It's NaNoWriMo Month!! | Top Ten NaNoWriMo Tips!!

NaNoWriMo November!!

Who is participating this year?? This year, I decided to be a NaNo Rebel. I want to write. I love drafting a new story but I'm also editing a book this month and I don't want to stress myself out over it. So my word count goal for the month is about 21,000. Plus editing my novella (which is set in my Beauty of the Dark world) that I'd like to release next year!! Eeek!! :D

I did decided that I would share some tips for NaNoWriMo month. I've done Camp NaNoWriMo six times and November NaNoWriMo three times. I won all the Camp NaNos and all the November NaNos I did. Once during Camp NaNo I went for 50k just like November NaNo and won, so I've actually written 50k on one month four times. So I feel like I'm qualified to at least give a few tips on how you can, too!! :)

1. Plan things out - at least a little. I know some people prefer to pants a novel (fly by the seat of their pants) but I think if you even just do a braindump of ideas for you story and plot and characters, that can be really helpful. And maybe even organize it into a rough outline. I often outline but my outlines are always quite rough and more vague than specific. 
2. Plan out your time. Look at your November calendar and see how many days you actually have to write. (Do you want to write on Thanksgiving or not?) Then see if you can estimate how much time you have during those days to write. Do you have an hour? Do you have two? Three? Pencil that in a calendar (or put in your phone, but I'm a paper and pen kind of girl.) Then figure out how many words you need per day, based on how many days you just calculated. However, do not beat yourself up if you don't stick to that. Even if you don't get 50k, you're closer than you were before. 
3. Curate a book playlist of some kind. It can be something you listen to before you write, or while you write. Maybe the songs have words, maybe they don't. Maybe you have two playlists. One that has songs with words that you listen to before you write to get you in the right mood for the book. And one that has instrumental music so you don't get too distracted, but that also has the mood that matches your book, if that makes sense. 
4. Find a writing buddy or accountability partner. It's easier to do this when you have someone to vent to about things when you need to. And to gush to about things when you're super excited. You can find someone in the NaNo Forums, on Facebook groups, on Twitter... Also, someone to do word sprints with is priceless. 
5. Do word sprints!! All a word sprint means is that you pick an amount of time (say, 20 minutes) set a timer and ALL you do during that timer is WRITE. Don't go back and edit, just write. Just go and see how much you get. You can do this alone but you can also do this with a writing buddy. Agree on a time and you both write for that allotted amount of time, then come back and compare word counts. It's both accountability and friendly competition in one. 
6. Keep a list of things that inspire you - specifically about your book. Song lyric or poem snippets, snap a picture of something and paste it in. You could make it like a scrapbook. 
7. Find something that gets you motivated when things just are not going to plan. It could be that book playlist, your writing buddy, that list of things that inspire you about your book. Or maybe it's a writing podcast, or a writing vlog that gets you up off your butt (so to speak) because you see someone else writing and think "I should go write!!"
8. Turn off your inner editor. I know, easier said than done. But the goal of NaNoWriMo is quantity not quality. I mean, you don't want to not even put any effort whatsoever into your book but don't worry about it being perfect. It'll just make things so much harder. Remember, you can always edit later. But you can't edit a blank page!!
9. Have fun. This is meant to be fun!! November NaNoWriMo is supposed to be fun!! Have fun with your book, listen to the playlist and think about how awesome your story is! How much you love your characters! Talk and laugh with your writing buddy! Celebrate every time you hit a word count milestone (whether it be 100 or 10,000 words.) Have some treats! Have fun!!
10. Don't be too hard on yourself. Hitting 50k on November is not the end all be all of your book. You can keep going, keep working on it. In fact, even if you hit 50k it's still possible you'll need to write more to finish your draft. BUT if you don't hit 50k, don't worry!! Don't beat yourself up. However many words you wrote, you will be closer than you were at the beginning of November!! You are AWESOME for even doing NaNoWriMo!! You've got this!!!!