NaNoWriMo: How to plan for the month ahead

 

With Halloween creeping up on us tomorrow, it means there are only two more sleeps until NaNoWriMo returns! With everything going on this year and the dreaded pandemic disrupting most annual holidays and well, the majority of 2020, it's nice to know there's one annual tradition that COVID can't cancel or ruin: National Novel Writing Month! 

I was hoping to have a whole social media build up to Nov 1st but as always life and other writing goals got in the way. But that's ironically the one thing I love about taking part in NaNoWriMo is that for 30 consecutive days I have an excuse to put all other goals and commitments on hold and just focus entirely on my novel (which is well overdue!) 

This is my third year of joining in with NaNoWriMo and each year so far has been a different experience. The first year I don't think I really grasped the concept well enough to commit and only reach about a quarter of the way towards the target word count. Last year, I spent more time in advance prepping my time...but as I got halfway through the month...the momentum started to dwindle and the target again didn't get reached. But this year, thanks to the knowledge now of the NaNoWriMo community and how best to use it, I am determined to get to that 50k word finish line! 

If you're just joining NaNoWriMo for the first time this year then this post may be a little close to the start date and you may already have read tons of other posts from dedicated NaNoWriMo members on how to prepare yourself for this writing marathon month ahead. However, if you're like me and unintentionally leave everything up until the last minute or maybe have only just come across NaNoWriMo and want to know what it's all about, then hopefully I can be of some help!

NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) is a world-wide month-long writing challenge where writers set out to write 50,000 words in just 30 days. To put it into context, that's 1,667 words per day! But don't let that number stress you. Its the target number that you need to focus on and everyone who takes part in the challenge has their own way of going about it. But what I eventually found out is that this is so much more than just a challenge for you to complete yourself, this is a chance to join a global community of like-minded writers who, no matter what they're writing or where they're doing it, are all in this with you. 

There are so many cool aspects of NaNoWriMo. If you're thinking about signing up, head over to their website: https://nanowrimo.org. It's free to sign up and once you do you can add your current project that you want to work on over the 30 days and then create your profile. From there, you've got access to loads of great features:

Daily Check In's  - At the top of your profile you have a progress bar where you can keep track of you word count so far and each day you can 'check-in' and add to your word count to see your progress as you go along. 

Writing Badges - These are just a bit of fun but they're like little milestone achievements that you can reward yourself with along the way, like when you reach so many words, or if you update your progress so many days in a row. They're like little bite-sized spurts of motivation to keep you going. 

Community - As I say, one of the best things about NaNoWriMo is being able to connect with so many like-minded writers all over the world. There are forums where you can write questions, vent about any hurdles you run into along the way or just go to when you're taking a break to chat and have fun. And if you want to connect with people a bit closer to home, you can join the NanoWriMo group in your region! 

Buddies - As well as writers groups and forums, if you connect with a person in particular you can add them as a buddy to keep in touch with them more personally. 

It is such an inclusive and fun community and one that can benefit long after November has ended, especially if you make it through to the end. 

Tomorrow I'll be posting a blog of all the things that I like to make sure I have ready and in place before the big day and throughout the month I'll be posting progress posts on how I've been getting on. If you're thinking about taking part or have already signed up, let me know!