Nanowrimo – Nation Novel Writing Month…
I can’t believe it is already that time of year! I also can’t believe that I won’t be participating this year either. Unfortunately, it’s just not in the cards for me this year, but I did win in 2017 and 2018, so I figured I can be a part of this amazing annual challenge in a different way. Instead of writing for me, I’m going to be writing for you – to help you succeed with this year’s Nanowrimo! Every 5 days, I plan to five you 5 new pieces of advice/tips/etc to make sure that this year is your year to win!
With November 1st only 5 days away, I’ve decided to give you 5 bonus tips on getting prepared for your novel. So let’s dive right into it, shall we?
5 NaNoWrimo Preparation & Planning Tactics
ONE.
Make 3 sets of word count goals for yourself – daily, weekly, and milestone.
I have participated in a grand total of three Nanowrimo challenges and have won two of them. I’ve also been writing manuscripts for twelve years, and I feel like I really know the value of having a small, medium, and big goals.
Daily goals are good measurement markers for your progress. When you are using the Nanowrimo website – which I highly recommend – be sure to update that daily word count whenever you’re working. I update it every hour or so because I can physically see my progress no matter how small it is. As the days go by and you see your graph moving upward, it gives you small bursts of confidence about the progress that you’re making.
Weekly goals are vital because you will inevitably have days where you can’t write or you can’t make the words make sense. You won’t get the recommended 1,667 words per day. During 2017, I had a whole ten days where I had exactly ZERO words for the day, but I still surpassed the 50,000-word count goal put in place by the Nanowrimo challenge and ended up even past 60,000 words! Zero word count days do not equal failure. Having a weekly total word count goal will help keep you level headed about getting the totals that you need to reach that minimum 50,000-word challenge.
Milestone goals? Why not a monthly goal? Well, we already know that Nanowrimo goal is 50,000 words. If you only think in terms of the monthly goal, you lose sight of the route there. This is why I quit the first year I participated after only three days. I was blinded by that big finish line word count that I couldn’t figure out how to climb those stairs. What worked for me in 2017 and 2018 was to set milestone goals. I could go eat out at my favorite restaurant to celebrate, or play so many hours of video games, after I reached my milestone goals. I recommend staggering them so that it’s a little harder to reach your goal and also so that these goals don’t align with the weekly goals. In 2017, I split my goals up into thirds (16,667 – 33,334 – 50,000), and it worked out well enough. If you want to keep it even because you expect this year to be hard, then, by all means, do it this way. As for my 2018 participation, I split it up in an escalation sort of format (10,000 – 25,000 – 50,000), and I felt the challenge all month but it was never overbearing.
Using this goal mindset pre-Nano will ensure that you will succeed during the novel writing month and you’ll have that completed manuscript at the end of the month to show for it.
TWO.
Make sure you have a dedicated time frame/day of week for uninterrupted writing time where you can work on your manuscript like it’s your job.
Sometimes this is easier said than done, but I’ve been making writing a part of my daily routine for the majority of my life. When I was nine years old, I would dictate fanfiction aloud to myself, and when I was twelve years old I started writing as a legitimate hobby, and I’ve been running myself ragged telling stories since then! Sometimes I’m paid for it, sometimes I’m not, but all the time – I always get what I want to get done completed.
When I tried to participate back in the early 2010s, I had no clue when to write. I was freshly out of college working crazy hour in a law office, plus I was dealing with a lot of personal and mental health garbage that made me a mess. I had written a 75,000-word fanfiction in just 8-weeks so this was supposed to be easy, but I wasn’t prepared to start something completely from scratch. So I quit because I didn’t have some plan to make sure I could actually try. A friend asked me to participate with her in 2017 and she was beating me at first for word count – kicking out 4,000-6,000 words each day! She had days where she had to stay up late waiting for her fiance to get home so she would just write away and didn’t have to worry about being up early five days a week like I did. It was discouraging, but after two weeks – she quit. She didn’t know how ot keep up the pace because she would only write when she had downtime. She never scheduled time to do it so that she had a pattern.
And that’s why I won the challenge in 2017 and she did not. I was slower to get the ball rolling that month, but my husband and son agreed to give me two nights a week where I could work from 4:30pm straight through until 9:30pm, and then I worked as long as I wanted on Sundays. They picked up the slack where I would’ve cleaned the house or done the shopping so that I could write my book. So maybe I didn’t get to 10,000 words in two days, but I did get to 50,000 words well before the end of the month and I did finish my manuscript.
For 2018, My plan was very similar. I made sure that I had at least those two nights a week, and Sunday, but I took my computer everywhere. We had all-day tournaments that we had to attend for my son throughout November, some of which where it was just us two, and I would knock out way more words than I anticipated in those days. Going beyond just make sure that I had those set times to work, I also made sure that I could work anywhere and anytime I had a block of unstructured time to myself. I hit 50,000 words earlier in the month and finished my manuscript with a higher word count than I did in 2017, which was an awesome victory for me. And there was the added challenge that I was working multiple jobs this time, too.
It isn’t easy, but you have to give yourself that block of time. Don’t make plans, don’t make exceptions. This is only one month of the year, and you owe it to yourself and your idea to make it a top priority. School, work, and family always come first, and I would never say don’t be there for those things in the way that you need to be. No! I’m saying you can skip a social event or two to make sure that you see your manuscript to the very end of the story that you want to tell.
THREE.
Make sure that you have a favorite treat and/or a favorite drink for your writing time.
This sounds ridiculously simple and silly thing, doesn’t it? WRONG! I have two friends who both won NaNoWriMo 2018 who also adhered to a similar diet pattern if you can call it that. For me, my NaNoWriMo treat is candy corn and water. My at-home office doesn’t have good airflow so I can sometimes feel like I’m suffocating there, but during NaNoWrimo, I refuse to write in the living room unless I am home alone so that I don’t get distracted. This is work, and if you want to make a career out of it then you must make sure you treat it like work.
My one friend had hot tea and the other made sure to keep plenty of Mountain Dew or Coke on hand. It was pretty clear that something that makes you feel comfortable but gives you a kick of clarity as well is really important. Hot tea is soothing, Mountain Dew and Coke has caffeine and sugar, and water is hydrating. Candy corn is that cloyingly sweet boost that often wakes me up as I fall asleep at the keys.
You’re going to need it, and after a few days of having it readily available while you are writing, you will train your brain to expect to be productive when you’re eating or drinking that specific thing. It becomes a ritual of sorts. While music can be something people use to stay motivated and awake, sustenance always takes the first priority. That’s why I highly recommend that you plan something to keep with you when you’re working so that you set the tone for what that time will feel like (and taste like, tbh).
FOUR.
Make sure you have at least one person that you can use as a ‘soundboard’ throughout the month.
This is another reason I failed in the early 2010s when I tried the NaNoWriMo challenge. I didn’t tell anyone I was doing it, so I couldn’t actually talk to anyone about it. I didn’t want anyone to know if I failed. Keeping it a secret was stupid! I had a friend who kept it secret from her family, but she still had at least me to talk to about it.
Everyone needs at least one person.
Soundboarding your ideas and verbally walking through your thoughts is so valuable. Not only do you hear what you’re doing, but you can get feedback about it too. There were things that I shared with my husband during both my 2017 and 2018 participation where he didn’t understand what I was trying to do with my characters. It opened my eyes to flaws and allowed me to fix them before I got it on the screen. One of my two friends that have won always told me how valuable it was for her to have someone that held her accountable and that was interested in her story. That made her want to continue and want to tell the story. It was a hard-fought win for her, too, so there’s a very real possibility that if she had done it on her own that she couldn’t have made it to the finish line the way she did last year.
My other friend, she probably would’ve finished, but she wouldn’t have written her best piece. She had questions and asked for feedback and eventually developed a story so deep and complex that she’s considering a sequel! Stories can become so much more than you think when you can talk to someone about what you’re doing. Keeping a secret about something you love is never a good idea.
As for who – I first recommend somebody that you TRUST! You don’t want someone who is going to take your ideas and redo them or steal them outright. You don’t want someone who will talk about your work to other people without your permission. You also don’t want someone who will not feel comfortable enough with you to tell you the truth. This is a job for someone that you can trust to be on your side.
After that, this can be anyone. Honestly, the reality is that a writer friend or a reader friend will be best suited for this job. Readers consume all that there is to be read on the literary market, so they’ve read a lot and know a lot about what’s out there already. They can tell you what has been successful and effective, and what maybe isn’t such a good route to follow too. Writers will understand you at your level and will always have a good recommendation that you can pull from the conversation and utilize in the story you are crafting during NaNoWriMo.
FIVE.
Get yourself a comfortable and cozy clothing item to wear when you are writing.
Oh no, another silly preparation tip! Yeah, well, not really. This is more of that ‘setting the scene’ and ‘setting the tone’ of what your writing time will look like. If you take my approach from 2018, writing can potentially happen anywhere you go, and that meant I had to compromise on some of my ideal workspace requirements. In 2018, I had this black knit caridgan that I wore in my office because of how cold it could get, but it had a tear in the elbow so I couldn’t actually wear it to my day jobs. I took it everywhere with my just in case, though, and it always helped me ease right into the writing frame of mind.
Other writer friends of mine have a blanket, a pillow, a pair of socks, a scarf, a hat, or something physical that they can wear or keep on their person. This is 100% a comfort item that makes you feel safe, almost, but it is incredibly vital to the success plan. You can’t win if you don’t find a way to be comfortable working hard. When you’re writing in this current age, you’re stuck in a chair and sitting down most every single time you’ll be working. In order to make this uncomfortable aspect of this amazing work, you need to feel like you’re at home somehow.
For 2019, whenever I’ve been working, I’ve always had my dad’s old blanket with me. He was an avid reader and left me a hand-written book outline when he passed away, so that love and support that he quietly harbored for me is valuable. Keeping that blanket with me whenever I can while working on my writing projects has been the biggest comfort I could have ever asked form. Everyone deserves that, and I feel like you owe that to yourself.
With any luck, this has been helpful for you. Over the next five days, I hope that you are able to prepare your workspace and get an action plan in place for success. I know that you can win, and even when it gets hard, you can overcome and reach that finish line.
Leave your name in the comments if you would be interested in being my buddy on NaNoWrimo. Even though I am taking this year off, I want to try to participate in the future and I would love to be a part of that support system! If you ever want feedback or a soundboard, message me on my Facebook page and I’d love to be a part of this process with you too!
Until the next post – good luck!
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