As soon as the weather gets cool, I find myself gearing up
for NanoWriMo, or National Novel Writing
Month. It’s the crazy month where everyone is writing their heart out. I love Nano and it really boosted my writing
skills. Have you ever thought about doing Nano? Here are my tips for making
Nano fun and productive.
Go In With a Plan
Deep breath pantsers! You don’t have to actually do any
plotting. At the very least, brainstorm your setting, your main characters, and
your antagonist. I find writing a crucial scene of my character’s backstory to
be really helpful in my planning. It helps me work out their weaknesses. I also
ask the following questions about my characters:
What is this person missing?
What does my character think would fulfill their lives?
What would really
fulfill their lives?
Answering these three questions and any others that you feel
are appropriate to your character is like developing a road map for your plot.
No plotting required.
Get Involved
Did you know there’s a social component to it as well? Okay,
I know “social component” scared most of you writers back into your cave, but
trust me…it’s fun. We all come out of our writing den, clutching our laptop security
blankets, and write. We talk, plot, trade secrets, share frustrations, and swill
copious amounts of coffee and tea. I host a write in weekly in my home town. At
a write in, you hang out with other writers and talk or WRITE! If you have
social anxiety (like me!), try starting a conversation with “So what do you
write?” It works wonders.
In case you didn’t know, NanoWriMo.org is a national
organization that splits the U.S. into municipalities. Each area has a
municipal leader who schedules events and keeps everybody engaged and writing
during the month of Nano.
You can also get involved online on message boards. (Does
this make you feel more comfortable??) Log in to NanoWrimo.org and find out how
it all works. It’s way more than 1,666 words per day.
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3 comments:
Nano scares me! I have attempted, and failed miserably, to beat it. Both with and without a plan. Regardless, I still participate, and generally end up with at least a part of a new book to work on for the year coming!
Congrats to all those who kick Nano's butt!
I've participated in NaNo twice now and BOTH books have been published! Well, last year's book comes out this November. I'm going to try to participate again this year. It's hard, but the discipline is so good for a writer. Best of luck to you.
I've not done NaNo in several years because it hasn't coincided with where I am in writing. I'm pretty linear and right now I'm working on a spin-off to "Lily" the first book in my series. I'm be working on edits or bundles when NaNo comes along this year. When I did participate I was ready to start a new novel. It was a blessing then. The first year I passed the goal and kept on going finishing that book December 21. The next year I had problems with my hands just as I cruised past the 50K words. By the time I could physically write again, it took me into January to finish that book because I had to pace how much time I spent at the computer.
Lead on!!!
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