Hey, #cosowriters! Are you doing #NaNoWriMo this year? I've done it and won it 16 times over the past two decades. Not doing it this year because the timing is wrong and I have nothing left to prove to anyone including myself. However, here are some tips that you may find useful.
1. Try to get ahead in your first week. With no weekend for five days, that's tough, but it will make the mid-month doldrums more bearable.
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2. When you stop writing for a session, don't stop at the end of a chapter. Stop mid-thought. This tricks your brain into keeping the story on "Pause" instead of ejecting the story and having to find out where you were later. Trust me, you'll find it easier to pick right up where you left off.
3. Self-care matters. Go for a walk. Drink water. Eat something healthy. I survived many #NaNoWriMo escapades on ramen and coffee, but it's not good brain food.
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4. Learn to say "Fuck it, I'll fix it in rewrites," and keep going. It really is okay to do that, even if you don't normally swear.
5. Don't kill yourself over this. If your mental health/emotional health is at risk, set the project aside. Just because the grind is too hard in one month doesn't mean you can't take six months or a year or more if you need to.
6. Check in on your friends who are doing #NaNoWriMo too. Make sure they're okay.
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7. Most importantly, have fun. It is a challenge because if it was easy, everyone would do it. The secret is that everyone can. It's just difficult. But whether you write 50k words in 30 days, 80k words, or 8k, you've still allowed yourself to create something that never before existed in the universe. That's magic, and you are a magician for doing it.
Good luck, friends! #WritingCommunity #cosowriters #NaNoWriMo
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