What is NaNoWriMo?
National November Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo, is where authors from around the world challenge themselves to write a 50,000 word book during the month of November. You can keep track of it yourself, or you can sign up for free at nanowrimo.org to have access to their word trackers and graphs to measure your progress. Typically, writers will try to write a minimum of 1,667 words per day to achieve their goal.
My NaNoWriMo This Year
This spring during Camp NaNoWriMo, which is a more informal event that takes place in April but can be used similarly to the official NaNoWriMo, I completed the first draft of my first novel, Muspell’s Sons. Starting November 1, 2022, I will be starting the first draft of the sequel.
I will be posting updates of my progress on my blog, including updated numbers so you can see how well (or poorly) I’m staying on track.
Tips for A Successful NaNoWriMo
I’ve been participating in NaNoWrimo since 2016, and I’ve learned a lot from both my successes and my failures. Here are six tips I’ve put together to help other writers complete NaNoWriMo this year:
- Even if you are a pantser, have an outline. It doesn’t have to have much to it, but I’ve found that having at least an idea of where I’m starting and ending makes it a lot easier for me to stay focused. Twice now, I’ve finished my 50k words on time only to realize that my story has a strong beginning but then wavers and splats at the end because I didn’t have any kind of plan or endgame.
- Write every day. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. The years that I finished NaNoWriMo were the years that I managed to write something every day. The years I didn’t finish? Yep. I wasn’t writing every day. Even if I don’t make it to the daily goal of 1,667, it helps build a habit. And then some days I just get into a zone and write 5-7k words in one go, which helps to make up for all the days when I fall short. And even if you don’t manage to finish, you’ll still be a lot further along into writing your novel than if you hadn’t written anything.
- Don’t edit as you write. If you’ve looked up other tips for NaNoWriMo, you’ve no doubt seen this tip on every other list. I highly recommend you follow this tip because you lose time and might end up editing out your perfect word or phrase anyway later when you realize that what you wrote isn’t in character or doesn’t fit the flow of the narrative you end up with.
That being said…
- Don’t write fluff just to get up to the word count. I suppose if your only goal is to write 50,000 words in one month, then writing fluff would be fine. Heck, you could write “I love puppies” 16,667 times. But for those of us wanting to finish a coherent story, don’t just fluff up your word count. It’ll just get cut later and make you feel depressed that your 50k novel has shrunk to an anemic 30k novella. If you’re shy a few hundred words and can’t think of what to write, maybe just put it down, go to bed, and start fresh tomorrow. If you’re shy a thousand words, it might be time to go back to your outline, your character profiles, and your world building and flesh those out a bit.
- Music! I love setting the mood for writing through music. Tense hyper music for action scenes, Halo music for spaceships and sci-fi, epic orchestral music for fantasy–you get the picture. I tend to stay away from music with words because I get distracted by them, but other people don’t have that problem. Do what works for you, but do listen to music.
- Write with other writers. Everyone has their own level of interaction that they’re comfortable with. Some people love meeting other writers in bookstores to write. November is an excellent time to find a new writing group because so many writers are meeting to have write-ins for NaNoWriMo. If you’d rather stay home, the official NaNoWriMo twitter and Discord accounts put up sprints. I enjoy having Zoom write-ins with other family members who are also participating. Regardless of how you do it, having another writer to help keep you motivated and to remind you that your hardships are perfectly normal is wonderful.
Conclusion
NaNoWriMo can be an incredible and invigorating experience with a little bit of preparation. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do! Good luck!