I just finished my 12th day of novel writing for NaNoWriMo. Since I started on November 1st, my novel has grown from 0 to 21,087 words. I’ve written 17 scenes so far, so I’m averaging 1240 words per scene.

While I had some aspects figured out before I began, I’m mostly pantsing it as I go.

I’m not writing the scenes in order, preferring to jump around a lot. So far I’ve written 4 scenes for Act 1, 10 scenes for Act 2, and 3 scenes for Act 3.

Words Are Cheap

I can usually write a draft of one scene in 30-60 minutes, depending on how long it is. Since it doesn’t take much investment to write a scene, throwing some words onto the screen is an easy way to explore possibilities. I don’t feel attached to a scene that took less than an hour to write.

It would be easy to overthink a scene by planning it out in detail, but I could easily spend more time planning a scene instead of just writing it. I’m also likely to discover a few things while writing that I wouldn’t have anticipated during planning.

Writing without much planning is a discovery process. I don’t always know where a scene will go when I begin it. I like to listen to the characters to see where they naturally want to take the scene.

I’ve written a few scenes that are inconsistent with other parts of the story, so they couldn’t all co-exist in the same book. I’m doing this deliberately since I want to explore alternative ways of telling different pieces of the story. It’s like writing a Choose Your Own Adventure book and then collapsing it into a linear story when I can see what the most interesting path is.

Motives and Subtext

The writing is getting easier, especially as I get to know the characters better. As I deepen my understanding of a character’s motives and desires, the character basically writes their own dialogue for me.

When I first started writing but didn’t know the characters very well, it was harder to write dialogue that sounded natural because I didn’t really know what each character wanted. At first I would just have them talk for the sake of talking, which led to bland, stiff, and lifeless dialogue. When the characters aren’t clear in my mind, their dialogue is very “on the nose,” meaning that it’s too direct.

When I read back this type of dialogue, it reminds me of what I commonly see in very amateurish fiction, where every character pretty much speaks the same way.

A scene feels very different when characters speak with an agenda in mind. Having a clear agenda makes it easier for a character to convey details through subtext. It also makes it easier to differentiate characters.

In good stories characters communicate a great deal through subtext. People don’t say what they really mean.

Building Fiction Circuits

I feel like the more dialogue I write, the more my brain is building out the circuitry and algorithms for this particular skill set. Whereas in the beginning this type of writing feel like pushing through mud, now it’s flowing more easily, which makes it more enjoyable too. It’s really so much nicer in Week 2 than it was in Week 1.

To pace myself to reach 50K words on November 30th, I should be at 20,004 words today, so I’m now 1083 words ahead of schedule. My goal when I began was to get ahead a little and stay there, and that’s what I’ve done, padding the buffer but a little more each day. Framing this as a daily commitment to write 1667 words per day (plus a little extra) is working nicely.

Here are my latest progress updates for my novel:

Day 4

I had a very pleasant writing session on this day, now at 6872 words total. I’m starting to enjoy this more as the scenes are coming together, and I’m getting more familiar with the key characters.

I spent some time organizing the manuscript scene structure before I wrote any scenes this time. I created placeholders for the remaining signpost scenes, found a cleaner way to arrange my existing notes, and did a little more journaling with my characters.

In general I find that journaling with my characters and asking them what we ought to write today is a great way to begin each writing session. This is basically the method from Stature called “Chorus” applied to fiction.

Another ace of a habit is listening to brain.fm focus tracks while writing. When using the phone app version, I prefer the “deep work” tracks for this type of work. Oddly the “creative flow” tracks tend to make me sleepy.

On Day 4 I wrote two more signpost scenes:

• The Doorway of No Return #2, which is the final scene of Act 2
• Mounting Forces, which is the first scene of Act 3

This gives me a sense of how Act 2 could end and how Act 3 can begin. I’m not sure if I’ll keep these scenes as-is though. It’s an interesting place to take the story, but I’m not sure if these particular scenes will set the characters up for a strong enough ending.

Playing with the signpost scenes is like figuring out the spine of the story. I can see how it will be easier to fill in the remaining scenes once I figure these out. It’s basically the 80/20 rule applied to fiction writing. Figure out your 20% most important scenes, and write and arrange those first. Those are the scenes that provide 80% of the value.

Day 5

I’m at 8605 words total now. On this day I wrote the Lights Out scene, which is signpost scene #11 and the second scene of Act 3.

This is the dark, bleak, “all hope is lost” scene that sets things up for the finale.

It’s interesting that in many story structures, right after the lead character makes a big decision, you knock them down a notch in the next scene (or shortly thereafter). One reason for doing this is that it raises the stakes, showing just how big or risky the decision really is. This increases the tension and helps maintain good pacing. The “Lights Out” scene raises the stakes as high as they’ll go.

Isn’t real life like this too sometimes? You may make a big decision such as to quit your job or leave a relationship, and now you have an upcoming scene where you have to tell your boss or partner, and that’s often an unpleasant situation that knocks you back a bit. But then you can at least have some recovery scenes afterwards.

In fiction and in real life, courage is a big part of the journey. Without sufficient courage, you can’t make those big decisions, and the story can’t progress.

This was a hard scene to write, so it took me considerably longer to write than any other scene. I kept pausing and reflecting along the way on where to take it next, like after every few hundred words. There were a lot of options at each point.

This is also a very unusual Lights Out scene, not something I’ve seen elsewhere. While the idea of having a scene like this isn’t new, the way I’m approaching it isn’t familiar to me. It’s close to an addict hitting rock bottom, but it’s actually way worse than that. It’s like taking an addictive drug that’s also conscious, so it won’t let you quit even when you decide to.

I wonder if I overdid it though. I buried the main character so deeply in this scene that it looks totally impossible for her to escape her fate now. But that also makes it kinda interesting to see if I can use this. If I can’t see a way out, the reader may not be able to see any way out either.

The writing is feeling a little easier now that I’ve done five days of it. It’s still challenging though. If I didn’t have my daily quota of writing at least 1667 words each day, my word count would surely be lower at this point.

I feel like what I’m really doing this month is mapping out the story space. There are so many permutations and branches of the story I could write. Every writing session gives me more clarity about what I could do, but it won’t necessarily be what I end up going with.

I find the “words are cheap” mindset helpful. It’s not that difficult to throw a scene onto the screen and see how it turns up and then reflect upon how it fits with the other scenes. At this point I’m not worrying at all about polished language. I’m writing the scenes fairly plainly to explore more possibilities each day.

On Day 2 of NaNoWriMo, I wrote 1743 more words, so I’m at 3439 words for my novel so far. Today I’ll pass 5K words.

While the challenge is technically to write 50K words in 30 days, I’m framing it as a daily commitment to write at least 1667 words per day. So I’ll surely end up with more than 50K words by the end. My approach is less flexible since I won’t be taking any days off, nor will I reduce the daily quota based on my ongoing word count. It’s easier for me this way since I’ll never let myself fall behind, so I’ll avoid the trap of having to write thousands of extra words to catch up later. Today is Day 3, and some people are already feeling behind because they didn’t write much on the first two days. I’d rather always feel like I’m ahead for the rest of the month. I’m ahead in my word count now, and I’m going to pad my lead each day going forward. I will never be behind, only ahead.

As I’ve noted many times before, you win a 30-day challenge before you start Day 1. It’s all in the early game. I’m well aware of the tricks and traps my mind will succumb to if I don’t frame and approach the challenge correctly, so I remove the riskiest excuses in advance. Sometimes that means being extra strict, but there’s a hidden ease and lightness in that strictness that many people overlook.

I also feel compassion for my future self, so I won’t to burden him with having to do a 5K- or 10K-word catch-up day this month. If he wants to blast out more words for fun because he wants to, he has that option, but I won’t force that obligation onto him. I’m just going to stick with a steady pacing one day at a time.

I began Day 2 by re-reading what I wrote on Day 1, fixing a couple of typos and making a few more editing notes but otherwise not doing any editing. I just want to focus on writing to get the ideas down. Some Nano participants have cautioned that it’s risky to re-read previous work during the challenge since they too easily get sucked into editing, which doesn’t advance their word count. I don’t find that to be an issue so far though. Making some editing notes is enough for me. I might toss out entire scenes later, so I don’t see the point in editing them prematurely. I see this as being similar to optimizing code that was written for a prototype, which is usually pointless since that code will likely be refactored or replaced anyway. Since I’m just prototyping my novel, sloppy code (or writing) is fine for now. Little or nothing of what I write for this draft is likely to make it into the final version.

I take to heart the advice that the purpose of the first draft is to write the story for myself. That mindset is helpful since it encourages me to just explore the ideas and possibilities and not fuss over how bad it is.

This time I wrote two shorter scenes of roughly equal length, so I have three scenes done now. Instead of writing two more scenes in order though, I skipped ahead and wrote the first two scenes of Act II. So I still have more to fill in for Act I, but I like that this helps me see one of the upcoming signposts that I want to reach. I think I have a better sense of where to take Act I now that I see how Act II begins.

I recently learned about James Scott Bell’s 14-signpost plot structure, and I like it so far. It fits my novel idea pretty well, so I’m loosely using it for my scaffolding. I think it’s more useful and insightful than the common 7-point plot structure or the 12-point hero’s journey or any of the other structures I’ve seen so far.

Within this signpost model, I wrote signpost scene #1 on Day 1 (The Disturbance), and on Day 2 I wrote signpost scene #5 (Doorway of No Return #1), along with another scene right after after signpost scene #5.

However, after that writing session, I did more reading about this structure, and I realized that it would probably be wise to insert signpost scene #6 (A Kick in the Shins) immediately after signpost scene #5.

In The Matrix movie, think of signpost scene #5 as the scene where Neo decides to take the red pill. That’s his first doorway of no return. What happens immediately after that? He swallows the pill, and now he’s on his way out of the Matrix. He touches a mirror, which sticks to him and then spreads over his skin, making him freak out. The crew makes it clear that his life is in danger while they race against time to trace his signal. Then Neo’s real human body wakes up – hairless, naked, and covered in slime. Eventually he gets dumped down a chute and picked up by Morpheus’ ship. But now he’s really weak and has to build up muscles he’s never used. I think that’s a good example of signpost scene #6 (A Kick in the Shins) following immediately after signpost scene #5 (Doorway of No Return #1).

The purpose of giving the protagonist a kick in the shins right after they commit to a new course of action is to show that the stakes are indeed high – often life or death. Neo doesn’t just take the red pill and find himself dancing with Smurfs. He’s blasted with some hefty seriousness, and the risks become more real and present. Notice what this does for the pacing and tension of the story. Imagine how Act II would flow if there was no kick in the shins. The tension and momentum would drop, and the pacing would feel slower.

I find it empowering to study story structure as I go along. This way I can connect my actual writing to the structural elements I’m learning, so the study is immediately practical. Bell’s signpost structure helps me think about the next signpost coming up that I can aim for, so there’s a purposeful progression to what I’m writing.

While I don’t have to use a known structure as a guide, it sure is helpful when just starting out. It’s also fun and rewarding to spot these structural elements in books and movies, like The Matrix. Once you see those patterns, you cannot unsee them.

I’d like to spend some time watching more classic movies this month to ponder their structure. I really enjoyed the deep analysis that was done at Robert McKee’s Story seminar last year, where we took six hours to go through Casablanca scene by scene. That gave me a whole new appreciation of the movie.

Overall the writing process on Day 2 was slower going than Day 1, taking about 90 minutes. I had to pause and think more about the character interactions and action flow. I really notice how inefficient my mental circuitry is at writing fiction. When I write nonfiction articles, ideas flow in and words flow out with nary a hint of friction or resistance. My subconscious constructs sentences and paragraphs for me. I watch as my fingers type. Editing is super easy too.

But with fiction it’s a whole different story (pun intended). It feels like I’m using brain circuitry that’s clogged with sludge. Ideas flow in, but they get bogged down in mental marshland, occasionally spitting out gobs of muddy language. I have to consciously push my thoughts through the tubes, just to get some ill-formed words and phrases splattering onto the screen. My mind pops and stutters in confusion. It takes real mental effort just to squeeze out one sentence at a time. And it’s way more taxing and draining.

Writing a nonfiction blog post about my fiction writing is so much easier and more effortless than writing the fiction itself.

These experiences are very different emotionally too. Blogging usually feels delightful – so light, playful, meaningful, flowing, and graceful as my fingers dance and skip around the keys like happy kids playing hopscotch.

Writing fiction feels darker for me. There’s tension, tightness, and awkwardness in the experience. It’s like I’m back in school doing a mandatory speech contest – a dreadful experience that I hated. But then when the day’s writing is done, there’s a feeling of relief, and I can breathe easier again.

It would be wonderful to reach the point where fiction content flows through my mind with the same ease as nonfiction. Maybe in a million words or so, I’ll be at that point. In the meantime I’m okay with the friction phase, which slows me down but doesn’t stop me. Lots of learning experiences are like this in the beginning.

Here are two things that helped:

• Before I started writing, I did a quick journaling Q&A with the main character to ask her what she wanted me to write today and how she wanted me to express her character. She gave me some suggestions on ways to express more personality for her. This was harder to write at first, but it made for more interesting (less bland) dialogue. I’m gradually feeling more connected with this character.
• Listening to brain.fm focus tracks while writing is wonderful for reducing the mental and emotional tension. It helps me relax into the creative writing experience.

Onward to Day 3…

NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) begins today, and this is the first year I’m participating. Shortly after posting this, I’m kicking off a 30-day challenge to write at least 50,000 words of a novel this month, which works out to 1667 words per day.

Here’s how I’m framing it: I’ve never written a novel before, and I’ve always wanted to. It’s something I want to add to my life resumé. While I could do this entirely on my own, it’s more fun and engaging to ride along with the energy of NaNoWriMo. I’ve thought about doing this for many past Novembers, and the year of COVID seems like the perfect year to start.

I’ve never written a novel before, so I don’t actually know how to do it. I haven’t written short stories either. Great! It will be a learning and growth experience then. That’s reason enough to do it.

I can also share what I learn along the way since I’m still going to be blogging every day this year anyway.

Here’s something I just learned last month.

There are three basic approaches for writing a novel:

Plotter/Planner – Map out as much of your story as you can before you begin. At least know the key beats of your story, the main characters, and how you’re going to end the story. Some plotters will have every scene planned out ahead of time. J.K. Rowling is a famous plotter.

Pantser – Write by the seat of your pants, making up the story as you go along. You may have no clue what the plot turns and scenes will be or where you’ll end up. Start with a basic idea, just start writing, and see what happens.

A famous pantser is Stephen King. I recently listened to the audiobook version of On Writing (read by him personally) where he talks about his writing style. He likes to begin with a situation and one or more characters, and then he see what happens as he writes. Getting into the minds of his characters helps him figure out what they’ll do in each situation, and his characters often surprise him.

Plantser – This is a mix of plotter and pantser. Do some advance planning, and also take advantage of pantsing mode. Of course there’s a whole spectrum here, so a plantser may lean closer to plotter or to pantser.

My intention for this novel-writing experience is to use plantsing. I figure that plotting and pantsing are tools, so I might as well give myself access to both.

A couple of weeks ago, I didn’t know what type of book I’d write. Since then I’ve loosely mapped out a sci-fi story, a few characters, a theme, some of the world, and some plot turns. I’ve set up a Scrivener project to keep everything organized nicely, much like I would for creating a new course.

Last weekend I wrote a 3000-word summary of my story from start to finish. That summary is very loose though with multiple options for what could happen along the way. I have a sense of how I’ll end the story, but I’m also giving myself a lot of flexibility to make things up as I go.

One the nonfiction side I’ve used all of these approaches. Almost every blog post I’ve written pantsing style. I don’t outline. I just begin with a loose idea, and then I write off the cuff from start to finish and see what flows out. Immediately afterwards I do an editing pass to tighten things up and potentially add more structure or clarification.

For my book Personal Development for Smart People, I used plotting. I mapped out all of the key ideas chapter by chapter with dozens of sticky notes before I started writing. I must say that I didn’t enjoy the writing process as much though. With everything mapped out so tightly, there wasn’t much room for enjoying the flow of inspiration, so the writing felt very mental.

For the courses (Deep Abundance Integration, Submersion, and Stature), I used a form of co-creative plantsing. Each individual lesson was mapped out before recording, but the overall structure and topics were based on going with the flow of inspiration and feedback along the way. This was my favorite approach – a great mix of structure and flow. And people who’ve gone through the courses seem to like the results as well.

Co-creatively plantsing a fiction novel could be a lot of fun, but it also adds complexity, not to mention more time for all the feedback. So I’m not using that approach for NaNoWriMo. I want to dive into the solo novel-writing experience first to see what that’s like.

One tip I found helpful is to remember that the first draft is just for the writer. No one else has to see it. So the first draft could turn out very ugly. You’re just writing the story for yourself, figuring out where the story and characters want to go. Afterwards you can use what you learn from this draft and do a round of plotting, such as by mapping out all of your scenes, before writing a second draft.

I’m approaching this NaNoWriMo experience like an exploration. I’m not attached to how the story turns out, and the basic planning I’ve done thus far is just to serve as a loose guide, like picking a topic for a blog post. So each day I’m just going to dive in and write to see what flows through. I may not even write scenes in linear order.

Many people participate in NaNoWriMo and write stories only for themselves, never publishing what they write. That isn’t my intention though. I’d like to create a story to share, not just write one for myself. This month is just to get a first draft done though, so don’t expect a completed novel to read until sometime in 2021 at the earliest.

Okay… time for some breakfast and then some writing. 🙂