NaNoWriMo
So, it's officially four weeks away from the beginning of NaNoWriMo. If you don't know what that is, here's the link to the website.
If the word is foreign to you, the goal is to write 50,000 words during the month of November (that's roughly 1,500 words per day). It's hard, but it's very doable.
Now, what I'd like to write about today is the sheer magnitude of not just writing a novella (about what it amounts to) in a month, but the things leading up to it. I'm fortunate enough to have a work-in-progress going that I can work on, but not everyone has that luxury. I'm going to be much more structured than I have been in previous years, but again, not everyone has that luxury.
The biggest thing you'll need is time. Naturally, if you can get together with friends or with a group at your local library, you can do really well when you're working. Your second bests friend will probably be caffeine. Or some substitute that works for you. Chocolate and pizza work for me as well as Pepsi does, but that's just my personal preference. Although the pizza does sometimes make the keyboard greasy...
I suppose all of the above is advice for people that haven't done NaNo before. For those of us that have done this fun annual brain-smear-on-keyboard, you know that time is still the main deciding factor in whether you can make it or not. Sure, word sprints at the library are great, but if that once- or twice-weekly chunk is all you get, you're going to have a hard go at it toward the end. But of course you know that.
The best advice I can give to both groups though is to make use of the forums on https://nanowrimo.org/. Talking to people will be one of the most useful bits, especially when you get into the mess during the middle of the month and you just want to stop. Encouragement comes in all forms in those discussions, especially if you're taking a little bit of break time from your own work to bemoan your own situation. Trust me—people understand because they're in the same situation. Everyone gets exhausted during November when they're doing this.
Last parting pieces of advice: First, get used to ignoring spell check and your internal anal-retentive grammarian. They're not interested in story, they're interested in perfection. That's not what you need when you're trying to get a ton of words on the page. Second, get organized. If you have a work in progress started, that's great. If you don't, having an outline for something you want to work on will be invaluable. That gives you a starting point so you don't have to go into the month needing to pre-write. And last but not least, do more each day than you have to! I like to take at least one day off per week, so that means I have to get about 2,000-2,500 words written each day. But you know what? Those days are worth it. It may not seem like a good idea, but trust me. Those days are solid gold. And if that makes it so you don't get done on November 20th, so what? You'll get done on November 24th, maybe. A couple days won't really make a bit of difference in the long run, since you're going to be getting it done anyway.
I believe in you. Let's get ready now, and we'll make it happen together!
Thanks for wreading!
Jeff
If the word is foreign to you, the goal is to write 50,000 words during the month of November (that's roughly 1,500 words per day). It's hard, but it's very doable.
Now, what I'd like to write about today is the sheer magnitude of not just writing a novella (about what it amounts to) in a month, but the things leading up to it. I'm fortunate enough to have a work-in-progress going that I can work on, but not everyone has that luxury. I'm going to be much more structured than I have been in previous years, but again, not everyone has that luxury.
The biggest thing you'll need is time. Naturally, if you can get together with friends or with a group at your local library, you can do really well when you're working. Your second bests friend will probably be caffeine. Or some substitute that works for you. Chocolate and pizza work for me as well as Pepsi does, but that's just my personal preference. Although the pizza does sometimes make the keyboard greasy...
I suppose all of the above is advice for people that haven't done NaNo before. For those of us that have done this fun annual brain-smear-on-keyboard, you know that time is still the main deciding factor in whether you can make it or not. Sure, word sprints at the library are great, but if that once- or twice-weekly chunk is all you get, you're going to have a hard go at it toward the end. But of course you know that.
The best advice I can give to both groups though is to make use of the forums on https://nanowrimo.org/. Talking to people will be one of the most useful bits, especially when you get into the mess during the middle of the month and you just want to stop. Encouragement comes in all forms in those discussions, especially if you're taking a little bit of break time from your own work to bemoan your own situation. Trust me—people understand because they're in the same situation. Everyone gets exhausted during November when they're doing this.
Last parting pieces of advice: First, get used to ignoring spell check and your internal anal-retentive grammarian. They're not interested in story, they're interested in perfection. That's not what you need when you're trying to get a ton of words on the page. Second, get organized. If you have a work in progress started, that's great. If you don't, having an outline for something you want to work on will be invaluable. That gives you a starting point so you don't have to go into the month needing to pre-write. And last but not least, do more each day than you have to! I like to take at least one day off per week, so that means I have to get about 2,000-2,500 words written each day. But you know what? Those days are worth it. It may not seem like a good idea, but trust me. Those days are solid gold. And if that makes it so you don't get done on November 20th, so what? You'll get done on November 24th, maybe. A couple days won't really make a bit of difference in the long run, since you're going to be getting it done anyway.
I believe in you. Let's get ready now, and we'll make it happen together!
Thanks for wreading!
Jeff
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