Last week, we talked about strategies to take on NaNoWriMo, now let’s get into specific strategies you can use to up that word count.
Here are my top tips for getting more words on the page:
Set Goals
If you want to be consistent, then plan on writing 1,667 words per day in November. Or, if you have more time on some days and less on others, come up with your word count goals for those days. Or, if you don’t like to be locked into a structured plan, set weekly targets. Having session goals help keep you typing when you feel like giving up. I know if I only have 200 more words to write, I am far more likely to keep my butt in the chair and finish my goal than if I leave it unstructured. It’s too easy to give into the temptation to do practically anything else when the words are not flowing. Trust me. Structure helps.
Avoid Mind-Numbing Activities
We all know that scrolling through social media or marathoning Gilmore Girls for the fourteenth time is not going to put you in the right mindset for writing. If you need to take a break before writing (or better, between sessions), choose activities that will help your cause. Read a good book (one chapter or less), take a walk, listen to music, dance, sit outside and listen to the birds, listen to an audiobook or someone reading poetry. All of these activities will feed your imagination and free your mind. They won’t turn you into a mushy lump on the couch.
Join Sprints and Writing Sessions
Break it up. Don’t expect to sit down for hours and crank out half the book. This is a long-term event. Daily sessions can get you to the finish line faster than marathon sessions. Not that there’s anything wrong with a few marathon sessions here and there, but too many could spell burn out for you. Spread it out. Write in twenty/thirty/sixty minute sessions with breaks in between. Join writer sprints on NaNoWriMo and social media. Spread your scheduled writing time out, if possible. Get competitive and do sprints to see who can put more words on the page. A little competition could help. Or buddy up. Sharing the writing experience with another can make it a bit easier than going alone.
Write Early
If you are a morning person, write early. You will be far less stressed out if you can bank all or half of your words at the start of your day. If you are not a morning person, find a time you can write before night. Any amount of writing you can do before it gets dark will help you de-stress too. At the very least, try not to pull all-nighters or midnighters every day. It is unsustainable.
Fill Found Minutes with Writing
Take advantage of those tiny bits of time throughout your day to write a sentence/beat/scene. It could be while the pizza is cooking, or waiting on your kids to wake up, or in between conference calls. Fill every crevice in your life with words. It will help more than you think. Even writing one sentence gets you closer to your goal. But imagine if you could write a paragraph or scene?
Don’t Stop When You’re on a Roll
Bank words when they are flowing. Tapping into those moments when the words are rushing to the page are exhilarating and should never be cut short if at all possible. Now I get that you might have to tend to your family or your paying gig, but if you can indulge your writing muse, do it. Keep writing when it is working. Those extra words in the bank will be golden on days when it feels like you are slugging through quicksand.
Don’t Overthink It
Put your pen to paper or your fingers on the keyboard and begin. It helps to know where you are going, but don’t stress about it. The goal is to write freely and badly. It’s easy to stall if you are trying to be perfect or worrying about what people will think when they read it. Forget about all that. No one is going to see your rough draft but you. Your goal should be to end the month with 50k words of a story that can be edited into something good. This means you need to write usable words, not nonsense, to get your count. But those words do not have to be perfect. In fact, they won’t be and shouldn’t be. All first drafts are bad. It’s the nature of the beast. The true writing happens in rewriting and revision. Stop worrying about quality and write.
Tip: For Pantsers
You will have a harder time doing NaNoWriMo. It’s not as easy to write as you go without a plot, but it can be done. In fact, you might discover strange new plot lines and characters as you struggle to hit your word count. It’s funny how the brain functions under stress. Or you might create an entirely different story than you imagined. That’s fine. If the story splits or you get a new idea, save both, and then choose which to follow. Or save the original file and start a new one with the new story. Use both toward your word count. Pantsers will naturally take a more spirited route to the finish line. Be willing to be nonconformist about this.
Tip: For Plotters
Make sure you have your plot with you at all times. Save it with your novel. Refer to it often. But don’t be so tied to it that you aren’t willing to follow new ideas or paths. As long as you know your through line and character motivation, you should be fine. Sometimes knowing where you are headed, but leaving room for detours, is a good thing. Don’t be too rigid. Unless you are writing a novel that requires strict adherence to your meticulously plotted tale or you can’t write any other way.
Jump Around
If you get stuck on a scene, go around it. Put in a placeholder and jump ahead. Or jump around completely. There is no rule that says you have to write linearly. If there are scenes you know you want to include, write them. You can put them in order later and write the transitions to bridge the scenes together. Writing in this piecemeal fashion allows you to find the story and see what’s missing. It may be easier for you than trying to write from page one to the end.
Stop In the Middle
Don’t finish everything up before you stop writing for the day. Leave a trail to follow in your next writing session. It could be the first line a new scene or a partial sentence. The point is to give yourself a path to follow the next day. If you wrap everything up nice and tidy, it may be harder to know how to start the next section. Think of it like a chapter bridge. There is a reason chapters end in the middle of an event. It helps keep the reader glued to the page and turning pages even when they promised, “Just one more chapter.” You can trick yourself too by leaving an opening.
Tap Into Your Creative Energy
Energy begets energy. It’s a law of Physics. And it happens in writing too. Ideas spawn ideas. Be open to that during NaNoWriMo. You may get ideas for your current story or future ones. If the idea threatens to take you away from your current project, open an idea file and jot it down, then get back to work on your original project. You can always pursue a new idea after November. Save those ideas. Preserve them. But don’t get distracted by new plot bunnies that want to lead you astray.
Turn Off Notifications
Distractions are the worst when you are writing. Ringing phones. Text messages. Email alerts. Notifications from everything on your phone and computer. Turn them all off. Focus on the page. The story. If you must, use an app to remove all distractions from your screen or block the Internet. Figure out what draws your eyes away from your writing and eliminate it during writing time. Your public can wait for your response to their tweet/text/posting. Really, they will live.
Have Snacks
Food cannot be underestimated. Protein-rich snacks will get you through massive writing sessions or late-night catch-up attempts. Have some on hand so there is no excuse to skip writing. You may want to fill the freezer with easy-to-cook meals or have your roommate/spouse/partner take over meal duty for November. Don’t let food, or a lack of it, stand in your way. The same holds true for any household chore. They can wait (unless your in-laws are headed your way for the holiday, then you might want to pull out the vacuum and give your knickknacks a quick dusting).
Have Caffeine
There’s a reason so many writers choose coffeehouses as their home away from home. Caffeine can help you make it to your goals. It’s not a great way, but it works and I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention it.
Our next two-part blog series will focus on tips for writing faster, which means more words on the page. It’s a useful tool during NaNoWriMo.