ladykf | Entries tagged with nanowrimo

Coming off of NaNo, it's a nice reflection of a good way to work on dealing with things, so here were some tips of mine on handling NaNo and also admittedly ways that can help period with writing first drafts. [Tumblr post]

1. Delete NOTHING.
That’s right, delete nothing. That just cuts your word count. NaNo isn’t about editing, it’s about getting words on paper. So if you wrote it, leave it. If you can’t stand to look at it, change the color so it’s so pale it’s almost invisible or put it somewhere else - just keep it so you can count the words you’ve legitimately written for later.

2. Bribe yourself shamelessly
I personally don’t let myself online until I have a couple hundred down minimum. I have a friend who lets herself have treats at certain benchmarks.

3. Make yourself accountable
Tell people you’re doing NaNo, and keep up-to-date account of your progress – the site is fantastic for that.

4. Don’t limit yourself
If you’re having a good day where you’re on fire writing wise? Go for it. You never know when you’ll need some breathing room.

5. Do not panic
This is a competition with yourself. Just breathe, do your best. There’s no penalty for failure - even a hundred words in a month is a hundred more than you started with.

6. Break it down
50K in November comes out to about 1667 words a day for thirty days. Try not to stress over the big five-oh and keep the daily in mind. You’ll be fine.

7. Grab a buddy and have fun
There’s people on the forums, and plenty around here on Tumblr, doing this. Go looking for others, share some encouragement, maybe swap snippets of your work. Encouraging each other is huge.

8. Do NOT edit
November is for writing, not editing. Write-write-write and don’t worry about if it’s “good” or not. Words count regardless of content.

9. Remember that there is no one way to get to 50K
Different things work for different people. I have a fairly detailed plan, some people are just flying by the seat of their pants. Some people set themselves up so they write more most days and have rest days. Some people (like me) know that if they don’t write some every day they’re in trouble. If something isn’t working, find something else.

10. Be freakin’ proud
This is a really big thing and just DOING it is huge, good for you.