How to Prepare for NaNoWriMo – Part 1

How is it already halfway through October? This year has flown by, I just got used to writing “2024” without feeling like I was writing a line from a futuristic, sci-fi novel.

With October halfway over, many writers and storytellers are preparing for November, National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). NaNoWriMo was started in 1999, and is a writing platform/community that helps writers write a novel in just one month.

*I am unaffiliated with the platform NaNoWriMo; they have not sponsored or supported this post.

Some writers also do their own version of NaNoWriMo separate from the platform but following the same guidelines of a scheduled deadline, word count, and accountability system.

I have participated in NaNoWriMo twice using the NaNoWriMo platform, and I will be participating a third time this year to reach a particular writing goal.

Whether you use a specific platform, writer group, or hide out in a cabin in the Adirondacks to write for the whole month of November (can I join you please?), November presents a beautiful opportunity to grow your writer’s muscles and accomplish something really incredible.

How can you prepare for NaNoWriMo? What are the tips for success? Keep reading for essential tips, strategies, and a planning guide to help you meet your NaNoWriMo2024 goals!

Does NaNoWriMo actually work?

Great question, my answer is “YES!”

And I will follow that up by telling you that I have never completed a whole novel while doing NaNoWriMo, this will be my first year attempting to do so.

The reason I think NaNoWriMo works is that it is like WD40 for your mental blocks, insecurities, and inhibitions that tell you writing is impossible, you are a total fraud, and people would be better off reading shampoo labels at a truck stop shower than reading your writing.

Did I just read your mail there? Yeah, I did because it’s also mine.

Ten years ago, I was really depressed, and a big part of that depression was the lie that there was nothing to look forward to, nothing to work towards. From eight years old on, I had dreamed of being a writer, and I had this grandiose goal of being published by age 18. Now, I was less than a year away from that goal, and I falsely believed I had done nothing to reach it. “You’ll never be a writer, you’ve never been a writer, stop fooling yourself.” The devil’s voice whispered in my ear.

In that state, I forgot the thousands upon thousands of words I had written. Stories, poems, songs, letters, plays, and more. It was like my mind had gone blank to anything I had done up to that point, and somehow writing was this ridiculous fantasy I had created in my head but never put action towards. (If only I had known that just over a decade later, I would be a paid, professional writer and editor who spends hours a week producing and editing content.)

The Lord had my back in this season, He gave me the writing dream and the gift of words, and He wasn’t about to let me lose that vital part of myself or the future ahead of me. Through His intervention and the encouragement of family and friends, I decided to try NaNoWriMo, and I committed to writing 50,000 words in one month.

It was wild, I had many late nights, and furious typing sessions, and I ate a significant amount of chocolate. I think I wrote 6,000 words in one day to make up for some missed days, and I finished my goal with just hours to spare!

The story I wrote was titled Masterpiece, and that first draft will never see the light of day even if I adapt the concept in the future. But I will forever love that story because the cork came out of the bottle, and I, the writer, came bursting out like a fountain of champagne! I was a writer, and NaNoWriMo had just proven it to me.

My second time doing NaNoWriMo was not quite as glamorous. I wasn’t a fan of my story and didn’t know where the characters were going or what they wanted. I did not reach 50,000 words as a great grandmama of a migraine took away any motivation to try and make up the missing 11,000 words I had left.

Do I care? Nope, not at all.

The point of NaNoWriMo

If you only make NaNoWriMo about a writing schedule, word counts, or winning, you won’t get the full value of NaNoWriMo. I love the idea of creating a unique structure for a month to help you accomplish a big writing goal—that’s why I’m doing it this year—but there’s more to it than that.

NaNoWriMo is a time to be set free as a writer, to chart your own destiny through the galaxy of your imagination, and to see that you can do it, and it’s worth trying. Whether you want to write novels, children’s literature, screenplays, non-fiction, comic books, poetry, stage plays, or a blog, you deserve a chance to try it.

Writing that first novel was eye-opening to me. I found out that 50,000 words could just come flowing out of me. I had a really neat story idea, and I enjoyed exploring it freely (sometimes crazily) without all my fears and worries holding me back. I wasn’t editing, I wasn’t critiquing, and sometimes I wasn’t even “thinking”, I was just doing, and it felt so good.

The second year, I gave myself permission to walk away from a story I didn’t care about, and not worry about “losing” NaNoWriMo because a word count didn’t define me as a writer. That was freeing too, valuing my time and art enough to set something down that wasn’t right for me. We hold ourselves to too many rules as writers, I was learning to make my own, and you should too.

This year, my NaNoWriMo project is planned. I have characters developed, I understand my story world, and I have an outline based on story beats. I actually already have the prologue and first chapter written. I’m bringing a decade of additional writing and life skills to the table; I have seen myself accomplish writing goals enough times to have the muscle memory and history to keep going even when those still-present writing insecurities want to take over. My experience this year will be very different, and it may look more “successful” than previous years, but I consider every year I have sat down to do NaNoWriMo a success because it got me here.

That’s the point of NaNoWriMo; to move you along the road of your writing journey, to give you a history to draw upon, and to hope for a writing future that you can reach.

It’s time to believe, and it’s time to try

There are words and stories inside of you that need to come out. Who knows but, like me, God has destined you to share a story that the world needs to hear, but your fears, insecurities, and the voice of the Accuser are trying to silence you?

God has come through for me in my writing career time and time again, and NaNoWriMo was just a tiny piece of that bigger picture, but it was an important piece.

You can do this; you don’t have to know how the whole journey will look; you just have to take the next step.

The first step of NaNoWriMo

So, what do you want to write?

Maybe there is a story you have been dreaming of writing for a long time. Maybe, you want to write but haven’t settled on what or how yet. Anything and everything is okay (remember, you make your own writing rules).

Sit down, take a breath, and write down some ideas starting with whatever you have, a picture, a title, a specific scene, a character, a phrase, anything! See what jumps out and looks most appealing to you and go with that.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to participate in NaNoWriMo 2024 and see what you can do.

Is it possible?

In Part 2, I will take you through how to make a character you are excited to write about. To catch the follow-up posts, subscribe to the email list, follow the blog, or like on FB for future posts. #nanowrimo2024