It's almost that time of year, folks! Every November, writers of all types celebrate National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). The goal of participants is to write 50,000 words in 30 days, so it can be a pretty major undertaking. Here are some suggestions for NaNoWriMo'ers.
Note: From what I can tell, there aren't any comparable events for non-writing creative pursuits (which means there's a vacuum there!). But whenever you're planning a major creative project, the same guidelines apply.
Know your writing habits. The initial rule for organizing anything is: know yourself. As it applies to NaNoWriMo, that means knowing when you're likely to be in the creative-flow state, knowing how fast you can write and knowing how long (words or time) you can write before you need to take a break and/or you're just plain done.
Plan to miss a day or two. If you divide 50,000 by the 30 days in November, that comes to 1,667 words a day. Now, not only is that a messy number, it presumes that you'll be writing every single day, which might not be feasible for everyone—especially during a month that contains a major holiday weekend that many people travel for. If you plan to write 2,000 words a day, you only need to write for 25 days to make the 50,000 mark and "win" NaNoWriMo.
Know where you're going. Maybe some people can sit down before a blank page and write a narrative arc with no pre-work. I can't. I "won" NaNoWriMo in 2006, and part of how I did that was to figure out before I sat down to write what the next 5-10 steps in the narrative would be. Once I knew what would happen, it was much easier to tie the steps together with words. I'm a big believer in planning and outlines, and NaNoWriMo is no exception.
If timers work for you, use 'em! Another way I got through NaNoWriMo in '06 was to use my timer. I knew that once I had a good idea of where my plot was going, I could bang out 500 words in 15 minutes. So I'd set my timer for :15, knock out my 500 words and use whatever time was left over to adjust my narrative outline if need be. I repeated the process 3 more times, and I had my 2,000 words for the day in an hour (plus the half-hour or so of pre-writing outlining).
Reward yourself along the way. Every night after I had finished my writing, I'd treat myself to a cup of decaf chai and some mindless TV. After the halfway point, I got some bath goodies. After finishing the little bastard, I took myself and my husband out to dinner. Remember: this is genuine work you're doing, and you deserve some rewards for doing it.
Marelisa at the Abundance blog has some great strategy and planning tips for NaNoWriMo in this post, which I highly recommend.
What about you? Have you done NaNoWriMo before? If so, how have you gotten through it? What do you know now that you wished you knew then? Let me know in the comments!
This is my first year doing NaNoWriMo, so I'm grateful for your post! I like the idea of using a timer to break my daily word goal into smaller chunks. Thanks!
Posted by: Kerrie Lee | 10/26/2009 at 07:42 PM
I hope it's working for you, Kerrie!
I had to postpone my NaNo novel due to out-of-town guests, so I'm noveling vicariously through others. :-)
Posted by: Catherine Cantieri | 11/17/2009 at 11:30 AM