National Novel Writing Month

Today Miranda and Bonnie are talking with Stina Branson about National Novel Writing Month

(NaNoWriMo for short). This week’s question: Have you participated in NaNoWriMo before? If you have, or are signing up this year, drop your username in our socials—we’d love to be NaNo buddies with you!

Tips and Tricks:

● NaNoWriMo takes place in November with the goal of writing 50,000 words in 30 days, which roughly comes out to 1,667 words to write per day.

● A traditional NaNoWriMo project is to start a brand new fiction novel, however people have come to use the program for things like their dissertation, code programming, a collection of short stories, cover creation, editing, or a host of other projects.

● NaNoWriMo is ultimately a tool to help you get work done that you wouldn’t have otherwise.

● A traditional “win” for NaNoWriMo is reaching the 50k mark by November 30th, but generally we consider any new words a win, even if the website doesn’t.

○ We recommend coming up with your own definition of success.

● Some strategies to help get through NaNoWriMo: treat it like a race to see how fast you can reach your word goal; turn it into a competition, break off into teams and see which team gets the most words; make challenges: roll a die multiply the number by 100 and try to reach that number within a certain timeframe; find what really incentivizes you.

● Pantser–someone writing by the seat of their pants, also known as a discovery writer.

● Plotter–someone who plots their novel ahead of time.

● Plantser–someone who knows what direction their story is headed, but not the specifics of how to get there.

● Prepping for NaNoWriMo: You can make an outline, do research on your subject so you don’t have to stop during November, cook a lot of meals ahead of time and freeze them so you don’t have to spend as much time cooking during the month.

● If you’re looking for a NaNoWriMo community, definitely check out the website to see if there is a chapter in your geographical area. If there isn’t, search the internet for forums and groups. Also, don’t be afraid to strike out on your own and create your own.

Links:

NaNoWriMo website: https://nanowrimo.org/

NaNoWriMo Handles:

Miranda: mmiranda

Bonnie: Idriana

Sisters in Crime: https://www.sistersincrime.org/

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