Preparing for NaNoWriMo

[Nathan J. Lauffer]

I have decided to participate in National Novel Writing Month having never written any version (except a little in high school). How do I prepare? What do I need to know? I know I have a few months, but I'm having a baby (my wife is doing most of the work for now, but that will change once she's born) and I want to make sure I'm ready. Any help is appreciated.

Thanks,
Nathan

 

[Butterfly]

You can outline, plan and world build, but you can't start the writing until November. Only the words that you write in November and form part of your novel will count towards the goal.

You can be a rebel if you so choose and edit work you've already got written up, or rewrite something you wrote previously.

There's a CampNano running in July, which is a version of the November Nano. Camp NaNoWriMo Here, you can set your own monthly goal, so if you want to try it out with a 20,000 novella to test the waters, you could.

 

[Snowpoint]

My advise.

1. Don't judge yourself or be self-conscience.

2. Don't Edit Anything. Don't Spell-Check, Don't Delete stuff to re-do it.

3. Write in a strait line and never look back.

4. If you are short on word count -- POETRY SLAM. The whole cast just raps what they see until you reach 50k.

Editing and writing are 2 different things. NaNo is for writing. Do not edit.

When you think about editing during NaNo, write a 1,000 word essay on why editing is wrong!

There is a reason for the 11 month break between NaNo sessions... EDITING!