NaNoWriMo Survival Tips

This year, I am planning on writing 60,000 words for NaNoWriMo. If you're thinking "Gee, that's a lot of words!" then you are right. That is a lot of words. This year is going to be the year that I finally step up to the plate and write a full-length novel! Last year I wrote a meager, small, minuscule amount of words because I did not have these handy dandy survival tips that I just made up. I did something very bad instead:

I never locked my Inner Editor up.

*Insert dramatic music here.*

No, seriously, that's a big thing in the NaNoWriMo universe. If you don't lock that Inner Editor up, writing will not be fun and the results will eternally look like poop to you. Yes, I just said that. (Certain People *coughGabrielcough* will appreciate it.) So enough with talking about these amazing survival tips! On to the useful stuff:

1: Just write. Don't worry about editing. In fact, don't even re-read what you have written. This is National Novel Writing Month, not National Novel Typing-a-Few-Words-and-then-Frowning-and-Deleting-Them Month. December is the time for going crazy and fixing everything. November is just when you take the story ideas out of the depths of your soul and dump them untidily on the page. Well, OK, you probably don't want to go that far, but I'm sure you get my point.

2: If you celebrate Halloween, use that Halloween candy to your advantage. Don't just eat it all on November 1st and feel guilty later. I have found that using chocolate as a bribe or reward for myself is very effective. Very, very effective indeed.

3: If you like kittens and think seeing adorable pictures of them is a good reward, use Written? Kitten!, which is a website that keeps track of the number of words you have written and shows you an adorable picture of a baby cat every time you complete 100 or 200 or 500 etc. words. I love cats. I love writing. Therefore I love that website.

4: Just read Survival Tip No. 1 again. It's the most important one by far.

5: PROCRASTINATION IS YOUR ENEMY. It nearly killed me last year. Don't do it. Just... don't.

(By the way, I'm exaggerating. I didn't nearly die of procrastination last year. At least, not NaNoWriMo-related procrastination... [Ha... ha ha...])

6: The forums are your friends. They are filled with people that are going through the same things you're going through, so they can give you advice. Plus, they're fun to mess around on when you're supposed to be obeying Survival Tip No. 5.

So, that is my advice for surviving NaNoWriMo. :) Happy Unbirthday! (Unless it really is your birthday, in which case I wish you Happy Unbirthday tomorrow.)