New Year’s Resolution: Become a Writer.

Failing at NaNoWriMo: Succeeding at Writing My First Novel Anyway

For as long as I could remember, I’ve wanted to be a writer. I’ve done many things in my life that I’m proud of: married a great guy, won accolades in my profession, and earned several advanced degrees. But one New Year’s resolution that always remains “unaccomplished” year after year is this one: Become a Writer.

In my mind, “Becoming a Writer” has always meant to publish something I wrote. But, that has already happened. After all, the concept of publication has changed in many ways in recent times, with the advance of blogs, mediums like Medium and LinkedIn, as well as self-publication opportunities. So, in terms like these, I have been published. I have also been published in professional publications for expository writing, so I am a Writer. Can I move on now? Not so fast.

I am redefining the goal. What I still want — and perhaps what I’ve always wanted — is to write and publish a novel with a traditional publisher. I want to create a book that I wrote with my own mind and my own hands striking keys. And then have a publisher make it into a tangible book.

In mid-November 2021, I discovered NaNoWriMo, which as many of you know, is a collective project to write a first draft of a novel in one month, circa 50,000 words. I absolutely didn’t complete a novel during that month. I started late into the month and with my day job, could not get to the words per day that were required. By NaNoWriMo standards, I failed. However, the practice of writing every day, even when I didn’t feel like it, was completely transformative for me. Prior to this experience of where you simply MUST get the words onto the page, I would have never been able to do it. The simple, demystified process of writing one word after another after another proved to be a now indispensable part of my writing journey. And this is so extremely simple. I said simple, but not easy.

Write every day. Write a word and then another one.

Right now, I have a daily goal of no less than 500 words a day. It’s enough to be difficult but not so difficult that I can’t do it. It is the equivalent of when doctors say to make sure you get at least 10 mins of exercise a day (except writing 500 words can take me hours on a bad day).

So, now I am at 26,608 words of my first novel, which is just about 100 pages. Is it a good novel? No, not really. Is it near a point where I’m ready to share? Absolutely not. Are there a few decent lines in there? I think so. Is it the most I’ve ever been able to do? Yes, unequivocally. I think there’s value in that. The more I write, the more it becomes my novel and less of something else — snippets of short stories pieced together here and there. And the more options I will have to strike things when I go back and edit. Plus, it’s getting exciting: the characters are becoming more real and complex, and there are many ways in which the stor(ies) within can develop and resolve. So, there is potential there, even the potential to decide when to stop writing it. Which is the sub-goal before the main goal.

People talk about the experience of a novel before it is published. I’ve always ignored this part because I’ve wanted the end goal so badly. And getting there is so painful and lonesome and mystifying. But don’t make it worse than it is. Just do what you have to do. Get the words on the page. Try not to judge them. Accept that they might be terrible now. But this is your novel. And no one will be able to enjoy it unless you finish it. Except for you. So, don’t be a selfish bastard and just write it until you’re done.