It’s National Author’s Day! What a perfect way to kick off NaNoWriMo. And since I’m participating myself this year, I’m going to keep today’s post short and sweet, sharing a few tips and tricks to help us all on our way toward becoming published authors.
NaNoWriMo Offer from Scrivener
Scrivener is offering a special NaNoWriMo trial. If you sign up on this page here, you can use the software for free until December 7th. As an added bonus, they’re offering a 50% discount to anyone who actually “wins” NaNoWriMo by writing 50,000 words in November. If you don’t use Scrivener, this is a great chance to check it out.
Try Writing Fast
I recently came across this post about Writing Faster for NaNoWriMo by Joe Bunting. He offers up a few ideas, but the gist is that you make every word you write invisible so that you can’t edit – you can only type. Frankly, the idea gives me heart palpitations, but I’m intrigued. Could be a fun thing to experiment with.
Word Count Tracker
If you haven’t yet, check out my post on how to use the daily word count tracker in Scrivener. One of the things I like best about this feature is that, if you set your deadline for November 30th, enter your goal for 50,000 words, and program which days of the week you plan to write, Scrivener will calculate the number of words you have to write on each remaining day, adjusting automatically if you come up short one day, or have a great day and write way more than you expected.
Use a Calendar, Set a Timer
Every night, before I go to bed, I decide when I’m going to write. I almost always start at 5am, but for NaNoWriMo, I’m also setting aside time later in the day to be sure I hit my goals. In honor of my efforts, I am literally marking the time on my calendar. Then, when that time comes, I’m putting my phone on airplane mode and setting a timer. I can get up to pee, make coffee, or administer bandaids if one of my children is bleeding, but other than that, I will be writing.
Best of luck to all of us this November.
[…] been a NaNoWriMo voyeur for a long time and last year, I actually went for it. This year, I thought I would share my take on the pros and cons of the […]