Planned Neglect (Or How I Met My Nano Goal Without Even Trying)

Not to toot my own horn, but here it is, the next to last day of November, and I’m put-a-fork-in-my-manuscript-done with Nano. 

Um…I guess that is tooting my own horn. But I’m going to share how I accomplished my specific goal for this annual writing challenge and if you give my method a try, you’ll be tooting your own horn, too.

THE GOAL

Unlike the Nano standard 50,000 words by the end of the month, I tweak my goal to fit my specific need. This year, I had nearly 28,000 polished words of a cozy mystery. I wanted to add 10,000 words in November and develop a doable habit of producing the same per month (approximately 500 words a day). Keep in mind I’m editing and writing so that by the end of November, I wanted approximately 38,000 pretty sparkly words. 

THE PROCESS

Some of you may be familiar with the concept of “planned neglect.” I came across a reference to it in September, and though there are several versions of the story, the one I read had to do with a concert violinist. 

The violinist was asked the secret to her success and she responded, “Planned neglect.” She went on to explain that instead of doing all the daily tasks that demand attention and then practicing her violin, she flipped her routine. She neglected all those pesky chores and practiced first, thereby insuring that she always did what was most important every single day. 

Now, if you’ve ever read anything I’ve written about my writing process, you know that I make lists and set goals. It’s a process I apply not only to writing but also to the general running of…well, my life. And though I’m fairly good at prioritizing my daily goals, I realized something, thinking about my To Do List. Namely, that working on something that I really enjoy but that has no guarantee return (say, a paycheck) tends to be last on my List of Things I Actually Do. 

Oh, dear. 

Of course, it’s important to pay bills and meet work deadlines, but I was giving my best hours of the day to stuff I could do anytime and fitting in my writing when I was often tired and brain-dry. And so I reversed that paradigm; I found my optimum writing time and everything else had to fit around that time. Or get neglected. 

I’m not going to lie. Forcing myself to leave piles of junk mail or dirty clothes till the weekend made my hands sweat. Neglecting my inbox till 10:00 at night made my heart race. I’m a wee bit compulsively neat and organized so the whole planned neglect thing made me anxious. But only in the beginning. Very soon, something wondrous happened. 

THE RESULT

My creative juices began to fill those spaces where the mundane had taken up residence! I woke up thinking about my plot, my characters, bits of dialogue. Throughout the day, my manuscript rolled around in my head and so without even trying, I’d sit down to write and the words spilled onto the page like water from a fire hydrant! 

By November 17th, I hit my goal. Before Thanksgiving, I hit 41,000+ words; I’m only on hiatus now because of research I need before moving forward. But more important than the word goal was the new habit created. 

WHAT ABOUT YOU?

Try this method. Take a look at what and when you’re spending your best hours. Plan what you can neglect in order to give your writing the best of you. Follow the plan and your priorities every day. You’ll be surprised how quickly you can form a new habit. 

And honestly, I’ve found that I can live comfortably and downright happily with my planned neglect. (But just for the record, I’ve worn clean underwear every day this month.)

~Cathy C. Hall

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6 comments Cathy C. Hall, goals, NANO, NaNoWriMo, Planned Neglect, prioritizing

When The Universe Strikes

Gather round, friends, it’s storytime with Cathy. 

It was midday Tuesday, and I sat down at my desk, opened my laptop to a word document, and began to write this very blog post. I had an idea, and once I got started, the words flowed. To be exact, 239 words were on the page when out of the blue, my curser stopped. 

At first, I thought it was the mouse, and so I tried to direct the curser manually. But that did not fix the problem and as I realized my laptop had frozen, my cell phone rang. 

ME: Hold on a sec, I need to figure out what to do about this document on this &^&^* frozen laptop.

DAUGHTER: Uh-Oh. (And then Daughter went into a long story about her work laptop and how she had to purchase a new one and eventually circled back to built-in obsolescence which happens to be a thing we both believe exists. And regularly targets members of the Hall family.) 

ME: I’ll have to shut down to get my laptop going again so I’m going to take a picture of what I’ve written, just in case it’s not automatically recovered. But boy am I glad that I wasn’t working on my novel! 

And so that’s what I did and we continued to chat about whatever was the purpose of the call and I was fine with that because it was not too terribly late and I had plenty of time to write the blog post. 

So I went back to Word and sure enough, there was the blog post but a few paragraphs of what I’d written were missing. No problem, I thought, and I pulled up the image, re-wrote the part I’d lost, and then continued on my merry way. I required a few finishing touches but I wanted to catch the news so I minimized the doc.

Now it’s around 6 and I sat down again to do those few edits; I was in a hurry because that’s usually the time I get my novel-writing done. But first, I remembered that I hadn’t emailed my manuscript to me and since my laptop was getting wonkier and wonkier every day, I took care of that business. And then, I added the last few sentences and saved my blog post. 

But I had an uneasy feeling about that save function. Something about it didn’t feel right so I double-checked my documents. Yep, there it was so I pulled up the doc and…no blog post. Nothing but a big blank page. 

Okay, I tell myself not to panic. The document is there, I just have to find it. But I don’t remember how to find unsaved and/or deleted documents. And so for forty-five minutes, I watch helpful videos and try EVERYTHING POSSIBLE. 

You can probably guess what happened next. There was no document. Nada, zilch, zero. At this point, I could attempt to remember every word I’d written and re-write. Or I could eat (It was, after all, 7:40) and then watch The Voice.

So here’s the thing: if the Universe destroys your blog post not once, but TWICE, I think one should listen. So I ditched that blog post, enjoyed The Voice, and sat back down at my laptop at 9:00 to work on my Nano manuscript.

Now, I’m not one of those people who write late at night. At 9:30 or so, I’m taking care of household chores that don't require too much brain power (like washing clothes or opening mail) and I had a whole list of things to do. But I employed a little “planned neglect” and managed to get my word count in by 10:45 or so. 

When next we meet, friends, I’ll tell you all about planned neglect and how it can make you a better writer. But the moral of this particular story (written Wednesday afternoon) is this: Don’t waste your time crying over spilt milk (or lost words from a blog post). Also, built-in obsolescence is real and out to get you so make sure you have a reliable back up system. And finally, this blog post is way better than that other one. I mean, would you have wanted to read all about grammar? 

Exactly. (You can thank The Universe.)

~Cathy C. Hall

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4 comments built-in obsolescence, Cathy C. Hall, NANO, recovering documents

NaNo Planning

I know that NaNoWriMo (NaNo for short) is kicking off in just five days, but better late than never when it comes to planning, right?

And this time, for once, I’m not joking around. Planning is crucial if you’re jumping into this annual November writing challenge. 

So for those new to National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo/NaNo), let me explain what it is (or just borrow from their website as they put it so well):

 “NaNoWriMo is a non-profit that believes in the transformational power of creativity. We provide the structure, community, and encouragement to help people find their voices, achieve creative goals, and build new worlds—on and off the page.” 

Which in practical terms means this: 

Every November, writers from across the globe hunker down to write a novel, with the goal being 50,000 words completed by the end of the month. This roughly translates to 1667 words per day, and while these writers are putting in the work, they’re also able to network and gain support online and in-person. 

I’m a fan of NaNo and generally participate because I’m motivated by a challenge. But I have never completed 50,000 words, and I’m fine with that because I have achieved the goals I’ve set for me. 

Well, most of the time. And that’s why planning is so important. 

Before starting NaNo, I recommend taking the time to think about your writing goals. Because here’s the beauty of this challenge: it can be about writing whatever you want but it works best if you know what you want. 

Do you have a completed novel that needs serious revision? NaNo can help you do that. 

Do you have 25,000 words of a novel you’ve been working on all year and want to push yourself to get to 35,000 words by the end of November? NaNo to the rescue!

Do you want to write 10 poems, or three articles, or five essays in 30 days? Yep, NaNo can help you with those goals, too. 

And of course, it can help you write 50,000 words of that novel that’s been stuck in your head forever. It’s a writing challenge, and you get to choose what and how you need help. 

Now, because it is all about novels, you’ll find a ton of information specific to novel-writing but that doesn’t mean it won’t translate in some way to what you’re writing. Check out all the writer’s resources, starting with NaNo Prep (and yes, it’s modeled on starting in September but you only have five days. Read fast!). Not only does NaNo Prep give you a calendar, outlines, exercises, and other tools, but it also gives you more in-depth information about how you can get involved and get that accountability that you might crave. 

But if that’s too overwhelming, check out a couple of Pep Talks, guaranteed to get your writer motor running. 

Finally, I know that some writers like to just sign up for NaNo and write by the seat of their pants. “Words on the page!” is their motto. And though I heartily agree that one must have words on the page, I’m not keen on wasting my time. If I’m going to challenge myself to write every day or thereabouts in November, I want the finished product to be a decent effort. 

But that’s me. I think about what I want to accomplish during NaNo and plan how I can get ‘er done. Sometimes I succeed mightily; sometimes, not so much. And like I said, I’m fine with that. As for you, dear writer, you do you. And good luck!

~Cathy C. Hall (who coincidentally has about 25,000 words in her latest WIP and would REALLY like to get to 35,000 by the end of November)

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10 comments Cathy C. Hall, goals, NANO, NaNo Prep, NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month, Pep Talks, writing challenges

New York and NaNo

So it’s the beginning of November and I’ll bet you a whole ream of paper that many of you are first timers with National Novel Writing Month. Or what we old-timers like to call NaNo. And the more I thought of the NaNo experience, the more I thought about my recent trip to New York. And what I thought was gee, Cathy, what a great metaphor!

New York:

I’ve been to a lot of places around the world, but New York’s not one of ‘em. It’s too big, too crowded, too expensive, too…too overwhelming! But Juniorette Hall has been several times and loves the Big Apple. Come on, she said, let’s do it for our birthdays! It’ll be great! And in a moment of weakness, I said okay. (Gulp!)

NaNo:

You’ve been writing for a while…a short story here, an essay there, your blog, your journal, but a whole book? 50,000 words?! It’s too much, too time-consuming, too demanding, too…too overwhelming! But your writer friends, or maybe a few critique partners, have done Nano several times and they love it. Come on, they say, we’ll do it together and it’ll be lots of fun because we’ll have that great NaNo community and accountability! And in a moment of weakness, you say okay. (Gulp!)


New York:

We stayed in Manhattan, and honestly, for a somewhat small area, it’s packed with things to do! So we had a plan, a schedule of what we’d cram into each day, from nine in the morning till midnight. But we neglected to take into consideration travel times, long lines, rainy, cold weather, and sold out venues. In four days, we accomplished maybe one quarter of the things we wanted to do, despite how hard we tried! (Phoeey!)

NaNo:

November is a long month—thirty days—but still, it’s packed with all kinds of things to do besides writing. Undaunted, you've made a plan, maybe plotted out your idea beforehand and made notes about characters. In short, you've organized a tight schedule to get all those words done (or you follow the NaNo suggestion of 1667 words per day). But you didn't account for sudden sickness, lost notes, fingers cramping, and a finicky laptop. So despite your best laid plans, it’s only Day Three and you’re already 2,657 words behind. (Phoeey!)


New York:

It was a whirlwind of sights and sounds and smells and I was flat wore out when it was done. And yes, my feet ached and my pocketbook took a hit and I can barely remember it all, but it was totally worth every minute! Why did I wait so long to go? But when I go back to New York—because there’s so much more I want to see and do there!—I’ll be ready for whatever the Big Apple throws at me! (Whee!)

NaNo:

It’s only been a couple of days and maybe you’re already flat wore out. But I’ll bet you’ve done more writing than usual, and if you keep at it, you’ll accomplish more than you can imagine. Although it may not be a book that anyone would ever read, you’ll learn so much from this first Nano try, that I promise, it’ll totally be worth it. You’ll wonder why you didn’t do it before! And then next year—because you’ll have another great idea, right?—you’ll be ready for whatever November and NaNo throws at you! (Whee!)

~Cathy C. Hall

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8 comments Cathy C. Hall, NANO, NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month, New York City

Tons of Tweets

If you've ever heard of, or perhaps even participated in NANO (National Novel Writing Month), you recognize that peer pressure can be a positive thing egging you on to do what you promised to do and helping you set up good writing habits -- in this case writing daily. And so it did for me (even though I didn't officially "win" NANO I did come pretty close). The daily writing was an easy habit to make and keep but sadly, a writing career isn't all about writing. There's networking, finding new markets, honing skills, and so much more.

The Internet has been a marvelous tool for accomplishing many of those goals, and with the best of intentions I set up a Facebook and Twitter account. Well, the Facebook account swiftly became inundated with personal announcements: who had a baby, went on vacation, wanted me to volunteer at a school fundraiser. So that left my Twitter account which I faithfully populated with the accounts of fellow writers, agents, publishers and such. I would be tuned into the publishing world. Hmmmm. Not so much.

I blame my phone. He isn't smart. Of sure, he can make phone calls, store numbers, even text (but I'm not a great texter so he doesn't get to show off that skill very often). But he definitely isn't smart enough to connect to the Internet and allow me to be constantly able to scroll through Twitter and tweet about my life from moment to moment. My tweeting is limited to when I am near my computer -- early in the morning or late in then evening. And oftentimes the thing that occurred to me to tweet earlier in the day has jumped clean out of my head. So tweeting, and even reading tweets, rapidly became I thing I DIDN'T do.

So I have decided to have a Tons of Tweets Month. At first, just for me but then I thought it would be much more fun if, like NANO, we were all playing the game together. It is an easy goal. One tweet a day from today until March 4. Tweets about writing, the publishing world, authors, books, whatever you think other writers would be interested in. Include the hashtag #TonsOfTweets. If you'd like me -- or anyone else reading today's post -- to enjoy your writing tweets leave your twitter tag below. You can follow me at #wordsbywebb

And let the Tons of Tweets begin!

Jodi Webb is a writer, WOW blog tour manager, and attempting to improve her tweeting skills. Stop by her blog Words by Webb or #WordsByWebb.

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6 comments NANO, Tons of Tweets, tweeting, twitter