November is coming up, which means NaNoWriMo (or National Novel Writing Month) has come again. In this an annual event, you take a month to write a story that’s 50,000 words long, the equivalent of a good-sized novel.
This is a big task, so here are five strategies that may help you get through NaNoWriMo:
1. Buy A Water Clock
Sometimes you need a little extra motivation to get up in the morning.
2. Use Strategic Bribery
Hire a friend or roommate to bribe you with chocolate for every chapter you finish.
3. Try the Closet Strategy
They say desperation breeds productivity, and nothing will make you more desperate than this option. Convince someone to lock you in a closet with just your laptop. No one lets you out for any reason until the laptop battery runs out or you finish the book.
4. Visualize Spy Thriller Situations
Pretend you’re the main character in a spy thriller and the nuclear weapon will go off unless you finish the first draft.
5. Work Through the Pain
As you work, tell yourself the following: “if you can feel your fingers bleeding on the keyboard, you’re not moving fast enough yet.”
If need be, write this phrase on a notepad and tape it to your computer.
For those of you who’d like to print these tips out for reference, or use them as a bookmark, here’s where you can get a poster with all five of them listed:
G. Connor Salter 