NaNoWriMo begins today: Join my #NaNoWriMo Support Group!
Today’s the day! It’s the first day of NaNoWriMo 2017, and you know what that means: 1,667 WORDS OR BUST!
This year I’ve come up with some solid plans that will (hopefully) keep my novel on track throughout the month of November, despite visiting friends, Thanksgiving holidays, and prepping another issue of my literary magazine for release in December.
Here are my three main tricks for completing my novel on time this year:
- Set aside specific writing times each day, and schedule them in your planner. I’ve decided to use the 5-6 AM and 5-6 PM hours of every day as my daily writing times. This means getting up an hour earlier than usual, as well as actually knocking off work at 5 PM each day (tougher than you might think, when you work from home). I figure experimenting with writing early in the morning when I’m freshly awake vs. writing in the evening when I’m tired from a day’s work (or looking for a change of pace from transcription) should provide some interesting results.
- Have a Plan B for days when you can’t make your work counts. I have also decided on a “Failsafe Plan,” which involves getting ahead with my word counts on weekends, from Friday through Sunday each week.
- Get accountability; do some write-in sessions. To make this one even easier, I set up my OWN write-ins this year! I’ll be at the Alpine Branch Library from 2-4 PM on Fridays and Saturdays this month, hosting drop-in writing sessions. (Please note that the library is closed on Veteran’s Day weekend and the Friday after Thanksgiving.) I’ll have no excuses not to be writing for two straight hours those days, so that’s another good part of the “failsafe” backup plan. For those not in the San Diego area, you can also join my virtual write-ins from 2-4 PM (PST) by joining my SWOOSH! Facebook group.
Got any additional ideas for how to ace NaNoWriMo this year? Let me know in the comments!
