Nanowrimo is just around the corner, which means 30 days of (supposedly) writing nonstop (face it—we all know we’re going to procrastinate way too often). But what if there was a way to change that? What if instead of sobbing under your blankets with chocolate, you found a way to crank out 3000 words a day with little to no difficulty?
Well, I think I can help you make this crazy idea a reality. Here are 6 tips I’ve found that help me out.
Outline ahead everyday
Now before all the pantsers come at me with their weapon of choice, you don’t have to do anything fancy. Just leave yourself some notes to come back to during your next writing session. This could be ideas on where to take the plot, what the characters are doing, where they are, snatches of dialogue, or any combination of the four. Anything that will keep writers’ block away when you come back to your story.
Change your goal everyday
Tell me if this sounds familiar; you start off with a goal of 1,667 words a day, but by the end of the third week, your goal has stretched out to 5,000 words a day. It doesn’t have to be that way. What if—instead of taking words out of the next day’s goal when you get ahead—you were to lower your daily goal for the rest of the month, consequently lowering your discouragement at the same time? By the end of the month, you can get your goal all the way down to 1,000 words, and that can do wonders for your confidence!
Start getting ready now
Start practicing reaching 2,000 words a day now so you don’t have to waste the first two weeks of nano getting back in the groove. By getting ready now, you can save yourself so many tears later. And who knows? Maybe you can write a whole novel in the two weeks you would have spent procrastinating otherwise!
Find/put together a team to keep you accountable
If you’re doing Nano, you probably have this down for the month, but what about beyond that? What about the other 11 months of the year? Find a community of people who you want to see succeed and who want to see you succeed. Find a few people who are willing to sprint with you at random times and read through pages of your early drafts and talk about books with you (nearly) 24/7. You’ll not only benefit from the interaction (don’t be a hermit!), but they can also help you brainstorm ideas and fix plot holes and show you were you have room for improvement.
Reward yourself
This can be with your favorite beverage, extra reading time, or anything else that makes you happy and replenishes your mental energy. I recommend giving yourself a small(ish) reward whenever you hit a major milestone and then a larger one when you finish a project. (I can personally testify that making yourself wait to eat a brownie until you have reached a certain word count can motivate one to work faster. Just saying.)
Watch your mental energy
Writing is hard, and too much of it at one time without taking the proper breaks can be enough to dry out your well for a week. When you feel your mental energy adding, stop working. I know it’s hard. I struggle with this every day. But a well timed break can do wonders for your health, your productivity, and your story! Find two to four things that can take your creativity from a sad little puddle to an aesthetic little well and take the time to do one whenever you need a pick me up (preferably before you need a pick me up, if you can manage it). Sometimes all that you need is to write on the porch swing on an autumn night while you drink your water and listen to music and watch airplanes travel across the sky and the full moon rise over the treetops. That’s what I’m doing right now. It doesn’t have any significance to this post. I just want to share that with someone.
So there you have it! Six things to keep in mind next time you sit down to write! Now it’s your turn! Are you doing Nanowrimo this year? Which item on this list do you find hardest? What’s something random that fills your creative well?
Great tips!!
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