loquacious writer, so reaching the word goal per day was pretty easy for me, but I felt like my work was just petty blathering. I had to cut bait on a few scenes because I was getting very lost from the plot.
• Having a writing buddy to keep you accountable, celebrate your accomplishments, and nerd out over your story is absolutely crucial. I texted Kate several times a day during November asking for help or sympathy, or just sending memes. In addition, hearing about her NaNo project was stimulating to my creative brain.

So, there you have it. The long-delayed reflection of a really good month of writing! And not to worry, I have been working — my plan is to finish the first draft of my new play by mid-June, and the research project that I mentioned above is already in the books!

My plan for this book is to come back to it this November, and use the month to write another 50,000 words and hopefully complete a rough draft!

And my plan for this blog? Well, the hope is that I come back to it a lot this summer, with reflections on my writing, my teaching, or the internship that I just finished. I think I’ll be a little faster on the blogging than this time — seven months is just a bit too long to wait.