Countdown to NaNoWriMo: What’s Holding You Back?
It’s the end of September. You’ve got about a month until NaNoWriMo starts. Seems like plenty of time, right? Some of you are wondering why I’m already talking about NaNo when it doesn’t even start until November 1.
Because writing and finishing a book takes more than just the 30 days you’re planning to spend writing it during November. If this is your first time considering doing NaNoWriMo, or you’ve tried before and didn’t quite make your 50k, stay tuned because I’ll be sharing with you my tips, advice and some tricks to help you be ready to start writing on November 1, and to get 50k (or a finished story) by November 30.
Take the quick poll below so I can see what your biggest concerns are about participating. I’ll be addressing as many of these as I can before and during November, to help you hit 50k.
What makes me an expert, you may be asking. And that’s a great question. I’ve been doing NaNo for about ten years now, and have hit the 50k goal every year. Most years I’ve finished an even longer novel by November 30. And these novels have been contracted and released by a publisher—not self-published. (Bound for Trouble was my 2013 NaNo project.)
I’ve collected the worksheets and techniques I use for developing a novel into an easy-to-use novel planning kit, How to Be a NaNoWriMo Winner.
Giveaway: Leave a comment for the chance to win a copy of my book How to Be a NaNoWriMo Winner
The scariest part is not knowing if you’ve prepped yourself for the story…I did the boot camp my first year and it was amazingly helpful…I’ll continue to do NaNo as long as it’s around!
I have done NaNo 5 years and won every time, but one year I got to 50,000 words without finishing my story, and several years I wrote drafts which still have potential, I think, but are all over the place, repetitious, and disjointed in parts. Last year I outlined and it definitely helped, probably producing the best first draft of a novel I’ve ever done. So this year I’m doing that as well.
I’ve had problems before not knowing where my story was going. That was my first two times doing NaNo – I still won, by after more years of NaNo and camp, I’ve come to realize that even a loose road map is priceless during NaNo. Also, timed free writing is a great way to dig yourself out of a whole. I also always have a story over 50K. Now I”m working on a trilogy. 🙂