I crossed the 50K-word NaNoWriMo finish line yesterday morning, writing 51,262 words in 28 days, so I achieved this goal 2 days ahead of schedule.

When I updated my word count yesterday, I received a congratulatory video, a bunch of links to claim the NaNoWriMo “prizes” (discounted promotions for various writer tools and services), and this completion certificate.

The way I framed this goal, however, was to add at least 1667 words per day to the novel for the full 30 days, so I didn’t stop after 28 days. After this morning’s writing session (Day 29), the novel is at 53,007 words. So tomorrow I’ll likely land around 55K words for this 30-day challenge.

Completing NaNoWriMo

This was my first NaNoWriMo and certainly a good year to do it. It was a great way to get started on a fiction book. I’m way further along now than I would have been if I hadn’t signed up for Nano. It’s been a rewarding experience overall.

One aspect I found less exciting than I expected was connecting with the Nano community. I thought it would be cool to connect with other novelists during Nano, but I felt a bit disconnected from that aspect of the experience. I didn’t feel like connecting with other writers while working on my novel. I browsed through some of the community posts but largely found it to be a distraction from actual writing, so most days I just did the writing on my own.

I enjoyed the challenge more when I stuck with introvert mode. It may be nice to connect with other writers before or after Nano, but I wasn’t inspired to do that while in the midst of figuring out the novel. I felt more motivated to connect with the characters I was developing.

I had no trouble feeling motivated to write each day. I didn’t write at same time each day, but I normally got each day’s writing done before 10am, often before 8am.

Most people who sign up for Nano don’t finish, but I never had any doubt that I’d do it. I do my best to win 30-day challenges in my mind before Day 1, and Nano was no different. The same goes for 365-day challenges like my 2020 daily blogging challenge (which is more than 90% done now). If you combine the blogging with the Nano writing, I probably wrote around 75K words this month.

Overall the combined writing experience flowed pretty well. Some days I blogged first and then did Nano, some days I flipped the order. But usually I finished both in the morning. Last Monday and Tuesday, I also did some batch blogging, queuing up several posts in advance, so I could enjoy the 4-day holiday weekend with a bit less daily writing – that was extra nice.

Leveraging the Fundamentals

One thing I love about having a career focused on exploring personal growth is how much time I have to spend practicing the fundamentals and how nicely that investment pays off over time.

This helps me leverage what I’ve learned to explore something new and be relatively productive from the start – and have fun doing it. Even when I’m a total newbie diving into an area where I have tons to learn, it feels like I have some extra advantages going in. A big one is just knowing that I can trust myself to follow through.

I expect to run into some difficulties or surprises along the way, and I also expect that I’ll be able to handle them. I’ll take action, persist, and learn as I go. I’m not afraid of failure, and I don’t tend to have issues with perfectionism. I prefer to just go, explore, and experience.

I like to play life the same way I like to play video games. Rachelle and I are about halfway through the new Zelda game, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, and I like that the game rewards my style of play – Rush in headfirst and slash away at every obstacle like there’s nothing to fear. We also pace ourselves, playing a little bit each day instead of rapidly binging through the whole thing.

The point of playing games is to have fun. This is a good way to approach life experiences too, including writing a novel.

I saw so many people in the Nano community struggling in ways that aren’t specific to writing. They struggle with personal development basics like setting clear goals, establishing productive habits, adopting empowering frames, creating confidence, eating healthfully, and so on.

But most of all, they struggle with making the journey fun, engaging, and rewarding each day. They inject far more suffering into the experience than necessary. Then they try to exert more discipline to push through that self-created drag, which can be very draining. I saw a number of “I give up” and “I’m quitting” updates along the way, and it looked to me that those people had already lost before Day 1. They approached the challenge in a way that was doomed from the start.

I saw plenty of uptightness in the Nano community. Some participants got bogged down in over-analysis and perfectionism. I think they could progress faster if they lightened up and learned to reframe failure as part of the fun. Some play the game so tightly that they prevent much of the joy of discovery from flowing through. It’s like playing a video game with someone who’s deathly afraid of losing a life, so they make the game more work than fun.

I actually found it stressful to read some of the community posts, but it was a good reminder that a long-term investment in personal growth fundamentals really does pay nice dividends. When you don’t practice the fundamentals enough, you’re likely to experience a lot of friction whenever you try to do something outside your comfort zone.

Practicing the fundamentals isn’t always sexy, but it helps us grow stronger, more capable, and more flexible. What good does it do to train up your writing skills if you can’t get yourself to apply those skills consistently? What if you lack the courage to create something unique that adds value to people’s lives? What if you aren’t able to handle criticism?

You can soak up domain-specific knowledge and skills, but what’s the point if you can’t get yourself to use it to create results?

This Nano experience helped me appreciate just how valuable it is to keep investing in the fundamentals. They grant access to new life experiences that would otherwise seem too far out of reach.

My novel is up to 33,835 words now. The daily writing has become pretty habitual, so it feels like smooth sailing till the end.

Mapping the Field

As I write scene after scene, I feel like I’m mapping out a field of possibilities, not just for my story but also for what I can do with fiction writing.

This includes learning how to write different kinds of scenes and aspects of scenes, such as:

• Dialogue between two characters
• Dialogue with more than two characters
• Fast action scenes
• Slow action scenes
• Action interspersed with dialogue
• Indoor scenes
• Outdoor scenes
• Practicing “show me; don’t tell me”
• Scenes with fixed environments
• Scenes with changing environments
• Solo scenes with only one character
• Humorous scenes or moments
• Surprises and plot twists
• Creating different speech patterns for different characters
• Introducing a setup in one scene to deliver a payoff in a later scene
• Integrating exposition judiciously (without making it so obvious)
• Weaving in subtext
• Getting the pacing right
• Sexually suggestive scenes
• Sexually explicit scenes
• Manipulative or persuasive scenes
• Scenes involving suspicion or interrogation
• Arguments and debates
• Emotional, tearful, or vulnerable scenes
• Creating interesting and varied settings
• Sciency or geeky scenes
• Minor setbacks
• Major setbacks
• Weaving a change of value for at least one character into each scene
• Mystery elements
• Dropping clues
• Integrating backstory
• Writing with different POVs (first person, third person, etc)
• Scenes that require research
• Describing sensory details (without overdoing it)
• Describing characters
• Introducing characters
• Naming characters

So yeah… there’s a lot to learn and discover.

Tasting New Skills

The first time I write each type of scene or element, it’s a new experience for me. It feels awkward and bumbling since I’m out of my depth. But I always learn something, and the next time I attempt something similar, I’m a little better at it.

If all I do is write a type of scene and read it back the next day, I’ll surely spot some mistakes that I can learn from. And of course I can supplement this with studying the craft of writing in others ways too. But it really helps to at least taste the many different skill possibilities, so I can become familiar with them. I need to build hooks in my brain to hang all of these different skills. Then I can explore different ways to combine these skills.

This reminds me of going through a similar process when I was in Toastmasters for several years. I learned to do informative speeches, persuasive speeches, humorous speeches, Power Point presentations, storytelling, improvisational speaking, speech evaluations, speech contests, etc. Then I challenged myself with speaking opportunities outside of Toastmasters, speaking in other countries, radio and podcast interviews, and so much more.

Aligning Skills with Long-Term Goals

It took years, but eventually I acquired enough speaking experience that I could feel right at home doing my own 3-day workshops in a hotel ballroom on the Las Vegas Strip. I could weave in interactive social activities and games, bring people up on the stage with me, handle Q&A, and do plenty of spontaneous humor and playful banter. Plus I learned how to find and book rooms, negotiate meeting room contracts, to work with meeting planners. Now the whole collection of skills seems relatively straightforward, but it sure didn’t look that way when I first began.

When I’m starting fresh in a new field of learning, I find it useful to court a variety of experiences, so I can mentally map out the possibility space. This gives me more options and flexibility. It helps me figure out where I need to invest to get the most long-term leverage, so I can develop the right skills for my long-term goals.

With public speaking I wanted to do my own public workshops eventually. I didn’t want to get into corporate-style speaking. Could you see me donning a suit and speaking to groups of insurance agents and healthcare workers? No, thanks! My early skill-mapping phase for speaking helped me see where I needed to invest versus which skills I could mostly ignore. This helped me to avoid over-investing in skills that were relatively useless for my goals.

Embracing the Beginner Phase

I know from experience that the initial experience of getting into a new field can seem overwhelming. There are so many sub-skills to learn and practice, and when you’re just starting out, you’ll probably suck at all of them. That’s to be expected. But you can keep chipping away at the challenge by gaining experience, and this will add up to tremendous value over time. With speaking I did this one speech at a time. With fiction writing I’m approaching this one scene at a time.

Consequently, I’m using this first draft to practice writing different kinds of scenes. These are my first forays into the vast menu of fiction writing skills, so I want to taste a fairly wide range of skills. I’m not sure which skills I’ll need for this particular story, but by testing many different skills, I’m gaining some understanding of how I might use them.

I’ve never written a car chase scene, and I don’t anticipate including one in my novel, but since words are cheap, I could just take a stab and write one, and I’ll probably learn something useful from the experience. Even if I still don’t want to include a car chase, I might include some other kind of chase. Or maybe I’ll gain extra practice that could help me write a well-paced action scene. Moreover, I’ll surely learn more about my characters by throwing them into a car chase and seeing how they behave under that kind of pressure.

So as I see it, I’m trying to lose my fiction writing virginity with each type of skill I might find useful for fiction writing. Just crossing that threshold is useful because it reduces resistance to using unfamiliar and under-developed skills. I know my first car chase scene will be awkward to write, but if I lose my car chase virginity, I’ll expand my comfort zone. Expanding my comfort zone means that I’m also expanding the edge of my comfort zone, which means that even more interesting possibilities become accessible beyond that edge.

Another advantage to this approach is that you learn which sub-skills you enjoy. I’ve already figured out that I enjoy writing dialogue, especially between two characters. I enjoy weaving sexual tension into scenes and writing sexually explicit scenes too.

I also notice that I’m avoiding writing violent scenes. There are no guns, weapons, or fights in my book so far. So I may want to try writing a violent scene at some point to see how it goes and what I learn from it. That doesn’t mean I have to include violence in the book, but it’s good to at least explore that type of writing because it will help me understand what purpose a violent scene might serve. And by writing something violent, it also gives me a different perspective on writing a nonviolent story.

As you keep exploring known skills, eventually you’ll discover your own ways of doing things. My blog is very different from anyone else’s because I’ve followed my own path of skill development. I can see myself doing something similar with fiction writing, such as by diving into territory that seems relatively under-explored.

While you may have plenty of experience of making lists, such as for your to-dos and goals, have you ever thought of making a meta-list? A meta-list is a list of lists.

Which lists do you think it would be worthwhile to create?

Here’s an example of a meta-list:

• Places to visit
• Goals to achieve
• Skills to develop
• Experiences to share with a relationship partner
• Programming languages to learn
• Technologies to study
• Potential purchases to research
• Exercises or types of workouts to try
• Exercise equipment to acquire for a home gym
• Fears to face and overcome
• Kitchen items to replace or upgrade
• Home maintenance tasks to do
• Home upgrades to do
• New business ideas
• New product or service ideas
• New marketing campaign ideas
• Email list providers to investigate
• Web hosting platforms to evaluate
• Sexual experiences to have
• Coaching programs and personal development courses to invest in
• Books to read
• Movies to watch
• Games to play
• Apps to try
• Websites to check out
• Articles to read
• Videos to watch
• Dietary improvements to make
• Favorite healthy recipes
• Favorite wines
• Favorite Star Trek episodes
• Fitness milestones to achieve
• Yoga positions
• Best running shoes
• Investment opportunities to research
• Holiday gifts to buy for friends and family
• Activities that make you happy
• Most effective productivity practices
• Personal values
• Favorite memories
• Restaurants to try
• National parks to visit

So a meta-list is like a shopping list of shopping lists, not just for buying items at a store but for experiences to have across many areas of life.

I’ve maintained a lot of lists over the years, including many like the ones above, and I’ll tell you that they’re easy to create, but they also require tremendous patience. It’s one thing to work on a singular list of goals, but when you have many such lists, it can easily feel overwhelming at first.

When you see how easy it is to brainstorm items and how long it takes to actually do them, you may be tempted to abandon the practice, but I urge you to stick with it. There is a payoff, but it takes time.

Those lists can help you stay alert for when some item on some list becomes more accessible than usual, encouraging you to snag an opportunity while it’s hot. You can also periodically skim your lists to grab new ideas to explore. Such lists are great for whenever your life starts becoming a bit stale or predictable – they can give you so many ideas for mixing things up.

When it comes to meta-lists, think in terms of decades, not just months or years. You may have an item on one of your lists that you don’t get to for 20 years, but it’s still satisfying to check it off.

There were many items I added to a list during my 20s, and I didn’t finally get to it until my 40s. Some examples include traveling to various European countries, going skydiving, doing an extended water fast, going to Disney World and Epcot Center, and reading several Mark Twain books including Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court.

Note that you don’t have to fill in all of these lists at once. Just create your one meta-list of the lists you may want to create. Then create a stub for each list, such as in the Notes or Reminders app on your phone. Whenever an idea for any of these lists pops into your mind, such as a movie a friend recommends, you can easily add it to the appropriate list. You can even do this verbally by telling a smart device to do it for you. Rachelle and I use our Apple Watches to add items to the grocery list whenever an item runs low. Then we’ll automatically have access to that list on our watches and phones whenever we’re out.

You can also use crowdsourcing to populate some of your lists. Ask people for book and movie recommendations, for instance. You may be surprised at how efficient this is. A single Facebook post can fill up your movie queue with some outstanding gems.

Lists are relatively easy to maintain since they just sit there till you need them. I especially find it helpful to have a “books to read” list since then I’m never left wondering what to read next. Most items on my list were suggested by friends.

While it may take time to fill out a bunch of lists, it only takes a few minutes to create a meta-list. Why not take a short break to do it right now? You could even copy the one I brainstormed above and edit it to suit your needs.

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.