Gearing up for National Novel Writing Month

Somehow, it’s almost that time of year again. Brush off your laptops and pick up your pencils, because National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is nearly upon us. 

For those new to National Novel Writing Month, it is a project that began ten years ago and has grown into an initiative where hundreds of thousands of writers across the globe attempt to write a new novel of 50,000 words in the month of November.

How did National Novel Writing Month start?

NaNoWriMo was founded by Chris Baty and twenty of his writing associates. It dares writers to produce a new novel (or the first draft of one) in a month. Over the years, it has grown from twenty people to hundreds of thousands of participants!

NaNoWriMo has helped produce a whole bunch of brilliantly successful works, such as Sara Gruen’s Water for Elephants and Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell. It even helped inspire our very own Novlr.

What is National Novel Writing Month?

1. Writing starts at 12:00: a.m. on November 1 and ends 11:59:59 p.m. on November 30, local time.
2. No one is allowed to start early.
3. Novels must reach a minimum of 50,000 words before the end of November in order to win (of either a complete novel of 50,000 words or the first 50,000 words of a novel).
4. Planning and extensive notes are permitted, but no material written before the November 1 start date can go into the body of the novel.
5. Participants’ novels can be on any theme, genre of fiction, and in any language.

Attempting to write 50,000 words in 30 days is no easy feat. Before you commit to this challenge, you need to take a couple of steps to prepare yourself. There is no point in signing up and then realising on November 1st that you’ve got no ideas for character/plot or you happen to be taking a month-long adventure holiday. Planning accordingly can help maximise the NaNoWriMo experience and help create some awesome work. Here are our top tricks and tips to help you prepare for National Novel Writing Month.

Three tips to get ready for NaNoWriMo

1. Sort Out Your Calendar

50,000 words is quite a lot for thirty days of work, particularly if you have other responsibilities that take up a lot of time. You will need to average 1667 words per day, so it is important you manage your time and think realistically about when you can commit to writing.

Be reasonable with what you set yourself to do. If you have days or weekends off, you might be able to bang out a large chunk of your word count. However, on a short bus or train ride somewhere, you might only manage a hundred words or so. There’s nothing more disheartening than setting an unrealistic word count and failing to meet it.

2. Outline your plot

Attempting to generate a plot as you write might make you lose the plot. Take it from someone who consistently avoids planning – it rarely works out. Character planning for example: I can spend a good couple of hours on baby name sites alone. What a waste of time and words! Coming up with different character profiles and quirks beforehand will save you a whole host of time when November finally comes.

3. Get ready to go unedited

Yes, I did just say what you thought I said. The whole point of National Novel Writing Month is to produce a large quantity of writing, a novel, that you can later refine into your masterpiece. It’s about getting the words down on the page.

However, if you know that you’re particularly bad at nit-picking (join the club), it may be good to have a few practice attempts at free-writing before November begins. Free writing is an exercise where you sit down for an allotted amount of time, anywhere between five minutes and an hour, and just write.

This writing can be focused, i.e. on a specific object or character, or you can simply let your thoughts meander and go where the mood takes you. The only caveat is that you aren’t allowed to edit the work until the month is done. When it’s written, it’s written.