Get Ready for Nanowrimo 2021

 

Are you taking part in this year's NaNoWriMo?

It's October, which means that Nano2021 is heading our way. Nanowrimo has been going for a long time, but this is only my third go at it; during Nano2019, I wrote a chunk of the first draft of The 12 Christmases of You & Me, and I wrote almost 70,000 words of a new (as yet unpublished) book last year.

Next month, I'll be starting a new book (which has the imaginative working title of 'Book 16') and I've been busy getting ready to dive into the first draft on 1st November. Here's how I've been prepping:

Some people are pantsters. They dive straight into a project without a plan. I am not a pantster. Far from it. I like big plans and I cannot lie.

(Although I did write the first draft of Book 15 without any sort of plan. I enjoyed writing it, but this is not the norm and I won't be repeating it in a hurry! I blogged about it here)

I like the security net of having plans in place before I start a book and I've already plotted Book 16 down to individual chapters and scenes. It took a bit of time, but I know it'll be worth it in November when I can look at my plan and know what I should be writing every time I sit down for a Nano session.

I've been getting to know my characters by pinning images on my Pinterest board and filling in questionnaires and career tests on behalf of my characters (I blogged about this too here)

I've logged back into the Nano website and created a new goal for Book 16 so that I can log my words after each writing session during November. I love seeing the book grow on the little bar on the website, inching nearer to my goal every day. It's a great motivational tool.

I joined a local writing group that were taking part in Nanowrimo in 2019, and I've found being part of the group has really helped me keep up my word count during Nano. In 2019 we'd meet up at the library for writing sessions and chats, but we had to rely on Zoom last year - and it still worked! We'll be meeting up online again this year and I'm looking forward to finding out what everyone is working on this year.

Last year, I set myself a daily word count goal of 2,000 words during Nano, but for six days a week instead of seven so that I could have a break and prevent burnout. It worked really, really well (I managed to write almost 70,000 words during the month) so I'm going to aim for 2,000 words a day for six days a week again. Fingers crossed it works out just as well this year!

How are you getting ready for Nanowrimo?