NaNoWriMo Tips from a NaNoWriMo Vet
For those who don’t know, NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month, which is a writing challenge that takes place in November, where writers around the world attempt to write a 50,000-word first draft of a novel. Many writers enjoy the community and drive that this challenge provides and they partake every year. This will be my 9th time and I’m going for my 7th win in a row.
Many brilliant novels were conceived and started during this challenge. Some of my favorites of these include Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell, The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, and the first three books of the Lunar Chronicles series (Cinder, Scarlet, and Cress) by Marissa Meyer. Anyone can do this challenge as long as you have a story idea and the drive to write and here are some of my best tips to get you through it.
Tip 1: Get Ahead Early
November is a busy month for a lot of people as it includes many holidays and general end-of-the-year stress. Not to mention, people’s daily life of work, home, and play. While you may be motivated at the beginning of the month that can wane over time.
If you have the opportunity to get ahead by a few words each day, TAKE IT! Every word you write ahead is a word you don’t have to worry about later.
One of the greatest benefits of NaNoWriMo is that you can see that you actually do have time to write if you actually seek it out.
Tip 2: Break Up Your Word Count Goals
Writing 50,000 words in a month is intimidating. Writing 1,667 words (the recommended daily average) can be intimidating. But you know what’s not intimidating?
Writing 1 Word.
Writing 5 Words.
Heck, the sentence that you’re reading right now is 12 words long.
If you break up your word count goal into smaller goals to write throughout the day, you’ll hit your bigger goals in no time. Just take it One Word at a Time.
I like to do the 80 words in a Minute challenge, where I literally try to write 80 words in one minute. I’ve never succeeded in doing it, but the challenge forces me to get out of my perfectionist mindset and just write down some words without thinking too much.
Tip 3: Skip Around in Your Story
Sometimes you might get bored with one part of your story, and that’s okay. Sometimes I want to write funny scenes, other times I want to break hearts. When you’re not in the mood to write a certain scene, go write another.
If you’re in the mood to write a romance scene when you’re up to the fight scene, go write that romance scene.
Like I said before, no point waiting for inspiration to strike with one scene when you can go write another and get ahead as much as you can.
Last year, I started writing my 12-book series by writing all of them at once and it gave me a wide variety of choices when it came to the types of scenes I could write. I was bouncing between character heartbreaks and fluffy romance throughout the entire month and it was great!
It’s like when you go from craving a rom-com to being in dire need to look at a mystery thriller. Indulge in your mood changes because that can help you write a solid foundation for that scene in the future.
Tip 4: Lock Up Your Inner Editor
Everyone has their perfectionist tendencies, especially writers who want to write the perfect novel on the first go.
I hate to burst your bubble but this first draft is not going to be the novel you publish (if you want to publish it that is). There was a quote I found once that said you need to focus on scooping sand into the sandbox before you can make your perfect castle of a novel. Basically, if you don’t have a foundation to work off of, you’re not going to have a story.
This applies to plotters (writers who plot out every detail of their story before writing it) and pantsers (writers who literally write by the seat of their pants and see where the story goes as they write) because if you keep looking back at what you already wrote to try and try to fix it, you’ll never get to the end of the process.
So once you’re done with one scene, move it out of your eyesight and move on to the next one, so you’re not tempted to keep looking back and instead move forward.
Tip 5: Your Story is Still Growing
I’ve written multiple first drafts at this point and I can tell you right now that they are all... not great.
When you try writing your novel for the first time, you’re telling yourself the story for the first time too.
Over time, you’ll get better at telling the story, sharing more details, and making it something amazing, but you have to finish writing that first draft!
Tip 6: Have Fun!
While NaNoWriMo can be intimidating, it can also be a lot of fun once you hit your stride and find ways to make it fun!
Invent a word count game and reward yourself when you finish your goal for the day. Take a snapshot of your word count each day to see the total rise over time. Check out the NaNoWriMo website to see if any write-in sessions are happening in your area so you can spend time with other writers who know what you’re going through.
Find what takes to make this challenge fun for you.
By the way, if you need a writing buddy: Find me on the NaNo website.
Wishing you all the best of luck with this year’s challenge. If you want to learn more about my Project for this year, check out the blog post I did on it.
Also, I will be updating my Author’s Log at the end of each day during NaNoWriMo, so check out the other posts on this blog to see them.
Until then,
XOXO, Ivey
