{"id":92,"date":"2013-11-15T16:26:40","date_gmt":"2013-11-15T06:26:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/janineprince.com\/?p=92"},"modified":"2015-03-13T14:35:29","modified_gmt":"2015-03-13T04:35:29","slug":"halftime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/janineprince.com\/home\/halftime\/","title":{"rendered":"Halftime is not halfway \u2013 Six writing lessons from Nanowrimo"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Writing<\/a><\/p>\n

It is November 15 which means I should be halfway through drafting a novel, and I am, so the world is a shiny, happy place for a few hours and I dance and I smile and my workmates edge away from the crazy lady.<\/p>\n

I love NaNoWriMo<\/a> for this annual push and sense of communal urgency to create a work of fiction as whole as possible inside the month. In some ways, the arbitrary restrictions of the Nano game have taught me a lot that I needed to learn about the discipline of writing. I\u2019ve had a crack at Nano every year since 2006 and \u2018won\u2019 it only twice so far but I\u2019ve got my best game on this year.<\/p>\n

So what exactly has NaNoWriMo taught me about writing?<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Turn up and tune in. Sit. Write. Sitting in the chair is no good if the clock\u2019s not ticking and the words aren\u2019t coming.<\/li>\n
  2. Deliver the words. Want to write a book? Produce a daily word count towards it. You set the rules, but measure yourself. Do whatever works for you. I like gold stars. There is a part of me that is still 8 years old and will do *anything* to get a gold star on a chart. I wish I\u2019d known years ago that all it would take to relight my writing was about $3 worth of shiny stickers and a wall calendar!<\/li>\n
  3. Have fun. If the writing is getting boring, you\u2019re doing it wrong. Call a friend and bring in your plot ninjas or drop your characters into hot water.<\/li>\n
  4. Say no. Say no throughout September, and October to things in November, especially if you hold down a day job. You\u2019re going to need those weekends for your story. You\u2019re going to wish you had some holiday time to take or a long commute. Daydream and note down ideas and keep saying no to everything else. Time is words.<\/li>\n
  5. Kill your darlings. Yeah, I stole that one from Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch* (via Faulkner). I\u2019d heard it before but never really understood it until I re-read some of my rambling, no tension, and precious manuscripts and nodded right off to sleep. I\u2019d put so much effort into making beautiful characters I didn\u2019t want anything bad to happen to them. Oh dear. Total snooze fest.<\/li>\n
  6. Finish. Is that obvious enough? I didn\u2019t get that for a long time. I thought \u2013 \u2018I\u2019ll get back to that one next week\u2019 and \u2026 nothing. So now it doesn\u2019t matter how, or where the plot ends up, or what weird contortions I put those characters through, together we\u2019re all getting to the finish.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    That gets a first draft done. It is admittedly small draft, but a whole one. It is no where near half way through completely finishing a novel, but it is an incredibly satisfying milestone along that path and it feels great. So today I mark halftime in the word production schedule and celebrate being on track with a nice shiny gold star. I wish you all the very best in your writing goals too.<\/p>\n

    Have you played the Nano game? Please share your writing tips in the comments.<\/p>\n

    * The full quote.
    \nSir Arthur Quiller-Couch: \u201cWhenever you feel an impulse to perpetrate a piece of exceptionally fine writing, obey it \u2013 whole-heartedly \u2013 and delete it before sending your manuscripts to press. Murder your darlings\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    It is November 15 which means I should be halfway through drafting a novel, and I am, so the world is a shiny, happy place for a few hours and I dance and I smile and my workmates edge away from the crazy lady. I love NaNoWriMo for this annual push and sense of communal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[15,4,14],"tags":[41,84,5,17,23,123,3],"class_list":["post-92","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nanowrimo","category-thinking","category-writing-2","tag-failure","tag-honesty","tag-learning","tag-nanowrimo-2","tag-tips","tag-turn-up","tag-writing"],"yoast_head":"\nHalftime is not halfway \u2013 Six writing lessons from Nanowrimo - Janine Prince<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Six writing lessons from NANOWRIMO\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/janineprince.com\/home\/halftime\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Halftime is not halfway \u2013 Six writing lessons from Nanowrimo - Janine Prince\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Six writing lessons from NANOWRIMO\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/janineprince.com\/home\/halftime\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Janine Prince\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"www.facebook.com\/janine.e.r.prince\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-11-15T06:26:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-03-13T04:35:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/janineprince.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/2013-06-J9-writing-bw-300x134.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Janine\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Janine\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/janineprince.com\/home\/halftime\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/janineprince.com\/home\/halftime\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Janine\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/janineprince.com\/home\/#\/schema\/person\/83868b4fdcc83e7b9a46e54afabdaab9\"},\"headline\":\"Halftime is not halfway \u2013 Six writing lessons from Nanowrimo\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-11-15T06:26:40+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-03-13T04:35:29+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/janineprince.com\/home\/halftime\/\"},\"wordCount\":580,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/janineprince.com\/home\/halftime\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/janineprince.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/2013-06-J9-writing-bw-300x134.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"failure\",\"honesty\",\"learning\",\"nanowrimo\",\"tips\",\"Turn-up\",\"writing\"],\"articleSection\":[\"NaNoWriMo\",\"thinking\",\"Writing\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/janineprince.com\/home\/halftime\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/janineprince.com\/home\/halftime\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/janineprince.com\/home\/halftime\/\",\"name\":\"Halftime is not halfway \u2013 Six writing lessons from Nanowrimo - Janine Prince\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/janineprince.com\/home\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/janineprince.com\/home\/halftime\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/janineprince.com\/home\/halftime\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/janineprince.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/2013-06-J9-writing-bw-300x134.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-11-15T06:26:40+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-03-13T04:35:29+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/janineprince.com\/home\/#\/schema\/person\/83868b4fdcc83e7b9a46e54afabdaab9\"},\"description\":\"Six writing lessons from NANOWRIMO\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/janineprince.com\/home\/halftime\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/janineprince.com\/home\/halftime\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/janineprince.com\/home\/halftime\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/janineprince.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/2013-06-J9-writing-bw-300x134.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/janineprince.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/2013-06-J9-writing-bw-300x134.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/janineprince.com\/home\/halftime\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/janineprince.com\/home\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Halftime is not halfway \u2013 Six writing lessons from Nanowrimo\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/janineprince.com\/home\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/janineprince.com\/home\/\",\"name\":\"Janine Prince\",\"description\":\"Author\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/janineprince.com\/home\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/janineprince.com\/home\/#\/schema\/person\/83868b4fdcc83e7b9a46e54afabdaab9\",\"name\":\"Janine\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/janineprince.com\/home\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1642b5a205ff8ac226bb34d04ba7f6c7223c9c5aee31d567bf614198c79c4ec6?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1642b5a205ff8ac226bb34d04ba7f6c7223c9c5aee31d567bf614198c79c4ec6?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Janine\"},\"sameAs\":[\"www.facebook.com\/janine.e.r.prince\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/orbitaltorch\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/janineprince.com\/home\/author\/j9_admin\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Halftime is not halfway \u2013 Six writing lessons from Nanowrimo - Janine Prince","description":"Six writing lessons from NANOWRIMO","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/janineprince.com\/home\/halftime\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Halftime is not halfway \u2013 Six writing lessons from Nanowrimo - Janine Prince","og_description":"Six writing lessons from NANOWRIMO","og_url":"https:\/\/janineprince.com\/home\/halftime\/","og_site_name":"Janine Prince","article_author":"www.facebook.com\/janine.e.r.prince","article_published_time":"2013-11-15T06:26:40+00:00","article_modified_time":"2015-03-13T04:35:29+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/janineprince.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/2013-06-J9-writing-bw-300x134.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Janine","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Janine","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/janineprince.com\/home\/halftime\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/janineprince.com\/home\/halftime\/"},"author":{"name":"Janine","@id":"https:\/\/janineprince.com\/home\/#\/schema\/person\/83868b4fdcc83e7b9a46e54afabdaab9"},"headline":"Halftime is not halfway \u2013 Six writing lessons from Nanowrimo","datePublished":"2013-11-15T06:26:40+00:00","dateModified":"2015-03-13T04:35:29+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/janineprince.com\/home\/halftime\/"},"wordCount":580,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/janineprince.com\/home\/halftime\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/janineprince.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/2013-06-J9-writing-bw-300x134.jpg","keywords":["failure","honesty","learning","nanowrimo","tips","Turn-up","writing"],"articleSection":["NaNoWriMo","thinking","Writing"],"inLanguage":"en-AU","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/janineprince.com\/home\/halftime\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/janineprince.com\/home\/halftime\/","url":"https:\/\/janineprince.com\/home\/halftime\/","name":"Halftime is not halfway \u2013 Six writing lessons from Nanowrimo - Janine Prince","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/janineprince.com\/home\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/janineprince.com\/home\/halftime\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/janineprince.com\/home\/halftime\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/janineprince.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/2013-06-J9-writing-bw-300x134.jpg","datePublished":"2013-11-15T06:26:40+00:00","dateModified":"2015-03-13T04:35:29+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/janineprince.com\/home\/#\/schema\/person\/83868b4fdcc83e7b9a46e54afabdaab9"},"description":"Six writing lessons from NANOWRIMO","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/janineprince.com\/home\/halftime\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-AU","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/janineprince.com\/home\/halftime\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-AU","@id":"https:\/\/janineprince.com\/home\/halftime\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/janineprince.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/2013-06-J9-writing-bw-300x134.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/janineprince.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/2013-06-J9-writing-bw-300x134.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/janineprince.com\/home\/halftime\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/janineprince.com\/home\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Halftime is not halfway \u2013 Six writing lessons from Nanowrimo"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/janineprince.com\/home\/#website","url":"https:\/\/janineprince.com\/home\/","name":"Janine Prince","description":"Author","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/janineprince.com\/home\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-AU"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/janineprince.com\/home\/#\/schema\/person\/83868b4fdcc83e7b9a46e54afabdaab9","name":"Janine","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-AU","@id":"https:\/\/janineprince.com\/home\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1642b5a205ff8ac226bb34d04ba7f6c7223c9c5aee31d567bf614198c79c4ec6?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1642b5a205ff8ac226bb34d04ba7f6c7223c9c5aee31d567bf614198c79c4ec6?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Janine"},"sameAs":["www.facebook.com\/janine.e.r.prince","https:\/\/x.com\/orbitaltorch"],"url":"https:\/\/janineprince.com\/home\/author\/j9_admin\/"}]}},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s4cFCK-halftime","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/janineprince.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/janineprince.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/janineprince.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janineprince.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janineprince.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/janineprince.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":427,"href":"https:\/\/janineprince.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92\/revisions\/427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/janineprince.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janineprince.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/janineprince.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}