Advice for Nanowrimo 2022

National Novel Writing Month is coming up already! Starting in November, if you were unable to start early on prepping this month, no need to stress! There are still ways you can prepare so you are ready to take on the challenge and complete your 50k word count without any problems.

While 30 days to complete 50,000+ words doesn’t seem like enough, it is possible, and here are a few bits of advice for tackling such a big challenge…

A Quick Review: What Exactly is Nanowrimo?

What is Nanowrimo? Well, Nano is the yearly challenge where novelists and writers from all around the world participate through the online website to complete a 50k word draft of their novel within the 30 days of November. It is called Nanowrimo because it is an abbreviated form of National Novel Writing Month. The expected word count per day from Nanowrimo is 1,667 words a day, or 11,700 words per week.

Does this all sound like something you’re interested in, but is a little too intimidating? Here are a few pieces of advice which have helped me to get over the nerves of the big looming goal and challenge of Nanowrimo.

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Only Write what you Adore

if You begin the month of November with a story concept you aren’t absolutely in love with, the month is going to drag on and you probably will not meet your goal.

When deciding on the type of story to write, don’t worry about what’s popular or the tropes you see trending, rather consider some shows and stories you like and write them down. Then consider aspects you like about each and try to brainstorm and create a story using the storytelling aspects you love.

If you are excited about the story you will be writing, reaching the 50k goal will feel like nothing.

Character, Character, Character!

In such a short challenge, focusing on character development early on will help you in the long run. Knowing your character’s personalities very well will help you write them more realistically, and be able to make them relatable as well.

Once you are familiar with the character and what their goals and motivations are, the better you’ll be able to write how they explore the plot.

Write a Blurb

Before you begin writing the actual story, try writing the blurb based on the idea you have. What would you read on the back of the cover? This can change over writing the story, but having a short and compelling blurb concept can help as a guideline for writing if you don’t want to plot out the whole story in detail yet.

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Don’t be Afraid to Jump Around

When I wrote my book, The Spellbound Abbey, I found I got stuck — a lot. When trying to power through the story chapter by chapter, you might be like me and get stuck writing the in-between filler scenes between the main plot beats. If you deal with this, try to make a list of the scenes you want to happen. Then jump around and work on the main scenes you have the motivation to write at the moment. Then return to the scenes you skipped past later, and you might have a new perspective on how you should write the connecting scenes.

Time Yourself

If you find yourself sitting down to write and then getting distracted by every little thing try timing yourself. Set a timer and set your phone aside and focus on your writing. If you find you doze off often don’t swap to a new task!

Use the remainder of your time thinking about different aspects of your story or making notes of what you want to have to happen in other scenes. I think working in 25-minute timed sessions and taking 5-minute breaks in between is the best way, but test different timing methods to find the one that works the best for you.

Don’t Expect Perfection

Try to edit as little as possible, and just focus on getting the main ideas down — after all, the first draft isn’t meant to be perfect, it's meant to bring your story to life for you to polish and work on later. Give yourself permission to be imperfect. Focus on writing now, and editing later.

Photo by Alexander Grey on Unsplash

Final Thoughts

Overall, Nanowrimo can be a very fun and rewarding challenge. Even if you don’t meet the goal, you will still walk away with some portion of a story to work with. While the challenge may be difficult, it is worth at least trying once! So if you plan on taking on the Nano challenge this year, I wish you the best of luck, and hope you have fun with it as well!