To get the most out of NaNoWriMo, you need the ultimate survival guide. You don’t have to join a mailing list to get it. No subscribing. No “click the link in your email to confirm.” Just read it. Take notes. Clip it to Evernote.
Write
The first tool to NaNo is to write. That’s a bottom line. Write. If you follow all the tips I’ve given you over the last two weeks, you planned your novel, wrote out a logline, a save the cat sheet, a 21 point sheet and a 60 point sheet. You’ve already set up a project in WriteWay, SmartEdit Writer or Scrivener. You’ve added all the minor plot points and major plot points from your sheets into the project already. You’ve even added all the needed wordcounts per scene and chapter.
Here’s the good news. You’ve done all the work. And in doing so, your brain has probably been humming and clicking away at your story. You know what you need to write when. You know how much to write.
Get your word count
You know you need to write over 1667 words a day – better the first four days of the month if you write 2100 word days. Do this so you can pull ahead, and keep pace with the dreaded first half of act II.
If you did everything the way I told you, you’re all set. This should be a breeze. Now let’s look at the NaNoWriMo Ten Commandments.
NaNoWriMo Ten Commandments
- You shall write every day. This is a big one. A writers notebook becomes important. You need to write all the time. Most of last year’s book was written long hand on notebook paper, and then I just transferred it to Scrivener. This is probably a terrible way to do it, but it allowed me to write it when away from the computer. The important thing is to keep working on the book at every moment. Get words on paper. Do this and you shall win.
- You shall not edit your novel. Editing is not writing. Writing is not editing. Edit later. I don’t care if you used a filter word. I don’t care if you used an expletive. Bottom line. Get words on paper. Suffer typos to sit for now. THats’ nuthinh to woryu aboit.
3.You shall not hunt for the best word. Trust me when I say the strongest word to use is probably going to be the one you just used. There’s no time to hunt for exactly the right word. If you get your 1667 words and you still have half an hour… use that to write more words. Something’s going to come up this month, and its going to waste a day. This is your chance to bank an extra day’s writing while you can.
- You shall let the story direct itself. Doesn’t matter how well you plan, your novel takes a life of its own during NaNoWriMo. As long as it does not interfere with your 60 major and minor plot points, go with it. This is your creativity at its finest. During Nano last year, the obligatory western scene where the outlaws beat up the gunfighter’s girlfriend changed all on its own to Abigail shooting at them, and killing one of them. The novel was made so much better because it changed this scene as I wrote it. The scene where the one outlaw was shot through the carotid artery as he ran for his horse just happened before my eyes as I wrote. I was completely amazed!
- You shall be prepared to create during NaNo. The opening scenes of “Blazing Glory” changed from what my outline required to what the novel required. Abigail was drawn to Josiah much quicker in the actual novel than the outline I’d written. I’d pictured Abigail not falling for Josiah until he was almost killed – yet they’re drawn to each other much quicker. My exposition character of “Mrs. Worthing” even has a poetic little moment based upon a throwaway line that she was a retired school teacher and volunteered to teach native children to read and write English. Trivia note – the opening scene was written a month after Nano. The second scene was actually how I pictured the novel opening.
- You shall tweet your word count every night. This keeps you accountable. The world will see if you procrastinated or got lazy. Write, get your word count, and tweet it. Be honest. You can tweet it right from Scrivener 3.0
- You shall not visit Youtube during NaNoWriMo until you’ve met your word counts. This includes weekends. Sorry, you’ll have to wait until you get 1667 on Saturdays to watch Benny on the Beat.
- You shall not check Twitter until you have tweeted your word count for the day. Sorry, some people are too competitive, and they stop playing if they see someone else got 2300 words today before they even start writing. So one up them and get 2200 words, tweet your word count THEN go check Twitter! #NaNoWriMo
- You shall listen to an instrumental soundtrack that matches the setting and genre of your novel. No sense listening to something with words, because you’ll end up singing along instead of writing. “Tusk!”
- You shall know what must happen in every scene, and what you need to write. Thanks to your planning process, this is done. If you dismissed it with the comment, “I think I’m a pants’er” and you’ve never finished a novel pants’ing – you must follow this commandment or you will not win.
Failure to plan is planning to fail.
