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My Top 3 Tips for a Good Nanowrimo



Hey Everybody! Long time, no blog.
I just wanted to log on super quickly to give y'all my top 3 Nanowrimo tips.
So, just to start off, I am definitely not a good writer yet, nor am I claiming to be. However, I've done Nanowrimo for four years and have successfully completed it four times. (Some of those, I believe, were for camp.)  I have about 350,000 words written on my account and I actually used to have an old one that I've since lost. These tips are less about quality of work and more about getting words on the page.




So, tip number one: Stay away from the wordcount box.
Whenever I'm feeling like I don't want to write, I obsessively update my wordcount box. Literally. I will have 3450 and update and 3452. This is not a good writing habit, because it perpetuates a cycle of negative feelings. You don't feel good when you see that you've only written a hundred words. (If that's below your goal.) It traps you in seeing how little compared to your goal you've actually gotten done.
When you begin to fixate on the word count, you lose sight of what you're writing; where the story could go next, and all the lovely little things that make writing so rewarding. I would personally recommend updating only at about every two hundred words. (Though I break this rule towards the end of every day.) 


Tip number two - Use Apps!
Websites work also, I'm not partial. However, there are so many amazing writing websites. (Not sponsored, though I'm sure everyone is after me and my six views.) One of my favorites is 4thewords, which you have to pay for. It's essentially a video game that you win by writing. There are rewards for writing every day, and it's great to just get a few more words out. As for free tools, write or die and the most dangerous writing app are excellent. The most dangerous writing app is amazing if you're a fast typist, but if you aren't, you'll end up losing a lot of work. You can set it for either a time goal or a word goal, and you have to write at a quick pace or your work disappears. I find fear based motivation really effective, at least when the stakes are fairly low. (Yesterday, using TMDWR I ended up hitting 1667 in about half an hour.)


Tip Number Three - Skip around!
Writing a linear story is what most people picture of when they say writing. The closest metaphor I can think of is drawing. You wouldn't ink before you sketch. This is true in terms of revising - looking back on your draft before you're done will lead to problems. Sticking to the drawing metaphor, though, sketching in a different section of the picture is fine. If you need to get your word count up, writing a scene further ahead in your story can be great. You can even right several pages ahead and try to bridge the gap. If you feel like you're sloughing through your writing, you likely won't finish as quickly or effectively.



That's all for my nanowrimo tips. Thank you for reading, and best of luck with your writing!


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