The name of the game for Nanowrimo is commitment. Put yourself in the mindset that writing is your main hobby this month. When you find yourself with extra time, prioritize writing. My tips are steps for you to help reach that goal:

1. Plot ahead what you're going to write that day to avoid the staring-at-a-blank-page-in-terror-itis. We're only 3 days away so not a lot of time to prepare, but this helped me: whenever I ended a day of writing, I wrote a single sentence for what I was going to do in the scene the next day.
2. Join sprints. Peer pressure isn't all bad, it can also motivate you to put a few more words down even when you don't feel like it. If that's still too high stakes for you, just use the timer function on Nanowrimo's website and tell yourself to write for 20 minutes. It's amazing how having a ticking clock can give you a little urgency.
3. Set aside a scheduled time to write. Always write during that time. If you end up with random snatches of time later on lunch breaks or on the bus home or after dinner, use that extra time to write more for sure. But always make your scheduled time.
4. Don't be afraid to jump around. If you know you've got a good showdown or juicy drama or some big image scene coming up, and you're getting bored with where you are or don't know how to get the characters there...fine. Skip ahead. Go write the stuff that interests you.
5. Don't think about what you've already written. If it's good, if it's terrible, if it's nonsensical. Forget it. Making it all hang together, polishing it, filling in plot holes, that's future you work. Present you only care about getting words on the paper.

If you're doing a single longform story for the first time, consider an episodic or semi-episodic structure. Particularly for those used to writing on this sub, it's going to be much easier to get through a single story chunk each day if that chunk is its own contained narrative, rather than writing 500 words about two people talking in an elevator while they wait for the next plot beat to happen.

It's a marathon, not a race. Don't feel pressured to write a lot every single day if it's burning you out, but make sure to write something so you don't end up with an insurmountable sprint at the end. The reverse is also true: even if you're a planner at heart, don't feel pressured to stop when you're still fired up with something just because you've hit your daily writing goal.

Remember that at the core of NaNoWriMo, you're basically speedrunning a first draft. Nobody's expecting a masterpiece to come out on your first try at a story, and it's okay if there's parts that feel really barebones when you're jotting them down. You're going to end up killing your flow if you stop to try to dot every i and cross every t as you go, so just make it "good enough" and let it rest until you've gotten the whole thing done.

A somewhat unusual piece of advice for those like me who have trouble with that last piece of advice and with keeping up their flow in general: Create a separate file for "editing notes", and just jot down which chapters you know are gonna need revision as you go. My first one was just a simple list of numbers with different highlights to show how bad I thought I did, which is a lot faster than actually correcting the weirdness and mistakes and lets you move on without the mental encumbrance of remembering what you need to do later.

I've never done it. I just never have any ideas going in and I doubt I could commit time every day. (Maybe if I wen t back to writing in a notebook on the subway?)

I have some old prompt responses that are more like scenes instead of flash fiction. Some of the endings are realy openings of something longer (not novel length though). So I might work on a few of those.

I've had a collection wth an editor for months now that I'm itching to work on some more, too. If that comes back, that takes priority.

I attempted NaNoWriMo before. Never managed to succeed at getting down 50,000 words, though, so take it with a grain of salt.

The best way to get through NaNoWriMo is to see if you can find at least one person who's willing to do it with you. Having people to nerd out about your novel with, to talk to you about what they're writing, setting up times when you write together - that is very inspiring and motivating! And you can keep each other focused. In person, there's just something about hearing another person type and knowing they're writing their novel, too, that makes it so much easier to focus! At least, for me. ^_^

Another thing you can do is if you're in the middle of novel writing but then get a totally different idea for a novel, or want to write something else, jot down that idea somewhere! Maybe do a short summary of your thoughts. If you don't feed that inspiration a little bit, then you're gonna be progressively more dissatisfied with what you are writing for your novel. But then try to get back to your novel . . . maybe incorporating the other idea you have that's inspiring you into it! Who says you can't write about a vampire romance in a sci-fi adventure that takes place on many planets and includes time travel? It's your novel! Maybe you like the characters in your other idea more. Okay, bring those characters into your novel somewhere!

If you just, have no inspiration one day for your novel, a trick is to go onto another document and just write about how you have no inspiration today and whatever life stuff is going on. Writing it out can help you articulate your thoughts on it, free up some clutter in your mind, and hey, now you've written something. Perhaps you can even use what you wrote there in your novel somehow!

At the end of the day, you have to do what makes your novel writing fun for you. And if it turns into a mishmash of a whole bunch of disjointed ideas, who cares?

I....think...I'm going to try something different this year. I spent a good part of August and September in my main novel, fell in love with the writing and reading process again, and burnt out on it. I have realized I don't want to write it anymore if I always just keep it to myself, and haven't found a swap partner.

So I'm going to go for a Be Ridiculous NaNoWriMo, and swap between prompts here and prompting myself using childhood stories from either toys or imaginative play. And just not take it seriously. 30 days of at least 500 words of play.

A couple of years ago, I used NaNoWriMo as a reading challenge, and once as an exercise challenge, so swapping it around and having fun being on the fringe of the tide of other folks challenging themselves is my thing. Just this year, it'll be with actual writing.

Anyone else doing Nano with a fresh perspective or completely different twist? Curious!

NaNo tip: Have a specific time frame you will be writing, and let nothing interfere with it. Not family, not work, nothing. Shut the door and start banging the keys.

Your goal every day is 1667 words. To stay on track, you have to keep banging out 1667. If you get stuck with the plot, describe the scene. Not sure of the scene? Go for character motivation. Confused with your characters? Write about the world. No mater what, you have to write that 1667, so don't allow yourself to get stuck.

A lot of what you write will be utter garbage. Resist the impulse to go back and "fix things", you can do that in December. For mine, I only went back during NaNo and fixed one scene that absolutely HAD to change. All other tweaks happened later.

And, prepare for the story to take wild turns you NEVER expected!

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