Tanzanite's Castle Full of Books

I'm pleased to welcome author Nan Hawthorne to talk about how a writing contest helped her finish her latest book, Beloved Pilgrim.  Make sure you enter the giveaway for a chance to win a copy of Nan's book!


You may know that every November is National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo. The basic idea is that if you set aside a finite period of time, in this case a month, and just write without agonizing over what you write and do no editing, you can complete at least a 50,000 word manuscript. It makes sense. You can do the writing in bite-sized pieces, and you will have plenty of time to edit after November 30. By not allowing your inner critic to break the flow of words, you allow yourself simply to spill out the words onto paper. Or a monitor screen anyway. More than anything writing at least several hundred to a couple thousand words a day gets you into the habit. They say it takes 21 days to make or break a habit, so how much more effective would 30 days be?


I am here to attest to the effectiveness of the plan. My recently released novel, “Beloved Pilgrim”, is the product of the 2009 NaNoWriMo. I actually finished the month with over 80,000 words. (The novel itself is 103,000.) I began the research before November 1 – that is allowed – but I literally wrote the first words on the morning of that fateful day.

Why does this work? I can only answer for myself. I am not one of those authors who doubt that she can write a novel or tends to sabotage the effort due to poor confidence. I already had two books published before I even heard of NaNoWriMo, a nonfiction work in 1991 and my Anglo Saxon saga in 2008. What I needed more than encouragement to write was, and is, sheer focus. It is easy for me to get distracted by email, by sudden inspiration to “blog something”, or some task to market my other works. By setting aside those specific 30 days I managed a self-discipline to which any warrior woman would give an approving nod.

The folks at NaNoWriMo know how to foster and encourage their authors. They offer lots of tools for the writer, whether ideas for breaking through writer’s block or simply getting it done. The forums allow contact with others writing in your genre. There is competition on the word count, very useful for me. I also found having a worldwide connection allowed me to find people in Germany who could answer questions about my novel’s early setting. You can even find permission on the NaNoWriMo site to screw up a bit, forgive yourself and go on to more productive work.

I can tell you that it took me about two and a half years to write my first novel, “An Involuntary King”, but a combination of factors cut the writing and editing time for “Beloved Pilgrim” down to about nine months. I literally had a first draft done in 30 days. I had three more drafts ready by October 2010. It helps that “Pilgrim” is less than half the length of “King”, and it also helps that I had chosen a setting and theme the second time around that virtually wrote itself. But I know from other projects how much that narrow focus and dedication made a difference.

As it happens the woman, Mychael, who had encouraged me to write this particular story was one of my writing buddies on NaNoWriMo, but there were other authors I buddies as well. Their support, encouragement, and empathy were valuable.

I would not hesitate to recommend participation in NaNoWriMo to any author, whether fledgling or old hands. I firmly believe that you can learn something in any level of participation in a class or project. This is one of the most effective examples of this I know.






Nan Hawthorne is a historical novelist living in the Pacific Northwest. Her latest novel, “Beloved Pilgrim”, tells the story of a young woman who chooses to live and fight as a man in the doomed Crusade of 1101. It is available at Amazon and Smashwords. You can learn more about it and her other books at her web site.



 
 
 
 

If you would like to win a copy of Beloved Pilgrim, please complete the below form by midnight, May 15, 2011.  Contest is open internationally, but please note that if you live outside the US or Canada, only an ebook is available.