NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month, is a competition to write a 50,000 word novel entirely in the month of November, if you are under the age of 18, you can participate in the young writers program and choose your own word goal. But if you are 13 or older you can choose to do the adult program. It is a fun way to write in a community atmosphere. Although there are no prizes for winning (save the bragging rights), the accomplishment of having finished a 50,000 word novel in a month is a prize in itself.

NaNoWriMo is known as NaNo for short, and started when Chris Baty challenged some of his friends to write 50,000 words in one month in 1999. It has grown to over 100,000 participants worldwide, of whom more than 15,000 finished in 2007. 

Sample Writing Schedule

Mondays:

6:00–6:30 am: Wake up 30 minutes early; attempt to write 500 words

12:00–12:30 pm: Take half of lunch to write; aim for another 500 words

7:00–8:00 pm: Set aside a full hour for writing after dinner; aim for 1000 words

Tuesdays:

6:00–6:30 am: Wake up 30 minutes early; attempt to write 500 words

12:00–12:30 pm: Take half of lunch to write; aim for another 500 words

8:30–11:00 pm: Continue writing after coming home from work; aim for 1000 words

Wednesdays:

12:00–12:30 pm: Take half of lunch to write; aim for 500 words

7:00–11:00 pm: Take the night off after dinner to write; aim for 1500+ words

Thursdays:

6:00–6:30 am: Wake up 30 minutes early; attempt to write 500 words

7:30–8:30 pm: Go to weekly NaNoWriMo write-in; attempt to get 500–1000 words written

10:00–11:00 pm: Finish up daily writing goal before bed; 500–1000 words, or until daily word count of 1667 is reached

Fridays:

6:00–6:30 am: Wake up 30 minutes early; attempt to write 500 words

12:00–12:30 pm: Take half of lunch to write; aim for another 500 words

10:00 pm–12:30 am: Stay up late to write; squeeze out 1000+ words

Saturdays:

9:00–10:30 am: Write after breakfast; aim for 1000 words

10:30 pm–12:30 am: Stay up to finish daily writing; aim for another 1000 words

Sundays:

1:00–4:00 pm: Write all afternoon, starting after church and lunch; aim for 1500 words

8:00–9:00 pm: Finish up any additional writing as needed; 500+ words

Protagonists: girl (Tara?) and boy (Eli?)

Genre: Romance

Themes: Unrequited love between friends; loss

POV: Third person...limited? omniscient?

Misc. thoughts:

1. Begin in the middle of the action, with the two characters preparing to say good-bye. The girl loves the boy. The girl is already sick. Does she already know? She does know, but she keeps it a secret from the boy.
2. Time passes. The two stay in touch; the boy lives life to his fullest while the girl gradually finds out more of her illness.
3. What is her illness? Cancer? Heart condition? Heart condition seems more fitting, considering the dual implications of a “heart condition” (medical and emotional).
4. The two meet after a year or two pass. The boy still doesn’t know. The girl tries to keep him in the dark but is too weak and eventually faints. As such, she is forced to spill the truth. Perhaps the two should argue about why she never mentioned anything earlier. Maybe this argument leads into a confession about her feelings for him...
5. Did he already know about her feelings? Has she hidden them well enough for him to really be clueless? How will he react upon the sudden revelation? Will he accept her? Push her away?
6. At this stage, maybe she has already come to terms with her fate. Or maybe she’s just putting on a facade of calmness? Perhaps she collapses a second time, more severe than the first, and finally breaks down about her fears.
7. The two are again forced to separate. Maybe they reach some sort of tentative understanding. The boy agrees to visit again soon...

Ending options:

1. Tragic #1: The girl passes away before the boy can return, causing him to contemplate his loss and ask himself what his feelings for the girl really were.
2. Tragic #2: The girl is miraculously cured, but the boy dies randomly in an accident before the two can meet again. Would work especially well if he finally returned her feelings.
3. Bittersweet #1: The girl dies but not before meeting the boy again. Are their feelings mutual? Do they share a kiss? Or do they simply reach an understanding?
4. Bittersweet #2: The girl lives, miraculously, but the two do not end up together.
5. Happy #1: The girl is miraculously saved and ends up with the boy.

Sample NaNoWriMo Excerpt

"You already knew, right? That I love you. That I have for a while now." The words were sudden and strong, making him forget that she had just collapsed only minutes ago. "As a friend, of course, but also...well, also as a woman," she laughed.

He turned away, feeling more awkward and uncertain than he had in ages. "Right," he finally replied in hesitation.

Her laughter grew but took on a slightly nervous edge. "Don't worry. I never expected anything to come of it. You don't need to worry about upsetting me." She looked at her feet, which she now slid back and forth along the ground. "Besides," she added softly, "it may sound strange, but the you I fell for was the you whom I could never have. That is, the you who I could only chase after and never reach, the you I could never follow, no matter how much I wished I could."

Curiosity overtook caution, prompting him to glance at his sickly friend from the corner of his eye. He could see her smiling but could not distinguish whether the grin was forced or sincere. As much as he wished to question her about it, the words wouldn't form.

Her eyes squeezed together tightly to block the light out. "Still," she continued, "I couldn't help but think, 'wouldn't it be nice if once, just once, I could get him to turn around and look back at me?' But no matter what I wrote or how desperately I tried, I could never stir that desire in you. I could ask you to take notice, sure, but that's not really the same thing, is it?" She sighed, relaxing her grin into a sad sort of smile that could only be taken as genuine. "I suppose that's something in itself, though."

Without warning, her eyes slid back open and turned directly toward him. They met his, causing him to jump. "I...yeah..." he muttered, partially unaware that words were even coming out of his mouth.

"Well, I might be a silly little fool," she said, chuckling once more, "but it's nice to know I have a good friend like you, who'll put up with all my silly foolishness. Thank you."

A strange, unidentifiable feeling welled up inside of him. He broke their eye contact by turning away again. "Quit it," he replied, trying to avoid betraying his discomfort any further than he already had. "I mean, I'm friends with you because I want to be. It's nothing you have to thank me for."

"Right," she answered softly after a few moments more. "I suppose not."

1. Visit Nanowrimo.org and sign up for an account. The competition begins on November 1st, but you can sign up any time during October or November, before the end of the contest.

2. Join the forums for support in your novel and help. They help get you excited to write and are full of information to make your novel more realistic, ideas to pad your word count, links to online thesauri and dictionaries, and even a forum for other writers in your region. Lurking and posting at the forum will give you more determination to keep going, because you'll be surrounded by people doing the same thing.

3. Pick up some NaNoWriMo dares from the forum. Dares are silly (or not-so-silly) plot twists, characters, or objects that you try to work into your novel. NaNoWriMo is all about quantity, not quality, so many writers work in as many dares as possible. One of the most popular dares is the Traveling Shovel of Death™, a shovel that is used to kill or bludgeon characters. Another popular amusement is to incorporate characters whose names are anagrams of "NaNoWriMo": Mr. Ian Woon, Norman Iwo, and so on.

4. Read "No Plot? No Problem" by Chris Baty. This is the guy who started it all. The book is, of course, optional. But it's great preparation for November and keeps some brain cells occupied in October while waiting for November. There are some great tips and you'll get a preview of what to expect during those four glorious, fantastic, fabulous, and grueling weeks. And help you customize the supplies you should lay in before November 1st hits.

5. Develop a plot. Don't be afraid to drop by the adopt-a-plot thread in the forums; those are up for grabs. You don't need to make it detailed; you don't even need to follow it completely. Chapter summaries will do, and the plan is just for if you go into a corner and can't continue. Don't be afraid to veer off the plan or change completely. Many NaNoWriMo writers title their novel and name their characters before they've even thought of a plot. It is perfectly acceptable under the rules of NaNoWriMo to outline your plot before November 1st. You may bring in as many notes and supporting documents as you wish, but the work of fiction itself must be written entirely during the month of November.

6. Prepare a writing spot. In order to validate your word count, your final submission must be in .txt format or an electronic document you can copy and paste as text, but you can hand write or use a typewriter, and enter it into a computer after it is finished. Have a lamp and a comfortable chair—you'll be spending a lot of time there.

7. Get together your "NaNoWriMo Survival Kit."Writers stock up on energy drinks, soda, and one-handed snacks so they don't have to leave their writing spot while they are writing. Many also prepare specific "writing playlists" of CDs or MP3s to listen to. Buy a supply of notebooks and your favorite pens to carry around for whenever inspiration strikes.

8. Start writing immediately when November begins. Midnight (in your time zone) on November 1st is the official start of NaNoWriMo. You should have your notes handy, and just start writing based on what you've plotted out. Refer to them often, because you may forget a key component later on, which means you have to think some more.

Keep a list of your characters as you name them. You may be surprised at how quickly you will forget who was who. A simple page or text document will help you keep them in order.

• Don't go back and reread your previous day's writing each day; you will be tempted to fiddle with it. Read back only enough to get your place in the story and continue. Notes will help you keep your place without too much back reading.
• Do not delete words. The backspace key will only reduce your word count; do not let it! If your novel is utter junk, well, you're not alone. Someday you will look back at the hilarious typos and the Freudian slips and laugh. (Also, there's a thread in which to post such amusing disasters.)
• Overdo it the first week. Try and get 20k words by the seventh day. No doubt it will be nearly impossible to do it, but even if you don't make 20k, you'll be a good bit ahead in case you miss a day of writing. Try and hit 35k by the next week, 45k the following week, and 50k in the next few days. See the pattern? You have a smaller and smaller goal every week. This is to accommodate for writer's block, which you may get from time to time. However, don't overwhelm yourself so much that you experience burnout.
• Keep track of your word count. You can update your word count at any time through your user profile. The website keeps a graph of these updates.
• Read How to Freewrite and do it.

9. Develop your story. You may have only a vague idea of where you are going. That's all right. The objective here is quantity, not quality. Still, your story will be easiest to write if it's interesting. Don't be afraid to throw in a complication. Kill a character, have somebody get pregnant, bring in a new villain or reveal the extent of a character's flaws. Then, see how your characters react. Take the plot somewhere, even if it's not where you intended. Sometimes the surprises are the most fun.

10. Bring the story to an end. Even if there were details in the middle that you couldn't get to yet, start moving towards an ending sometime during week 3.

11. Verify your word count. Now for the hard, painful part: when midnight, local time, the night of November 30 hits, stop. Even if you haven't hit 50,000, you must stop now and turn in your word count. You can finish writing it if you think you have anything to salvage, but your word count as of the end of November 30 is your final NaNo word count. Remember that even if you only hit 10 or 20k, that's more than most people ever write.

12. Plan if and when you will edit your novel. In the spirit of NaNoWriMo, you should have done no editing during the month of November, which means your novel will need cleanup to be the best it can be. If you decide to work with it, expect to put in a year or so of editing to get it ready for others to see.

13. Decide whether to share your finished novel, and how. If so, give copies to friends, family, and other NaNoWriMo authors.

• A few NaNo authors do publish their books in print with book publishers, but most manuscripts require extensive revision to achieve that quality.
• "Vanity" presses, publishers who will print small numbers of copies on an on-demand basis, exist and can print even a single copy of your book for a modest price.
• It is very easy to publish a manuscript online. Be sure to mark it with your copyright or a free license of your choice.

Tips:

• If you're using a computer, save often. Back up your manuscript daily.
• If you are a young novelist, go to ywp.nanowrimo.org. This site is for people under 18! You can set any word goal on this site.
• Learn to type quickly beforehand (if you're using a computer), which will help a lot. If you're handwriting your NaNoWriMo novel, every time you've finished the page count the words (which you will have to do manually) to avoid doing this later. It's tedious, but will keep the pile of pages down later.
• Word wars (typing for a set time, without going back to edit even the typos, as quickly as possible) help a lot, but do them in short bursts (45 minutes at the most).
• If you do 1667 words a day, you'll hit 50,000 exactly on November 30th. However, this isn't recommended because you might be hit with something in real life at the last moment and have to catch up. Instead, use weekends to catch up and get ahead of your word count, especially early on when your energy is fresh.
• 50,000 words in one month is a lot, even for an experienced novelist (which most participants are not). Do not aim for more than 50,000 words your first year. If you would like to accelerate your schedule, aim to write 50,000 words sooner. You can always continue if you find yourself with days left after you hit 50,000 words early.
• 50,000 words works out to about 175 pages. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams and The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (which you may have read in high school English) are both about 50,000 words. Other near-50,000 word books include Shattered by Dean Koontz, Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks, and The Invisible Man by H. G. Wells.^[2]
• Talk about the weather. Describe the character's meal or wristwatch in detail. Besides filling the page, this sort of filler information can get your writing moving if you are stuck simply by putting you in the mindset of the story.
• Substituting caffeine for sleep is a good alternative to trying to write copious amounts of words during daylight hours, though this method should not be used more than three or four times during the month and not more than twice consecutively. That being said, people havemanaged to write more than 50K without any caffeine at all. It helps for an all-nighter, but it's not necessary.
• Don't be afraid to ignore something here and improvise or write your own way! Everyone's NaNo experience is different. Some don't touch notebooks, some forget their plot on day one, some procrastinate until the last week and go insane writing to catch up.
• If you're handwriting your NaNoWriMo novel, every time you've finished the page count the words (which you will have to do manually) to avoid doing this later. It's tedious, but will keep the pile of pages down later. When it comes time to verify, try to find a random word generator and tell it to generate the exact amount of words you have written. Copy and paste this text into the verification box at the NaNo site.

Warnings: 

• You'll be tempted to edit. DON'T. You'll have the entire rest of the year to make your novel the best it can be. If you hate that last word/paragraph/page/chapter, highlight it and turn it white, then continue. Or cross it out in notebooks, don't erase.
• Your NaNo novel's first draft will be dreadful. Remember that part of the point of NaNoWriMo is to prove that you can write a 50,000 word story in a month. If you can do that, imagine the great novel you could write if you had a whole year to do it.
• Characters will most likely hijack your plot. Just go with it. The result will probably be better than what you would get if you just went ahead with your original plot.
• Beware of crashing computers and wetting notebooks. Back up often and keep a supply of pens handy.
• The forums are addictive. Have fun, but don't get so distracted by the forums that you aren't spending time on your novel.
• Your writing quality may go down after doing this. Use some word prompts and write like you used to before November and it'll come back quickly.
• And remember, this is for Fun. Hard won fun, but fun.
• Beware of unsupportive family and/or friends.
• You may hear something about a second-year curse. It is just a myth. Repeat, just a myth. Don't let it psyche you out.
• Make sure you have enough time to keep up with your other responsibilities. NaNoWriMo is not an excuse for ignoring work, school, friends, family, or other obligations you may have.
• Be careful of all-nighters. Don't do them unless you're extremely behind, and it's almost the end of the month already. Remember that you need to sustain a pace to finish.

source: nanowrimo.org, wikihow

25 THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT NANOWRIMO

by Terribl Minds / Chuck Wendig

1. WRITING REQUIRES WRITING

The oft-repeated refrain, “Writers write,” is as true a sentiment as one can find, and yet so many self-declared writers seem to ignore it just the same. National Novel Writing Month — NaNoWriMo, which sounds like like the more formalized greeting used by Mork when calling home to Ork — demands that writers or get off the pot. It says, you’re a writer, so get to scrawling, motherer.

2. WRITING REQUIRES FINISHING

The other giant chest wound that afflicts a great many so-called writers is the inability to finish a single ing thing. Not a novel, not a script, not a short story. (One wonders how many unfinished manuscripts sit collecting dust like a shelf full of Hummel figurines in an old cat lady’s decrepit Victorian manse.) NaNoWriMo lays down the law: you have a goal and that goal is to finish.

3. DISCIPLINE, WITH A CAPITAL “DO THAT EVERY DAY, SON”

The way you survive NaNoWriMo is the same way any novelist survives: by spot-welding one’s to the office chair every day and putting the words to screen and paper no matter what. Got a headache? Better write. Kid won’t stop crying? Better write. Life is hard and weepy-pissy-sadfaced-panda-noises? you and write. Covered in killer bees? Maybe today’s not the best day to write. You might want to call somebody. Just don’t pee in fear. Bees can smell fear-urine. Pee is to bees as catnip is to cats.

4. THE MAGIC NUMBER IS 1666

Ahh. The Devil’s vintage. Ahem. Anyway. To hit 50,000 words in one month, you must write at least 1,666 words per day over the 30 day period. I write about 1000 words in an hour, so you’re probably looking at two to three hours worth of work per day. If you choose to not work weekends, you’ll probably need to hit around 2300 words per day. If you’re only working weekends, then ~6000 per day.

5. THE PROBLEM WITH 50,000 WORDS

Be advised: 50,000 words does not a novel make. It may technically count, but publishers don’t want to hear it. Even in the young adult market I’d say that most novels hover around 60,000 words. You go to a publisher with 50k in hand and call it a novel, they’re going to laugh at you. And whip your with a towel. And put that on YouTube so everybody can have a chortle or three. Someone out there is surely saying, “Yes, but what if I’m self-publishing?” Oh, don’t worry, you intrepid DIY’ers. I’ll get to you.

6. THE TRUE NATURE OF “FINISHING”

For the record, I’m not a fan of referring to one’s ual as “finishing.” It’s so… final. “I have finished. I am complete. Snooze Mode, engaged!” I prefer “arrived.” Sounds so much more festive! As if there’s more on the way! This party’s just getting started! … wait, I’m talking about the wrong type of finishing, aren’t I? Hm. Damn. Ah, yes, NaNoWriMo. Writing 50,000 words is your technical goal — completing a novel in those 50,000 words is not. You can turn in an unfinished novel and be good to go. The only concern there is that 50,000 words serves only as a milestone and come December it again becomes oh-so-easy to settle in with the “I’ve WrittenPart Of A Novel” crowd. Always remember: the only way through is through.

7. DRAFT ZERO

It helps to look at your NaNoWriMo novel as the zero draft — it has a beginning, it has an ending, it has a whole lot of something in the middle. The puzzle pieces are all on the table and, at the very least, you’ve got an image starting to come together (“is that a dolphin riding side-saddle on a mechanical warhorse through a hail of lasers?”). But the zero draft isn’t done cooking. A proper first draft awaits. A first draft that will see more meat slapped onto those exposed bones, taking your word count into more realistic territory.

8. QUANTITY ABOVE QUALITY

Put differently, the end result of any written novel is quality. You’re looking for that thing to shine like a stiletto and be just as sharp. NaNoWriMo doesn’t ask for or judge quality as part of its end goal. To “win” the month, you could theoretically write the phrase “ sandwich” 25,000 times and earn yourself a little certificate. Quantity must be spun into quality. You’ve got all the sticks. Now build yourself a house.

9. BEWARE “WIN” CONDITIONS

If you complete NaNoWriMo, I give you permission to feel like a winner. If you don’t, I do not — repeat, awooga, awooga, do not — give you permission to feel like a loser. This is one of the perils of the gamification of novel-writing, the belief that by racking up a certain score (word count) in a pre-set time-frame (one month for everybody), you win. And by not doing this, well, you, put another quarter in the machine, dongface. Which leads me to:

10. WE’RE NOT ALL ROBOTS WHO FOLLOW THE SAME PRE-DESCRIBED PROGRAM

NaNoWriMo assumes a single way of writing a novel. Part of this equation — “smash brain against keyboard until story bleeds out” — is fairly universal. The rest is not. For every novelist comes a new path cut through the jungle. Some novelists write 1000 words a day. Some 5000 words a day. Some spend more time on planning, others spend a year or more writing. Be advised that NaNoWriMo is not a guaranteed solution, nor is your “failure to thrive” in that program in any way meaningful. I tried it years back and found it just didn’t fit for me. (And yet I remain!) It is not a bellwether of your ability or talent.

11. NOVEMBER IS A TY MONTH

November. The month of Thanksgiving. The month where people start shopping for Christmas. The month where we celebrate National Pomegranate Month (NaPoGraMo?). Yeah. Not a great month to pick to get stuff done. Just be aware that November presents its own unique challenges to novelists of any stripe, much less those doing a combat landing during NaNoWriMo. Know this going in.

12. THE PERFECT IS THE ENEMY OF THE GOOD

NaNoWriMo gets one lesson right: writing can at times be like a sprint and you can’t hover over every day’s worth of writing, picking ticks and mites from its hair — you will always find more ticks, more mites. The desire for perfection is like a pit of wet coal silt: it will grab your boots like iron hands and never let you go.

13. TOTAL ITY- DONKEY CRAP IS ALSO THE ENEMY OF THE GOOD

On the other hand, is this novel is the equivalent of you ting your diaper and then rubbing your poopy up against the walls of your plexiglass enclosure, then what’s the ing point?

14. YOU HAVE PERMISSION TO — TEMPORARILY

The point is, you’re not aiming to be a ty writer with prose on par with a mouthful of toilet water, but you must allow yourself permission to embrace imperfection. You’re not trying to write irreparable fiction, you’re trying to make a go at a flawed story whose bones are good but whose components may need rebuilding. Imperfect is not the same as impossible.

15. NASTOPLAMO

Take October. Name it “National Story Planning Month.” Whatever you’re going to do in November, you don’t have to go in blind. You’ve no requirement, after all, to suddenly leap out of bed on November 1st, crack open your head with an ice ax, and let the story come pouring from the cleft. Spontaneous generation is a myth in science as it is in creative spheres. Plan. Prep. Take a month. Get your mise en place in place.

16. NAEDYOSHIMO

December then becomes “National Edit Your Month.” Or, if you need a month away from it, maybe you come back to it in January — but the point is, always come back to it. If you want to do this novel writing thing then you must come to terms with the fact that rewriting ispart of a novel’s life-cycle. Repeat the mantra: Writing is when I make the words. Editing is when I make them not ty.

17. THE STATS BEAR OGLING

In 2009, NaNo had 167,150 participants, and 32,178 “winners.” That’s a pretty good rate, just shy of 20% completion. The numbers get a bit more telling when you look at the number of published novels that have come out of the entire ten-year program, and that number appears to be below 200 books. Out of the 500,000 or so total participants of NaNo over the years, that’s a very minor 0.04%. This isn’t an indictment against NaNoWriMo but is, however, an illustrative number just the same: it’s harder than the Devil’s dangle-rod in a cobalt-tungsten to get published these days.

18. WHY SOME AUTHORS DISMISS NANOWRIMO

Professional authors — perhaps unfairly — sometimes look at the program with a dismissive sniff or a condescending eye roll. Look at it from their perspective: NaNo participants might seem on par with tourists. Professional authors live here all year. We are what we are all the time. And then others come along and, for one month, dance around on our beaches and poop in the water and pretend to be native. The point is, don’t act like a haole, haole. Don’t be like that girl in college who kissed girls and called herself a lesbian even though she was really just doing it to get other guys hot under the scrotum collar. And pro authors, don’t act like prigs and pricks, either. Drop the dismissal. Most of us are all trying to share the same weird wordmonkey dream, and that’s a thing to be celebrated, not denigrated.

19. WHY SOME AGENTS AND EDITORS DESPISE NANOWRIMO

If the story holds true, agents and editors receive a flush of slush from NaNoWriMo in the months following November. A heaping midden pile of bad prose which, for the record, only serves to block the door for everybody else with its stinky robustness. You may say, “But I’m not going to do that.” Of course you’re not, but somebody probably is. And those that spam every agent or editor with their half-cocked garbage novel should be dragged around by their balls or and then fed to a pen full of rutting pigs.

20. THE SELF-PUBLISHING MARKETPLACE IS NOT YOUR VOMIT BAG

Just as you should not run to agents and editors with your fetal draft, you should not instantly fling it like a booger into the marketplace. Novels, like whisky and wine, need time.

21. THE NANOWRIMO WEBSITE ISN’T DOING ITSELF ANY FAVORS

The text on the NaNoWriMo website is, for me, a point of dismissal and does little to engender respect from professional writers (as opposed to, say, the participants, who often do earn that respect). Check, for example, the text identifying why you should participate: “The reasons are endless! To actively participate in one of our era’s most enchanting art forms! To write without having to obsess over quality. To be able to make obscure references to passages from our novels at parties. To be able to mock real novelists who dawdle on and on, taking far longer than 30 days to produce their work.” Yes, we stupid novelists, what with our interest in quality and our inability to produce a perfect draft in 30 days. Sometimes I want to kick the NaNoWriMo website in its non-existent digital crotch.

22. ENGAGE THE COMMUNITY (BUT REALIZE THAT WRITING IS UP TO YOU)

November sees a flurry of activity on the novel-writing front, and you can harness that energy by engaging with the community. Just the same — at the end of the day it’s you and your word count. Nobody can do this for you. When it all comes down to it, you’re the one motherer who can slay this dragon and make a hat from his skull, a coat from his scales, and a tale from his tongue.

23. THE POLICE

NaNoWriMo has a lot of rules: you’re supposed to “start fresh,” you’re not really meant to work on non-fiction, blah blah blah. This is all just made-up stuff. It’s not government mandated. This isn’t taxes, for ’s sake. Do what you like. Even better: do what the story needs. Hell with the rules. the police. Write. Write endlessly. Don’t be constrained by this program. It’s just a springboard: use it to launch your way to awesomeness. Anything you don’t like about it, toss it out the window. That certificate you get at the end doesn’t mean dog . The only thing that matters is you and your writing.

24. BE AWARE OF VARIANTS

Have you seen ROW80, or, A Round of Words in 80 Days? I’ve also seen smaller variants about writing scripts and non-fiction projects. Come up with your own variant if you must. NaNoWriMo is just a means to an end — it’s just one path up the mountain. Other exist, so find them if this one doesn’t seem your speed.

25. NOVEMBER IS JUST YOUR BEGINNING

If you get to the end of the month with a manuscript — finished or not — in hand, celebrate. Do a little dance. Eat a microwaved pizza, do a shot of tequila, take off your pants and burn them in the fireplace. And then think, “Tomorrow, I’ve got more to do.” Because this is just the start. I don’t mean that to sound punishing — if it sounds punishing, you shouldn’t be a writer. It should be ing liberating. It should fill your heart with a flutter of eager wings: “Holy ! I can do this tomorrow, too! I can do this in December and January and any day of the goddamn week I so choose.” Don’t stop on November 30th. You want to do this thing, do this thing. Your energy and effort can turn NaNoWriMo from a month-long gimmick to a life-long love and possibly even a career. Let this foster in you a love of storytelling made real through discipline — and don’t let that love or that discipline wither on the vine come December 1st.

Special quote:

Being a writer means taking the leap from listening to saying, “Listen to me”

-  Jhumpa Lahiri

credit: writetodone