Once again, I am going to be participating in the madness that is NaNoWriMo. What is NaNoWriMo, I hear you asking? Well, my friend, it is a wonderful challenge where you try and write a 50,000 word novel in only the 30 days that make up November. It's a fantastic experience! 

Sarcasm aside, I've been doing NaNo every year since I was 13 - this year is my 8th year. So I want it to go with a bang, you know? The highest I've ever done was 2015 and that was 150,000 words, so this year I'm trying to write 175,000 words. Crazy, I know - that's 3.5 NaNos. But it's totally doable! If you're looking to participate but you're a little daunted, I'll tell you a few things right now to make you feel a little more at ease.

1. You're only writing a first draft. This means that it will be messy, have plot holes, continuity errors, spelling errors, the works. It's meant to be this way. Just get it all out!

2. It's okay to mind blank. 9 times out of 10, when I'm writing quickly, I forget the name of my character or even a word altogether, and pausing or using backspace is not an option. This is where placeholder and name comes in handy. If I type this, I can ctrl+f and put in the correct word/name later on in editing!

3. Make your goal and stick to it. Just figure out how many words you need to write every day. I use a spreadsheet from way back in 2011 to track how many words I'm writing, how quickly I'm writing them and also stuff like my morale. It's brilliant! To hit 50k, you only need to write 1667 words per day. If you're crazy like me, that won't even be a third of a chapter. If you're not so crazy, that might equal a chapter a day. I need just over 5.8k a day to reach my goal.

4. Get some writer friends. I have a network of really cool writer friends - my region on NaNo is full of awesome people and we meet up a lot during NaNo to write together. Seriously, we take over entire cafes. Other than that, my best friend decides sometimes to pop by and attempt NaNo, so we write together as well becuase I'm the only one who she knows who's stuck it out (mama didn't raise no quitter).

5. Don't think you have to plot a lot. Seriously, I cannot stress this one enough and this is what killed my first few years for me. By all means, if you need to have everything written down, go for it! To each their own! For me personally, if I plot too much, by the time I reach my actual writing time, I feel like I've already written it so it gets really boring really quickly. Thus, if you are like me, just create a basic plot and character sheets! 

I'll pop a link to my profile here so that if anyone wants to hit me up, they can do so. Good luck, NaNoers!

-Lau