How to prep for NaNoWriMo 2024 (for frantic goblins)

We’re halfway through October, and if that doesn’t freak you out just a little you’re either highly medicated or too young to watch The Boys. The best way I’ve found to keep the end of year “it’s-almost-December-and-I-have-achieved-nothing” anxiety at bay is to take on a herculean task that makes up for how lazy I’ve been all year. So, let’s prep for NaNoWriMo 2024.

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What is NaNoWriMo?

NaNoWriMo (just rolls right off the tongue, doesn’t it?) stands for National Novel Writing Month. Every year hundreds of thousands of people around the world take up the ambitious goal of writing an entire novel (50,000 words) in the 30 days of November.

What you write about is completely up to you. Steamy pirate romance? Go for it. Retelling of The Old Man And The Sea from the boat’s perspective? Absolutely. An epic stream-of-consciousness rant about how Game of Thrones should have ended? That one’s taken.

Why do I have to prepare for NaNoWriMo?

Well, you don’t. I’m not the boss of you.

And who knows, you might be Jack Kerouac. Most of us aren’t though, so a little preparation goes a long way toward making sure you hit the 50,000 word mark.

As the cool kids with the calculators in their pocket will tell you, that means writing an average of 1667 words a day. You’ll probably want to get as much of those words out early in the month as possible, while you’re still fresh and young and full of life. Writing fatigue is real.

Anyway, here are a couple of things you can start doing right now to prepare for NaNoWriMo.

10 Ways to Prep for NaNoWriMo:

Tell people

Most of us don’t live in isolation. We have friends, spouses, kids, dogs, and plants to care for. A little heads up will go a long way toward making sure they know that yes, you still love them, no, you’ haven’t conjured up an elaborate ruse to avoid them, and yes you’re fully aware you’ll be doing all the dishes in December.

Better yet, get them in your corner. Having someone cheering you on along the way will mean a lot on day 22 when you’ve been struggling to kill your villian in an appropriately dramatic way for the past 18 hours. Let them be the guardians of your writing time, and you’ll have one half the battle.

Also they’ll be really let down if you fail, so there’s a little bit of extra motivation for ya.

Establish a writing routine

Ernest Hemmingway had one. Stephen King has one. Margaret Atwood has one. I could go on.

The point is, most people who’ve written a book in any kind of reasonable timeframe (I’m looking at you George), have an unwavering routine. 

Sure, it sounds romantic to flit about from page to page, scrawling down the brilliance that comes pouring, unhindered, from your fountain pen onto every available surface as a nightingale serenades you from the windowsill.

The truth is, writing, as freeing as it can be is, well… work.

Writing 50,000 words in a month takes vigorous, sustained effort. It is very much a marathon.

Anyone planning to take on the Boston marathon without training? Didn’t think so.

Start making a habit of writing every day, and come November 1st, you’ll be a lean mean writing machine.

You are Rocky Balboa, getting ready to face Ivan Drago.

Remove distractions

Honestly, Dickens had it easy. How prolific would he have been in the age of Netflix and TikTok?

Distractions are your biggest enemy for the next 30 days. They are cockroaches invading your kitchen of word count, and they must be eviscerated at all costs. This is war.

Here’s some writing advice from one of the greats:

“You can sit here and write, or you can sit here and do nothing, but you can’t sit here and do anything else.”

Neil Gaiman

This is a great tip. Go sit in a room. Don’t bring your phone. Don’t open the browser on your laptop. You have permission not to write, but you don’t have permission to do anything else.

Give it a try, you’ll walk out of there feeling amazing.

It’s also worth scratching out a quiet corner for yourself, away from where you work, or sleep, or eat, as your dedicated writing space. Or a hidden table in that quaint little cafe you’ve been meaning to try out. If you’re still struggling, the local library has you covered.

But if you find that you’re still being distracted by alerts, emails, and the pretty view of the ocean on your desktop background, consider investing in the right tools for the job.

Pen and paper works fine, but distraction free writing devices like the ultra-sleek Freewrite Traveler, or the older Alphasmart 3000 (I use an Alphasmart Neo myself, and I love it), are great companions for this challenge.

Get a writing totem

This tip comes straight from No Plot? No Problem!, written by the founder of NaNoWriMo himself, Chris Baty.

Now, some people might scoff at your little “desk toy”, but you know it’s so much more than that. It is your mascot, your companion through the trials and tribulations you’ll face, your confidant who will lend a willing ear as you toil to untangle the wicked web you have wrought.

Mine’s a wizard called Mordecai, and I trust him with my life.

So, if you haven’t found your Mordecai yet, make a day of it. Go to the creepy pawnshop on the bad end of town and browse around until something calls out to you. Don’t be hasty. It might very well be one of the most important decisions you ever make.

Reread your favorite book

But this time, try to figure out why you like it. What makes it work?

Treat it like a mechanic dismantling a car. Try to take a peek behind the curtain.

Better yet, copy it, word for word, as part of your writing practice. Think of it like a painter recreating a masterwork to learn the techniques of their idols.

Hunter S. Thompson famously copied The Great Gatsby while working as a copy boy at Time Magazine.

Generate an idea

Maybe you already have one. If not, don’t worry.

Ideas are a dime a dozen. Jim Butcher wrote the Codex Alera series by asking his audience for two terrible suggestions (Pokémon and Lost Roman Legion), just to prove this point.

So, take a walk, watch some TV, and eavesdrop on conversations. Try out Rory’s Story Cubes if all else fails.

Don’t sweat the idea, sweat the characters. They’re the ones who make us keep reading.

Come up with your main characters

You probably already have some idea of the kinds of characters you want to write about.

The enchanting, witty, brilliant neurosurgeon who moonlights as a crime-fighting vigilante alongside her talking dog companion. 

Cool.

Unfortunately Dr. Badass is lacking something that’s gonna put a quick stop to her crime fighting days. 

She needs a flaw. And then she needs problems and obstacles that feed on that flaw, torment her, and that she’ll need to overcome if she ever hopes to put an end to the tyrannical Sergeant Syphilis.

Make your characters likeable, competent, compelling, but don’t make them perfect. And definitely don’t take it easy on them.

You are a cruel and vengeful god. It’s for their own good.

Of course, there’s a lot more that goes into a great character, check out Characters & Viewpoint by Orson Scott Card for a comprehensive primer.

Plot (a little)

I can already hear the pantsers wailing and gnashing their teeth. If you’re not a plotter, that’s fine. Tend to your garden and let it grow wild. 

But, if you’re new to this, a little bit of scaffolding will take out a lot of the thinking and figuring out work, which can be costly if you’ve really only got time to write the next thing.

I’m not saying you need it all figured out, just enough to know that you won’t be painting yourself into a corner.

In fact, I’ll say don’t plan any more than you need. The thrill of the unknown is a great motivator to keep you trucking along.

If you’ve given your character a big enough flaw, the things you put in their way will become obvious. Might as well keep it exciting by not letting yourself in on the twists and turns.

Ferdinand needs to get from Albuquerque to Denver or else he’ll miss his son’s spelling bee. Nice. You can figure out how he gets there along the way.

Clear your schedule

Do yourself a favor and give yourself as much time as possible. 

Yes, you might miss out on a few dinners this month, and feel like a bad friend (hey, you told them about this right?). But for this month, it’s okay to put your writing first.

Just name a hot character after the offended ones. Give them huge… ya know.

And offer to buy them all drinks if you don’t finish the book. Only the good stuff.

Get psyched up!

You crazy son of a gun, you’re actually doing this, aren’t you?

We’ll if you haven’t already, put on a song fit for a montage and show that “if-he-dies-he-dies” deadline whose boss!

Good luck

The ball’s in your court now. Go out and describe that ball to the last minute detail and I’ll see you on the other side.