It’s NaNoWriMo time people. That time of year when thousands sit their butts down to write the great American novel (or what every country you are country in). 50K words in 30 days. Over 1600 words everyday to create what obstentially is half a novel.
Oh, and did I mention the fear? Not from the writers, but all those literary agents, publishing houses, and slush pile readers who know, come December, their inboxes will be full of Vampires, Zombies and all matters of descruction, all in their first draft glory.
But that is December, and this is September, and now is the time to plan. How do I know? I have failed twice and completed four NaNoWriMo’s. The difference between winning and losing is, quite simply, Planning. That may sound basic enough, but understand that with normal writing standards, I am a true Pantser. Now, if you dive too deep into all the Nanowrimo blogs, podcasts, vblogs and such, you’ll find Pantsers saying they didn’t plan, and you don’t have to either. (Actually, I’m not sure they would say that. I’m just making it up.) But I say hogwash. You have two months. Start Your Planning!
Don’t know how? Grab a pen and notebook and start writing down ideas. Are you the type of person that likes software applications, and complexity? Check out Scrivener. Are you an online type person? Check out Hiveword.com. Do a Twitter search for #nanowrimo and see what others are doing. Same with all the other social media outlets. Or, be productive and ignore social media…whatever is best for you.
Other blog posts by Eric Michalsen
- Let's Write a Novel: Characters
- I Sound Like That?!
- Releasing Your Child to the Wild
- The Process
- Every Day
- Writing is Re-Writing
- Tools of the Trade part 1 Pen Paper / Sublime Text
- Tools of the Trade part 2 Open Office / Trello
- Tools of the Trade part 3 Ommwriter / Scrivener
- Website Development and SEO Basics for Writers
- Git and the Writer
- Twitter Tools for Writers
- Kickstarter :: How it is being used by writers
- Cut It Out
More of Eric can be found:
- On Twitter @elmwriting
- His rantings at his blog
- And on the TypeHammer Podcast