Preparing for NaNoWriMo
Posted by Jo | Filed under Uncategorized
Photo by Terwilliger911
If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, then you know that I’ve participated in National Novel Writing Month for the last few years. If you’re unfamiliar with the idea, he’re’s a summary.
- It takes place for the entire month of November
- You commit to writing 50,000 words on your novel
- You can’t pre-write any of the novel, but you can outline
- You “win” by completing the 50k word count by the end of the month
Sounds crazy, right? I think it’s a great way to get most of a rough draft down on paper, and if you haven’t tried it, I’d highly recommend you give it a go.
Writing that much, that quickly, isn’t an easy thing to do (I know). If you’re planning on participating, you need to start doing some planning now. The most important thing you should do is get yourself accustomed to writing daily and achieving a set word count.
I’d recommend a goal of 1000 words a day. That’s doable without wearing yourself out before NaNo begins. That’s my typical word count goal per day whether I’m prepping for NaNo or not. Also, get used to writing every day if you don’t already. Missing even one or two days during NaNo can leave you feeling hopelessly behind.
The second thing you can do is work on outlining and/or backstory for your November novel. You can’t start writing before-hand, but you can think about your characters, their backstory and where you want your story to go. I’m not a pre-plotter, so I don’t do that, but I know some people do, and they find it helpful.
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