If you’re an aspiring writer, or even if you’re interested in it, you should check out NaNoWriMo or Nation Novel Writing Month. NaNoWriMo challenges you to try and write a draft of a novel of at least 50,000 words, all during November. It’s a huge task, but for those aspiring writers, it helps you stay on task. While some like to start writing and see where it takes them, I suggest starting now to get some NaNoWriMo prep going.
I’ve competed for the last four times, finishing a draft three times. I haven’t competed in the last few years since the birth of my son, but I have managed to get some writing done since then. I have published a novella based on a character I created for NaNo a few years ago. Check that out at Letty Rose and the Mistaken Identity: Chapter 1
Starting Your NaNoWriMo Preparation
Word Count
Having a daily word count goal or a weekly goal has always helped me. If you plan to complete the competition, you’ll need to write 50,000 in the month of November. So I try to shoot for 1,667 words a day. Of course, when you get down to writing, some days will be harder to make and other days the words will just flow and you’ll make up for it.
If you know that you’ll have something come up during November, you might adjust your word counts to account for those days.
Writing Spot Ready
Find a spot that you can go to where you won’t be distracted and will help the words flow from you. In fact, you might pick a few places to write in just in case things aren’t flowing like normal, you can move somewhere else.
I used to like writing at the kitchen table with my AirPods in, but I can’t do that these days with a toddler running around. Now, most of my writing time is early in the morning at my computer desk, typing away on my iMac, or at the kitchen counter using either my iPad Pro with Magic Keyboard or my MacBook Air with M2.
Right now, I use Scrivener for most of my writing needs. But I also have Storyist if I need something different. While I love using Scrivener, moving between my laptop and iOS devices leave something to be desired. I also don’t really like to do much editing on the iPad version of either software, since neither have a great editing system.
That said, I’ve thought about using Apple’s Pages on my next major project just to see how much different it would be versus using dedicated noveling software.
Still, you need to find what is most comfortable for you. While this might not seem like the best Nanowrimo preparation, but having a spot that you have just for writing is a great idea.
Ideas on the page
The best thing to really do to prepare yourself for NaNoWriMo is to get some ideas on paper. It can be very daunting if you come into a large project like this without much of an idea for what you want. For now, just having a general idea of what genre and maybe the basis for your story will work. In the coming days, I’ll try to post some exercises for you to get your story plotted out and some fully developed characters.
Happy Prepping
For those of you embarking on this journey, good luck with your NaNoWriMo preparations. I’m jealous of you all, and I really wish that I had the time to commit to this endeavor as well.
Let me know what you’re planning to write in the comments, and good luck to you all! Don’t forget to check back to see some exercises on how you can get an outline and develop a solid multi-faceted character in the coming days!