4 Novel-Writing Tips for NaNoWriMo

Follow these novel writing tips for NaNoWriMo and you’ll have a good chance at finishing a 50,000 word book in the month of November. As practical novel writing tips go, these novel writing tips for NaNoWriMo can also be applied to writing novels outside of this one month national writing challenge.

Maybe you don’t expect to actually finish your NaNoWriMo novel because the task seems impossible. It’s not impossible. I’ve done it. Many, many people do it every year. Almost a full quarter of NaNoWriMo participants finish the month of November with a novel. Of course, there are no short-cuts to the 50,000 word goal, but there are strategies that can vastly improve your chances of sticking to the task and help you organize, generate, and develop your plot ideas as you go along.

Novel writing tips for nanowrimo #1: No Excuses

The most important quality of any successful venture is a will to finish, to win; to achieve. You have to want it. Nanowrimo is a challenge and the best way to complete the challenge is to tell yourself from the outset that you will complete it. Take it personally.

Professional writers practice and work at writing everyday without excuses, just like professional musicians. Writing is a skill that requires consistency and, some say, only bears fruit when exercised and sharpened daily.

One month of daily writing will not make you into a professional novelist (unless, of course, you sell your nanowrimo novel later on) but the best novel writing tips for nanowrimo will be those that point you toward the practices of professional writers.

The most important and generally agreed upon professional writing practice is to write everyday without fail and without excuses.

Novel writing tips for nanowrimo #2: Create a Routine

Can you write 50,000 words using less than all of the 30 days of November? Yes, you can. But you will find that the writing flows within a system of routine. Plan to utilize 25 days of the month, at least, to get your writing done.

The muse likes appointments as it turns out.

Pick a place to write and write there on a fixed schedule, once or twice a day. This routine should reduce the chance of interruption and help you to follow writing tip number one as closely as possible.

In my experience, NaNoWriMo writers who failed to meet the 50,000 word goal were the people who used NaNoWriMo as a social event, getting together to binge write at Denny’s and the local coffee shop. They had fun but failed to meet the ultimate goal of NaNoWriMo , which is to write a whole novel in one month.

Binge writing won’t yield the same results as a regular routine.

Novel writing tips for nanowrimo #3: Use Questions to Drive the Plot

Writing a novel in a month for NaNoWriMo presents a creative challenge, that is, you will be challenged to come up with enough ideas to fill a whole book in just 30 days. That is not easy but it doesn’t have to be impossible.

A helpful novel writing tip for NaNoWriMo (and for novel writing in general) is to use questions to drive the plot of the story. It has been said that every great novel seeks to answer a question and it is this question that generates and sustains interest as well as establishing some of the story’s themes.

For instance, the primary question in Moby Dick is “Will the whale be captured or killed?”

More obviously, mystery novels are driven by questions like “Who is the killer?”

This method can be used on a smaller scale as well, organizing and plotting a chapter by asking how one character betrays another or what discovery puts a character into a dangerous situation. Ask the question then write the answer. The complete set of answers to the questions that organize each chapter ends up being the novel.

Novel writing tips for nanowrimo #4: Don’t Edit.

This is important advice. The folks at NaNoWriMo offer this advice themselves as one of the best novel writing tips for NaNoWriMo : do not edit. Just keep going.

Don’t second guess yourself or stop to re-read your work any more than you have to. Just keep going. Keep writing, every day if you can, following your routine and moving your story along.

More novel writing tips for NaNoWriMo can be found at the official site of the “National Novel Writing Month” website. Happy writing!

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