IT’S
ME AGAIN! I was my usual self this month and was all, “hahah what’s a blog I
don’t have one of those nope”. Who’s surprised? Not me!
I
did keep a semi-coherent log of my NaNo adventures, though. You can look at it
here. The link will take you to my Tumblr tag for When Summer Ends, which is
full of pictures and gifs and quotes that remind me of this story, and some charming late-night excerpts and
screenshots I posted from this draft. I am most likely going to regret all of
that in a few month’s time but oooohhhh weeeeelllll.
And
now, onto the actual reason for this post.
You’ve
heard of NaNoWriMo, now get ready forrrrrrr….
NaNoReMo!
National Novel Recovery Month? Eh? Ehhhh? It’s catchy and you know it.
I
dunno.
But
yes. Here are my preferred ways of getting back to being an Actual Person in
the aftermath of NaNoWriMo. Enjoy.
#1 –
Go back to a normal sleep schedule.
You remember what it felt like to get a full night of sleep?
When you weren’t staying up till the wee hours of the morning and then getting
up with the rest of the world a handful of hours later and pretending you weren’t
dead inside? When you didn’t require 5+ cups of coffee, or tea, or your
preferred source of caffeine to keep you going throughout the day?
Yes?
Wasn’t it nice?
Go back to it.
NaNoWriMo could be named NaNoSleepMo – National No Sleep
Month. When you have almost 1700 words to write a day, sleep becomes a less
important concern than getting your daily word goal for the day done, and also
procrastination. But now that it’s over, you’re going to want to get back to a
normal sleep schedule, where you go to bed at a reasonable time of the night
and get up the next morning and don’t feel like a zombie for the next twelve
hours or so, until you suddenly become nocturnal and proceed to stay up the
entire night writing.
Make yourself go to bed at a time that if you’re asked, you
won’t be all, “Haha, well, see, the thing issss,”
about it. Getting to sleep before nine at night is like, the nicest thing ever
after a month of negative 599993332 hours of sleep every night.
#2 –
Go back to life-ing.
Who
needs a life, anyways?
Well.
I do.
And
I mean, you kind of do too. Because while sitting in front of your laptop for
30 days straight, writing like crazy, and making a slow transformation into
Gollum is super fun and all…it’s kind
of nice, going back to being an actual person.
 |
| Wrimos be like |
You
have a family! And friends! Hobbies! Responsibilities you shirked during
November!
It’s
time to go back to those, my friends. It’s time to close your laptop, take off
your headphones, put on actual clothes instead of that really comfortable
hoodie and pair of sweatpants, and go be a person.
I
know for me it’s kind of really hard to snap out of the whole “Ew people no get
them away” mindset that I get during NaNoWriMo, but even though you can
maintain that glorious creative streak while simultaneously Gollum-ing for a
month straight, it’s bound to run out. You’re going to have to start being a
person again, I’m sorry to have to break the news to you.
We’ve
all been there. I’ve been there. It’s tough. But you just have to do it.
#3 –
Get rid of the candy.
My
diet during NaNoWriMo consists of two things: tea, and junk food. English
Breakfast Tea is the tea with the highest caffeine level I’ve ever found and it
is your best friend. And junk food, oh, junk food.
I
had a basket full of chocolate and candy this past month that was full to the
brim and still has leftovers in it. I did last year, too. I have jars full of
Skittles and Dove chocolates, and I basically live on those little waffles that
you take out of the freezer and pop into the toaster.
But
I mean. November’s over, guys.
It’s
time to move on. Those candy wrappers that are scattered everywhere? The
half-eaten boxes of gummy worms and Sour Patch Kids you have on your desk? The
bag of M&Ms you have left over?
Show
no mercy. Kick ‘em to the curb. Get rid of the candy.
Okay,
that may be being a bit drastic. But seriously. Cut back on the candy, alright?
It tastes so good but it’s not
exactly the best thing for you and it’s Christmas time, so you’re bound to be
getting your fill of sweet stuff. I have three younger brothers and a variety
of younger cousins; when it’s time to get rid of the candy, I’m kind of
covered.
I
would tell you to cut back on the tea, too, but I cannot in good conscious tell
someone to stop drinking tea. Ever. So I won’t. –gleefully drinks Christmas
tea-
#4 –
Take a break.
Writing
is freaking exhausting, okay. It wears you out, leaves you feeling brain-dead,
takes you for a wild ride, makes you cry, and you still plow on with it. But
once you reach your goal – whether that be just writing your words or finishing
your draft* - give yourself a break.
Close
the laptop. Put down the pen. Recharge.
You’ve
had a month of nonstop creativity, of insanity and excitement and breakdowns
and strokes of genius and mind-numbingness, and now, it’s over. Let yourself
recover from the wonderful and terrible experience that is NaNoWriMo.
I
read a lot in the aftermath of NaNoWriMo, because usually when I finish things,
I’m in a sort of slump, where my brain is mush and the idea of creating
anything at all makes me want to throw something. So I don’t. I read a lot, I
catch up on TV shows that I missed during November, I watch movies, listen to
music other than my novel playlist,
play games, have actual conversations that go beyond “Could you please bring
dinner to my room kthxbai”.
It’s
so worth it.
#5 - Regroup.
Chances
are, now that you’ve finished, you’re at a bit of a loss. If you’re me. Or like
me.
Or
maybe you’re organized and confident and have your writerly self together. If
so, go you!
But
I’m not. I’m usually that person who, as everyone else is starting to Do Things
again, decides to forgo this and curl up and sleep for about a thousand years
and cry because I have no idea what I’m
supposed to do now ugh.
So
I take December to regroup. Do I want to edit that beast of a novel I just
wrote? Do I want to start another one? Return to whatever I was working on pre-NaNo?
Give up the writing life entirely?
Hahahaha.
That last one. I’m so funny, guys.
But
seriously. December is my get-myself-back-together month. My month where I don’t
put any pressure on writing and kind of take a chill approach to it. The month
where I attempt to decide what I’m going to do in January, when I’ve had
sufficient recovery time.
Everyone’s
different, so maybe you only need a few days before going back to writing, or
maybe you don’t need any at all! I know for me, after NaNoWriMo, I kind of need a break to let myself get back to
normal and to try and make sense of a jumbled mess of thoughts, and all the
things I want to work on.
*I’m in this boat. I am so in this
boat. When Summer Ends has maybe 20,000 words left on it but at this point I
have no idea. It keeps getting bigger. And bigger. And bigger. I have a deadline
of December 7th to be finished with this draft, and I’m spending
this week doing just that. So I mean. My NaNo recovery process kind of starts
on the 8th, but whatever. I’m going with it.
Aaaaaand...that's all! Now, if you'll excuse me...I have a novel to finish.
