Flip the Script | Writing Rules | Sara Biren

 

At the end of October, I taught a class at a local independent bookstore and writing center to kick off National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). We brainstormed book ideas and discussed how to prep for this incredible challenge. We reviewed the official guidelines for completing a NaNo project during the month of November, which are basically to start fresh on Day 1 and over the course of 30 days, write a 50,000-word novel of any genre with a beginning, a middle, and an end.

When I first attempted and completed NaNo in 2009, there seemed to be very little straying from those rules, at least in my writing circles. These precious days weren’t meant for revision or returning to a novel you’d back-burnered earlier in the year or any other project. By 2017, the last time I actually made it all the way to the end, I worked on a complete rewrite of Cold Day in the Sun with an entirely new plot. Technically, I wasn’t following the rules, and there may even be a few lines of dialogue or description that were in the original version. Nobody cared. I used the motivation that NaNo provides to finish a daunting project. I call that a win for sure. 

At last month’s NaNo class, after my brief overview of the NaNo rules, I told the other writers that no matter what—if they followed those rules or they didn’t—they should make their NaNo project their own.

The “rules” for writing are plentiful. Some work for me, some don’t. Some will work for you. Some won’t. Sometimes you’ve got to make your own rules.

The rule I always follow? I need to find joy in the writing process. I need to have fun, even during those really difficult revisions, even when I’m writing about the terrible things that have happened to my characters. Writing makes me happy even when it makes me sad or angry or anxious. Writing fills me.

Instead of worrying about writing rules, I flip the script and remind myself that writing rules.