My sorry example

I first did Nanowrimo back in 2004. That, my friends, seems a long time ago now. I've done it every year since then, and always managed to hit 50K. One thing I know for sure - reaching 50k is the least of your worries.

In my first Nanowrimo, I set out to write a murder-mystery. I had a vague plot and one scene in my head - someone standing on a beach at night, coming back to their senses after a drunken blackout. My idea was that the character - named Bob, after a friend - would be framed for a series of grisly murders. In trying to clear his name, Bob would discover that he was, infact, a killer, though perhaps not the killer.

It didn't work out like that. A couple of days in, I introduced a character called Angie, simply to boost the word count. She and Bob proceeded to spend a lot of time having sex, travelling to Amsterdam and smuggling drugs. None of this was foreseen or planned.

Ultimately, I was about to reveal that Bob was a mass murderer when I realised something was Very Wrong. I'd forgotten to include any murders. Not even one. Bob and Angie had been so busy with all the other stuff, I'd forgotten what I'd originally intended to write about. It was a fantastic ride, however, starting two weeks into November and writing 4000 words a day, without time to think ahead or plan. Inevitably, I learned a lot of tricks to keep the narrative going in these circumstances.

In 2005, I started out with a main character who bore some resembleance to myself - a grumpy 30 something school teacher. He would investigate a killing at the school where he taught. After a few thousand words, I realised my narrator was dull and I hated him. I introduced a co-narrator, a female student with miles of attitude. She was good fun to write, and eventually I abandoned the luckless teacher completely. Ultimately, lack of plot was my undoing - I couldn't decide who was behind the killing, and so I simply set pieces all the way to 50,000 words, hoping one of them would spark something. It never happened. I realised that perhaps - just perhaps - some forethought might be helpful.

So in 2006, I wrote a brief plan, just a couple of paragraphs. It was a hardboiled murder-mystery that started well, but as the story evolved, I became uncomfortable. I couldn't see how I could reconcile the two plot strands that were developing - and they had to be reconciled, otherwise the story would make no sense. I didn't manage this reconciliation. Post nano, I seperated them completely into two stories. I expanded one of them into a full length, 62,000 word story. While still very imperfect, it had a begining, a middle and an end, a satisfactoy number of people were killed, I knew (by the end) who did it and eventually solved the mystery.

2007 saw me revisit the hardboiled genre, and my long sufferring Private Detective, Jack Callaghan. I sent him to a small Southern town to investigate the killing of one of his old army buddies. There was racism, murder, a gun fight in a blazing house and then (because you can never have too much of a good thing) a fist fight in a blazing house, a gorgeous and evil woman (you need those), a noble and lovely woman (you need those also) and of course thwarted love - for my one golden rule is Jack Can Never Be Happy.

I slogged away at it through November, December and into January, eventually reaching 92,000 words, some of which weren't bad. There were still flaws. Most noteably, I forgot to introduce my killer until the scene where he was unmasked - once again I'd followed too many interesting diversions and lost track of where I was - but nothing that couldn't be fixed with editing.

Last year's nano, on the other hand, was a horrible, mishapen thing, that lurched and blundered hopelessly about until I reached 50,ooo words, at which point I wrote the most unconvincing wrap-up in the history of detective fiction, and tried to forget the whole thing.

LESSONS TO LEARN FROM THIS:

First, and most important - Keep trying. I had to do three nanos before I managed to come out with something like a real narrative, and that was after extensive reworking of a botched nano effort.

Second - Don't get bogged down in details or too hung up on your plot. If there is something that you really want to explore and it is going to take yo away from your plot, go with it. This is you unconscious mind feeding you new ideas. If it doesn't work out, you can always have a character wake up, yawn, and say "I've just had the strangest dream ..."

Third - Remember that Nanowrimo is more about fun, practice, learning writing tricks and good writing habits than it is about producing a great novel. You might get lucky and produce something that can be hanmmered into shape, though perhaps not first time.

Fourth - Don't write about characters who are very dear to you. Some people carry characters around in their hearts and can't bear to see them sullied in the dirty scrum of Nano. If Tarquin, Prince of Arongier is a character you deeply love, have been developing for years and want to write great book around, don't bring him into Nano. Find someone you don't care too much about, who can take a few knocks. Believe me, by the end of Nano, you'll care for him or her a lot more than that simpering fool, Tarquin.