Today is the first day of NaNoWriMo and I still haven’t made up my mind fully whether I am doing it or not. I did it last year and completed it and felt great. I was so proud to add this badge to my page.
I wrote 50,000 words in the month of November and it felt good. It was very stressful and there were days I didn’t think I could go on. I work all day and then come in to see the boys, spend some time with them, put them to bed, read a story, then have dinner and tidy up. By the time I’m finished it’s 9pm and to then have to write 2,000 plus words was tough but I did it. This year is no different, except I have school stuff to sort for the oldest, my blog stuff is bigger than last year and I am so very tired.
My novel is sitting still at it’s 50,000 and there is about 50,000 still to write on it before that’s the first draft complete and I can edit it down to something decent. This is why I want to do it. Last year there were so many of us taking part on twitter it helped spur us on and get through to the end. I finished with only 1/2 hour to spare.
I haven’t planned but then I didn’t last year either, I just knew what I was going to write about and start. This time I know where I want my story to carry onto but haven’t planned.
What do you think? Should I give it a go and if I fail I fail? Or is this the wrong attitude to take. I want to.
A few tips and things that might help if you are planning on doing it:-
- WriteOrDie, helps stop procrastination. An alarm sounds if you stop for too long.
- Find the best time to write for you, whether that is to set your alarm before the kids get up or last thing at night.
- Put your novel onto something portable like google docs so you can pick it up and write where ever you are.
- Try to write everyday, at least 1,666 if you can’t you must write more each day you can, it quickly gets away from you and you are constantly playing catch up.
- Finish up each night with a cliffhanger if you can, it will make you want to go back.
- Storyfix has some great tips on NaNoWriMo.
- One of my favourite authors Luisa Plaja gave me a loan of the book No Plot No Problem by one of the founders of Nano last year and this helped me a lot.
I hope these help a bit.
I am signed up and if you want to friend me I am on as Suzim on NaNoWriMo.
Have I talked myself into it by now? Should I just do it?
Will I add this badge to my blog?
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