Taylor Swift might like a “blank space,” but I hate it.
I hate a blank space when I have an assignment for work. I hate a blank space when I’m drafting a blog post. I hate a blank space when I’m working on a larger creative writing project, like a new book.
So I did something dramatic about it. I signed up for NanoWrimo.
NanoWrimo, or National Novel Writing Month, is an annual challenge that has been in place for 25 years. During the month of November, writers challenge themselves to write 50,000 words of a new novel draft. That evens out to about 1667 words per day, or about three and a half typed pages in a Word document, if you’re a normal person and don’t think in word counts the way writers do. A typical novel is anywhere between 75,000-100,000 words, so 50,000 is a good chunk to work with.
I always kind of rolled my eyes at the challenge because I thought it was only for people who had an enviable amount of time on their hands. I have a full time job, a relationship, and a personal life that includes taekwondo training at least twice a week. When was I going to write that much?
Still, I decided I needed a kick in the pants, so I took it. I’d been toying with a novel for about a year and had written a little over 23,000 words. It’s not my first novel attempt, but it’s one that I was excited about and I felt had some potential. I thought about the characters a lot and talked about ideas with my partner. I needed something to motivate me to bring out the story.
I found the time for it. I made time. I stopped doomscrolling on my phone. I took advantage of the days when I woke up extra early and wrote before work. I wrote during lunch breaks (instead of more doomscrolling). I wrote on weekends.
I’ve stayed away from obsessively tracking things because that was a habit during my eating disorder days, but I liked being able to log my word count on the NanoWrimo portal every day. I was awarded cute, colorful badges and could see my daily progress, so it was more like a game than a challenge.
The hardest thing for me, every time I sat down to write, was getting started. It helped, and I heard this recently validated by “Goosebumps” creator R.L. Stine, to start in the middle of something like a scene or paragraph rather than a blank page marking a new chapter. Stine said he would write 2000 words per day and stop whether it was in the middle of a sentence or a scene so he’d have something tangible to revisit the next day.
Also, having an end goal in mind (at least 1667 words per day) was also much more helpful than the vague directive I’d give myself to sit down and “just write something.” Once I got started, my momentum picked up.
I actually “won” the challenge a day early on November 29 when I surpassed 50,000. I ended November at over 53,000 words logged and over 76,000 in the total book. That’s 132 typed pages in Microsoft Word. If I got to 80-85,000 words it’ll be about a 300 page book.
I still have a ton of work to do, but at least now I have something to work with.
So where’s the martial arts lesson in this?
I was marveling to my partner about how much I enjoyed this challenge and how much it will help to have a big draft to work with since I much prefer to edit and rearrange than tell a story from scratch.
“I hate a blank page!” I said to him. “It’s like….it’s like….”
“Before going to taekwondo class?” he offered. I laughed and agreed. More times than I can count, I’ve thought, “I don’t want to go. I want to stay home,” before reluctantly going to taekwondo class. Then, of course, I feel great afterward. I’ve never regretted going. Not once in the ten years of my adult practice.
Starting is sometimes the hardest part about doing a task or accomplishing a goal. It’s hard to start from scratch. That’s why small accomplishments, like writing that first paragraph, can be rewarding. Doing things in small chunks and adopting small habits along the way helped me meet my larger goals both with writing and with martial arts. Feeling blah after a long day at work or school? Do you feel like getting cozy and staying in to watch TV? Just get dressed and go to your martial arts school. If you’re still tired, stay and watch the class, or maybe do 15 minutes of warm-ups and then see if you feel like committing to the rest of the time. I love a good timer, so if you’re practicing at home or by yourself at the gym, set a timer for 20 minutes and then just do it. More often than not, you’ll find yourself in a good groove when the time runs out, and you may feel motivated to keep going.
One word has led me to over 76,000 words. My first white belt class has led me to becoming a black belt. One small step will get you closer to your goal.
