Last week, I shared a list of my favourite tips that always help make my NaNoWriMo that little bit easier. But I have a whole bunch of tips that I find useful for helping my writing during November. And, seeing as we’re still in the thick of NaNo, I thought now would be the perfect time to share a few more of my favourite tips. I hope some of these are useful to you. (If you missed part one of this post, you can check that out HERE.)
Write Down Ideas, Even If You Don’t Need Them Right Away
Never let a piece of inspiration pass you by without writing it down and saving it somewhere. Maybe it never gets used, or it’s not useful to where you are in your book at the moment, or you’re not even sure if it’s a good idea. Write them all down anyway. One of these ideas might prove to be the solution to a problem in the future, or jump start your creativity again when you get stuck. And even if none of the ideas on your list fixes your immediate problem, having a list of options to look through might shake something loose in your head. Often it’s just seeing that there are possibilities and option that makes it easier to find the right idea.
Ask Writing Friends For Help
Whether you need a name for a character in a hurry, or a writing prompt, or someone to tell you whether your idea is too out there or not, writing friends are great people to turn to in a hurry. Because they’re not as close to your work as you, and often haven’t read a word of what you’ve written so far, they’re not feeling your story fatigue, and sometimes their unrelated ideas can either be the perfect solution to your problem, or a great springboard for some ideas of your own. Plus, if you’re anything like me and struggle with naming characters, having some options other than ’Jason’ or ‘Kate’ can be nice, and take less time than trying to come up with something yourself.
Word War, A Lot
I’ve written about what word wars are, and why I love them so much in this post HERE, but honestly, word wars are an awesome secret weapon. There’s something so motivating about setting a timer and just writing as much as you can in that space of time, especially if you’re also doing it with other people. Chaining together a few shorter wars is always a good way to break up your writing time into manageable chunks, which in turn can also prevent you from feeling quite so burnt out.
Get Up And Move Occasionally
There are few things worse, during NaNoWriMo, than sitting down to write, getting partway through your daily word count, and then being hit by brain fog. You know you need to write another 800 odd words, but they’re just not coming to you. And you’re probably on limited time as well. My advice is to stop writing, just for a few minutes, get up, and move around. Get a change of scenery for a minute. Fetch some water. Get the blood flowing and your eyes off the page for a few minutes. Moving around is great for making you feel a little more refreshed, and that in turn often gets the ideas flowing again. If you’re settling in for a long writing sprint, it’s always a good idea to take short breaks to move and feel fresh again.
Get Some Sleep
Contrary to what a lot of people say, sleep is not for the weak. And even though you’re probably super busy during NaNoWriMo and slipping writing in around the edges. It can be tempting to try and sacrifice sleep for a few extra minutes of writing time. Which is all well and good, until you’re skipping out on sleep for a week straight and you’re tired, your brain is fuzzy, and you’re struggling to come up with fresh ideas to keep the writing going. Hitting word count might be important, but more important is taking care of yourself so that you will last through the long haul.
So there are a few more of my best tips for making NaNoWriMo a little easier on yourself. Are you going to be trying any of these tips? Got any others I should add to my list? How is your NaNoWriMo going?
