NaNoWriMo Winners who Became Successful Pt. 1

Advice from Sara Gruen:

• I think the hardest part is getting a draft finished. It’s important to stop thinking about writing and just write. It’s something I grapple with every day—stop thinking, start writing.

• However far behind you are, take comfort in knowing that there is somebody else out there in the same boat, and look for that next fun scene. And then the next. And if that doesn’t work, set someone on fire. In your book, of course.

Advice from Marissa Meyer:

• Never fear. Anyone who has ever written “The End” on a manuscript knows that, sometimes, inspiration eludes us. No one looks forward to those lulls in the writing process, but they are natural, and they can be overcome. These are the times when we must proceed on willpower and caffeine and the unflappable confidence that each word we write is one word closer to a finished novel. I can promise that, tough as those times may be, they often lead to some of our most proud and beautiful writing moments.
• Maybe you’re being called toward eye patch-sporting pirates and buried treasure. Maybe you’re dying to write about a hitchhiker with aspirations of being the world’s greatest baseball player. Maybe your dystopic, plague-ridden society is bringing you down and you’d love to send your characters on a romp through a whimsical wonderland.Make your list, choose what’s calling to you most, and drop it into the next chapter just as if you’d been planning it all along. Watch as your plot and characters scramble to make it work, and the words once more begin to pile up.
• For more advice from her check out her pep talk on NaNoWriMo's Site.

Advice from Erin Morgenstern:

• Never delete anything. If you can’t stand to look at it, change the font to white and keep going.

• If possible, get a running start. It gives you flexibility for later in the month when you desperately need to do something, anything that doesn’t involve writing once in a while.

• Do something, anything that doesn’t involve writing once in a while. Take a walk, go to a museum, do yoga, paint your toenails, spin around in circles. Shake your brain up so the ideas can move around.

• Backup. Frequently. Flash drives are your friends. Also, I hear you can store things on clouds now but I’m not sure how that works. It sounds very whimsical, though, and I am a fan of whimsy.

• Take risks. (Microsoft Word wanted to autocorrect that to “Take care.” Clearly, Word does not understand NaNoWriMo. Also, this is why I normally write in Scrivener. Scrivener would never suggest such a thing.)

• When in doubt, just add ninjas. (Ninjas do not need to be actual ninjas.) (But they can be.)

• Let yourself be surprised.

I hope these winners and their advice help you write your novel! Tomorrow I will post more advice from successful National Novel Writing Month winners.

50,000 Words and Counting...

I am going to preface this post by saying that these tips are strictly for NaNoWriMo. Why? Because these tips don't lead to amazing writing, or at least they normally don't. These tips are literally just advice on how to boost your word count and if used, they should be edited out of your novel later. 

50,000 words is a lot to write in 30 days and fluffing up you novel with unnecessary words isn't cheating when it comes to National Novel Writing month. I would only use these tips if you are a little shy of your goal and not throughout the whole process. (Remember, this draft is going to be super rough and you can always edit once November is over.)

Tip 1: Do not use contractions. Won't becomes will not, shouldn't becomes should not, and we'll becomes we will. This is guaranteed to add to your word count.

Tip 2: Use chapter titles (this is one that works even after NaNoWriMo is over because you may grow to like them.) Using chapter titles can add quite a bit to your word count.

Tip 3: Add a dream or flashback (this is also one you might end up keeping during the editing process.) Dreams and flashbacks can add a lot of words and also add a lot to your story.

Tip 4: Become a maximalist! Describe everything down to its last detail. Think Johnathan Franzen. 

Tip 5: Use wordy phrases instead of the shorter alternative. 

• The reason why is that instead of because.
• He is a man who instead of he. 
• A great number of times instead of often.
• At some future date instead of later.
• Despite the fact that instead of although. 
• At the end of the line instead of last.

Tip 6: This one isn't about adding random words or scenes to your novel, this tip can help you throughout the whole writing process. Keep a small notebook with you everywhere you go. You never know when an idea will strike and having something to write it down in will help you immensely. You will not only remember your idea, but it will help add to your word count in the long run.

I hope these tips help you on your NaNoWriMo journey. Tomorrow's post will be a surprise. Have a great day!

Where Do I Begin?

Sometimes being told you can write about what ever you want makes it difficult to write about anything. So, here are some writing prompts to help you on your NaNoWriMo journey:

1. After accidentally killing the hero, you (or main protagonist) must embark on an adventure to complete his/her quest.
2. Write a story about a hitman for the supernatural. Why do the supernatural need a hitman? Well, sometimes ghosts need revenge before they can rest in peace.
3. Write about someone finding out that Earth is actually just an insane asylum for the Milky Way.
4. Every 100 years the seven deadly sins meet up for a tournament, the tournament determines which sin will plague the human race until the next tournament comes around.
5. Use the first line of your favorite nursery rhyme as the beginning a very dark narrative.
6. Write a story, that as it ends, the main protagonist realizes that they were the villain all along.
7. Write a story about a world where dreamcatchers have to be emptied of the nightmares they catch once a year. Who empties them and what does that person see?
8. Write a story that takes lace immediately after a tragedy, but never once mention the tragedy. Let your readers discover it themselves.
9. Write about a world in which heartbreak causes physical breaks and fissures to the earth's landscape, creating cracks in pavement and valleys. Write about the heartbreak that caused the Grand Canyon.
10. Every full moon an extra hour is added at midnight and only a few people get to experience it, write about the witching hour, what happens and who gets to live it.
11. Write a story the involves a countdown. Start with 10 and countdown to 1 or use time (10 hours until... 30 minutes until...)
12. One day you (the main protagonist) notices a new key on your keychain, you have no idea what it unlocks, but you are determined to find out.

I hope that these prompts help inspire you to write your story. Remember, the world needs your novel.

Tomorrow I will give you some visual prompts to further inspire you and help you with your NationalNovel Writing Month journey.

To Read or Not to Read?

Sometimes people find it hard to read a book and to work on their own story during National Novel Writing Month. I completely understand why, reading a book while you are writing your own story can cause you to mimic it and that can be problematic, but reading can also be a learning experience.

If you do choose to read while working on your NaNoWriMo novel, read books that are completely different from what you are writing about. If you are writing a Sci-Fi war novel try reading a period romance novel. Let the other genre inspire you to get more creative. You should also read books that were horribly written so that you can learn what not to do. Fifty Shades of Grey is one I recommend for reading when you want to see how not to do dialog tags or repetition. It's also a book that proves you need to do more research if you are writing about something that you have little knowledge of. 

I would suggest limiting the amount of time you read during NaNoWriMo. A good book can be hard to put down so you should really focus of your own story during November and only read when you need to take a break from writing. 

Tomorrow I will post some writing prompts to give you some inspiration. Have a great day!

Write What?!?

So, you have decided to dive in and take part in National Novel Writing Month, but what should you write about?

The answer: ABSOLUTELY ANYTHING!

You can write from the usual genres, like sci-fi or romance. You can dip you fingers into memoir or erotica. You can mesh genres together and come up with something completely new and unique. You could even go old school and write a verse novel (think the Iliad or the Odyssey.)

You could try to take a page out of Once Upon a Time's book and rewrite a fairy tale, modernize it or maybe explore a character that isn't part of the main story. Or rewrite history or show what the history books leave out. 

Honestly, you can write about whatever your heart desires. My only piece advice would be to write about something you love or something you are interested in learning more about because writing about something you are not passionate about is miserable. 

Tomorrow I will be discussing whether or not it's a good idea to read while trying to write your own story.

Why NaNoWriMo?

Why should you participate in National Novel Writing Month this November?

Well, do you want to be a writer? If the answer is yes, then NaNoWriMo is definitely for you.

The way I see it, if you want to be a writer, you have to write daily. Since, NaNoWriMo requires you to write at 50,000 words in 30 days, you will have to write every day, and while 50,000 words in 30 days sounds like a lot, it is only 1,667 words a day.

Also, since you only have 30 days to write those 50,000 words, you have no time to edit. I know, that sounds crazy right? But honestly, it is actually the best thing about National Novel Writing Month. It forces me to stop self-editing as I go and to write all of my thoughts down with reckless abandon. Normally, I write a paragraph and edit it a million times before I move on. Not only is that counter productive, it is actually crazy. Writing without editing allows me to get my story down on paper completely without forgetting things because I was too busy fixing spelling and punctuation. 

The number one reason for participating in NaNoWriMo is that at the end of November you have your first rough draft of your story. Yes, it will be extremely rough and definitely not ready to send off to publishers, but you will have a good start to what could be a great novel. When November is over, take a break and enjoy your achievement. When you're ready you  can finish the story if 50,000 words wasn't enough and you can start editing it. 

Bonus Reason: If you reach the 50,000 word goal you reason some awesome prizes, and one is typically some form a free self-publishing so you can have a copy of your novel (beware, if you want the novel published later by an actual publisher this could make an agent/publisher decline to make an offer on your story, but some companies do purchase books the were originally self-published.) For more information about the prizes please visit: The Winner's Goodies Page.

Tomorrow I will be discussing what you can and can't write during National Novel Writing Month.

Countdown to NaNoWriMo

In about 25 days National Novel Writing Month will begin and I can't wait! For those who don't know what NaNoWriMo is, please, let me explain. NaNoWriMo takes place during November, from November 1st to the 30th you are to write with reckless abandon in order to reach 50,000 words. While there are technically no rules you shouldn't write the same word 50,000 times and it is recommended to start on a whole new story, but that isn't to say you couldn't start outlining a story in advance.

Throughout the month of October I will be blogging tips and tricks for prepping for and making it through November.

If you are interested in more information about National Novel Writing Month or would like to sign up to participate (it's free and there are some cool prizes for completing) please visit: http://nanowrimo.org.

Tomorrow I will be discussing why you should commit to 30 days of craziness even if you don't think you are a writer!