Are you doing (or thinking of doing) #NaNoWriMo this year? If you are, then this challenge is for you. Read on for all the details!
What Is #NaNoWriMo?
#NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month, and it takes place every November. The aim is to write 50,000 words of the first draft of a novel within the month. While that sounds hard, it actually isn’t, and with a bit of planning, completing this challenge is more than doable, even for the busiest amongst us.
How to Succeed at #NaNoWriMo
I work full time as ghost writer. I also run a blog where I post daily, write courses, write my own books and am active on social media. And I still find time to fit in #NaNoWriMo.
How?
It’s about two things:
- Planning your time and sticking to the plan
- Planning your novel so you aren’t stuck staring at a blank page
If you use the first week of November trying to plot out your novel and develop your characters, you might still finish in the month, but it won’t be much fun. If you have everything mapped out and ready for you to just start writing, it is achievable and enjoyable.
And being able to say you wrote 50,000 words in a month is quite an achievement if you aren’t a full time writer.
Join the Free Challenge To Set Yourself Up for Success and Get Ongoing Support Throughout November
The #NaNoWriMo Preparation challenge will run over five days starting on October 22nd. Each day will have short tasks that will put you one step closer to being ready to smash #NaNoWriMo. You will get free charts and work sheets to fill in to ensure you know your plot, your characters and your timeline.
Here’s what you can expect from the challenge:
Day One – Signing up to #NaNoWriMo and genre choosing
Day Two – Outlining your central theme and characters
Day Three – Start piecing together your story
Day Four – Chapter goals, conflict resolution and plot holes
Day Five – Updating your #NaNoWriMo profile and setting goals
Taking part in the free challenge will not only teach you some useful tricks for staying on track with #NaNoWriMo, it will also ensure you’re in a supportive environment with other people who get the struggles of writing a novel this way and you can benefit from help and advice from someone who has done this before.
Once you’ve completed the five day challenge, don’t worry, you won’t be on your own. Stay in the group (link for the group is below) for support and encouragement all throughout November.
Sign Up for The Challenge
Signs up are open now – go here to sign up (please note that places are limited, so don’t delay).
To join a supportive Facebook group where we’ll have Q&A sessions, support, advice and more throughout the challenge and throughout November and beyond, click here.
If you have any questions about the challenge, please feel free to leave them in the comments, or you can email me, debbie@myrandommusings.co.uk
You can find me here: Twitter Facebook Bloglovin Pinterest and Instagram Please do stop by and say hi!
This is such a cool challenge. Preparation will definitely help you to hit that word count faster.
Thank you 🙂
Oh I shall pass this on to my friend who is writing a novel x #AnythingGoes
Thank you 🙂
This is a great challenge! #anythinggoes
What a great way to get motivated and get you kick started to start to write. Sometimes when it comes to writing the first step is doing it is the hardest X #anythinggoes
So true x
Sounds like a great challenge but I am not sure if I my health will let me do this. I might just give it a try though!
#AnythingGoes
Try it – if it’s too much, you can always set yourself a more manageable target
every year I think about doing this and every year I decide that maybe next year. It usually does motivate me to get back to some short fiction though
Do it! Even if you don’t get the full 50K words done, you will have a good start point for a novel
What a super idea and how helpful to get all set. May be back to sign up as if I have not got enough on already! #AnythingGoes
Wow, this would be a real challenge. I am not sure that I have the stamina, but then it is 2000 words a day?! #AnythingGoes
It really is doable, as long as you’re disciplined and set aside the time to write every day. And even if you don’t hit 50K word, you’ll have some, which is better than none 🙂
Heard of it before … not for me though. But really can work for some. Best of luckj with it. #BloggerClubUK
Thank you 🙂
Wow that’s some challenge!! Good luck x #BloggerClubUK
I shall share this with my cousin. She would want to take up the challenge.
#BloggerClubUk
Fantastic, thank you 🙂
Stopping by again from #bloggerclubUK
This challenge sounds great! And if we weren’t doing #Vlogtober this month then we’d give it a go, as going to slow down in November again… good luck! #BloggerClubUK x
You’ll need a break in November after that! x
I don’t do this but I really should. I just fritter away time not writing! #AnythingGoes
This year I am doing it Debbie! I just signed up! This will be challenging for sure but I’m ready for it. Sorry I’m responding late from last week’s #anythinggoes
Yayy so glad you’re joining in 🙂
This looks like a great challenge but I’m not sure I have time! Maybe next year… #bloggerclubuk
Great idea, but already have 75% of the book outlined, not sure if it would worth doing this as well. Unless, of course, I go really crazy and try to attack two projects at once. That might be too much pressure though. 50000 should be easily achievable as already on 40000 on my sixth book after starting on the first of October. 100000 might be too much to go for though.
Doing the full 50,000 words in the month is easily achievable so I don’t see any reason why you couldn’t get two projects done with only having a small part of the first one to do.
Not sure if this will be the right thing for me. So far, I’ve outlined 75% of the project, so ahead of schedule. Also writing my sixth book and done 30000+ words since the first of October. Nanowrimo should be doable. Whether to add this challenge would help I’m unsure of. Perhaps, if I would add another project and would aim for 100000 words instead, but that would be putting too much pressure on I’m sure.
If you’re that far in, then doing a prep challenge probably wouldn’t be overly useful for you, but I do think the Facebook group would still be beneficial for you as it’s not just about #NaNo, it’s a community of writers.