You may or may not have heard of NaNoWriMo—National Novel Writing Month. Basically, during the month of November, thousands of people around the world commit to writing at least 50,000 words. The goal? Finally write the novel you’ve been too scared to write, oercome your inner critic, and just get a rough draft on paper. On the website, you can find various resources to help you throughout the month, including pep talks written by authors like John Green and Lemony Snicket, a forum where you can join a community of other people trying to write their novels, and other products that will significantly lower their prices for NaNoWriMo participants.

So why doesn’t everyone take advantage of NaNoWriMo? Well, the success rate is fairly low—only around 20% of the >100,000 participants actually hit 50K word goal by the end of the month. It’s tough to force yourself to write daily, and even tougher when you have a strict deadline. But if the idea of pushing yourself to succeed and overcoming the mental barriers keeping you from writing sounds like fun to you, then there is still time to register and get started creating your novel!

For those of you who plan on taking this journey with me—a NaNo veteran and previous winner—then allow me to give you a few tips and words of encouragement:

NaNoWriMo’s primary goal is to write 50,000 words in one novel. You can be a rebel and get those words in by writing poetry, short stories, nonfiction, etc. But as long as you have 50,000 words, you can get yourself a nice certificate at the end. But while 50k seems intimidating, it doesn’t have to scare you. In 30 days, that averages out to writing 1,667 words per day. Even for someone who types relatively slow, this can easily be accomplished in a couple of hours. Even if you have work or school, working in an hour or two of writing every day isn’t impossible.

NaNoWriMo is infinitely more enjoyable when you don’t stay cooped up in your room and only stare at your word document the whole month. Get up, get out; don’t forget to take lots of breaks and get your blood flowing. Stay healthy.

Involve your friends—let them know what you are trying to do. It makes it so much easier when you have people cheering you on (and constantly asking to read your manuscript). Something I try to do is get people to donate to a cause if I meet my goal, and this year I'll be taking a trip to New Orleans if I hit 100k!

Take advantage of the online community. When I participated in 2013, I found myself thousands of words behind, and November 30^th was approaching quickly. That’s when I discovered the forums. On there, people are constantly inventing new ways to make writing fun. Are you super competitive? Enter a word war. Need an idea? Take a dare. And absolutely participate in a word crawl—a story starring you that can only be progressed by writing some more! On the forums, you will find everything from tips to threads of people sharing their pain. It can be such a release to take a break and talk to some other people who can either encourage you or sympathize with how much sleep you’ve lost.

Above all: make it fun. NaNoWriMo is not supposed to be a miserable experience, even though it’s easy to get stressed out when you inevitably fall behind during the dreaded Week Two. But there are so many ways to combat this. Offer yourself mini-rewards for reaching certain check points. (I’m ordering a pizza when I reach my halfway mark.) Be proud of yourself because in the end, you did something only a small fraction of people in the world will ever do: You decided to give it a shot.

So happy NaNoWriMo! May your daily word count always be met!