Tips To Conquer Your Nanowrimo

If you’ve been writing for a while now you probably already know the ins and outs of NanoWrimo. But, if you’re new (welcome) NanoWrimo stands for National Novel Writing month. What this means is every November we as writers huddle together and set daily, and sometimes weekly, word goals that we intend to reach. Then, by the end of the month all of those words should add up to a complete manuscript! But for the more experienced lot of us NanoWrimo can represent that time of a year where we attempt (again) to finish that pestering draft and fail (again) to finish.

Because the sad truth is, NanoWrimo isn’t easy. All the friendly competition, thrill and trendy hashtags can mean absolutely nothing if you’re not in the right head-space going into your NanoWrimo. Your schedule and your procrastination won’t just go away for a month. They’ll exist just the same and whether you believe it or not, they'll be even more tempting during NanoWrimo (the evil, I know). So, National Novel Writing Month requires lots of preparation and focus in order to pull off hitting that huge word limit. That’s why it’s up to you, as a writer, to develop your own way of making NanoWrimo work for you. To help you out I'm sharing five basic tips to help you out in the best way possible this NanoWrimo!

But right before we jump right in, if you're new to my blog, welcome! I do posts like this all the time and if you like what you read, feel free to subscribe so you can get notified every time I drop a new post! To my constant readers, you guys already know how much I love you! Oh, and don't forget to tap that little heart icon so I can feel extra special! Alright now that that's out of the way, this is: How To Conquer Your Nanowrimo.

“We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master.” —Ernest Hemingway

1. Have An Outline

Not everyone writes with an outline, which is understandable. Some of us prefer to wing it, allowing the story to tell itself and have the characters forge their own path. That's great and honestly I respect that but, in NanoWrimo keep in mind you’re writing against a clock. If you allow your characters to do whatever they want, when they want, you’ll probably never meet your goal.

My advice for those of us that prefer having our story unfold on its own is to write a general outline. It doesn’t have to have specific details or be so strict that your characters can’t do what they want, but just have a vague enough yet guiding idea of the events you want to take place in your story. Perhaps, you can have a definite beginning and a definite end and then have a more general idea of how the middle will go. That way as you write, you can still keep track without it getting so out of hand that it becomes unrecognizable. Digging yourself out of that mess of a story will not only take time to recover from but can demotivate you to the point of completely quitting. So keep that general outline with you and do your best to maintain it!

For those of us that already use detailed outlines, stick to those outlines! Be certain that those events that you’ve planned are the best for advancing your plot, engaging your readers and keeping your story is interesting! The last thing you want to do is change your entire plot in the middle of Nanowrimo. You'll regret it and everything will fall apart and it will just be a mess. Trust me, you don't need that in your life. Pro tip: If you have an idea that you think you want to implement that has the potential to change your entire plot, write it down and consider it for your second draft. Don't even look at it again.

Changes are bound to happen throughout your writing process but the key is to limit those changes as much as possible. Once you can successfully do that, you’re a whole lot closer to finishing your manuscript!

2. Set Realistic Goals

This one looks a little obvious but truth is, when it comes to self-analyzing, we’ve all either underestimated or overestimated ourselves drastically. Establishing realistic and grounded goals for ourselves can be a challenge that requires time and serious reflection so sit yourself down and really get to thinking. Consider your work ethic, passion and current schedule. These are probably the most important things that will determine just how realistic your goals will be. After you’ve taken all that into account it’s time to set your goals. You need to challenge yourself but also give yourself enough leeway to avoid feeling overwhelmed. The question is, how?

Start by Jotting down Your Goals

Well, there are a few ways but here are two of my favourites: Gradually increasing the word limit and Overlapping the word limit.

With gradually increasing the word limit the key is to start off small then over time, tackle bigger world limits. So, for example, on the first week you can set your goal to be 5,000 words. Then the next week, 9,000 words. And as the weeks go by you can continue to increase that number more and more. Or you can alternate as well. So, on the first week you can do 5,000 words, then on the second week you can do 10,000 words. Then on the third week you do 5,000 words again. This alternation can keep the writing journey a little more interesting and not so mechanical. Plus, on the weeks where you have less writing you can dedicate any free time you have to research and other projects.

Overlapping the word limit is a little more complicated and will require a lot more dedication. So let’s say you’ve set your weekly word limit for 10,000 words each week. On the first week however, you end up churning out 15,000 words. This would take away your workload for the following week so instead of 10,000 you’ll only write 5,000. Or let’s say you can only manage to write 5,000 words on the first week, you'd have to ensure that on the second week, you would write 15,000 words to make up for the words you’ve lost. The same principle can apply to daily word limits as well. I don't recommend this for beginners though. But if you have the dedication, give it a shot!

You can even mix Overlapping and Gradual Increase as well!

3. Give Yourself Time To Breathe

This means allocating time for writing and pleasure. I know it sounds somewhat silly to plan/regulate your free time but these two factors work in tandem to provide you with the most productive NanoWrimo experience.

Take a break! Seriously, you won't die.

When we finally begin to write the story we’ve been planning for weeks, probably months, there’s probably a lot anticipation and passion. You might want to write it every day and get your story going, building up to that part of the book. But remember to take it slow. They say distance makes the heart grow fonder. Give yourself space to breathe outside of your work and ensure you spend enough time do other things like studying or talking to your friends and family (you’d be surprised how a manuscript can transform you to an antisocial hermit).

If you go into your novel blazing, there’s a possibility you’ll experience a burnout. That’s the last thing you want.

Go steady and manage your time well. That manuscript will get done with patience and steady work ethic.

4. Rope In A Friend

Having a partner during NanoWrimo is so important. You guys will kind of simultaneously be each other’s harsh coach and cheering mom. It’s quite the experience, really. But, having a writing friend that’s coming along with you on your journey as you guys motivate each other and keep each other accountable can seriously make all the difference.

Not many people understand (the pains of) NanoWrimo so having that one person you can fall back on and rant to can potentially make the difference between surviving the month and giving up.

if you don't know anyone in real life, welcome to the internet! Here are just a few amazing community of writers that will without a doubt understand you:

The Wattpad Community

Camp NanoWrimo

5. Write Now, Edit Later

I think as writers our obsession with perfecting our work is rooted in the fact that we’ve read such amazing novels. But, we need to keep in mind that those incredibly exciting books were once really terribly underwhelming drafts.

"Rome wasn’t built in a day, but they were laying bricks every hour. —John Heywood

As I mentioned earlier, during NanoWrimo you’re working against a clock. Please do not stop to edit. I know its really tempting to go back and read what you’ve written but don’t do it! It’s a scam! You’ll end up reading, then correcting here and there then realizing you don’t like something and before you know it you’ve been stuck on that chapter for the past ten days. I’ve been there. Save the editing after Nanowrimo. You’ll have the time. As you write, trust yourself and believe that what you’ve written was at least half decent. It probably wasn’t but tell yourself whatever lie you need to in order to not skip back to those previous chapters.

My best advice is to get the chapter out, writers. Simply write and do not stop.

Then, at then end of the month, you can look back and cringe, but just not during NanoWrimo.

Conclusion

That's it, writers. I can promise you that NanoWrimo will be hectic and stressful and a lot of the times you'll want to cry but, I can also guarantee that at the end of it all when you're looking at how much you've written, you'll be in shock. It will definitely be worth it. So follow these steps, share them with your friends and go get to planning!

If you liked this post be sure to tap that little heart icon and drop a comment below letting me know which of these tips are your favourite! To read more stuff from me be sure to follow me on Wattpad and Medium! To keep up with me on social media, follow me on Twitter and Instagram where I occasionally rant, share music and discuss the pains of being a creator. Oh, also, I share sneak peeks of my novel and new blog posts at times too, if you're into that. Have a great weekend, readers!