The "Madness" of This March 30-Day Novel Writing Challenge

It’s March 16 – just over the 2-week mark of the 30-day novel writing challenge that I embarked on at the beginning of the month with my writing friends Michelle, Lisa and Janine.

And at this point I have to admit that taking on a venture like this is easier said than done.

There have been a lot of starts and stops; ups and downs; and feelings of resolve and uncertainty along the way so far.

But I expected this – I knew it was going to be a crazy experience from the start. And it’s been interesting, too. A crash course in writing, but in so much more.

I’m so glad that Janine created the “March Madness – Writer Style” Facebook group for us. It’s been great to check in with everyone each day to see how it’s been going with them. We post comments about our progress and frustrations and give each other encouragement. And I’m glad to know that we’re all going through this together, and that we seem to share some similar feelings and situations with our writing. I really appreciate having this awesome support group!

I saw Michelle tonight – she and her mom had me and Ian over for dinner. Michelle has had several hard days physically – her fibromyalgia symptoms have been heightened with the changeable weather; day-to-day errands and responsibilities; and late writing nights. But she perseveres, and even when she’s not able to write, bits of her daily life have been inspiring her. The history shows that she watches on TV help to add authentic details to the early-20^th century setting of her middle-grade book. And Makai, the little boy that she and her mom babysit, inspires some of her characters with his funny and wise sayings; his energy and his observations of the world around him. And her faith and outlook on life help to give a meaningful theme to her story. She’s upbeat about the challenge, and is matter-of-fact about the 30-day time frame. She said she’s a bit behind on her page count, but she’s confident that she’ll catch up before the end. I think she will, too.

I saw Lisa briefly last week, when she and Michelle stopped into the store. We talked for a few minutes, and agreed that it’s a great experience to be able to do this writing challenge as a group. She has been so helpful and encouraging – when I asked if it’s normal to feel tired and frustrated during the second week, she said that week 2 seems to be notorious for such feelings and reminded me that it’s an exhausting undertaking, but so worth it in the end. She’s also posted links to the NaNoWriMo website, featuring pep talks by authors Aimee Bender and Sara Gruen, as well as the creator of NaNoWriMo, Chris Baty. It’s been interesting to get the perspective of published authors on the 30-day novel challenge. Lisa said she’s also behind on her word count, but is playing catch-up, and her story is beginning to come together.

Janine has been writing weekly blog posts about her writing experience on her “Mindful Wanderings” LiveJournal (www.lucas7261.livejournal.com). I really enjoy reading her conversational and insightful pieces. She uses descriptive metaphors, like comparing the writing challenge to going on a blind date – meeting her story, trying to pay attention and learn all she can about it, and then thinking about it all the time. And, to extend her Spring Training sports analogy, she said that she was thrown a curveball this week – an assignment to go to a work conference in California. She planned to work on her story during the flight out there, in an attempt to keep her interest in it – she said that she’s fallen behind while struggling to flesh out her story idea, and has been thinking of her previous work-in-progress that she shelved in order to have a fresh idea for this challenge. She was determined to balance out work on her current story with some work on her other story – I hope she’ll have some productive writing time among her work time. I can really relate to Janine’s struggle with her “writing ADD” and I admire her statement, “I refuse to give up.” That’s a great attitude!

I also feel like I have writing ADD – it’s been so hard to stay focused on this novel-on-progress and the 30-day timeframe for these past couple of weeks. I’ve had several ups and downs – bursts of inspiration and productivity, followed by feelings of uncertainty and a halt in my writing.

The first few days were great – I re-worked my previous prologue for disAPPEAR, and wrote the first couple of chapters with little problem or hesitancy. My main character’s voice and personality were pretty strong in my mind, and I had a good grasp of the supporting characters. I set up the story, about a high-school girl who’s bored at the start of summer vacation and wishes for a dramatic kind of life. And I had a good idea of the story’s arc – things happen among her family, but the incidents are harmful and devastating, rather than interesting and exciting. And my character has to struggle with her family’s growing dysfunction. I even figured out how the story will end.

But then I hit a wall. I needed to show a gradual decline, over the summer and into the school year. So I had to give my character and her friends some things to do during their vacation and during school, rather than have them wait from plot point to plot point. I didn’t want to just borrow from my own teen years, so I started to research different activities for teens and students online. And ended up spending a lot of non-writing time before coming up with the details I needed.

Then it was the first weekend, and Ian and I had plans for each night after work. We saw a friend’s band play on Friday, and attended an art and music opening at our neighborhood café on Saturday. I had no extra time for writing. But I reasoned that I rarely get any nights off from work, and I need to have some kind of social life, too!

By Monday, I was back on track, and back to working nights and staying up very late writing. I had some productive days, and felt like the story was moving along. Last Thursday, I wrote 2,060 words, and my word count for Friday was 3,327. That was the most I’d done in a day. I felt like I was making up for the non-writing weekend, and that it was actually possible to finish a rough first draft in a month.

But then I hit an even bigger wall – of exhaustion – on Saturday. I had to work from 12-8pm, so I thought I’d go in early and spend about an hour writing in the café. But I was so tired and my mind was so foggy that I could barely string together words into a coherent sentence. I wondered – if I felt like this only a third of the way through the month, how awful will I feel by the end of it all? It felt like a crazy thing to do, and I wondered – why am I putting myself through this?

I had to remind myself that it’s to actually FINISH writing a book, so I can feel like I can accomplish what I’ve always wanted to do in this life. And then it made sense again.

I posted my frustrations on the “March Madness” page, and Lisa replied with her wise words and encouraging article links. I felt better, but I still couldn’t fit any writing time into last weekend. I couldn’t keep my usual vampire hours on Saturday night – I had to get to sleep early because setting the clocks ahead for daylight savings time made the night an hour shorter, and I had to work at 9am on Sunday.

So by Sunday night, I was so burned out that I was distracted, and couldn’t focus on my story. I kept switching back and forth from writing to going online to read reports and look at pictures and videos of a weekend media event for my favorite TV show, Supernatural. That was fun, but not too productive. But I still managed to write 1,297 more words, and I was able to add some much-needed conflict into my story. So I guess it was a semi-productive night.

But for the past few days I’ve felt like my novel has stalled again. On Monday night, I wrote a short, 919-word transitioning scene. But now I’m not exactly sure what happens next. I feel like I’m wandering around in the darkness of the middle of the book, and I’m looking for a light and a path that will lead in a forward direction. But I haven’t found it yet.

And for the past couple of days, while I’ve been at work, I’ve found myself thinking of my character Madalyn. But that’s not a good thing – because Madalyn is a character in another book project that I’ve sketched out but put aside so I could try this challenge. I really need to stop feeling tempted by how much more interesting the other book seems to be, even as it appears to be trying to get and keep my attention. That will be my next book project, I promise!

But for now, I need to stay focused on Alannah, my main character in disAPPEAR, and her story. I think I might need to do a sort of outline, to figure out each plot point and when it will happen in the book. And I also might have to just jump right into writing the next incident, without trying to figure out how to get from where the story is now to there. I guess I can worry about the transition later on, in my rewrite.

So tonight was another night spent without writing for the 30-day challenge. But I feel better now that I’ve let out all of my frustrations and uncertainties, and have written about all the small accomplishments I’ve made despite it all.

This has been a wildly unpredictable experience so far. Sort of like a rollercoaster. And I only went on a rollercoaster once – it was enough for me to get to say that I tried it. Maybe I should think of this novel challenge the same way. At the end, at least I’ll be able to say that I tried it. And hopefully, I’ll even have a finished first draft to show for it.

And that would be an amazing accomplishment – one that’s worth all this March Madness!