Melanie Bell

Author, Writer, Editor


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Keeping It Simple for NaNoWriMo

One of my writers’ groups had a recent discussion about how easy it is to make a novel too complicated. This is a challenge I encounter a lot. 

I love worldbuilding and complex ideas. When I attended Julie Cohen’s writing retreat in France, she called me out for it: “Keep it simple, stupid!” I need to be able to describe what I’m writing in a straightforward way. Once I’ve gotten to the essence of it, I can complexify from there!

I’m doing NaNoWriMo again this year, and I’m starting something new. My first idea was one I’ve dreamed about since the pandemic, set in a beautiful, complicated world. I’ve tried to begin it a few times, but I haven’t been able to make a plot work with these characters and setting.

I hope to write that story someday. It might be one of those ideas that isn’t quite ready yet, one that I will someday gain the skills to bring to life.

But I had a second idea while brainstorming. This one’s simpler and more straightforward. I know how to describe it and make it sound interesting to listeners. I know how to structure it. 

That’s the one I’m writing.

Do you tend to overcomplicate your writing, too? What do you do to keep things clear?

Here are a few principles that have helped me take my narratives back to basics.

  • Know what the point of your story is.
  • Be able to describe it in a sentence.
  • Know what the stakes are – and feel emotionally invested, not confused.
  • Pitch your story to others. See if it a) makes sense to them and b) sounds interesting.
  • Make sure you want to write this story. A novel is a commitment!

Happy NaNoWriMo. Here’s to keeping things simple!


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NaNoWriMo Was a Wild Time

I started NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) this November as an incentive to finish my fantasy novel, the one I’d been working on for a year and a half. At 55,000 words in, it was rolling along toward a conclusion, but it hadn’t gotten there yet. When I applied last year for a grant I didn’t receive, I listed November as a planned deadline for completing my novel draft. Without funding, I shelved some of my other project ideas, but I thought – hoped – the novel would prove doable, at least.

I’d found renewed energy for the project on my writing retreat in France this September. Our facilitator, best-selling novelist Julie Cohen, had told me the structure wasn’t working and encouraged me to restructure the whole thing. Which I did, one memorable day, with three colors of post-it notes sprawled across a bed. Those post-its now live in a notebook of mine, but it was an interesting experience to have them all over the furniture, and to think deeply about how my story needed to move forward.

Then, in October, I moved home, so not a lot of writing happened for a month. A lot of furniture shopping and adjustment happened instead. By the time November rolled around, my flat was furnished and felt more like an abode than an empty space. I was ready to come back to the novel.

Much like the writing retreat, so vivid in recent memory, I wasn’t sure how much I’d get done during NaNoWriMo. I’d done a version of it once, finishing a novella during lockdown in 2020. As proud as I felt of the novella at the time, that was 25,000 words, not 50,000 (as per the NaNo goal), and not all of them were written in November. (Although given the challenges of lockdown, I would give myself an A+ that year!) I even blogged about different ways of getting inspired for the monthly challenge, before attempting to tackle it myself.

But 50,000 words is a lot. I’d always side-eyed the challenge or thought it best suited to speedier writers than myself. I like to line edit as I go. Some writers speak of silencing the inner editor and writing a messy first draft. After doing multiple editing jobs, my “inner editor” is a professional with 10+ years of experience, so I usually find that her input makes my drafts better. Thus, I let her do her thing. But I came into this challenge believing that I wasn’t fast.

Here’s the great thing about self-awareness: it helps you navigate the world and find the right contexts. The downside is that the self you’ve invested in being aware of can change, and your understanding has to alter accordingly to keep up. Sometimes knowing your limits is a form of self-care, and sometimes it’s simply fear.

I had a relatively quiet schedule in November, allowing me to try the challenge. “I’ll finish my novel by the end of the month,” I thought, somewhat apprehensively. I suspected it would take less than the 50K to get to the end of my allotted plot. 

In fact, it did. It only took 32K. I finished it on the 15th of the month. 

My past self would probably read that line with goggle-eyes and ask, “How?!” The first thing I did was join the regional NaNo group. They had an online community where participants chatted and held events regularly. People seemed friendly, and it was exciting to be involved in something so intense with a whole bunch of other people, cheering each other on. There were two in-person events as well. I couldn’t make the first one, but the second, at the end of the month, was packed full of people typing furiously. The Municipal Liaisons brought stickers, an analog spreadsheet, a jar full of writing prompts, and a plastic dragon to place atop the laptop of whoever won the latest word war.

Most of our events centered around “word wars,” virtual sprints (using a tool called Sprinto on a Discord forum) where people join and compete to write the most words. I often enjoy writing in longer periods where I can focus and lose track of time, but the sprints proved useful and motivating. They provided accountability and a social aspect to the often solitary activity of writing.

Taking part in a few long writing days with the NaNo group resulted in a lot of writing. Once I finished my novel, I still had words – and half a month of time – to spare. Before NaNo, I’d planned a short story set in the same fantasy world as my novel but hadn’t had time to write it. I drafted that story – another 7,000 words. I still had more words left. I’d had a few ideas in mind for what to work on next, but I ended up starting something different and am now drafting a science fiction novel. 

My highlights of the NaNo experience were meeting a group of supportive and fascinating people on the Discord (and in person), finishing my novel draft (!), hitting 50K words on the 21st, and the intrinsic reward of devoting more time and energy to writing. It’s so easy to sideline personal projects. NaNoWriMo affords recognition to the act of committing to one. It felt really nice to “win” something, even if in practice, it means that I got… a virtual badge. It’s not every day that adults have a chance to get a prize, let alone one that validates doing something you want to do. 

For November Me, writing facilitated mental health. I write a little most days, and of course I write for my job, but November operated on another level. There was one day this month when I didn’t write, and it felt like a slump. I noticed that and wrote all the other days, even if the time was short and the word count was low. I also appreciated allowing myself long focus days when I didn’t push myself to get anything “more important” done. The bills and cleaning could wait until the next day.

Maybe I don’t always work as slowly as I’d believed. Maybe I really can be as productive as I imagined being… at least sometimes. My inner editor slowed down, but remained in place. I made more typos as I sped up, and then fixed them, for instance. And my hyper-focused month felt great!

I had a freelance project in late November, which pushed me to meet the word count goal more quickly once I realized it was feasible for me to meet it. I also attended opening night for my short play, which was part of a December showcase at the Tower Theatre. I kept writing small amounts of words and adding to the science fiction story as well as writing other things. I got feedback on the short story and was pleasantly surprised by how well others thought it worked despite the speed of its drafting. I also enjoyed meeting new people and hope to stay involved with the online community throughout the year.

So, I’d say NaNoWriMo was a success. I hope to do it again next year, and to maintain some of the writing habits I acquired in my daily life. I guess this old dog could learn new tricks after all! 


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My First NaNoWriMo, or How I Wrote a Novella in a Month

I’ve posted before about NaNoWriMo, but until 2020, it was one of those things I’d thought about but never attempted. I was usually busy, and more crucially, I’ve never been fast. I’ve completed novel manuscripts, but writing 50,000 words in a month seemed like a daunting task. I was happy to cheer on other, more ambitious writers from the sidelines. 

This year I spent November in lockdown. It seemed like the perfect time to give the challenge a go. I had a few opening chapters of a novella lurking in my folders, waiting for me to finish it, and I decided that NaNoWriMo would be my motivation to do that. I wasn’t sure if I’d write the full word count, but I saw other writers blogging and posting on social media about the progress they made from participating, whether or not they met that tally mark. Some used it to revise or meet other goals, like I intended to do. The tent seemed expansive and friendly.

This manuscript is the first time I’ve tried to write romance as a central focus. It’s also the first time I’ve attempted a novella, although I’ve thought at points that it might turn into a novel. It started out with two points of view, but feedback from a reader suggested that one was far more interesting than the other, so I rewrote the first part to focus on that character. I scrapped my outline and wrote by the seat of my pants, coming up with some of my ideas on long morning runs. It turned out that letting my mind wander while exercising was a great way to find inspiration.

What worked for me? Not, it turned out, joining online communities or engaging with the many passionate writers posting in great detail on forums and chat rooms. It’s wonderful to see so many passionate people creating, and I’d expected to find it motivating, but instead it gave way to something like Zoom fatigue. I joined a few groups and quickly became overwhelmed. Instead, I focused on the story I was telling. Maybe I’d socialize about it later, when it was done.

Complicating things, I had some serendipitous work projects come up for the month, so my time wasn’t as open as I’d expected. My writing stopped and started around other commitments that I didn’t want to forego. What helped throughout all that was writing regularly, in little bits almost every day. I felt closer to my characters’ lives. It was a challenge to write a new kind of story in a new genre, but word by word, it came together. 

I allowed my usual writing process to take the forefront, editing as I go. That’s usually seen as a “no-no” for writers during speed events like this one, but when I tried to draft with more of a stream of consciousness, I missed letting my editorial mind improve things. I’m an editor by trade, and it turns out that I value letting that skill set shape my work. It makes the next draft smoother.

The last day was a milestone. I’d set a 25,000-word novella mark by that point and wasn’t sure if I’d achieve that word count or finish the draft. Animated by the frenzy of a student with a due date, I wrote into the evening. The story wanted to tell itself. It knew where it was going. Soon, I reached the end.

It helped to have a deadline. 

I’m delighted to have given NaNoWriMo a try and met my personal goal. It was a great experience, and one I hope to repeat. NaNoWriMo writers out there, how did things go for you?


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Nine Tactics for Winning NaNoWriMo

So, you’ve committed to writing a novel this month. The ambitious goal of completing 50,000 words of a cohesive story in 30 days is both daunting and exhilarating. Whether you’ve completed previous NaNoWriMo novels or are dipping your toes into these challenging waters for the first time, you’ve made the choice to face down that blank page right now. Where and how do you begin? Whether you’re a plotter or a pantser, a veteran or a novice, here are a few ideas that will help you finish November with a draft you’ll be proud of.

1. Structure before you begin (or don’t). Some people prefer to have every detail of their story planned out before they begin (see above re: “plotters”), while others like to let their stories surprise them (these are the “pantsers” of the writing world). If you have a strong preference, it can be genuinely challenging to work outside of your preferred method. However, it can also be revitalize blocked writing. When you’re looking to write something fast (like a NaNoWriMo novel), having an outline speeds your progress, because you know what to write next. If your story isn’t moving as planned, though, try giving it freedom to develop and seeing what twists and turns pop up as you go along. And if you’re an obsessive plotter, writing a fast novel by the seat of your pants might be an exhilarating, and even time-saving, experience.

2. Work with others. Writing is usually a solitary activity: one person, one keyboard (or notebook, or typewriter). But it doesn’t have to be. NaNoWriMo offers a treasure trove of virtual support, as well as in-person opportunities in many communities to meet and write together. Take advantage of these changes to find support and camaraderie with others who are embarking on the same writing journey. Other fun ways to bring collaboration into your writing process include completing NaNoWriMo with friends, working with a writing group or coach, or coauthoring a novel. (My coauthor Kacie Berghoef has a great blog post about book collaboration, which might be helpful if you’re looking to go this route.) Collaboration means you don’t have to work alone. When you run into challenges, you’ll have others around you who will understand and help you through them.

3. Write to reader interest. You want to write the book you want to write. Maybe you’ve heard about “writing to market,” and cringed at the idea. Why would you want to follow ephemeral publishing trends? Conversely, maybe you’ve thought, “if (insert best-selling author) can do it, surely I can,” and decided to take up some broadly selling genre, topic, or formula, whether or not your heart is in it. Writing to reader interest is more complex than many of us think, though. It’s not about writing to a script; it’s about writing something that will be enjoyed. When it comes right down to it, most of us aren’t writing solely for ourselves. We write because we have a story to tell, and we’d like it to connect with an audience. And, my desired audience is probably going to look different from your desired audience. Consider the type of reader who gravitates to your genre and interests, and rather than writing to a general audience, write in a way that will keep their interest. Changes are you’re part of your own target audience. What book would you love to read? Write that book.

4. Write from personal experience. It’s an old truism that you should “write what you know.” This doesn’t mean that you need to limit yourself to things you’ve experienced in the real world. If this were the case, we’d have no imaginative science fiction, fantasy, or horror to enjoy. What is helpful is to draw inspiration from your experiences to ground your story. When your character’s in an emotional situation, look to your past to bring to life similar emotions that you’ve experienced. Your background can add color, detail, and richness: if you have a long career as a gardener, for instance, you can bring unique skill in describing the setting’s plant life. And don’t be afraid to mine your past for ideas. Your life is a wealth of inspiration, if you look at it closely.

5. Research what you need to know. There are lots of times when your story idea will extend beyond your current knowledge. Don’t be afraid to consult other people, books, or the Internet to learn the answers to your questions. From familiarizing yourself with your setting to getting to know the technical or medical details of your plot points, you’ll find that you need to research more factors than you’d expect to get everything right. In addition to information,relevant images, videos, and narratives (not just books–consider blogs and other internet resources) can make good sources, as can reaching out to people in your network who are qualified to answer your questions. Some of this research may come after NaNoWriMo, during the revision process. When the information is important to the plot, though, don’t hesitate to look it up on the go.

6. Throw in some danger. I’m not talking about endangering your own life as you sit in front of your treacherous laptop screen – I’m talking about imperiling your characters! Most novels are about people with problems. To maintain reader interest, keep the problems building until the end. When one problem is solved, might the solution create another one? Plumb plot possibilities by asking, “What could go wrong here?” If you want to write a can’t-put-it-down read, try ending your chapters with cliffhangers.

7. Keep the process fun and rewarding. External incentives make excellent motivators to keep going. NaNoWriMo is already great for this, with pep talks from prominent authors, relevant sponsor offer “prizes”, and the goal of “winning” built in. Build in intrinsic motivation by focusing on the fun parts of the writing process itself. Each day, focus on writing something that’s exciting and intriguing to you. If your scene is boring, cut it out. If it’s necessary to the plot but not that interesting, bring in fun details, dialogue, or other colorful touches. If you maintain your own interest through each passage you write, your writing will intrigue your readers too.

8. Use action to drive the story forward. Your story is about things that happen. Make sure enough happens to keep the pace going. Even a reflective story needs to have a consistent, interesting sequence of events. Your characters, too, need to be active – especially your protagonist. If you notice that things keep happening to your main character(s), give them more agency. Make sure they make decisions and initiate events rather than simply reacting. Give them a choice in every chapter. Give these choices consequences that significantly influence the plot.

9. Look at the story as a whole. If you’re a plotter, consider thematic elements and plot and character arcs up front. If you’re a pantser, watch them evolve and keep them in mind as you write. Beyond storytelling and entertainment, what meaning are you seeking to convey? What ideas do you want to explore? Who are your characters beyond their surface traits? What motivates them, and how will they grow (if they grow – iconic or static characters can work too)? What will they learn from the journey you are taking them on? Looking at your novel on a macro level will help it resonate with themes that speak to your target readers, ensuring it is both cohesive and meaningful.

NaNoWriMo is a wonderful challenge to take on, and you don’t have to do it alone. Feel free to reach out for support if you’d like some writing coaching, or to share what you’re working on in the comments. Happy writing to all of you!