How To Make the Most of NaNoWriMo

Every year, NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) comes along and every year I say, “This is the year I’m going to commit!” And every year, I make a strong start only to get derailed several days in. Either I miss a day or I get stuck or I don’t hit my word count goal. Whatever it ends up being, I give the whole thing up and vow to try better next year.

I think this is one of the reasons people have a love-hate relationship with NaNoWriMo. Writing an entire novel in one month at a sustained clip of 1667 words per day is no small feat. Especially if you’re the kind of writer who has trouble hitting 500 words some days. Still, there’s something appealing about NaNoWriMo. I’m drawn in every year even if I fail spectacularly at it.

This year, I’ve put a bit more thought into it. I’m going in armed with a plan. I think this is where a lot of people get derailed. Sure, you have an idea, but have you asked yourself these important questions:

• Do you know your characters?
• What major plot points do you want to hit?
• Do you have an idea for the shape of it?
• What mood do you want to capture?
• Do you have a plan to keep the momentum going if you start to stall out? 

If your answer to these questions is yes, then you’re going into this better prepared than I’ve ever been and you’ll probably be fine. If you answered no to some of them–welcome to the club! You’re going to have to get some prep done before you dive headlong into writing your novel this November. Luckily, you’ve still got time.

Keep reading for some tips on making this NaNoWriMo your most successful ever, and finally getting that novel out of your head and into the world.

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Know the Mood You Want to Capture

This is a big one for me. I need to know the mood of a story before I begin writing it. I need to know how it’s going to feel. Is it going to be spooky? Is it going to be funny? Romantic? Do I want reading it to feel like a crisp October day that shifts between sunny and overcast as you curl up with a hot mug of tea while wrapped in your favourite wool sweater? Yes, I often get that specific with my writing mood. 

This doesn’t mean that your spooky book can’t have funny bits, or that you can’t add some romance to an adventure novel. It just means you want consistency in the overall feel of your book. Not only will this help you craft your setting, your scenes, and your dialogue, but it’ll be something you can use to get yourself into a writing mindset. How, you ask?

I have two main strategies for brainstorming the mood for a project in its early stages:

1. Make a Pinterest mood board
2. Make a playlist

These are both great for a number of reasons. Creating them helps me to solidify the wispy ideas in my mind. It gives them a bit of tangibility before I have to give them tangibility with words. The mood board, in particular, is a great reference for when I’m stuck at a particular moment and I need to dive back into that nebulous headspace. It’s good for sparking new ideas, like brainstorming with images. The playlist ends up becoming my writing playlist. I may not listen to it the entire time I’m writing, but I always listen to it at the start of a writing session. It gets me in the right headspace.

Sometimes I’ll get really specific and make both a mood board and a playlist for each major character. This is especially helpful if you’re telling your story from multiple points of view. It helps to clarify each character and make each of them distinct.

Maggie Stiefvater (one of my favourite writers, as you may know), talks a lot about mood in her writing seminars. You can purchase her online seminar on Etsy, in which she goes through everything from mood to developing ideas to plotting to revision. It’s an excellent seminar and I highly recommend it. If you don’t feel like watching eight hours of video, however, she also writes a bit about mood on her blog. 

Know Your Characters

This one probably seems obvious, but the number of times I’ve gone into a story thinking I have a handle on my characters only to find out that I don’t know them as well as I think is…too many. And this can really trip you up as you’re writing because your characters should be driving the story. You don’t want them to just be set pieces that you move around. And you want them to be distinct from one another. If they all sound the same, then what’s the point? And where’s the conflict?

As I just mentioned above, one way to clarify your characters for yourself is to make each one a mood board and a playlist. That being said, this method doesn’t work for everyone. And it doesn’t answer questions like:

• What is their favourite colour?
• When is their birthday? What do they want?
• Who are their friends?
• What are they afraid of?
• What is the worst thing they’ve ever done?

These are the kinds of questions you need to answer if you want to write your characters to be whole and believable. You know when someone says a character leaps off the page? This is what they’re talking about. Even if some of these details never make it into the manuscript, just knowing them will help you write them as more rounded characters.

Check out these resources for developing characters:

1. To get you started: NaNo Prep 101–Character Development Questionnaire
2. For the nitty gritty details: Extremely Detailed Character Sheet Template
3. For those details you otherwise might have missed: 51 Questions You’ve (Probably) Never Asked About Your Characters

Outline Your Story

Here is where you answer the age-old question: are you a planner or a pantser? Some writers are able to dive into a story with only a whiff of plot and power through straight to the end, letting the story unfold as it may. Us mere mortals need at least a bit of an outline.

The NaNoWriMo Prep team has put together a fun quiz that can help you decide where you land on the planner-panster scale. At the end it suggests a plotting method for you based on your answers.

It’s going to be different for everyone. Personally I like to know my major plot points before diving in. I fill in the gaps as I write and find that not knowing every detail works better for me. It lends a sense of discovery to the process. But I also need a map. Without one I get lost and wander right off the edge to where I can never find my way back and that’s another novel abandoned to the ether of lost things. 

So I’d say I’m a plantser. That writer that falls nicely between planner and pantser. I like spontaneity, but I also need a bit of direction. Think of it like the way you might plan a trip to a new place. I want to know which major sights I’m going to see while I’m there, but I also want to leave room for discovering something unexpected and deviating from the plan to explore it. 

Here are a few options for finding the plotting method and story structure that works best for you:

1. Week 3 of NaNo Prep 101 outlines five different methods with accompanying templates.
2. Story Planner offers even more methods and templates, and also tells you how easy or advanced each method is along with an estimated timeframe for completing each outline.
3. Story Structure: 3 Main Templates for Structuring an Unforgettable Story is exactly what it says on the tin, breaking down three common story structures for you to use.
4. Another from the NaNo Prep team, Outline Your Story Like a Subway Map, is my personal favourite discovery this year. It provides a method for keeping track of your different storylines and where they’ll intersect. It’s extremely valuable for crafting those multiple POV novels.

Prioritize Writing and Make a Routine

Prioritize. Your. Writing. This is arguably the most important thing on this list. It’s far too easy to fall into the habit of pushing your writing aside for other obligations. You have to treat it like a job. Which isn’t to say it should feel like a grind, only that you need to take yourself seriously as a writer. If you’ve set aside time to write–honour it! Don’t push it off for something else. Carve out some time and dedicate yourself to your writing. 

It helps to have a writing routine. Have a few little things you do to signal to your brain that it’s time to write. Creating a ritual around writing also signals that it’s important. And it provides something to look forward to when the prospect of committing words to the page is daunting.

Here’s what my writing routine looks like:

1. Make a cup of Earl Grey tea
2. Light my favourite scented candle
3. Put on my current project’s playlist 
4. Jot down some quick ideas for the scene I want to write
5. Start writing

I include “start writing” on there because sometimes starting is the hardest part. I commit myself to just one sentence. One I don’t have to keep or even like. It’s usually enough to get the words flowing.

For more ideas on developing your own writing routine listen to Episode 41: Making a Routine of Writing and Episode 43: Interview with Author Sidura Ludwig.

Find Your NaNoWriMo Writing Community

As any writer knows, it can be an isolating practice. Writing is a solitary pursuit, most of the time, so it’s important to find your own community of writers. Friends and family can be wonderful cheerleaders, but no one is going to understand quite like another writer. They’ll be able to commiserate through writer’s block and offer feedback from a writer’s perspective. You can plan virtual writing sprints and hold each other accountable. Plus, no one else will ever understand how you can manage to hate this thing called writing while continuing to love it so much. 

Now, where do you find fellow writers? It’s actually easier than you think. 

1. nanowrimo.org—If you’re participating officially, through their website, you can meet other writers on their forums and create smaller writing groups. 
2. Twitter—Follow the #WritingCommunity hashtag, your favourite authors, and @NaNoWriMo to stay up to date with events and writing sprints. They also have a #NaNoCoach hashtag. Established writers are selected to act as coaches leading up to and throughout November to help keep you motivated and offer advice. This year’s NaNo coaches are Aiden Thomas (@aidenschmaiden), Roseanne A. Brown (@rosiesrambles), Kate Stayman-London (@_ksl), and Yvonne Ventresca (@YvonneVentresca). 
3. Instagram—As with Twitter, follow @NaNoWriMo and your favourite authors. Check out the hashtags #nanoprep, #nanowrimo, and #writersofig to get you started. @readandwright has a Prep-Tober Checklist Story Template you can fill out to make sure you’re ready to start writing on November 1!
4. Workshops and seminars—These are a great way to receive feedback from other writers and meet like-minded people. Everyone who participates in Maggie Stiefvater’s seminar, as an example, is added to an email list where writers can introduce themselves and find critique partners. On top of that, workshops are a great way to stretch your writing muscles.

Remember to Have Fun!

I lied. This is actually the most important thing. Writing can be hard. Like, really hard. We don’t do this because it’s easy. We do it because we love it. (Yes, even when we hate it.) And the daily word count goal for NaNo is high. It can be intimidating. It’s easy to feel like you’re failing if you don’t hit that daily goal. 

So I’m here to remind you, right here, right now, that you are doing this because it’s fun. I’m giving you a free pass to participate imperfectly. Don’t fret if you don’t hit 1667 words every day. Don’t fret if you skip a day of writing. If you skip several days of writing. Is the goal to hit 50,000 words? Yes. But any progress is still progress. However little you write during the month of November, it’s going to be more words than you started with. (Unless you delete it all. Maybe don’t delete it all.)

You also don’t have to stick to every little rule. I’m going into this with half a manuscript and using it to power through the second half rather than starting with a blank slate and a brand new project. Participate in a way that works best for you. It’s your writing challenge, after all. 

My favourite thing about NaNoWriMo is that it gets you writing and it reminds you that you are not alone in the pursuit of novelling. So take the pressure off and keep that in mind. Go forth and weave wondrous new worlds with words!

There’s only one thing left to do: sign up for NaNoWriMo and announce your project!

Are you participating in NaNoWriMo this year? What are your NaNo Prep tips and strategies? Let us know in the comments below or email us at hello@anotherbookontheshelf.com. You can also connect with us through the NaNoWriMo community, on Twitter, and Instagram, where we’ll be sharing our progress through November.