November is National Novel Writing Month

I’ve been going around in circles about what to post regarding National Novel Writin Month (NaNoWriMo), which starts this week. I assume most writers know about it—it’s an annual challenge to write 50,000 words in November—and many, many articles exist with advice for how to do it. Actually, probably all of the information you need can be found on the official website.

NaNoWriMo has become somewhat ubiquitous, which is why I suspect you don’t need me to explain it to you. Even people I know who aren’t writers have heard of it. I wanted to write an NaNoWriMo-related post with some advice, and my first thought was to write about things I had learned over the years of participating, but I thought that was more navel-gazey than useful.

But, after a week of mulling it over, I’ve settled on one piece of advice: if you’re participating in NaNoWriMo this year, my challenge to you is to make all of your inner critics shut up.

This is hard! A big thing I had to learn over the years is that my inner editor is fierce. I spend a lot of my days editing text for my day job—I’m currently knee-deep in a big copyediting project—so it is very hard to turn off the part of my brain that is critical of prose and grammar and spelling and mistakes. So how do I shut that editor up? Well, I let myself fix typos and other errors as I write because I can’t help myself, but for everything else, I tell myself I’ll fix it later, and that seems to help. “This will get fixed, just not right now” is a good way to silence your inner editor.

But more than that, I have found, the more books I write and publish, the more I start fretting about the market, and whether the book will sell, and how it will be received by readers, and so on and so on. And the more I fret about this stuff, the more likely I am to second guess myself and pull my punches. A lot of authors I’ve talked to feel the same. And I know you’re all doing it. I’ve taught a bunch of writing workshops this year, and I get a ton of questions along the lines of, “I want to do X, but I’m worried there’s no market for it/readers won’t like it/I’ll never sell it to an agent.”

Will I ever sell the novel I’m planning to write this November? Who knows! I haven’t written it yet, so I don’t know if it’s good. I have a whole plan ready to go, and I love the premise and the characters I’ve come up with, and that’s really all I can ask for at this point.

In other words, while the market and book sales and editors and agents are all stuff worth worrying about, they are not things you have to worry about now. And I actually think that all this punch pulling is leading to blander books. There’s a tangible fear of not alienating readers that is showing up in some novels published in 2023 that makes me think either the author is worried about their readers, or the editor is.

And I don’t mean including offensive material, to be clear. I mean pursuing your most bonkers idea, letting your creativity really fly, writing that scene even if you think it’s too out there.

Dig into your id. That’s the part of your mind where your base impulses lie. For our purpose, it’s what compels you to like certain things. Are there specific tropes or character types or plot lines you love without really knowing why? That’s your id poking you. Do you have a TV show or a movie that you’ve watched over and over and never get tired of? Or a book you reread regularly? Think about why you love those things, and how you can use traits of those things in your own work.

Don’t try to write what you think is popular or trendy. Write what speaks to you. What are you passionate about? How can you manifest that in your writing?

Give yourself permission to make mistakes, because you can always go back and fix it later. If you get a wild hair of an idea, run with it. Write like no one will see this draft, that it’s just for you and your wildest ideas and dreams. Push your own creativity.

I think a super creative idea can be successful, so don’t assume your idea is too weird for the masses. For example, I was watching the second season of Our Flag Means Death this weekend and kept thinking “How is this a show?” It’s a comedy about pirates, but it’s gruesome and imaginative and funny and super queer. I’m glad it exists, I find it enormously entertaining, I’m just surprised it got greenlit because it’s so different from what else is currently on TV. Or, I’m currently reading The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab, which is about an immortal with an unfortunate curse (basically, she can live forever, but people she meets instantly forget about her) and it’s a clever premise. I’m glad this book exists, too, because I love stories about immortals—one person being able to experience many time periods and witness history as it happens is fascinating to me—but I once had an editor tell me immortals don’t sell. I’m pretty sure Addie LaRue made the NY Times list, so take that, past editor!

So, basically, I want you to dig into yourself and find your big ideas and run with them. Write the book of your heart. Write the book that tickles your fancy, that you’ve always wanted to write but were kind of afraid to. NaNoWriMo is the perfect venue for that kind of writing because it’s over in a month. If the story doesn’t work, well, it was a fun month of trying. But if it does work, maybe you end up with something really special.

And finally, some housekeeping!

I am not on a regular newsletter schedule, and I’m about to spend November writing, so expect to receive these sporadically.

I’m teaching a workshop debunking common writing and publishing myths. (It’s kind of a long form workshop version of this post from a few months ago. It starts at the end of November, you can register here.

I haven’t been active on Facebook in a very long time, and Twitter (X, whatever) has gotten so bad I’ve more or less quit, but I’m now on Threads (@katemcmurraygram same as my Instagram) and Bluesky (erinkathleen.bsky.social) if you want to follow me there.

I’m self-publishing a novella, something I will talk about more later (that is, I have some thoughts on the indie process and Kindle Unlimited that I want to write about more extensively in a future newsletter), but if you like my writing, you can preorder the novella here. (It’s a summer romance, friends to lovers, fake dating, with many musical theater references, if that’s the kind of thing you’re into.)