NaNoWriMo Tips (A pantser’s version)

With NaNoWriMo (National Writing Month) right around the I wanted to share some tips to help you make the most of this month. And in true pantser fashion, this doesn’t include making an outline. 🙂

Clear your calendar. Take a look at your calendar and make sure you don’t have any uneccessary activities planned for the month. Can something be moved to next month? Don’t volunteer to host Thanksgiving, but if you have to do so, see who can help you. Kids? Spouse or partner? Delegate as much as you can to other people.

Plan meals ahead of time. Think about what you are going to do for meals. Again, maybe you can delegate this to someone else, or maybe you can do some quick microwavable meals during the week and cook only on the weekends. (This is my plan.)

Gather your supplies. What did you need for a sucessful writing session? Notebooks, pens, candle, snacks, drinks? Figure out what things you need and stock up on them. Some of my neccessities include dark chocolate peanut M&M’s, salt and vinegar chips, Coke, ingredients for homemade mochas, Pentel purple pens, and a notebook. (Yeah, I’m a junk food junkie, I know. 🙂 )

Create a workspace. Determine where you are going to work. Maybe you already have a space, but it might need to be cleared to work. If you don’t have one yet, consider a place where you can work without interruptions, ideally a place where you aren’t doing a lot of other activities.

Think about your story. Even though I don’t have an outline, I do think a lot about my story. This includes creating an aesthetic or mood board, making a playlist, creating a working cover. I also jot down a few notes in my notebook of things I don’t want to forget before I start writing.

And most importantly, do what you can to make this experience fun! I always create a bingo board, and if you missed my previous post with the board and all my other templates, you can check it out here.

What do you do to prepare for NaNoWriMo? Let me know in the comments!

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NaNoWriMo – Should You Do It?

It’s that time of year again – the start of November and National Writing Month or NaNoWriMo. Writers from all around the globe attempt to write a novel or part of a novel equaling 50,000 words. Maybe you’ve tried it before or maybe you’ve only considered it. This will be my seventh year seriously (I attempted to do it a couple years before, but didn’t see it through) doing NaNoWriMo and it is motivating and successful for me. However, I realize it is not for everyone, so I wanted to share why it works so well for me to help you decided if it might work for you.

1. The Deadline – Many writers dread the deadline, but it is highly motivating for me. I’m a huge procrastinator, so I often need some external motivation to help me get things done.
2. The Challenge -This kind of goes along with the first thing, I love to win and if I don’t meet the deadline, I don’t win. The drive to win keeps me in the game even when things gets difficult.
3. The Project – I am a project writer – which basically means I can work hours at a time when in the middle of a project. I don’t always write every day, but I write in large chunks of time when working on a project. Once I’ve finished said project, I need some reset time, and can take up to a couple weeks off from writing.

So, if these things are things you can relate to, you might want to give NaNoWriMo a try. However, if it all seems a little overwhelming, you can also adjust your goal. If you want to start out with a smaller goal like 30k or even 25k, you could also do that.

One thing you do need to have is commitment. If you’re are serious about doing it, wholly commit to it, letting friends and family know you are doing this. Post on social media and even create little rewards for steps along the way. The first couple of years I tried NaNo, I didn’t go in with a firm commitment and I didn’t win or even come close to winning.

If you do decide you want to do NaNo, check out my #nanobingo22 board and other fun templates here.

Let me know in the comments if you have any questions or if you’ve decided to do NaNoWriMo.

NaNoWriMo Bingo

Hey everyone! I’ve created another bingo board for this year’s NaNoWrimo. I’ve already shared it over on my Instagram, but wanted to share here in case anyone missed it, or they aren’t on IG. So here it is:

Feel free to screenshot or print, and share with the tag #nanobingo22. I’ve also created some additional templates to go along with the bingo board. There is a board for each week to share your weekly update, and a board to share your word count for the day and the bingo square you completed.

Are you doing NaNoWriMo this year? Let me know in the comments!

NaNoWriMo Bingo

It’s hard to believe it’s already Novemeber. I think this year has gone by a bit faster, after last year when we weren’t able to go anywhere.

I’ve already started my NaNoWriMo project, but I also wanted to bring back my bingo board. Feel free to share with #nanobingo21.

Are you participating in NaNoWriMo this year? Let me know in the comments.

A Novel Love List and Staying Inspired – #authortoolboxbloghop

I’m participating in Camp NaNoWriMo again, and camp inspired today’s post. If you haven’t heard about Camp NaNoWriMo, check out my previous posts about it here, here, and here.

Each camper who participates in Camp NaNo recieves an email each day in their NaNo inbox. These email are called care packages and they are always filled with great ideas for writing, staying inspired, and staying motivated.  This specific camp care package was shared by Christina Li .

(If you’re participating in Camp NaNoWriMo, you may already know about this, but it was such a fun idea and a great way to stay inspired to write, that I wanted to share. )

The idea is to list several things that you love about your novel and then post it somewhere you will see it whenever you are working on your novel. It’s so easy to think about the things we think are poorly done in our writing, that we often overlook the things we are doing well, which is why I think this specific care package really resonated with me.

Christina Li said she usually just uses a post it note, but I thought it would be fun to take it a step further, so I got out my art supplies and made a pretty print to hang up by computer while I’m working. 🙂

Here’s what my novel love list looks like:

What about you? Have you ever made a novel love list? What do you do to stay inspired by your current WIP? Let me know in the comments!

This post is part of the #authortoolboxbloghop hosted by Raimey Gallant. To find out more or join in the fun, go here.

 

Camp NaNoWriMo Goal Planning with Downloadble Template

Hi all, Camp NaNoWriMo starts today! I can’t believe it’s already July.

I am participating in Camp again, but I realized as I was prepping that I really needed a weekly goal sheet to help me stay on track. Since I’m not writing a novel, but rather making revisions and edits, there are a lot of pieces or small jobs that go along with that: rewriting a chapter, fleshing out some research, rearranging scenes and coming up with a satisfactory timeline, and so on.

To help me keep track of what needs to be done when, I created a weekly goal sheet that helps me outline all that, and I wanted to share it with you all as I know some of you may be doing the same kind of thing for camp.

I’ve added the Google link to the document here.  For those who would rather print it out here’s a word doc.

What about you? Are you doing Camp NaNo this year? What are your goals and how are you tracking them? Let me know in the comments! 🙂

NaNoWriMo Bingo 2019

 

Hi all! November is almost here, and I’m going to do my NaNoWriMo Bingo again this year. So here is this year’s board. You can share and participate on Twitter and Instagram with #nanobingo19. (My username on Twitter is @charityrau1.)

If you’d like a printable copy of the bingo board, you can get that here.

My NaNo username is charebear23.. Let me know what your’s is so we can cheer each other on this month! 🙂

Also, if you haven’t heard about NaNoWriMo, or haven’t signed up yet but want to, check out their site here.

Prepping for Camp Nano – Part 2

Last week I posted my tips for prepping for Camp NaNoWriMo. If you missed that post, you can check it out here.

In that post, I promised to share my calendar/ goals set up, so here it is:

Since I’m doing revisions for Camp, I’ve set 7 pages per day as my goal. I’ve designated my check-in goal marks: 25 pages, 50 pages, 100 pages, 150 pages, and 210 pages (completion of goal). I’ve also assigned rewards to each one as I’ve found rewards to add a little extra motivation. 🙂

Camp NaNo actually designed a calendar you can use, which is what I used. You can print your own here.

Good luck to everyone participating! I hope you meet your goals and grow your writing skills. 🙂

NaNoWriMo Bingo

I am doing Nano again this year, and I ‘ve seen some people participating in a NaNo Bingo. It seemed like a lot of fun and a good motivator. But I couldn’t find any printable version, so I made my own. The link to the printable version is at the bottom of this blog post. Since we are halfway through, you’ll probably be able to fill in several spaces to start with. Feel free to share on social media with #nanobingo18! Hope you enjoy! 🙂

NaNoWriMo Bingo

Feel free to share and Post to Social Media with #nanobingo18.

Attend a Write-In	Hit 10k words	Donate to NaNoWriMo	Add a NaNo buddy	Kill a character
Add an animal to your novel	Encourage a friend to keep writing	Post word count update to Social Media	Participate in word sprint on Twitter	Make two characters kiss
Write longer than 2hrs in a sitting	Take a #NaNoselfie	Announce Your Novel	Write at a library	Double Your Daily Word Count
Write 25K words	Write a Holiday Scene	Read a Nano pep talk	Write a Dramatic Reveal	Post three quotes from your novel
Post on a Nano forum	Make a Cover for Your Novel	Do something (besides writing) to improve your writing	Treat Yourself for working so hard!	Write 50K words

charityrau.wordpress.com

Printable version: NaNo Bingo 18

How many squares have you already completed? Let me know in the comments!