How Writing A Novel In 30 Days Helped My Freelance Writing

Each November, thousands of writers simultaneously have a little mini-stroke and sign up for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo).  The challenge is to write a (albeit short) novel of 50,000 words in 30 days.  This November, I was one of those pitiful hacks.  I managed to meet the challenge and do it 4 days ahead of schedule.

I certainly learned a thing or two.  A lot of what I learned translates directly into fiction writing betterment, but there were plenty of nuggets to add to my freelance writing bag as well.

Let’s get on with it then:

• Deadlines are important and serve as great motivators.  If I did not have the pressure of an absolute, hard and fast, can’t fudge deadline I know I would not have completed the novel. There were plenty of things I could have used as perfectly reasonable excuses for not writing on any given day.  I didn’t have the luxury of missing any of those writing periods I had scheduled to ensure I stayed on track.
• Nanowrimo had the coolest stat tracker and I wish I had one that I could plug all of the details into and be able to track my progress on any given freelance assignment.  Nanostats provided instant feedback on word count for the day, how many days it would take to finish given my current rate, suggested word count total to track for a November 30 finish, etc…  Having that visual reference provided a daily motivator.  There was a bar graph depicting progress and missing even one day would strike a devastating blow to the graph.
• Routine is important.  On the first day of Nano, I set the alarm for 5am.  And there it stayed. Every day, including weekends.  I’d take a half hour to wake up and then get right on it.  This saved me.  Each day I was done with my word count before my regular day actually began.  I never had to worry about being behind or procrastinating. Routine is important to our freelance writing as well.  I’ve now translated my 5am routine into something that is allowing me to finish up a ghostwriting project and to finish up obligatory blog posts for several client sites.
• I turned into a regular Speedy Gonzales.  During my nano writing sessions, I averaged over a thousand words per hour.  I did that without being crazy either.  I took pee and coffee breaks, I had pauses where I considered the character’s next move, in short, I took my time.  Being in the mode, having a routine allowed me to set the keys on fire.  The writing I’ve done since nano has been accomplished at a much faster rate than before.
• My confidence as a writer has increased exponentially.  I reached for and obtained a crazy writing goal.  In short, I rock.  This confidence can do nothing but help me when I’m interacting with potential new clients.

As you can imagine, I highly recommend the Nano experience.  Have any of you participated in Nano? If so, what are your thoughts?