Surving NaNoWriMo
It’s now the end of October and your thoughts have turned to a question: “How do I survive NaNoWriMo?”
If you’re still asking yourself “what is NaNoWriMo?” I’ve put together a handy little explainer about the event and address some commonly asked questions. If you already know what it is, read on!
It’s a challenge, it really is. There’s a reason why a lot of people spend a large part of October hyping themselves and others up. Because going into NaNoWriMo half-hearted can make surviving it more challenging. In the same way that an athlete might get themselves pumped up before a match, you should do the same. Give yourself a mantra. Or borrow this one:
“I can write my story.”
What the mantra, or motivator, or whatever you want to call it is, doesn’t matter. What matters is that you keep reminding yourself to trust in yourself and in your ability to write you story.
In my opinion, there are 6 important things to remember to survive NaNoWriMo (and maybe even win).
Stay hydrated;
Get rest;
Schedule writing time;
Know what kind of writer you are;
Focus on the long game;
Have a support network.
Stay hydrated
“You mean coffee?” I hear you ask.
No, I mean water. Now, I’m very guilty of not staying hydrated throughout the day, but even I’m aware of the importance of it.
Making sure that you keep water nearby. A lack of water can actively impact your ability to write. Not drinking enough water can result in headaches and fatigue. Keeping yourself properly hydrated while writing is a good way to make sure that you don’t get distracted by pain and exhaustion.
Drinking water helps you to get your book written. And because NaNoWriMo needs you to be putting out an average of 1667 words per day to win, you are going to need to make sure you’re not losing hours to fatigue and headaches.
Get rest
The instinct for a writer during NaNoWriMo is to write. And perhaps nothing else. But it’s important that you keep your brain well-rested and able to keep up with what you’re trying to do.
Without enough sleep, you experience some similar things as when you don’t drink enough water (things like headaches and fatigue), but one thing that is also very common when you don’t get enough rest is lethargy and a sort of general ‘slowness’ of thought.
You spend more time trying to figure out how to phrase something. You have greater difficulty in remembering that “idea you had yesterday in the shower that you were sure was going to be awesome”. And even things like word selection and second guessing yourself can become significant obstacles. Hitting your daily NaNoWriMo word count is often about available time. If you only have twenty minute to write, you probably won’t hit 1667 words.
This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t write. You should.
But your level of exhaustion can be the difference between hitting 2000 words or 1000 words in the same amount of time. You owe it to your brain to get lots of rest during November.
Schedule writing time
“I’ll be writing all the time” I hear you shouting from the rooftops.
I wish I could too. But I can’t. And for a lot of people, NaNoWriMo isn’t just about the challenges of writing. It’s about the challenges of being able to write. Between day jobs, kids, cooking, getting sleep, mowing the lawn (obviously this depends on what kind of weather you’re getting), and taking care of other responsibilities, finding time can be hard.
Scheduling time to work on NaNoWriMo can be challenging and it pays to plan ahead. Knowing what your responsibilities are, before going in, can be very important. For example, from about 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. is when we get our child ready for bed. Brushing teeth, getting changed into pajamas, trying to chase down a small human to get them into their bed, all that is sacred, so that hour of the day is off the table.
My daily work schedule, also off the table.
“Scheduling time to work on NaNoWriMo can be challenging and it pays to plan ahead.”
Be flexible
I can’t just not work. I also can’t ignore my partner and child. So that presents me with some limitations that I can’t (and don’t want to) ignore. Sit down with a pen and paper, look at your schedule, and start figuring out what times you can reasonably sit down to write.
You might want to write two hours a day, but in order to do that, you might have to write in two one-hour intervals, or four 30-minute intervals.
Many times, you can get what you want, but you might need to compromise to get there.
Know what kind of writer you are
I’ve always believed that a major element of success when it comes to NaNoWriMo hinges off understanding what kind of writer you are. Generally speaking, writers tend to fall into one of two broad camps. You are either a plotter or a pantser. I’ve written a bit about this before, so I encourage you to take a look at that article, but in a nutshell: plotters spend time figuring out what they’re going to write before hand and pantsers just go.
The NaNoWriMo Plotter
Congratulations. You’re already ahead of the game. At this point in time you’ve probably got your outline, character sketches, the arc of your story, and major plot points sorted.
When you go into you the writing stage, you’re going to have an advantage in the sense that you won’t be wasting time going in circles or trying to figure out what you’re doing next.
The downside is that you need to try and stay flexible. When plotters hit a brick wall in their story, they tend to hit it really hard. Lots of moving pieces mean lots of things to try and account for when there is turbulence. Remember that the editing stage comes later, and that your primary goal should be to get the story done (or as much of it done as possible). If you need to, skip a section and come back to it later.
The NaNoWriMo Pantser
Well. You kind of have an idea of what you want to write. Sort of.
When you get into the writing stage it’s important to keep your motivation high. Sometimes one of the biggest downsides to being a pantser is that you can really easily feel like you’re just spinning your wheels. Take a break where you need to and make sure that you don’t stress out too much.
While planners tend to hit the “I don’t know what to do” wall very hard, pantsers view this as “expected speedbumps” and tend to recover faster. The downside of course is that you may not always know where you’re going until you get there.
“[I]n a nutshell: plotters spend time figuring out what they’re going to write before hand and pantsers just go.”
Focus on the long game
1667 words.
That’s how many words you have to do, daily, to win. 1667 words—that’s the magic number. That’s what you need.
Except that it isn’t.
To “win” NaNoWriMo, you should be finishing your 50,000-word novel in the month of November. But nowhere does it say that you have a daily requirement. To be fair, the NaNo dashboard over at the organization’s website does really heavily emphasize the 1667 number.
But badges are not a finished book.
In the same way that you should be flexible with your time to write and balancing out your responsibilities, it’s important to remember that balancing out your words written is also important. For me, I always try to get as much writing done earlier in the month, because I like the feeling of “being ahead”.
But I also acknowledge that there isn’t really a “getting ahead” so much as “I’ve written X number of words today”.
Try to prioritize progress over time
While the 1667 words thing keeps many of us (myself included) it can be very punishing. If you have a day where you only hit 500 words, you’re now behind—at least that’s what you might tell yourself. If you miss a day completely, now you have to do 3334 the next day to catch up.
These are very stressful perspectives on a challenge that is a marathon and not a sprint. You have a full month. And if you have a day where you do no words at all, you might have a full day to work with that gives you 5000 words.
It’s so important to not punish yourself for missing these (fairly arbitrary) targets.
Your goal is to write, not to hit targets.
Write what you can, when you can; and love what you write.
Have a support network
My final tip for NaNoWriMo is to make sure that you have a support network. These come in many different sizes, shapes, and compositions, but what matters the most is that you have someone in your corner. NaNoWriMo can be extremely stressful—after all, you’re doing what many people may take years to do in a month.
Make sure that you have a shoulder to cry on and someone that will get excited about your progress. Having someone that can cheer you on will help to keep you both motivated and hold you accountable. If you have someone local that you’re working with, discuss the idea of phone calls in the morning or the evenings to make sure the other person isn’t just binge watching their favourite show.
Give your support network tools so that they can help you to get your goals done.
Conversely, make sure that the other people in your support group are staying on track too. If someone is having a hard time and seems to feel like they’re falling behind (though I refer you to the point above), make a bit of time to talk to them. See how they’re feeling and try and motivate them to get back at it.
It’s not over until it’s over, as the saying goes.
Final NaNoWriMo tips
I think that the points above can help you to achieve your NaNoWriMo goals. But they’re not the only tips for NaNoWriMo. Here are a few others:
Know under what conditions you work best. Is it a well-lit area? Or in a library? Is it before lunch? On a full stomach? Work in an environment that suits you.
Don’t skip on self-care. Self-care is important when you are routinely putting yourself in a stressful situation. While some might argue that NaNoWriMo isn’t as stressful as other major life events, that doesn’t mean that it isn’t stressful. Take a bath. Take a walk. Take time for yourself.
Five more minutes. If you can, even when you hit any target that you might have, don’t stop because you “hit your goal”. Keep going. Another five more minutes of writing, or ten, or twenty, or whatever you can spare. If you’re in your zone, don’t stop because of an arbitrary deadline.
Stop for valid reasons. It’s important to make sure you continue to prioritize yourself and what matters in your life. NaNoWriMo is something that many of us look forward to, but it shouldn’t be prioritized over important things (see self-care note above).
With that said, off you go. Get some writing done.
You’ve got this.
