In which attempting NaNo without access to coffee shops is like, well, tbqh, I'm making this up as I go
When I started writing fanfic, I mostly did it during lectures at school. My archaeology notes were full of sketched out SG-1 dialogue and LotR character monologues. I had an elaborate colour coded system to keep everything straight. Eventually, I kept a second notebook on hand so I wouldn't have to switch pens (try doing THAT on those ridiculously tiny desks!), and then I would type things up in the evenings while I listened to Robbie Williams and waited for LiveJournal to update. I lived and breathed TV, and by the time I graduated, I had filled equal pages with school notes and fanfic.
In 2009, after I had returned from the UK and from South Korea, I moved in with my older brother, because he lived in a city and my parents lived in a small town with very few job opportunities. I started working at Toys R Us. EJ bought me a $25 gift card for Starbucks after my first week of work. It was pumpkin spice latte season. I preferred them iced, because they lasted longer. I was working on a Criminal Minds fanfic at the time, but even then, my brother treated it like work.
By the time November arrived, I had switched to regular coffee, because it was cheaper and because I didn't mind if it got cold. I had also decided to do NaNoWriMo, on the advice of a friend, who pointed out that this was my first year completely free of schoolwork. A customer at the toy store had bought JENGA for her kid to take to a birthday party, and while she explained the rules to her, I had a vision of a girl and a wizard and a tower. It was October 28th.
NaNoWriMo had been merely a legend to me at that point. Through LJ, I had watched people complete it. I had tried it myself in 2008 (it was going to be a filed-off serial numbers for one of my SG-1 fics), and wrote 13 words before I was overwhelmed by my teaching work. This was going to be my first TRUE attempt, and I had no idea what I was doing. The longest fic I'd ever written was 25K. All I knew was that I needed to go to a coffee shop and start typing.
And so, every day after I finished at the toy store, that is what I did. I listened to Bear McCreary's Battlestar Galactica soundtrack, I drank my coffee very slowly, and I typed. I only when home when I had to pee.
On November 12th, 2009, I won my first NaNo. I took Friday and Saturday off because I hadn't really seen my family (my brother, who I lived with, had started booking breakfast dates pretty early in the month, once he realized how it was going to go). Then I decided to finish the book. The Stone Thief ended up being 85K when it was done, a glorious mess of every kids' fantasy trope that I loved. I finished the first draft on November 30th, and then slept for like three days.
I've only won NaNo three times: 2009, 2010, and 2011, the year I wrote The Story of Owen. All three years were mostly completed at Starbucks. All three years were different. In 2010, for example, I was working in Alberta, out of town for 10 days and home for four. I tried to write every day, but I was exhausted, so I ended up writing three of my four days off. I didn't finish the draft that year, not until January, but I did get to 50K. I tried and failed in 2012 (A Thousand Nights), in 2013 (That Inevitable Victorian Thing), and in 2018 (Aetherbound). I'm doing okay. :)
There are two things I always tell people that I learned from NaNo that are absolutely priceless. The first is how to carve out time for writing. When you have a dayjob and other commitments, it can be hard to do that all the time, but for November, you can make it a special occasion. In 2009, I was the family reliable. I was ALWAYS available. That was the first month I ever said "No, I'm busy", just for me.
The second thing is that NaNo teaches the people in your life to respect your writing time. My brother taught me this, in a lot of ways, before I learned how to do it myself, but his acceptance made it WAY easier to make my parents understand. Yes, I'm not at work today. No, I can't run errands with you. Again, it starts with November, but eventually, you can expand it to include you writing as a whole.
I'm adding a third thing. That first NaNo, I had NO IDEA what I was doing. Every time since then, when I hammer out novels in 6 days or whatever, I have had some time to prep. In my heart, though, I remain a pantser. I make it up as I go along. And NaNo taught me how to do that, too.
This year, NaNo is different. I don't miss meet-ups and write-ins, because I never really participated in those in the first place, but I do miss coffee shops. I miss having a space outside my house, where I can go and sit and type. There's usually someone else there with a laptop, headphones in. We might make eye contact. We don't talk, but we know. We respect the work. There's the online community, which I have always leaned on heavily, but it's not quite the same.
I believe in you, though. And I believe in us. I believe in messy words and scattered plots. I believe in jumping out of the shower on fire with new ideas. I believe in waking up December 1st and thinking "Yeah, I did that." I've given myself permission not to write anything until November 24th, so we'll see how I do, but I believe in me, too. I believe in NaNo.
I would absolutely DO MURDER for a peppermint hot chocolate I don't have to make myself right now.
Out May 25, 2021
US Pre-orders: https://www.oldfirehousebooks.com/book/9780735231856
Can Pre-orders: https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/aetherbound/9780735231856-item.html