How to Keep Writing–With a Little Help From Your Friends
Congratulations for making it through the month! Whether you’ve written in solitude or you’ve attended every write-in, it’s important to remember that there’s more to NaNo than the novel—there’s a whole community out there! Today, writer and #projectwritetube founder Tamara Woods shares how engaging with the NaNo community will make writing a richer experience all year round:
My day is spent generally sitting at my desk (or on my bed), hunched over my laptop or notepad with headphones trying to block out the neighbor’s barking dog. Sometimes I escape from my hovel and find a quiet corner at the public library. Generally, my interactions with people have nothing to do with work, which is different from many professions.
Writing is such a solitary thing, it’s easy to forget that you’re not the only one clanging at your keyboard, bitterly clenching the Oxford comma and bemoaning the double space after the period.
Then in struts NaNoWriMo. It’s like a worldwide conga line for writers. That one month out of the year that we all crawl out of respective caves, look up blearily at the sun, and jump into the line, actually speaking with each other IRL and online.
Of course, developing a strong writing habit is important. If you want to finish a project, you have to work on it, regardless of the project. No one finishes a movie by dreaming about how cool it would be to be at the Oscars. Just like dreaming about being a New York Times bestseller won’t make those sales come in. But that’s not why I love NaNo so much. I can work on developing stronger work ethic any day of the year.
It’s the community. By clicking on the hashtag, you can find fellow writers all over the world, whether they’re career writers or hobbyists working at the same time. I’m in Hawai’i, so my time zone is notoriously later than everyone else’s. Even so, at the end of the night, I can still post a, “Ugh, writing am I write? #NaNoWriMo” tweet and people will immediately respond.
“During the rest of the year, I do my best to create a community, because I understand the importance of building relationships outside of those characters who are living with you 24/7.”
That camaraderie is important in this crazy writing world where I’m often locked behind my desk and not interacting as much with people as I would in a traditional work setting. And with NaNoWriMo comes the in real life write-ins at different parts of the island. There’s something very satisfying about hearing those clacking of keys around me.
During the rest of the year, I do my best to create a community, because I understand the importance of building relationships outside of those characters who are living with you 24/7. I’ve started a tweetchat called #writestuff that’s morphed into a Facebook community where we set weekly goals and give each other encouragement to get there. I started #ProjectWriteTube where each year, myself and 13 authors get together to give tips, advice, and encouragement to writers about to start NaNoWriMo. I try to put myself out there and give support.
Writing is a fun, exasperating, challenging, exhilarating, and crushing enterprise to take on. It’s like climbing a mountain, but in your seat with just your brain. To finish a story is an amazing accomplishment. To finish that story and tell your friends who’ve been supporting you through the journey makes it that much richer.
Tamara Woods is a four-time NaNo winner, this year working on her fifth. She likes red pandas, coffee with too much creamer, and singing in the grocery aisles. Her first fiction novel Blood Roses & Honeysuckles will be available just in time for holiday shopping. She’s a full-time freelance writer and posts writing, writer tips, and indie author interviews on her blog PenPaperPad and her YouTube channel. She invites you to join the #writestuff tweetchat Tuesdays at 9 pm. You can also find her on Facebook and GoodReads.
Top image licensed under Creative Commons from Lennart Tange.
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