5 Surefire Ways to “Win” NaNoWriMo This November

50K words in 30 days? No problem.

Photo: Shutterstock / naito29

If you’re a novelist who got their start with NaNoWriMo, aka National Novel Writing Month, it’s almost obligatory to write an article on how to write 50,000 words in 30 days. Why? Because those of us who have successfully completed this challenge are passionate about the process.

Note: Scroll to the end for more of my articles on NaNoWriMo.

I’ve participated in NaNoWriMo most years between 2010 and now, and 6 of my published novels started out as NaNoWriMo projects. So to say I’m a fan of NaNoWriMo is an understatement. And like other NaNoWriMo disciples, I want to share the good news of writing fast.

Curious? Check out info on National Novel Writing Month and how to participate at nanowrimo.org.

Ready to commit? Here are the tips that have helped me the most:

1. Schedule your writing time at the same time every day, and then protect that time as if your life depended on it. With consistency, the writing will flow easier because your body will remember what it’s supposed to do.
2. Come in with a plan. I know some people swear by “pantsing” (letting in-the-moment inspiration lead the way), but I think that’s putting too much pressure on yourself in a month when you’re writing faster than ever. Before NaNoWriMo, I plot my story, and also do character bios so that I know the characters before I start writing about them.
3. End your writing session with a plan for the next day. As I wrap up each writing session, I’ll jot a few notes about what happens next so that the next day I know where I’m going. It helps to end your writing session in the middle of a scene so that you can get warmed up writing the rest of it, and then continue on with the story.
4. Don’t delete. If you are nixing something you just wrote, use the cross out function. What I do is cut and paste trashed words at the end of my manuscript so they still count toward my word count, but also make it easier to delete after November.
5. DON’T LOOK BACK. Your inner critic will want to fix plot holes or amend past days’ writings to match changes you’ve made further in the story. Don’t do it. This is one of the biggest…