NANOWRIMO Tips

It’s that time again! NaNoWriMo – National Novel Writing Month!

Step one – register for your free account! You’ll find all kinds of great information, resources, and support on the website.

Step two – find out who else is participating, join groups, gather with others (in person or virtually) so you can support each other!

Step three – write your heart out!

We’ve got some tips to help you with this!

1. Decide on your schedule: Will it be set times each day or a large chunk of time on the weekends?
2. Outline your story. It doesn’t have to be perfect but you need to know where you’re heading.

• Genre
• Character Names
• Setting
• Over Arching plot
• Beginning/Middle/End

3. Determine how you want to measure your word count:

Each Session 

1. Give yourself a minimum word count and see if you can beat it or beat the session before.
2. This is nice because it gives you that little hit of endorphins when you’re done writing. 
3. You see the number go up and want to push yourself each time you write to get more than last time. 

Daily 

1. This works because each day you give yourself a pat on the back when you accomplish your goal. 
2. You set a goal and try to meet it daily

Weekly 

1. This is good for looking at the big picture. If you know you may not be able to write every day, but want to stay on task but not beat yourself up about missing a day or two, pick a day to knock out all your writing. The downside – it’s going to be a huge word count goal as opposed to the 600ish words per day if you’re writing daily. 

Once you decide on how to track your words (above) set your schedule 

1. How many words do you need to write daily, weekly or per session?
2. Plot them on a calendar or checklist. 
3. Checking off boxes is very cathartic. 

The NANOWRIMO Community

• If you haven’t signed up for a local or virtual Nano chapter yet you need to
• This is an amazing way to grow your writing community
• A lot of groups start at Nano and then continue to meet year round for support
• Having the support of a group of writer attempting the say crazy thing you are is awesome

What NANO is good for:

• Trying out writing in new genres
• Brain dumping a story idea thats been stuck for years
• Getting you excited about a new project
• Forcing yourself to try writing outside of you normal schedule
  • Maybe you find out you write better in the morning than at night
  • Maybe you realize you actually CAN write on the train on the way to work
  • You may realize you get a lot more words on the page writing outside of your home/office. 

What NANO is not:

• This is not a sustainable way to write
  • It is a mad dash to the finish line once a year
• This is not a reason to beat yourself up the rest of the year
  • I did it during Nano, why can’t I get those same word counts now?
    • Because it is an unreasonable way to write and it will make you a little crazy

NANOWRIMO is about Creation, not Perfection

• This is all about words on paper (or computer, whatever)
• We are not penning the next great American novel.
  • It may turn into one but who knows
• This is about brain dumping
  • no editing
  • dont’ worry about what happened to that side character from chapter 2
  • let the book lead you where it wants to go
  • buckle up and enjoy the ride.