On today’s post, I am going to share five helpful tips to help Writers through National Novel Month which begins on November 1st. I wanted to make sure to pass on this advice since I am going on my 5th year of participating in it. My hope is that this list will provide you with a guideline to get through Nano-Wrimo Month. So here we go.

1. You must first remember not to panic: Write out an outline of the story you want to create. Make it as short or long as you need. Do not be overthinking it too much. Just make sure you have some direction of where you want it to go. It does not have to be in any particular order. Author Neil Gaiman states, “This is how you do it; you sit down at the keyboard, and you put one word after another until its done. It’s that easy, and that hard.”

2. Do not get overwhelmed. This happens all the time. I know I had it happen to me. When I first began Nano back in 2012 I wanted to get to where all the other writers were at. I know a bit of friendly competition is good. However, when you start to think you have to catch up with everyone else or a fellow writer you will lose the focus on your novel. I had this happen my first year. I kept thinking I had to keep up and then found myself not enjoying it and all I wanted to do was quit and cry. I am not saying you can’t work with other fellow writers for motivation. Just always remember that you are working on a different story and it is not going to turn out the same.

3. Another important tip to remember is to keep calm. November 1st is not here yet, you still have time to work on your outline and set up what type of story you want to write. It is about getting yourself to begin setting a goal of writing and making time for it. Just remember to breathe.

4. The next step is just to keep writing. It does not matter if you reach the 50,000 words or not. It is great if you do but the key is to work on the WIP. I did not reach my 50,000 my first year. However, I was able to push myself to set goals each day during that time to write, and you know what happened. I was able to work on setting goals each day and month after that. Just because you don’t finish your novel during Nano-Wrimo does not mean you give up. Keep writing!

5. No Matter what goal you achieve always believe you are a winner! Always feel proud of all you accomplished. Whether you met your goal of 50,000 or not. They key point about National Novel Month can show you can work on your writing and at the end of the day always feel proud of it.

I hope you found these tips helpful. Best of luck on National Novel Month!