NaNoWriMo: Reaching 50,000 using EelKat's Methods

Every year in November, thousands of writers gather at NaNoWriMo united with one goal in mind: to write a novel 50,000 words long and to do in in 30 days or less.

The secret to achieving this goal is to write each and every day and to write at least 1,667 words per day for 30 days. That is the bare minimum. If you can write 2,000 words per day you'll do even better.

Why do it at all? Because if you have a book you want to write, the only way to get it written is to actually write it. Getting a book out of your head and onto paper is the hardest thing for writers to do. It's much easier to talk about your book than write it down. The goal of NaNoWriMo is to get that book out f your head and onto your page.

Write 1667 words a day. This can not be over stressed enough. In order to reach 50,000 in 30 days you must write a bare minimum of 1,667 word per day. You can (and should) write more than that per day, but what ever you do: DO NOT WRITE LESS!

This is even more important than writing 1,667 word per day: WRITE EVERY DAY!

This can not be stressed enough. Writing every day is the true secret to winning NaNoWriMo. Not writing every day is the #1 reason why 65,000 people failed to reach 50k last year. They wrote a bunch on day one. Wrote a little bit less on day two. Skipped day three thinking "I'll write double tomorrow." Skipped day four thinking: "Well it's only two days that I missed and I still have the rest of the month to finish." Day 20 came along and they still had only written 10k and now had 40k left to write in 10 days: That's 4,000 words a day. I have no problems writing 4,000 words a day, I can easily write 10,000 a day. But you know why I can do that? Because I've been writing for 27 years, and I write every day, and the more days you write, the easier it becomes to write and in the end the more words you write per day! For someone new to writing though, it's pretty hard to reach 1,000 words a day, and that is why writing EVERY DAY is so very, very, VERY important.

It is a common folly to start out writing 3,000 - 5,000 words the first day. Not that writing 3,000 - 5,000 words in one day is a folly, it's pretty good, and you should go right ahead and do it. The folly of this is that many newbies look at that and say: "That's 3 days worth of writing, I can take a break tomorrow."

Tomorrow comes and goes. Than so does the next day. And the next. And than Thanksgiving rolled around and you realize, you have 4 days left to write and now you are really in a bind.

Writing a bunch each day for the first few days is good, but never let that be a reason why you skip a day of writing. Getting ahead is easy, falling behind is even easier, and catching up once you've fallen behind is pretty hard. So, write every day, even if you're ahead.

Write every day, even if you don't feel like it.

Every writer has a day when they wake up a say:"I don't feel like writing today." But you know what, if you are a career writer; a writer who writes as a career, you can't do that.

Why?

Well, how many times have you woken up and wished you didn't have to go to work? But did you call your boss and tell him: "I'm sleeping in today, sorry, I'll come to work tomorrow." No, you didn't, because you'd have been fired. You got up and you went to work anyways, because that's what you have to do.

Writing is the same thing. You don't write, you don't get paid. You can not take a day off from work, even when you work at home as a writer.

The same thing goes for NaNoWriMo. You don't work, you don't win. You got to work at it every day to win.

Write every day, even if you REALLY don't feel like it.

Now maybe you are the kind of person who would call your boss and say you was sick even when you were not. If you are, than eventually it well catch up with you and you will lose your job.

Same thing goes for NaNoWriMo. You miss one day, and than you miss another, and it catches up with you quick and you lose your job as a NaNoWriter, because you lose the contest!

Do not give in to your feelings. Push them aside and write anyways. You'll be glad you did.

Write every day, even if you get bored with your plot. You have several choices here.

First off you can stick with your plot and hope it gets better as you write. But remember if the author is bored with the plot, than how do you think your readers are going to feel when they read it?

Secondly you can change your plot. Keep your story and characters, but give them something different to do. Or kill one of your characters and don't tell your other characters about it, just let them try to figure it out themselves.

Thirdly, you can toss it aside, and start a second story. Keep you first one though, because you can still count that as going towards your 50k word count.

Fourthly, you can write a set of short stories to start off, and than go with the one that you like the best after you get going.

But whatever you do, make certain that you write each and every day.

Write every day, even if your story ends at 15,000 words instead of 50,000. It happens. Just start writing a second story. A lot of NaNoers write multiple short stories instead of one long novel. If you have to than write 5 stories at 10,000 words each or 10 stories at 5,000 words each. Doesn't matter how many stories you write or how many words in each of them, as long as their combined total reaches at least 50,000.

Write every day, even if you have school or work do deal with. Get up an hour earlier so you can write before you leave the house. Write during your lunch break. Write for an hour before bed. This can be done, I know, because I did it: 3 years in a row!

This is the biggest NaNo stumbling block ever. Every year thousands of writers write every day, stay on track, start getting ahead, and than BAM! Four days before the contest ends they drop out. So close, yet so far.

So what happened? They stopped writing for just one day: Thankgiving Day. Wither it was the Macy's Parade, the football game, the cooking, the relatives dropping by, or a combination of all 4, there was so much hecticness on that one day that they never found time to write. Than they were so tired the next day, that they put off writing again and by the time they got over the slump of Thankgiving Day, the NaNoWriMo contest had closed it's doors for the year and they were unable to submit their entry.




So what do you do? Well there are several things you could do:

Turn off the tv for starters. I mean, do really need to watch the parade... it's the same thing every year! And why do you need to watch a bunch of men in tights chasing balls? Sounds pretty silly to me.

Lock the door and don't answer it. Only the worst relatives will break down the door, though I can think of two of my own who would do just that. And yes, I do lock the door and don't answer it on holidays, because I am feed up with my 24 aunts and uncles and there 64 kids and their 200+ grandkids and their 30+ great grand kids. I just want some peace and quite free from relative. Maybe your relatives are not as obnoxious as mine, but boy is NaNoWriMo a good excuse to lock the doors on Thanksgiving Day!

Don't cook. Twenty years of cooking Thankgiving Dinner made me realize, how much I love eating at a buffet for Thanksgiving. If it hadn't been for NaNoWriMo, I might never have given up cooking on Thankgiving. I feel so free now.

If you can't give up those things, than, write double, or even triple the day before AND write double or triple the day after as well. It's the only way you are going to reach 50k and watch the parade, watch the the game, cook dinner, and let your relatives in the house.

Another alternative is to plan to finish NaNoWriMo before Thanksgiving. To do that you need to raise your word count per day, from 1,667 words per day to no less than 3,000 words per day, with 4,000 words per day your best bet. It's harder, but it can be done and a lot of Wrimoers do it every year.

Write every day, even if you are sick in bed with a fever. (Been there, done that. No fever is going to stop me from writing every day! Granted I wrote only maybe 100 words per day, but at least I got something written down.)

Now this is a biggie! I know it may seem obvious, but the #1 best way to win NaNoWriMo is to not quit!

So many thousands of people drop out after the first 4 or 5 days. They just quit.

You can't win if you quit. Even if you don't make it to 50,000 words (and more than half the folks who enter don't!) you have the satisfaction of saying: "I made it to the end - I didn't quit!"

When you get right down to it, no one really cares if you wrote 50,000 words or not, because every one is too busy chatting on the forums about everything under the sun with their new found fellow novelist friends. It's more important to stay with the group and have fun, than it is to stress yourself out to win. Always remember, that not reaching 50k is not the end of the world, and you have all year to finish your novel no matter how many words you wrote in November.

For most first time NaNoer's the biggest challenge of all will be fighting off your inner editor. A NaNoNovel is prone to mistakes. The goal of NaNo is speed not quality. When you are writing a NaNoNovel it's quantity first, quality later. By December you will have a misspelled grammatically illiterate mess on your hands. No worries - March is the official month to return to NaNoWriMo and edit your NaNoNovel.

The problem most first time NaNoers have however, is well - writing. It's natural to look back and say: "I spelled that wrong, I better go back and fix it now before I write another word." This is however the downfall of many a NaNoNovelist. Once you go back and edit one word, soon you find a second word to edit, than a third, than you start finding grammar errors, soon you think - "He should have said this to her, I better delete that and rewrite it." Before you know it, your already written 1,000 words is suddenly only 750 words - now you are not only not writing, but you have actually started deleting words and are getting even farther behind!

DO NOT LOOK BACK!

DO NOT CORRECT SPELLING ERRORS!

DO NOT ADJUST BAD GRAMMAR!

DO NOT CHANGE SCENES AND DIALOG!

Just write. Write. Write. Write. Write again, and than write some more! You have a word count deadline to beat. Shoot your inner editor, bury him deep under piles of errors and than write a little bit more.

There are some NaNoNovelists who say the best way to start your book is to open chapter one with a separate story in which the Main Character is you, you are another author, and you have just shot your (inner) editor and buried him under a pile of misspelled words, than run off and write the worst novel they can think of, that their (inner) editor would disapprove of most of all. They say it works wonders and that they are able to most on from that to their novel without looking back to edit. I've never tried this myself, but, hey, if it works, good for them!

What ever you do, just remember - the goal is to write as many words as you can as fast as you can in hopes of writing 50,000 words before November 30th. You get to come back in March to edit out all the errors, so write now, edit later.

There have in recent months been a rise in talk of what some are referring to as writing "NaNo-Style". I find this somewhat troubling, because it implies that NaNoWriMo is a writing style and that to join the contest you MUST use "NaNo-Style" writing.

And what exactly is this so called "NaNo-Style" writing? Well, pretty much it mean to sit at your computer and type out a bunch of random nonsense for the sake of pounding out as many words as possible. In the end you have 50,000 words on paper, but no story, and just a bunch of wasted space and wasted time that you scrap because it's can't be published or salvaged.

Many of these "NaNo-Style" documents are nothing more than copy and pasted song lyrics out of the writer's iPod! (And they say as much - quite proudly too.) I do find this very troubling, because writing fifty thousand words for the loan reason of getting 50,000 words on paper, IS NOT the goal of National Novel Writing Month!

From what I read on blogs and Twitter and the NaNoForums, it is my understanding that the rise of NaNoStyle is a result of the misconception of the meaning of the National Novel Writing Month Contest. Many first time NaNoers come in assuming that if they can't have a PUBLISHABLE novel at the end of 30 days, than it doesn't matter if they write a novel or not, so long as they get 50,000 words on paper.

The goal of National Novel Writing Month is to write a 50,000 word NOVEL not a 50,000 word mess of random nothingness! To be a winner of the contest means that you have completed the FIRST DRAFT of a novel by the end of the month.

Now we all know, that no one in their right mind would publish a first draft, and that a novel goes through 3 or 4 drafts before it is ready to be published. This is true of any novel, and is even more true of a novel that you hashed out in 30 days. And no one should come into NaNoWriMo expecting to have something they can send out to be published December 1st. Ah-Uh! Once that fact hits you, you can toss aside "NaNoStyle" and write "Your Way" instead. How do I know this? Well, because I too, started NaNo and heard the rumors of "NaNoStyle" writing, and it almost put and end to my NaNoNovel writing career before it even got started!




I write all year long - have for 30 years now. I started writing NaNoNovels in 2005. My first year was a flop because I wasn't quite sure what NaNo was and I looked at is as "different" from my normal writing. I had this notion that writing for NaNo was somehow "different", so I tried writing to match what I considered to be the "correct NaNo style of writing" (though I'm still not quite certain what I thought that meant! LOL!). The end result was my first year on NaNo was frustrating and I gave up half way through, thinking there was no way I could write "NaNoStyle".

I had no intention of doing NaNo a second time, until a year later I got an email from Chris Baty telling me they had rebooted the forums, but due to a sire wide error most of the member accounts got deleted - including mine, and he apologized and told those of us that wanted to return, we'd have to create new accounts.

Well, I always think things happen for a reason, so, intrigued by Baty's email I returned, set up a new account and set out to try again.

On my second year, I once again set out to writing "NaNoStyle" when on day 2 of November, I tossed the novel and said "Heck with it! I'm writing what I always write, the way I always write it!" and I did, and I won my first NaNo with a near complete novel of 173k words (by December I only had the final chapter to write).

And every year since than I've have just done NaNo "my way", in other words, no different than how I would write the story, were I writing it the rest of the year.




So, the question is, how do you know what style is "Your Way"? Well, you don't, not until you start writing, that is. If you have been writing for years, than you'll have little rituals you do (writing at sunrise, only writing with blue ink pens, only writing on a certain laptop at a certain cafe, can't write without your lucky charm, etc), you'll also write in certain ways (1,000 word before breakfast, three 10 minute writing sessions per day, etc.)and other such things.

If you are just starting out though, you may not yet have a set writing style, and in this case, all you can do is practice in several various styles until you find the right one for you. There are thousands of styles, methods, techniques, and systems. No two writers ever write exactly the same style even if they are using the same methods. What is important is that you test out various techniques, until you find the style that is right for you.

The only difference between writing for NaNoWriMo and writing at any other time of the year, is the fact that during NaNoWriMo you have a set word count to meet and a deadline by which that word count must be met. HOW you actually meet that goal is entirely up to you. So don't feel that there is only one "right way" to write a NaNoNovel.

There is a common phrase among NaNoWriters: Word padding.

Every year threads start up on the forums to brag about personal cheating skills and word padding.

Those new to NaNo may be wondering what is word padding, and how do you cheat?

Word padding is adding words that are not part of the story.

The goal of NaNoWriMo is to write a 50,000 word story in 30 days or less. However, there are no judges to do a manual word count. On November 30th you upload your novel to the robot counter and it tells NaNo how many words it counted in the document you uploaded. The robot has no way of knowing wither or not it was counting words, numbers, something you wrote in the last 30 days, or someone else's ebook that you uploaded instead.

When NaNo first started with less than 100 contestants, cheating was rare and word padding was unheard of. Today ten years later with 100,000 contestants coming in from around the world, cheating has become paramont and word padding runs rampant. Because the robot has no way of knowing what it counts, writers who cheat are sadly becoming the norm with this new wave of NaNoWriters coming in.




Word padding varies from mild loop holes such as adding spaces between letters to trick the counter; to uploading something you wrote years ago instead; to outright plagerism of other people's work.

How do they cheat? The list is right there on the NaNo forums as they come in a boldly brag of there skills at beating the NaNo word validator, and here are a few of the astonishing things these cheaters have to say:

These are just a few that show up on the list each and every year. The list mind you had more than 500 "secret word padding tips" added to it during NaNo 2007. No doubt it'll get just as many this year.

The goal of NaNoWriMo is to help writers to get the first draft of their novel written so that they have something to go back and edit and than send in to a publisher.

Now, let's think about something here: 50,000 words may seem like a lot to a newbie, but did you know that that is only the size of a 40 - 60 page novella? It's a 100 page book only if you use large print. What are some books out there that are 50,000 words long?

Nancy Drew Mysteries
Choose Your Own Adventure Series
Baily School Kids
Bunnicula series

uhm... yeah... kids books. Kids chapter books. NOT adult fiction!

This surprises most newbies.

The shortest books you are going to see out there are: Romance novels and Murder mysteries. These average 75,000 - 140,000 words.

It is actually quite rare for a novel to be under 120,000 words long. In fact there are only a handful of publishers that will ever LOOK at a manuscript under 120,000 words long.

And if you are thinking your book is the next Stephen King or Harry Potter, think again, because you'd need a whopping 200,000 - 400,000 words just for one volume!

Puts some perspictive on just how very little NaNoWriMo's 50,000 really is, when you start looking at it in comparision to published works already out there.

Now you have to stop and ask yourself, what are the advantages of word padding? Is it really worth it? If you are planning to publish your NaNoNovel (and that is the goal of NaNoWriMo, to help you get published, by helping you take that first step and write your story), than word padding has no benifits at all. Why? Because on December 1st you have to go through your NaNoNovel and DELETE all of that word padding, and than replace it with REAL writing if you plan to publish it. On top of that, 50k is not enough to get published anyways, you'll still have to write more to your story than 50,000, so cheating to reach 50k, means more for you to write after NaNo than you'd have had, had you not cheated.

I don't *pad*, never have, never will, no reason too. I just write and write, the words always come.

Here's what I try to do... I don't always stick to this schedule, but of the schedules I've tried, this is the easiest on for me. Here it goes:

First off:

I do not write in chapters.

I do not write to a set "hours per day"

I do not write to a set "words per day"

What I do is, I write small segments or scenes from my book. Say a conversation between two characters. Or maybe the description of a room. Something like that. I find this easier, because I can see a very clear beginning, middle, and end. Not the beginning, middle, and end of the entire book. Not the beginning, middle and end of the entire chapter. Just the beginning, middle, and end of that one scene, which in most cases is 2 to 4 paragraphs long or about 600 - 800 words.

I make it my goal to write three of these segments each day. One in the morning as soon as I wake up, before I even get out of bed. One in the afternoon, when I get back in from taking my dog out for his daily walk. One in the evening, last thing just before going to bed. It takes about 15 - 30 minutes for me to write each segment. Or about 40 minutes to an hour and a half each day. In the end I end up with about 2,750 words written at the end of the day. That is, if I actually sit down and write at all! I should be writing my NaNoNovel right now, cause I haven't written anything yet today, but instead I find myself reading blogs from other NaNoers. LOL! Some days it's just hard to get motivated to start writing.

Anyways, When you take it and break it down into tiny chunks like this, it seems like you haven't written very much at all, when in fact you have gone well above and beyond your word count goal and have not needed to worry about padding at all. I hope this helps. Good luck with your story!

~~EK

Writing Tip: Reaching 50,000 using the 13 Step method

I wrote this for NaNoWriMo, but it works for all your writing. My secret to reaching 50,000

I use the 13 step method actually it's the 10 step method, but I like 13, so I changed it.. The 10 Step Method it's quite a popular method used by many professional best selling writers, not sure who invented it. anyways it helps me to write a lot of words, real fast, so I thought I'd tell you guys about it, in hopes that it'll help someone else reach the 50,000 goal too but here is my 13 Step version of it

Write down

Scene 1

Scene 2

etc, all the way to 13 these are your chapters, plan on having 13 of them

Think about your plot, in terms of 13 tiny stories, than write a title for each now you have your 13 Chapter Titles

Your list should now read:

Chapter 1: title here
Chapter 2: title here
etc, all the way to Chapter 13

Now, go back to your list and add the actual scenes:

Chapter 1: The Title Here

scene 1
scene 2
scene 3
scene 4

etc, all the way to 13 scenes

do this for each chapter.

Now go back and write one sentence to describe each scene of each chapter.

Once you have completed this, you well have a complete and detailed outline to take you step by step through your story print it up and keep it on hand when you are writing, so that you can keep your story running smoothly from one scene to the next (though you can change anything in you outline that needs changes once you start writing it's not a hard and fast law that you stick to the outline the outline, just helps you to write faster, by keeping your original story idea where you can see it) once you get going the actual writing, you plan on say, write 5 scenes a day and you'll find that by using the writing a scene at a time, rather than going for word count or page count, you well write more and write faster

I average 3,000 to 10,000 a day using this method. yet, when I try for word count, I usually get stuck after about 500 try it and see, you'll be amazed at how well this method works. Why does it work? because you are focused on your plot, not the word count, and when you stop thinking about the words, they just start flowing out of you with out you even realizing it, thinking in chapters has helped me so much I used to just slog along trying to write 1o pages a day that was the goal I gave myself, 10 pages it was murder, I kept looking down at the bottom where it said page 1 of 1, etc, and I'd stop and think: man I typed all that and I'm still on page 1! than I tried for word count and after every sentence I'd stop and check to see how many words I'd done. What only 7 words in that sentence! I'll never get done at that rate, than one day, I'm complaining about this to my editor, and he says get this book so I go and I get the book, and it's pretty good, than I get all the books by this author (writer's how to books) and all the books she recommended as well ended up with like 50 books on the art of writing and in one of them I found this 10-Step method well me writing horror I changed it to the 13 Step method, cause I try to always have 13 chapters and I tried it and wow I write so fast now! I can't believe it! 13 works for me, cause I write horror, and I design my stories to be in 13 chapters, with 13 scenes each, cause that's the way I've designed my stories to come out ; you can change it to whatever you need say you only need 8 chapters with 5 scenes each than that's what would work for you of course, you don't need to have the same amount of scenes per chapter either 5 scenes in chapter 1, 2 scenes in chapter 2, 12 scenes in chapter 3 whatever you need to carry your story across, is what you should use that's what's so great about this method, you can change it to whatever works for you and your story there are no hard rules it helps keep me focused on my story too for me, I have a BIIIIG problem, with rambling I'll go waaaay off topic inside the thoughts of a minor character which in itself is not bad, but it goes off the story. Good thing about it is it gives me ideas for a spin-off story, which I write a lot of. The outline thingy, helps me to stay on my story, I keep looking back at it, and I know where I should be, and I can stay on track easier bad thing, is, all my spin-off need outlines, and each of them result in more spin offs, and I end up with too many outlines and not enough stories LOL!

I hope this helps!

~~EK

This Article Copyright 2006 Wendy C. Allen

One problem I've noticed on the NaNoWriMo forums is that half way through the contest a lot of people drop out because they got bored. They leave a last post on the forums to say good bye and than they are gone. It happens every year. Why? Basically it boils down to the fact they they were not having fun.

Remember that in doing NaNoWriMo it's not the winning that counts. Long time NaNoers will tell you this again and again. Sure, aim for 50k, but you know what? No one cares if you don't reach 50k. No one. Why? Because they are too busy making friends with each other on the forums. They are so busy having fun and laughing about their own mistakes that no one cares if any one wins or not.

Fun is the vital core of NaNoWriMo. NaNoWriMo allows you to write the craziest, half-brained thing you could imagine, for no other reason other than to write 50k words and get them on paper. If you wanted to you could just sit there typing the word *FUN* 50,000 times. (Of course, you wouldn't have a novel when you got done, if you did that and as NaNoWriMo says on their site: --*It's important to note that this is not a "write 50k" challenge... it's a "write a novel" challenge.*-- - so keep that in mind too; your goal should be to write a novel. In other words, worry about getting your novel written first and for-most, you can worry about word counts later.)




The thing that really brings NaNoWriMo alive is the community of people who gather together, both online and in local book stores and cafes. They gather with one goal: to write and talk about writing, and to have fun in each other's company.

So remember, when you feel yourself getting bored and run down, NaNoWriMo is not about writing good or writing you best, it's about writing because writing is fun.

So, just relax, take a deep breath and have fun!

Unfortunately there abound many "NaNo Snobs" who are quick to pounce on every NaNoNewb who comes in asking: "I started writing a book over the summer, I'm really into this plot, I don't want to start a new plot for my NaNo Novel, can I use NaNoWriMo to write 50,000 words for the novel I've already started?"

Many times these people are jumped on by other NaNoers crying out a loud and resounding: "NO!" - "How dare you even think such a thing!" - "That's not what NaNoWriMo is about!" - "You MUST start a 100% brand new novel or it doesn't count and you won't win!"

Uhm . . . yeah, you know what, just ignore those people, because they have no idea what they are talking about, and usually they are the same few folks who parade around promoting writing only in "NaNoStyle" nonsense. (The so-called NaNoStyle being to hash together song lyrics, poems written by others, and random quotes, all together and than make it sound like your character is a raving madman - in the end having no story at all, but just a bunch of randomness that o publisher will touch! NaNoWriMo is about writing a NOVEL not a mish-mashed mess! ACK!)

No where in the NaNoWriMo Rules and Terms of Service does it say anything about starting a 100% new novel or writing in a certain style. The only thing is does say is that you write 50,000 words between November 1st and November 30th.

So the answer is *YES*, you can use a novel you've already stared *IF* you put aside the words you wrote before November and *ONLY* count the words written during Nov torwards your 50,000. (Do not upload the pre-November words into the word count validator bot on November 30th - it's best is you save the already written work and the NaNo work in different doc files so you don't get them mixed up.)

Also, know too that you are not alone in doing this (even though the NaNoSnobs may tell you that you are the only one!). Once the NaNo Forum reboots on October 1st, head to "The NaNo Rebles" section and you'll find others doing the same - you will not be alone if you want to finish a novel already started. Hundreds of others will be doing the same thing with you.

The important thing is not that you start a new novel - but that you actually FINISH a first draft of your novel! Your goal is to write 50k words for your first draft of your novel during the month of November. So yes, go ahead and use the novel you already started - just do not count any words written non-November!

I do agree however, that your best bet is to actually start from scratch, with nothing. Why? Well, because, the goal of NaNoWriMo is after all - to "Write a Novel in 30 Days". And, well, if you already started it, than you didn't write in in 30 days, right? To win NaNoWriMo you can't worry about editing and going back over things, and if you are using a novel you already started, you'll be tempted to do just that. You'll constantly be going back to the old stuff, and what to keep things straight and edit, and before you know it, you'll get all hung up on going back to the old stuff and end up not writing your novel! By starting with something half finished, you'll be making it hard on yourself and putting up all sorts of stumbling blocks. That's why it is better to start fresh with an all new novel idea. Less temptation to edit as you write.

I suppose it all depends on your goals. Ask yourself a few questions: Are you going to ever write another book? Do you only have just this one book in you? Are you planning to become a multi published author? Are you already an author and using NaNo to get another draft written?

The point here being - if you are going for a career in writing, than you'll be writing a lot of books in the future anyways, so why not take a break from the one you already started, and start from scratch for NaNoWriMo?

Than again, if this is the ONLY book you are ever going to write, and you've no plans on publishing and no plans on a writing career, or if you live a really busy hectic life that just does not allow you to take time to write your novel the rest of the year, than, yeah, it may be in your best interest to use the older one you already started, but remember to NOT count anything NOT written in November!

In the end, only you can decide what is best for you.

Yep - ten 5,000 word stories or five 10,000 word stories still = 50,000 words in 30 days. I rarely write novels - so I've done 2 short story compilations for NaNo already.

In fact, if you start reading the NaNo Forums you'll soon find that you are far from alone. A lot of NaNoers write multiple short stories instead of one long novel. If you have to than write 5 stories at 10,000 words each or 10 stories at 5,000 words each. Doesn't matter how many stories you write or how many words in each of them, as long as their combined total reaches at least 50,000 words and you can sell them together in a novel format when you get done. It is important to keep that *novel format* piece in mind though. Writing short stories intending to sell them at random is NOT the same thing as writing a short story anthology!

Explanation: Short Story Anthologies are sold as Novels - often several short stories continue multiple stories about the same characters, and when combined together make a novel (this is what I do - write short stories about the same characters - so in the end it is actually a novel.) Or they can be a set of stories on a theme - say classic fairy tales retold. In either case, it's a set of short stories, which once published, will be sold as a single volume in novel format. This is how short stories can be included as novel writing.

A question seen time and again on NaNo is: I don't know what to write. I'm totally in love with plot #1, but I think readers would like plot #2 better, but my best friend likes plot #3 best. But everybody else seems to be writing about stuff like plot #4. Which should I choose?

What's the most important thing for you to keep in mind when doing NaNo? Writing about things that matter to YOU. Forget about what the latest "hot topic" is. Forget about what you think "others" will like. Okay, yeah, in normal writing modes you want to write what your readers want to read, sure, but that takes a lot of time and carefully writing what someone else wants you to write. NaNoWriMo is about writing YOUR novel here and now. You sit down and you write the story you always wanted to write, but never dared to write. Write it for you, and after the contest you can worry about editing to match what readers want. Your goal is to write fast, and to write fast, you must enjoy what you are writing, so just write what YOU want to write.




Ask yourself: What do you like? What are your hobbies? What are YOUR favorite things to talk about with your friends? What books do you read? Which characters do you like? That's what you should write about. Things that interest you. Things that you enjoy. Why?

Because if you like it, than you'll enjoy writing about it. If you enjoy writing about it, than you'll be inspired to put your heart and soul into writing it. And that's what people want to read. They want to hear your take on the subject. They want to hear your views. They want to know why you chose your topic. Lots of content is good... especially if it's content that you care deeply about. Write what you know. Write what matters to you. That is the secret to writing a best seller. LOVE YOUR STORY!

For a lot of people November is just a really bad time of the year, what with Christmas to shop for, Thanksgiving to plan/cook for, college exams to study for, and retail workers really find it hard, (hey, I work at Macy's, so I KNOW just how hectic the Thanksgiving Retail Season is!) For a lot of folks, November really is a really hard time of the year to find the time to write on a regular basis, let alone the fast paced mad dash of NaNoWriMo. Sadly many of these people never join, because they think they can ONLY do the contest in November.

What, wait . . . I don't have to write in November?

This revelation, shocks, stuns, and astounds many, and it also, brings in more writers who otherwise would have missed out on getting their novel written.

"Officially", technically, yes, you are supposed to write the 50,000 words in November, however, there is a loop hole that allows you to get around it: the word count valitador bot can't read the dates on your document. :)

While the stricter NaNoSnobs will call any ___NoWriMo other than NaNoWriMo cheating, most NaNoers do not see it that way, because the goal is the write a 50k novel in 30 days - not write a 50k novel in November. You see, it's not The November Writing Month Contest, it's the National Novel Writing Month Contest. See, Na-No not No-No.

There are at least 13 of these:

JaNoWriMo
FebNoWriMo
MarNoWriMo
Screnzy
ApNoWriMo
MayNoWriMo
JuNoWriMo
JulNoWriMo
AugNoWriMo
SeptNoWriMo
OctNoWriMo
GothNoWriMo
DecNoWriMo

One for each month except April and October which each has 2 different ones. Most of these are held right on the NaNoWriMo Forums in the "December and Beyond" and "Life After NaNoWriMo" sections.




For all but Screnzy and GothNoWriMo (see info below) the contest is held as follows:

Head to the NaNoWriMo forums, and find the current "December and Beyond" section. Look for a thread with the title of the month you will be doing the contest (JaNoWriMo = January, etc). If a thread as not yet been started for your chosen month, than you will have to start one. In the introduction, explain that you will be holding your own personal month contest, and invite others to join you.

On day one of your chosen month - start writing. And here's the important thing: KEEP CAREFUL RECORDS! Write down how many words you wrote each day. For example: January 1st I wrote 2,221 words; January 2st I wrote 1,540 words, etc, until you get to the last day of the month.

Once the last day arrives, set aside your chart and wait until November rolls around.

Than on November 1st, log into to NaNoWriMo and type in your day one word count (in this example you would type: 2,221). You profile chart now shows that on day one of the contest, you wrote 2,221 words. Do this for every day of November. On November 30th, take your novel and feed it to the word count validator. And Viola! You have completed the NaNoWriMo contest in a month other than November.




Of course, if you are like me, you'll write in November come hell or high water, just because it feels better to be writing when you are supposed to be writing. I don't know, maybe it's an Autism thing, but I get really hung up on following rules to the letter in every aspect of everything in life and NaNoWriMo is no exception. People without Autism are constantly telling me to loosen up and stop following rules so strictly. Oh well. So for me, I just can't do NaNoWriMo any month outside of November. Sure, I write all year long, but some how it just isn't November with out NaNoWriMo and it just isn't NaNowriMo if it's not in November!

Now Screnzy and GothNoWriMo are different and you CAN NOT use novels written during Screnzy or GothNo as your NaNoWriMo work, because these contests have their own validator bots separate fro the NaNoWriMo bot.

Script Frenzy is NaNoWriMo's second contest of the year, (the NaNoWriMo group holds several contests throughout the year in addition to the "big one" in November, Screnzy is by far the second largest) this one with a goal of writing a 100 page screenplay, script, or comic book in 30 days. It gained enough popularity that 3 years ago NaNoWriMo had to build and entire site devoted to it. Originally held in June, this contest was changed to April due to many classroom drama groups requesting it be done during the school year so they could use it as a class project. Script Frenzy has it's own special validator bot.

Based on the NaNoWriMo contest is the GothNoWriMo contest, which has it's own forum, and is not affiliated with the official NaNoWriMo group. This is a very small and fairly new niche writing contest, which currently, only has a few hundred members. Their goal is the writing and promotion of classic style Gothic literature. They do not have a set word count, rather the goal is to start writing a Gothic Novel on October 1st and finish it before Halloween. GothNoWriMo has it's own special validator bot.

Remember though, GothNoWriMo and NaNoWriMo are two different (though similar) contests and are NOT affiliated with each other in any way!

I hit 55k on day three of NaNo08, and I was not alone. Several others got there as well. And now, as expected, have come the forum questions, the comments, the IM's, the private messages, and the emails all asking the same thing: How can you write 50k in 3 days?

Some are actual questions from curious people wanting to know how to do the same, while others are accusations of cheating and demands of the actual 50k words being emailed to them so that they can see for themselves there are 50k words! OMG!




If you've already read the rest of this lens, than you know my answer, but here is a quick version to answer these folks:

The short version of it is this: I'm a professional writer. I write anywhere from 4,000 - 12,000 words each and every single day, and have done so for the past 30 years. (Well, more like 3 or 4 days a week - not EVERY SINGLE DAY all year! LOL! I gotta take a break and let my hands rest some times!)

There are a lot of professional writers here on NaNo, and most of them hit 50k the first week.

Newbies need to look at the person behind the number, and realize that writing is like playing the piano. When you first start learning piano you are luckly if you can make it through Mary Had a Little Lamb in less than a week, but after you have played piano for years, you can play Mozart from heart in minutes.

In other words, people that write a lot, type fast. People new to writing type slower. Neither is any better than the other, because the professional writer, once upon a time was a newbie too, so they didn't always type fast.

One more thought to consider, if writing a novel in 3 days is all that *IMPOSSIBLE* explain how it is that the idea for NaNoWriMo was inspired by International 3-Day Novel Contest which was founded in 1977 and has thousands of authors writing full novels in 3 days each and every year for well over 30 years now?!?

Fact of the matter is, writing a novel in 3 days (a novel being described as 75k to 140k words) is not unheard of and is actually a pretty common thing for professional authors to do. That's why you always hear about "Three Day Writing Retreats" and "Weekend Writing Retreats" - authors, take a weekend off, escape from friends and family, go to a reclusive retreat group/house/camp and write a novel in a single weekend. And we do it all the time, years after years, sometimes multiple times a year. Than the author goes home and spends months revising that first draft, but fact is, they wrote the first draft in 2 to 3 days, and they wrote far above and beyond NaNoWriMo's skimpy 50k requirement. So next time you hear a WriMoer say they hit 50k in the first week - remember - they are not alone, this sort of thing happens all year long.




Well, here's another thing about this - I've done NaNoWriMo so many times now that 50k also wasn't really a challenge for me any more! When November rolls around now I look at it and go: "Ho hum, 50k, been there done that - I need a bigger challenge now." I know I can do 50k in 30 days. I've done it several times. I also knew I could reach 150k because I did it during one year already. So this time, for 2008, I decided to give myself a challenge - could I reach 200k in 30 days? That meant I would have to write not 1,667 words per day but instead 6,667 word per day! On day one I wrote 12,000 words and I knew from that moment on, 200k was well within my reach.

So, here's the thing - 50k was no longer a challenge. I needed a challenge. I gave myself a challenge. And in the end, I wrote 5 NaNoNovels in 30 days instead of one NaNoNovel in 30 days. I also learned something by the end of NaNo 2008 - I'm never again going to try to juggle 5 novels at once! I only finished one of them, the other 4 ended up a scattered mess of non-connected chapters, and after 30 days of 7k to 12k words per day my hands HURT!

I learned a lesson last year - I can do it if I push myself, but my quality of write goes right down the toilet. My goal in everything I write, is always to publish it when I get done. Last year, I had written 5 books, but only one was salvageable and went on to seeking publication. The other 4, I now look at as a waste of my time. They were good ideas, but handled badly because I put reaching word count over writing a novel. I don't want to repeat that again.

The lesson here: Challenge yourself! NaNoWriMo is all about giving yourself a challenge. If this is your first time, than the 50k is a big challenge. After you've done it a few years, you may want to try to up the challenge and shoot for a higher word count. The important thing is that you set goals for yourself - goals that you feel you can meet. But don't hurt yourself doing it!

So, yeah think about what you are doing BEFORE you start. Know ahead of time that those of us who have done and/or are planning to do again, the huge word counts for NaNoWriMo DID NOT start writing yesterday! We have been writing for years! We write daily or near daily! Most of us are already writing 50k a month anyways, and us NaNo to challenge ourselves to bigger word counts than is normal for us. But doing these big goals is NOT for everyone, so don't do it unless you have had a lot of practice writing a lot of words on a daily basis for several years! 50k is A LOT for someone who is not used to writing, so don't push yourself past it unless you are physically able to. You don't want to end up in the hospital or even lose your ability to write at all! Please consider your health when taking on a big word count!

Every year there are members who try to reach 100k, 200k, 300k, 500k, or even more in 30 days. Some of them can and do, do it, but remember - these people are professional writers with years of practice. If you are not a professional writer or do not have the practice - DO NOT ATTEMPT the huge word count goals! This can not be over stated! There are people who have pushed themselves too far doing NaNoWriMo and ended up with Carpel Tunnel Syndrome and in some cases needed surgery to be able to use their hands again. I too have had surgery (on my right hand) as a result of too much writing. Sadly as an artist, this had a terrible affect on my ability to continue my formerly life-like drawings, forcing me to change my art style. (This was many years before NaNoWriMo btw - I had surgery at age 17 because of Carpel Tunnel Syndrome- I always did write more than was good for me.)

This year, I've come back to my senses. I reached 238k last year, so I proved to myself I COULD do it if I tried, but I also proved to myself that I don't really LIKE writing that much all at once. So, this year, I'm sticking with a goal in my own comfort zone - 75k. I know I can do 75k. It's a good size which most publishers like to see and I won't have to hurt my hands again, like I did last year.




Here's another thought to chew on: You DON'T HAVE to write 50,000 words! Well, to get the winning banners and certificates for your web sites and such, you have to write the 50,000 words and submit them through the word count validation bot, but it's no big deal if you just don't want to write 50,000 words. If your personal goal is just to write 5,000 words in 30 days, well shoot, what's stopping you from going for it? Each year on the NaNoForums there is a section called "The NaNo Rebels". This section is for writers doing less than 50k, more than 50k, writing non-fiction, and even doing "a picture = a 1,000 words" 50 page picture books! These are the NaNoers who set their own goals and challenge themselves to goals specially built just for them. So if you want to enter the NaNo challenge but the 50k word count just isn't for you - know that you are not alone and that there are thousands of others just like you, who proudly call themselves "The NaNo Rebels". You are in good company. :)

Yes, actually, you can. Most people who enter NaNoWriMo are not only NOT novelists, but they've never written ANYTHING, at all, ever. Only a very small percentage of the NaNo population were already writers before joining NaNo. Indeed, many writers avoid NaNoWriMo, because they believe it to be something for non-writers.

Funny isn't it: non-writers refuse to join because they think only novelists should do it and novelists refuse to join because they think only non-writers should do it. Who is right? Neither. They are both wrong. NaNoWriMo isn't just for one group or the other - it's for EVERYBODY! Any everybody can do it. Yes, everybody. That includes you. You are an anybody, aren't you? All it takes to be one of everybody, it to first be an anybody.

the issue is not CAN they write 1667 words a day, but WILL they?

No I ask you; who REALLY can't write 1667 words a day? Honestly. Who? Unless you have no hands, it's not physically possible for you to *can't* write 1667 words in one day. In fact, it's moronic to ever suggest such a thing COULD be possible. Can't and won't are not the same thing. Yes, you WON'T make time to write; you WON'T look to find time to write; you WILL find time to procrastinate and make excuses; but CAN'T? Think about it.

And besides, how long does it REALLY take to write 100 words? I mean, do you even know? Are you even aware how LITTLE 1000 words even is? Do you realize it takes only 15 minutes to write 1000 words (about 2 to 3 pages)? You have to write 1667 words per day to reach 50,000 words in 30 days. That means NaNoWriMo only takes 30 minutes a day. Thirty minutes per day. Are you telling me that you CAN NOT find 30 minutes a day to write? If you divide that into three writing sessions per day, that's 10 minutes before breakfast, 10 minutes after lunch, and 10 minutes before bed. Really, you are telling me that you CAN NOT find 10 minutes to write? REALLY?

Let's take a look at just how long it takes to write 50,000 words. Putting things in perspective, should show you just how very few words, 50,000 words really is:

15 minutes = 1000 words;
30 mins = 2000 words;
an hour = 4000 words;
2 hours = 8000 words;
4 hours = 16,000 words;
8 hours = 32,000 words;
16 hours = 64,000 words;

Everyone CAN write 50k words in 3 days not 30 days if they WOULD just get off their lazy bottom and actually TRY. Heck, it only takes a total of 16 hours to write 50,000 words so if you took one day off from work/school and did nothing but write steady for 16 hours, you COULD finish NaNoWriMo in just one day - and several members do just that every single year. But NaNoWriMo doesn't ask you to write 50,000 words in one day or three days or even a week. No, they make it easy for you - the only ask you to write 1667 words per day!

What this all boils down to, is that whether or not you can or can not complete 50,000 words in one month is not the issue. It's not about can you do it or not, it's about will you do it or not. Everyone can do it, but not every one will do it. It's all about frame of mind. If you think you can, you will. If you think you can't, you won't. So the question is not CAN you do it, but WILL you do it. How much time will you set aside each day to write? And how much of that time will you actually spend writing (as opposed to thinking about writing). So next time you find yourself questioning if you can write 50,000 words in 30 days, try asking yourself this: Why won't I write 1667 words today? What's stopping me?

One thing that I see year in and year out on NaNoWriMo is folks getting so caught up in the 50,000 word frenzy that they seem to forget that they are supposed to be writing a novel.

Some come in wanting to write their thesis or some other non-fiction work for their novel, while others just want to write a bunch of poems, and others jump in and start writing, but get bored so than start copying and pasting song lyrics to fill up space and reach 50k. What's wrong here? Well, simply put, they forget that NaNoWriMo stands for National NOVEL Writing Month.

Does that mean you can't write non-fiction? No. Memoirs, autobiographies, biographies, and some travelogues are sold as "creative non-fiction novels" and are meant to be read straight through as a story, and can thus be written for NaNoWriMo, because technically these are classified as a type of non-fiction novel.

On the other hand, medical journals, textbooks, political/religious outcries, thesis, etc, are NOT sold as novels and are not meant to be read straight through as a story and therefor can not be used for NaNoWriMo because they simply are not novels. (Well, you could write them, and no one will stop you, but you won't be able to say you actually wrote a novel now, will you?)

What about poetry? Again, yes and no. It depends on the format. Are you writing a hundred poems which you plan to sell randomly here and there? Or are you writing a long epic poem (think works by Homer) which could be read as a novel? If it classifies as a novel, you can use it for NaNoWriMo, if not, than you can't.

Same thing goes for short stories, but I already mentioned that earlier, a few sections back, in more detail, so I won't bother to repeat myself about that.

Remember, there is much more to NaNoWriMo than just pounding out 50,000 words. The goal of NaNoWriMo is to have a novel or at least a draft that you can polish into a novel, by the end of the month. The fact of having a novel is more important than the fact of writing 50,000 words. That's why no one cares if your story stops before 50k or runs longer than 50k - because it's not the 50k that is important, it is the novel itself that is important. You goal should be from the start - to have a novel in your hands when you get done, regardless of word count.

I keep seeing folks asking about getting their NaNoWriMo Novels published and asking if at the end of the contest, will NaNoWriMo publish it for them, so I wrote up this:

Nope, NaNo is just a group of people who get together to write, not a publishing house. From what I hear around the forums a lot of folks self-publish via LuLu.com - but only after lots of edits and rewrites and usually a year later.

If you are looking to get published, you need to first figure out which publishing house you want to publish with BEFORE you start plotting your novel, and send for a copy of their submissions guidelines if they are not on their website (most publishers have them listed on their website now). The guidelines will tell you novel length, what they are looking for ect. It will also tell you specifically WHICH editor to send it to, so you don't just go haphazardly sending it at random to anyone at the publishing house editor or otherwise! For example I'm writing 2 NaNoNovels this year, one of which I plan to later submit to Harlequin. So I went the Harlequin site and their guidelines said this:

[quote=http://www.eharlequin.com/articlepage.html?articleId=542&chapter=0]
Length: 55,000-60,000 words
Senior Editor: Kathleen Scheibling
Associate Editor: Johanna Raisanen
Editorial Assistant: Laura Barth
Editorial Office: Toronto, Canada

American Romance features heartwarming romances with strong family elements. These are stories about the pursuit of love, marriage and family in America today.

A sense of family and community is essential. Secondary characters-such as parents, grandparents, siblings or other relatives, good friends or neighbors-support the hero and heroine in their quest for love, but never overshadow the primary romance. Books must have a distinctly American setting. American Romance favors western settings-from the wide-open ranches of Texas and Wyoming to the small towns of Montana and Oklahoma, to big cities such as Dallas and Phoenix-but our books can be set anywhere in the USA.

Most important is a focus on romance and a clear sense of romantic conflict between the hero and the heroine. There must be realistic obstacles that keep them apart, and overcoming these obstacles is what leads them to a happily ever after.

American Romances can vary in tone, from sweet to humorous to intensely emotional. But there must always be enough drama and tension to keep the pages turning-after all, what could be more dramatic than family?[/quote]

So that means, I have to plan my Romance NaNoNovel to be 55-60k (Harlequin is known for it's short fast paced novels - which is perfect for NaNWriMo's short word count goal) and I have to plan the story plot to match their specifications for this particular line. (Each of their lines has different guidelines).

Than, once you know what your chosen publisher is looking for, you can plan your novel to match. This applies for any writer looking to publish whether you are writing for NaNoWriMo or not. For regular writers (and some NaNoWriters) the writing time line goes something like this:

-One Month To Plan
-One to Two Months To Write
-Two to Four Months to Revise, Edit, & ReWrite
-One Month to Write the Final Draft (usually the 4th or 5th draft by this point)
-One Month to Write Synopsis, Cover Letters, Queries, & Sample Chapters (usually the first 3 chapters)
-Mail Out MSS
-Start Next Book While Waiting 3 to 6 Months For Publisher Reply

Some writers shorten this or overlap it so that they can write 3 or 4 books a year, but most focus on just doing one or two books a year.

So, long story short: DON'T plan on publishing your NaNoNovel come December 1st. What you'll have at that point is only a first draft, and every book goes through 3, 4, or more drafts before it gets polished up enough to be publishable. If you are coming into NaNoWriMo hoping to publish - have a plan before you start, and plan to spend about 6 months of hard work on your draft AFTER NaNoWriMo ends, BEFORE it'll be ready to publish. Publishing your NaNoNovel can be done, several WriMoers have done it - but it didn't happen over night - it took a lot of hard work long after the contest ended.

Hope that helps you out. Good luck with your writing goals!

Find Out More About My 2009 NaNoWriMo Project