Nano: Day 25 – Running out of steam?

Congratulations to everyone who has made it this far! We’re 25 days in, with 40,000 words down on paper and we’re almost halfway through a complete novel (depending on how much you want to write for it).

This is going to be the hardest bit of the month for some people. It’s easy to watch the calendar and panic about the days flying by, but that’s no excuse.

A day is 24 hours long.

It’s always 24 hours long, and it always will be regardless of how fast the time seems to go. Try to remember this if you start to panic about running out of time. If you’ve been keeping up so far then you’ll be fine, it’s no different to all the other days and weeks so far.

If you’re slightly behind then you may have to be a little weary of the time. I’ve done it myself; you decide to catch up later but with the days running out, there’s less and less time to do so. You’ll have to commit to reaching your daily words counts this week, whatever they are.

But whatever you do, don’t panic!

*runs around wailing like a banshee*

You can do it! And if you don’t manage 50k then who gives a stuff? You’ll have words on paper, an idea that’s going somewhere (debatable) and the rest of your life to write it how you want to write it.
If you are behind and want some brainwaves to catch up then try a few of the following things to help increase your word count.

Dream/Nightmares – My character keeps having nightmares, which are great scenes because I’m not bound by the constraints of reality when the character is dreaming. Anything can happen! Dead people come back, they don’t have to travel to change locations, and you don’t have to worry if objects appear conveniently or disappear randomly. Plus it’s a great way of showing how the character feels by showing and not telling. Their subconscious will shape the dream/nightmare to show their true feelings about everything that has happened to them.

Add a word here and there – It sounds stupid, but go back through your novel and add a word or two into random sentences. See if you can spruce up some descriptions or describe the setting or character a little better. You may want to elaborate on feelings and emotions of your MC or maybe have them rant a little more when they’re angry with someone.

Go back and finish those filler notes – I use filler notes all the time. I’ll write a scene and end it with [ADD MORE EXPLOSIONS] or in the middle of a scene I’ll have [ESTABLISH WHY HE IS LIMPING]. These notes are great when your in the zone and don’t want to lose the flow of speedy writing. Using them is completely justifiable. Why stop to research or ponder something when you could be writing the next few chapters? Well if you’re lagging now might be the time to go back and elaborate on these notes.

Don’t add JUST for the sake of word count. I still don’t see the point of adding things you know you will delete just to get a higher count. It seems a bit pointless.

We’re into the home stretch now people, and we’ll all be celebrating out success soon enough. So don’t stress about making the 50k in time, or at all if you won’t. Just concentrate on your story and your writing.

After all that’s why we’re all doing this.