It’s that time of the year again! National Novel Writing Month, otherwise known as NaNoWriMo, has begun. Are you writing this year?
NaNoWriMo began in 1999 with just 21 participants and has since grown to 400,000 participants in 2013. NaNo challenges writers to write a 50,000 word novel in one month, November. The novel can be written in any genre or form as long as 50k words are produced by the end of the month. To meet this goal by the end of the month, a writer should be averaging 1,667 words a day.
Any writer who reaches 50k is declared a winner and can win prizes ranging 50% off Scrivener to print copies of your book by CreateSpace. More than anything, NaNoWriMo is a great way to get that novel running around in your head started! It’s more of a personal goal than anything, although novels written during NaNo have been published such as Water for Elephants and Fangirl.
If you’re attempting NaNo this year for your first time (or even if you’re a veteran!), here are some tips to help you through the month:
1. Don’t edit yourself, just write!
As much you may want to go back and fix that horror of a paragraph you just wrote, don’t. You aren’t doing yourself any favors by stopping and going back. NaNo is all about quantity over quality, so just keep writing! You can go back and fix everything in December.
2. Utilize your resources
You’re not alone. There are a plethora of helpful resources to help you through NaNoWriMo. From forums to inspirational pep talks, there’s support just around the corner. For help with writing, check out WriteorDie or ilys.com.
3. Writer’s block? Move on.
You’re doing so well–you just can’t wait to get to that scene where your character reveals that they’ve actually had x-ray vision all this time! But, first, you need to establish a boring scene where your character talks about girls with his father. The father begins talking and stops. You just can’t seem to get that x-ray vision scene of your mind. But, you have to get past this stupid scene first! Stop. Don’t worry. Go to your x-ray scene. Just keep moving. Forget that scene. Maybe when you look back in December, you’ll decide you don’t even need it anyway! When faced with writer’s block, just go to your next idea.
4. Take breaks.
It may seem like you need to be writing constantly to finish this, but it’s important to take breaks as well. Go see your friends, listen to music, sleep, eat. Taking breaks is essential to keeping those juices flowing and making sure you don’t burn out.
5. If you fall behind, don’t panic.
It’s bound to happen at some point. You should be at 30k words, but you’re only at 28k. Now is the time to panic, right? Well, don’t. If you panic, you’re bound to fall even further behind. Instead, re-evaluate. Is writing just 1,667 words a day working for you? Maybe not. You should write about 2,500 a day now or maybe write 3,000 on Saturday and catch up. You will be able to catch up as long as you put in a little bit of extra effort.
6. Let your story speak to you.
Even if your story is planned out, complete with outlines, graphs and storyboards, unexpected challenges may arise. And you don’t have a lot of time to work them out. So, it’s best just to let them happen. Your character is standing on the top of a ten story building, about to find out that the true identity of the masked man, but then…their dog can talk. You didn’t plan for the dog to start talking. It’s supposed to just be a normal dog! Just let it happen. Don’t freak out. Let your story speak to you. Chances are, your story is more right than you are. Don’t force your story. Just let it happen.
7. Be proud of yourself.
Whether or not you hit the 50k mark what you attempted is an amazing feat. Not many people can even attempt NaNo and you did. Even just trying is an awesome thing. So, go out and celebrate! Rest your fingers! Get some sleep! You deserve it.
Good luck!