Tips for Winning NaNoWriMo

November will soon be here. And to a select group of people that only means one thing....NaNoWriMo! NaNoWriMo, otherwise known as National Novel Writing Month is a time when people join together with the goal of writing 50,000 word novels by midnight, November 30th.

Approximately two thirds of the people that enter NaNoWriMo win it by completing a 50,000 word novel. There are even people that far surpass that goal, writing 75,000 or even 100,000 plus words in that single month!

National Novel Writing Month was created by Chris Baty, a writer in San Francisco, California in 1999. Originally it was just a fun project to encourage his friends to write a novel within a month just for the heck of it. Every year the project has attracted more and more people to it, with 2004 attracting 42,000 participants.

Last year I did NaNoWriMo for the first time. I crossed the finish line, so to speak, with about 53,000 words. It was a lot of fun but it certainly took a bit of effort. I was especially grateful for the camaraderie of the NaNoWriMo forum. Connecting with other people who were working towards the same goal was very helpful and it made the experience all the more fun.

People approach NaNoWriMo in different ways, but I offer the suggestions below because they helped me reach the finish line, and I hope they encourage others who are interested in doing NaNoWriMo - but may feel a little intimidated by that big 50,000 word count. It is do-able.

1. Write every day, or on some kind of a schedule. A schedule will help you keep that finish line well in focus. Let's just do the math. If you write every day, 50,000 words divided into thirty is 1666 words a day. If you wrote five days a week, that is writing twenty days instead of thirty you will need to write 2500 words a day. I found that if I wrote usually every day, it was a manageable goal. I allowed myself a day off here and there. Usually I wrote for an hour.

2. Try timed writings. One fun thing I learned about in the forum was doing timed writings. This is a great way to boost your word count. You set a regular kitchen timer (or your alarm clock or something) for fifteen minutes or another short period of time. Then you write as much as you can. These little spurts can just charge you on. Sometimes when you do timed writings you can also "compete" with other writers who are also doing timed writings, see who can do the most.

3. Write with a group of other NaNo writers. Its like that lovely saying: misery loves company. Writing by yourself can get a little boring, especially if you are not used to writing like this, and let's face it, most of us aren't used to writing at such an intense writing schedule of 50,000 words in a month. But NaNoWriMo has groups that get together in your area for writing time and this can be a lot of fun. You can always take a break and talk about your novels, get a coffee or something. These sessions can be very helpful

4. Writing binge. When I first heard of this, I thought the people in the forum had a screw loose or something. The idea was to spend the majority of a weekend writing for an hour or so and then take a break and then go back to writing and then take a break and then go back to writing. To keep doing that until you had an enormous writing count. Well I got curious about doing that and in one weekend I tallied up ten thousand words. I know of other NaNoWriMo writers who have written far more impressive numbers in a weekend - but I certainly thought that ten thousand words was a lot. And a jump like that can do you a world of good in getting towards that 50,000 word count finish line.

5. Have fun. This is the most important. NaNoWriMo is admittedly something that is a bit of work to take on and add into your probably already busy life, but most especially it is a lot of fun. It has a hectic, crazy feel like exam week had when you were back in college - except it is a subject that you are really interested in studying this time. It was really a lot of fun pushing myself towards that deadline, and I would suggest to anyone curious about NaNoWriMo that they give it a try - you can do it!

Want to do NaNoWriMo this November? For more information visit www.nanowrimo.org.