Lucy McLaren – On NaNoWriMo

Welcome back to another Creator’s Roulette feature, friends! November is around the corner which means it is the time for many writers to put their head down and get writing this NaNoWriMo : National Novel Writing Month! I asked author Lucy McLaren to share her experiences and lessons from taking part in previous years. If you are participating in NaNoWriMo this year, I hope find this post helpful. 🙂

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NaNoWriMo

A guest post by Lucy McLaren

As NaNoWriMo once more approaches (honestly, where has 2023 gone?), I find myself reflecting back on the days of writing—and completing—my first book, Awakening: The Commune’s Curse Book 1. 

Back in the pre-COVID days of 2018, I had committed myself to finally writing seriously. I enjoyed it as a child but stopped for a long time because of self-doubt and anxiety, never believing myself to be good enough. Fast-forward about 13 years and I was training to be a counsellor. This had a huge impact on me, especially in allowing me to reconnect with interests and passions I had allowed to fall by the wayside—the main one being writing.

And so, I promised myself I would write a book. At the time, I had also just started playing DnD and, as such, I had a character blueprint for Evelyn, whose history I had written for the campaign. The more I thought about it, the more I felt compelled to explore Evelyn’s story. The world of The Commune’s Curse grew around her, and the other characters gradually made themselves known as I began writing the story (I am a pantser, no patience for planning!). By November 2018, I had a solid chunk written—and so, having only recently learned of NaNoWriMo, it felt like the perfect opportunity to finish my novel. 

And I did! It was a great feeling.

NaNoWriMo is an excellent motivatiional tool for writers at all stages.

Though I am not participating this year (having just completed a standalone dark fantasy story which I will be busy editing in preparation for querying), I nevertheless thought I would share some tips and tricks on preparing and getting through NaNoWriMo based on what I’ve learned from my participation in it.

1. It’s a great template for allowing you to work towards a specific daily word count goal. Now, the standard goal for NaNoWriMo is 50,000 but don’t take that as prescriptive. I wrote 30,000 because that was what it took to finish my book. You might write 1,000 words, or 10,000, or 50,000 (or even exceed that, you absolute word wizard). My point is—yes, it’s nice to reach that 50k word goal if it fits your project. But please try not to get bogged down with this number. Don’t make this more of a slog than an enjoyable writing activity. Focus on the fact that ANY amount of writing is progress.
2. You can add friends on the NaNoWriMo forums and create writer groups. These are invaluable, both during November and beyond. When I did it, I had a mentor who checked in with me regularly. It was really nice to chat to them and have their support, especially as I was a fairly new writer at the time and had no idea what I was doing! (I still don’t, come to think of it…). I’d encourage you to seek out fellow NaNo-ers and check in with them regularly to keep you motivated and on track with your goals, and to talk through any of that dreaded self-doubt that so many of us writers suffer with.
3. If you have a day where you are really struggling, take a break. As much as you might hear the advice “writers write every day”, I’ve personally found that pushing through a tough writing day makes things much harder. Actually, I think that writers’ block (if that’s what you want to call it) is generally your brain’s way of telling you that you need rest. Listen to it. 
4. If you’re in the same position as I was and end up finishing your project because of NaNoWriMo, I implore you not to do what I did—which was be so excited about that fact, I pretty much immediately started researching agents and querying. BIG MISTAKE. The book was nowhere near ready and, what’s more, agents get an influx of queries after NaNo for this very reason. I’m told they tend to dismiss a lot of these queries because they know the books are not ready. I’m not saying don’t be excited about finishing your book—please do! But don’t make the mistake of thinking a finished book is ready to be queried. There’ll be rewrites, edits, beta reads and critiques to be received so that you can polish your book until it sheens. Believe me, you’ve put your heart and soul into this; you want to give it the best chance of being accepted by an agent or publisher (if that’s the route you choose to follow, as I did). 
5. Enjoy the journey! This is an exciting opportunity to delve further into your project alongside many fellow authors, which is awesome. You’ve got this. 

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About Lucy

Lucy A. McLaren is a fantasy author and professional counsellor, passionate about writing stories that include a realistic representation and exploration of mental health issues. She is a lifelong fan of fantasy stories, and enjoys reading, writing, watching and playing them. McLaren’s debut novel, Awakening: The Commune’s Curse Book 1, released from Santa Fe Writers Project in May 2022. She also has a fantasy short story featured in the Reign of Fire anthology which released from Dragon Soul Press in January 2023. 

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Are you taking part in NaNoWriMo or have in the past? What were your experiences?

Learn more about NaNoWriMo on: https://nanowrimo.org/

Thank you so much for hanging out with us today! Connect with Lucy on Twitter, Threads (@lucy_a_mclaren), BlueSky and Instagram. Be sure to check out her website for more information.

Check out Lucy’s guest post some years back about counselling for fictional characters.