I am doing NaNoWriMo this year. For those that don’t know, it stands for National Novel Writing Month, and the goal is to write 50,000 words in 30 days (November 1st to November 30th). I am doing awfully, if one were to keep score. But I’m not, and I don’t think most do, so I’m okay with that.
NaNoWriMo is something I’ve always wanted to “finish” but is in a part of the year that I don’t do so well. It’s in the holiday season, which is one of the hardest parts of the year for me. I’ve taken part before but never quite managed to get to my end goal. Honestly, I don’t think this year will be much different. But it’s the journey, not the destination, and it’s fun even if I don’t hit 50,000 words.
So what is it I’m working on? I’m working on the last book in the Guardians of Gaia series, the first of which is Savior of the Damned. The books before it aren’t done so much as a collection of drafts in various states of completion. But I chose this partly because I didn’t want to get distracted with something Shiny and New and completely derail all the progress I’ve made so far. But mostly I chose it because it’s a chance to finish up the entire series, so all I’ll have ahead of me is my favorite part, the revisions.
I know, I know, it’s weird. What author loves the revision process? I do. I love taking the rough draft and giving it the love and attention it needs to become the best thing it can become. My rough drafts are an absolute dumpster fire that need so much TLC to make shiny and new, but therein lies the charm. Getting to go through and give it that attention in the form of fleshing out the parts I skipped, rewriting everything so it sounds beautiful, and making sure everything is squared away and makes sense gives me something I can happily obsess over without fear of reprisal or accusations of being “weird.” Okay, maybe it is “weird,” but it makes me happy and gives me something to show for my efforts. It gives my life purpose and gives me something to focus on, instead of letting boredom creep in and cause me to become self-destructive. And it’s something I can share when done too, with others who will love it as much as I do.
I blame this mindset on my previous experiences with knitting. You don’t just take something off the needles and call it good (though with some things you can.) Lace, especially, needs blocking, where the item goes from an unattractive lump to professional quality, where you follow your preferred method of going from one state to another. I’ve been knitting for almost twenty years now, almost as long as I’ve been writing, and in knitting that’s my favorite stage as well. Getting to take the lumpy, crumpled, fresh off the needles item and turn it into something that people ooh and ah over. All these years later after I’ve gone through the process over and over again and it still feels like magic. The revision process feels the same way.
Saving the best for last is something my neurodivergent brain has always relished. My favorite bite of food, my favorite flavor in a bag of gummy bears, whatever it is that I love the most I save for last. It makes it that much better to end on the best, and that’s reflected in my drafting process as well. Saving the revisions for last not just gets my least favorite part out of the way but means that I have the bulk of my favorite part ahead as well. Not just that, but it gives me time to make sure that everything does indeed workk the way I’ve drafted, and gives me room to fix any glaring inconsistencies that might have cropped up from the beginning that I didn’t catch too. Having that buffer, that time to go back and fix things, helps a lot and reduces a lot of my anxiety over the entire process and makes the entire process much smoother. So smooth, in fact, I might adopt this approach from now on.
I’m sure it’s not just me. I’m sure there are others in the same boat I am, and they’re excited to know it’s more than just them. For anyone who hasn’t considered this approach, however, it’s worth knowing it exists just in case it works for you. It certainly works for me. And while I probably won’t finish NaNoWriMo this year, I’m already looking forward to using NaNoWriMo like this in the future. Because the goal isn’t to finish, the goal is to keep going. At least it is for me. And that’s not a bad goal to have.