Boosting Writing Productivity for NaNoWriMo: Avoid Falling Down the Research Rabbit Hole

NaNoWriMo is all about getting words on the page. In today's quick "betweeniesode" we're talking about how to avoid the distractions of research and revisions.

Join award-winning fantasy author Megan Haskell and USA Today bestselling mystery thriller author Greta Boris as we unveil tried-and-true strategies to stay focused on your word count and keep your story on a roll.

Tip 1: Mark sections that need additional research detail and come back later.

Tip 2: Use comments to note consistency issues or new ideas to be worked into earlier chapters rather than revising in the moment.

Get ready to boost your productivity, and keep that story rolling.

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Greta Boris:
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Megan Haskell:
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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:37

Hi everyone and welcome to the author wheel betweenesode number four. I'm award winning fantasy author Megan Haskell.

Speaker 2: 0:45

And I'm USA Today best selling mystery thriller author Greta Boris, and together we are the author wheel.

Speaker 1: 0:52

So today's tips are all about staying focused on your word count. Nano-rymo is all about word count. That is the whole entire point. So that means you have to be really careful not to fall down the research or revision rabbit hole. If you find yourself going off onto the interwebs to do all kinds of research on a particular topic, you're not writing words, and that's the point. So we're going to help you avoid the rabbit holes today. So our first tip is something that I do all the time. So, especially since I've been doing these early morning writing sessions before the rest of my house wakes up, I have a very limited amount of time. I usually have about maybe 30 minutes to actually write before the house wakes up, so I don't want to spend any time researching, even though research is probably one of my favorite aspects of writing.

Speaker 2: 1:57

Yeah, I love it too.

Speaker 1: 1:59

I just can't take the time to do it.

Speaker 1: 2:00

So what I have been doing is, as I go along, I come across a topic or something that I don't know, whether it's a character name that I haven't chosen yet, or whether it's some sort of geography thing that I need to look up about Laguna Beach, since my current book is set in Laguna Beach, or whether it's the specific myth around the God that I'm using and I want to clarify detail.

Speaker 1: 2:24

I have to avoid that when I have only 30 minutes to actually write and so to do that, I actually put a note in the manuscript that says insert character name and I mark that with a bracket XXX insert character name. All in caps, usually XXX, close bracket. That way when I'm done writing the entire book, I can go back and I can find those things that I skipped past on the first draft. So if I'm trying to just get words on the page, it's so much easier to just note it and come back to it than it is to pause right there, because otherwise you get stuck in these loops where you never actually make forward progress anymore.

Speaker 2: 3:15

Yeah, and I do it even quicker than you. I don't bother with the brackets, I just put XXX, and sometimes, because the longer your series gets, the more names of characters you'll have, that you're like oh, and book two, I had a character. They would be a perfect character for this, but for the life of me I can't remember their name. Or I remember their name but I can't remember if I spell it with an E at the end or if I spell it with. How do I spell it? Or whatever. So I'll just write either name XX or I'll write my best guess at XX, or something like that. So I use it for that.

Speaker 2: 3:55

I use it for timelines too, because those timelines can really take a lot of not take you a lot out of your writing time to figure out how many. You know they do something on this day and then on a future day they need to go do something else. Well, should that future day be a Saturday, a Sunday, a Monday? Does it really matter? You know all those kinds of decisions, at some point you need to make them and at some point need to know, but it may not be just then.

Speaker 1: 4:32

Right. So the interestingly, the other thing that I do mostly with regard to timelines although I have used it in other situations can be a character, if I can guess the name. But rather than doing the XX, if I can, if I have a pretty good guess or I think I'm right, but I'm just not sure, I just want to double check it, or if the note is a lot longer than just a few words, I leave myself a comment. So I write in Scrivener, but you could do it, obviously in Word or anything else too. You know too, but you just highlight the name, for example, and then in the comments you set up a comment. You say double check this name.

Speaker 1: 5:12

I think I spelled it differently in book two or whatever. Whatever your question is that way. You're not looking it up now, so you're not breaking away from writing the words, getting the words on the page, but you have a nice easy reference revision list once you're ready to go back and edit. So you already know the things that you have to question, so you can make sure your consistency stays true from book to book to book or whatever for your timeline. So that really helps a lot too. So then I just make sure in the editing stage that I clear out all those comments as I go and that way I know.

Speaker 2: 5:49

Right, and the other thing that we talked about last week, which is getting in the flow. This will help you not break the flow.

Speaker 1: 5:57

Yes, yes.

Speaker 2: 5:59

So along the same line, tip number two this happens to me all the time. You're writing along, you're now in chapter 35 or whatever and you get this phenomenally good idea that you did not have in the beginning of the book and all of a sudden, you know, those little subconscious threads you've laid down come together and you're like, oh my gosh, this is so amazing. Or, like me yesterday, I'm almost really at the end of my book and I just realized I was in the month of June and it would be so cool if I made it June gloom and had a lot of fog. You know atmosphere throughout the book, right? Well, I didn't write that in on the first draft because I just thought of it.

Speaker 2: 6:45

So another thing you can do then instead of getting upset or worried or trying to go back and rewrite all the chapters that you know would need this plot point to be reflected, you can just go to some of those chapters, or even the very beginning of the book or the first place this idea might have cropped up and at the top of your page I just write add uppercase letters, june gloom, fog, or add put the gun on the mantle or add whatever. It is the thing you need to foreshadow. You can also go in and you can say delete if you've decided that you have an extra character and you really don't need that person there. They didn't do anything. By the end of the book, you stuck a man and boom, they're gone, you know. So instead of going back and feeling like you have to fix things now, just go make yourself a note, particularly on the chapters that will be affected, and then just keep writing.

Speaker 1: 7:53

I mean, that's ultimately what it comes down to, right. It's just keep writing. So don't let yourself go back and edit the first three chapters 1200 times, because you're gonna be rewriting the same 10,000 words over and, over and over again, and that's not the point of Nano. So, so, nano, you're trying to write 50,000 words in the month, so get those words on the page.

Speaker 2: 8:22

That's right. Keep your story rolling.