{"id":64,"date":"2011-11-16T23:42:05","date_gmt":"2011-11-16T23:42:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.umflint.edu\/writingcenter\/?p=64"},"modified":"2011-11-16T23:42:05","modified_gmt":"2011-11-16T23:42:05","slug":"nanowrimo-first-drafts-deadlines-writers-block-and-parties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.umflint.edu\/writingcenter\/2011\/11\/16\/nanowrimo-first-drafts-deadlines-writers-block-and-parties\/","title":{"rendered":"NaNoWriMo: First Drafts, Deadlines, Writer&#8217;s Block, and Parties"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I am in the midst of National Novel Writing Month (<a title=\"NaNoWriMo Homepage\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nanowrimo.org\" target=\"_blank\">NaNoWriMo<\/a>), a challenge to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. Since I majored in English, some people expect all types of writing to come easily for me, but writing fiction is basically completely terrifying. So this year, I decided to take on the NaNoWriMo challenge. Each day, my goal is to write 2,000 words, but to be honest, I don\u2019t make that goal nearly as often as I\u2019d like to (OK, so almost never). I regularly get stuck, and I feel like the characters are just running around in circles. But here I am at word 24,140, and I have to admit that I\u2019m growing as a writer in a lot of ways. Here are some things I\u2019ve learned from my NaNoWriMo experience that actually do apply to just about every kind of writing:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>A first draft is just that\u2014a <em>first<\/em> draft.<\/strong> Don\u2019t stress if something doesn\u2019t sound perfect the first time around. Several of my characters were \u201cNAME\u201d for the first few chapters of the book until I figured out who they would become. Get the idea down and move on; you can always come back and rework it later.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Deadlines are incredibly motivating.<\/strong> Now, this may seem obvious, but I don\u2019t mean just the ones set by your professors. In NaNo, I am the only person that holds me accountable, and while I don\u2019t always meet my word count, I am writing far more than I would if I did not have a goal. When you receive an assignment, establish deadlines for yourself so that you don\u2019t leave it all until the last minute (that way your first draft\u00a0isn&#8217;t\u00a0your only draft!). Writing Center appointments can be a great way of doing this. <a title=\"Make an Appointment\" href=\"http:\/\/www.rich37.com\/umflint\/index.php\" target=\"_blank\">Just make one<\/a>\u00a0(or several) ahead of time and decide that you will have an outline, sources, or a certain number of pages\/words by your appointment.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Revisiting your draft can help overcome writer\u2019s block. <\/strong>On more than one occasion, I have found myself stuck, not sure where to go next with the story. In those moments, I go back and reread previous chapters, paragraphs, or sometimes the whole story to help get me back on track. If you reach a point in writing when you don\u2019t know where to go next, pause and review where you\u2019ve been. It\u2019ll get you back on track and maybe even open up a new direction.<strong><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Reward yourself for accomplishments.<\/strong>\u00a0Sometimes, you just need to walk away from your writing. When I get to the end of a 1,000 word sprint, I take a break, grab a snack, and play a game to reward myself. This applies to your papers as well. Set a goal, meet it, and then celebrate it!<strong><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I am in the midst of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), a challenge to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. Since I majored in English, some people expect all types of writing to come easily for me, but writing fiction is basically completely terrifying. So this year, I decided to take on the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-64","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-quick-tips"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.umflint.edu\/writingcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.umflint.edu\/writingcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.umflint.edu\/writingcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.umflint.edu\/writingcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.umflint.edu\/writingcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.umflint.edu\/writingcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.umflint.edu\/writingcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.umflint.edu\/writingcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.umflint.edu\/writingcenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}