How to Beat NaNoWriMo!!
- Use a very light colored font or make the font size so small you can’t see it. This prevents you from going back and editing what you’ve written and wasting your writing time. This is not cheating like some people like to say it is ;) the point of NaNoWriMo is to get the words written, editing comes later. It can be unnerving when you’re first trying it, but you’ll get the hang of it and be whizzing out words faster than you had any idea you could!
- When you get stuck use brackets. When I get to a place where I realize I need to go back and change something, like I need to add a scene some place or change something in a previous scene or have an idea for later in the book or for how something can connect I use brackets. For example: [BOOKMARK: I need to go back to chapter three and change blah blah blah] Then when you’re done with your first draft and ready to edit you can use the Find tool in word and search for BOOKMARK or NOTE whatever you choose to use and find all those places you need to change something. That way you don’t waste time trying to find those things you need to change when you can spend time writing instead.
- Food motivation. When you get to your word count you can reward yourself with a candy bar or some fun treat (if your parents allow of course, I had tons of Halloween Candy for November NaNoWriMo and Easter Candy for Camp NaNoWriMo so I was all set to go!) You also can write with a beverage like Professor Conroy encourages in her writing classes on Homeschool Connections (which I highly, HIGHLY encourage if you haven’t yet!). Water, SunnyD, tea, coffee, whatever floats your boat!
- Listen to music. I listen to Pandora Radio (you can google it or search for their app in the app store) either through earbuds or the big speaker our family has. The main station I listen to is The Avengers: Main Title. It has the scores from different movies which really helps me get in the zone while writing.
- DON’T DELETE! If you realize you want to delete something, DON’T. Do it later! NaNoWriMo is not about getting a beautiful first draft written, it’s about getting the stupid words out! Don’t delete, don’t stop, write junk, fix it later.
- Don’t miss two days in a row. As Tiana will tell you *wink* when you miss writing two days in a row and you’re behind writing two days, it is SO HARD to get caught back up again! My advice is get ahead as far as you can, even if it’s just a day and then you have that cushion for when you do miss a day. Because that’s really inevitable. Get ahead and then work on rebuilding that cushion when you use it.
- Turn your word count off. In Word it (might) automatically display your word count total on the lower taskbar. You can turn that off by right clicking on that taskbar that runs on the lower part of the Word window. For me, seeing the words slowly inch upwards is the constant reminder that I haven’t made it to where I’m supposed to be for the day yet. I turn it off and then check it occasionally to see where I am.
God bless and Happy Writing!
Leggy