I'm talking about the 1st of November. Do you know what that means to THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND of authors?
NATIONAL NOVEL WRITING MONTH
NaNoWriMo....
Every year, thousands of writers make a commit to get at least 50k words completed on their manuscript. That comes out to be a little under 1700 words a day.
1700 words? Easy!
Not so much! It's actually harder than you think. But I have some tips that might help get you through. After all, I'm a three time winner, full time mom of three-teenage boys, wife, full time day job, mom to three four-legged creatures, and friend to many, so I might know a few tips to help you out.
1) Tell everyone you interact with that you are participating!
I mean EVERYONE! This way they know that you are so busy with your free time that you don't have time to go to Macy's for that after Thanksgiving day sale. You have to treat this like it's a work project.
Head on over to the NaNoWriMo website and sign up! This is a peer pressure month for writers who are participating and having peers that you can rely on is a great way to make it through!
I have a few local writer friends who do participate and we have a meet at 9 pm meeting at an all night dinner where we hang out and write, write, write. It's great to have the support.
On the home front I have all planned meals. It doesn't take me long to write 1700 words, so I do have some free time, but it sure makes it easier to have the meals planned ahead. If you have a family and obligations like I do, make sure you have a supportive significant other that will run the kids here and there when need be.
2) Manuscript!
This is why you are here! Now....we only have a few days, so you should know your story/plot. This is really a pansting activity for me, which means that I have a general story line, and characters, but I have no idea where they are going to take me. So I'm not so strict on an outline, but it's great to have an idea of the beginning, middle, and end.
3) Goals!
If you are like me and have other commitments, you have to manage your time! That is the biggest hurdle I have to overcome. I do this by making a daily realistic goal and this includes the weekends. I might make my daily goal 1500 words, but weekends I might do 2k a day. This is an example so I'm not even sure if the math adds up to 50k, but you get the picture.
4) Write, write, write!
You have to be flexible with your attitude. You might be one of those writers who have to edit as you go....DO NOT DO THIS WITH NANOWRIMO!
Write! Get the story on the page. If you have gotten to the end of your story, go back and add a twist. Don't worry if it doesn't flow because you are going to go back and edit anyways. This is the time to just write what your heart desires. You have to freedom! Isn't it great and doesn't it feel good to have that freedom???
5) Use the NaNoWriMo Website!
Go into the forums. Give support to others that are struggling! Take advantage of adding the words you have completed to your word count ticker!
There is nothing more motivating to getting to your goal then seeing that ticker closer and closer to 50k! It really sings to my muse!
So what do you say? LET'S DO THIS!! Together!! Come on over to NaNoWriMo and friend me! I will support you!!
Find me on Facebook too! I'm going to be posting inspirational photos daily to help get us through it!!
Fantastic advice, I failed to complete in time last year. Only by one day, but my MS did get finished. I know why I failed. Deciding on the 3rd to do it was to late. I had to plan, outline etc, before I even started. Losing power, by this I mean tbe charger on my laptop, having to wait four days for a new one. I guess I could have written in long hand, but what I 'd alread written was locked inside my computer. So I lost a weeks worth if writing time. Still I did end up with a full unedited MS.
ReplyDeleteSo this year, I have outlined, planned and have my notes, and I have a larger support group too, I was alone in it last year.
I agree with one thing, leaving the chapters unedited, not fixing typo's. It was weird, and and odd feeling, but with so little time I too agree to just write it. Fix it all later. I worked out if I aimed for 2,000 a day, it would reach at least 64,000 words.
Good luck, and let the challenge begin.
I haven't done much planning. I thought I would, but I wanted to finish another project before nano and that is still eating up all my time. Good luck everyone :)
ReplyDeleteI'm on board, Tonya! See you there...
ReplyDeleteYour advice about leaving all the typos and mistakes os SOOOO hard! i do a lot of procrastinating that way :0)
ReplyDelete