Writing Fear Free: NaNoWriMo Week 4

And down the stretch they come….

This is the last week, the deadline is looming large, and you are racing toward the finish line. You are almost there! Yippeee!

Last week, you reached the climax of your novel’s action and began the slide to the conclusion. This week, you’ll reach that most satisfying words of a novelist’s journey: the end. But first, you’ll have to wrap things up. Will it all end happily ever after for your protagonist? Or will you kill off everyone a la Hamlet? The fate of your characters and your entire literary universe rests in your hands.

Enjoy the power.

Week 2 Problem Zones and Potential Resolutions
  • Don’t wrap things up too neatly. Even as a huge fan of happy endings, I find it unrealistic to believe that every plot is going to reach the end at the same time. Not every character is going to be ready for their happy ending yet, and hey, maybe you’ll write the rest of their story for NaNoWriMo next year.
  • If you are going for wholesale immolation, leave some character alive to tell the story, like Horatio in Hamlet.
  • When you cross the finish line, celebrate. You have accomplished something that few people have: you have written the rough draft of a novel!
  • You may be tempted to print the manuscript and share it with all your friends or upload the whole thing to Smashwords, but resist this temptation. You have accomplished an amazing feat and you should rejoice, but take some time to decompress. Close the document. Take a shower. Then, come back here to read next week’s NaNoWriMo blog about what to do next.

PS. Now that NaNoWriMo is almost over, I can type with both hands again. Convenient. I’ll be heading into my own unofficial noveling challenge, but before I broke my arm, I did manage to complete a short story. I edited it with one hand (and maybe a few painkillers), and now it’s ready. So check back on Black Friday for a Christmas gift, Charlotte Collins style!

3 thoughts on “Writing Fear Free: NaNoWriMo Week 4

  1. It's as though NaNo has become a real person. Looking forward to see how it shakes out. The creativity involved is just amazing.

    Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!

  2. Thanks for sharing. I, too, find too many happy endings can spoil the story. Sometimes it's almost as if the author faked us out and took the easy way out. Love your writing style, and good luck with the arm.
    Angela 🙂

  3. Hi,
    I have missed your earlier posts, but I found this one so interesting. I have written some short stories and lots of poems, but I have never attempted a full blown novel. It fascinates me how one interweaves all these different plots and dialogues and thought processes and imagery – and keeps it suspensefuol and moving forward. Thanks for sharing your knowledge.

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