Young Writers Society

Hey folks

new member here. finally free of exams and submission deadlines in december i can actually start writing properly again and doing Nano for the first time.

anyone else a newbie? any old hacks got wisdom to share?
anyone just super stoked for it?

I've done NaNo once (2015) and won. The best advice I can give is to not fall behind. Once you're behind, it's all downhill from there. If you need a day off writing, schedule it in. Add more words to the day before and the day after.

I'm doing it this year too. Profile here Feel free to add me as a buddy.

Not falling behind is good advice, but I've fallen behind every year I've done it, managed to put in insane amounts of writing, and pulled ahead for a win. So don't worry too much about that.

As an old NaNo veteran, I have a couple pieces of favorite advice.

Find a community. Of course there's YWS, but there might be a writers group or even a NaNo-specific group in your area in real life! Writing is usually a solitary pursuit, but NaNoWriMo is a great time to meet other writers. Plus, the encouragement that comes from a community can help you keep focused so you can finish!

Let yourself write badly. So pre-NaNo, I never finished a draft of anything, because every single word had to be perfect. I'd agonize over the write word for an hour. Type a word, look at it, backspace, try again.

NaNoWriMo cured me of that, because if you agonize over every word, you're not going to get many of them written in a short amount of time! Let yourself write and don't worry about it being good - just good enough that you can continue with the story. Remember: you can always fix it up later. That's what revision is for!

Take care of yourself. I'm guilty of peer-pressuring basically everyone into participating in NaNoWriMo, but if you have school or work and are stressing about everything, take some time off from writing and destress. Focus on priorities. You can always come back to the writing later, if you're up for it. Get enough sleep, keep hydrated, and don't forget to eat!

(I am also on the NaNo site, and my username is the same there as here.)