If you’ve decided to join many others in an epic novel quest that is NaNoWriMo, then congratulations, first of all! You’ve decided to try something many people will never do. But we must admit, it is hard. This is my second year doing the Young Writer’s Program of NaNoWriMo, where you can choose your own word goal, and along the way I’ve developed many useful tips and tricks. Today, I will share a few with you.
1. Write everywhere and anywhere. This means at school, in the car, on the bus, while eating dinner, while brushing your hair, or even in the shower if you have one of those fancy waterproof notebooks. Unfortunately, life doesn’t stop just because your writing a novel, so on busy days with lots of activities and not a lot of writing time, you need to take advantage of those spare minutes in line at lunch.
This means you won’t always have access to your home computer, so you should carry your work on a memory stick or store it in the cloud, like with Google Docs, so you always have your work ready to write some more. However, you won’t always have a computer accessible, so carry around a notebook everywhere you go, or use your iPod as one instead. This way, you won’t have that lame “I didn’t have a notebook,” excuse.
2. Keep track of your word count. Since NaNo is all about writing more, you need to keep track of how much you writing in order to meet your goal. Most word processors have a word counter (Hint: Check under “Tools”.), but some don’t. This is when a free word counter like www.wordcounttool.com comes in handy. If you’re writing by hand, sometimes you’ll need to average out by words per page, as counting every word you write by hand can be very time-consuming.
You can also use a ‘report card’ that tells you things like how many more words are left in your novel, or if you keep writing and your current pace, what day you’ll be done. I use a Google Docs one. You can get it here: docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Anz-Ax4lGuegdGw5di1CTS1ZTlNEamI2cFNjcXVMRHc
3. Put together a survival kit. This isn’t neccesary, but it really helps keep you going. A survival kit is a collection of items to help you ‘survive’ NaNoWriMo. Mine includes things like:
You can include similar items.
There are many more tips, but those are the ones I’ve chosen to share with you today. The only real way to get better at NaNoWriMo is to do it! So what are you doing? Get writing! But wait, before you go, share your own tips in the comment box below! Happy NaNo-ing!
1. Write everywhere and anywhere. This means at school, in the car, on the bus, while eating dinner, while brushing your hair, or even in the shower if you have one of those fancy waterproof notebooks. Unfortunately, life doesn’t stop just because your writing a novel, so on busy days with lots of activities and not a lot of writing time, you need to take advantage of those spare minutes in line at lunch.
This means you won’t always have access to your home computer, so you should carry your work on a memory stick or store it in the cloud, like with Google Docs, so you always have your work ready to write some more. However, you won’t always have a computer accessible, so carry around a notebook everywhere you go, or use your iPod as one instead. This way, you won’t have that lame “I didn’t have a notebook,” excuse.
2. Keep track of your word count. Since NaNo is all about writing more, you need to keep track of how much you writing in order to meet your goal. Most word processors have a word counter (Hint: Check under “Tools”.), but some don’t. This is when a free word counter like www.wordcounttool.com comes in handy. If you’re writing by hand, sometimes you’ll need to average out by words per page, as counting every word you write by hand can be very time-consuming.
You can also use a ‘report card’ that tells you things like how many more words are left in your novel, or if you keep writing and your current pace, what day you’ll be done. I use a Google Docs one. You can get it here: docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Anz-Ax4lGuegdGw5di1CTS1ZTlNEamI2cFNjcXVMRHc
3. Put together a survival kit. This isn’t neccesary, but it really helps keep you going. A survival kit is a collection of items to help you ‘survive’ NaNoWriMo. Mine includes things like:
- gum
- sticky notes
- inspiring objects and pictures
- a cozy hat that I only wear while writing
- tea
- hot chocolate
- healthy but yummy snacks
You can include similar items.
There are many more tips, but those are the ones I’ve chosen to share with you today. The only real way to get better at NaNoWriMo is to do it! So what are you doing? Get writing! But wait, before you go, share your own tips in the comment box below! Happy NaNo-ing!
