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NaNoWriMo Tips

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Here are some tips for people taking part in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), a challenge which involves writing the first draft of a short novel in a single month. We were some of the local organisers of the event in Birmingham from 2004 to 2007, and what follows is some of the advice we offered to those taking part. None of it should be taken as expressing a general philosophy of writing: it's all just practical advice to help writers reach 50,000 words, quality be damned! You can shape it into something someone would actually want to read on the second draft! – SWT/JG

Give your characters reasons to talk – dialogue can fill up pages easily. If you have three characters, each with their own point of view, that’s pretty much four times the words for point of view, and that’s before they even start arguing!

When all else fails, there’s always the dream sequence.

If you have made mistakes, make a note to fix them and carry on writing as if they had already been fixed. In fact, instead of writing notes, why not start an appendix where your narrator apologises for the inconsistencies in his or her story and promises to fix them in a second edition? That way, your goofs will only add to your word count!

Why not customise Word so that the Word Count toolbar is parked on one of the main toolbars?

Writing a novel is a heroic endeavour. You are creating an entire world full of characters, events and intrigue. There are very few people in the world who have ever managed it. You are one of the elite band of adventurers who are willing to try. Remember this!

Writing itself is a lot more fun than finding ways to put off writing, worrying about how far behind you are or telling yourself that what you’ve written so far isn’t any good.

Don’t worry about being a good writer! Flaubert would have failed at nanowrimo again and again, with his finicky approach to getting his sentences just right. You don’t want to be like Flaubert, do you? Of course not! You can’t write well if you’re not writing at all!

Be ready to fight anyone who says that novel-writing is not a noble pursuit and an end in itself!

If you have a cable router, programme it to block access to the internet during your writing hours – and let someone else set the password.

Around the end of October, try to let all your friends and family know that you’ll be spending most of November writing a novel. That way, when they ring up to invite you to some pointless party/wedding/funeral, your excuse will seem less absurd. It also puts a little bit more pressure on you to reach the 50,000 word target.

Sometimes it can be a mistake to plan to write extra at weekends. Be careful – they can sometimes be the hardest times to write. You might have nanowrimo meet-ups to attend, dates to go on, films to watch, kids at home and staying up late – there are often more demands on your time at the weekend.

The detective novelist Raymond Chandler used to say something along the lines of, “If in doubt, have a man walk into the room holding a gun.”

Think about when the best time is to write each day. You need to be undisturbed as far as possible, with a little bit of leeway at the end if you aren’t quite finished. For me, 8.00 pm each day is the ideal time. I might be done in two hours, in which case there’s still time to watch a tv programme before bedtime, but if it’s a chapter that has to be ground out, I can carry on writing till midnight and still get a good night’s sleep.

Attend your local meet-ups. They may well seem to be a waste of valuable writing time, but the sense of camaraderie and support that results will help you when you need it the most. Plus, there’s bound to be someone there that you really don’t want to see succeed while you fail!

Try coming up with a list of chapter titles, even if you don’t want them in the finished novel. Like the title of a school assignment, they will challenge you to come up with ideas, and those ideas will cluster around them.

Try dividing the action of your novel into portions that correspond to the number of times you will sit down to write. Having one clear goal for each writing session makes it easier to focus on the task at hand.

Don’t waste time thinking about what to call people. Names don’t matter at this stage. Use the first words that come into your head. Just make a note to change it later. But do remember to change it! You don't want to end up with a lead character called something stupid, like, say, Marcello Fatloch!

Before starting to write each day, consider your three goals: minimum (total plus 1667); medium (total plus average daily goal (50,000 minus total, divided by no. of days remaining); and maximum (no. of days x 1667). Make sure you reach the lowest of them, and see if you can reach the next one too!

Try to keep all your notes in one place, to make it easy to add to them. A novelist's relationship with his notebook should be like that of Charlton Heston and his gun! Except for the notebook you carry around with you. And the one by your bedside, for writing down ideas you have in dreams. And the one in the bathroom, and the one in the kitchen...

Try using index cards for planning. Buy a pack from WH Smiths and have one per chapter. Start by writing out your chapter headings, and then add to them as you go along. If you are stuck on what to write one day, shuffle the pack and let fate decide!

If you have been writing a regular amount every day, and you miss a day, don’t necessarily increase your goal amount for each day remaining. You will have developed a rhythm of writing which may well be thrown off by trying to write even one or two hundred words a day more. It might be better to schedule an additional shift at the weekend.

Use a Typing Tutor like Mavis Beacon for ten minutes before your writing time to freshen up your fingers. Let them dance across the keyboard!

Don’t do research during writing hours. That’s what the rest of the day is for! Keep a notebook by the desk and make a note of anything you need to check up on (and that applies to things you need to check in your own book too, consistency issues, etc). Leave a space or write something silly to fill the gap.

Visit the NaNoWriMo forums for encouragement - but only outside writing hours!

Don’t waste time being stuck – just write a different part of the book. In a week’s time the perfect solution to that bit you’re stuck on might have come to mind. In fact, events in the rest of the book will actually end up telling what has to be in that chapter.

If writing in the evening, don’t guzzle Coca-Cola – it might give you a boost, but you’ll pay for it with a bad night’s sleep. But on the other hand maybe you need to, so go ahead! Whatever it takes!

If you find a certain chapter boring to write, the chances are it will be boring to read. So why not skip it? If it’s something essential to the plot, you can always summarise it later. And anyway, you’re supposed to be enjoying yourself. If you’re not having fun with your writing, you’re probably not doing it right.

If you are stuck, digress. Write a chapter about one of the character’s awful school experiences, and write out one of your own! All authors have bad memories! And you have already built narratives around everything that has ever happened to you in your life. Dip into that pool of ready-made stories. You can always cut it out at the end, but more likely, by the end of your novel you’ll have woven a dozen new threads around it!

As Ray Bradbury once said, “Write more. It’ll help with all those bad moods you’ve been having.”

Print out your writing as you go along - it'll give you a real sense of achievement and show others that you are engaged in a substantial enterprise!

On the other hand, don't print it out as you go along! It might put you off going back to add material to earlier chapters! And if your family reads bits as you print it out, they probably won't read it all again just because on November 30th you added several important new lines to chapter one, which can be dispiriting!

Introducing a new character to the plot halfway through your novel can help increase your word count, especially if somebody has to explain to them everything that’s happened so far.

If you really have no idea where to start, nip into your local bookshop and take a handful of unfamiliar novels off the shelves at random. Read the first couple of lines of each book (no more than a paragraph) and then try to guess what happens in the rest of the story. Voila - you have a plot! Chances are it won’t be what the author actually wrote, but it’s probably a good idea to read the blurb and make sure.

Learn to type properly. A novelist who cannot touch type is like a car without a front windshield. You’ll get there eventually, but you’re fighting a headwind all the way.

Make sure your chair and table are comfortable, but do it during October!

Get one of the following: Tivo, Sky+ or a big, big pile of videotapes. Those two hours you spend watching tv every night are perfect for novel-writing. If you can’t wait till December to catch up, watch your tv programmes at breakfast, dinner and tea.

Try and write regularly. You can’t write a novel in a single day. One big heave won’t get you there. Do a little every day. Or don't! It's up to you!

Go to bed at a decent time. You only have to write for two or three hours a day. If you stay up till 2.00 am today, you’ll be knackered all tomorrow, and you could be setting up a knock-on effect that’ll last for days. If you’ve hit your target for the day and you’re still brimming with ideas, write a few notes and then get some sleep.

Don’t be afraid to contact your ML – it’s part of their job to help you and answer questions. Plus, being asked for help will flatter them no end and thus increase their confidence, making them more likely to finish their own novels!