7 Tips to Help You Prepare for NaNoWriMo
So, you’ve decided to sign up for NaNoWriMo this year! Whether you’ve done it before or this is your first time, below are a few tips to help you prepare for writing 50,000 words in thirty days.
Find your community
No matter how independent you are, writers need community. You’ll need some support to keep you going when you reach the doldrums—the part of writing after the early stages when it can feel like the wind has left your sails. If you have a community, you can check in with each other, offer support when things get tough and give encouragement when you meet your daily writing goals. The NaNoWriMo website has writing groups you can join based on your location or create your own writing group. You can also search hashtags on social media like #nanowrimo and #amwriting to find a group of like-minded novelists.
Recommended resource: Write or Die Tribe’s Community Membership offers author Q&A’s, support groups, virtual gatherings and more! Join today and take advantage of the NaNoWriMo resources that will drop in November!
Hold yourself accountable
Post something on social media or email friends and family and tell them what you’ll be up to for the next thirty days. This not only helps to keep yourself accountable (if others know you’ve set a goal, it’s easier to stick with it) but it’ll also help explain why you’re not returning their text messages immediately. You aren’t ghosting them, you’re writing a novel!
Recommended resource: Write Together Coaching has several accountability programs that would be perfect for this time of year!
Develop your story idea
At its most basic, a story involves a character who wants something and encounters conflicts toward getting it. So ask yourself:
Who is my main character?
What problem is my character trying to solve?
How does she try to solve the problem?
Who or what is stopping my character from getting what he wants?
Does she fail or succeed at solving the problem?
How does he change as a result of trying to solve the problem?
Recommended Resource: The 90 Day Novel by Alan Watt
Decide if you’re a pantser or a plotter
Pantsers are those who write by the seat of their pants. They prefer to sit down on November 1st, without an outline, and allow the muse to visit them. For some, this works. They can sustain this kind of off-the-cuff writing until the finish line. But the rest of us will need a plan. Many resources are available to help you develop a structure for your book. Two of my favorites are: Save the Cat! Writes a Novel by Jessica Brody and The Emotional Craft of Fiction by Donald Maass.
Recommended Resource: Check out the 50-Day Writing Challenge hosted by the 7am Novelist. If you sign up to join, each morning, you’ll receive access to an impressive list of guest speakers and a plethora of writing tips via the podcast.
Remember that everything can be revised
But not in November! If you have the willpower, don’t revise anything while you’re in the throes of writing. Just get that wild and crazy first draft onto the page and worry about making it coherent later. This goes for both pantsers and plotters. Because, as you may already know, characters have a way of writing themselves into existence. So if a character decides to do something that goes off script, follow them! It may lead to something you could never have imagined or plotted.
Recommended Resource: The 5 Surprising Takeaways From Writing The First Draft Of A Novel
Set a daily writing goal
To achieve your goal of writing 50,000 words in thirty days, you’ll need to write 1,667 daily. Some days you’ll write more, some days you’ll write less. But keeping your goal in mind can help make it easier to sit down at the desk to write even when sitting down at the desk to write is the last thing you want to do. Write this goal down and place it front and center at your workspace or on a Post-it note on your computer. You might also want to keep a daily goal-tracking journal. If you’re anything like me, watching that word count add up every day and being able to check the box next to “Met my goal” is very motivating!
Recommended Resource: Typo Notebooks (a new notebook during this time is a must!)
Find and manage your time
There are a lot of productivity hacks available, including apps that disable the Internet for a certain amount of time so you’re not tempted to check your email instead of writing that tricky scene. Something else I know a lot of writers find useful is using the Pomodoro Technique. This is where you set a timer for a certain length of time—often, twenty-five minutes—and work continuously for that period, and then take a short break before returning to your writing and doing it again. Whatever tools you use, remember to prioritize this time. November only rolls around once per year, so make sure to set this time aside for YOU!
You’ve got this! Writing 50,000 words in thirty days might seem daunting, but it can be done. For inspiration, check out this list of thirty-three published novels written during NaNoWriMo!
