According to Wikipedia, “National Novel Editing Month (or NaNoEdMo) is a month-long timed artistic challenge in which participants edit for fifty hours in a month. It was founded in April 2003 at nanoedmo.org, where it ran until 2006. After the founders moved on to pursue non-NaNoEdMo things, a group of Wrimos decided to revive NaNoEdMo before March 2007 and did so at nanoedmo.net. The nanoedmo.net version ran until 2013. After a hiatus in 2014, the event relaunched at nanoedmo.com, where it has run every March since.
“During NaNoEdMo, participants may edit more than one work of fiction and may edit a non-NaNoWriMo work. Editing is defined as changing previously written material, which can be anything from correcting grammar to substantial rewriting. Planning and research do not count toward the fifty hours.”
Update: all NaNoEdMo links are broken, but since I’m in the midst of editing my Life Story Crafting NaNoWriMo, I decided to share some inspirations with the Portland NaNo Facebook group, and now, with you.
Spoiler alert: It did not go as planned.
NaNoEdMo Day 1 – Happy NaNoEdMo
(1:37 of 50 hours editing)
Happy NaNoEdMo Everyone!
Err…maybe happy isn’t the best word, but productive, insightful, illuminating, self-effacing. Hm. Choose your own adventure.
5 Ways NaNoEdMo Can Boost Your Writing Craft
NaNoEdMo Day 2 – Three Questions
(3:13 toward 50 hours of editing in 31 days)
Three questions to ask yourself as you bravely read through your NaNoWriMo first draft.
1. What story am I telling?
Christopher Booker, in his book The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories, claimed that there are only seven plots, and these are the backbone of all human stories:
Overcoming the Monster (Little Red Riding Hood, Jaws)
Rags to Riches (Cinderella, David Copperfield, Rocky)
The Quest (The Odyssey, Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings) Voyage and Return (Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Gulliver’s Travels)
Comedy (Shakespeare’s comedies, The Hangover 1, 2, and 3)
Tragedy (Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet)
Rebirth (A Christmas Carol, Groundhog Day)
2. What do I like?
Highlight the aspects of the piece that are clicking for you.
3. What do I wish?
What would you like to see more of, less of, or different in your story?
NaNoEdMo (caught the mistake I made “originally posted NaNoWriMo Day 3”) Day 3 – You Are Not Alone
(4:51 of 50 hours editing)
Once you’ve decided what story you’re telling, know that others have told their version of the story before you.
Think of some of your favorite versions of the kind of story you’ve told. What did they do that connected with you? How can you learn from that to make your unique telling of the story more universal?
NaNoEdMo Day 4 (6:28 of 50 hours) – What Shape Are You In?
What shape is your novel in?
Try diagramming the plot points against one of these models to see what you discover.
NaNoEdMo Day 5 – What’s at Stake?
(8:05 of 50 hours)
From “How to Tell a Story” by The Moth
Ask yourself: What are the stakes for the protagonist in your story? What do they feel they stand to lose or gain as a result? What do they most want/need/must have/can’t live without? Remember, stakes show us why they care, which tells us why we should care.
NaNoEdMo Day 6 – What’s Your Tip?
(9:42 of 50 hours editing)
What’s your down-and-dirty rewrite tip?
I like to read my work out loud. If I trip myself up, chances are the reader will stumble there, too.
NaNoEdMo Day 7 – Notice Your Reactions
(11:19 of 50 hours editing. Congratulations on making it past the 20% mark. I know, 31 days in the month makes it harder to divide evenly than NaNoWriMo!)
Things to think about as you continue to read and revise.
From A Swim in a Pond in the Rain by George Saunders
To review: a story is a linear-temporal phenomenon.
Actually, that’s any work of art. We know what we think of a movie even a few minutes in. We step up to a painting with a blank mind, look at it, and the mind fills up. In a concert hall, we’re either riveted right away or wondering what that guy in the balcony’s texting about.
A story is a series of incremental pulses, each of which does something to us. Each puts us in a new place, relative to where we just were. Criticism is not some inscrutable, mysterious process. It’s just a matter of: (1) noticing ourselves responding to a work of art, moment by moment, and (2) getting better at articulating that response.
What I stress to my students is how empowering this process is. The world is full of people with agendas, trying to persuade us to act on their behalf (spend on their behalf, fight and die on their behalf, oppress others on their behalf). But inside us is what Hemingway called a “built-in, shockproof, shit detector.” How do we know something is shit? We watch the way the deep, honest part of our mind reacts to it.
And that part of the mind is the one that reading and writing refine into sharpness.
NaNoEdMo Day 8 – Movie Night!
(12:56 of 50 hours editing)
I know it seems like cheating, but you’ve earned it.
- Choose a movie in the genre of your NaNoWriMo work-in-progress
- Note how it sets up the world of the characters.
- Note the inciting incident that sets the conflict into gear.
- Note the point in the film where a decisive turn takes place and you start to move toward the conclusion.
- Note whether there’s a return to normalcy/new normalcy or an abrupt cut to credits at the end.
And don’t forget to enjoy the popcorn or snack of your choice.
NaNoEdMo Day 9 – Your WIP: The Serial!
(14:33 of 50 hours)
When I started rewrites on my NaNoWriMo noir novel, I needed some accountability and feedback, so I joined a 9 Bridges Wednesday Night critique group.
Each week, I’d share 3-5 pages (mostly 5 to be honest) of my work in progress and others did the same.
For dialogue scenes, I created multiple copies so writers could play the character roles.
I successfully “serialized” two novels that way, prepping them for publication. Plus, it was great fun.
Nowadays, I use my readers for accountability, but my serialization continues.
Get a group together in person or online and give it a try.
NaNoEdMo Day 10 – Be Bored, Not Distracted!
(16:10 of 50 hours)
From Mark Manson’s “Five Boring Ways to Be More Creative“
When you’re bored with nothing else to do, you’re faced with the realization that you have the agency to choose what your life will be in that moment. And as empowering as that thought might seem, it’s also really fucking scary.
Do I try something new? Something that might help me but might not? Something I might be good at…or completely fail at? Do I just sit here? OH MY GOD, MAKE IT STOP. WHERE’S MY PHONE???
…there is no difference between inspiration and lack of distraction. They are the same thing.
__________
When editing my novels, I always hit stretches where “this seemed a lot more interesting when I was writing it.” Sometimes the difference is so great, I’m tempted to take a break and do something else.
George Saunders (The One You Feed Podcast): If I sit down here and say I gotta do something great, forget it, that day is gone. When I was younger, I used to have this mantra, which is, I don’t have to do everything. I just have to do something.
NaNoEdMo Day 11 – Watch a Short Video
(17:47 of 50 hours)
Watch a fun video on “The Hero’s Journey” and ask yourself how your protagonist stacks up.
NaNoEdMo Day 12 – One Line Summary
(19:24 of 50 hours editing)
From The Moth:
“What is the story ultimately about for you? How would you distill it down into one sentence? Remember, you can tell various stories using similar events—boiling it down to one sentence will give you the focus and clarity to guide and shape the story you want to tell.”
Courtesy of ChatGPT: “Gone Girl” by Gillian Flynn is a psychological thriller about a man who becomes the prime suspect in the disappearance of his wife, who may not be as innocent as she appears.
NaNoEdMo Day 13 – Point it Forward
(21:01 of 50 hours)
When navigating the big middle of the novel (everything between the inciting incident and the resolution) it’s good to keep the Pixar model in mind.
Opening:
Once upon a time….
Every day…
Until one day… (inciting incident)
The Big Middle: You Are Here…
Because of that…
Because of that…
Because of that…
Are your chapters ending with a resolution or the seeds of a new complication?
NaNoEdMo Day 14 – Use Your Forehead Meter
(22:38 of 50 hours)
From A Swim in a Pond in the Rain by George Saunders
Skipping over, for the moment, the first draft, assuming some existing text to work with, my method is this: I imagine a meter mounted in my forehead, with a P on this side (“Positive”) and an N on that side (“Negative”). I try to read what I’ve written the way a first-time reader might (“without hope and without despair”). Where’s the needle? If it drops into the N zone, admit it. And then, instantaneously, a fix might present itself—a cut, a rearrangement, an addition. There’s not an intellectual or analytical component to this; it’s more of an impulse, one that results in a feeling of “Ah, yes, that’s better.”
And really, that’s about it. I go through the draft like that, marking it up, then go back and enter that round of changes, print it out, read it again, for as long as I still feel sharp—usually three or four times in a writing day.
So: a repetitive, obsessive, iterative application of preference: watch the needle, adjust the prose, watch the needle, adjust the prose (lather, rinse, repeat), through (sometimes) hundreds of drafts, over months or even years. Over time, like a cruise ship slowly turning, the story will start to alter course via those thousands of incremental adjustments.
NaNoEdMo Day 15 – Cut it to the Bone
(24:15 of 50 hours editing in March)
“When your story is ready for rewrite, cut it to the bone. Get rid of every ounce of excess fat. This is going to hurt; revising a story down to the bare essentials is always a little like murdering children, but it must be done.” –Stephen King
