How to win NaNoWriMo 2020

NaNoWriMo, 50,000 words in 30 days is it possible? yes! i wrote all 50k words in 24 days last year and you can too

the biggest thing to remember is that in November you have 30 days to write 50k words that is just over 1,666 words a day. if you only wrote on weekdays that is 22 days of writing at around 2,272 a day.

i wrote 24 days last year and won so it isn't impossible but that is about 2,083 words a day, some days i only manged fifteen words and i had to make up for all the lost words the next day which was hard. but before you start freaking out here is my tips on how to achieve this amazing goal.

winning NaNoWriMo is almost exactly the same as winning camp NaNoWriMo except you have to reach 50k and cant set your own goal.

1. Pace yourself

while it may sound like a good idea to sit down and write for five hours each day you will drain yourself a lot faster, if you plan to write every day you're goal is to hit 1,666 a day. some days you are going to be over that and other days you will be under but if you know that you have to write a certain amount of words you will soon work out how long it takes you on average to write that amount of words each day. which will make the days you are under a lot easier to catch up in the future.

2. Outline

while i myself am more of a pantser i do a brief outline of my project that i will be working on {Check out my blog post on outlining} in the post linked i talk about how i outline briefly to help get everything done without it being a full outline which makes me feel restricted.

3. Get inspired

there are many ways to do this, you could go for a walk, listen to music, go and be with nature it really depends on you. i personally search up on google "writing prompts" and look at pictures or follow links and find one best fitted for the novel you are writing. i find this really helpful and i immediately find inspiration

4. Leave it unfinished

when you know you are going to be finishing writing, for the time being, if it is for a few hours or for the day that doesn't matter, the best thing to do so you don't come back and go well what to do now start the next sentence and don't finish it. for me, i finished writing for the day and knew i wouldn't know where to start again so i finished off with 'i walked into the kitchen and saw' while you wouldn't want to finish a chapter, paragraph or bookending like that it just means you can come back and it will be super easy to get back into it, meaning fewer writers block moments.

5. Sprint

for this, all you need to do is search up NaNoWordSprints on twitter and wait for the people to come on, or you can set your own timer up on your laptop or phone. a word sprint is when you have a timer for a certain amount of time and you just flat out write, then you take a break when you are done before going straight back into it. Video on sprints with information on them

6. Accept That Your Manuscript Will Not Be Perfect

don't try and make it perfect, that will only help you not make your word goal, realize that no matter what there is going to be major editing involved so there is no point in worrying about it all being perfect now when that is the least of your concerns, the faster you realize that the easier it will for the words to flow.

7. Write

sometimes the best thing to do is just write, even if it is never going to make it into the final copy of your project, every word counts when you start writing the words should just start to flow meaning while it most likely won't make sense it still counts towards your word goal and you may make something that you can use for your book

April Camp NaNoWriMo | how i did, my goals etc.

video: https://youtu.be/9DUKPwjNHJ0
Aprils camp NaNoWriMo was my first NaNoWriMo in April and my third time participating in NaNoWriMo. In Julys NaNoWriMo I wrote book one in my book series, in NaNoWriMo in November I wrote book two and in Aprils NaNoWriMo, I tried to write the final book in the series. now I do want to point out the final book in the series is a novella with a total of 45,000 words while the other two are 52,000 and 56,000 words. I knew from the start the final book would be shorter than the other two because this one focuses on Tosha and her becoming a Banshee.

I declared my project on the 11th of January 2020, because I already knew what I wanted to write. I had set my goal at 45,000 words for the 30 days which equals out to 1,500 words each day something I know I could do with my eyes closed, all that was left to do was wait.

in the time I was waiting I just made a list of things that needed to happen to make it fit in with the other two books so that I could just write like I needed to. 

Before long it was April and I kicked it off with 2387 words on the first day, not to bad I will admit but it was a pretty bad attempt especially since the next day I only was able to write 1126 words.

After that, my work went downhill, with day four and seven getting no words but I got a combined total of 2031 words over the other three days which means I completed week one of Camp NaNoWriMo with 5544 words total.

week two wasn't much better with only getting 1,777 words all week and only writing five days and four of those days were only 19 words a day.

between the 15th and 21st I only got 2,468 words and only wrote two days, on the 21st I decided to give up with writing for camp nanowrimo because of how far behind I was and because of bad writer's block getting in the way.