NaNoWriMo reflections

November is the the National Novel Writing Month, as promoted by NaNoWriMo. I had an honest go at this, putting in about 28 days work. The support of a local group really helped with my motivation (even though I was only in contact with them via the forum). It also gave me confidence (proof, even) that it is possible for me to write something like a novel. So I'd glad to be part of it. There were a few notes that I made looking back at the experience though, which I thought I'd share:

• I felt I was a "pantser" (writing from the seat of my pants, in contrast to working from a plan). However, I had based what I'd written on journal notes that had characters, places and creatures for the setting - about 1,500 words were enough of a seed.
• I might have done better if this was a more structured "pitch" for a novel (instead of just a summary) - why a reader (or me as the author) might get emotional buy-in to it.
• Better planning  structure would have helped - e.g. laying down a 3 act structure with a central turning point (that raises tension), topped and tailed with introductory orientation and an epilogue.
• Specifically, starting with a definitive cast of characters would have avoided a problem I had as a pantser with the introduction new characters late on.
• The pitch and the plan could have been addressed to a clearer view of the audience than I had - seeing the fiction as creating the stage as well as the characters on it. Making assumptions or having to go back and clarify these later in the writing broke the flow of events and actions.
• That said, I felt I sometimes had an issue with slogging through too much "and then... and then..." to just communicate a basic sequence of actions. I could loosen up to make leaps and just give impressions at times.
• I also got tangled up with the way I wrote dialogue and rigorously avoided using numeric quantities - e.g. for time and distance. Maybe next time I'll just use units and try to let conversations flow more - it would be easy enough to edit these later.
• Likewise, there's no need to shy away from taboo content or themes. Writing is an exercise for me first; censorship can come when (if ever) it goes to a publisher.
• I felt I was leaning too heavily on real-world points of reference too - like medieval castles, druidry, the system of 4 elements, and a conflict between a monotheistic god of law versus polytheism or animism. As Adam Roberts said: "Whenever faced with something old and stale and conventionalised, think of a way to unsettle and rewire that staleness."