This January, I chose to be a part of the interim class titled WoCoWriMo. It is based off of NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month, in which you have the entire month of November to write a complete novel. It sounds stressful and it truly is.
This class tasked me with writing a novel of a minimum of 35,000 words, which sounds like a lot but looking back on it wasn’t, and an unlimited maximum number of words.
This class was riddled with struggles and challenges.
First off, coming up with what to write about was no easy task. I spent the entire month of December debating what to write about and coming up with good plot diagrams and character analyses, which I didn’t even end up writing about. I ended up going in to class on the first day and completely changing what I wanted to write about to a new idea that had popped into my head the day of the first class.
For those that are curious, I ended up writing about a guy who is chosen by God and the devil to take over for them. God and Satan want to take a break from their jobs and have to choose a human to rule in their stead. They each, unbeknownst to them, choose Will, a 20-year-old insomniac. Throughout the novel Will has to tackle challenges posed to him in the form of the seven deadly sins. If he tackles the challenge in a “good” way (meaning avoiding the sin), then a point goes to him becoming God. If he tackles the challenge in a “bad” way (meaning he sins), then a point goes in favor of him becoming the devil.
So, I had the idea laid out. But, the act of actually writing is even more difficult. I had all these ideas and outlines and thoughts for characters, but putting my thoughts into actual words, dialogue, action and such was difficult.
To break this, my only piece of advice was to keep writing. It was, at the time, the worst piece of advice I had ever heard. Now, I realize it saved my word count from being pathetically low and it helped my overall plot. Sitting and forcing my fingers to tap vigorously over the keyboard forced me to make my characters do or say something. It forced my plot to move. It forced details to come out of me.
Another difficulty was not editing. Part of the rules are that you don’t look over what you have written so far. You are just supposed to take your novel idea, or lack of an idea, and run with it without looking back on what you have written and cleaning up the details or changing something about the plot or characters.
That was so against my inner nature that it almost hurt me. Typically, I edit as I go. I will write a few paragraphs, then look back and tweak what needs tweaking and change what needs changing. The “no looking back” policy forced me to continue with my chapters even though I would completely change the day of the week or change the personality of my characters.
One of the positives that came from this experience was learning my writing style. I have a tendency to write more dialogue when I need action for some scenes and more action where I need more dialogue for other scenes. This month helped me work on those weaknesses.
I also learned that I have a tendency to write more sarcastic characters and write funny (I say funny because my friends laughed at what I had written) narration and action. I guess I am more of the comedy writer type over the serious, groundbreaking novel writing type.
I ended this interim with 35,019 words of my novel written.
No, it is nowhere near being finished.
No, it will not be done in the near future.
Yes, I do plan on trying to get it published at some point once it is finished.
I would recommend everyone trying to write a novel at least once in their life, whether you’re a writer or not. It helps your writing ability and gives a boost to your creative ego. Looking at over 65 single spaced pages that you wrote yourself makes anyone feel better about themselves.
