My First NaNo

Hey I've finally decided that I'm going to do NaNo this year along with one of my other friends. When I first heard about it, I didn't want to do it because it sounded so daunting. But when I heard my freind was going to do it, it got me determined that I could do the same. If you have any good advice, please tell. I don't want my NaNo novel to crash and burn like all of my others.

Thanks!

wolf4 wrote:If you have any good advice, please tell.

1. Your absolute minimum wordcount goal every day is 1667 words. Fail to meet it even once, and you're starting down a slippery slope.
2. Your actual wordcount goal should be 2000. You need to build up a margin of error for days when real life interrupts.
3. If you do a billion zillion words one day, you still have to meet your wordcount goal the next.
4. Momentum builds over time. When you've done 2000+ words a day for ten days, you really want to make it on the eleventh day, and so on. Build up a winning streak.
5. Personally, I find that planning in advance is invaluable if I want to actually have a story at the end of it. If this is your first novel period, I'd be extremely cautious about going in unprepared.
6. Better to skip boring parts than get bogged down in them.
7. Multiple viewpoints are practically always a disaster for new writers, but they can be useful when you have to put out a lot of wordcount in a short space of time. If one storyline stalls you can pick up another.
8. Switch off the internet while you're working.
9. Get buddies and/or groups where you have to post your wordcount regularly. This encourages competition and makes you accountable to people who will mock you (lovingly) if you fail.
10. Never stop writing at the end of a scene. It's tough to get started from nothing. Leave yourself a half-started scene to pick up on tomorrow.

This is excellent advice. * Points above * I also find that having a reward (Eg. I'll let myself eat this chocolate bar from Halloween after I've finished 2k) is helpful. Also having an outline and never ever using the backspace key.

After about ten days in which everything is horrible, everything starts to work out and by 30k I usually hit a rhythm.

One other thing that works for me, (though I definitely wouldn't do it at times other than during NaNo) is Dr. Wicked's writing lab. (I can't find the link at the moment, but if you google it it should be there.) It's called Write or Die. This is a very powerful motivator for me.

Hope this helps, and good luck on your NaNo!

~Lupis

P.S. My username on that site is the same as here. Feel free to add me as a buddy!

8. Switch off the internet while you're working.

This actually means switch off anything that could be even the most remote distraction. That means not watching television or texting. Turn off your phone and pull the batteries out of your remote. These distractions will only hold you down.

~Also remember to use every spare moment to write. NaNo is actually the only time I would rather write in a notebook because I can take it anywhere, write on the bus, during free period, during band when or director is focusing on another section of the band. After tests. Whenever!

~Create a comfortable, but easy to focus in, writing environment. This is also the only time when I’ll even use a desk to write out (well, a card table, but yeah). Check out Nate’s article here for tips on making a good writing environment.

~Lastly and most importantly, DO NOT EDIT! That will just slow you down.

If you want any more help or tips from a NaNo veteran, please PM me.

~lilymoore

canislupis wrote:
One other thing that works for me, (though I definitely wouldn't do it at times other than during NaNo) is Dr. Wicked's writing lab. (I can't find the link at the moment, but if you google it it should be there.) It's called Write or Die. This is a very powerful motivator for me.

Here's the link: http://lab.drwicked.com/writeordie.html
That thing helps so much.

Everybody's advice is great, I don't have much to add, except for pocket sized notebooks. Those things are life savers.

Thanks everyone! These really help

I haven't done nano but I did fail scriptfrenzy, which makes me slightly worthy of posting... not really. But I'm giving you my advice anyways.
Don't believe in your cushion. For nano, its 2000 words per day and for scriptfrenzy it's three pages. I was at page twenty four by day two and I still failed. Sounds nigh-impossible but you go on vacation, or to a house with no computer (my longhand writing is atrocious)
you get sick, get homework, have a birthday. Just remember: your not finished till you've hit 50,000.

And although I've never prepped for nanowrimo, I'm still gonna spew worthless advice:

And my advice for outlining is this: split your novel into thirty chunks, which will become scenes, and write a down some bullets of what you expect to happen in these scenes (which I find easier to work with than chapter, though they could be the interchangeable)
My outlines always start with the climax and move outwards; but you can start with beginning, middle, or end.
Remember that outlines are flexible: you may have subplots or plot twists you never expected.
Then upload some character-interview sheets (you can google character questionnaire and find some) and fill one out for all your main characters and most of your other characters.
I say most because the boy who has one line of dialogue in your story and doesn't show up afterwards isn't so important that you have to know his birthday, his siblings' favorite ice cream flavor and the name of his dead goldfish.

At least, that's what I'm doing for nanowrimo. My story requires no world building, thank god, so I can focus on working out the kinks in my plot and making my characters three dimensional.

I'm also planning on doing NaNo for the first time - all this advice is incredibly helpful! Oh no, I have to do the planning. I'm terrible at that.

Though this is all brilliant advice, I'm worried about over-planning. Is that possible? I'm trying to reach a happy medium, but I think if I overanalyse things I'll just end up feeling that I've written the novel before I even start. What's more, I'm writing a sort of mystery/thriller, so I have to plan fairly detailed-ish. Any thoughts on this?